Aqueous radioactive wastes from Savannah River Site (SRS) separations processes are contained in large underground carbon steel tanks. Inspections made during 1999 to evaluate these vessels and auxiliary appurtenances along with evaluations based on data accrued by inspections performed since the tanks were constructed are the subject of this report.

Many State and Federal environmental protection laws and regulations apply to Western. Western facilities are within the jurisdiction of six Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regions and 17 states. Western's environmental policy statement directs employees to prevent, control, and abate environmental pollution at their facilities, and when possible, enhance the environment. To help assure conformance with all regulatory requirements, and to achieve its pollution prevention goals and objectives, Western is developing an Environmental Management System (EMS). One of the major regulatory impacts on Western continues to be the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that regulates the use of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). Western's policy is to eliminate PCBs from its system wherever economically and operationally possible. This will lessen the impact of PCB regulations on operations and the impact of PCBs on the environment. Executive Order 12856 requires Federal Agencies to comply with the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). As with other DOE elements, Western has been complying with EPCRA since before the Executive Order was issued. To summarize, in 1999, Western's Regional offices implemented programs to notify State and local emergency response entities in accordance with Section 311 and 312 of EPCRA. Chemical inventories indicate that Western does not …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the implementation of the Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act of 1998, focusing on: (1) the overall initial implementation of the FAIR Act; (2) the clarity and understandability of five agencies' FAIR Act inventories; (3) the extent to which these agencies exempted commercial activities from competition; and (4) supplemental information that enhanced the understandability of agencies' inventories."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed whether the District of Columbia's annual performance report contained all the information required by law and, if not, why. This report transmits GAO's comments on the Mayor's performance report for fiscal year (FY) 1999, which was due on March 1, 2000, but was issued on March 7, 2000."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Essential Air Service (EAS) program, focusing on: (1) how DOT applied criteria to establish which communities would receive subsidized air service; (2) changes in the level of subsidies provided to EAS-eligible communities in fiscal year 1999 relative to that provided in 1995; (3) why the level of subsidies changed between 1995 and 1999; and (4) whether DOT applied any of the increase in program funding to rural air safety projects."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the process used by the Public Buildings Service (PBS) to procure leased space for federal agencies, focusing on the: (1) approaches 3 of the General Services Administration's 11 regional offices use to lease space, including how each region determines an agency's space requirements, identifies and assesses potential space, and communicates with actual offerors; and (2) effect of solicitation practices on competition."

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A project to recover economic amounts of oil from a very mature oil field is being conducted by Laguna Petroleum Corporation of Midland, Texas, with partial funding from a U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant to study shallow carbonate rock reservoirs. The objectives of the project are to use modern engineering methods to optimize oil field management and to use geological and geophysical data to recover untapped potential within the petroleum reservoirs. The integration of data and techniques from these disciplines has yielded results greater than those achievable without their cooperation. The cost of successfully accomplishing these goals is to be low enough for even small independent operators to afford. This article is a report describing accomplishments for the fiscal year 1998-1999.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Medicaid program and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), focusing on the differences between both programs with regard to outreach, application and eligibility determination, screening and enrollment, and benefits."

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The proposed DOE action considered in this environmental impact statement (EIS) is to implement appropriate processes for the safe and efficient management of spent nuclear fuel and targets at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken County, South Carolina, including placing these materials in forms suitable for ultimate disposition. Options to treat, package, and store this material are discussed. The material included in this EIS consists of approximately 68 metric tons heavy metal (MTHM) of spent nuclear fuel 20 MTHM of aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel at SRS, as much as 28 MTHM of aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuel from foreign and domestic research reactors to be shipped to SRS through 2035, and 20 MTHM of stainless-steel or zirconium-clad spent nuclear fuel and some Americium/Curium Targets stored at SRS. Alternatives considered in this EIS encompass a range of new packaging, new processing, and conventional processing technologies, as well as the No Action Alternative. A preferred alternative is identified in which DOE would prepare about 97% by volume (about 60% by mass) of the aluminum-based fuel for disposition using a melt and dilute treatment process. The remaining 3% by volume (about 40% by mass) would be managed using chemical separation. Impacts are assessed …

