The goal of this project is to find countermeasures to protect High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, in exit ventilation ducts, from the heat and smoke generated by fire. Initially, methods were developed to cool fire-heated air by fine water spray upstream of the filters. It was recognized that smoke aerosol exposure to HEPA filters could also cause disruption of the containment system. Through testing and analysis, several methods to partially mitigate the smoke exposure to the HEPA filters were identified. A continuous, movable, high-efficiency prefilter using modified commercial equipment was designed. The technique is capable of protecting HEPA filters over the total time duration of the test fires. The reason for success involved the modification of the prefiltration media. Commercially available filter media has particle sorption efficiency that is inversely proportional to media strength. To achieve properties of both efficiency and strength, rolling filter media were laminated with the desired properties. The approach was Edisonian, but truncation in short order to a combination of prefilters was effective. The application of this technique was qualified, since it is of use only to protect HEPA filters from fire-generated smoke aerosols. It is not believed that this technique is cost effective in …

A spectrographic method using d-c arc excitation in a controlled atmosphere was developed to analyze for seven impurity elements in radioactive hafnium samples. Analysis requires as little as 35 mg of hafnium oxide. (auth)

A new class of numerical algorithms for computer simulation of low frequency electromagnetic and electrostatic phenomena in magnetized plasma is presented. Maxwell's equations are solved in the limits of quasineutrality and negligible transverse displacement current (Darwin's model). Electrons are modeled as a fluid with polarization effects ignored. Ions are described as particles. A novel feature of these algorithms is the use of the electron fluid equation of motion to determine the electric field, which renders these numerical schemes remarkably simple and direct. The simulation plasma is either periodic or bounded by particle reflecting conducting walls. Both fully nonlinear codes with spatial grids and linearized gridless codes have been implemented.

Testing plans for a full-scale test receiver panel and supporting hardware which essentially duplicate both physically and functionally, the design planned for the Barstow Solar Pilot Plant are presented. Testing is to include operation during normal start and shutdown, intermittent cloud conditions, and emergencies to determine the panel's transient and steady state operating characteristics and performance under conditions equal to or exceeding those expected in the pilot plant. The effects of variations of input and output conditions on receiver operation are also to be investigated. Test hardware are described, including the pilot plant receiver, the test receiver assembly, receiver panel, flow control, electrical control and instrumentation, and structural assembly. Requirements for the Solar Thermal Test Facility for the tests are given. The safety of the system is briefly discussed, and procedures are described for assembly, installation, checkout, normal and abnormal operations, maintenance, removal and disposition. Also briefly discussed are quality assurance, contract responsibilities, and test documentation. (LEW)

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A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the early 2000s, the Forest Service, within the Department of Agriculture, centralized the operations of three major business services: (1) budget and finance, (2) human resources management, and (3) information technology. The agency's goals in centralizing these services, which were previously delivered by staff in field units throughout the country, were to streamline and improve operations and reduce costs. Congressional committees directed GAO to independently analyze whether centralization had achieved intended efficiencies and cost savings. Accordingly, this report examines the (1) types of effects centralization has had on the Forest Service and its employees, particularly in field units; (2) actions the agency has taken to assess its delivery of its centralized business services and to address identified shortcomings; and (3) extent to which the agency can demonstrate that it achieved intended cost savings. GAO examined agency reports, performance studies, cost estimates, and other documentation and interviewed and conducted focus groups with employees across the agency."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Congress has required the administration to report annually on federal spending on climate change. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reports funding in four categories: technology (to reduce greenhouse gas emissions), science (to better understand the climate), international assistance (to help developing countries), and tax expenditures (to encourage reductions in emissions). The Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), which coordinates many agencies' activities, reports only on science. To measure funding, OMB and CCSP use budget authority, the authority provided in law to enter into financial obligations that will result in government outlays. GAO was asked to examine federal climate change funding for 1993 through 2004, as reported by both agencies, including (1) how total funding and funding by category changed and whether funding data are comparable over time and (2) how funding by agency changed and whether funding data are comparable over time."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Between 1998 and 2004, Congress appropriated over $1.2 billion to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. The campaign aimed to prevent the initiation of or curtail the use of drugs among the nation's youth. In 2005, Westat, Inc., completed a multiyear national evaluation of the campaign. GAO has been mandated to review various aspects of the campaign, including Westat's evaluation which is the subject of this report. Applying generally accepted social science research standards, GAO assessed (1) how Westat provided credible support for its findings and Westat's findings about (2) attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of youth and parents toward drug use and (3) youth self-reported drug use."

