Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This financial audit manual describes the methodology used by GAO and the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency to perform financial statement audits of federal entities."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has updated its guidance on controls over employee time and attendance activities to (1) provide agencies with the flexibility needed to streamline time and attendance reporting systems, (2) allow agencies to reduce their costs while maintaining adequate internal control, and (3) update the requirements on electronic signature control."

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This is a report done on British Petroleum's response to oil spills.

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

Semi-weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This document presents the plan for the closure of the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center Tank Farm Facility tanks WM-182 and WM-183 in accordance with Idaho Hazardous Waste Management Act/Resource Conservation and Recovery Act interim status closure requirements. Closure of these two tanks is the first in a series of closures leading to the final closure of the eleven 300,000-gal tanks in the Tank Farm Facility. As such, closure of tanks WM-182 and WM-183 will serve as a proof-of-process demonstration of the waste removal, decontamination, and sampling techniques for the closure of the remaining Tank Farm Facility tanks. Such an approach is required because of the complexity and uniqueness of the Tank Farm Facility closure. This plan describes the closure units, objectives, and compliance strategy as well as the operational history and current status of the tanks. Decontamination, closure activities, and sampling and analysis will be performed with the goal of achieving clean closure of the tanks. Coordination with other regulatory requirements, such as U.S. Department of Energy closure requirements, is also discussed.

In the past six months the NGDRS program has seen a new spike in activity, particularly in October 2000. This new spike in activity is the result of increased activities in the petroleum sector, including new funding to examine infrastructure issues facing many of the companies over the long-term. With industry conditions continuing to rapidly change and evolve, the primary core and cuttings preservation strategy has evolved as well. With the severe lack of available public data repository space and the establishment of a major national geoscience data repository facility unlikely in the near future, the focus is on increasing public awareness and access to nonproprietary company data holdings that remain in the public and private sector. Efforts still continue to identify and facilitate the entry of new repository space into the public sector. Additionally, AGI has been working with the National Academy of Sciences Board on Earth Sciences and Resources staff to initiate a study and workshop to develop a policy recommendation on geoscience data preservation and prioritization of efforts. Additional data transfer efforts were undertaken during the second half of FY00. Altura's Permian Basin core was contributed to the Texas BEG's facility in Midland. Transcription and evaluation of …

The concept of coal beneficiation due to particle segregation in water-fluidized beds, and its improvement via selective solvent-swelling of organic material-rich coal particles, was investigated in this study. Particle size distributions and their behavior were determined using image analysis techniques, and beneficiation effects were explored via measurements of the ash content of segregated particle samples collected from different height locations in a 5 cm diameter liquid-fluidized bed column (LFBC). Both acetone and phenol were found to be effective swelling agents for both Kentucky No.9 and Illinois No.6 coals, considerably increasing mean particle diameters, and shifting particle size distributions to larger sizes. Acetone was a somewhat more effective swelling solvent than phenol. The use of phenol was investigated, however, to demonstrate that low cost, waste solvents can be effective as well. For unswollen coal particles, the trend of increasing particle size from top to bottom in the LFBC was observed in all cases. Since the organic matter in the coal tends to concentrate in the smaller particles, the larger particles are typically denser. Consequently, the LFBC naturally tends to separate coal particles according to mineral matter content, both due to density and size. The data for small (40-100 {micro}m), solvent-swollen particles …

The Blinebry (Permian) formation of eastern Lea County, NM has a long history of exploitation for petroleum and continues even today to be a strong target horizon for new drilling in the Permian Basin. Because of this long-standing interest it should be classified of strategic interest to domestic oil production; however, the formation has gained a reputation as a primary production target with limited to no flooding potential. In late May of 1999, a project to examine the feasibility of waterflooding the Blinebry formation was proposed to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Petroleum Technology Office (Tulsa, OK). A new well was proposed in one region (the South House area) to examine the reputation by acquiring core and borehole logging data for the collection of formation property data in order to conduct the waterflood evaluation. Notice of the DOE award was received on August 19, 1999 and the preparations for drilling, coring and logging were immediately made for a drilling start on 9/9/99. The Blinebry formation at 6000 feet, foot depth was reached on 9/16/99 and the coring of two 60 foot intervals of the Blinebry was completed on 9/19/99 with more than 98% core recovery. The well was drilled …

The science of toxicology plays an important role in identifying safe conditions of use or exposure for many different kinds of environmental agents. The use of toxicologic information in risk assessment requires careful analysis, evaluation of data, and scientific judgment. These Annapolis Accords are intended to guide appropriate use in risk assessment of the scientific information from toxicology. We believe that application of these principles will improve the scientific credibility of risk assessment and the quality of decisions aimed at reducing and eliminating risks to human health and the environment.

