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; Authority of a county to improve certain subdivision roads and assess the cost of repairs against subdivisions (RQ-457)

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 Harris County Flood Control District has a right-of-way to build flood control works across Harris County roads, and related questions (RQ-302)

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 Texas A&M University System may contract with a law firm that has, as one of its partners, a member of the Texas A&M University System’s board of regents and related questions (ID# 17933)

Proton and deuteron kinetic energy spectra have been measured at target rapidities for both minimum bias and central collisions of 14.6 A{center_dot}GeV/c {sup 28}Si and 11.7 A{center_dot}GeV/c {sup 197}Au beams with a {sup 197}Au target. The spectra were measured from a low energy threshold of approximately E{sub kin}=35 MeV to well over 200 MeV for laboratory angles of 50{degree} to 130{degree} ({vert_bar}{eta}{vert_bar} {le}0.76). The acceptance-corrected spectra have been fit over a limited range of kinetic energies using a Boltzmann distribution. The integrated yields and the inverse slope parameters are presented as a function of centrality for the {sup 28}Si + {sup 197}Au reaction and as a function of trigger for the {sup 197}Au + {sup 197}Au reaction. These quantities are also compared with the proton spectra generated using both the ARC and RQMD codes.

We will explore a variant of resonant two-photon ionization (R2PI). Development of the IR + UV R2PI experiment is underway. We have used optical R2PI and pulsed field ionization detection to obtain vibrational spectra of the benzyl and phenylsilane cations. In benzyl, we have learned about the vibronic coupling in the mixed 1[sup 2]A[sub 2]-2[sup 2]B[sub 2] system near 450 nm by projecting the mixed states onto the manifold of cation vibrational states. In phenylsilane[sup +], we find that the sixfold barrier to internal rotation of the silyl group is small (V[sub 6]= +19 cm[sup [minus]1]). We are beginning to understand the mechanisms of coupling of torsional states with vibrations, overall rotation, and other electronic states, and we are developing a model of internal rotation in aromatic compounds based on Weinhold's natural resonance theory. 1 tab, 14 refs.

Starting in 1989, the concept that partitioning and transmuting actinides from spent nuclear fuel could be a {open_quotes}solution{close_quotes} to the apparent lack of progress in the high-level waste disposal program began to be heard from a variety of sources, both in the US and internationally. There have been numerous papers and sessions at scientific conferences and several conferences devoted to this subject in the last three years. At the request of the US Department of Energy, the National Research Council is evaluating the feasibility of this concept. Because either plutonium or highly enriched uranium is needed to startup breeder reactors, there is a sound rationale for using Pu from reprocessing spent light-water reactor fuel to start a conversion to Pu-breeding liquid metal reactors (LMRs), once society makes the determination that adding a large component of LMRs to the electricity-generating grid is desirable. This is the long-term option referred to in the title. It is compatible with the current and likely future high-level waste program, as well as the current nuclear power industry in the US. However, the thesis of this paper is that partitioning and transmutation (P-T) does not offer a near term solution to high-level waste disposal in the …

High power and high radiance laser technologies developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) such as copper-vapor lasers, solid-state slab lasers, dye lasers, harmonic wavelength conversion of these lasers, and fiber optic delivery systems show great promise for material processing tasks. Evaluation of models suggests significant potential for tenfold increases in welding, cutting, and drilling performance, as well as capability for applications in emerging technologies such as micromachining, surface treatment, and stereolithography. The goals of this program are to develop low-cost, reliable and maintainable industrial laser systems. Chains of copper lasers currently operate at more than 1.5 kW output and achieve mean time between failures of more than 1,000 hours. The beam quality of copper vapor lasers is approximately three times the diffraction limit. Dye lasers have near diffraction limited beam quality at greater than 1.0 kW. diode laser pumped, Nd:YAG slab lasers are also being developed at LLNL. Current designs achieve powers of greater than 1.0 kW and projected beam quality is in the two to five times diffraction limited range. Results from cutting and drilling studies in titanium and stainless steel alloys show that cuts and holes with extremely fine features can be made with dye and copper-vapor …

We will explore a variant of resonant two-photon ionization (R2PI). Development of the IR + UV R2PI experiment is underway. We have used optical R2PI and pulsed field ionization detection to obtain vibrational spectra of the benzyl and phenylsilane cations. In benzyl, we have learned about the vibronic coupling in the mixed 1{sup 2}A{sub 2}-2{sup 2}B{sub 2} system near 450 nm by projecting the mixed states onto the manifold of cation vibrational states. In phenylsilane{sup +}, we find that the sixfold barrier to internal rotation of the silyl group is small (V{sub 6}= +19 cm{sup {minus}1}). We are beginning to understand the mechanisms of coupling of torsional states with vibrations, overall rotation, and other electronic states, and we are developing a model of internal rotation in aromatic compounds based on Weinhold`s natural resonance theory. 1 tab, 14 refs.