The use of lightweight and highly formable advanced materials in automobile and truck manufacturing has the potential to save fuel. Advances in tooling technology would promote the use of these materials. This report describes an energy savings analysis performed to approximate the potential fuel savings and consequential carbon-emission reductions that would be possible because of advances in tooling in the manufacturing of, in particular, non-powertrain components of passenger cars and heavy trucks. Separate energy analyses are performed for cars and heavy trucks. Heavy trucks are considered to be Class 7 and 8 trucks (trucks rated over 26,000 lbs gross vehicle weight). A critical input to the analysis is a set of estimates of the percentage reductions in weight and drag that could be achieved by the implementation of advanced materials, as a consequence of improved tooling technology, which were obtained by surveying tooling industry experts who attended a DOE Workshop, Tooling Technology for Low-Volume Vehicle Production, held in Seattle and Detroit in October and November 2003. The analysis is also based on 2001 fuel consumption totals and on energy-audit component proportions of fuel use due to drag, rolling resistance, and braking. The consumption proportions are assumed constant over time, but …

This report summarizes laboratory radiochemical analyses of sediment samples collected by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency during the DoD Savannah Survey operations of Sep 04. The analytic goal was to determine if Wassaw Sound sediment collections of 30 Sep 04 display evidence for local anthropogenic uranium, as distinct from the recognized regional background stemming from the Savannah River Site (SRS). Radiochemical methods were selected to maximize detection sensitivity for such anthropogenic uranium. Within the suite of twelve collections, there would be evidence for a localized source if individual collections were to differ from the population as a whole. If in fact non-natural uranium were observed, definitive determination of whether the source was SRS effluent or a localized release would likely involve additional field sampling. These collections were logged by the LLNL Forensics Science Center, photographed, and laboratory chain-of-custody was begun. The inventory received at LLNL is reported in Table 1. The separate collections were not assigned any relative priority among them. LLNL has separately reviewed detailed records of the item in question, and determined what materials are involved and what radiochemical assays are of value. Attempting quantitative estimates of source-item material release, transport, and collection levels would be quite uncertain. …

This report discusses the first year of operation of a fuel cell power plant located at the Sheraton Edison Hotel, Edison, New Jersey. PPL EnergyPlus, LLC installed the plant under a contract with the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. A DFC{reg_sign}300 fuel cell, manufactured by FuelCell Energy, Inc. of Danbury, CT was selected for the project. The fuel cell successfully operated from June 2003 to May 2004. This report discusses the performance of the plant during this period.

A report of an archaeological survey of the proposed construction of the Bengal Pipeline route in Louisiana.

This report discusses the honey price support program, which was first created by the Agricultural Act of 1949 (P.L. 81-439) to provide market price stability for honey producers and to encourage maintenance of sufficient bee populations for pollination

This report examines the legislative debate over giving FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products and provides some analysis of S. 2461/H.R. 4433. It begins with an overview of the FDA’s 1996 tobacco rule that includes a summary of the agency’s arguments for asserting jurisdiction over tobacco products. That is followed by an analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in FDA v. Brown & Williamson, which overturned the FDA tobacco rule. The report then reviews the 1997 proposed national tobacco settlement, which would have codified the FDA rule and given the agency explicit authority to regulate tobacco products as medical devices. It includes a discussion of the FDA provisions in the McCain tobacco bill, which was introduced and debated in the 105th Congress in an attempt to implement the proposed settlement. The final section of the report summarizes the provisions in S. 2461/H.R. 4433 and discusses some of the key issues, including preemption and the regulation of reduced-risk products.

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This report discusses proposed legislation placing the National Intelligence Council under the Director of National Intelligence's authority and the potential issues that this would cause. Updated December 3, 2004.

This report provides information on how most of the countries banned United States beef after a single report of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in a Canadian-born cow after the December 2003 U.S. report. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, proposed to conduct BSE rapid tests to be able to do exports, but USDA rejected this proposal since it implies as consumer safety rather than animal health. Updated December 3, 2004.

This report provides information on how most of the countries banned United States beef after a single report of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in a Canadian-born cow after the December 2003 U.S. report. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, proposed to conduct BSE rapid tests to be able to do exports, but USDA rejected this proposal since it implies as consumer safety rather than animal health. Updated December 3, 2004.

For some divertor aspects, such as detached plasmas or the private flux zone, it is not clear that the controlling physics has been fully identified. This is a particular concern when the details of the plasma are likely to be important in modeling the problem--for example, modeling co-deposition in detached inner divertors. An empirical method of ''reconstructing'' the plasma based on direct experimental measurements may be useful in such situations. It is shown that a detached plasma in the outer divertor leg of DIII-D can be reconstructed reasonably well using spectroscopic and probe data as input to a simple onion-skin model and the Monte Carlo hydrogenic code, EIRENE. The calculated 2D distributions of n{sub e} and T{sub e} in the detached divertor were compared with direct measurements from the divertor Thomson scattering system, a diagnostic capability unique to DIII-D.

During the 30 years that the congressional budget process has been in effect, the Senate Finance Committee has been subject to revenue reconciliation directives in a budget resolution on 17 occasions. Eight instances involved directives to reduce revenues, while the remaining nine instructed the committee to increase revenues. In all but three of the 17 instances, revenue reconciliation directives to the committee were accompanied by spending reconciliation directives.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Rural America has become more diverse: technology and the spread of suburbia have linked rural areas to urban areas, resulting in diminished distinctions between the two. The Rural Housing Service (RHS) applies statutory requirements for eligibility that may not reflect changes in rural areas or best determine which areas qualify for its housing programs. GAO's objectives included assessments of how eligibility is defined for RHS programs and how changes in the current eligibility requirements might impact the RHS mission of meeting rural housing needs."

