A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the level of enrollment in the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program and the Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB) program, focusing on: (1) the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of: (a) Medicare beneficiaries who enroll as a QMB or SLMB; and (b) Medicare beneficiaries who qualify for QMB or SLMB but do not enroll; (2) reasons why eligible beneficiaries are not enrolled; and (3) strategies to increase enrollment."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the District of Columbia's compliance with Public Law 105-100, focusing on whether: (1) any District employees were authorized, as of September 1998, to take home official vehicles; and (2) these employees were aware of the statutory restriction on using District government vehicles for other than official business, including home-to-work transportation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Federal Reserve System's (FRS) efforts to remedy the year 2000 problem for its internal computer systems."

The phi factory (Superconducting Mini-Collider or SMC) proposed for construction at UCLA is a single storage ring with circulating currents of 2 A each of electrons and positrons. The small circumference exacerbates the difficulties of handling the gas load due to photo-desorption from the chamber walls. We analyze the vacuum system for the phi factory to specify design choices. 7 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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

Peatlands are one of the most important terrestrial reservoirs in the global cycle for carbon, and are a major source for atmospheric methane. However, little is known about the dynamics of these carbon reservoirs or their feedback mechanisms with the pool of atmospheric CO{sub 2} during the Holocene. Specifically, it is unknown whether large peat basins are sources, sinks, or steady-state reservoirs for the global carbon cycle. In particular, the production and transport of methane, carbon dioxide, and dissolved organic carbon form the deeper portions of these peatlands is unknown. Our DOE research program is to conduct an integrated ecologic and hydrogeochemical study of the Glacial Lake Agassiz peatlands (northern Minnesota) to better understand the carbon dynamics in globally significant peat basins. Specifically, our study will provide local and regional data on (1), rates of carbon accumulation and loss and fluxes of methane in the peat profiles; (2) the physical and botanical factors controlling the production of methane and carbon dioxide in the wetland; and (3) the role of hydrogeologic processes in controlling the fluxes of gases and solutes through the peat. We intend to use computer simulation models, calibrated to field data, to scale-up from local to regional estimates …

The objective of this research is to elucidate the role of various chemical additives on ethanol synthesis over Rh- and Ni-based catalysts. Chemical additives used for this study will include S, P, Ag, Cu, Mn, and Na which have different electronegativities. The effect of additives on the surface state of the catalysts, heat of adsorption of reactant molecules, reaction intermediates, reaction pathways, reaction kinetics, and product distributions is/will be investigated by a series of experimental studies of NO adsorption, reaction probing, study state rate measurement, and transient kinetic study. A better understanding of the role of additive on the synthesis reaction may allow us to use chemical additives to manipulate the catalytic properties of Rh- and Ni-based catalysts for producing high yields of ethanol from syngas.

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Computing has become evermore central to the doing of high energy physics. There are now major second and third generation experiments for which the largest single cost is computing. At the same time the availability of cheap'' computing has made possible experiments which were previously considered infeasible. The result of this trend has been an explosion of computing and computing needs. I will review here the magnitude of the problem, as seen at Fermilab and SLAC, and the present methods for dealing with it. I will then undertake the dangerous assignment of projecting the needs and solutions forthcoming in the next few years at both laboratories. I will concentrate on the offline'' problem; the process of turning terabytes of data tapes into pages of physics journals. 5 refs., 4 figs., 4 tabs.

The objective of this research is to elucidate the role of various chemical additives on ethanol synthesis over Rh- and Ni-based catalysts. Chemical additives used for this study will include S, P, Ag, Cu, Mn, and Na which have different electronegativities. The effect of additives on the surface state of the catalysts, heat of adsorption of reactant molecules, reaction intermediates, reaction pathways, reaction kinetics, and product distributions is/will be investigated by a series of experimental studies of NO adsorption, reaction probing, study state rate measurement, and transient kinetic study. A better understanding of the role of additive on the synthesis reaction may allow us to use chemical additives to manipulate the catalytic properties of Rh- and Ni-based catalysts for producing high yields of ethanol from syngas.

