A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Based on principles of openness and accountability in government, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes that federal agencies must provide the public with access to government information, thus enabling them to learn about government operations and decisions. To ensure appropriate implementation of FOIA, Congress requires that agencies report annually to the Attorney General information about agencies' FOIA operations. GAO has recently reported twice on the annual FOIA reports of 25 agencies. In 2001, GAO reported that data-quality issues limited the usefulness of agencies' annual reports. In 2002, GAO reported that fewer agency FOIA reports had data-quality and consistency problems in fiscal year 2001 compared with fiscal year 2000, although some fiscal year 2001 reports did have data anomalies. GAO was asked, among other things, to determine (1) trends of reported FOIA implementation between 2000 and 2002 and (2) progress the 25 agencies have made addressing reporting inconsistencies and data-quality problems in annual FOIA reports."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report contains GAO's update of the appropriation and expenditure data for the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund program since a July 2003 report."

Weekly newspaper from Mannford, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas that includes campus news and commentaries along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas that includes campus and local news along with advertising.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether an amendment to section 16.012(m) of the Water Code, which repealed a provision that excepted certain water-use surveys from disclosure under the Public Information Act, applies to surveys obtained by the Texas Water Development Board prior to the amendment’s effective date (RQ-0096-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Town Center Improvement District of Montgomery County is authorized to enter into a contract with a city to provide law enforcement services in unincorporated areas of Montgomery County (RQ-0097-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a person who purchases water from the Jonah Water Specialty District but who resides in an area outside the district's boundaries is eligible to vote in a district election (RQ-0098-GA)

The stability of lamellar interfaces in lamellar TiAl by straining at ambient temperatures has been investigated using in-situ straining techniques performed in a transmission electron microscope in order to obtain direct evidence to support the previously proposed creep mechanisms in refined lamellar TiAl based upon the interface sliding in association with the cooperative motion of interfacial dislocations. The results have revealed that both sliding and migration of lamellar interfaces can take place as a result of the cooperative motion of interfacial dislocations.

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

Semi-weekly newspaper from Seminole, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with extensive advertising.

The objective of the investigation was to determine whether microwave fields would enhance the reactions of CO{sub 2} with silicates that are relevant to the sequestration of carbon dioxide. Three sets of experiments were conducted. (1) Serpentine and CO{sub 2} were reacted directly at one atmosphere pressure in a microwave furnace. Little reaction was observed. (2) Serpentine was dehydroxylated in a microwave furnace. The reaction was rapid, reaching completion in less than 30 minutes. A detailed investigation of this reaction produced an S-shaped kinetics curve, similar to the kinetics from dehydroxylating serpentine in a resistance furnace, but offset to 100 C lower temperature. This set of experiments clearly demonstrates the effect of microwaves for enhancing reaction kinetics. (3) Reactions of serpentine with alkaline carbonates and in acid solution were carried out in a microwave hydrothermal apparatus. There was a greatly enhanced decomposition of the serpentine in acid solution but, at the temperature and pressure of the reaction chamber (15 bars; 200 C) the carbonates did not react. Overall, microwave fields, as expected, enhance silicate reaction kinetics, but higher CO{sub 2} pressures are needed to accomplish the desired sequestration reactions.

At the Savannah River Site, part of the Department of Energy's nuclear materials complex located in South Carolina, cementation has been selected as the solidification method for high-alpha and low-activity waste streams generated in the planned plutonium disposition facilities. A Waste Solidification Building (WSB) that will be used to treat and solidify three radioactive liquid waste streams generated by the Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility) and the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility is in the preliminary design stage. The WSB is expected to treat a transuranic (TRU) waste stream composed primarily of americium and two low-level waste (LLW) streams. The acidic wastes will be concentrated in the WSB evaporator and neutralized in a cement head tank prior to solidification. A series of TRU mixes were prepared to produce waste forms exhibiting a range of processing and cured properties. The LLW mixes were prepared using the premix from the preferred TRU waste form. All of the waste forms tested passed the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure. After processing in the WSB, current plans are to dispose of the solidified TRU waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and the solidified LLW waste at an approved low-level waste disposal facility.