The purpose of this seismic preclosure safety analysis is to identify the potential seismically-initiated event sequences associated with preclosure operations of the repository at Yucca Mountain and assign appropriate design bases to provide assurance of achieving the performance objectives specified in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 10 CFR Part 63 for radiological consequences. This seismic preclosure safety analysis is performed in support of the License Application for the Yucca Mountain Project. In more detail, this analysis identifies the systems, structures, and components (SSCs) that are subject to seismic design bases. This analysis assigns one of two design basis ground motion (DBGM) levels, DBGM-1 or DBGM-2, to SSCs important to safety (ITS) that are credited in the prevention or mitigation of seismically-initiated event sequences. An application of seismic margins approach is also demonstrated for SSCs assigned to DBGM-2 by showing a high confidence of a low probability of failure at a higher ground acceleration value, termed a beyond-design basis ground motion (BDBGM) level. The objective of this analysis is to meet the performance requirements of 10 CFR 63.111(a) and 10 CFR 63.111(b) for offsite and worker doses. The results of this calculation are used as inputs to the following: (1) …

This report tackles the issue of Social Security reform from an economic perspective that focuses not merely on reform that achieves programmatic sustainability (sustainability within the trust fund), but reform that achieves sustainability for the government and economy as a whole. The President has indicated that Social Security reform will be a major issue in the 109th Congress. For some time comprehensive reform has been an issue of debate in Congress, but no major action has occurred.

According to the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) program guidelines, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) will be produced in the form of 3-10 kW modules for residential use. In addition to residential use, these modules can also be used in apartment buildings, hospitals, etc., where a higher power rating would be required. For example, a hospital might require a 250 kW power generating capacity. To provide this power using the SECA SOFC modules, 25 of the 10 kW modules would be required. These modules can be aggregated in different architectures to yield the necessary power. This report will show different approaches for aggregating numerous SOFC modules and will evaluate and compare each one with respect to cost, control complexity, ease of modularity, and fault tolerance.

U.S.-Vietnam diplomatic and economic relations were non-existent for more then fifteen years following communist North Vietnam’s victory in 1975 over the U.S. ally South Vietnam. Normalization of relations, particularly in the economic sphere, between the United States and unified Vietnam began in earnest in the 1990s. As the normalization process has proceeded, the U.S. has eliminated most of the Cold Warera restrictions on U.S. aid to Vietnam, and U.S. assistance has increased markedly from around $1 million when assistance was resumed in 1991 to nearly $50 million in FY2004.

This report briefly summarizes the process of amendments between the House of Representatives and the Senate, which occurs if the House and Senate approve differing versions of a measure. The House and Senate must approve an identical version of a measure before it may be presented for the President's approval or veto. If the House and Senate approve differing versions of a measure, the differences must first be resolved.

Prior to enactment of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA), P.L. 107-155, the term “soft money” generally referred to unregulated funds, perceived as resulting from loopholes in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), 2 U.S.C. §§ 431 et seq. Generally, the intent of BCRA, (effective Nov. 6, 2002), which amends FECA, is to restrict the raising and spending of soft money. This Issue Brief discusses constitutional and legal issues surrounding two major types of soft money that BCRA regulates: political party soft money and soft money used for issue advocacy communications. Corporate and labor union soft money, which FECA exempts from regulation and is not addressed by BCRA, is also discussed.

U.S.-China economic ties have expanded substantially over the past several years. China is now the third largest U.S. trading partner, its second largest source of imports, and its fourth largest export market. However, U.S.-China commercial ties have been strained by a number of issues, including a surging U.S. trade deficit with China, China's refusal to float its currency, and failure to fully comply with its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, especially its failure to provide protection for U.S. intellectual property rights (IPR). This report explores these issues in detail, especially concerning the lack of protection for U.S. IPR.

The wastes present at DOE long-term storage sites are usually highly alkaline, and because of this, much of the actinides in these wastes are in the sludge phase. Enough actinide materials still remain in the supernatant liquid that they require separation followed by long-term storage in a geological repository. The removal of these metals from the liquid waste stream would permit their disposal as low-level waste and dramatically reduce the volume of high-level wastes.

Several ionic liquids have been investigated for the extraction of organic acids from fermentation broth. Partitioning of representative organic acids (lactic, acetic, and succinic) between aqueous solution and nine hydrophobic ionic liquids was measured. The extraction efficiencies were strongly dependent on pH of the aqueous phase. Distribution coefficient was very good (approximately 60) at low succinic acid concentrations for one of the ionic liquids (trihexyltetradecylphosphonium methanesulfonate) at neutral pH. However, this ionic liquid had to be diluted with nonanol due to its high viscosity in order to be useful. A diluent (trioctylamine) was also added to this mixture. The results suggest that an extraction system based on ionic liquids may be feasible for succinic acid recovery from fermentation broth and that two ideal extraction stages are needed to reduce the concentration from 33 g/L to 1 g/L of succinic acid. Further studies are needed to evaluate other issues related to practical applications, including ionic liquid loss in the process, toxicity effects of ionic liquids during simultaneous fermentation and extractions.

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