Tritium technology programs in the United States (open access)

Tritium technology programs in the United States

Tritium technology in the United States has advanced considerably since the 1988 Tritium Conferences in Toronto. This advance has come in facilities, processing and safety related technologies and in an ever increasing commitment to compliance related issues. The major laboratories in the US tritium programs continue to be (Westinghouse) Savannah River Site, EG G Mound, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Each of these Laboratories have made some significant changes in their programs and/or facilities in the past four years. 11 refs, 1 fig.
Date: January 1, 1991
Creator: Anderson, J. L.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Competing Economies: America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim (open access)

Competing Economies: America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim

This report examines how the economic environment of the United States can be made more conducive to improving manufacturing performance. It considers how Federal institutions, in cooperation with industry, can develop competitiveness strategies for high-tech, fast growing industries; and how trade, financial, and technology policies could be combined into a strategic competitiveness policy.
Date: October 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Complex Cleanup: The Environmental Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Production (open access)

Complex Cleanup: The Environmental Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Production

This report is a comprehensive look at the problem as we now know it, the public concerns about the problem, and DOE’s plans for addressing it. It focuses especially on the need for additional attention to those areas which DOE has neither the capability nor the credibility to handle.
Date: February 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Verification Technologies: Cooperative Aerial Surveillance in International Agreements (open access)

Verification Technologies: Cooperative Aerial Surveillance in International Agreements

This report examines the potential and limitations of cooperative aerial surveillance as a means of supporting the goals of a variety of international agreements. It surveys the types of aircraft and sensors that might be used. It reviews the status of and issues raised by the Open Skies Treaty negotiations as an extended example of an aerial surveillance regime. The report concludes with a quantitative analysis of one possible use of cooperative over flights: the search for potential arms control violations.
Date: July 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Delivering the Goods: Public Works Technologies, Management, and Financing (open access)

Delivering the Goods: Public Works Technologies, Management, and Financing

This report identifies several immediate steps the Federal Government could take. First, new environmental standards, population shifts, and industrial changes have transformed the nature of many public works problems, and Federal programs must be refocused to fit the new circumstances. Second, if we expect to maintain our economic health, the Nation must increase its investment in public works, despite budget dilemmas.
Date: April 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dioxin Treatment Technologies (open access)

Dioxin Treatment Technologies

This paper presents the status of national efforts to cleanup dioxin-contaminated sites and the technologies that have been used, proposed, and researched. It covers thermal and nonthermal treatment techniques as well as approaches such as stabilization and storage. It discusses the development of these technologies as well as advantages and disadvantages of their use.
Date: November 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Energy Efficiency in the Federal Government: Government by Good Example? (open access)

Energy Efficiency in the Federal Government: Government by Good Example?

This report focuses on the Federal Government, the Nation’s largest single energy consumer, in terms of the opportunities and constraints for the use of energy efficient technologies. Energy efficient technologies could greatly reduce energy demand growth and spending in the United States and lessen environmental impacts while increasing productivity. Yet, in today’s public and private markets, adoption rates for many of these technologies are low. This report reviews past and current efforts to improve Federal energy efficiency and discusses policy options that could accelerate the adoption of these measures by the Federal Government.
Date: May 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Energy in Developing Countries (open access)

Energy in Developing Countries

This report, the first of two, was prepared in response to the requesting committees’ interest in receiving an interim product. It examines how energy is supplied and used in developing countries, and how energy use is linked with economic and social development and environmental quality.
Date: January 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Energy Technology Choices: Shaping Our Future (open access)

Energy Technology Choices: Shaping Our Future

The report provides a broad overview of energy choices facing the Nation. It is not an exhaustive analysis of any one technology; rather, it draws together the main themes of OTA reports from the past 16 years, and other documents, into an outline of the main directions the country could follow.
Date: July 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Exploring the Moon and Mars: Choices for the Nation (open access)

Exploring the Moon and Mars: Choices for the Nation

This report, the result of an assessment of the potential for automation and robotics technology to assist in the exploration of the Moon and Mars, raises a number of issues related to the goals of the U.S. civilian space program. Among other things, the report discusses how greater attention to automation and robotics technologies could contribute to U.S. space exploration efforts.
Date: July 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adjusting to a New Security Environment: The Defense Technology and Industrial Base Challenge (open access)

Adjusting to a New Security Environment: The Defense Technology and Industrial Base Challenge

This background paper, OTA sought information and advice from a broad spectrum of knowledgeable individuals and organizations whose contributions are gratefully acknowledged. As with all OTA studies, the content of this background paper is the sole responsibility of the Office of Technology Assessment and does not necessarily represent the views of our advisers and reviewers.
Date: February 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adolescent Health, Volume 1: Summary and Policy Options (open access)

Adolescent Health, Volume 1: Summary and Policy Options

This OTA’s report responds to the request of numerous Members of Congress to review the physical, emotional, and behavioral health status of contemporary American adolescents, including adolescents in groups who might be more likely to be in special need of health-related interventions: adolescents living in poverty, adolescents from racial and ethnic minority groups, Native American adolescents, and adolescents in rural areas. In addition, OTA was asked to: 1 ) identify risk and protective factors for adolescent health problems and integrate national data in order to understand the clustering of specific adolescent problems, 2) evaluate options in the organization of health services and technologies available to adolescents (including accessibility and financing), 3) assess options in the conduct of national health surveys to improve collection of adolescent health statistics, and 4) identify gaps in research on the health and behavior of adolescents.
Date: April 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adolescent Health, Volume 2: Background and the Effectiveness of Selected Prevention and Treatment Services (open access)

