Until the last decade, most neutron experiments have been performed at steady-state, reactor-based sources. Recently, however, pulsed spallation sources have been shown to be very useful in a wide range of neutron studies. A major review of neutron sources in the US was conducted by a committee chaired by Nobel laureate Prof. W. Kohn: ''Neutron Sources for America's Future-BESAC Panel on Neutron Sources 1/93''. This distinguished panel concluded that steady state and pulsed sources are complementary and that the nation has need for both to maintain a balanced neutron research program. The report recommended that both a new reactor and a spallation source be built. This complementarity is recognized worldwide. The conclusion of this report is that a new continuous neutron source is needed for the second decade of the 20 year plan to replace aging US research reactors and close the US neutron gap. it is based on spallation production of neutrons using a high power continuous superconducting linac to generate protons impinging on a heavy metal target. There do not appear to be any major technical challenges to the building of such a facility since a continuous spallation source has been operating in Switzerland for several years.

This report provides an overview of the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal (ASP) program's history and outlines issues for Congress as the program moves forward. The ASP is an improved type of radiation detection device, meant to serve as part of new and existing programs to protect against terrorist nuclear or radiological attack.

The United States and its allies are helping Afghanistan emerging from more than 22 years of warfare, although substantial risk to Afghan stability remains. Before the U.S. military campaign against the orthodox Islamist Taliban movement began on October 7, 2001, Afghanistan had been mired in conflict since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The defeat of the Taliban has enabled the United States and its coalition partners to send forces throughout Afghanistan to search for Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters and leaders that remain at large, including Osama bin Laden. As the war against remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban elements winds down, the United States is shifting its military focus toward stabilizing the interim government, including training a new Afghan national army, and supporting the international security force (ISAF) that is helping the new government provide security.

To help inform discussions on the federal role in dam safety, this report provides background information on the nation’s dam safety activities and funding mechanisms.

This report discusses air pollutants (petroleum, natural gas, and coal), which account for about two-thirds of U.S. electricity generation. These gases include several pollutants that directly pose risks to human health and welfare. The report also discusses the utilities that are subject to an array of environmental regulations.

This report provides appropriations of Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs for FY2003.

This report presents an overview of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. This is a clash between the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination that is occurring in the Caucasus, creating the longest inter-ethnic dispute in the former Soviet Union. The report includes the background and analysis of history, warfare and peace process in the region. The report discusses the Armenian and Azerbaijani perspective, the role and views of others (Iran, Turkey, Russia), as well as the U.S. policy regarding the conflict.

The report discusses the issues regarding the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-296, 116 Stat. 2135), which contains provisions to arm pilots of passenger aircraft and gives deputized pilots the authority to use force, including lethal force, to defend the flight deck against criminal and terrorist threats. The report includes the legislative Background, implementation issues, equipment, training, operational procedures and costs.

This report analyzes the language contained in § 1607 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act),1 which provides that federal funds can be made available to a state by the federal government either after certification by a governor that such money will be requested and spent or after the adoption of a concurrent resolution by a state legislature. This report evaluates the authority of state legislatures to, by concurrent resolution, provide for the acceptance of federal funds.

The report discusses the cap and penalty Era, Airport and airway safety and capacity expansion act of 1987, Current FAA Funding Guarantees and Funding guarantee options.

This report is on Broadband Internet Access and the Digital Divide: Federal Assistance Programs.

The Superfund program for cleaning up the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites was created by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, or CERCLA (P.L. 96-510, as amended). This report discusses recent development and background issues, superfund issues, revenue issues, comprehensive reauthorization, and legislation regarding superfund program.

This report describes the administrative process of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’s for recognizing groups as Indian Tribes under federal law.

The entry into force, on January 1, 1994, of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has eliminated the advantage that the beneficiaries of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) and related provisions of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) had enjoyed in trade with the United States relative to Mexico, and gave Mexico an increasingly significant competitive edge over the CBERA countries. The scheduled further implementation of the NAFTA would have resulted in a substantial advantage to Mexico over the CBERA countries and vitiate in part the purpose of the CBERA.

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This report discusses the circumstances surrounding COOP planning, including provisions for alternative meeting sites and methods for conducting House and Senate meetings and floor sessions when Capitol facilities are not available.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2001, the Department of Defense's (DOD) spending on goods and services has more than doubled to $388 billion in 2008, while the number of civilian and military acquisition personnel has remained relatively stable. To augment its in-house workforce, DOD relies heavily on contractor personnel. If it does not maintain an adequate workforce, DOD places its billion-dollar acquisitions at an increased risk of poor outcomes and vulnerability to fraud, waste, and abuse. GAO was asked to (1) assess DOD's ability to determine whether it has a sufficient acquisition workforce, (2) assess DOD initiatives to improve the management and oversight of its acquisition workforce, and (3) discuss practices of leading organizations that could provide insights for DOD's acquisition workforce oversight. To do this, GAO analyzed key DOD studies, obtained data from 66 major weapon system program offices across DOD, and interviewed officials from 4 program offices. GAO also met with representatives from six companies recognized as leaders in workforce management."

