On August 14, 1992, the United States Department of Energy issued a Request for Comments Concerning State Policies Affecting Natural Gas Consumption. This Notice of (NOI) noted the increasing significance of the role played by states and sought to gain better understanding of how state policies impact the gas industry. The general trend toward a. more competitive marketplace for natural gas, as well as recent regulatory and legislative changes at the Federal level, are driving State regulatory agencies to reevaluate how they regulate natural gas. State action is having a significant impact on the use of natural gas for generating electricity, as well as affecting the cost-effective trade-off between conservation expenditures and gas use. Additionally, fuel choice has an impact upon the environment and national energy security. In light of these dimensions, the Department of Energy initiated this study of State regulation. The goals of this NOI are: (1) help DOE better understand the impact of State policies on the efficient use of gas; (2) increase the awareness of the natural gas industry and Federal and State officials to the important role of State policies and regulations; (3) create an improved forum for dialogue on State and Federal natural gas …

On August 14, 1992, the United States Department of Energy issued a Request for Comments Concerning State Policies Affecting Natural Gas Consumption. This Notice of (NOI) noted the increasing significance of the role played by states and sought to gain better understanding of how state policies impact the gas industry. The general trend toward a. more competitive marketplace for natural gas, as well as recent regulatory and legislative changes at the Federal level, are driving State regulatory agencies to reevaluate how they regulate natural gas. State action is having a significant impact on the use of natural gas for generating electricity, as well as affecting the cost-effective trade-off between conservation expenditures and gas use. Additionally, fuel choice has an impact upon the environment and national energy security. In light of these dimensions, the Department of Energy initiated this study of State regulation. The goals of this NOI are: (1) help DOE better understand the impact of State policies on the efficient use of gas; (2) increase the awareness of the natural gas industry and Federal and State officials to the important role of State policies and regulations; (3) create an improved forum for dialogue on State and Federal natural gas …

Argonne National Laboratory`s Analysis & Diagnostic Laboratory (ADL) tests advanced batteries under simulated electric and hybrid vehicle operating conditions. The ADL facilities also include a post-test analysis laboratory to determine, in a protected atmosphere if needed, component compositional changes and failure mechanisms. The ADL provides a common basis for battery performance characterization and life evaluations with unbiased application of tests and analyses. The battery evaluations and post-test examinations help identify factors that limit system performance and life, and the most-promising R&D approaches for overcoming these limitations. Since 1991, performance characterizations and/or life evaluations have been conducted on eight battery technologies (Na/S, Li/S, Zn/Br, Ni/MH, Ni/Zn, Ni/Cd, Ni/Fe, and lead-acid). These evaluations were performed for the Department of Energy`s. Office of Transportation Technologies, Electric and Hybrid Propulsion Division (DOE/OTT/EHP), and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Transportation Program. The results obtained are discussed.

Silica aerogel consists of bonded silicon and oxygen joined into log strands, which are randomly linked together with pockets of air between them. Discovered in the 1930s, the material was thought to have little use outside of theoretical science. However, with the advent of greatly improved processing techniques, such as those developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, aerogels are on the verge of commercialization. This document describes the need for aerogels in the high-speed microelectronics industry, and state of the art processing techniques. Collaboration is welcomed in the endeavor.

Reducing the complexity and cost of producing deep-submicrometer integrated circuits (ICs) will soon be possible using a revolutionary approach being developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Resistless Projection Doping (RPD) will eliminate the need for photoresist processing during the impurity doping step. This single innovation will reduce the doping sequence from 13 steps to 1 and eliminate the need for five pieces of capital equipment costing more than $5 million. The overall cost of high-volume wafer fabrication will be reduced by more than 10 percent. In addition, the LLNL RPD machine is compact and modular, minimizing facilities costs when compared to today`s industry-standard doping equipment. These physical characteristics of the machine also allow the RPD process to be easily incorporated into single-wafer, ``cluster`` processing tools. When integrated with existing deposition, etching, and annealing steps and developing lithography techniques, the LLNL doping process completes the technology set required to produce a flexible fabrication facility of the future. At one-fifth the cost of current mega-fabrication facilities, the availability of these compact, low-volume, smart factories will give US manufacturers a substantial competitive advantage in the world-wide marketplace for high-value custom and semi-custom integrated circuits.

Argonne National Laboratory's Analysis Diagnostic Laboratory (ADL) tests advanced batteries under simulated electric and hybrid vehicle operating conditions. The ADL facilities also include a post-test analysis laboratory to determine, in a protected atmosphere if needed, component compositional changes and failure mechanisms. The ADL provides a common basis for battery performance characterization and life evaluations with unbiased application of tests and analyses. The battery evaluations and post-test examinations help identify factors that limit system performance and life, and the most-promising R D approaches for overcoming these limitations. Since 1991, performance characterizations and/or life evaluations have been conducted on eight battery technologies (Na/S, Li/S, Zn/Br, Ni/MH, Ni/Zn, Ni/Cd, Ni/Fe, and lead-acid). These evaluations were performed for the Department of Energy's. Office of Transportation Technologies, Electric and Hybrid Propulsion Division (DOE/OTT/EHP), and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Transportation Program. The results obtained are discussed.

For a smooth boundary, hypersingular integrals can be defined as a limit from the interior, the approach direction being taken, for convenience, normal to the surface. At a boundary corner, the limit process, with a necessarily non-normal approach direction, provides a valid definition of the hypersingular equation, as long as the direction is employed for all integrations. The terms which are potentially singular in the limit are shown to cancel, provided the function approximations at the corner are consistent. The analytical formulas for the singular integrals are more complicated than for a smooth surface, but are easily obtained using symbolic computation. These techniques have been employed to accurately solve the ``L-shaped domain`` potential problem considered by Jaswon and Symm.