Since early 1993, North Korea has refused to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This is contrary to North Korea's obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its 1992 safeguards agreement with the Agency. Following North Korean obstruction of an inspection in March 1994, the IAEA referred the issue to the U.N. Security Council. The Clinton Administration is set to propose that the Council act against North Korea, possibly including the imposition of sanctions. However, the opposition of China to sanctions and the ambivalent attitude of Russia has resulted in a decision by the Administration to propose initial action by the Council short of sanctions. Measures short of sanctions could end up as the totality of U.N. action.

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;Clarification of Attorney General Opinion DM-249 (1993):tuition rate for non-resident scholarship students(ID# 24128).

The Savannah River Technical Center visually examined several axial piston pump wear plates from Delta-Q Corporation in an effort to determine the cause of the scratches. The investigation found the material and hardness to be approximately consistent with vendor specifications. The visual examination revealed gouges and tears on plates 1 - 4, silicon and aluminum contamination on plates 2 & 3 and a heavy inclusion content in the base metal. The scratches were most likely attributable to either metal debris created by the protruding metal around the gouges and tears or the silicon and aluminum contamination. The heavy inclusion content may have contributed by providing sites for the gouges and tears to develop during fabrication. It is recommended that tighter controls be introduced during procurement to ensure cleaner, inclusion controlled, steel and controlling the silicon and aluminum contamination during process assembly of the pumps. Specific surface texture requirements may also be considered for final machining.

The audit disclosed that Sandia`s pension plans had $588.9 million in excess assets as of December 31, 1990, on a current value basis. If plan terminations and spin-offs occurred, at least $408.8 million of this amount could be returned to the Government without affecting the pension benefits that Sandia employees and retirees have earned. We recommended that Albuquerque take the necessary action to reduce the excess assets in the pension plans and recover the Government`s share. However, Albuquerque disagreed with the recommendation. Albuquerque justified leaving the excess assets in the pension plans to fund future plan amendments; to avoid future funding contributions; to avoid the costs and time-consuming administrative steps associated with taking action; and to prevent damaging effects on employee morale. We analyzed these points, and concluded that they should not prevent the Department from initiating action to return excess assets to the Government. Actuarial analysis of the pension plans showed that, even if certain plan adjustments were made, the plans were overfunded by $256 million as of December 31, 1991 (on an actuarial value basis).

Work continued as planned and scheduled. Total expenditures are below budget. Task 2 is complete. Task 3 is complete except for R, D & T Plan -- Phase II. Task 4 is currently slightly behind schedule but is projected to finish on or ahead of schedule. Task 5 was started early. The following major deliverables were issued: (1) Technical Paper for `93 International Joint Power Generation Conference. (2) Technical Paper for IEA Second International Conference, and (3) Topical Report by EAR on Air Toxics. Subtask 4.1 -- Engineering Analysis in support of the CGU design is nearly complete and partial design specifications are being employed in Task 5. Subtask 4.2 -- Experimental Research efforts consisted of the first series of Drop Tube Furnace tests. Data is being analyzed. Subtask 4.3 -- Modeling work to data resulted in input files for Boiler Simulation Facility and flow pattern convergence was attained. Particle combustion is the next step. This work will be reported on at the next Quarterly Project Review meeting. Task 5 was started early to facilitate Task 6 schedule and quality. Integration of the SNO{sub x} Hot Scheme into the boiler and turbine/feedwater train was optimized and design work on the …