Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The General Accounting Office has completed a review of selected agencies' compliance with veterans' preference and the "Rule of 3" in federal hiring. This review was requested by Congressman Lane Evans, Ranking Minority Member of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, and Senator Tom Daschle. As agreed with the requesters, because of continuing oversight of agencies' delegated examining units (DEU) and ongoing review of veterans' preference, we are providing the results of our review for possible follow-up. The requesters specifically asked us to review the results of job announcements for fiscal year 2001 for five selected agency personnel offices in the Washington Metropolitan Area: the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) headquarters, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). As agreed with the requesters, we reviewed: (1) advertised full-time positions (both permanent and temporary) at the GS-7,9,11,13, and 15 levels as identified by the selected agency, (2) the use of multiple certificates in filling these positions, (3) the resulting certificates of eligibilities, including how often veterans headed these certificates and were …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) final rule changing the Clean Air Act's New Source Review (NSR) program--a key means to protect public health and enhance air quality--has been under scrutiny by the Congress, industry, environmental groups, state and local air quality agencies, and the courts. GAO was asked to determine the basis of EPA's conclusions that (1) the rule's economic impacts would not be significant enough to merit a detailed analysis and (2) the NSR program, prior to the rule, discouraged some energy efficiency projects. GAO, among other things, reviewed EPA's analysis of the rule and its impacts, as well as guidance from EPA and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on analyzing such impacts. GAO also met with industry and environmental stakeholders."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Increasingly, government records involve documents that are electronically created and stored. In support of its mission to manage and archive these records and ensure access to the "essential evidence" that they contain, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is acquiring an advanced Electronic Records Archives (ERA). GAO was asked to determine, among other things, how the ERA program's system acquisition policies, plans, and practices conform to industry standards and how well NARA is meeting the ERA program's cost and schedule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Between fiscal years 1989 and 2002, the Department of Defense (DOD) reduced its civilian workforce by about 38 percent, with little attention to shaping or specifically sizing this workforce for the future. As a result, the civilian workforce is imbalanced in terms of the shape, skills, and experience needed by the department. DOD is taking steps to transform its civilian workforce. To assist with this transformation, the department is considering adopting an Army workforce-planning model, known as the Civilian Forecasting System (CIVFORS), which the Army uses to forecast its civilian workforce needs. Other federal agencies are also considering adopting this model. GAO was asked to review the adequacy of the steps the Army has taken to ensure the credibility of the model."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress is considering the reauthorization of the six franchise fund pilots authorized by the Government Reform Act of 1994. These self-supporting business-like entities were established to provide common administrative services on a fully reimbursable basis. The authorization for most of the pilots will expire at the end of fiscal year 2003. In addition to the suggestion of giving the pilots permanent authorization, there has been some discussion in recent years of expanding the franchise fund concept so that all departments and independent agencies can set up a franchise fund. To provide the context to evaluate franchise fund pilots and fully understand reauthorization issues, GAO agreed to identify the many funds, called intragovernmental revolving funds, that operate with purposes similar to that of franchise funds and to analyze their legal authorities to determine if franchise funds were somehow unique. In addition, we examined the operations and managerial cost accounting processes of the franchise fund pilots at the Departments of the Interior and Commerce. We determined if they had taken into account the criteria suggested by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), including: (1) adhering to OMB/Chief …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) oversees humanitarian and economic assistance--an integral part of the U.S. global security strategy--to more than 160 countries. GAO recommended in 1993 that USAID develop a comprehensive workforce plan; however, human capital management continues to be a high-risk area for the agency. GAO was asked to examine how changes in USAID's workforce over the past 10 years have affected the agency's ability to deliver foreign aid and to assess its progress in implementing a strategic workforce planning system."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On January 29, 2001, the President established the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG)--a group of cabinet-level and other senior administration officials, chaired by the Vice President--to gather information, deliberate, and recommend a national energy policy. The group presented its final report to the President in May 2001. GAO was asked to (1) describe the process used by the NEPDG to develop the National Energy Policy report, including whom the group met with and what topics were discussed and (2) determine the costs associated with that process. Although appointed NEPDG Chair, the Vice President elected not to respond to GAO's request for certain factual NEPDG information. Accordingly, as authorized by GAO's access-torecords statute, and after exhausting efforts to achieve a resolution and following the processes specified in that statute, GAO filed suit in U.S. District Court to obtain the information. The district court later dismissed GAO's suit on jurisdictional grounds, without reaching the merits of GAO's right to audit and evaluate NEPDG activities or to obtain access to NEPDG records. For a variety of reasons, GAO decided not to appeal the district court decision. DOE, Interior, …

An experimental campaign to study hohlraum-driven ignition-like double-shell target performance using the Omega laser facility has begun. These targets are intended to incorporate as many ignition-like properties of the proposed National Ignition Facility (NIF) double-shell ignition design [1,2] as possible, given the energy constraints of the Omega laser. In particular, this latest generation of Omega double-shells is nominally predicted to produce over 99% of the (clean) DD neutron yield from the compressional or stagnation phase of the implosion as required in the NIF ignition design. By contrast, previous double-shell experience on Omega [3] was restricted to cases where a significant fraction of the observed neutron yield was produced during the earlier shock convergence phase where the effects of mix are deemed negligibly small. These new targets are specifically designed to have optimized fall-line behavior for mitigating the effects of pusher-fuel mix after deceleration onset and, thereby, providing maximum neutron yield from the stagnation phase. Experimental results from this recent Omega ignition-like double-shell implosion campaign show favorable agreement with two-dimensional integrated hohlraum simulation studies when enhanced (gold) hohlraum M-band (2-5 keV) radiation is included at a level consistent with observations.

