A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the status of the proposed alliances to be formed by the six largest U.S. airlines; (2) the potential beneficial and harmful effects on consumers; and (3) the authority of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to review these alliances and the status of their reviews."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO investigated: (1) the Indian Health Service (IHS) award of Indian Health Professions Scholarships (graduate scholarships) pursuant to 25 U.S.C. section 1613a of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined: (1) the risk of lead poisoning faced by young children served by federal health care programs; (2) the extent to which children served by these programs have been screened for this condition; (3) key reasons why screenings may not be occurring; and (4) problems that federal health care programs face in ensuring that children who have harmful lead levels in their blood receive timely follow-up treatment and other services."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO determined: (1) whether the demand for recalled magistrate and bankruptcy judges has exceeded the number of judges available to serve in recalled positions; (2) whether the courts that recalled judges had judgeship vacancies or higher than average weighted case filings; and (3) the approximate 1-year cost savings associated with using a recalled judge rather than filling a full-time judgeship position."

This report is a recommendation from the Kalispel Tribe to the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority (CBFWA) for management of the Pend Oreille Wetland Wildlife Mitigation project II (Dilling Addition) for the extensive habitat losses caused by Albeni Falls Dam on Kalispel Ceded Lands. Albeni Falls Dam is located on the Pend Oreille River near the Washington-Idaho border, about 25 miles upstream of the Kalispel Indian Reservation. The dam controls the water level on Lake Pend Oreille. The lake was formerly the center of subsistence use by the Kalispel Tribe. Flooding of wetlands, and water fluctuations both on the lake and downstream on the river, has had adverse impacts to wildlife and wildlife habitat. An extensive process was followed to formulate and prioritize wildlife resource goals. The Kalispel Natural Resource Department provided guidance in terms of opportunities onsite. To prioritize specific goals, the Albeni Falls Interagency Work Group and the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority Wildlife Caucus were consulted. From this process, the top priority goal for the Kalispel Tribe is: Protect and develop riparian forest and shrub, and freshwater wetlands, to mitigate losses resulting from reservoir inundation and river level fluctuations …

An overview of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Codes and Standards programs to establish minimum efficiency codes, standards, and guidelines for reduced energy use and lower operating costs in U.S. building components.

An overview of the voluntary network of community partnerships joined with the US Department of Energy to improve the energy efficiency of their communities buildings.

This document establishes the technical basis in support of emergency planning activities for the 300 Area Treated Effluent Disposal Facility. The technical basis for project-specific Emergency Action Levels and Emergency Planning Zone is demonstrated.

An overview of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of State and Community Programs activities and partnership approaches.

An overview of past research achievements, current research, and future research focus of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs.

An overview of the Energy Star program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency

The authors report two experiments intended to test the accuracy of state-of-the-art theoretical predictions for x-ray scattering from low-Z atoms. The first one deals with the differential x-ray scattering cross sections in Ne and He from 11-22 keV and the Ne Compton-to-Rayleigh scattering ratio in this energy range. It was found that, in order to be consistent with the experimental results, an accurate description at low Z must include nonlocal exchange, electron correlation, and dynamic effects. The second experiment concerns the ratio of helium double-to-single ionization for Compton scattering in the 8-28 keV energy range where published experimental and theoretical results so far fail to give a consistent picture. The progress of the experiment and the data analysis is reported.

Conservation of water in bleached kraft pulp mills by recycling the bleach plant effluent directly without treatment will cause accumulation of inorganic ''non-process elements'' (NPEs) and serious operational problems. In this work, an electrodialysis process is being developed for recycling the acidic bleach plant effluent of bleached kraft pulp mills. In this process, electrodialysis functions as a selective kidney to remove inorganic NPEs from bleach plant effluents, before they reach the recovery cycle. Acidic bleach plant effluents from several mills using bleaching sequences based on chlorine dioxide were characterized. The total dissolved solids were mostly inorganic NPEs. Sodium was the predominant cation and chloride was present at significant levels in all these effluents. In laboratory electrodialysis experiments, selective removal of chloride and potentially harmful cations, such as potassium, calcium, and magnesium, were removed efficiently. Rejection of organic compounds was up to 98%. Electrodialysis was shown to be resistant to membrane fouling and scaling, in a 100-hour laboratory experiment. Based on a model mill with 1,000 ton/day pulp production, the economic analysis suggests that the energy cost of electrodialysis is less than $200/day, and the capital cost of the stack is about $500,000.

Multiple current limiting mechanisms exist from the nanometer to millimeter scale in Ag-sheathed (Bi,Pb)-2223 tapes. Recent studies of the zero-field critical current density (J{sub c} (0T, 77K)), the irreversibility field (H*) and the crack microstructure elucidate these properties. We show that H*(77K) can vary significantly over the range {approximately}120-260 mT, independently of J{sub c} (0T, 77K). Cracks, actual or incipient, exist on the sub to several hundred micron scale. Surface magneto optical imaging of whole tapes, correlated to subsequent ultrasonic fracture analysis of. the bare 2223 filaments extracted by dissolving away the Ag shows that even composites having J{sub c} (0T, 77K) values of 60 kA/cm{sup 2} exhibit strong signs of unhealed rolling damage. These combined studies show that today's very best 2223 tapes are still far from full optimization.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Characterization of Offgas Generated During Calcination of Incinerator Ash Surrogates

The Passenger Service Act (PSA) requires that domestic ocean passenger transportation be provided only by ships that are U.S.-owned, U.S.-built and operated by U.S. crews. Proposed legislation to relax some PSA restrictions was introduced during the 105th Congress. Both the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and the Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, have made recent public statements indicating their strong interets enacting changes to the passenger Service Act during the 106th Congress. This report will be updated as developments warrant.