A chapter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In December 2007, the Congress expanded the renewable fuel standard (RFS), which requires rising use of ethanol and other biofuels, from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. To meet the RFS, the Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE) are developing advanced biofuels that use cellulosic feedstocks, such as corn stover and switchgrass. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers the RFS. This report examines, among other things, (1) the effects of increased biofuels production on U.S. agriculture, environment, and greenhouse gas emissions; (2) federal support for domestic biofuels production; and (3) key challenges in meeting the RFS. GAO extensively reviewed scientific studies, interviewed experts and agency officials, and visited five DOE and USDA laboratories."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the reasons for the losses being incurred by the Guaranteed Business and Industry Loan Program, focusing on the Rural Business-Cooperative Service's experience with business and industry guaranteed loans made during fiscal year (FY) 1994 through FY 1998 on which the Service paid losses."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the semiannual reporting requirements contained in the Inspector General (IG) Act of 1978, focusing on the: (1) composition of the semiannual reports; and (2) views of a range of individuals--IGs, agency managers, and congressional staff--on the usefulness of the reports and what modifications, if any, should be made to the semiannual reporting requirements."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Media reports of desecration of graves and human remains and other types of mismanagement at cemeteries and crematories have inspired a debate regarding whether the federal government should take on a greater role in regulating the death care industry, primarily funeral homes, crematories, cemeteries, pre-need sales of funeral plans, and third party sales of funeral goods. The federal government has a limited role in regulating the death care industry, as most regulatory responsibilities are handled at the state level. Because of this, federal policymakers have expressed an interest in understanding the range of practices that are used by the states to regulate the various segments of the death care industry. Based on surveys of state regulators covering the various segments of the death care industry; and visits to the states of California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, New York, and Texas; this report provides information on (1) the structures used by states for regulating the death care industry, and (2) the mechanisms used by states for enforcing their regulations covering the industry. The report also provides information on the resources available to help consumers make informed choices regarding …

The 6'' long final focus beam position monitors (short FF BPM's are longer, thus deliver more signal after a 15 nanosecond filter, than either the Linac or Arc monitors. The purpose of this note is to compare the resolution of the Arc vs Linac electronics when applied to a short FF 2'' diameter BPM. A method of calibrating the Arc modules is also tested and briefly discussed. The range of each DAC setting to minimize digitization error is also calculated.

This report provides an analysis of S. 2230, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act Amendments of 1994 introduced June 23, 1994, to amend the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. It includes sections on stated purposes, enhanced powers of the National Indian Gaming Commission, proposed tribal-state compacting process, modifications of current law with respect to class II gaming, modification of current law with respect to class III gaming, and miscellaneous amendments.

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The 100-F-33, 146-F Aquatice Biology Fish Ponds waste site was an area with six small rectangular ponds and one large circular pond used to conduct tests on fish using various mixtures of river and reactor effluent water. The current site conditions achieve the remedial action objectives specified in the Remaining Sites ROD. The results of verification and applicable confirmatory 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.

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is used in the Earth Sciences as a means of obtaining information about the molecular-scale environment of fluids in porous geological materials. Laboratory experiments were conducted to advance our fundamental understanding of the link between the NMR response and the geochemical properties of geological materials. In the first part of this research project, we studied the impact of both the surface-area-to-volume ratio (S/V) of the pore space and the surface relaxivity on the NMR response of fluids in sand-clay mixtures. This study highlighted the way in which these two parameters control our ability to use NMR measurements to detect and quantify fluid saturation in multiphase saturated systems. The second part of the project was designed to explore the way in which the mineralogic form of iron, as opposed to simply the concentration of iron, affects the surface relaxation rate and, more generally, the NMR response of porous materials. We found that the magnitude of the surface relaxation rate was different for the various iron-oxide minerals because of changes in both the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the pore space, and the surface relaxivity. Of particular significance from this study was the finding of an anomalously large surface …