Two independent high-resolution aeromagnetic surveys flown by Airmag Surveys, Inc. and interpreted by Pearson, de Ridder and Johnson, Inc were merged, processed and reinterpreted by Pearson, de Ridder and Johnson, Inc for this study. Derived products included depth filtered and reduced to pole maps of total magnetic intensity, vertical and horizontal gradients, interpreted STARMAG structure, lineament analysis and an overall interpretation. The total magnetic intensity patterns of the combined survey conformed reasonably well to those of coarser grid, non-proprietary regional aeromagnetic surveys reviewed. The merged study also helped illustrate regional basement patterns adjacent to and including the northwest edge of the Rome trough. The tectonic grain interpreted is dominantly southwest-northeast with a secondary northwest-southeast component that is consistent with this portion of the Appalachian basin. Magnetic susceptibility appears to be more important locally than basement structure in contributing to the magnetic intensity recorded, based on seismic to aeromagnetic data comparisons made to date. However, significant basement structures cannot be ruled out for this area, and in fact are strongly suspected to be present. The coincidence of the Henderson Dome with a total magnetic intensity low is an intriguing observation that suggests the possibility that structure in the overlying Lower Paleozoic …

This document serves as a notice of construction (NOC) pursuant to the requirements of Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 246-247-060, and as a request for approval to modify pursuant to 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 61.07 for the Waste Receiving and Processing (WRAP) Facility. The rewrite of this NOC incorporates all the approved revisions (Sections 5.0, 6.0, 8.0, and 9.0), a revised potential to emit (PTE) based on the revised maximally exposed individual (MEI) (Sections 8.0, 10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 13.0, 14.0, and 15.0), the results of a study on fugitive emissions (Sections 6.0, 10.0, and 15.0), and reflects the current operating conditions at the WRAP Facility (Section 5.0). This NOC replaces DOE/RL-93-15 and DOE/RL-93-16 in their entirety. The primary function of the WRAP Facility is to examine, assay, characterize, treat, verify, and repackage radioactive material and mixed waste. There are two sources of emissions from the WRAP Facility: stack emissions and fugitive emissions. The stack emissions have an unabated total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) estimate to the hypothetical offsite MEI of 1.13 E+02 millirem per year. The abated TEDE for the stack emissions is estimated at 5.63 E-02 millirem per year to the MEI. The fugitive emissions have an unabated …

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A hydrogen selective membrane as a membrane reactor (MR) can significantly improve the power generation efficiency with a reduced capital and operating cost for the waster-gas-shift reaction. Existing hydrogen selective ceramic membranes are not suitable for the proposed MR due to their poor hydrothermal stability. In this project we have focused on the development of innovative silicon carbide (SiC) based hydrogen selective membranes, which can potentially overcome this technical barrier. During Year I, we have successfully fabricated SiC macro porous membranes via extrusion of commercially available SiC powder, which were then deposited with thin, micro-porous (6 to 40{angstrom} in pore size) films via sol-gel technique as intermediate layers. Finally, an SiC hydrogen selective thin film was deposited on this substrate via our CVD/I technique. The composite membrane thus prepared demonstrated excellent hydrogen selectivity at high temperature ({approx}600 C). More importantly, this membrane also exhibited a much improved hydrothermal stability at 600 C with 50% steam (atmospheric pressure) for nearly 100 hours. In parallel, we have explored an alternative approach to develop a H{sub 2} selective SiC membrane via pyrolysis of selected pre-ceramic polymers. Building upon the positive progress made in the Year I preliminary study, we will conduct an optimization …

