A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. payment system is a large and complex system of people, institutions, rules, and technologies that transfer monetary value and related information. The nation's payment system transfers an estimated $3 trillion dollars each day--nearly one third of the U.S. gross domestic product. Currently, settlement--the final step in the transfer of ownership involving the physical exchange of payment or securities--occurs only during the business week. Some retailers, however, generate approximately half their weekly sales on weekends--when depository and other financial institutions generally are closed--receiving cash, checks, and electronic payments that are not credited to their accounts until at least the next business day. Weekend settlement of financial transactions would provide small benefits to retailers and consumers, and little, if any, benefit to the economy as a whole. Because payment system actors and processes are interdependent, implementing weekend settlement would require payment service providers that clear and settle retail and wholesale payments to open on weekends, resulting in significantly increased operational costs. Although there are no direct federal prohibitions against weekend settlement, state laws that are not preempted by federal laws or regulations providing for weekend settlement …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As Congress considers reauthorizing the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) in 2003, it does so in the face of a continuing need for the nation to invest in its surface transportation infrastructure at a time when both the federal and state governments are experiencing severe financial constraints. As transportation needs have grown, Congress provided states--in the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 and TEA-21--additional means to make highway investments through alternative financing mechanisms. A number of states are using existing alternative financing tools such as State Infrastructure Banks, Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles bonds, and loans under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. These tools can provide states with additional options to accelerate projects and leverage federal assistance--they can also provide greater flexibility and more funding techniques. Federal funding of surface transportation investments includes federal-aid highway program grant funding appropriated by Congress out of the Highway Trust Fund, loans and loan guarantees, and bonds that are issued by states that are exempt from federal taxation. Expanding the use of alternative financing mechanisms has the potential to stimulate additional investment and private participation. However, expanding …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Each school day, millions of children receive meals and snacks provided through the National School Lunch and National School Breakfast Programs. Any child at a participating school may purchase a meal through these school meal programs, and children from households that apply and meet established income guidelines can receive these meals free or at a reduced price. The federal government reimburses the states, which in turn reimburse school food authorities for each meal served. During fiscal year 2001, the federal government spent $8 billion in reimbursements for school meals. The Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, state agencies, and school food authorities all play a role in these school meal programs. GAO reported that costs for the application, verification, and meal counting and reimbursement processes for the school meal programs were incurred mainly at the local level. Estimated federal and state-level costs during school year 2000-2001 for these three processes were generally much less than 1 cent per program dollar administered. At the local level--selected schools and the related school food authorities--the median estimated cost for these processes was 8 cents per program dollar and …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In response to concerns that individuals wanted in connection with a felony or violating terms of their parole or probation could receive benefits from programs for the needy, Congress added provisions to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 that prohibit these individuals from receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Food Stamp benefits, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and make fugitive felon status ground for the termination of tenancy in federal housing assistance programs. In addition, the act directs these programs to provide law enforcement officers with information about program recipients for whom there are outstanding warrants to assist in their apprehension. Actions taken to implement the act's fugitive felon provisions have varied substantially by program. In implementing provisions to prohibit benefits to fugitive felons, all but housing assistance programs include, at a minimum, a question about fugitive felon status in their applications. SSI and some state Food Stamp and TANF programs also seek independent verification of fugitive felon status by using computer matching to compare arrest warrant and program recipient files. To date, 110,000 beneficiaries have been identified as fugitive felons …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeks to prevent business practices that are anticompetitive, deceptive, or unfair to consumers. If FTC determines that a merger may harm competition in the marketplace, the agency may decide to block the merger or select a remedy that addresses the anticompetitive problems it has identified. FTC's preferred remedy is divestiture--the selling of a business or assets by one or both of the merging parties to maintain or restore competition where it might be harmed by the merger. When divestiture is chosen as a remedy, FTC usually drafts a proposed agreement with the merging parties that contains an order requiring the divestiture needed to remedy the anticompetitive problems. If all parties agree, FTC issues a proposed order which is made available to the public for comment for 30 days and, in most cases, authorizes the parties to consummate the merger. According to FTC staff, FTC decisions to use particular divestiture approaches are (1) based on the unique facts of each case and do not readily translate into written guidelines or systematic aggregation and (2) tied to proprietary company information that FTC is …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In a 1996 report, GAO made a number of recommendations to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for reducing spending and improving the operations of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve). The Federal Reserve has taken actions responsive to most of the 1996 report's recommendations. The Federal Reserve has retained its structure but has sought to consolidate operations and bring common management practices to the 12 Federal Reserve District Banks. In particular, the Federal Reserve now manages the payment services it provides to banks on a systemwide basis. The Federal Reserve has also changed its budgeting, internal oversight, and cost accounting processes in an effort to increase accountability. It has taken other steps to decrease costs in areas identified by the 1996 report. Specifically, the Reserve Banks have consolidated their purchase of some services, such as prescription drug coverage, to take advantage of volume discounts, rather than continuing with the former practice of each individual Reserve Bank purchasing services separately. The Federal Reserve, however, continues not charging for bank examinations. Federal Reserve officials explained that they continue to believe that charging for bank …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For years, some minority and women farmers have alleged that the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) discriminates against them, treating them differently from other farmers during the loan approval or foreclosure process. During fiscal years 2000 and 2001, FSA took, on average, four days longer to process loan applications from Hispanic farmers than it did for non-Hispanic farmers: 20 days versus 16 days. The FSA's direct loan approval rate was somewhat lower for Hispanic farmers than for non-Hispanic farmers nationwide: 83 and 90 percent, respectively. USDA's policies for staying foreclosures when discrimination has been alleged depend on the method used to lodge complaints. When an individual's discrimination complaint is accepted by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), FSA's policy is to automatically issue a stay of adverse action, such as foreclosure, until the complaint has been resolved. OCR has made modest progress in the length of time it takes to process discrimination complaints. USDA requires OCR to complete the investigative phase of processing a complaint within 180 days of accepting it. In fiscal year 2000, OCR took an average of 365 days to complete just …

