In lieu of property taxes, the Forest Service generally shares 25% of receipts from the sale, lease, rental, or other use of the national forests to the states for use on roads and schools in the counties where the national forests are located. This report discusses concerns about the equity and stability of Forest Service receipt-sharing payments, especially with the decline in timber sales over the past decade, and about the incentives of the current system.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed issues the Department of Defense (DOD) faces in its acquisition of weapon systems."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) proposed rule on the confidentiality of patient health care information, focusing on: (1) the authoritative basis in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) statute for some of the approaches taken by HHS in the proposed rule; (2) the overall pattern of public responses to the rule among a selected group of 40 organizations representing different constituencies affected by the rule; (3) the views expressed by those organizations with respect to sections of the rule that prompted an especially large volume of comments; and (4) concerns that would require legislative action to address."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Air Force's and the Navy's development of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and the recent extension of the program's development schedule, focusing on: (1) what the program's status is and what the causes of the schedule slip and cost increase were; and (2) whether the Air Force is following the most effective acquisition strategy to reduce the risk of cost growth and schedule delays."

A flywheel is an electromechanical storage system in which energy is stored in the kinetic energy of a rotating mass. Flywheel systems under development include those with steel flywheel rotors and resin/glass or resin/carbon-fiber composite rotors. The mechanics of energy storage in a flywheel system are common to both steel- and composite-rotor flywheels. In both systems, the momentum of the rotating rotor stores energy. The rotor contains a motor/generator that converts energy between electrical and mechanical forms. In both types of systems, the rotor operates in a vacuum and spins on bearings to reduce friction and increase efficiency. Steel-rotor systems rely mostly on the mass of the rotor to store energy while composite flywheels rely mostly on speed. During charging, an electric current flows through the motor increasing the speed of the flywheel. During discharge, the generator produces current flow out of the system slowing the wheel down. The basic characteristics of a Flywheel system are shown. Steel flywheel systems are currently being marketed in the US and Germany and can be connected in parallel to provide greater power if required. Sizes range from 40kW to 1.6MW for times of 5--120 seconds. At this time sales are limited but growing. …

The Salt Lake metropolitan area faces some interesting economic and environmental challenges. It ranks eighth in the nation in population growth, so managing its increasing numbers without spoiling the beauty of its high mountain valley may seem to be a contradiction in goals. In addition, the 2002 Winter Olympics will attract almost 2 million visitors during February, when Salt Lake's unusual topography encourages its highest levels of air pollution. The Clean Cities Coalition is working with the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee to find clean vehicles to transport visitors to and from the various Olympic venues. A major goal of the Coalition is to keep as many AFVs as possible in Utah after the Olympics.

The Regional Resource Centers for Innovation (RRCIs) promote networking among the various regional, state, and local specialists who provide services to inventors and small business innovators. This networking facilitates the rapid deployment of I&I technologies that provide solutions for the energy challenges facing the U.S.

Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) which operate in multiple transverse optical modes have been rapidly adopted into present data communication applications which rely on multi-mode optical fiber. However, operation only in the fundamental mode is required for free space interconnects and numerous other emerging VCSEL applications. Two device design strategies for obtaining single mode lasing in VCSELs based on mode selective loss or mode selective gain are reviewed and compared. Mode discrimination is attained with the use of a thick tapered oxide aperture positioned at a longitudinal field null. Mode selective gain is achieved by defining a gain aperture within the VCSEL active region to preferentially support the fundamental mode. VCSELs which exhibit greater than 3 mW of single mode output power at 850 nm with mode suppression ratio greater than 30 dB are reported.

Modes have been observed near the frequency of the second Alfven gap during off-axis H-minority heating experiments in the circular cross-section Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor. The observation of these modes is surprising in that the second gap, which is generally opened with ellipticity, is expected to be small, of order (r/R){sup 2}. A model is proposed in which the second gap is opened by the fast ion beta, which is shown to be able to introduce mode coupling, much as toroidal effects introduce mode coupling for Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes (TAE). The modes are seen with and without accompanying TAE mode activity.

Welding plays an important role in the economical reuse and reclamation of used and failed nickel base superalloy blades. Previous research on microstructure development during laser beam welding of a single crystal CMSX4 alloy [Ref. l] showed non-equilibrium y/y{prime} microstructure development. In addition, the y{prime} precipitates were found to be irregular in shape and atom probe field ion microscopy illustrated the presence of diffusional concentration profile within the y phase in the as welded condition. To understand the above microstructure characteristics, y{prime} precipitation from y phase was investigated during continuous cooling from solutionizing temperature.