All sites in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Complex prepare this report annually for the DOE Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH). The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of the previous and current year's Environment, Safety and Health (ES&H) execution commitments and the Safety and Health (S&H) resources that support these activities. The fiscal year (FY) 2000 and 2001 information and data contained in the Richland Operations Environment, Safefy and Health Fiscal Year 2002 Budget-Risk Management Summary (RL 2000a) were the basis for preparing this report. Fiscal year 2001 activities are based on the President's Amended Congressional Budget Request of $689.6 million for funding Ofice of Environmental Management (EM) $44.0 million for Fast Flux Test Facility standby less $7.0 million in anticipated DOE, Headquarters holdbacks for Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (NE); and $55.3 million for Safeguards and Security (SAS). Any funding changes as a result of the Congressional appropriation process will be reflected in the Fiscal Year 2003 ES&H Budget-Risk Management Summary to be issued in May 2001. This report provides the end-of-year status of FY 2000 ES&H execution commitments, including actual S&H expenditures, and describes planned FY 2001 ES&H execution …

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The purpose of this waste analysis plan (WAP) is to document waste analysis activities associated with the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility (WESF) to comply with Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 173-303-300(1), (2), (3), (4), (5), and (6). WESF is an interim status other storage-miscellaneous storage unit. WESF stores mixed waste consisting of radioactive cesium and strontium salts. WESF is located in the 200 East Area on the Hanford Facility. Because dangerous waste does not include source, special nuclear, and by-product material components of mixed waste, radionuclides are not within the scope of this documentation. The information on radionuclides is provided only for general knowledge.

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This Biennial Environmental Compliance Report (BECR) documents environmental regulatory compliance at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a facility designed for the safe disposal of transuranic (TRU) radioactive waste, for the reporting period of April 1, 1998, to March 31, 2000. As required by the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act (LWA)(Public Law [Pub. L.] 102-579, and amended by Pub. L. 104-201), the BECR documents U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Carlsbad Area Office's (hereinafter the ''CAO'') compliance with applicable environmental protection laws and regulations implemented by agencies of the federal government and the state of New Mexico. An issue was identified in the 1998 BECR relating to a potential cross-connection between the fire-water systems and the site domestic water system. While the CAO and its managing and operating contractor (hereinafter the ''MOC'') believe the site was always in compliance with cross-connection control requirements, hardware and procedural upgrades w ere implemented in March 1999 to strengthen its compliance posture. Further discussion of this issue is presented in section 30.2.2 herein. During this reporting period WIPP received two letters and a compliance order alleging violation of certain requirements outlined in section 9(a)(1) of the LWA. With the exception of one item, pending a final …

Material processing with lasers has grown greatly in the previous decade, with annual sales in excess of $1 B (US). In general, the processing consists of material removal steps such as drilling, cutting, as well as joining. Here lasers that are either cw or pulsed with pulsewidths in the mu-s time regime have done well. Some applications, such as the surface processing of polymers to improve look and feel, or treating metals to improve corrosion resistance, require the economical production of laser powers of the tens of kilowatts, and therefore are not yet commercial processes. The development of FELs based on superconducting RF (SRF) linac technology provides a scaleable path to laser outputs above 50 kW, rendering these applications economically viable, since the cost/photon drops as the output power increases. Such FELs will provide quasi-cw (PRFs in the tens of MHz), of ultrafast (pulsewidth {approx} 1 ps) output with very high beam quality. The first example of such an FEL is the IR Demo FEL at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), which produces nearly 2 kW of high average power on a routine basis. Housed in a multilaboratory user facility, we as well as members of our …

Fluor Hanford (FH) is responsible for providing support to the Department of Energy Richland Operations Office (RL) in the implementation of the Hanford Emergency Preparedness (EP) program. During fiscal year 2000, a number of program improvements were identified from various sources including a major range fire (24 Command Fire). Evaluations of the emergency preparedness program have confirmed that it currently meets all requirements and that performance of personnel involved is good, however the desire to effect continuous improvement resulted in the development of this improvement program plan. This program plan defines the activities that will be performed in order to achieve the desired performance improvements.

In this paper, we derive an object-oriented parallel algorithm for three-dimensional isopycnal flow simulations. The matrix formulation is central to the algorithm. It enables us to apply an efficient preconditioned conjugate gradient linear solver for the global system of equations, and leads naturally to an object-oriented data structure design and parallel implementation. We discuss as well, in less detail, a similar algorithm based on the reduced system, suitable also for parallel computation. Favorable performances are observed on test problems.