This report presents current data on production, consumption, stocks, imports, exports, and prices of the principal energy commodities in the United States. Also included are data on international production of crude oil, consumption of petroleum products, petroleum stocks, and production of electricity from nuclear-powered facilities.

Our objectives during this quarter was to complete studies on the kinetics of methanol synthesis reaction in the slurry reactor with long periods of on stream studies, start experimentation in the trickle bed reactor assembly, investigate simulation studies using the piston-exchange (PE) and piston-dispersion-exchange (PDE) models, and introduce water gas shift reaction as the second reaction in our simulation studies.

Results are reported on adsorption of water vapor on reservoir rocks, physics of injection of water into vapor-dominated geothermal reservoirs, earth-tide effects on downhole pressures, injection optimization at the Geysers, effects of salinity in adsorption experiments, interpreting multiwell pressure data from Ohaaki, and estimation of adsorption parameters from transient experiments.

Phase transformation and cracking during RT aging of charged, high-purity Fe18Cr12Ni alloy and commerical 304 ss were examined; results show that [epsilon]* (hcp) hydride formed on Fe18Cr12Ni upon charging, and it decomposed rapidly to form first [epsilon] and then [alpha]' martensite. Morphology of fracture surfaces of Fe18Cr12Ni produced by corrosion fatigue in NaCl solutions and in hydrogen was found to be identical. Effort was made to examine the approaches and methodologies used in service life predictions and reliability analyses.

The principal objective of this research is to determine the role host petroleum-derived oils (1000[degrees]F+), as well as that of catalytically treated host oils, play when used as liquefaction solvents in coprocessing with coal. The host oils will be extensively characterized and then pretreated in a number of ways which involve catalytic reactions such as hydrogenation, hydrocracking, isomerization, and dehydrogenation. The pretreated oils will then be characterized. The effects of the host oil on coprocessing with coal will be compared to those obtained using catalytically modified heavy oils. When appropriate, model compounds will be used to study specific reactions brought about by the pretreatments. Highly dispersed iron catalysts modified by the addition of small amounts of other metals will be used to modify the chemical composition of the host oils. To date, five different pretreatment reactions have been carried out on the Amoco oil. Table 1 list some properties of this oil. Details of the reaction conditions used are given in Table 2. An objective of the pretreatment reactions is to increase hydrogen content without too significant a breakdown (cracking) of the hydrocarbon structures. Severe cracking could produce a light hydrocarbon solvent which may not be suitable for coprocessing because …

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Texas Surplus Property Agency is authorized to obtain fire and casualty insurance to protect agency buildings, and related questions (RQ-53)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 may, pursuant to chapter 55, subchapter N of the Water Code, assess a tax on the benefit basis against land belonging to the Permanent University Fund (RQ-715)

Letter opinion issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority may provide buses for use during the 1996 Olympic Games un Atlanta (ID# 38134)

This Engineering Task Plan (ETP) describes the design, fabrication, assembly, and testing of the mobile video camera systems. The color video camera systems will be used to observe and record the activities within the vapor space of a tank on a limited exposure basis. The units will be fully mobile and designed for operation in the single-shell flammable gas producing tanks. The objective of this tank is to provide two mobile camera systems for use in flammable gas producing single-shell tanks (SSTs) for the Flammable Gas Tank Safety Program. The camera systems will provide observation, video recording, and monitoring of the activities that occur in the vapor space of applied tanks. The camera systems will be designed to be totally mobile, capable of deployment up to 6.1 meters into a 4 inch (minimum) riser.

The Tank Waste Remediation System pretreatment process mission is to separate high-level and low-level waste fractions. A comprehensive review of environmental regulations has indicated that several environmental reviews, permits, and approvals are required before construction and operation of the facility. This revised document provides a summary of permit application data requirements, alternative strategies for permit completion and approval, as well as the probability of success for each alternative for the Initial Pretreatment Module resulting from recent revisions to the Tri-Party Agreement.

This hazard analysis (HA) has been prepared for the 300 Area N Reactor Fuel Fabrication and Storage Facility (Facility), in compliance with the requirements of Westinghouse Hanford Company (Westinghouse Hanford) controlled manual WHC-CM-4-46, Nonreactor Facility Safety Analysis Manual, and to the direction of WHC-IP-0690, Safety Analysis and Regulation Desk Instructions, (WHC 1992). An HA identifies potentially hazardous conditions in a facility and the associated potential accident scenarios. Unlike the Facility hazard classification documented in WHC-SD-NR-HC-004, Hazard Classification for 300 Area N Reactor Fuel Fabrication and Storage Facility, (Huang 1993), which is based on unmitigated consequences, credit is taken in an HA for administrative controls or engineered safety features planned or in place. The HA is the foundation for the accident analysis. The significant event scenarios identified by this HA will be further evaluated in a subsequent accident analysis.

The SDC calorimeter will be immersed in a strong magnetic field in the endcap region because of the solenoid which supplies the SDC tracking field. This flux must be returned through the endcap region of the electromagnetic (EM) and hadronic (HAD) calorimeters. Since magnetic fields are known to induce changes in the light output of plastic scintillator, the endcap will need to be recalibrated once the solenoid is energized. In addition, gradients in the field will create nonuniformities in the calorimetric response. The ``induced constant term`` in the EM and HAD calorimeters due to the inhomogeneities induced by the magnetic field are here evaluated in order to see that SDC performance specifications are not compromised.