This report discusses the opportunities for Representatives to offer floor amendments to a bill or resolution procedures by which the House considers the measure.

The Engineering Research Program, a component program of the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES), was established in 1979 to aid in resolving the numerous engineering issues arising from efforts to meet U.S. energy needs. The major product of the program became part of the body of knowledge and data upon which the applied energy technologies are founded; the product is knowledge relevant to energy exploration, production, conversion and use.

Proceedings of the 12th International Congress of Radiation Research, Brisbane, Australia, August 17-22, 20003

The new Structurally Integrated BiologY for Life Sciences (SIBYLS) beamline at the Advanced Light Source will be dedicated to Macromolecular Crystallography (PX) and Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS). SAXS will provide structural information of macromolecules in solutions and will complement high resolution PX studies on the same systems but in a crystalline state. The x-ray source is one of the 5 Tesla superbend dipoles recently installed at the ALS that allows for a hard x-ray program to be developed on the relatively low energy Advanced Light Source (ALS) ring (1.9 GeV). The beamline is equipped with fast interchangeable monochromator elements, consisting of either a pair of single Si(111) crystals for crystallography, or a pair of multilayers for the SAXS mode data collection (E/{Delta}E {approx} 1/110). Flux rates with Si(111) crystals for PX are measured as 2 x 10{sup 11} hv/sec/400 mA through a 100 {micro}m pinhole at 12.4 KeV. For SAXS the flux is up to 3 x 10{sup 13} photons/sec at 10 KeV with all apertures open when using the multilayer monochromator elements. The performance characteristics of this unique beamline will be described.

An overall strategy for evaluating the long-term performance of three waste forms being considered for supplemental treatment of low-activity waste at Hanford is discussed. The same computational framework used to conduct the 2001 ILAW performance assessment will be used for all three waste forms. Cast stone will be modeled with a diffusion-advection transport model and bulk vitrified glass and steam reformed LAW will be modeled with a reactive chemical transport simulator. The recommended laboratory testing to support the supplemental LAW form selection includes single-pass flow-through (SPFT), product consistency (PCT), and vapor hydration tests for glass, SPFT and PCT tests for steam reformed LAW forms, and ANS 16.1 tests for cast stone. These and potentially other laboratory tests for the selected waste form(s) would also be the basis for more detailed studies needed to support a comprehensive long-term performance assessment should one or more of these waste forms be selected for disposal in an integrated disposal facility.

An extensive study of the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in helium-hydrogen plasmas has been performed using a gas jet at the Janus Laser Facility. We observe three regions of reflectivity by varying the probe intensity from 10{sup 14} to 10{sup 16}: saturated region, linear region, and near SBS threshold region. In the linear regime, adding small amounts of H to a He plasma reduces the SBS reflectivity by a factor of 4.

We describe experiments investigating the simultaneous backscattering from 351 nm (3w) and 527 nm (2w) interaction beams in a long scalelength laser-produced plasma for intensities {le} 1 x 10{sup 15} W/cm{sup 2}. Measurements show comparable scattering fractions for both color probe beams. Time resolved spectra of stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering (SRS and SBS) indicate the effects of laser intensity and smoothing as well as plasma composition and parameters on the scattering levels.

We present the observation of a nonlocal heat wave by measuring spatially and temporally resolved electron temperature profiles in a laser produced nitrogen plasma. Absolutely calibrated measurements have been performed by resolving the ion-acoustic wave spectra across the plasma volume with Thomson scattering. We find that the experimental electron temperature profiles disagree with flux-limited models, but are consistent with transport models that account for the nonlocal effects in heat conduction by fast electrons.

We describe experiments which investigate convection effects on hydrogen ice layers in a transparent CH capsule suspended with a fill-tube. These experiments validate simulations which show that unmitigated convection from the hohlraum fill gas can produce significant distortions to the cryogenic hydrogen ice layer. Experimental results show good agreement with thermal simulations which include conduction and convection.

This paper presents the design and performance of a new rotary fast tool servo (FTS) capable of developing the 40 g's tool tip acceleration required to follow a 5 micron PV sinusoidal surface at 2 kHz with a planned accuracy of 50 nm, and having a full stroke of 50 micron PV at lower frequencies. Tests with de-rated power supplies have demonstrated a closed-loop unity-gain bandwidth of 2 kHz with 20 g's tool acceleration, and we expect to achieve 40 g's with supplies providing {+-} 16 Amp to the Lorentz force actuator. The use of a fast tool servo with a diamond turning machine for producing non-axisymmetric or textured surfaces on a workpiece is well known. Our new rotary FTS was designed to specifically accommodate fabricating prescription textured surfaces on 5 mm diameter spherical target components for High Energy Density Physics experiments on the National Ignition Facility Laser (NIF).

