A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2000, the U.S. government has provided a total of $3.3 billion to Colombia, making it the fifth largest recipient of U.S. assistance. Part of this funding has gone toward nonmilitary assistance to Colombia, including programs to (1) promote legitimate economic alternatives to coca and opium poppy; (2) assist Colombia's vulnerable groups, particularly internally displaced persons; and (3) strengthen the country's democratic, legal, and security institutional capabilities. GAO examined these programs' objectives, reported accomplishments, and identified the factors, if any, that limit project implementation and sustainability. We also examined the challenges faced by Colombia and the United States in continuing to support these programs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Each year, about 2.5 million people file claims with the Social Security Administration (SSA) for disability benefits. If the claim is denied at the initial level, the claimant may appeal to the hearings level. The hearings level has allowed more than half of all appealed claims, an allowance rate that has raised concerns about the consistency of decisions made at the two levels. To help ensure consistency, SSA began a "process unification" initiative in 1994 and recently announced a new proposal to strengthen its disability programs. This report examines (1) the status of SSA's process unification initiative, (2) SSA's assessments of possible inconsistencies in decisions between adjudication levels, and (3) whether SSA's new proposal incorporates changes to improve consistency in decisions between adjudication levels."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Decontaminating and decommissioning the nation's uranium enrichment plants, which are contaminated with hazardous materials, will cost billions of dollars and could span decades. In 1992, the Energy Policy Act created the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund (Fund) to pay for the plants' cleanup and to reimburse licensees of active uranium and thorium processing sites for part of their cleanup costs. This report discusses (1) what DOE has done to reduce the cleanup costs authorized by the Fund, and (2) the extent to which the Fund is sufficient to cover authorized activities."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, Congress has raised concerns about cost growth in the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) operating budget. Appropriators noted several expenses in FAA's fiscal year 2004 facilities and equipment (F&E) account budget submission that appeared to be ongoing operating expenses. The House and Senate appropriations subcommittee reports on FAA's fiscal year 2004 budget submission highlighted 17 such budget items and recommended that the expenses for these items either be transferred to the operations budget or not receive funding. As a result of these concerns, the Conference Report accompanying the fiscal year 2004 Omnibus Appropriations Act directed us to conduct an audit of FAA's policies and practices for determining whether an expense should be budgeted in its operating accounts or in the capital account. Specifically, this report addresses the following questions: (1) What are FAA's policies for determining whether an expense--including personnel compensation, benefits, travel, and related expenses--belongs in its capital (F&E) or Operations accounts? (2) How did FAA implement its policies for determining whether 17 specific budget line items identified by appropriators belong in its F&E or Operations accounts, including personnel compensation, benefits, travel, and related expenses? …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the federal government has undertaken numerous actions to enhance the nation's homeland security, including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). One of the primary reasons for the establishment of DHS was to unify the vast national network of organizations and institutions involved in efforts to protect our nation. Since it began operations on March 1, 2003, DHS has faced enormous challenges to protect the nation from terrorism while it organizes itself into a coherent and integrated agency. We support Congress by reviewing various government programs and activities to help improve their performance and accountability. When our work identifies a significant need for action by the Congress or an agency, we develop recommended solutions. These recommendations identify actions we believe the department, agency, bureau, or office should implement to ensure government programs operate effectively and efficiently. This report responds to a Congressional request that we provide status information on key recommendations we have made to DHS and its legacy agencies. On June 30, 2004, we briefed Congress on the results of our review. This report transmits information provided …

Of the many candidates employed for understanding the erosion of critical Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) components, potential energy damage remains relatively uninvestigated. Unlike the familiar kinetic energy sputtering, which is a consequence of the momentum transferred by an ion to atoms in the target, potential energy sputtering occurs when an ion rapidly collects charge from the target as it neutralizes. Since the neutralization energy of a singly charged ion is typically on the order of 10 eV, potential energy effects are generally neglected for low charge state ions, and hence the bulk of the sputtering literature. As an ion's charge state is increased, the potential energy (PE) increases rapidly, e.g. PE(Xe{sup 1+})= 11 eV, PE(Xe{sup 10+}) = 810 eV, PE(Xe{sup 20+}) = 4.6 keV, etc. By comparison, the binding energy of a single atom on a surface is typically about 5 eV, so even relatively inefficient energy transfer mechanisms can lead to large quantities of material being removed, e.g. 25% efficiency for Xe{sup 10+} corresponds to {approx} 40 atoms/ion. By comparison, singly charged xenon ions with {approx} 20 keV of kinetic energy sputter only about 5 atoms/ion at normal incidence, and less than 1 atom/ion at typical EUV source energies. …

