The term "sustainable agriculture" is used to designate both a reduced-chemical approach to farming and an alternative political viewpoint on the distribution of economic and social benefits in the farm sector. In practice, sustainable agriculture is characterized by the substitution of more intensive farm resource management--generally involving more labor--for purchased inputs of fertilizers and pesticides. It comprises a range of practices that include integrated pest management (which may include pesticide applications), nonintensive livestock production, crop rotations for pest, disease, and erosion control, and alternative tillage and planting practices to reduce soil erosion.

This report discusses the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) convened July 8-19, 1996, in Geneva, Switzerland.

This report describes recent changes in U.S. burdensharing relationships with NATO, Japan and South Korea and, in the process, identifies some implications for U.S. foreign policy.

The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act authorizes the President to declare that an emergency or major disaster exists that overwhelms state and local resources. Legislation before the 106th Congress (H.R. 707 and S. 1691) would, among other matters, amend the Act to: (1) fund hazard mitigation projects designed to reduce future disaster losses; (2) add conditions to assistance; and (3) consolidate provisions governing the distribution of aid to disaster victims. This report compares provisions of the two bills, and will be updated as legislative action occurs.

The reauthorization of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, has focused on two major areas of reform: liability, and cleanup standards/remedy selection.

The Brady Handgun Control Act established a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases, during which local law enforcement can make reasonable efforts to conduct background checks in available records and block and sales to convicted felons and other disqualified persons. This report reviews the background of federal gun control legislation, analyzes the conflict in the courts over the constitutionality under the Tenth Amendment of the duties placed on local law enforcement, and considers the implications of the decisions for Brady Act enforcement.

This report lists the 12 adopted United Nations Security Council resolutions relating to the Iraq-Kuwait situation through October 1991. The texts of these resolutions, along with the votes by members of the Council, are included in this report.

This is the June report by the Energy Information Administration. The contents of the report include an energy overview, energy consumption, petroleum, natural gas, oil and gas resource development, coal, electricity, nuclear energy, energy prices, and international energy. Included are appendices containing thermal conversion factors, metric and other physical conversion factors, and carbon dioxide emission factors for coal.

The X-Ray, K-Edge Heavy Metal Detection System was designed and built by Ames Laboratory and the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation at Iowa State University. The system uses a C-frame inspection head with an X-ray tube mounted on one side of the frame and an imaging unit and a high purity germanium detector on the other side. the inspection head is portable and can be easily positioned around ventilation ducts and pipes up to 36 inches in diameter. Wide angle and narrow beam X-ray shots are used to identify the type of holdup material and the amount of the contaminant. Precise assay data can be obtained within minutes of the interrogation. A profile of the containerized holdup material and a permanent record of the measurement are immediately available.

The data obtained from these tests determine the dose rate of the two cobalt sources in SRTC. This testing used chemical dosimetry to measure the dose rate of a radioactive source.

The TNX Area is a semi-works facility for the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC), which is located one-quarter mile from the Savannah river at the Savannah River Site. As the result of TNX operation, groundwater contamination has occurred. The predominant contaminants detected in the flood plain downgradient from TNX are trichloroethylene (TCE) and nitrate.Treatability studies into the applicability of a groundwater remediation system combining GeoSiphon Cell and zero-valent iron technologies for treatment of the TCE-contaminated groundwater at TNX have been conducted. These treatability studies have been conducted by SRTC under the sponsorship of the Environmental Restoration Department.

Project objectives are to provide the resources and capabilities to permit the State of Oklahoma to conduct Area of Review (AOR) variance analysis on a statewide level including: (1) the analysis and identification of areas which may qualify for AOR variances; (2) the correlation of information from various databases and automation systems to conduct AORs in areas that do not qualify for variances; (3) the evaluation of the risk of pollution, during permitting and monitoring, using risk based data analysis; and (4) the ability to conduct spatial analysis of injection well data in conjunction with other geographically referenced information. The division successfully converted its mainframe computer surety system to the new client server network and implemented it on September 29, 1995. The division currently lacks sufficient storage space to bring the existing oil and gas spatially referenced data systems in-house and fully integrate the systems for use in the determination of AORs or AOR variances. The second installment of the awarded grant allows for the purchase of the developmental server that will provide the minimum computer storage space to convert the remainder of the mainframe computer systems.