Adolescent Health, Volume 2: Background and the Effectiveness of Selected Prevention and Treatment Services

The report responds to the request of numerous Members of Congress to review the physical, emotional, and behavioral health status of contemporary American adolescents, including adolescents in groups who might be more likely to be in special need of health-related interventions: adolescents living in poverty, adolescents from racial and ethnic minority groups, Native American adolescents, and adolescents in rural areas.
Date: October 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adolescent Health, Volume 3: Crosscutting Issues in the Delivery of Health and Related Services (open access)

Adolescent Health, Volume 3: Crosscutting Issues in the Delivery of Health and Related Services

OTA’s report responds to the request of numerous Members of Congress to review the physical, emotional, and behavioral health status of contemporary American adolescents, including adolescents in groups who might be more likely to be in special need of health-related interventions: adolescents living in poverty, adolescents from racial and ethnic minority groups, Native American adolescents, and adolescents in rural areas.
Date: June 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Agricultural Commodities as Industrial Raw Materials (open access)

Agricultural Commodities as Industrial Raw Materials

This report examines potential new crops and traditional crops for industrial uses including replacements for petroleum and imported strategic materials; replacements for imported newsprint, wood rosins, rubbers, and oils; and degradable plastics. This report finds that, in the absence of additional and more comprehensive policies, developing industrial uses for agricultural commodities alone is unlikely to revitalize rural economies and solve the problems of American agriculture.
Date: June 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
American Military Power: Future Needs, Future Choices (open access)

American Military Power: Future Needs, Future Choices

This background paper outlines some of the issues of importance for making choices about the future nature and role of U.S. armed forces, and suggests how these choices will affect defense base requirements. The final report of the assessment, to be delivered in the spring of 1992, will address specific policy options arising from the strategic choices and tactical decisions discussed here.
Date: October 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Automated Record Checks for Firearm Purchasers: Issues and Options (open access)

Automated Record Checks for Firearm Purchasers: Issues and Options

This report assesses the proposals and prospects for automated checks, ranging from the point-of-sale “instant” check now used by the State of Virginia, to the establishment of a computerized national felons file, to live scanning of fingerprints, or the issuance of ‘smart’ cards to identify firearm purchasers. It considers the benefits, costs, and risks of automated checks. The report examines the relationship between automated record checks and waiting periods, the wide variability in State criminal record systems, and the challenges of improving the automation and quality of record systems.
Date: July 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Biological Rhythms: Implications for the Worker (open access)

Biological Rhythms: Implications for the Worker

This report discusses biological rhythms: what they are, how they are controlled by the brain, and the role they play in regulating physiological and cognitive functions. The major focus of the report is the examination of the effects of nonstandard work hours on biological rhythms and how these effects can interact with other factors to affect the health, performance, and safety of workers.
Date: September 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bioremediation for Marine Oil Spills (open access)

Bioremediation for Marine Oil Spills

This OTA background paper evaluates the current state of knowledge and assesses the potential of bioremediation for responding to marine oil spills. Our basic message is a dual one: we caution that there are still many uncertainties about the use of bioremediation as a practical oil spill response technology; nevertheless, it could be appropriate in certain circumstances, and further research and development of bioremediation technologies could lead to enhancing the Nation’s capability to fight marine oil spills.
Date: May 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Biotechnology in a Global Economy (open access)

Biotechnology in a Global Economy

This report examines the impact of biotechnology in several industries, including pharmaceuticals, chemicals, agriculture, and hazardous waste clean-up; the efforts of 16 Nations to develop commercial uses of biotechnology; and the actions, both direct and indirect, taken by various governments that influence innovation in biotechnology.
Date: October 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Changing by Degrees: Steps To Reduce Greenhouse Gases (open access)

Changing by Degrees: Steps To Reduce Greenhouse Gases

This report discusses the actions necessary to effect a major reduction of United States. carbon dioxide emissions. The U.S. is the world’s leading industrial society and largest single emitter of carbon dioxide. Climate change therefore presents a unique challenge to this Nation. It is a threat that will require major prudent political actions even before all the scientific certainties are resolved. The analysis, prevention, and remediation of global warming will require unprecedented international cooperation and action—an effort requiring actions sustained over decades, not just a few years.
Date: February 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
HIV in the Health Care Workplace (open access)

HIV in the Health Care Workplace

This background paper examines evidence of the risk of HIV transmission in the health care workplace and discusses the policy implications of CDC guidelines and congressional actions in response to this risk.
Date: November 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Verification Technologies: Managing Research and Development for Cooperative Arms Control Monitoring Measures (open access)

Verification Technologies: Managing Research and Development for Cooperative Arms Control Monitoring Measures

This report examines the management of the research and development process from which the new technologies are emerging. Partly as a result of the way in which the research and development process is managed, the allocation of research resources appears to be geared to meeting short-term needs and solving isolated problems, rather than to pursuing long-term goals and developing integrated verification regimes for the future. The report identifies a range of organizational options that might help improve the balance of research emphasis.
Date: May 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Review of a Protocol for a Study of Reproductive Health Outcomes Among Women Vietnam Veterans (open access)

Review of a Protocol for a Study of Reproductive Health Outcomes Among Women Vietnam Veterans

This report discusses the study that has been proposed as a partial response to the mandate of Public Law 99-272; that law also requires approval from the Director of OTA before any such studies are undertaken, which is the reason for this review. This study is one of three that make up the full VA response to the mandate to look into the health of women Vietnam veterans.
Date: December 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library