Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In terrorists' hands, weapons-grade nuclear material--known as Category I special nuclear material when in specified forms and quantities--can be used to construct an improvised nuclear device capable of producing a nuclear explosion. Responsibility for the security of Category I special nuclear material is divided between the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Specifically, DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a separately organized agency within DOE, are responsible for overseeing physical security at government-owned and contractor-operated sites with Category I special nuclear material. NRC, which is responsible for licensing and overseeing commercially owned facilities with nuclear materials, such as nuclear power plants, is responsible for regulating physical security at those licensees that store and process Category I special nuclear material under contract, primarily for DOE. Because of the risks associated with Category I special nuclear material, both DOE and NRC recognize that effective security programs are essential. The key component in both DOE's and NRC's security programs is each agency's design basis threat (DBT)--classified documents that identify the potential size and capabilities of terrorist threats to special nuclear material. To counter the threat …

Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations have been performed with the Gogny finite-range effective interaction for {sup 240}Pu out to scission, using a new code developed at LLNL. A first set of calculations was performed with constrained quadrupole moment along the path of most probable fission, assuming axial symmetry but allowing for the spontaneous breaking of reflection symmetry of the nucleus. At a quadrupole moment of 345 b, the nucleus was found to spontaneously scission into two fragments. A second set of calculations, with all nuclear moments up to hexadecapole constrained, was performed to approach the scission configuration in a controlled manner. Calculated energies, moments, and representative plots of the total nuclear density are shown. The present calculations serve as a proof-of-principle, a blueprint, and starting-point solutions for a planned series of more comprehensive calculations to map out a large set of scission configurations, and the associated fission-fragment properties.

The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory when completed in 2009, will deliver 192-beams aligned precisely at the center of the target chamber producing extreme energy densities and pressures. Video images of laser beams along the beam path are used by automatic alignment algorithms to determine the position of the beams for alignment purposes. However, noise and other optical effects may affect the accuracy of the calculated beam location. Realistic estimation of the uncertainty is necessary to assure that the beam is monitored within the clear optical path. When the uncertainty is above a certain threshold the automated alignment operation is suspended and control of the beam is transferred to a human operator. This work describes our effort to quantify the uncertainty of measurement of the most common alignment beam.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a stadium-sized facility under construction that will contain a 192-beam, 1.8-Megajoule, 500-Terawatt, ultraviolet laser system together with a 10-meter diameter target chamber with room for multiple experimental diagnostics. NIF is the world's largest and most energetic laser experimental system, providing a scientific center to study inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and matter at extreme energy densities and pressures. NIF's laser beams are designed to compress fusion targets to conditions required for thermonuclear burn, liberating more energy than required to initiate the fusion reactions. NIF is comprised of 24 independent bundles of 8 beams each using laser hardware that is modularized into more than 6,000 line replaceable units such as optical assemblies, laser amplifiers, and multifunction sensor packages containing 60,000 control and diagnostic points. NIF is operated by the large-scale Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS) in an architecture partitioned by bundle and distributed among over 800 front-end processors and 50 supervisory servers. NIF's automated control subsystems are built from a common object-oriented software framework based on CORBA distribution that deploys the software across the computer network and achieves interoperation between different languages and target architectures. A shot automation framework has …

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

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 a member of the Legislature may provide insurance services to a state university (RQ-0576-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 special filing fee in Local Government Code section 133.154 must be collected for cases filed in a statutory probate court (RQ-0577-GA)

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An exceptional number of Middle Eastern and North African nations have recently expressed interest in developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Many of these countries have explored nuclear research in limited ways in the past, but the current focused interest and application of resources towards developing nuclear-generated electricity and nuclear-powered desalination plants is unprecedented. Consequently, questions arise in response to this emerging trend: What instigated this interest? To what end(s) will a nuclear program be applied? Does the country have adequate technical, political, legislative, nonproliferation, and safety infrastructure required for the capability desired? If so, what are the next steps for a country in preparation for a future nuclear program? And if not, what collaboration efforts are possible with the United States or others? This report provides information on the capabilities and interests of 13 countries in the region in nuclear energy programs in light of safety, nonproliferation and security concerns. It also provides information useful for determining potential for offering technical collaboration, financial aid, and/or political support.

This presentation will examine process systems engineering R&D needs for application to advanced fossil energy (FE) systems and highlight ongoing research activities at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) under the auspices of a recently launched Collaboratory for Process & Dynamic Systems Research. The three current technology focus areas include: 1) High-fidelity systems with NETL's award-winning Advanced Process Engineering Co-Simulator (APECS) technology for integrating process simulation with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and virtual engineering concepts, 2) Dynamic systems with R&D on plant-wide IGCC dynamic simulation, control, and real-time training applications, and 3) Systems optimization including large-scale process optimization, stochastic simulation for risk/uncertainty analysis, and cost estimation. Continued R&D aimed at these and other key process systems engineering models, methods, and tools will accelerate the development of advanced gasification-based FE systems and produce increasingly valuable outcomes for DOE and the Nation.

The scope of work for this project includes safe building design, vehicle leak in residential garage, continual slow leak, passive, buoyancy-driven ventilation (versus mechanical), and steady-state concentration of hydrogen versus vent size.

We have performed extensive ab initio and classical MD simulations of benzene in water in order to examine the unique solvation structures that are formed. Qualitative differences between classical and ab initio MD simulations are found and the importance of various technical simulation parameters is examined. Our comparison indicates that non-polarizable classical models are not capable of describing the solute-water interface correctly if local interactions become energetically comparable to water hydrogen bonds. In addition, a comparison is made between a rigid water model and fully flexible water within ab initio MD simulations which shows that both models agree qualitatively for this challenging system.

This report examines the limitations that the Internal Revenue Code places on political activity -- including lobbying and campaign intervention -- by tax-exempt organizations.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Funeral program for Mr. Douglass Windell Bruce "Sonny", born September 23, 1928 and died September 5, 2007. The funeral was held Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at St. Paul United Methodist Church, officiated by Dr. Marcus A. L. Freeman, III. Funeral arrangements were made through Sutton-Sutton Mortuary and he was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near San Antonio, Texas.

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This report provides information about the The FDA’s Authority to Recall Products. The FDA had fielded increasing number of question regarding recalls of unsafe imports, including jalapeno peppers.

Photograph of a student walking outside on the UNT campus. He is speaking on his cell phone and is wearing a backpack and a Hollister shirt.

Photograph of students at a barbecue that is being held on the UNT campus in the courtyard of Traditions Hall. They are gathered together on the walkways and around tables. There is one covered in food and the grill is visible on the right. There are rocks and grasses on both sides of the walkway. The building's entrance and the dorm room windows are behind the people.

Photograph of one of the tables set up in front of Sage Hall at UNT's Career Fair. It is set up under a green and white striped canopy tent and there are business cards and little green Volkswagen Beetle stress toys for students.

Photograph of Jonathan Gallegos reaching into the grill to light coals for a barbecue. It is being held on the UNT campus in the courtyard of Traditions Hall. There are tables and trashcans past him and a lawn in front of him. Gallegos is a sophomore pre-accounting major.