The performance of the new combustor was tested. Experiments showed that this combustor has superior insulating quality than the previous one. Measured radial concentrations indicated uniform distribution of the primary fuel (coal) inside the fire tube resulting in reasonably flat concentration profiles. However, measured radial concentrations after the addition of the reburn fuel showed uneven distribution of the fuel resulting in parabolic concentration profiles, an indication of insufficient mixing in the reburn zone. In order to study mechanisms of nitrogenous species destruction in the reburn zone, it is necessary to achieve adequate mixing if the assumption of one dimensional plug flow behavior is to be valid. Thus, it became necessary to modify the injector design and the injection mode of the reburn fuel to achieve an adequate level of mixing which is the focus of this report. The results show that a minimum reburn fuel jet velocity of 15 m/s (standard conditions) was required which is about 80 times the velocity of the primary effluent. The use of nitrogen gas as a transport medium for the reburn fuel was necessary to achieve the desired jet velocities.

This study covers the use of dc generators for meeting the Experimental Power Reactor Ohmic Heating Energy Storage Requirements. The dc generators satisfy these requirements which are the same as defined in WFPS-TME-038 which covered the use of ac generators and homopolar generators. The costs of the latter two systems have been revised to eliminate first-of-a-kind factors. The cost figures for dc generators indicate a need to develop larger machines in order to take advantage of the economy-of-scale that the large ac machines have. Each of the systems has its own favorable salient features on which to base a system selection.

Purpose of this document is to compare and contrast the overall burial costs of the glass and ceramic waste forms, including processing, storage, transportation, packaging, and emplacement in a repository. Amount of waste will require approximately 10,300 standard (24 in. i.d. x 9-5/6 ft length) canisters of waste glass, each containing about 3260 lb of waste at 28% waste loading. The ceramic waste form requires about one-third the above number of standard canisters. Approximately $2.5 billion is required to process and dispose of this waste, and the total cost is independent of waste form (glass or ceramic). The major cost items (about 80% of the total cost) for all cases are capital and operating expenses. The capital and 20-year operating costs for the processing facility are the same order of magnitude, and their sum ranges from about one-half of the total for the reference glass case to two-thirds of the total for the ceramic cases.

The Mark 22 assemblies previously charged to the P Reactor as the P-11 charge, but never irradiated, are stored in borated racks in Building 105-K Assembly Area. The assemblies are stored inside aluminum cans into which they are placed and subsequently dried upon removal from the P-Reactor. This report discusses non-destructive examinations supplemented by destructive examination of a small number of these assemblies made to establish the acceptability of these assemblies for use as the K-15 charge.

Much has been written about ceramic superconductors since their discovery in 1986. Most of this writing reports and describes scientific research. However, some authors have sought to put this research in context: to assess where the field stands, what might be technically feasible, what might be economically feasible, and what potential impacts ceramic superconductors will bring to the electric power sector. This report's purpose is to make the results of already published assessments readily available. To that end, this report lists and provides abstracts for various technical and economic assessments related to applications of High-Temperature Superconductors (HTS) to the electric power sector. Those studies deemed most important are identified and summarized. These assessments were identified by two means. First, members of the Executive Committee identified some reports as worthy of consideration and forwarded them to Argonne National Laboratory. Twelve assessments were selected. Each of these is listed and summarized in the following section. Second, a bibliographic search was performed on five databases: INSPEC, NTIS, COMPENDEX, Energy Science Technology, and Electric Power Database. The search consisted of first selecting all papers related to High Temperature Superconductors. Then papers related to SMES, cables, generators, motors, fault current limiters, or electric utilities were …

The subject of this review is intense ion beam propagation and the possibilities of measuring time dependent ion energy in the beam. Propagation effects discussed include charge separation, charge and current autoneutralization, electron thermalization and current neutralization decay. The interaction of a plasma beam with material obstacles, like collimators, and with transverse magnetic fields is also described. Depending on beam energy, density and pulse length, these interactions can include material ablation with plasmadynamic flow and undeflected propagation across transverse magnetic fields by a polarization drift. On the basis of this review I conclude that three diagnostics: a single floating potential probe, net current probes (Faraday cups) and a Rutherford scattering spectrometer appear capable of giving prompt, time dependent ion energy measurements.

This report discusses Omnibus appropriations acts, which have become a significant feature of the legislative process in recent years as Congress and the President have used them more frequently to bring action on the regular appropriations cycle to a close. Following a discussion of pertinent background information, this report reviews the recent enactment of such measures and briefly addresses several issues raised by their use.