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The 2000 U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) Waste and Materials Disposition “Transportation Challenges” report is provided as an update to or status report on the transportation “barriers” analysis conducted in October 1999 and published in November 1999 as the National Transportation Program (NTP) Transportation Challenges “Problems Tied to Disposition Pathways.” Much of the programmatic information concerning the “barriers” or, more accurately, “issues,” has not changed since the first publication; however, efforts to resolve the issues have progressed to varying degrees over the last year. This report provides a current status of efforts to eliminate or mitigate the issues, and includes new issues identified since the original analyses were conducted. Resolving these issues will increase the probability of successful waste and materials disposition and decrease the likelihood of delays due to inadequate transportation resources or infrastructure. The issues addressed in this report generally affect more than one site and more than one waste or material stream.

This paper addresses the design of a system intended to readout multiparametric information from a matrix of pixels. The system presented here acquires the charge associated with the signal and provides a timing information from each pixel. Although it lends itself to a broad range of time-correlated imaging situations involving any kind of pixel matrices, the design constraints assumed here are particularly tailored to the application with pixels that sense the output charge distribution from a Micro Channel Plate (MCP). The combination of a microchannel plate and a pixel matrix is an extremely versatile detector and the readout system must be able to fully exploit the intrinsically high position resolution and time accuracy featured by the MCP. The behavior of the readout system described in this paper is based upon advanced concepts to meet the above application requirements and is believed to provide a significant functional improvement over the conventional pixel systems.

The authors examine the task of pixel-by-pixel classification of the multispectral and grayscale images typically found in remote-sensing and medical applications. Simple machine learning techniques have long been applied to remote-sensed image classification, but almost always using purely spectral information about each pixel. Humans can often outperform these systems, and make extensive use of spatial context to make classification decisions. They present AFREET: an SVM-based learning system which attempts to automatically construct and refine spatio-spectral features in a somewhat human-inspired fashion. Comparisons with traditionally used machine learning techniques show that AFREET achieves significantly higher performance. The use of spatial context is particularly useful for medical imagery, where multispectral images are still rare.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In May 2000, United Airlines proposed acquiring US Airways and divesting part of those assets to create a new airline to be called DC Air. More recently, American Airlines has proposed buying Trans World Airlines (TWA), along with certain assets from United. These proposals have raised questions about how such consolidation within the airline industry could affect competition in general and consumers in particular. Congress, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Transportation need to answer several questions in evaluating the proposed mergers. For example, questions remain about whether American's purchase of financially-strapped TWA represents the last anticompetitive means to preserve its assets. The proposals by American, TWA, United, US Airways, and DC Air constitute the most significant recent changes that have occurred in the airline industry, and the outcome of these decisions could have both positive and negative effects for consumers for years to come. This testimony summarizes a December report (GAO-01-212)."

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

In December 2000, a performance monitoring facility was constructed adjacent to the U-3ax/bl mixed waste disposal unit at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Recent studies conducted in the arid southwestern United States suggest that a vegetated monolayer evapotranspiration (ET) closure cover may be more effective at isolating waste than traditional Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) multi-layered designs. The monitoring system deployed next to the U-3ax/bl disposal unit consists of eight drainage lysimeters with three surface treatments: two are left bare; two are revegetated with native species; two are being allowed to revegetate with invader species; and two are reserved for future studies. Soil used in each lysimeter is native alluvium taken from the same location as the soil used for the cover material on U-3ax/bl. The lysimeters were constructed so that any drainage to the bottom can be collected and measured. To provide a detailed evaluation of the cover performance, an ar ray of 16 sensors was installed in each lysimeter to measure soil water content, soil water potential, and soil temperature. Revegetation of the U-3ax/bl closure cover establishes a stable plant community that maximizes water loss through transpiration while at the same time, reduces water and wind erosion …

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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This report presents the results of the 2003 Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program conducted in accordance with 10 CFR 72.44 for the Fort St. Vrain Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation. A description of the facility and the monitoring program is provided. The results of monitoring the predominant radiation exposure pathway, direct radiation exposure, indicate the facility operation has not contributed to any increase in the estimated maximum potential dose commitment to the general public.

This report presents the results of the 2000 Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program conducted in accordance with 10 CFR 72.44 for the Three Mile Island, Unit 2, Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation. A description of the facility and the monitoring program is provided. The results of monitoring the two predominant radiation exposure pathways, potential airborne radioactivity releases and direct radiation exposure, indicate the facility operation has not contributed to any increase in the estimated maximum potential dose commitment to the general public.

Even with the continual advances made in both computational algorithms and computer hardware used in reservoir modeling studies, large-scale simulation of fluid and heat flow in heterogeneous reservoirs remains a challenge. The problem commonly arises from intensive computational requirement for detailed modeling investigations of real-world reservoirs. This paper presents the application of a massive parallel-computing version of the TOUGH2 code developed for performing large-scale field simulations. As an application example, the parallelized TOUGH2 code is applied to develop a three-dimensional unsaturated-zone numerical model simulating flow of moisture, gas, and heat in the unsaturated zone of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, a potential repository for high-level radioactive waste. The modeling approach employs refined spatial discretization to represent the heterogeneous fractured tuffs of the system, using more than a million 3-D gridblocks. The problem of two-phase flow and heat transfer within the model domain leads to a total of 3,226,566 linear equations to be solved per Newton iteration. The simulation is conducted on a Cray T3E-900, a distributed-memory massively parallel computer. Simulation results indicate that the parallel computing technique, as implemented in the TOUGH2 code, is very efficient. The reliability and accuracy of the model results have been demonstrated by comparing them to those …

In this paper, we describe AQSim, an ongoing effort to design and implement a system to manage terabytes of scientific simulation data. The goal of this project is to reduce data storage requirements and access times while permitting ad-hoc queries using statistical and mathematical models of the data. In order to facilitate data exchange between models based on different representations, we are evaluating using the ASCI common data model which is comprised of several layers of increasing semantic complexity. To support queries over the spatial-temporal mesh structured data we are in the process of defining and implementing a grammar for MeshSQL.