This document serves as a User`s Manual and Reference for the runControl library. This library is designed to be used by closed- loop EPICS control applications which are generally run in the background on the controls workstations. It permits an application to `register` itself with an EPICS record, thereby preventing additional instances of the same application from being run. In addition, the executing application may in turn be suspended or aborted via an MEDM control screen or other standard channel access client.

Preliminary results on the effect of reaction temperature on the performance of Co catalysts during F-T synthesis obtained during the last quarter confirmed that Co catalysts were very sensitive to temperature and deactivated significantly at temperatures above 240{degree}C both in the fixed bed and the slurry bubble column reactors. Following this preliminary investigation, a series of tests were carried out during this period in order to elucidate the nature of this deactivation process as well as determine possible means of preventing it. In order to elucidate the nature of this deactivation process, the catalysts which had undergone significant deactivation after high temperature (280{degree}C) reaction in either the fixed bed reactor or the slurry bubble column reactor were regenerated and retested in the fixed bed reactor. In both cases the catalysts recovered completely their initial activity. In addition, reactions at very high H{sub 2}CO ratios and high temperatures showed very little deactivation, suggesting that the deactivation of the Co catalysts during F-T synthesis at high temperatures was mainly due carbon formation via the Boudouard reaction. Due to the unreactive nature of this carbon, it could only be removed by calcination. A second series of experiments was carried out to investigate the …

Although a wide variety of degradation modes can occur in aqueous environments for corrosion-resistant metallic materials, localized corrosion such as pitting corrosion, crevice corrosion, SCC, and hydrogen embrinlement (HE) is considered to be the primary mode. The evaluation of the susceptibility of candidate corrosion-resistant container materials to pitting and crevice corrosion is well underway using electrochemical polarization techniques described in the Activity Plan E-20-43144. The proposed activity (E-20-56) is aimed at evaluating the SCC behavior of these materials in susceptible environments using the linearelastic-fracture-mechanics (LEFM) concept. The mechanical driving force for crack growth, or the stress distribution at the crack tip is quantified by the stress intensity factor, K, for the specific crack and loading geometry. The critical stress intensity factor for SCC, K_ISCC for candidate materials will be evaluated in environments of interest, and their comparisons will be made to select the waste package inner container material having an optimum SCC resistance.

This Acceptance Test confirmed the test results and recommendations, documented in WHC-SD-SNF-DTR-001, Rev. 0 Development Test Report for the High Pressure Water Jet System Nozzles, for decontaminating empty fuel canisters in KE-Basin. Optimum water pressure, water flow rate, nozzle size and overall configuration were tested

The Hanford Spent Nuclear Fuel Project has been established to safely store spent nuclear fuel at the Hanford Site. This Project Management Plan sets forth the management basis for the Spent Nuclear Fuel Project. The plan applies to all fabrication and construction projects, operation of the Spent Nuclear Fuel Project facilities, and necessary engineering and management functions within the scope of the project

This report describes experiments designed to provide data for a quick engineering assessment of the microstructural, mineralogical, and mechanical changes in hydrothermally altered concrete and changes in associated water chemistry.

This document is a plan that identifies the information needed to address relevant issues concerning short-term and long-term safe storage and long-term management of Single-Shell Tank (SST) 241-U-111.

This Safety Evaluation for Packaging (SEP) provides evaluations necessary to approve transfer of the 8,000 gallon Liquid Waste Tank Car (LWTC) from the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) to the 200 Areas. This SEP will demonstrate that the transfer cif the LWTC will provide an equivalent degree of safety as would be provided by packages meeting U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) requirements. This fulfills onsite transportation requirements implemented in the Hazardous Material Packaging and Shipping, WHC-CM-2-14.

During this project period, work was done in the following areas: (1) multi-parameter sorting of dipoles for large superconducting rings; (2) study of tune modulation; and (3) integrable polynomial factorization for symplectic map tracking. A list of reports that give research status and results is given.

This quarterly report covers activities during the period from July 1, 1996 through September 30, 1996 on the development of carbon products precursor materials from coal. The first year of the project ended in February, 1996; however, the WVU research effort continued through August 14, 1997 on a no-cost extension of the original contract. PETC chose to exercise the option for continuation of the projects and $100,000 became available on August 9, 1996. The objective for year two is to focus on development of those carbon products from coal-based solvent extract precursors which have the greatest possibility for commercial success.

Progress is reported on sorbent characterization for coal gasification. Operational procedures and the data acquisition system is described.

Research results performed on the utilization of sorbents for emission control in coal gasification are described. A data acquisitions system was acquired. Major operational procedures are discussed.