As directed by written development plan (CRWMS M&O 1999a), a sub-model of seepage/backfill interactions is developed and presented in this document to support the Engineered Barrier System (EBS) Physical and Chemical Environment Model. The purpose of this analysis is to assist Performance Assessment Operations (PAO) and the Engineered Barrier Performance Department in modeling the geochemical environment within a repository drift. In this analysis, a conceptual model is developed to provide PAO a more detailed and complete in-drift geochemical model abstraction and to answer the key technical issues (KTI) raised in the NRC Issue Resolution Status Report (IRSR) for the Evolution of the Near Field Environment (NFE) Revision 2 (NRC 1999). The development plan calls for a sub-model that evaluates the effect on water chemistry of chemical reactions between water that enters the drift and backfill materials in the drift. The development plan specifically requests an evaluation of the following important chemical reaction processes: dissolution-precipitation, aqueous complexation, and oxidation-reduction. The development plan also requests the evaluation of the effects of varying seepage and drainage fluxes, varying temperature, and varying evaporation and condensation fluxes. Many of these effects are evaluated in a separate Analysis/Model Report (AMR), ''Precipitates Salts Analysis AMR'' (CRWMS M&O …

As directed by a written development plan (CRWMS M&O 1999a), a conceptual model for water entering the drift and reacting with the invert materials is to be developed. The purpose of this conceptual model is to assist Performance Assessment Operations (PAO) and its Engineered Barrier Performance Department in modeling the geochemical environment within a repository drift, thus allowing PAO to provide a more detailed and complete in-drift geochemical model abstraction, and to answer the key technical issues (KTI) raised in the NRC Issue Resolution Status Report (IRSR) for the Evolution of the Near-Field Environment (NFE), Revision 2 (NRC 1999). This AMR also seeks to: (1) Develop a logical conceptual model for physical/chemical interactions between seepage and the invert materials; (2) screen potential processes and reactions that may occur between seepage and invert to evaluate the potential consequences of the interactions; and (3) outline how seepage/invert processes may be quantified. This document provides the conceptual framework for screening out insignificant processes and for identifying and evaluating those seepage/invert interactions that have the potential to be important to subsequent PAO analyses including the Engineered Barrier System (EBS) physical and chemical model abstraction effort. This model has been developed to serve as a …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) computer-generated low-dollar notices, focusing on notices involving: (1) amounts due of less than $5; and (2) refunds of less than $1."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) multiple collection notices, focusing on: (1) how many individual taxpayers were sent multiple notices to collect the same tax assessment, particularly after IRS received full payment of the assessment; and (2) IRS' reasons for sending collection notices after receiving full payment."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the General Services Administration's (GSA) estimates of the Federal Technology Service (FTS) 2001 revenues and the implications of allowing other service providers to compete in the FTS 2001 market, focusing on: (1) the percentage of FTS 2001 contracts that are minimum revenue guarantees (MRG); (2) when MRGs are likely to be satisfied; (3) the factors that could significantly alter the estimates of total program revenue and corresponding timeframes for satisfying MRGs; and (4) how competition could affect the estimates."

An independent (third-party) verification of contractor remedial actions of the subject site verifies that remedial actions have been effective in meeting established and site-specific guidelines and that the documentation accurately and adequately describes the radiological conditions at the site.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) whistleblower protection, focusing on the: (1) actions VA has taken since October 29, 1994--the enactment of the 1994 Whistleblower Protection Act amendments--to inform its employees about their rights to protection against reprisal when reporting misconduct; (2) extent to which VA employees are aware of their rights to such protection; (3) extent to which VA employees are willing to report misconduct in VA operations, should they become aware of it; and (4) number and disposition of whistleblower reprisal complaints filed by VA employees with agencies responsible for providing whistleblower protection."

Manganese carbonyl complexes serve as hydrosilation precatalysts for selectively transforming a carbonyl group into a siloxy methylene or a fully reduced methylene group. Substrates of interest include (1) aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, silyl esters, and esters, and (2) their organometallic acyl counterparts. Three relevant catalytic reactions are shown. Two types of manganese precatalysts have been reported: (a) alkyl and acyl complexes (L)(C0){sub 4}MnR [L = CO, PPh{sub 3}; R = COCH{sub 3}, COPh, CH{sub 3}] and (b) halides (CO){sub 5}MnX and [(CO){sub 4}MnX]{sub 2} (X = Br, I). The former promote hydrosilation and deoxygenation catalysis; the latter promote dehydrogenative silation of alcohols and carboxylic acids as well as hydrosilation and deoxygenation of some metallocarboxylic acid derivatives. In every case studied, these Mn precatalysts are far more reactive or selective than traditional Rh(I) precatalysts.

