A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As Congress considers reauthorization of the laws which provide funding for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), there is interest in understanding what accounts for recent trends in child care subsidy receipt among eligible families and what research says about subsidies' effects on parents' ability to obtain and maintain employment. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) administers CCDF, but states have flexibility in its implementation. As requested, GAO examined: (1) trends in federal estimates of the number and proportion of eligible children and families who receive child care subsidies, (2) factors that may affect trends in estimates of the number of children served, and (3) what is known about the extent to which access to subsidies supports low-income parents' employment. To address these issues, GAO reviewed recent federal estimates of the number and proportion of eligible children and families served; conducted a survey of state child care administrators in 50 states and the District of Columbia; interviewed HHS officials, state officials in four selected states, and researchers and experts in child care subsidies; and reviewed research on the relationship between subsidy receipt …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In addition to providing health care to over 5 million veterans each year, the Veterans Health Administration, part of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), funds research on specific health conditions that veterans may experience. One condition that is examined in VA-funded research is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that can occur after a person is exposed to a life-threatening event. According to VA, experts estimate that up to 30 percent of Vietnam veterans and up to 20 percent of Operation Enduring Freedom veterans and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans have experienced PTSD. Veterans suffering from PTSD may experience problems sleeping, maintaining relationships, and returning to their previous civilian lives. Additionally, studies have shown that many veterans suffering from PTSD are more likely to be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and other diseases. After the Vietnam War, Congress wanted information about the psychological effects of the war on Vietnam veterans to inform the need for PTSD services at VA. Consequently, in 1983, Congress mandated that VA provide for the conduct of a study on PTSD and related postwar psychological problems among Vietnam veterans. VA contracted with an external …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In December 2009, recognizing that the situation in Afghanistan had become more grave since the March 2009 announcement of the U.S. strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, the administration concluded a 10-week review of the strategy's goals and the methods needed to achieve them. In announcing the results of this review, the President reaffirmed the core strategic goal of disrupting, dismantling, and eventually defeating extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan and preventing them from threatening the United States and its allies in the future. To meet this goal, the President announced his decision to rapidly deploy an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. In addition, he pledged a "surge" of civilian experts to help enhance the capacity of Afghan government institutions and assist in the rehabilitation of key economic sectors. Since the President's December 2009 announcement, about 16,000 of the additional U.S. troops have gradually deployed to Afghanistan--including about 10,000 as of March 2010 and approximately another 6,000 since that time--and the number of U.S. government civilians present in country has grown by about 200. In February 2010, in what senior Department of Defense (DOD) officials have described as the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The technology component of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Secure Border Initiative (SBI), referred to as SBInet, is to put observing systems along our nation's borders and provide Border Patrol command centers with the imagery and related tools and information needed in deciding whether to deploy agents. SBInet is being acquired and deployed in incremental blocks of capability, with the first block to cost about $1.3 billion. Because of the program's importance, size, and challenges, GAO was asked to, among other things, determine the extent to which DHS has (1) defined the scope of its proposed SBInet solution, (2) developed a reliable schedule for this solution, (3) demonstrated the cost-effectiveness of this solution, and (4) acquired the solution using key management processes. To do this, GAO compared key program documentation to relevant guidance and industry practices."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study (NVVLS). According to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), experts estimate that up to 30 percent of Vietnam veterans have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that can occur after a person is exposed to a life-threatening event. Veterans suffering from PTSD may experience problems sleeping, maintaining relationships, and returning to their previous civilian lives. Additionally, studies have shown that many veterans suffering from PTSD are more likely to be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and other diseases. After the Vietnam War, Congress wanted information about the psychological effects of the war on Vietnam veterans to inform the need for PTSD services at VA. Consequently, in 1983, Congress mandated that VA provide for the conduct of a study on PTSD and related postwar psychological problems among Vietnam veterans. VA contracted with an external entity, the Research Triangle Institute, to conduct the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS). According to VA, the NVVRS was a landmark study and is the only nationally representative study of PTSD in Vietnam veterans. PTSD is an ongoing concern for Vietnam veterans, and today, …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Membership in a terrorist organization does not prohibit a person from possessing firearms or explosives under current federal law. However, for homeland security and other purposes, the FBI is notified when a firearm or explosives background check involves an individual on the terrorist watchlist. This statement addresses (1) how many checks have resulted in matches with the terrorist watchlist, (2) how the FBI uses information from these checks for counterterrorism purposes, and (3) pending legislation that would give the Attorney General authority to deny certain checks. GAO's testimony is based on products issued in January 2005 and May 2009 and selected updates in March and April 2010. For these updates, GAO reviewed policies and other documentation and interviewed officials at FBI components involved with terrorism-related background checks."