The primary goal since inception of this DOE grant award in 1991 to Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, has been to support competitive research fellowships aimed at solving important medical problems, contributing significant new knowledge and/or technology. This approach was taken according to the original intent of the DOE program, to foster excellent centers for research and development of lasers and optics in medicine. Laser photomedicine broadly encompasses optical therapy and optical diagnostics, within any organ system. The research supported clearly reflects this breadth and depth.

A performance-based approach is being used at the Savannah River Site to close the F area Complex. F Area consists of a number of large industrial facilities including plutonium separations, uranium fuel fabrication, tanks for storing high level waste and a number of smaller operations. A major part of the overall closure strategy is the use of techniques derived from the Performance Assessment and Composite Analysis requirements for low level waste disposal at DOE sites. This process will provide a means of demonstrating the basis for deactivation, decommissioning and closure decisions to management, stakeholders and regulators.

Weekly newspaper from Holliday, 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.

Environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site and surrounding areas is conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Sampling is conducted to evaluate levels of radioactive and nonradioactive pollutants in the Hanford environs. This document contains the calendar year 2004 schedules for the routine and non-routine collection of samples for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP) and Drinking Water Monitoring Project.

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We have proposed a technique that could reduce CO{sub 2} emissions from near coastal fossil-fuel power plants using existing power plant cooling water flow rates (Rau and Caldeira, 1999; Caldeira and Rau, 2000). Preliminary cost estimates are as low as $68 per tonne C sequestered, as compared to > $170 per tonne C estimated for other approaches to CO{sub 2} separation with geologic or deep-ocean storage. Engineers at McDermott Technologies, Inc., have independently estimated the cost of our proposed technique, and came to the conclusion that our cost estimates were at the high end of the likely range. Interest has been expressed in pursuing this approach further both in Norway and in Japan. We have proved the viability of our concept using (1) bench-top laboratory experiments (Figures 1 and 2), (2) computer modeling of those experiments, (3) more sophisticated cost estimates, and (4) three-dimensional computer modeling of the consequences to global ocean chemistry (Figure 3 and 4). The climate and environmental impacts of our current, carbon intensive energy usage demands that effective and practical energy alternatives and CO{sub 2} mitigation strategies be found. As part of this effort, various means of capturing and storing CO{sub 2} generated from fossil-fuel-based energy …

The goal of our research was to address the problem of detection of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) materials within containers in common use on commercial cargo trafficking. LLNL has created an experimental test bed for researching potential solutions using (among other techniques) active interrogation with neutrons. Experiments and computational modeling were used to determine the effectiveness of the technique. Chemical weapons materials and high explosives can be detected using neutron activation and simple geometries with little or no intervening material. However in a loaded container there will be nuisance alarms from conflicting signatures resulting from the presence of material between the target and the detector (and the interrogation source). Identifying some elements may require long counting times because of the increased background. We performed some simple signature measurements and simulations of gamma-ray spectra from several chemical simulants. We identified areas where the nuclear data was inadequate to perform detailed computations. We concentrated on the detection of SNM in cargo containers, which will be emphasized here. The goal of the work reported here is to develop a concept for an active neutron interrogation system that can detect small targets of SNM contraband in cargo containers, roughly 5 kg HEU or …

Objectives: {lg_bullet} Exploit thermomechanical-processing techniques to fabricate TiAl/Ti3Al in-situ laminate composites with the size of lamella width down to submicron or nanometer length-scales. {lg_bullet} Characterize microstructure and elevated-temperature creep resistance of the in-situ composites. {lg_bullet} Investigate the fundamental interrelationships among microstructures, alloying additions, and mechanical properties of the in-situ composites so as to achieve the desired properties of the in-situ composites for high-temperature structural applications.