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) owns, operates, and manages the buildings and land areas on the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. As land and buildings are declared excess or underutilized, it is the intent of DOE to either transfer the title of or lease suitable property to the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET) or other entities for public use. It is DOE's responsibility, in coordination with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 4, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), to ensure that the land, facilities, and personal property that are to have the title transferred or are to be leased are suitable for public use. Release of personal property must also meet site requirements and be approved by the DOE contractor responsible for site radiological control. The terms title transfer and lease in this document have unique meanings. Title transfer will result in release of ownership without any restriction or further control by DOE. Under lease conditions, the government retains ownership of the property along with the responsibility to oversee property utilization. This includes involvement in the lessee's health, safety, and radiological control plans and conduct of site inspections. It …

The Pennsylvania State University, under contract to the US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory will establish, promote, and manage a national industry-driven Stripper Well Consortium (SWC) that will be focused on improving the production performance of domestic petroleum and/or natural gas stripper wells. The consortium creates a partnership with the US petroleum and natural gas industries and trade associations, state funding agencies, academia, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. This report serves as the seventh quarterly technical progress report for the SWC. Key activities for this reporting period include: (1) issuing subcontracts for the 2002 SWC projects, (2) SWC membership class expansion, and (3) planning SWC technology transfer meetings. In addition, a literature search that focuses on the use of lasers, microwaves, and acoustics for potential stripper well applications continued.

Advances in nanotechnology offer significant improvements in a wide range of applications that include, light weight materials with greater strength, increased energy efficiency from electronic devices, and better sensors for a range of environmental and manufacturing uses. Furthermore, since size constraints often produce qualitative changes in the characteristics of matter, it is anticipated that the exploitation of nanotechnology will result in the identification of new phenomena and functionalities derived from the physics, chemistry, and biology of matter at the nanoscale level. However, these advances will require the development of systems for the design, modeling, and synthesis of nanoscale materials. Interestingly, many biological molecules function on this scale and possess unique properties that impart the ability to assume defined conformations and assembles, as well as interact with specific chemical or biological substrates. These traits are ideally suited for developing new models and methods for the production of novel materials at the nanoscale level. The goal of this proposal is to combine expertise in biology/protein engineering (Dr. Culver, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute) and chemical engineering/nanophase structures (Dr. Harris, Purdue University) to develop biological macromolecules suitable for use in a variety of nanotechnologies. Specifically, this work will focus on using the well-defined …