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Bi-weekly student newspaper from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Rusk, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

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A replacement for the PS storage ring is being considered, in the context of the future LHC accelerator complex upgrade, that would likely place the new machine (the PS2) in a regime where the electron-cloud (EC) effect might be significant. We report here our current estimate of the EC density ne in the bending magnets and the field-free regions at injection and extraction beam energy, for both proposed bunch spacings, tb = 25 and 50 ns. The primary model parameters exercised are the peak secondary emission yield (SEY) delta max, the electron-wall impact energy at which the SEY peaks, Emax, and the chamber radius a in the fieldfree regions. We present many of our results as a function of the bunch intensity Nb, and we provide a tentative explanation for the non-monotonic behavior of ne as a function of Nb.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

The Heavy Water Components Test Reactor (HWCTR) facility (Figure 1) was built in 1961, operated from 1962 to 1964, and is located in the northwest quadrant of the Savannah River Site (SRS) approximately three miles from the site boundary. The HWCTR facility is on high, well-drained ground, about 30 meters above the water table. The HWCTR was a pressurized heavy water test reactor used to develop candidate fuel designs for heavy water power reactors. It was not a defense-related facility like the materials production reactors at SRS. The reactor was moderated with heavy water and was rated at 50 megawatts thermal power. In December of 1964, operations were terminated and the facility was placed in a standby condition as a result of the decision by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to redirect research and development work on heavy water power reactors to reactors cooled with organic materials. For about one year, site personnel maintained the facility in a standby status, and then retired the reactor in place. In 1965, fuel assemblies were removed, systems that contained heavy water were drained, fluid piping systems were drained, deenergized and disconnected and the spent fuel basin was drained and dried. The doors of …

This report is about an Alternative Enhanced Chemical Cleaning Basic Studies Results FY09

The purpose of this report is to document the acceptability of Sludge Batch 5 with the initial macrobatch operation of the Interim Salt Disposition Project (ISDP) waste to the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). This report was prepared to comply with the requirements listed in the Waste Acceptance Criteria for Sludge, Actinide Removal Process (ARP), and Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction Unit (MCU) Process Transfers to 512-S and DWPF. The requirements for transfers to 512-S were evaluated during ISDP Salt Batch 1 qualification. The calculations of sludge concentrations are based entirely on the Tank 51 sample processed at SRNL. This is conservative because Tank 51 is blended with the dilute feed in the DWPF Feed Tank (Tank 40). This report documents the acceptability of sludge only as well as Sludge Batch 5 sludge slurry combined with ARP/MCU products for feed to DWPF. All criteria were met for unblended Tank 51 material.

Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) are widely used in U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) nonreactor nuclear facilities for safety-critical applications. Although use of the SIS technology and computer-based digital controls, can improve performance and safety, it potentially introduces additional complexities, such as failure modes that are not readily detectable. Either automated actions or manual (operator) actions may be required to complete the safety instrumented function to place the process in a safe state or mitigate a hazard in response to an alarm or indication. DOE will issue a new standard, Application of Safety Instrumented Systems Used at DOE Nonreactor Nuclear Facilities, to provide guidance for the design, procurement, installation, testing, maintenance, operation, and quality assurance of SIS used in safety significant functions at DOE nonreactor nuclear facilities. The DOE standard focuses on utilizing the process industry consensus standard, American National Standards Institute/ International Society of Automation (ANSI/ISA) 84.00.01, Functional Safety: Safety Instrumented Systems for the Process Industry Sector, to support reliable SIS design throughout the DOE complex. SIS design must take into account human-machine interfaces and their limitations and follow good human factors engineering (HFE) practices. HFE encompasses many diverse areas (e.g., information display, user-system interaction, alarm management, operator response, control …

