Report submitted by Amarillo College to the Texas 73rd regular legislature requesting appropriations to fund programming and activities. It includes an overview of the institution's goals, summaries of appropriations requests for fiscal years 1996 and 1997, and supporting documentation.

PNNL successfully completed the three tasks: Task 1 - This task provided DISA with an updated set of design checklists that can be used to measure compliance with the Style Guide. These checklists are in Microsoft{reg_sign}Word 6.0 format. Task 2 - This task provided a discussion of two basic models for using the Style Guide and the Design Checklist, as a compliance tool and as a design tool.

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory Environmental Technologies Proof-of-Concept Project was initiated for the expedited development of new or conceptual technologies in support of groundwater fate, transport, and remediation; buried waste characterization, retrieval, and treatment; waste minimization/pollution prevention; and spent fuel handling and storage. In Fiscal Year 1996, The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory proposed 40 development projects and the Department of Energy funded 15. The projects proved the concepts of the various technologies, and all the technologies contribute to successful environmental management.

This report provides basic eligibility rules, recipient numbers, and FY1996-FY1998 expenditure data for 80 programs that have provided cash or non-cash benefits to low-income persons.

Uranium and plutonium production at the Hanford Site produced large quantities of radioactive by-products and contaminated process chemicals, which are stored in underground tanks awaiting treatment and disposal. Having been made strongly alkaline and then subjected to successive water evaporation campaigns to increase storage capacity, the wastes now exist in the physical forms of salt cakes, metal oxide sludges, and partially saturated aqueous brine solutions. The tanks that contain organic process chemicals mixed with nitrate/nitrite salt wastes may be at risk for fuel- nitrate combustion accidents. The purpose of the Waste Aging Task is to elucidate how chemical and radiological processes will have aged or degraded the organic compounds stored in the tanks. Ultimately, the task seeks to develop quantitative measures of how aging changes the energetic properties of the wastes. This information will directly support efforts to evaluate the hazard as well as to develop potential control and mitigation strategies.

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This report includes a brief analysis of federal research and development funding trends for the past six years as well as R&D funding projects to FY2000.

This project investigates both flow dynamics and microbial processes affecting NAPLs in fractured rock in a closely coupled, integrated manner. The objective is to develop a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the behavior of two and three immiscible fluid phases, microbial transformation and/or degradation, and to provide a scientific basis for field investigations, site characterization, and remedial action for NAPL contamination in fractured rocks. To achieve this, the program combines laboratory and theoretical investigations, coupled with the evaluation of conditions at relevant field sites. This report summarizes the work accomplished since inception of the project in April 1996.

Annual report of the Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority describing goals, activities, and accomplishments during fiscal year 1996.

The Waste Pretreatment and Interfacing Systems Dynamic Simulation (ITHINK) Model (see WHC-SD-WM-DR-013) was originally created to investigate the required pretreatment facility processing rates required to meet the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) waste vitrification milestones. The TPA milestones are satisfied by retrieving the TX tank farm (salt cake) single-shell tanks (SSTs)first and by utilizing a relatively constant retrieval rate to the year 2018 when retrieval is completed.

The general purpose of the Grout Stabilization Development Program is to solidify and stabilize the liquid low-level wastes (LLW) generated at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP). It is anticipated that LLW will be produced from the following: (1) chemical separation of the tank farm high-activity sodium-bearing waste; (2) retrieval, dissolution, and chemical separation of the aluminum, zirconium, and sodium calcines; (3) facility decontamination processes; and (4) process equipment waste. The main tasks completed this fiscal year as part of the program were chromium stabilization study for sodium-bearing waste and stabilization and solidification of LLW from aluminum and zirconium calcines. The projected LLW will be highly acidic and contain high amounts of nitrates. Both of these are detrimental to Portland cement chemistry; thus, methods to precondition the LLW and to cure the grout were explored. A thermal calcination process, called denitration, was developed to solidify the waste and destroy the nitrates. A three-way blend of Portland cement, blast furnace slag, and fly ash was successfully tested. Grout cubes were prepared at various waste loadings to maximize loading while meeting compressive strength and leach resistance requirements. For the sodium LLW, a 25% waste loading achieves a volume reduction of 3.5 and …

This Tank Waste Analysis Plan (TWAP) describes the activities of the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) Characterization Project to plan, schedule, obtain, and document characterization information on Hanford waste tanks. This information is required to meet several commitments of Programmatic End-Users and the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order, also known as the Tri-Party Agreement. This TWAP applies to the activities scheduled to be completed in fiscal year 1996.

This issue brief describes the FY1996 request for DOE's major programs, its implications, and congressional action on the DOE budget. Table 1 at the end of the issue brief highlights the FY1996 DOE budget request.

This report provides a synopsis of the budget activity related to AIDS from the discovery of the disease in 1981 through FY1999. Funding for AIDS research, prevention and treatment programs within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) discretionary budget has increased from $200,000 in FY1981 to an estimated $3.85 billion in FY1999.