The principal objective of this research is to determine the role host petroleum-derived oils (1000{degrees}F+), as well as that of catalytically treated host oils, play when used as liquefaction solvents in coprocessing with coal. The host oils will be extensively characterized and then pretreated in a number of ways which involve catalytic reactions such as hydrogenation, hydrocracking, isomerization, and dehydrogenation. The pretreated oils will then be characterized. The effects of the host oil on coprocessing with coal will be compared to those obtained using catalytically modified heavy oils. When appropriate, model compounds will be used to study specific reactions brought about by the pretreatments. Highly dispersed iron catalysts modified by the addition of small amounts of other metals will be used to modify the chemical composition of the host oils. To date, five different pretreatment reactions have been carried out on the Amoco oil. Table 1 list some properties of this oil. Details of the reaction conditions used are given in Table 2. An objective of the pretreatment reactions is to increase hydrogen content without too significant a breakdown (cracking) of the hydrocarbon structures. Severe cracking could produce a light hydrocarbon solvent which may not be suitable for coprocessing because …

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether section 395.011(c) of the Local Government Code authorizes a municipality contract to provide capital improvements to an area outside its corporate boundaries and extraterritorial jurisdiction if the area lies within the boundaries of another municipality and related questions (RQ-669)

Letter opinion issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether an individual may lawfully carry a handgun while fishing on a privately owner pier that is open to the public and licensed by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (ID# 21366)

The use of methanol (MeOH) as a fuel additive and in MTBE production has renewed interest in the search for improved MeOH processes. Commercial processes are characterized by high pressures and temperatures with low per pass conversion (10--12%). Efforts are underway to find improved MeOH synthesis processes. A slurry phase ``concurrent`` synthesis of MeOH/methyl formate (MeF) which operates under relatively mild conditions (100{degrees}C lower than present commercial processes) was the subject of investigation in this work. Evidence for a reaction scheme involving the carbonylation of MeOH to MeF followed by the hydrogenolysis of MeF to two molecules of MeOH -- the net result being the reaction of H{sub 2} with CO to give MeOH via MeF, is presented. Up to 90% per pass conversion and 98% selectivity to methanol at rates comparable to commercial processes have been obtained in spite of the presence of as much as 10,000 ppM CO{sub 2} and 3000 ppM H{sub 2}O in the gas and liquid respectively. The effect of process parameters such as temperature, pressure, H{sub 2}/CO ratio in the reactor, flow rate and catalyst loading were also investigated. The use of temperatures above 170{degrees}C at a pressure of 50 atm results in MeF …

Results are reported on adsorption of water vapor on reservoir rocks, physics of injection of water into vapor-dominated geothermal reservoirs, earth-tide effects on downhole pressures, injection optimization at the Geysers, effects of salinity in adsorption experiments, interpreting multiwell pressure data from Ohaaki, and estimation of adsorption parameters from transient experiments.

The Westinghouse Savannah River Company operates the Savannah River Site for the US Department of Energy (Department) under a cost-plus-award-fee contract. Department policies require contractors to ensure a high level of performance in operating Department facilities by establishing operating standards, assessing performance against such standards, and holding contractor employees accountable for their performance. The purpose of the audit was to review Westinghouse`s policies and practices for determining staffing requirements. Since assuming responsibility for the Savannah River Site in 1989, Westinghouse increased its staffing by over 4,000 employees. The Department had undertaken some actions to reduce the number of contractor employees at the Savannah River Site. Our audit showed that the use of industry and federal performance work standards in its construction and management activities could enable Westinghouse to further reduce its staff by over 1,800 employees. The potential savings in salaries and benefits associated with such action could be about $399 million over a 5-year period. Additional staffing reductions could be attained through the use of engineered time standards in the maintenance and fabrication shops. In addition, Westinghouse significantly understated, in periodic reports to the Department, the personnel resources applied to accomplish contract requirements. Of course, the actual staffing reductions …

Phase transformation and cracking during RT aging of charged, high-purity Fe18Cr12Ni alloy and commerical 304 ss were examined; results show that {epsilon}* (hcp) hydride formed on Fe18Cr12Ni upon charging, and it decomposed rapidly to form first {epsilon} and then {alpha}` martensite. Morphology of fracture surfaces of Fe18Cr12Ni produced by corrosion fatigue in NaCl solutions and in hydrogen was found to be identical. Effort was made to examine the approaches and methodologies used in service life predictions and reliability analyses.

The Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant is investigating the use of induction melting as a method of consolidating Zircaloy-4, a zirconium alloy used in the fabrication of submarine nuclear reactor cores. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL) furnished about 4000 lb of typical core material, also known as hardware, for use in evaluating induction melting as a method of consolidation. Three ingots were produced by the induction melting of hardware in a graphite crucible that was protected by a laminated coating specifically developed for this application. This report includes a description of both the equipment and the crucible coating materials used for this project, a discussion of results, and a production assessment of using this technique for full-scale consolidation.