Experimental results are presented from several series of experiments studying the effect of 2-4 keV M-shell radiation on the implosion of double-shell capsules on the Omega Laser at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. In the First series of experiments, precision machined double-shell capsules implosions are performed. A discrepancy is observed between the experimentally measured M-band fraction and the simulated value. The application of a time-dependent multiplier to the simulated M-band level results in a decrease in predicted yield of 35% and a corresponding increase in the YoC to 20-35%. In order to further investigate this discrepancy, a series of ''M-Band driven'' targets has been designed. An oversized outer shell is used to preferentially allow the M-band radiation to drive the implosion of a CH-tamped glass inner shell. The inner shell radius-time history is measured and is shown to be consistent with the simulations using the time-dependent M-band multipliers. The spatial distribution of this M-band source is also varied using hohlraums of different length and adjusting the laser pointing accordingly. The resulting asymmetry of the inner shell implosion is diagnosed both by x-ray backlighting prior to shell collision and by core emission.

The NIF Power Conditioning System (PCS) resides in four Capacitor Bays, supplying energy to the Master and Power Amplifiers which reside in the two adjacent laser bays. Each capacitor bay will initially house 48 individual power conditioning modules, shown in Figure 2, with space reserved for expansion to 54 modules. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) Power Conditioning System (PCS) is a modular capacitive energy storage system that will be capable of storing nearly 400 MJ of electrical energy and delivering that energy to the nearly 8000 flashlamps in the NIF laser. The first sixteen modules of the power conditioning system have been built, tested and installed. Activation of the first nine power conditioning modules has been completed and commissioning of the first ''bundle'' of laser beamlines has begun. This paper will provide an overview of the power conditioning system design and describe the status and results of initial testing and activation of the first ''bundle'' of power conditioning modules.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is under construction at LLNL for the Department of Energy Stockpile Stewardship Program. It will be used for experiments for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) Ignition, High Energy Density (HED) science, and basic science. Many issues confront experimentalists who wish to design, fabricate, and install diagnostics on the NIF. To foster this process the ICF and HED programs at LLNL have formed a diagnostic research and development group to look at issues outside the charter of facility diagnostics (core diagnostics). We will present data from instrumentation and associated technology that is being developed by this group. A major portion of our instrumentation work is on improvements for readout systems. We have several efforts related to CCD device development. Work has been done in collaboration with the University of Arizona to backthin a large format CCD device (36mm{sup 2}). This work has shown good results. The device has very high quantum efficiency, low noise readout and high charge transfer efficiency. The device is being fielded in direct optical, direct x-ray and 13-15 RV electron readout applications. In addition to readout device development we have completed work on a CCD readout system. With a commercial vendor we have …

We use thermal conduction models to investigate the effects of tailored IR heating on the fuel layer symmetry within a target capsule supported inside of a National Ignition Facility (NIF) hohlraum. We calculate the layer thickness profile that would result from the IR heat distribution alone and in combination with additional temperature shimming of the cylindrical hohlraum wall. We use the same model to study the effect of convection within the high density tamping gas in the hohlraum. A seven-region model was developed to evaluate how effective additional thin film convection barriers may be in damping convection with the higher power dissipation introduced by IR heating.

We are studying the feasibility of utilizing K{alpha} x-ray sources in the range of 20 to 100 keV as a backlighters for imaging various stages of implosions and high areal density planar samples driven by the NIF laser facility. The hard x-ray K{alpha} sources are created by relativistic electron plasma interactions in the target material after a radiation by short pulse high intensity lasers. In order to understand K{alpha} source characteristics such as production efficiency and brightness as a function of laser parameters, we have performed experiments using the 10 J, 100 fs JanUSP laser. We utilized single-photon counting spectroscopy and x-ray imaging diagnostics to characterize the K{alpha} source. We find that the K{alpha} conversion efficiency from the laser energy is {approx} 3 x 10{sup -4}.

For ICF hohlraums driven by long pulses, such as will be needed for ignition on the NIF, the high-Z wall must be held back to avoid excessive laser spot motion and time-dependent symmetry swings. One means of accomplishing this is to fill the hohlraum with a low density, low-Z gas. We report on gas-wall interface characterization by axial x-ray backlighting and self-emission, on gas filled hohlraums fielded at the Omega facility. Up to 30 drive beams are fired, forming a single ring of illumination on the hohlraum wall to emulate the near 2D cylindrically symmetric NIF hohlraum drive conditions. We compare the observed motion with predictions. In addition, the gas-gold interface is Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) unstable during deceleration. This R-T instability could be further exacerbated in NIF ignition hohlraums designed with intentionally roughened walls to provide smoothing of infrared heating used to prepare smooth DT ice layers in the capsule. We have therefore intentionally prepared initial perturbations on one half of the gold wall to quantify the amount of increased penetration, due to mix of the gold into the gas, at stagnation.