The purpose of this report is to provide a set of recommended design modifications and operational approaches that would allow continued precipitation operations at the "current ITP facility".

Smoke can cause electronic equipment to fail through increased leakage currents and shorts. Sandia National Laboratories is studying the increased leakage currents caused by smoke with varying characteristics. The objective is to develop models to predict the failure of electronic equipment exposed to smoke. This requires the collection of data on the conductivity of smoke and knowledge of critical electrical systems that control high-consequence operations. We have found that conductivity is a function of the type of fuel, how it is burned, and smoke density. Video recordings of highly biased dc circuits exposed in a test chamber show that during a fire, smoke is attracted to high voltages and can build fragile carbon bridges that conduct leakage currents. The movement of air breaks the bridges, so the conductivity decreases after the fire is extinguished and the test chamber is vented. During the fire, however, electronic equipment may not operate correctly, leading to problems for critical operations dependent on electronic control. The potential for electronic failure is highly dependent on the type of electrical circuit, and Sandia National Laboratories plans to include electrical circuit modeling in the failure models.

Capacitor designs for DOE and/or DoD applications are now driven by two major factors; first, the need to reduce component volumes (attain higher energy density) to permit inclusion of additional components and/ or sensors in systems and second, the continuing budget constraints. The reduced volume and cost must be achieved with no sacrifices in functionality, reliability and safety. Since this study was initiated, we have seen a general, continuous increase in resulting short-time breakdown (STB) values, with particular improvements noted on thermal cycled capacitors. Process and results support our prediction that a 50Y0-650A volume reduction can be achieved with no reduction in performance and reliability.

The organic ligands acetate, lactate, oxalate and EDTA have been identified as components of wastes targeted for disposal in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) located in Southeastern New Mexico. The presence of these ligands is of concern because complexation of the actinides with the ligands may increase dissolved actinide concentrations and impact chemical retardation during transport. The current work considers the complexation of Am(III), Th (IV), Np(V), and U(W) with two of the organic ligands, acetate and lactate, in NaCl media from dilute through high concentration. A thermodynamic model for actinide complexation with the organic ligands has been developed based on the Pitzer activity coefficient formalism and the Harvie-Moller-Weare, Felmy-Weare database for describing brine evaporite systems. The model was parameterized using first apparent stability constant data from the literature. Because of complexation of other metal ions (Fe, Mg, Ni, Pb, etc.) present in the WIPP disposal room with the organic ligands, preliminary results from model calculations indicate the organic ligands do not significantly increase dissolved actinide concentrations.

Designs of a three-column carousel process based on crystalline silicotitanate (CST) ion exchanger have been developed for removing radioactive 137Cs+ from Savannah River Site's (SRS) nuclear wastes. A multicomponent ion exchange equilibrium model (Zheng et al., 1997) from Texas A&M University, which is based on batch data obtained from CST powder, is used to generate cesium loading data at different cesium concentrations for various types of SRS wastes. These loading data are fit to the Langmuir equation to obtain effective single-component cesium isotherm parameters. The predictions are in reasonable agreement with batch test data obtained from CST powder, an early CST pellet batch (38B), and a later batch (IE911) using two SRS waste simulants. The ratios between experimental cesium distribution coefficients and predicted values are between 0.56 and 1.0. The variation appears to be due to inadequate equilibration time in some of the batches. Mass transfer parameters are estimated by analyzing column data of a simulated SRS waste and Melton Valley Storage Tank W29 (MVST-W29) waste. The intraparticle diffusivity estimated for the two wastes can be well correlated by means of the Stokes-Einstein equation.Simulations are performed to determine the length of the mass transfer zone for given feed compositions, Cs+ …

This Mitigation Action Plan Annual Report (MAPAR) has been prepared as part of implementing the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test Facility (DARHT) Mitigation Action Plan (MAP) to protect workers, soils, water, and biotic and cultural resources in and around the facility.

A geotechnical investigation has been completed for the In Tank Processing Facility (ITP) which consists of buildings 241-96H and 241-32H; and Tanks 241-948H, 241-949H, 241-950H, and 241-951H. The investigation consisted of a literature search for relevant technical data, field explorations, field and laboratory testing, and analyses. This document presents a summary of the scope and results to date of the investigations and engineering analyses for these facilities. A final geotechnical report, which will include a more detailed discussion and all associated boring logs, laboratory test results, and analyses will be issued in October 1994.The purpose of the investigation is to obtain geotechnical information to evaluate the seismic performance of the foundation materials and embankme nts under and around the ITP. The geotechnical engineering objectives of the investigation are to: 1) define the subsurface stratigraphy, 2) obtain representative engineering properties of the subsurface materials, 3) assess the competence of the subsurface materials under static and dynamic loads, 4) derive properties for seismic soil-structure interaction analysis, 5) evaluate the areal and vertical extent of horizons that might cause dynamic settlement or instability, and 6) determine settlement at the foundation level of the tanks.