Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In connection with fulfilling our requirement to audit the financial statements of the U.S. government, we audited and reported on the Schedules of Federal Debt Managed by the Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD) for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2007 and 2006. As part of these audits, we performed a review of the general and application information security controls over key financial systems maintained and operated by the Federal Reserve Banks (FRBs) on behalf of the Department of the Treasury's BPD relevant to the Schedule of Federal Debt. In our audit report on the Schedules of Federal Debt for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2007 and 2006, we concluded that BPD maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control relevant to the Schedule of Federal Debt related to financial reporting and compliance with applicable laws and regulations as of September 30, 2007, that provided reasonable assurance that misstatements, losses, or noncompliance material in relation to the Schedule of Federal Debt would be prevented or detected on a timely basis. However, we found matters involving information security controls that we do not consider to be significant …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The 2010 Census will be the most expensive census in our nation's history, even after adjusting for inflation. The Census Bureau (Bureau) estimates that the life cycle cost of the 2010 Census will be from $13.7 billion to $14.5 billion. GAO was asked to (1) assess the extent to which the Bureau's 2010 Census life cycle cost estimate adheres to characteristics defined for high-quality cost estimation, (2) report on the relationship between the estimate and the Bureau's budget, and (3) assess whether the Bureau's existing policies and resources are sufficient to conduct cost estimation. To assess the reliability of the Bureau's cost estimate, GAO analyzed the Bureau's methods and approaches to determine if the estimate is well-documented, comprehensive, accurate, and credible."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its contractors administer and implement the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). GAO designated NFIP as a high-risk area in March 2006, and as of December 2007, FEMA owed more than $17.3 billion to the Treasury for hurricane-related losses. Concerns have been raised about the financial condition of NFIP and FEMA's efforts to mitigate losses and monitor NFIP contractors. This report (1) describes statistical and financial trends for NFIP from 1997 through 2006, (2) assesses the extent to which flood-damaged properties were purchased to mitigate risk, and (3) evaluates procedures for monitoring NFIP-related contracts. For this study, GAO analyzed financial and statistical data on the NFIP and its mitigation programs, reviewed documentation of contract monitoring activities, and interviewed FEMA officials and contractors."

The ILC Marx Modulator is under development as a lower cost alternative to the 'Baseline Conceptual Design' (BCD) klystron modulator. Construction of a prototype Marx is complete and testing is underway at SLAC. The Marx employs solid state elements, IGBTs and diodes, to control the charge, discharge and isolation of the modules. The prototype is based on a stack of sixteen modules, each initially charged to {approx}11 kV, which are arranged in a Marx topology. Initially, eleven modules combine to produce the 120 kV output pulse. The remaining modules are switched in after appropriate delays to compensate for the voltage droop that results from the discharge of the energy storage capacitors. Additional elements will further regulate the output voltage to {+-} 0.5%. The Marx presents several advantages over the conventional klystron modulator designs. It is physically smaller; there is no pulse transformer (quite massive at these parameters) and the energy storage capacitor bank is quite small, owing to the active droop compensation. It is oil-free; voltage hold-off is achieved using air insulation. It is air cooled; the secondary air-water heat exchanger is physically isolated from the electronic components. This paper outlines the current developmental status of the prototype Marx. It …

The 100-B-21:2 waste site consists of the immediate area of the DS-100BC-02 pipeline. In accordance with this evaluation, the confirmatory and verification sampling results support a reclassification of this site to Interim Closed Out. The results of verification sampling show that residual contaminant concentrations do not preclude any future uses and allow for unrestricted use of shallow zone soils. The results also demonstrate that residual contaminant concentrations are protective of groundwater and the Columbia River.

It is widely accepted that if the United States is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions it must aggressively address energy end use in the building sector. While there have been some notable but modest successes with mandatory and voluntary programs, there have also been puzzling failures to achieve expected savings. Collectively, these programs have not yet reached the majority of the building stock, nor have they yet routinely produced very large savings in individual buildings. Several trends that have the potential to change this are noteworthy: (1) the growing market interest in 'green buildings' and 'sustainable design', (2) the major professional societies (e.g. AIA, ASHRAE) have more aggressively adopted significant improvements in energy efficiency as strategic goals, e.g. targeting 'zero energy', carbon-neutral buildings by 2030. While this vision is widely accepted as desirable, unless there are significant changes to the way buildings are routinely designed, delivered and operated, zero energy buildings will remain a niche phenomenon rather than a sector-wide reality. Toward that end, a public/private coalition including the Alliance to Save Energy, LBNL, AIA, ASHRAE, USGBC and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) are developing an 'action plan' for moving the U.S. commercial building sector towards zero …