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

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

This report documents establishment of bias, bias trends and uncertainty for validation of the CSAS25 control module from the SCALE 4.4a computer code system for use in evaluating criticality safety of uranium systems. The 27-group ENDF/B-IV, 44-group ENDF/B-V, and 238-group ENDF/B-V cross-section libraries were used. The criticality validation calculations were performed using over 500 benchmark cases from Volumes II and IV of the ''International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments,'' published by the Nuclear Energy Agency Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (NEA/OECD). Based on statistical analysis of the calculation results, the bias, bias trends and uncertainty of the benchmark calculations have been established for these benchmark experiments. Numerical methods for applying margins are briefly described, but the determination of appropriate correlating parameter and values for additional margin, applicable to a particular analysis, must be determined as part of process analysis. As such, this document does not specify upper subcritical limits as has been done in the past. A follow-on report will be written to assess the methods for determination of an upper safety limit in more detail, provide comparisons, and recommend a preferred method. Analysts using these results are responsible for exercising sound engineering judgment using strong technical …

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

We summarized existing knowledge regarding the known distribution of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) across four sub-basins in the Columbia River Gorge in Washington. The Wind River, Little White Salmon River, White Salmon River, and the Klickitat River sub-basins were analyzed. Cold water is essential to the survival, spawning, and rearing of bull trout. We analyzed existing temperature data, installed Onset temperature loggers in the areas of the four sub-basins where data was not available, and determined that mean daily water temperatures were <15 C and appropriate for spawning and rearing of bull trout. We snorkel surveyed more than 74 km (46.25 mi.) of rivers and streams in the four sub-basins (13.8 km at night and 60.2 km during the day) and found that night snorkeling was superior to day snorkeling for locating bull trout. Surveys incorporated the Draft Interim Protocol for Determining Bull Trout Presence (Peterson et al. In Press). However, due to access and safety issues, we were unable to randomly select sample sites nor use block nets as recommended. Additionally, we also implemented the Bull Trout/Dolly Varden sampling methodology described in Bonar et al. (1997). No bull trout were found in the Wind River, Little White Salmon, or …

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

The Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport, Oregon, was designed by Conde B. McCullough and built in 1936. The 3,223-foot (982 m) structure is a combination of concrete arch approach spans and a steel through arch over the shipping channel. Cathodic protection is used to prevent corrosion damage to the concrete arches. The Oregon Department of Transportation (Oregon DOT) installed a carbon anode coating (DAC-85) on two of the north approach spans in 1985. This anode was operated at a current density of 6.6 mA/m2(0.6 mA/ft2). No failure of the conductive anode was observed in 1990, five years after application, or in 2000, 15 years after application. Thermal-sprayed zinc anodes 20 mils (0.5 mm) thick were applied to half the south approach spans beginning in 1990. Thermal-sprayed zinc anodes 15 mils (0.4 mm) thick were applied to the remaining spans in 1996. These anodes were operated at a current density of 2.2 mA/m2(0.2 mA/ft2). In 1999, four zones on the approach spans were included in a two-year field trial of humectants to improve zinc anode performance. The humectants LiNO3 and LiBr were applied to two zones; the two adjacent zones were left untreated as controls. The humectants substantially reduced circuit resistance …

Monthly student newspaper from Archer City High School in Archer City, Texas that includes news and information of interest to students along with advertising.

The fabrication of boron-covered crystal scintillation detectors is described. Bulk boron-loaded epoxy material was cast and cut into 0.5 mm-thick wafers that were mounted on CdWO{sub 4} and CsI(Tl) crystals. The crystals were mounted on miniature photomultiplier tubes and gamma spectra were obtained with the detectors. The ability of these small detectors to produce spectra that can be analyzed to provide isotopic identification has been demonstrated. In addition, the detector can produce a signature indicating the presence of neutrons. The same miniature size of these detectors that makes them attractive for hand-held portable use, may be a limiting factor in their efficiency. The small size of the scintillation crystals makes them not as efficient as larger NaI(Tl) crystals simply by virtue of significantly decreased sensitive volume and surface area. It may be worthwhile to consider slightly larger crystals (approximately 15 mm cubic CdWO{sub 4}) mounted on rectangular photomultipliers in a detecting head connected to the electronics package by a signal cable.

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

The purpose of this analysis is to document the Quality Assurance (QA) classification of the Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR) emplacement drift system structures, systems and components (SSCs) performed by the MGR Preclosure Safety and Systems Engineering Section. This analysis also provides the basis for revision of YMP/90-55Q, Q-List (YMP 2000). The Q-List identifies those MGR SSCs subject to the requirements of DOE/RW-0333P7 Quality Assurance Requirements and Description (QARD) (DOE 2000).