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Moldova was incorporated into the Soviet Union June 1940, and regained its independence on August 27, 1991. Shortly thereafter, Moldova faced challenges from Turkic-speaking Gagauz and ethnic Russians, both residing in Moldova's Dniestr valley, who proclaimed separatist "republics." Other challenges facing Moldovans include pursuing economic reform and choosing between potential reunification with their ethnic cohorts in Romania and forging an independent identity.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses GAO's achievements in fiscal year 2000, its current plans and future challenges, and its budget request for fiscal year 2002. Financial benefits to taxpayers as a result of GAO's work totaled more than $23 billion in fiscal year 2000--a $61 return on every dollar invested in GAO. During fiscal year 2001, GAO continued to focus its work on the major issues facing Congress, such as Social Security, and worked with leaders in the House and the Senate to strengthen congressional oversight. GAO requested a budget of about $430 million in fiscal year 2002. This funding level will allow GAO to maintain a staff of 3,275 full-time equivalent employees. In the coming fiscal year, GAO plans to increasingly emphasize issues that are of significant congressional and public concern and to take steps internally to address its two major management challenges--human capital and information technology."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Many of today's workers may not be financially prepared for retirement when they stop working. Many people are counting on Social Security alone, without an additional retirement plan. The Savings Are Vital to Everyone's Retirement (SAVER) Act of 1997 requires the Department of Labor (DOL) to hold periodic national summits and run an outreach program to promote retirement saving. This report (1) identifies major accomplishments of the 1998 summit and issues that might affect future summits, (2) describes DOL's outreach program, and (3) determines what DOL knows about the effectiveness of the summit and outreach program. GAO found that the 1998 National Summit made progress in identifying problems that workers face in saving for retirement. DOL's Outreach Program--the Retirement Savings Education Campaign--targets of small business owners, women, minorities, and youth to change the way they think about, and act on, their retirement saving needs. DOL has not tried to assess the extent to which outreach efforts from the 1998 National Summit and Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration have increased the public's knowledge and understanding of retirement savings."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Aviation Hall of Fame for 1999 and 1998. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance with applicable law, and the audit report included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Marine Corps League for fiscal years 2000 and 1999. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Military Chaplains Association of the United States of America for 1999 and 1998. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to congressional questions about GAO's hearing on the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2001. This report discusses the (1) importance of disciplining managers and employees who engage in discriminatory practices, (2) settlement process, and (3) U.S. Postal Service's antidiscrimination programs."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Legion of Valor of the United States of America, Incorporated, for fiscal year 2000. GAO notes that the statement for the Legion of Valor Museum was not audited. The Legion of Valor Museum represents a significant portion of the financial activity for the Legion of Valor--more than half of the reported revenues and expenses. GAO's review disclosed no other reported instances of noncompliance."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the National Conference of State Societies, Washington, District of Columbia, for fiscal years 1999 and 1998. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance, and the report included the auditor's opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly on a cash basis of accounting."

The L-Area cavitation test was designed to better define the onset of cavitation in the reactor system. The onset of gas evolution in the effluent piping and pump cavitation was measured using state-of-the-art equipment to provide data with a high confidence and low uncertainty level. The limits calculated from the new data will allow an approximate two percent increase in reactor power if the reactor is effluent temperature-limited with no compromise in reactor safety.

Beam-induced energy deposition in the LHC high luminosity interaction region (IR) components due to both pp collisions and beam loss in the IR vicinity is a significant challenge for the design of the high luminosity insertions. It was shown in our previous studies that a set of collimators in the machine and absorbers within the low-beta quadrupoles would reduce both the peak power density and total heat load to tolerable levels with a reasonable safety margin. In this paper the results of further optimization and comprehensive MARS calculations are briefly described for the updated IP1 and IP5 layouts and a baseline pp-collision source term. Power density, power dissipation, accumulated dose and residual dose rates are studied in the components of the inner triplets including their TAS absorbers, the TAN neutral beam absorbers, separation dipoles, and quadrupoles of the outer triplets and possible collimators there. It is shown that the optimized absorbers and collimators provide adequate protection of all the critical components.

This report describes the application of a vapor transportation model to fission product release data obtained for uranium/aluminum alloy fuel during early Oak Ridge fuel melt experiments. The Oak Ridge data validates the vapor transpiration model and suggests that iodine and cesium are released from the molten fuel surface in elemental form while tellurium and ruthenium are released as oxides. Cesium iodide is postulated to form in the vapor phase outside of the fuel matrix. Kinetic data indicates that cesium iodide can form from Cs atoms and diatomic iodine in the vapor phase. Temperatures lower than those capable of melting fuel are necessary in order to maintain a sufficient I2 concentration. At temperatures near the fuel melting point, cesium can react with iodine atoms to form CsI only on solid surfaces such as aerosols.