The Hanford Site Integrated Pest Management Plan (HSIPMP) defines the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) decision process and subsequent strategies by which pest problems are to be solved at all Hanford Site properties per DOE-RL Site Infrastructure Division memo (WHC 9505090). The HSIPMP defines the roles that contractor organizations play in supporting the IPM process. In short the IPM process anticipates and prevents pest activity and infestation by combining several strategies to achieve long-term pest control solutions.

A new subkelvin refrigerator, the superfluid Stirling cycle refrigerator, uses a working fluid of {sup 3}He-{sup 4}He mixture in a Stirling cycle. The thermodynamically active components of the mixture are the {sup 3}He, which behaves like a Boltzman gas, and the phonon-roton gas in the {sup 4}He. The superfluid component of the liquid is inert. Two refrigerators have been built and temperatures of 340 mK have been achieved.

Helium is present in the earth's atmosphere at about 5 parts per million. (ref. Technology of liquid helium, NBS monograph 111). The D-Zero detector uses helium for the cryogenic cooling of its superconducting magnet and visible light photon counter (VLPC) electronics chips. In addition, the tevatron accelerator has superconducting magnets that use helium Due to the possibility of leaks or releases of helium from these helium lines and components, the background helium level in the collision hall may exceed the natural level of 5 ppm. This engineering note will quantify the probability and level of helium background in the D-Zero detector. The photomultiplier tubes used in the D-Zero detector are sensitive to an elevated helium atmosphere. This is due to the permeation rate of helium gas through the glass tube, into the vacuum space inside. It is very important for the helium atmosphere surrounding the photomultiplier tubes is known and controlled. If the level of helium in the vacuum tube reaches a level above 5 ppm, then the photomuliplier tube may no longer work as designed. The process is an irreversible one.

The objectives of this working group were to provide the ''Future Light Source Community'' information on: Electron-Laser interaction based sources; Plasma based radiation sources and accelerators; and Present and future high-power laser technology. A summary of presentations, discussions and opinions is presented next. At the end of this report, a few references are given. The list is very far from being complete but is meant as a start for further exploring the various topics discussed in this working group. Based on presentations and discussions during the workshop, a summarizing table of the performance of three different types of laser systems has been made. The emphasis is on listing performance parameters of solid state, FEL and gas based lasers, relevant to the development of a future fourth generation light source. Two types of solid state lasers capable of producing peak power in the multi-terawatt range are described: Nd:glass and Ti:sapphire lasers [1]. The main development for these lasers is towards higher average power levels: from the 10 W to the > 100 W level. An infrared FEL has recently produced 1 kW average power but with peak power on the order of 0.1 GW [2]. A terawatt class, short pulse CO{sub …

Fusion devices based on the adiabatic (or shock) compression of the plasma by electromagnetically driven liner need specific energy sources capable of delivering a high current (~10 MA) in the pulses 0.1 - 1 microsecond long. In the present experimental facilities, the plasma load is situated very close to the pulse-power energy source. In the future fusion devices, one would have to place a plasma load at a considerable distance from the energy source (to avoid strong neutron and thermo-mechanical damage to the source). Several versions of the stand-off energy sources are considered. All are based on the idea of an "assembly" - an object where the plasma load is nested and which contains all necessary circuitry that allows conversion of the energy delivered to the assembly into the magnetic energy. Such "assemblies" will be dropped (or inserted) into the reaction chamber at a desired rate and energized by a stand-off energy source. Four specific concepts have been mentioned.

