Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its recent reports on the status of key census taking operations, focusing on such essential activities as: (1) outreach and promotion; (2) field follow-up operations; and (3) data capture."

The objectives of the program are to provide an improved TBC system with increased temperature capability and improved reliability relative to current state of the art TBC systems. The development of such a coating system is essential to the ATS engine meeting its objectives. The base program consists of three phases: Phase I: Program Planning--Complete Phase II: Development--Complete Phase III: Selected Specimen--Bench Test Work was performed on the Phase II final report and on Ill of the program during the reporting period.

Laminated metal composites have been cited in antiquity; for example, a steel laminate that may date as far back as 2750 B.C., was found in the Great Pyramid in Gizeh in 1837. A laminated shield containing bronze, tin, and gold layers, is described in detail by Homer. Well-known examples of steel laminates, such as an Adze blade, dating to 400 B.C. can be found in the literature. The Japanese sword is a laminated composite at several different levels and Merovingian blades were composed of laminated steels. Other examples are also available, including composites from China, Thailand, Indonesia, Germany, Britain, Belgium, France, and Persia. The concept of lamination to provide improved properties has also found expression in modern materials. Of particular interest is the development of laminates including high carbon and low carbon layers. These materials have unusual properties that are of engineering interest; they are similar to ancient welded Damascus steels. The manufacture of collectable knives, labeled ''welded Damascus'', has also been a focus of contemporary knifemakers. Additionally, in the Former Soviet Union, laminated composite designs have been used in engineering applications. Each of the above areas will be briefly reviewed, and some of the metallurgical principles will be described …

An array of ultrasonic transducers was constructed consisting of three identical arrays at various depths in an air intake shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Each array consists of transducers permanently installed in three holes arranged in an L shape. An active array, created by appropriate arrangement of the transducers and selection of transmitter-receiver pairs, allows the measurement of transmitted signal velocities and amplitudes (for attenuation studies) along 216 paths parallel, perpendicular and tangential to the shaft walls. Transducer positions were carefully surveyed, allowing absolute velocity measurements. Installation occurred over a period of about two years beginning in early 1989, with nearly continuous operation since that time, resulting in a rare, if not unique, record of the spatial and temporal variability of damage development around an underground opening. This paper reports results from the last two years of operation, updating the results reported by Holcomb, 1999. Results will be related to the damage, due to microcracking, required to produce the observed changes. It is expected that the results will be useful to other studies of the long-term deformation characteristics of salt.

The most recent results on CP violation and mixing in the charm system are reviewed as a guide to the future. While no surprising results are reported so far, charm provides a unique window to physics beyond the Standard Model. The results reported here come from four sources, ALEPH at LEP, E791 and FOCUS/E831 at Fermilab, and CLEO II.V at CESR. Results beyond these sources may be expected as a byproduct of B-motivated experiments.

Cloud optical depths have been measured using multifilter rotating shadowband radiometers (MFRSRs) at Barrow and Atqasuk, and liquid water paths have been measured at Barrow using a microwave radiometer (MWR) during the warm season (June-September) in 1999. Comparisons have been made between these quantities and the corresponding ones determined from the ECMWF GCM. Hour-by-hour comparisons of cloud optical depths show considerable scatter. The scatter is reduced, but is still substantial, when the averaging period is increased to ''daily'' averages, i.e., the time period each day over which the MFRSR can make measurements. This period varied between 18 hours in June and 6 hours in September. Preliminary results indicate that, for measured cloud optical depths less than approximately 25, the ECMWF has a low bias in its predictions, consistent with a low bias in predicted liquid water path. Based on a more limited set of data, the optical depths at Atqasuk were found to be generally lower than those at Barrow, a trend at least qualitatively captured by the ECMWF model. Analyses to identify the cause of the biases and the considerable scatter in the predictions are continuing.

Congress is considering legislation that would reauthorize the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972. This overview summarizes the programs created by this act and its amendments, and outlines issues associated with reauthorization. These issues include reauthorizing funding, altering grant programs, changing the National Estuarine Research Reserve system, funding to implement nonpoint water pollution requirements, protecting private property rights, expanding program evaluation efforts, and examining effects of personal water craft on the coastal requirement. A reauthorization bill has been reported by the House Resources Committee (H.R. 2669, H. Rept. 106-485), and floor action is anticipated soon. In the Senate, no action has been taken.