Energy deposition issues are extremely important in the Very Large Hadron Collider (VLHC) with huge energy stored in its 20 TeV (Stage-1) and 87.5 TeV (Stage-2) beams. The status of the VLHC design on these topics, and possible solutions of the problems are discussed. Protective measures are determined based on the operational and accidental beam loss limits for the prompt radiation dose at the surface, residual radiation dose, ground water activation, accelerator components radiation damage and quench stability. The beam abort and beam collimation systems are designed to protect accelerator from accidental and operational beam losses, IP region quadrupoles from irradiation by the products of beam-beam collisions, and to reduce the accelerator-induced backgrounds in the detectors.

This report discusses results of the plutonium trifluoride two-stage precipitation study. A series of precipitation experiments was used to identify the significant process variables affecting precipitation performance. A mathematical model of the precipitation process was developed which is based on the formation of plutonium fluoride complexes. The precipitation model relates all process variables, in a single equation, to a single parameter which can be used to control the performance of the plutonium trifluoride precipitation process. Recommendations have been made which will optimize the FB-Line plutonium trifluoride precipitation process.

One eight-stage unit (8-pack) of centrifugal contactors was tested in both extraction and stripping modes. Efficiencies approaching 100 percent were obtained in both modes. The contactors were operated successfully at a wide range of combined flow rates, including the HEF conditions. This report discusses the results of that test.

This study investigated natural convection and boiling as a means of cooling SRP reactors in the event of a loss of circulation accident. These studies show that single phase natural convection cooling of SRP reactors in shutdown conditions with the present piping geometry is probably not feasible.

The Next Linear Collider (NLC) Collaboration is planning to construct an Engineering Test Facility (ETF) at Fermilab. As presently envisioned, the ETF would comprise a fundamental unit of the NLC main linac to include X-band klystrons and modulators, a delay-line power-distribution system (DLDS), and NLC accelerating structures that serve as loads. The principal purpose of the ETF is to validate stable operation of the power-distribution system, first without beam, then with a beam having the NLC pulse structure. This paper concerns the possibility of configuring and using the ETF to accelerate beam with an NLC pulse structure, as well as of doing experiments to measure beam-induced wakefields in the rf structures and their influence back on the beam.

Recently, it was proposed to use negatively charged electron beams for compensation of beam-beam effects due to protons in the Tevatron collider. We show that a similar compensation is possible in space-charge dominated low energy proton beams. The idea has a potential of several-fold increase of the FNAL Booster beam brightness. Best results will be obtained using three electron lenses around the machine circumference, using co-moving electron beam with time structure and profile approximately to the proton beam. This technique, if feasible, will be more cost effective than the straightforward alternative increasing the energy of the injection linac.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Solar Energy Research Facility in Golden, Colorado, uses a stair-step configuration to allow daylight and heat into the office areas, while the laboratories in the back of the building are in a more controlled environment where tight levels of ventilation, humidity, temperature, and light are critical. A unique mechanical system makes the most of the natural environment and the building's design to efficiently heat and cool the building at an annual utility bill savings of almost $200,000 per year.

The effect of possible accidental beam loss in the LHC on the IP5 and IP6 insertion elements is studied via realistic Monte Carlo simulations. The scenario studied is beam loss due to unsynchronized abort at an accidental prefire of one of the abort kicker modules. Simulations show that this beam loss would result in severe heating of the IP5 and IP6 superconducting (SC) quadrupoles. Contrary to the previous considerations with a stationary set of collimators in IP5, collimators in IP6 close to the cause are proposed: a movable collimator upstream of the Q4 quadrupole and a stationary one upstream of the extraction septumMSD. The calculated temperature rise in the optimal set of collimators is quite acceptable. All SC magnets are protected by these collimators against damage.

The model validation described in this document indicates that the methods described here and by Cooper (1984) for predicting the performance of the proposed L-Area cooling lake are reliable. Extensive observations from the Par Pond system show that lake surface temperatures exceeding 32.2 degrees C (90 degrees F) are attained occasionally in the summer in areas where there is little or no heating from the P-Area Reactor. Regulations which restrict lake surface temperatures to less than 32.2 degrees C should be structured to allow for these naturally-occurring thermal excursions.