Sandia National Laboratories has been studying Energy Storage Systems since the late 1970s. Sandia started by applying their defense program battery experience to larger stationary systems, eventually joining in the formation of the Utility Battery Group which has since evolved into the Energy Storage Association. Sandia's role, as a Department of Energy funded program is to look ahead at emerging technologies, perform early R and D and identify applications for Energy Storage Systems that offer significant benefit to the nation's electricity providers and users. In order to identify applications of energy storage, a two-phase Opportunities Analysis was conceptualized in FY94. Phase 1 of the project was completed and published in 1995 (SAND94-2605). Phase 2 of the project is an extension of Phase 1 to reexamine the identified applications in the dynamic environment of today. In a preliminary assessment of national benefits, SNL estimated that generation and transmission applications of storage could represent $17.2B in national benefits. In Phase 1 of the Opportunities Analysis, the T and D benefits were found to be significantly higher than previous estimates Phase 2 of the study, which began in late 1998, includes a refinement of the technical and economic understanding of the role of …

The Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order was entered into by the State of Nevada, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Department of Defense to identify sites of potential historical contamination and implement corrective actions based on public health and environmental considerations. The facilities subject to this agreement include the Nevada Test Site (NTS), parts of the Tonopah Test Range, parts to the Nellis Air Force Range, the Central Nevada Test Area, and the Project Shoal Area. Corrective Action Sites (CASs) are areas potentially requiring corrective actions and may include solid waste management units, individual disposal, or release sites. Based on geography, technical similarity, agency responsibility, or other appropriate reasons, CASs are grouped together into Corrective Action Units (CAUs) for the purposes of determining corrective actions. This report contains the Closure Verification Forms for cleanup activities performed at the 12 CASs within CAU 36 on the NTS. The Housekeeping Closure Verification Form for each CAS provides the location, directions to the site, general description, and photographs of the site before and after cleanup activities. Housekeeping activities at these sites included removal of batteries, buckets, cans, drums, gas cylinders, and smoke pots. Based on these activities, no further action is required …

This document was prepared to support the primary goals of the Department of Energy, Office of Heavy Vehicle Technologies. These were recently stated as follows: ''Develop by 2004 the enabling technologies for a class 7-8 truck with a fuel efficiency of 10 mpg (at 65 mph) which will meet prevailing emission standards. For Class 3-6 trucks operating on an urban driving cycle, develop by 2004 commercially viable vehicles that achieve at least double the fuel economy of comparable current vehicles (1999), and as a research goal, reduce criteria pollutants to 30% below EPA standards. Develop by 2004 the diesel engine enabling technologies to support large-scale industry dieselization of Class 1 and 2 trucks, achieving a 35 % fuel efficiency improvement over comparable gasoline-fueled trucks, while meeting applicable emissions standards.'' The enabling technologies for improving the fuel efficiency of trucks, include not only engine technologies but also technologies involved with lowering the rolling resistance of tires, reducing vehicle aerodynamic drag, improving thermal management, and reducing parasitic frictional losses in drive train components. Opportunities also exist for making better use of the energy that might ordinarily be dissipated during vehicle braking. Braking systems must be included in this evaluation since safety in …

None

This report describes the development of Savannah River Site (SRS) soil seismic hazard for oscillator frequencies of 1, 2, 5, and 10 Hz. This soil surface hazard supersedes all previous soil hazard analyses conducted for the SRS.

None

Recently, new site-specific seismic design response spectra were developed for Savannah River Site (SRS) performance category (PC) 1,2,3 and 4 structures, systems and components (SSCs) (WSRC, 1997, 1998) in accordance with DOE Standards. The lower performance categories (PC1 and PC2) site-specific design basis were not compatible with the response spectrum generated if building code guidelines were used (National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program Recommended Provisions for Seismic Regulations for New Building, (NEHRP), 1997). These differences in criteria and approach should be documented and understood. Thus, Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC) initiated this study to evaluate the difference between the building code hazard assessment (NEHRP) and the site-specific hazard evaluations used for SRS design.

Scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have generated 300-femtosecond pulses of bend-magnet synchrotron radiation at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) with the aid of a laser ''time-slicing'' technique. This technique allows an ultrashort portion of an electron bunch in the ALS storage ring to be spatially displaced in such a way that the synchrotron radiation from the displaced portion can then be collected separately. Their proof-of-principle experiment demonstrates that this technique is a viable one for producing ultra-short pulses of x-rays. An ALS bend-magnet beamline is already under construction that will be dedicated to time-resolved x-ray diffraction, EXAFS, and other techniques capable of probing the long-range and local structure of matter on a femtosecond time scale. A proposed undulator beamline based on the same technique would further enhance the flux and brightness by orders of magnitude.

None

This document provides the criteria for the design and installation of a Bagless Transfer System (BTS); Blend, Sieve and Balance Equipment; and Supercritical Fluid Extraction System (SFE). The project consists of 3 major modules: (1) Bagless Transfer System (BTS) Module; (2) Blend, Sieve and Balance Equipment; and (3) Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) Module.

None

None