The WTP pipe plugging issue, as stated by the External Flowsheet Review Team (EFRT) Executive Summary, is as follows: “Piping that transports slurries will plug unless it is properly designed to minimize this risk. This design approach has not been followed consistently, which will lead to frequent shutdowns due to line plugging.” A strategy was employed to perform critical-velocity tests on several physical simulants. Critical velocity is defined as the point where a stationary bed of particles deposits on the bottom of a straight horizontal pipe during slurry transport operations. Results from the critical velocity testing provide an indication of slurry stability as a function of fluid rheological properties and transport conditions. The experimental results are compared to the WTP design guide on slurry transport velocity in an effort to confirm minimum waste velocity and flushing velocity requirements as established by calculations and critical line velocity correlations in the design guide. The major findings of this testing is discussed below. Experimental results indicate that the use of the Oroskar and Turian (1980) correlation in the design guide is conservative—Slurry viscosity has a greater affect on particles with a large surface area to mass ratio. The increased viscous forces on these …

Mineral carbonation provides a potential option for the long-term storage of carbon dioxide. Serpentine has been chosen as the feedstock mineral, due to its abundance and availability. However, the relatively low reactivity of serpentine has warranted research into physical and chemical treatments that have been shown to greatly increase its reactivity. The use of sulfuric acid as an accelerating medium for the removal of magnesium from serpentine has recently been investigated. In addition to the challenges presented by the dissolution of serpentine, another challenge is the subsequent carbonation of the magnesium ions. A stable hydration sphere for the magnesium ion reduces the carbonation kinetics by obstructing the formation of the carbonation products. Accordingly, this research has evaluated the solubility of carbon dioxide in aqueous solution, the interaction between the dissociation products of carbon dioxide, and the carbonation potential of the magnesium ion.

The majority of US commercial floor space is cooled by rooftop HVAC units (RTU's). RTU popularity derives chiefly from their low initial cost and relative ease of service access without disturbing building occupants. Unfortunately, current RTU's are inherently inefficient due to a combination of characteristics that unnecessarily increase cooling loads and energy use. Existing RTU's in the U.S. consume an estimated 2.4 quads annually. Inefficient RTU's create an estimated 3.5% of U.S. CO{sub 2} emissions, thus contributing significantly to global warming. Also, RTU's often fail to maintain adequate ventilation air and air filtration. This project was developed to evaluate the feasibility of a radically new ''HyPak'' RTU design that significantly and cost-effectively increases RTU performance and delivered air quality. The objective of the HyPak Project was to design, develop and test a hydronic RTU that provides a quantum improvement over conventional RTU performance. Our proposal targeted 60% and 50% reduction in electrical energy use by the HyPak RTU for dry and humid climates, respectively, when compared with a conventional unit.

The huge emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel fired power plants and industrial plants over the last century have resulted in an increase of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Climatological modeling work has predicted severe climate disruption as a result of the trapping of heat due to CO{sub 2}. As an attempt to address this global warming effect, DOE has initiated the Vision 21 concept for future power plants. We first synthesized mesoporous aluminosilicates that have high surface area and parallel pore channels for membrane support materials. Later we synthesized microporous aluminosilicates as the potential thin membrane materials for selective CO{sub 2} adsorption. The pore size is controlled to be less that 1 nm so that the adsorption of CO{sub 2} on the pore wall will block the passage of N{sub 2}. Mesoporous and precipitated alumina were synthesized as the base material for CO{sub 2} adsorbent. The porous alumina is doped with Ba to enhance its CO{sub 2} affinity due to the basicity of Ba. It is shown by gas chromatograph (GC) that the addition of Ba enhances the separation CO{sub 2} from N{sub 2}. It was found that mesoporous alumina has larger specific surface area and better selectivity …

This Final Technical Report summarizes the research and development (R&D) work performed by Stolar Research Corporation (Stolar) under U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Contract Number DE-FC26-04NT15477. This work involved the development of radar navigation and radio data transmission systems for integration with microhole coiled tubing bottom hole assemblies. Under this contract, Stolar designed, fabricated, and laboratory and field tested two advanced technologies of importance to the future growth of the U.S. oil and gas industry: (1) real-time measurement-while-drilling (MWD) for guidance and navigation of coiled tubing drilling in hydrocarbon reservoirs and (2) two-way inductive radio data transmission on coiled tubing for real-time, subsurface-to-surface data transmission. The operating specifications for these technologies are compatible with 3.5-inch boreholes drilled to a true vertical depth (TVD) of 5,000 feet, which is typical of coiled tubing drilling applications. These two technologies (i.e., the Stolar Data Transmission System and Drill String Radar) were developed into pre-commercial prototypes and tested successfully in simulated coiled tubing drilling conditions. Integration of these two technologies provides a real-time geosteering capability with extremely quick response times. Stolar is conducting additional work required to transition the Drill String Radar into a true commercial product. The results of this advanced development work …

The Direct-to-Consumer advertising of perscription drugs by pharmaceutical companies has been described as any promotional effort with respect to these drugs that targets the general public through the lay media. This report contains information on growth in spending on direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, the impact of such advertising, the FDA's existing authority to regulate such advertising, funding, and legislative issues.

Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) provides assistance to previously employed or self- employed individuals rendered unemployed as a direct result of a major disaster and who are not eligible for regular federal/state unemployment insurance (UI). DUA is federally funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), but is administered by the state UI agencies.