One of the major risks associated with underground coal gasification is contamination of local aquifers with a variety of toxic compounds. It is likely that the rate, volume, extent, and concentrations of contaminant plumes will depend on the local permeability field near the point of gasification. This field depends heavily on the geological history of stratigraphic deposition and the specifics of stratigraphic succession. Some coals are thick and isolated, whereas others are thinner and more regionally expressed. Some coals are overlain by impermeable units, such as marine or lacustrine shales, whereas others are overlain by permeable zones associated with deltaic or fluvial successions. Rapid stratigraphic characterization of the succession provides first order information as to the general risk of contaminant escape, which provides a means of ranking coal contaminant risks by their depositional context. This risk categorization could also be used for ranking the relative risk of CO{sub 2} escape from injected coal seams. Further work is needed to verify accuracy and provide some quantification of risks.

EUVE and the ROSAT WFC have left a tremendous legacy in astrophysics at EUV wavelengths. More recently, Chandra and XMM-Newton have demonstrated at X-ray wavelengths the power of high-resolution astronomical spectroscopy, which allows the identification of weak emission lines, the measurement of Doppler shifts and line profiles, and the detection of narrow absorption features. This leads to a complete understanding of the density, temperature, abundance, magnetic, and dynamic structure of astrophysical plasmas. However, the termination of the EUVE mission has left a gaping hole in spectral coverage at crucial EUV wavelengths ({approx}100-300 Angstroms), where hot (10{sup 5}-10{sup 8} K) plasmas radiate most strongly and produce critical spectral diagnostics. CHIPS will fill this hole only partially as it is optimized for diffuse emission and has only moderate resolution (R{approx}150). For discrete sources, we have successfully flown a follow-on instrument to the EUVE spectrometer (A{sub eff} {approx}1 cm{sup 2}, R {approx}400), the high-resolution spectrometer J-PEX (A{sub eff} {approx}3 cm{sup 2}, R {approx}3000). Here we build on the J-PEX prototype and present a strawman design for an orbiting spectroscopic observatory, APEX, a SMEX-class instrument containing a suite of 8 spectrometers that together achieve both high effective area (A{sub eff}>20 cm{sup 2}) and high …

Response form from Donnis Baggett to the TDNA Directors in regard to two directors serving on the TDNA board having resigned. Due to the significance of a full-staff, Baggett states that it is important to fill the two board positions immediately. As President of TDNA, Baggett has nominated two individuals to fill the board openings with the boards approval and to respond with their decision.

Letter from Donnis Baggett to the TDNA Directors, on July 2, 2004 with the subject Board Appointments. The letter begins by stating that two directors serving on the TDNA board have resigned effective immediately. Larry Rose, president and publisher of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times is retiring, and Jack Pate, president and publisher of the San Angelo Standard-Times is moving to Indiana. Due to the significance of a full-staff, Baggett states that it is important to fill the two board positions immediately. As President of TDNA, Baggett has nominated two individuals to fill the board openings with the boards approval.

The Analytical Development Section of Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) was requested by the Facilities Disposition Projects (FDP) to determine the holdup of enriched uranium in the 321-M facility as part of an overall deactivation project of the facility. The 321-M facility was used to fabricate enriched uranium fuel assemblies, lithium-aluminum target tubes, neptunium assemblies, and miscellaneous components for the production reactors. The results of the holdup assays are essential for determining compliance with the Waste Acceptance Criteria, Material Control & Accountability, and to meet criticality safety controls. This report covers holdup measurements on two sawbench components that were used for cutting U-Al fuel rods. The benches contained U-Al residue scattered on the bench tops and bagged up in plastic containers. It was very important to obtain an estimate of the HEU content of this residue in order to remove criticality concerns before vacuuming it into a much smaller volume. A portable high purity germanium (HPGe) detection system and a portable sodium iodide (NaI) detection system were used to determine highly enriched uranium (HEU) holdup and to determine holdup Np-237 and Am-241 that were observed in these components. The measured Np-237 and Am-241 contents were especially important in these components …

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

Establish standards for temperature conditions under which plutonium, uranium, or neptunium from nuclear wastes permeates steel, with which it is in contact, by diffusion processes. The primary focus is on plutonium because of the greater difficulties created by the peculiarities of face-centered-cubic-stabilized (delta) plutonium (the form used in the technology generating the waste).

