With Japan the United States has had one of its most important and most difficult trading relationships. Japan ranks second to Canada as the largest U.S. export market. It is also the second largest single source of imports to the United States. Trade issues are likely to become even more important as the whole U.S.-Japanese relationship changes in the post-Cold War period. How each country views and reacts to the other is changing as economic issues replace foreign policy and national security issues as the driving force of the relationship.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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.

Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry was used for in situ determination of uranium and thorium concentrations in soil at 80 sampling sites in the Sewage Treatment Plant area. This work was performed by the Environmental Technology Development Program of the Ames Laboratory using a completely self-contained mobile laboratory. This laboratory, the mobile demonstration laboratory for environmental screening technologies and the robotic sampling accessory, were designed and constructed by the Ames Laboratory during FY 1992. The instrumentation is capable of analyzing each sample for twenty operator-defined elements simultaneously. Using the MDLEST/RSA, the uranium concentrations in the soil at the 80 sampling sites were found to range from <20 parts-per-million (ppM)(<13.5 pCi/g) to 303 ppM (205 pCi/g). The 95% confidence interval for these field determined values range from 80 to 110 ppM. Bore hole samples from two sites were analyzed. No measurable uranium concentration was detected below the one foot depth. Seven samples taken from sites within an area currently under remediation were analyzed and found to contain uranium concentrations ranging from 101 ppM (68.3 pCi/g) to 788 ppM (532 pCi/g). Soil samples were taken from twelve of the 80 sampling sites in the field, using conventional sampling techniques. These samples …