The TORE? Lance is a hand-held hydro transportation device with the ability to convey solids at pre-determined slurry concentrations over great distances. The TORE? Lance head generates a precessing vortex core to mobilize solids. Solids retrieval is accomplished using an eductor. The device contains no parts and requires pressurized fluid to operate the eductor and produce mobilization. Three configurations of TORE? Lance operation were evaluated for mobilization and eduction during these tests: compressed air, water, and an air and water mixture. These tests have shown that the TORE? Lance is a tool that can be used at Hanford for mobilization and retrieval of wastes. The system is versatile and can be configured for many types of applications. These studies showed that the diverse applications require unique solutions so care is recommended for TORE? Lance equipment selection for each application. The two components of the TORE? Lance are the precessing vortex for mobilizing and the eductor for retrieval. The precessing vortex is sensitive to fluid flow rate and pressure. In the hand-held unit these parameters are controlled both internally, by changing shim spacing, and externally by controlling the flow split between the eductor and the head. For in-tank applications out-of-tank control …

In 1994, the U. S. and Russian Federation governments formally agreed to exchange information on the safety and security of nuclear weapons. This agreement included three major elements, called Technical Working Groups (TWGs). TWG C deals with counter-terrorism. Its four assigned actions and U.S./Russian experience are reviewed in this paper. Although active exchange programs were created under TWGs A and B, involving workshops and laboratory-to-laboratory development projects, little work was initiated in TWG C, due to the sensitive nature of this information. After 9/11, however, it became clear that much could be gained by having each country share information to help solve the problem of nuclear proliferation among terrorist groups. Government-to-government meetings have reaffirmed the initial agreement to exchange information on this topic, and a number of joint project proposals are now under discussion. The Joint Steering Committee that oversees this exchange has approved approximately 20 projects. They include such topics as terrorist threat scenario development, detection of nuclear material and explosives in transportation containers, analysis of material mass and configuration, and consequence mitigation. It is expected that the joint development of these capabilities will enhance our ability to respond to a nuclear threat and to facilitate mutual assistance, should …

This months issue of Science and Technology Review has the following articles: (1) High-Tech Help for Fighting Wildfires--Commentary by Leland W. Younker; (2) This Model Can Take the Heat--A physics-based simulation program to combat wildfires combines the capabilities and resources of Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories. (3) The Best and the Brightest Come to Livermore--The Lawrence Fellowship Program attracts the most sought-after postdoctoral researchers to the Laboratory. (4) A view to Kill--Livermore sensors are aimed at the ''kill'' vehicle when it intercepts an incoming ballistic missile. (5) 50th Anniversary Highlight--Biological Research Evolves at Livermore--Livermore's biological research program keeps pace with emerging national issues, from studying the effects of ionizing radiation to detecting agents of biological warfare.

Electronic flash lamps are being developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). These lamps are intended to replace the traditional explosively driven Argon-gas filled light sources (Argon candles) that are currently used to provide illumination for high speed rotating mirror-framing cameras. At Livermore, we are developing an electronic flash lamp system that can match or exceed the light output of a traditional Argon candle. These systems utilize a Plasma Arc Lamp developed by PRISM Science Inc of Chatham, MA, USA. In the past, high-speed photography requiring explosively driven light sources were a one-time-only event that destroyed fixtures and optical alignment. The electronic flash lamp system, utilizing the Plasma Arc Lamp, will replace the explosively driven lighting systems and provide the capability to dry run experimental setups and repeat tests without damage to the experimental set-up. The electronic flash lamp system eliminates the problem of collateral damage to the experiment and does not add to the overall amount of explosives needed for a single test. Since the Pulsed-Power driver is remotely located, only the flash lamp itself is destroyed when the explosive shot is fired. The flexible geometry of this light source also enables the user to create complex light …

This booklet summarizes the Hanford Site Environmental Report for Calendar Year 2001. The report includes information and summary data that describe environmental management performance at the site, demonstrate the status of the site's compliance with applicable federal, state, and local environmental laws and regulations, and highlight significant environmental monitoring and surveillance programs and efforts. The document is written to meet requirements and guidelines of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the needs of the public.

