A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Navy plans to spend about $28 billion to buy 55 Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and at least 64 interchangeable mission packages to perform one of three missions--mine countermeasures, antisubmarine warfare, and surface warfare--in waters close to shore. The Navy has been developing two different LCS seaframes and plans to select one for production in 2010. Due to the small 78-person crew size--40 core crew, 23 for aviation detachment, and typically 15 for mission packages--the Navy is developing new concepts for personnel, training, and maintenance. GAO was asked to assess the extent to which the Department of Defense (DOD) has (1) estimated LCS long-term operating and support costs and (2) developed plans to operate and support LCS. To do so, GAO compared Navy cost estimates to DOD guidance and GAO best practices; and analyzed Navy plans to implement its concepts for personnel, training, and maintenance and the extent these plans included assessments of program risk."

This report summarizes the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the major regulatory programs dealing with chemical production and distribution in U.S. commerce.

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Savannah River Remediation (SRR) is preparing Tank 6F for closure. The first step in preparing the tank for closure is mechanical sludge removal. In mechanical sludge removal, personnel add liquid (e.g., inhibited water or supernate salt solution) to the tank to form a slurry. They mix the liquid and sludge with pumps, and transfer the slurry to another tank for further processing. Mechanical sludge removal effectively removes the bulk of the sludge from a tank, but is not able to remove all of the sludge. In Tank 6F, SRR estimated a sludge heel of 5,984 gallons remained after mechanical sludge removal. To remove this sludge heel, SRR performed chemical cleaning. The chemical cleaning included two oxalic acid strikes, a spray wash, and a water wash. SRR conducted the first oxalic acid strike as follows. Personnel added 110,830 gallons of 8 wt % oxalic acid to Tank 6F and mixed the contents of Tank 6F with two submersible mixer pumps (SMPs) for approximately four days. Following the mixing, they transferred 115,903 gallons of Tank 6F material to Tank 7F. The SMPs were operating when the transfer started and were shut down approximately five hours after the transfer started. SRR collected a …

The purpose of the ASME/DOE Gen IV Task 7 Part I is to review the current experience on various high temperature reactor intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) concepts. There are several different IHX concepts that could be envisioned for HTR/VHTR applications in a range of temperature from 850C to 950C. The concepts that will be primarily discussed herein are: (1) Tubular Helical Coil Heat Exchanger (THCHE); (2) Plate-Stamped Heat Exchanger (PSHE); (3) Plate-Fin Heat Exchanger (PFHE); and (4) Plate-Machined Heat Exchanger (PMHE). The primary coolant of the NGNP is potentially subject to radioactive contamination by the core as well as contamination from the secondary loop fluid. To isolate the radioactivity to minimize radiation doses to personnel, and protect the primary circuit from contamination, intermediate heat exchangers (IHXs) have been proposed as a means for separating the primary circuit of the NGNP (Next Generation Nuclear Plant) or other process heat application from the remainder of the plant. This task will first review the different concepts of IHX that could be envisioned for HTR/VHTR applications in a range of temperature from 850 to 950 C. This will cover shell-and-tube and compact designs (including the platefin concept). The review will then discuss the maturity …

The purpose of this task was to perform an Independent Validation Review to evaluate the successful implementation and effectiveness of Safety Basis controls, including new and revised controls, to support the implementation of a new DSA/TSR for B239. This task addresses Milestone 2 of FY10 PEP 7.6.6. As the first IVR ever conducted on a LLNL nuclear facility, it was designated a pilot project. The review follows the outline developed for Milestone 1 of the PEP, which is based on the DOE Draft Guide for Performance of Independent Verification Review of Safety Basis Controls. A formal Safety Basis procedure will be developed later, based on the lessons learned with this pilot project. Note, this review is termed a ''Validation'' in order to be consistent with the PEP definition and address issues historically raised about verification mechanisms at LLNL. Validation is intended to confirm that implementing mechanisms realistically establish the ability of TSR LCO, administrative control or safety management program to accomplish its intended safety function and that the controls are being implemented. This effort should not, however, be confused with a compliance assessment against all relevant DOE requirements and national standards. Nor is it used as a vehicle to question …