The goal of this project is to develop inorganic metal oxide clusters known as polyoxoanions (POAs) as complexants for the immobilization of actinide (An) ions from high-level waste (HLW). A diverse array of rugged isopolyoxoanions, [M{sub x}O{sub y}]{sup z{minus}}, and heteropolyoxoanions, [X{sub a}M{sub b}O{sub c}]{sup d{minus}}, comprised of M = V, Mo, W and X = Si, P polyhedra will be investigated for their ability to incarcerate An ions. The research combines two objectives--An-POA coordination and An-POA containment. The first involves the synthesis, isolation, and characterization of POAs that can selectively bind An ions to form stable An-POA complexes in alkaline and acidic solutions. The second involves investigations of the thermochemistry of the An-POA complexes under vitrification conditions germane to the formation of proposed HLW forms, such as borosilicate glass. The approach is envisioned to provide two levels of An encapsulation for maximum stability and durability as well as the potential to incorporate higher levels of An ions (particularly Pu) in waste forms than now possible. Such versatility bodes well for the potential application of POAs as An complexants in technology of significance to the environmental management of HLW. This report summarizes work performed since the commencement of the project …

This paper describes a procedure for finite-array criticality analysis to ensure criticality safety of shipments of fissile materials in US DOE-certified packages. After the procedure has been performed, one can obtain the minimum transport index and determine the maximum number of fissile packages allowable in a shipment that meets the 10 CFR 71 criticality safety requirements.

Two carrier/shipping cask options are being developed to transport bottles of EBR-II fuel elements stored at INTEC. Some fuel bottles are intact, but some have developed leaks. Reactivity control requirements to maintain subcriticality during the hypothetical transport accident have been examined for both transport options for intact and leaking bottles. Poison rods, poison sleeves, and dummy filler bottles were considered; several possible poison materials and several possible dummy filler materials were studied. The minimum number of poison rods or dummy filler bottles has been determined for each carrier for transport of intact and leaking bottles.

The Double-Shell Tank (DST) System is required to transition from its current storage mission to a storage and retrieval mission supporting the River Protection Project Phase 1 privatization, defined in HNF-SD-WM-MAR-008, Tank Waste Remediation System Mission Analysis Report. Requirements for the DST subsystems are being developed using the top-down systems engineering process outlined in HNF-SD-WM-SEMP-002, Tank Waste Remediation System Systems Engineering Management Plan. This top-down process considers existing designs to the extent that these designs impose unavoidable constraints on the Phase 1 mission. Existing engineering-basis documents were screened, and the unavoidable constraints were identified. The constraints identified herein will be added to the DST System specification (HNF-SD-WM-TRD-007, System Specification for the Double-Shell Tank System). While the letter revisions of the DST System specification were constructed with a less rigorous review of the existing engineering-basis documents, the Revision 0 release of the specification must incorporate the results of the review documented herein. The purpose of this document is to describe the screening process and criteria used to determine which constraints are unavoidable and to document the screening results.

This Engineering Study provides information on the design modification to support closure to the Flammable Gas USQ for Catch Tanks.

Numerical modeling of airflow and pollutant dispersion around buildings is a challenging task due to the geometrical variations of buildings and the extremely complex flow created by such surface-mounted obstacles. The airflow around buildings inevitably involves impingement and separation regions, building wakes with multiple vortices, and jetting effects in street canyons. The interference from adjacent buildings further complicates the flow and dispersion patterns. Thus accurate simulations of building-scale transport phenomena requires not only appropriate physics submodels but also significant computing resources. They have developed an efficient, high resolution CFD model for simulating chemical and biological releases around buildings. The primary goal is to support incident response and preparedness in emergency response planning and vulnerability analysis.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Air Force's engineering and manufacturing development program for the F-22 aircraft, focusing on: (1) the extent to which the F-22 development program is meeting its performance, schedule, and cost goals; (2) whether the Air Force is likely to complete the development program as planned without exceeding the cost limitation established by the act; and (3) whether GAO had access to sufficient information to make informed judgments on matters covered in this report."

