A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Membership in a terrorist organization does not prohibit a person from owning a gun under current law. Thus, during presale screening of prospective firearms purchasers, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System historically did not utilize terrorist watch list records. However, for homeland security and other purposes, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and applicable state agencies began receiving notices (effective February 3, 2004) when such screening involved watch lists records. GAO determined (1) how many checks have resulted in valid matches with terrorist watch list records, (2) procedures for providing federal counterterrorism officials relevant information from valid-match background checks, and (3) the extent to which the FBI monitors or audits the states' handling of such checks."

This report presents the results of measurements and simulations performed with 12 small plastic scintillation detectors manufactured by Scionix for imaging applications. The scintillator is equivalent to a Bicron BC-420 plastic scintillator. A gamma calibration is presented to determine the voltage to be applied on each detector to ensure uniform detector operation. Time of flight measurements performed with a Cf-252 source are also presented. Comparisons between experimental data and data from the Monte Carlo simulations show good agreement for time lags of 0 to 70 ns.

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Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Authority of the Railroad Commission to use monies from the Oil Field Cleanup Fund to plug oil and gas wells and perform other activities (RQ-0253-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Operation of the ex officio road commissioner system and allocation of road and bridge funds in Denton County (RQ-0254-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Texas Commission of Fire Protection may provide reimbursement for room and board as part of a Fire Department Emergency Program tuition scholarship for students who attend a training school (RQ-0255-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether Local Government Code section 214.212(c)(1), which permits a municipality to adopt local amendments to the International Residential Code, limits the municipality to adopting only amendments that are equivalent to or more stringent than the the standards of the International Residential Code (RQ-0256-GA)

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Environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site and surrounding areas is conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Sampling is conducted to evaluate levels of radioactive and nonradioactive pollutants in the Hanford environs. This document contains the calendar year 2005 schedules for the routine and non-routine collection of samples for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP) and Drinking Water Monitoring Project.

This presentation was given at the DOE Office of Science-Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) High-Level Waste Workshop held on January 19-20, 2005 at the Savannah River Site.

This presentation was given at the DOE Office of Science-Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) High-Level Waste Workshop held on January 19-20, 2005 at the Savannah River Site.

This presentation was given at the DOE Office of Science-Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) High-Level Waste Workshop held on January 19-20, 2005 at the Savannah River Site.

''Hidden'' geothermal systems are systems devoid of obvious surface hydrothermal manifestations. Emissions of moderate-to-low solubility gases may be one of the primary near-surface signals from these systems. We investigate the potential for CO2 detection and monitoring below and above ground in the near-surface environment as an approach to exploration targeting hidden geothermal systems. We focus on CO2 because it is the dominant noncondensible gas species in most geothermal systems and has moderate solubility in water. We carried out numerical simulations of a CO2 migration scenario to calculate the magnitude of expected fluxes and concentrations. Our results show that CO2 concentrations can reach high levels in the shallow subsurface even for relatively low geothermal source CO2 fluxes. However, once CO2 seeps out of the ground into the atmospheric surface layer, winds are effective at dispersing CO2 seepage. In natural ecological systems in the absence of geothermal gas emissions, near-surface CO2 fluxes and concentrations are predominantly controlled by CO2 uptake by photosynthesis, production by root respiration, microbial decomposition of soil/subsoil organic matter, groundwater degassing, and exchange with the atmosphere. Available technologies for monitoring CO2 in the near-surface environment include the infrared gas analyzer, the accumulation chamber method, the eddy covariance method, hyperspectral …

Spent nuclear fuels from foreign and domestic research and test reactors are being returned to the Savannah River Site for storage with other nuclear materials in the L-Basin. Recent efforts have consolidated the fuel storage systems and L-Basin has become the SRS site for wet storage of spent nuclear fuels. Corrosion surveillance of coupons in this basin is being performed to provide assurance of safe storage of spent fuel. This paper describes the highlights of recent studies on these aluminum coupons after immersion for more than 7 years in L-Basin. Selected coupons were metallurgically characterized to establish the existence of general corrosion and pitting. Minor pitting corrosion was observed on the intentionally galvanically coupled samples and creviced coupons, thus demonstrating that localized concentration cells were formed during the exposure period. In these cases, the susceptibility to pitting was not attributed to aggressive basin water chemistry but to localized conditions--crevices and galvanic coupling--that allowed the development of oxygen and/or metal ion concentration cells that produced locally aggressive waters. General corrosion was also observed on some of the coupons. None of the coupons were pre-oxidized to form a protective oxide as compared to the spent fuel which was oxidized during reactor operations. …

This presentation was given at the DOE Office of Science-Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) High-Level Waste Workshop held on January 19-20, 2005 at the Savannah River Site.

This presentation was given at the DOE Office of Science-Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) High-Level Waste Workshop held on January 19-20, 2005 at the Savannah River Site.