The electron temperature gradient (ETG) mode is a likely contributor to electron thermal transport in tokamaks. The ETG modes are dominantly unstable for poloidal wavelengths shorter than the ion gyroradius (high-k) where the ion response is adiabatic. Thus, they do not directly produce ion thermal or momentum transport or particle transport. Two potential mechanisms whereby ETG modes could produce transport in these channels are explored in this paper: a nonlinear coupling between high-k ETG modes and ions at low-k and a direct coupling when ETG modes and ion temperature gradient (ITG) modes are unstable in overlapping wavenumber ranges. It will be shown that the particle and momentum transport required to match experiment is small compared to the ETG driven electron thermal transport. Even quasilinearly ETG modes can produce ion transport if the ITG and ETG modes are both unstable at low-k. The implications of this for transport will be explored at the quasilinear level. A new gyro-Landau-fluid (GLF) closure model has been constructed in order to build a transport model which can include the coupling between electron and ion modes including trapped particles. The first growth rate spectra from this model will be shown to give an accurate approximation to …

This document presents work conducted in support of technical needs expressed, in part, by the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Contractor for the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF). The Department of Energy (DOE) requested that Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) analyze and characterize supernate waste from seven selected High Level Waste (HLW) tanks to allow classification of feed to be sent to the SWPF, verification that SWPF processes will be able to meet Saltstone Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC), and updating of the Waste Characterization System (WCS) database. This document provides characterization data of samples obtained from Tanks 13H, 30H, 37H, 39H, 45F, 46F, and 49H and discusses results.Characterization of the waste tank samples involved several treatments and analysis at various stages of sample processing. These analytical stages included as-received liquid, post-dilution to 6.44 M sodium (target), post-acid digestion, post-filtration (at 3 filtration pore sizes), and after cesium removal using ammonium molybdophosphate (AMP). Results and observations obtained from testing include the following. All tanks will require cesium removal as well as treatment with Monosodium Titanate (MST) for 90Sr (Strontium) decontamination. A small filtration effect for 90Sr was observed for five of the seven tank wastes. No filtration effects were observed for Pu …

This paper describes a safeguards approach that can be deployed at any modern plutonium processing facility to increase the level of safeguards assurance and significantly reduce the impact of safeguards on process operations. One of the most perplexing problems facing the designers of plutonium processing facilities is the constraint placed upon the limit of error of the inventory difference (LEID). The current DOE manual constrains the LEID for Category I and II material balance areas to 2 per cent of active inventory up to a Category II quantity of the material being processed. For 239Pu a Category II quantity is two kilograms. Due to the large material throughput anticipated for some of the modern plutonium facilities, the required LEID cannot be achieved reliably during a nominal two month inventory period, even by using state-of-the-science non-destructive assay (NDA) methods. The most cost-effective and least disruptive solution appears to be increasing the frequency of material balance closure and thus reducing the throughput being measured during each inventory period. Current inventory accounting practices and systems can already provide the book inventory values at any point in time. However, closing the material balance with measured values has typically required the process to be cleaned …

Transverse energy (E{sub T}) distributions have been measured for Au+Au collisions at {radical}s{sub NN} = 200 GeV by the STAR collaboration at RHIC. E{sub T} is constructed from its hadronic and electromagnetic components, which have been measured separately. E{sub T} production for the most central collisions is well described by several theoretical models whose common feature is large energy density achieved early in the fireball evolution. The magnitude and centrality dependence of E{sub T} per charged particle agrees well with measurements at lower collision energy, indicating that the growth in E{sub T} for larger collision energy results from the growth in particle production. The electromagnetic fraction of the total E{sub T} is consistent with a final state dominated by mesons and independent of centrality.

Interview with Army veteran Harlan W. Crouse, including personal experiences about combat in the Philippines during World War II, the Japanese surrender in Yokohama Harbor, and being present during the post-war U.S. occupation of Japan.

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

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Many experiments that require a highly accurate continuous time history of photon emission incorporate streak cameras into their setup. Nonlinear recordings both in time and spatial displacement are inherent to streak camera measurements. These nonlinearities can be attributed to sweep rate electronics, curvature of the electron optics, the magnification, and resolution of the electron optics. These nonlinearities are systematic; it has been shown that a short pulse laser source, an air-spaced etalon of known separation, and a defined spatial resolution mask can provide the proper image information to correct for the resulting distortion. A set of Interactive Data Language (IDL){sup 1} software routines were developed to take a series of calibration images showing temporally and spatially displaced points, and map these points from a nonlinear to a linear space-time resultant function. This correction function, in combination with standardized image correction techniques, can be applied to experiment data to minimize systematic errors and improve temporal and spatial resolution measurements.

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