This website contains the papers presented on November 17, 1998 during the session, "Proliferation Prevention in the Commercial Fuel Cycle," at the American Nuclear Society meeting in Washington, DC. The abstracts are in a separate section; individual papers also contain the author's bio and e-mail address. In the session planning phase, it was suggested that the following questions and other relevant issues be addressed: * What are the difficulties and issues with defining and enforcing international standards for the physical protection of Pu and HEU (beyond the Convention on the Physical protection of Nuclear Material, which primarily addresses transportation)? * How do we (or can we) keep nuclear technology in general, and reprocessing and enrichment technologies in particular, from spreading to undesirable organizations (including governments), in light of Article IV of the NPT? Specifically, can we (should we) prevent the construction of light-water reactors in Iran; and should we support the construction of light-water reactors in North Korea? * Are there more proliferation-resistant fuel cycles that would be appropriate in developing countries? * Can the concept of "nonproliferation credentials" be defined in a useful way? * Is there historical evidence to indicate that reprocessing (or enrichment of HEU) in the …

Two recent developments enable induction accelerators to achieve better and more consistent performance with higher efficiency. First, better and more consistent performance is achieved with insulating coatings that allow magnetic cores to be annealed after winding. Second, losses are reduced by a factor of 2-3 with nanocrystalline alloys, while the flux swing is only slightly reduced to 2.0 T compared with 2.3 T with economical amorphous alloys. One metric for selecting between the alloys is the cost-of-electricity, COE. A systems code optimizes an accelerator and compares the COE for higher flux-swing amorphous and higher-efficiency nanocrystalline materials and for several variations in assumptions.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the status of 10 federal agencies' efforts to implement the Brownfield National Partnership Action Agenda, focusing on: (1) comparing federal agencies' planned financial assistance to brownfields, which are abandoned, idle, or underused industrial facilities, to their actual spending for brownfields in fiscal years (FY) 1997 and 1998; (2) describing the purposes of these obligations; and (3) determining the extent to which agencies met the Partnership's goals and objectives."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army's M939 series 5-ton tactical cargo truck, focusing on the: (1) extent to which accidents involving the truck have occurred; and (2) results of Army studies on the truck's design and its plans to address any identified deficiencies."

The National Ignition Facility Project The mission of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is to produce ignition and modest energy gain in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets. Achieving these goals will maintain U.S. world leadership in ICF and will directly benefit the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) missions in national security, science and technology, energy resources, and industrial competitiveness. Development and operation of the NIF are consistent with DOE goals for environmental quality, openness to the community, and nuclear nonproliferation and arms control. Although the primary mission of inertial fusion is for defense applications, inertial fusion research will provide critical information for the development of inertial fusion energy. The NIF, under construction at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), is a cornerstone of the DOE's science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program for addressing high-energy-density physics issues in the absence of nuclear weapons testing. In pursuit of this mission, the DOE's Defense Programs has developed a state-of-the-art capability with the NIF to investigate high-energy-density physics in the laboratory with a microfusion capability for defense and energy applications. As a Strategic System Acquisition, the NIF Project has a separate and disciplined reporting chain to DOE as shown below.

During the PEP-II LER commissioning run in July 1998 the beam profile in the tune up dump profile monitor just before LER injection showed an anomalous parabolic shape. The sextupole component of the field of bend magnets B2 and B4 in the beginning of the south injection tunnel (SIT) was thought to be the cause of this. An off-line model of the B2/B4 bend magnet field was created using DIMAD. Results of particle tracking simulated in DIMAD were compared with on-line lattice diagnostic data and observations of the beam profile on the tune up dump screen.

Dynamic focusing has been proposed [1] as a way to eliminate a conventional collimation and final focus system in linear colliders, and is a scheme that is more readily extended to colliders at several TeV center-of-mass energy. In this paper we examine several outstanding issues, in particular, the optimization of the lens and main beam parameters. Simulations of the lens-lens, lens-main, and main-main beam collisions using a modified version of the GUINEAPIG beam-beam code are in progress.

One major function of the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) is to characterize wastes in support of waste management and disposal activities at the Hanford Site. Analytical data from sampling and analysis and other information about a tank are compiled and maintained in a tank characterization report (TCR). This report and its appendices serve as the TCR for single-shell tank 241-BY-107. The objectives of this report are (1) to use characterization data in response to technical issues associated with 241-BY-107 waste, and (2) to provide a standard characterization of this waste in terms of a best-basis inventory estimate. Section 2.0 summarizes the response to technical issues, Section 3.0 provides the best-basis inventory estimate, and Section 4.0 makes recommendations about the safety status and additional sampling needs. The appendices contain supporting data and information.