A new parsimony analysis of 27 complete mitochondrial genomic sequences is conducted to investigate the phylogenetic relationships of plethodontid salamanders. This analysis focuses on the amount of character conflict between phylogenetic trees recovered from newly conducted parsimony searches and the Bayesian and maximum likelihood topology reported by Mueller et al. (2004, PNAS, 101, 13820-13825). Strong support for Hemidactylium as the sister taxon to all other plethodontids is recovered from parsimony analyses. Plotting area relationships on the most parsimonious phylogenetic tree suggests that eastern North America is the origin of the family Plethodontidae supporting the ''Out of Appalachia'' hypothesis. A new taxonomy that recognizes clades recovered from phylogenetic analyses is proposed.

SNL-2 was drilled in the northwest quarter of Section 12, T22S, R30E, in eastern Eddy County, New Mexico (Figure 2-1). It is located 574 ft from the north line (fnl) and 859 ft from the west line (fwl) of the section (Figure 2-2). This location places the drillhole east of the Livingston Ridge escarpment among oil wells of the Cabin Lake field. SNL-2 will be used to test hydraulic properties and to monitor ground water levels of the Culebra Dolomite Member of the Permian Rustler Formation. SNL-2 was permitted by the New Mexico State Engineer as C-2948. [Official correspondence regarding permitting and regulatory information must reference this permit number.] In the plan describing the integrated groundwater hydrology program (Sandia National Laboratories, 2003), SNL-2 is also codesignated WTS-1 because the location also satisfies needs for long-term monitoring of water quality and movement in the Culebra Dolomite for RCRA permitting; this program is under the management of Washington TRU Solutions LLC (WTS). In the event that additional wells are established on the SNL-2 drillpad to monitor other hydrological units (e.g., the Magenta Dolomite Member of the Permian Rustler Formation), the current drillhole will likely be referred to as SNL-2C because it is …

SNL-1 (permitted by the New Mexico State Engineer as C-2953) was drilled to provide geological data and hydrological testing of the Culebra Dolomite Member of the Permian Rustler Formation near the margin of dissolution of halite in the upper Permian Salado Formation in the northeast arm of Nash Draw. SNL-1 is located in the northwest quarter of section 16, T21S, R31E, in eastern Eddy County, New Mexico, and it is adjacent to the tailings pile of Mississippi Potash Incorporated (now Intrepid) East mine to test for the presence of shallow zones that might include brine infiltrated from the tailings pile. SNL-1 was drilled to a total depth of 644 ft below ground level (bgl). Below surface wash, SNL-1 encountered, in order, the Mescalero caliche, Dewey Lake, and Rustler Formations.

This presentation was given at the DOE Office of Science-Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) High-Level Waste Workshop held on January 19-20, 2005 at the Savannah River Site.

Verification of large-scale computational algorithms used in nuclear engineering and radiological applications is an essential element of reliable code performance. For this reason, the development of a suite of multidimensional semi-analytical benchmarks has been undertaken to provide independent verification of proper operation of codes dealing with the transport of neutral particles. The benchmarks considered cover several one-dimensional, multidimensional, monoenergetic and multigroup, fixed source and critical transport scenarios. The first approach, called the Green's Function. In slab geometry, the Green's function is incorporated into a set of integral equations for the boundary fluxes. Through a numerical Fourier transform inversion and subsequent matrix inversion for the boundary fluxes, a semi-analytical benchmark emerges. Multidimensional solutions in a variety of infinite media are also based on the slab Green's function. In a second approach, a new converged SN method is developed. In this method, the SN solution is ''minded'' to bring out hidden high quality solutions. For this case multigroup fixed source and criticality transport problems are considered. Remarkably accurate solutions can be obtained with this new method called the Multigroup Converged SN (MGCSN) method as will be demonstrated.

This presentation was given at the DOE Office of Science-Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) High-Level Waste Workshop held on January 19-20, 2005 at the Savannah River Site.

The urgent need for high-efficiency, low-emission energy utilization technologies for transportation, power generation, and manufacturing processes presents difficult challenges to the combustion research community. The required predictive understanding requires systematic knowledge across the full range of physical scales involved in combustion processes--from the properties and interactions of individual molecules to the dynamics and products of turbulent multi-phase reacting flows. Innovative experimental techniques and computational approaches are revolutionizing the rate at which chemical science research can produce the new information necessary to advance our combustion knowledge. But the increased volume and complexity of this information often makes it even more difficult to derive the systems-level knowledge we need. Combustion researchers have responded by forming interdisciplinary communities intent on sharing information and coordinating research priorities. Such efforts face many barriers, however, including lack of data accessibility and interoperability, missing metadata and pedigree information, efficient approaches for sharing data and analysis tools, and the challenges of working together across geography, disciplines, and a very diverse spectrum of applications and funding. This challenge is especially difficult for those developing, sharing and/or using detailed chemical models of combustion to treat the oxidation of practical fuels. This is a very complex problem, and the development of …

This report discusses the social and political development in Haiti and U.S. its relations with United States. Following elections that were widely heralded as the first free and fair elections in Haiti's then-186-year history, Jean-Bertrand Aristide first became Haitian President in February 1991.