This issue brief describes the FY1996 request for DOE's major programs, its implications, and congressional action on the DOE budget. Table 1 at the end of the issue brief highlights the FY1996 DOE budget request.

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Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to the full-time classified state employee turnover rate for Fiscal Year 1996. This report provides classified employee turnover information that can be used to evaluate and address areas of concern related to turnover and potentially reduce turnover costs to the State. Turnover rates greater than 35 percent were specifically analyzed and reported by agency, occupational categories, and class series because a rate greater than 35 percent is indicative of organization problems.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to identifying and summarizing the issues presented in the internal auditors' annual reports for fiscal years 1995 and 1996; to presenting those issues of concern to more than one agency or university, and to identifying and reporting trends in the issues reported by the internal auditors; and to summarizing the internal auditing functions' compliance with the reporting requirements of the Texas Internal Auditing Act.

Preliminary experiment has been made for cross injecting water sprays into a convective air stream to test the air-blast atomization system which has been constructed for CWS atomization in the future. A laser diffraction particle analyzing technique (the Malvern system) nonintrusively measured the drop size SMDs for various injection parameters including the convective air flow rate, flow rate of the injected liquid (distilled water), orifice diameter, and measurement locations along the two-dimensional spray plane. Buckingham-PI analysis finds the correlation of dimensionless parameters. A correlation of drop Sauter mean diameter (SMD) normalized to the orifice diameter is obtained from all the experimental data for the case of distilled water sprays.

This project investigates both flow dynamics and microbial processes affecting NAPLs in fractured rock in a closely coupled, integrated manner. The objective is to develop a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the behavior of two and three immiscible fluid phases, microbial transformation and/or degradation, and to provide a scientific basis for field investigations, site characterization, and remedial action for NAPL contamination in fractured rocks. To achieve this, the program combines laboratory and theoretical investigations, coupled with the evaluation of conditions at relevant field sites. This report summarizes the work accomplished since inception of the project in April 1996.