Radioactive waste is scheduled to be retrieved from Hanford double-shell tanks AN-103, AN-104, AN-105, and AW-101 to the vitrification plant beginning about 2009. Retrieval may involve decanting the supernatant liquid and/or mixing the waste with jet pumps. In these four tanks, which contain relatively large volumes of retained gas, both of these operations are expected to induce buoyant displacement gas releases that can potentially raise the tank headspace hydrogen concentration to very near the lower flammability limit. This report describes the theory and detailed physical models for both the supernatant decant and jet mixing processes and presents the results from applying the models to these operations in the four tanks. The technical bases for input parameter distributions are elucidated.

This document describes a library of Splus functions used for nonlinear Bayesian regression in general and IR estimation in particular. This library has been developed to solve a general class of problems described by the nonlinear regression model: Y = F (beta,data)+ E where Y represents a vector of measurements, and F(beta,data) represents a Splus function that has been constructed to describe the measurements. The function F(beta,data) depends upon beta, a vector of parameters to be estimated, while data$ is an Splus object containing any other information needed by the model. The errors, E, are assumed to be independent, normal, unbiased and to have known standard deviations of stdev(E) = sd.E. The components in beta are split into two groups; estimation parameters and nuisance parameters. The Bayesian prior on the estimation parameters will generally be non-informative, while the prior on the nuisance parameters will be constructed to reflect the information we have about them. We hope an extended beta distribution is general enough to adequately represent the information we have on them. While we expect these functions to be improved and revised, this library is mature enough to be used without major modification.

Significant progress has been made in addressing critical issues for high repetition rate chambers, target fabrication and injection for inertial fusion energy (IFE) for both heavy ion and laser drivers. Research is being conducted in a coordinated manner by national laboratories, universities and industry. This paper provides an overview of U.S. research activities and discusses how interface considerations (such as beam propagation and target survival during injection) impact design choices.

Plasma beta in Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) systems is sometimes much greater than 1, and the plasma may be in direct contact with the imploding liner. Plasma processes are strongly dominated by inter-particle collisions. Under such conditions, the plasma microturbulence, behavior of alpha particles, and plasma equilibria are very different from conventional fusion systems. The present paper contains the most comprehensive analysis of the corresponding phenomena to date. 2D numerical simulations of plasma convection in the targets of a diffuse pinch type demonstrate an onset of convection in this configuration.

We describe in this paper the Tevatron bunch by bunch dampers. The goal of the dampers is to stop the spontaneous longitudinal beam size blowup of the protons during a store. We will go through the theory and also show the measured results during the commissioning of this system. The system is currently operational and have stopped the beam blowups during a store.

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One of the least controversial provisions of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (P.L. 94-163) established corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for new passenger cars. This report presents a brief background and analysis regarding the price of crude oil that brought into sharp focus the fuel inefficiency of U.S. automobiles. The report also discusses the previous issues and the most recent developments regarding CAFE.

This report discusses the background information and most recent development in U.S.-China relations since mid-1996. Since the early 1990s, U.S.-China relations have followed an uneven course, with modest improvements overshadowed by various recurring difficulties and setbacks. Longstanding bilateral difficulties have included U.S. problems with the PRC’s worsening human rights record, growing tensions over the PRC’s southern military build-up opposite Taiwan and Taiwan’s political status, and continued controversy over allegations of Chinese proliferation of weapons to unstable regimes.

The United States recognized the independence of all the former Soviet republics by the end of 1991, including the South Caucasus states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. The United States has fostered these states' ties with the West in part to end the dependence of these states on Russia for trade, security, and other relations. The FREEDOM Support Act of 1992 provides authorization for assistance to the Eurasian states for humanitarian needs, democratization, and other purposes. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the Administration appealed for a national security waiver of the prohibition on aid to Azerbaijan, in consideration of Azerbaijan's assistance to the international coalition to combat terrorism. Azerbaijani and Georgian troops participate in stabilization efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Armenian personnel serve in Iraq.