The paper reviews the results of vacuum arc experimental investigations made collaboratively by research groups from Berkeley and Tomsk over the last two years, i.e. since the last ISDEIV in 2006. Vacuum arc plasma of various metals was produced in pulses of a few hundred microseconds duration, and the research focussed on three topics: (i) the energy distribution functions for different ion charge states, (ii) the temporal development of the ion charge state distribution, and (iii) the evolution of the mean directed ion velocities during plasma expansion. A combined quadruple mass-to-charge and energy ana-lyzer (EQP by HIDEN Ltd) and a time-of-flight spectrometer were employed. Cross-checking data by those complimen-tary techniques helped to avoid possible pitfalls in interpre-tation. It was found that the ion energy distribution func-tions in the plasma were independent of the ion charge state, which implies that the energy distribution on a substrate are not equal to due to acceleration in the substrate's sheath. In pulsed arc mode, the individual ion charge states fractions showed changes leading to a decrease of the mean charge state toward a steady-state value. This decrease can be re-duced by lower arc current, higher pulse repetition rate and reduced length of the discharge …

The isotopic inventories of a 2000 MWt Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR) core have been estimated to support the ABR accident analysis to be reported in the Appendix D of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). Based on the Super-PRISM design, a preliminary core design of 2000 MWt ABR was developed to achieve a one-year cycle length with 3-batch fuel management scheme. For a bounding estimation of transuranics (TRU) inventory, a low TRU conversion ratio ({approx}0.3) was targeted to increase the TRU enrichment. By changing the fuel compositions, isotopic inventories of mass and radioactivity were evaluated for four different core configurations: recycled metal fuel core, recycled oxide fuel core, startup metal fuel core, and startup oxide fuel core. For recycled cores, the TRU recovered from ABR spent fuel was used as the primary TRU feed, and the TRU recovered from 10-year cooled light water reactor spent fuel was used as the makeup TRU feed. For startup cores, weapons-grade plutonium was used as TRU feed without recycling ABR spent fuel. It was also assumed that a whole batch of discharged fuel assemblies is stored in the in-vessel storage for an entire irradiation cycle. For both metal and oxide fuel cores, the estimated …

The longitudinal space-charge (LSC) force can be a major cause of the microbunching instability in the linac for an x-ray free-electron laser. In this paper, the LSC-induced beam modulation is studied using an integral equation approach that takes into account the transverse (radial) variation of the LSC field for both the coasting-beam limit and a bunched beam. Variation of the beam energy and the transverse beam size is also incorporated. We discuss the validity of this approach and compare it with other analytical analyses as well as numerical simulations.

The 100-B-23, 100-B/C Surface Debris, waste consisted of multiple locations of surface debris and chemical stains that were identified during an Orphan Site Evaluation of the 100-B/C Area. Evaluation of the collected information for the surface debris features yielded four generic waste groupings: asbestos-containing material, lead debris, oil and oil filters, and treated wood. Focused verification sampling was performed concurrently with remediation. Site remediation was accomplished by selective removal of the suspect hazardous items and potentially impacted soils. In accordance with this evaluation, the verification sampling results support a reclassification of this site to Interim Closed Out. The results of verification sampling show that residual contaminant concentrations do not preclude any future uses and allow for unrestricted use of shallow zone soils. The results also demonstrate that residual contaminant concentrations are protective of groundwater and the Columbia River.

This documented safety analysis (DSA) for the Waste Storage Facilities was developed in accordance with 10 CFR 830, Subpart B, 'Safety Basis Requirements', and utilizes the methodology outlined in DOE-STD-3009-94, Change Notice 3. The Waste Storage Facilities consist of Area 625 (A625) and the Decontamination and Waste Treatment Facility (DWTF) Storage Area portion of the DWTF complex. These two areas are combined into a single DSA, as their functions as storage for radioactive and hazardous waste are essentially identical. The B695 Segment of DWTF is addressed under a separate DSA. This DSA provides a description of the Waste Storage Facilities and the operations conducted therein; identification of hazards; analyses of the hazards, including inventories, bounding releases, consequences, and conclusions; and programmatic elements that describe the current capacity for safe operations. The mission of the Waste Storage Facilities is to safely handle, store, and treat hazardous waste, transuranic (TRU) waste, low-level waste (LLW), mixed waste, combined waste, nonhazardous industrial waste, and conditionally accepted waste generated at LLNL (as well as small amounts from other DOE facilities).

A conceptual design of a ring-ring electron-ion collider based on CEBAF with a center-of-mass energy up to 90 GeV at luminosity up to 1035 cm-2s-1 has been proposed at JLab to fulfil science requirements. Here, we summarize design progress including collider ring and interaction region optics with chromatic aberration compensation. Electron polarization in the Figure-8 ring, stacking of ion beams in an accumulator-cooler ring, beam-beam simulations and a faster kicker for the circulator electron cooler ring are also discussed.