Manganese carbonyl complexes serve as hydrosilation precatalysts for selectively transforming a carbonyl group into a doxy methylene or a fully reduced methylene group. Substrates of interest include (1) aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, silyl esters, and esters, and (2) their organometallic acyl counterparts. Two types of manganese precatalysts have been reported: (a) alkyl and acyl complexes (L)(CO){sub 4}MnR [L = CO, PPh{sub 3}; R = COCH{sub 3}, COPh, CH{sub 3}] and (b) halides (CO){sub 5}MnX and [(CO){sub 4}MnX]{sub 2} (X = Br, I). The former promote hydrosilation and deoxygenation catalysis; the latter promote dehydrogenative silation of alcohols and carboxylic acids as well as hydrosilation and deoxygenation of some metallocarboxylic acid derivatives. In every case studied, these Mn precatalysts are far more reactive or selective than traditional Rh(l) precatalysts. The reaction chemistry of the above and other Mn alkyl complexes with hydrosilanes was studied in order to probe catalysis mechanism(s). Thus, Mn(CO){sub 5} methyl, benzyl, acetyl, and benzoyl (4 p-substituents) complexes reacted with hydrosilines by four different mechanisms, which were established. A noteworthy development was that the methyl and benzoyl complexes gave moderate yields of a new ({eta}{sup 2}-Si-H) silane adduct (CO){sub 4}Mn(SiMe{sub 2}Ph)(H-SiMe{sub 2}Ph), which is stable in the presence of …

This report summarizes the work done during the first quarter of the project. Effort was directed in three areas: (1) The determination of the role of ionic conductor morphology, used in composite cathodes, on the ionic conductivity of the ionic conductor. It was shown that if the particles are not well sintered, the necks formed between particles will be very narrow, and the resulting conductivity will be too low (resistivity will be too high). Specifically, a mathematical equation was derived to demonstrate the singular nature of conductivity. (2) Nanosize powders of Sc-doped CeO{sub 2} were prepared by combustion synthesis. The rationale is that the particle size of the composite electrode must be as small as possible to ensure a high ionic conductivity--and resulting in high performance in fuel cells. Di-gluconic acid (DGA) was used as fuel. The process led to the formation of nanosize Sc-doped CeO{sub 2}. The powder was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). (3) Samples were sintered to form materials containing various levels of porosity, from {approx}3% to {approx}43%. Conductivity was measured over a range of temperatures by four probe DC method. It was observed that in highly porous samples, the conductivity was …

This report discusses issues debated in the 107th Congress while is considering various proposals to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). Major issues in recent years have included changing the role of science in decision-making, changing the role of critical habitat, reducing conflicts with Department of Defense activities, incorporating further protection for property owners, and increasing protection of listed species, among others. In addition, many have advocated including significant changes to ESA regulations made during the Clinton Administration in the law itself.

This report describes the bills introduced in the 108th Congress that would affect participants in either CSRS or FERS. It begins by summarizing laws enacted during the 107th Congress that affected CSRS or FERS.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Between 1979 and 1998, the number of deaths in Libby, Montana from asbestosis--a lung disease that progressively restricts breathing and can be fatal--was 40 to 80 times higher than the average for the United States. Vermiculite ore--containing high concentrations of asbestos--was mined at Libby between 1923 and 1990, and accounted for most of the world's vermiculite. Mining, processing, or any disturbance of the contaminated vermiculite releases asbestos fibers into the air, which can lead to respiratory illnesses, including asbestosis. When processed, the vermiculite is used in insulation, fireproofing materials, garden materials, and other products. GAO reviewed the history of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) involvement in Libby prior to the agency's initiation of cleanup actions in 1999, the status and costs of EPA's cleanup in Libby, and other actions EPA and other federal agencies are taking to address exposure to asbestoss-contaminated materials."