This paper extends studies of ion beam transport through a background plasma along a solenoidal magnetic field [I. Kaganovich et al., Phys. Plasmas 15, 103108 (2008)] to the important regime of moderate magnetic field strength satisfying ωce > 2βbωpe . Here, ωce and ω pe are the electron cyclotron frequency and electron plasma frequency, respectively, and βb = vb/ c is the directed ion beam velocity normalized to the speed of light. The electromagnetic field perturbations excited by the ion beam pulse in this regime are calculated analytically, and verified by comparison with the numerical simulations. The degrees of beam charge neutralization and current neutralization are estimated, and the transverse component of the Lorentz force associated with the excited electromagnetic field is calculated. It is found that the plasma response to the ion beam pulse is significantly different depending on whether the value of the solenoidal magnetic field is below or above the threshold value specified by ω cr ce = 2βbωpe, and corresponding to the resonant excitation of large-amplitude whistler waves. The use of intense whistler wave excitations for diagnostic purposes is also discussed.

This report provides an overview of many of the key arms control and nonproliferation agreements and endeavors of the past 40 years.

This report summarizes legal authorities regarding access by the government, for either foreign intelligence or law enforcement purposes, to information related to telephone calling patterns or practices. Where pertinent, it also discusses statutory prohibitions against accessing or disclosing such information, along with relevant exceptions to those prohibitions.

This report summarizes the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and the major regulatory programs that mandate reporting by industrial facilities of releases of hazardous chemicals to the environment, as well as local planning to respond in the event of significant, accidental releases.

This report discusses the proposed combination of Comcast, the largest distributor of video services in the United States, and NBC Universal (NBCU), a major producer and aggregator of video content, which would create a huge, vertically integrated entity with potentially enormous negotiating power at a time when market forces already are altering traditional content provider/distributor relationships.

This report summarizes the main avenues for foreign nationals currently in the United States--legally or illegally--to become LPRs. Alien legalization or "amnesty," as well as adjustment of status and cancellation of removal options, are briefly discussed. Designed as a primer on the issues, the report provides references to other CRS products that track pertinent legislation and analyze these issues more fully.

The largest earthquake ever recorded in Haiti devastated parts of the country, including the capital, on January 12, 2010. This report discusses the disaster and various responses, ranging from the Haitian government's initial response to foreign humanitarian and financial aid.

This report discusses the EU's new law governing chemicals in EU commerce, Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). It is intended to protect human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals while at the same time protecting the competitiveness of European industry.

This report discusses the history and current status of African Americans in Congress. There are 42 African American Members serving in the 111th Congress, 41 in the House of Representatives and one in the Senate. There have been 125 African American Members of Congress: 119 have been elected to the House; five have been elected to the Senate; and one has been appointed to the Senate. There have been 98 Democrats: 95 in the House, three in the Senate; and 27 Republicans: 24 in the House, three in the Senate.

This report analyzes the FY2010 request, recent-year funding trends, and congressional action for FY2010, which includes the July 9 House approval of H.R. 3081, the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bill for FY2010, July 9 Senate Appropriations Committee passage of its bill (S. 1434), and passage of H.R. 3288, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010, signed into law Dec. 16, 2009 (P.L. 111-117).

This report discusses the federal government's role in the country's information technology (IT) research and development (R&D) activities. The government's support of IT R&D began because it had an important interest in creating computers and software that would be capable of addressing the problems and issues the government needed to solve and study.

This report synthesizes the multi-tiered debate over immigration reform into key elements: legal; immigration; legalization; immigration control; refugees, asylees, and humanitarian migrants; and, alien rights, benefits and responsibilities.

This report discusses the natural basis of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes and the risk associated with them. The report also examines several options Congress could consider to potentially reduce the costs these destructive natural events.

This report examines the economics the budget deficit. Topics include recent budgetary history, the differences made by deficits and surpluses, and fiscal policy.

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