In this paper, we report on progress that has been made in beam dynamics simulation, from light sources to colliders, during the first year of SciDAC-II accelerator project,"Community Petascale Project for Accelerator Science and Simulation (ComPASS)." Several parallel computational tools for beam dynamics simulation will be described. A number of applications in current and future accelerator facilities, e.g., LCLS, RHIC, Tevatron, LHC, ELIC, are presented.

Laser- and particle beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerators produce accelerating fields thousands of times higher than radio-frequency accelerators, offering compactness and ultrafast bunches to extend the frontiers of high energy physics and to enable laboratory-scale radiation sources. Large-scale kinetic simulations provide essential understanding of accelerator physics to advance beam performance and stability and show and predict the physics behind recent demonstration of narrow energy spread bunches. Benchmarking between codes is establishing validity of the models used and, by testing new reduced models, is extending the reach of simulations to cover upcoming meter-scale multi-GeV experiments. This includes new models that exploit Lorentz boosted simulation frames to speed calculations. Simulations of experiments showed that recently demonstrated plasma gradient injection of electrons can be used as an injector to increase beam quality by orders of magnitude. Simulations are now also modeling accelerator stages of tens of GeV, staging of modules, and new positron sources to design next-generation experiments and to use in applications in high energy physics and light sources.

Sulfate, one of the inorganic constituents in the groundwater of nuclear waste repository, could affect the migration of radioactive materials by forming complexes. Spectrophotometric and microcalorimetric titrations were performed to identify the Np(V)/sulfate complex and determine the equilibrium constants and enthalpy of complexation at 10-70 C. Results show that the complexation of Np(V) with sulfate is weak but slightly enhanced by the increase in temperature. The complexation is endothermic and becomes more endothermic with the increase in temperature. The enhanced complexation at elevated temperatures is due to the increasingly larger entropy of complexation that exceeds the increase in enthalpy, suggesting that the complexation of Np(V) with sulfate is entropy-driven.

Complexation of neptunium(V) with fluoride at elevated temperatures was studied by spectrophotometry and microcalorimetry. Two successive complexes, NpO{sub 2}F(aq) and NpO{sub 2}F{sub 2}{sup -}, were identified by spectrophotometry in the temperature range of 10-70 C. Thermodynamic parameters, including the equilibrium constants and enthalpy of complexation between Np(V) and fluoride at 10-70 C were determined. Results show that the complexation of Np(V) with fluoride is endothermic and that the complexation is enhanced by the increase in temperature - a two-fold increase in the stability constants of NpO{sub 2}F(aq) and more than five-fold increase in the stability constants of NpO{sub 2}F{sub 2}{sup -} as the temperature is increased from 10 to 70 C.

This report documents the work accomplished during the installation and implementation of the in-process Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) in Department A. A wealth of knowledge has been gained in solving the many technical issues that delayed the partial implementation of this CMM. The work completed thus far lead to the successfully calibrated in-process CMM workstation. A great deal of current and future work has been outlined in the following pages that shall be used as a guide for the full implementation of this CMM with machining processes in Department A.

Predictive simulations of ITER [R. Aymar et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 44, 519 2002] discharges are carried out for the 15 MA high confinement mode (H-mode) scenario using PTRANSP, the predictive version of the TRANSP code. The thermal and toroidal momentum transport equations are evolved using turbulent and neoclassical transport models. A predictive model is used to compute the temperature and width of the H-mode pedestal. The ITER simulations are carried out for neutral beam injection (NBI) heated plasmas, for ion cyclotron resonant frequency (ICRF) heated plasmas, and for plasmas heated with a mix of NBI and ICRF. It is shown that neutral beam injection drives toroidal rotation that improves the confinement and fusion power production in ITER. The scaling of fusion power with respect to the input power and to the pedestal temperature is studied. It is observed that, in simulations carried out using the momentum transport diffusivity computed using the GLF23 model [R.Waltz et al., Phys. Plasmas 4, 2482 (1997)], the fusion power increases with increasing injected beam power and central rotation frequency. It is found that the ITER target fusion power of 500 MW is produced with 20 MW of NBI power when the pedesta temperature …

Newspaper clippings about gay marriage and relationships in Texas.

This report discusses the reasons that Iran is considered a threat to U.S. security, including Iran's nuclear program, involvement with terrorist organizations, and involvement with neighboring countries' local governments. The report also discusses ways which the U.S. hopes to modify Iran's behavior with sanctions, and the effectiveness of these sanctions.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.