Due to the need to close waste storage tanks, chemical cleaning methods are needed for the effective removal of the heels. Oxalic acid is the preferred cleaning reagent for sludge heel dissolution, particularly for iron-based sludge, due to the strong complexing strength of the oxalate. However, the large quantity of oxalate added to the tank farm from oxalic acid based chemical cleaning has significant downstream impacts. Optimization of the oxalic acid cleaning process can potentially reduce the downstream impacts from chemical cleaning. To optimize oxalic acid usage, a detailed understanding of the chemistry of oxalic acid based sludge dissolution is required. Additionally, other acid systems may be required for specific waste components with low solubility in oxalic acid and as a means to reduce oxalic acid usage in general. Solubility tests were conducted using non-radioactive, pure metal phases known to be the primary phases present in High Level Waste sludge. The metal phases studied included the aluminum phases gibbsite and boehmite and the iron phases magnetite and hematite. Hematite and boehmite are expected to be the most difficult iron and aluminum phases to dissolve. These mineral phases have been identified in both SRS and Hanford High Level Waste sludge. Acids …

The purpose of this report is to document the acceptability of the second macrobatch (Salt Batch 2) of Tank 49H waste to H Tank Farm, DWPF, and Saltstone for operation of the Interim Salt Disposition Project (ISDP). Tank 49 feed meets the Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) requirements specified by References 11, 12, and 13. Salt Batch 2 material is qualified and ready to be processed through ARP/MCU to the final disposal facilities.

A 3-L sludge slurry sample from Tank 12 was characterized and then processed through an aluminum dissolution demonstration. The dominant constituent of the sludge was found to be aluminum in the form of boehmite. The iron content was minor, about one-tenth that of the aluminum. The salt content of the supernatant was relatively high, with a sodium concentration of {approx}7 M. Due to these characteristics, the yield stress and plastic viscosity of the unprocessed slurry were relatively high (19 Pa and 27 cP), and the settling rate of the sludge was relatively low ({approx}20% settling over a two and a half week period). Prior to performing aluminum dissolution, plutonium and gadolinium were added to the slurry to simulate receipt of plutonium waste from H-Canyon. Aluminum dissolution was performed over a 26 day period at a temperature of 65 C. Approximately 60% of the insoluble aluminum dissolved during the demonstration, with the rate of dissolution slowing significantly by the end of the demonstration period. In contrast, approximately 20% of the plutonium and less than 1% of the gadolinium partitioned to the liquid phase. However, about a third of the liquid phase plutonium became solubilized prior to the dissolution period, when the …

The objective of this project is to develop a method to characterize nano vacancy clusters and the dynamics of their formation in ion-irradiated silicon. It will impact (1) semiconductor device processing involving ion implantation, and (2) device design concerning irradiation hardness in harsh environments. It also aims to enhance minority participation in research and curricula on emerging materials and ion beam science. Vacancy defects are of scientific and technological importance since they are ubiquitous when the host materials are exposed to particle irradiation. Studies on vacancy clustering in the past decades were mainly theoretical and the approach heavily relied on the total-energy calculation methods. The lack of experimental data is mainly due to the formidable task in measuring the cluster size and density using modern metrological techniques, including transmission electron microscopy and positron annihilation spectroscopy. To surmount these challenges, we proposed a novel approach to tackle the metrological problems on the nano vacancy clusters, especially in determining densities and sizes of the nano vacancies based on the premise that the vacancy-clusters act as diffusion-trapping centers. For a silicon substrate containing vacancyclusters, the diffusion of interstitials (from the surface) can be classified into three phases: (1) an ultrafast phase-I in which …

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This presentation summarizes findings of the fuel cell vehicle learning demonstration of the Fuel Cell Technologies Program.

The layered perovskite PrBa{sub 0.5}Sr{sub 0.5}Co{sub 2}O{sub 5+{delta}} (PBSC) was investigated as a cathode material for a solid oxide fuel cell using a proton-conducting electrolyte based on BaCe{sub 0.7}Y{sub 0.2}Zr{sub 0.1}O{sub 3-{delta}} (BCYZ). The sintering conditions for the PBSC-BCYZ composite cathode were optimized resulting in the lowest area-specific resistance and apparent activation energy obtained with the cathode sintered at 1200 C for 2h. The maximum power densities of the PBSC-BCYZ/BZCY/NiO-BCYZ cell were 0.179, 0.274, 0.395, and 0.522 Wcm{sup -2} at 550, 600, 650, and 700 C, respectively with a 15{micro}m thick electrolyte. A relatively low cell interfacial polarization resistance of 0.132 {Omega}cm{sup 2} at 700 C indicated that the PBSC-BCYZ could be a good cathode candidate for intermediate temperature SOFCs with proton-conducting electrolyte.