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO audited the financial statements of the Capitol Preservation Fund for the fiscal years ended September 30, 1999 and 1998, and the related statements of activities and statements of cash flows for the fiscal years then ended."

This report provides a table detailing the requested Forest Service (FS) budget for FY2001 and comparing it FY1999 appropriations.

This Analysis/Model Report (AMR) documents an analysis that was performed to estimate climatic variables for the next 10,000 years by forecasting the timing and nature of climate change at Yucca Mountain (YM), Nevada (Figure l), the site of a potential repository for high-level radioactive waste. The future-climate estimates are based on an analysis of past-climate data from analog meteorological stations, and this AMR provides the rationale for the selection of these analog stations. The stations selected provide an upper and a lower climate bound for each future climate, and the data from those sites will provide input to the infiltration model (USGS 2000) and for the total system performance assessment for the Site Recommendation (TSPA-SR) at YM. Forecasting long-term future climates, especially for the next 10,000 years, is highly speculative and rarely attempted. A very limited literature exists concerning the subject, largely from the British radioactive waste disposal effort. The discussion presented here is one method, among many, of establishing upper and lower bounds for future climate estimates. The method used here involves selecting a particular past climate from many past climates, as an analog for future climate. Other studies might develop a different rationale or select other past climates …

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Compaction bands are thin, tabular zones of grain breakage and reduced porosity that are found in sandstones. These structures may form due to tectonic stresses or as a result of local stresses induced during production of fluids from wells, resulting in barriers to fluid (oil, gas, water) movement in sandstone reservoirs. To gain insight into the formation of compaction bands the authors have produced them in the laboratory. Acoustic emission locations were used to define and track the thickness of compaction bands throughout the stress history during axisymmetric compression experiments. Narrow zones of intense acoustic emission, demarcating the boundaries between the uncompacted and compacted regions were found to develop. Unexpectedly, these boundaries moved at velocities related to the fractional porosity reduction across the boundary and to the imposed specimen compression stress. This appears to be a previously unrecognized, fundamental mode of deformation of a porous, granular material subjected to compressive loading with significant implications for the production of hydrocarbons.

The Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center of Sandia National laboratories has an ongoing research program in advanced user interfaces. As part of this research, promising new transduction devices, particularly hands-free devices, are being explored for the control of mobile and floor-mounted robotic systems. Brainwave control has been successfully demonstrated by other researchers in a variety of fields. In the research described here, Sandia developed and demonstrated a proof-of-concept brainwave-controlled mobile robot system. Preliminary results were encouraging. Additional work required to turn this into a reliable. fieldable system for mobile robotic control is identified. Used in conjunction with other controls, brainwave control could be an effective control method in certain circumstances.

At low redshifts powerful radio sources are uniquely associated with massive galaxies, and are thought to be powered by supermassive black holes. Modern 8m-10m telescopes may be used to find their likely progenitors at very high redshifts to study their formation and evolution.

Titanate ceramics have been selected as the preferred waste form for the immobilization of excess plutonium. Corrosion tests are underway to try to understand the long-term behavior of this material. In this paper, results from PCT-B static dissolution tests are used to provide an explanation of the observed corrosion behavior of a zirconolite-based ceramic. Two important observations are made. First, Ca is released at a constant rate [7 x 10{sup {minus}5} g/(m{sup 2} day)] in PCT-B tests for up to two years. Second, the release rates for Pu and Gd increase with time (up to two years) in PCT-B tests. The first observation suggests that the ceramics continue to corrode at a low rate for at least two years in PCT-B tests. The second observation suggests that the release rates of Pu and Gd are controlled by some process or processes that do not affect the release rate of other elements. Evidence indicates that this is due to the preferential dissolution of brannerite from the ceramic.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed whether federal agencies have the capacity to monitor and enforce trade agreements, focusing on: (1) the federal structure for monitoring and enforcing trade agreements; (2) the increasing complexity of the federal monitoring and enforcement task and key activities that federal agencies must perform; and (3) whether the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) have the capacity to handle their monitoring and enforcement workload, that is, whether their human capital resources and support mechanisms enable them to perform needed monitoring and enforcement activities."