Preliminary experiment has been made for cross injecting water sprays into a convective air stream to test the air-blast atomization system which has been constructed for CWS atomization in the future. A laser diffraction particle analyzing technique (the Malvern system) nonintrusively measured the drop size SMDs for various injection parameters including the convective air flow rate, flow rate of the injected liquid (distilled water), orifice diameter, and measurement locations along the two-dimensional spray plane. Buckingham-PI analysis finds the correlation of dimensionless parameters. A correlation of drop Sauter mean diameter (SMD) normalized to the orifice diameter is obtained from all the experimental data for the case of distilled water sprays.

On July 31, 1995, in passing H.R.2099, the VA-HUD-Independent Agencies Appropriation Bill for FY1996, the House approved numerous legislative riders, or provisions in bill language, which would prohibit EPA from spending FY1996 funds on a number of regulatory and enforcement activities. In passing H.R. 2099 on September 27, 1995, the Senate did not accept the House-passed riders but did include several other riders. On November 2, 1995, the House approved a motion to instruct the House conferees to strike the 17 major House-passed riders.

The purpose of this report is to document the contributions that the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) has made during Fiscal Year 1996 in the Robotics and Remote Systems Technology arena. The contributions originated from the Applied Science and Engineering Technology (ASET) Department`s Equipment Engineering Section (EES). Activities and deliverables for the Savannah River Site`s (SRS) main operating divisions as well as contributions to new mission activities, other Department of Energy (DOE) sites and programs, intellectual property development and professional societies are described.

The authors major accomplishment in FY96 was the design and fabrication of the corrosion probes to be used ``In Beam`` during the FY97 irradiation period to begin on February 1, 1997. Never before have corrosion rate measurements been made on-line in such a high radiation environment. To measure corrosion rate as a function of beam time, it is necessary to electrical isolate the corrosion electrode to be examined form the plumbing system. Conventionally, this is accomplished with glass seals. Here irradiation of the glass may cause it to become conductive, rendering the seal useless. To overcome this problem, the corrosion probes to be used in-beam at the spallation neutron cooling water loop at the LANSCE A6 target station were fabricated with ceramic inserts which act as electrical feed-throughs. The corrosion sample is joined to the ceramic by means of a compression seal. The corrosion samples are closed end cylinders, 0.5 inches diameter x 6.25 inch length, that are constructed from Stainless Steel 304L, Stainless Steel 316L, Inconel 718, Tungsten, HT-9, and Tantalum. Because of their specialized nature, InTa Corporation, of Santa Clara, CA was contracted to manufacture these problems. As of November 1, 1996 delivery of these probes has begun …

The activities and tasks needed to successfully prepare an interim, preliminary, and final performance assessment on the disposal of the low-level fraction of Hanford tank wastes are given. Included are analytic, experimental, computational, writing, and approval tasks. These statements of work will be revised annually.

A seven-page report to the Sunset Review Committee on the North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts (NTIEVA). Includes the history, goals, accomplishments, programs, and proposed plans for the institute, as well as a financial report.

Millions of gallons of radioactive wastes resides in underground tanks at US Department of Energy sites. The waste was generated primarily by the processing of nuclear fuel elements to remove fissile radionuclides for use in atomic weapons. Plans call for the waste to be removed from the tanks and processed to create immobile waste forms, which will be stored to prevent release to the environment. The consistency of the waste ranges from liquid, to slurry, to sticky sludge, to hard saltcake. a variety of waste- retrieval and processing methods are being evaluated and implemented. One such method is pulsed-air mixing, which is the subject of this report. Pulsed-air mixing equipment has been successfully applied to a number of difficult mixing applications in various chemical-process industries. Most previous applications involved the mixing of particle-free viscous fluids. The study described in this report was preformed to improve the understanding of how pulsed-air mixing applies to slurries. This document describes work conducted to evaluate the potential application of pulsed-air mixers to the slurry- mixing needs of the US Department of Energy`s waste-retrieval programs.

The Retrieval Process Development and Enhancements (RPD&E) activities are part of the Retrieval and Closure Program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) EM-50 Tanks Focus Area. The purposes of RPD&E are to understand retrieval processes, including emerging and existing technologies, and to gather data on those processes, so that end users have the requisite technical basis to make retrieval decisions. Work has been initiated to support the need for multiple retrieval technologies across the DOE complex. Technologies addressed during FY96 focused on enhancements to sluicing, borehole mining, confined sluicing retrieval end effectors, the lightweight scarifier, and pulsed air mixing. Furthermore, a decision tool and database have been initiated to link retrieval processes with tank closure to assist end users in making retrieval decisions.

Annual report for the Sabine River Compact Administration for 1996, including a summary of the meetings and work of the administration, reports from the hydrologic stations, fiscal revenues and expenditures, and accompanying notes.

The Transportation Improvement Program outlines a list of federally assisted transportation projects that will be implemented over a three year period in the San Antonio - Bexar County area.