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The project was a joint research effort between the U. S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Kansas City Plant (KCP) and Brandon Research, Inc. to develop ways to improve implants used for orthopedic surgery for joint replacement. The primary product produced by this study is design information, which may be used to develop implants that will improve long-term fixation and durability in the host bone environment.

The authors present and analyze a class of evolutionary algorithms for unconstrained and bound constrained optimization on R{sup n}: evolutionary pattern search algorithms (EPSAs). EPSAs adaptively modify the step size of the mutation operator in response to the success of previous optimization steps. The design of EPSAs is inspired by recent analyses of pattern search methods. They show that EPSAs can be cast as stochastic pattern search methods, and they use this observation to prove that EpSAs have a probabilistic weak stationary point convergence theory. This work provides the first convergence analysis for a class of evolutionary algorithms that guarantees convergence almost surely to a stationary point of a nonconvex objective function.

This report provides inflation-adjusted excise tax rates for alcohol, tobacco, and gasoline products. The base for computation is November 1951. All of the above cited commodities had rate increases effective for that date under the Revenue Act of 1951. The adjustments show what the tax rates would be in 1999 if they had been increased to reflect inflation

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the U.S. government's international science and technology (S&T) agreements that support and encourage international cooperation in research and development, focusing on the: (1) number of international S&T agreements active during fiscal year (FY) 1997; and (2) number of these agreements that resulted in research projects or other activities."

Report on progress made in both NRDC's work on impurities in raw materials and the pollution prevention work with Dow Chemical during the period of 10/1/98 through 1/31/99.

To improve the processing of 3Z valve pistons in LF7 assemblies, material qualities are being investigated. After a review of the fracture toughness curve, it was noted that a change of a few degrees variation from the 900 F called for by the drawing would affect the fracture toughness of the product. After this observation it was decided to determine how close to the 900 F the parts were heat-treated. The subsequent study indicated that Federal Manufacturing & Technologies (FM&T) equipment held the product at 900 F {+-} 1.8 F.

Time-of-flight ion scattering and recoil spectroscopy (TOF-ISARS) enables the characterization of the composition and structure of surfaces with 1-2 monolayer specificity. It will be shown that surface analysis is possible at ambient pressures greater than 3 mTorr using TOF-ISARS techniques; allowing for real-time, in situ studies of film growth processes. TOF-ISARS comprises three analytical techniques: ion scattering spectroscopy (ISS), which detects the backscattered primary ion beam; direct recoil spectroscopy (DRS), which detects the surface species recoiled into the forward scattering direction; and mass spectroscopy of recoiled ions (MSRI), which is 3 variant of DRS capable of isotopic resolution for all surface species--including H and He. The advantages and limitations of each of these techniques will be discussed. The use of the three TOF-ISARS methods for real-time, in situ film growth studies at high ambient pressures will be illustrated. It will be shown that MSRI analysis is possible during sputter deposition. It will be also be demonstrated that the analyzer used for MSRI can also be used for time of flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (TOF-SIMS) under high vacuum conditions. The use of a single analyzer to perform the complimentary surface analytical techniques of MSRI and SIMS is unique. The dwd …

The authors present a compact, robust, solid-state blue light (490 nm) source capable of greater than 5 mW of output in a TEM{sub 00} mode. This device is an optically pumped, vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) with an intracavity frequency doubling crystal.

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) new rule on the average fuel economy standards for light trucks. GAO noted that: (1) NHTSA interprets section 322 of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for fiscal year 1999 as requiring it to prescribe the same light truck corporate average fuel economy standard for model year 2001 that applies to model year 2000; (2) accordingly, the rule continues the 20.7 miles per gallon standard for 2001; (3) this is the same interpretation NHTSA has applied for the three preceding model years and Congress has continued to insert the same language in the yearly Appropriations Acts and has not objected to NHTSA's interpretation; and (4) NHTSA complied with the applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A ceramic-matrix composite having a multilayered interfacial coating adapted to protect the reinforcing fibers from long-term oxidation, while allowing these to bridge the wake of advancing cracks in the matrix, is provided by selectively mismatching materials within adjacent layers of the interfacial coating, the materials having different coefficients of thermal expansion so that a low toughness interface region is created to promote crack deflection either within an interior layer of the mismatched interfacial coating or between adjacent layers of the mismatched interfacial coating.

The authors report room-temperature mid-IR laser operation in a new low-phonon-frequency, non-hygroscopic host crystal CaGa{sub 2}S{sub 4} (calcium thiogallate). Laser action at 4.31 {micro}m on the {sup 6}H{sub 11/2} {r_arrow}{sup 6}H{sub 13/2} transition of trivalent dysprosium was achieved with a slope efficiency of 1.6%.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative, focusing on: (1) how much and for what purposes federal funding has been provided for the restoration of the South Florida ecosystem; and (2) how well the restoration effort is being coordinated and managed."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative, focusing on: (1) how much and for what purposes federal funding was provided for the restoration of the South Florida ecosystem from fiscal year (FY) 1993 through FY 1999; and (2) how well the restoration effort is being coordinated and managed."

The Uranium Industry Annual 1998 (UIA 1998) provides current statistical data on the US uranium industry`s activities relating to uranium raw materials and uranium marketing. It contains data for the period 1989 through 2008 as collected on the Form EIA-858, ``Uranium Industry Annual Survey.`` Data provides a comprehensive statistical characterization of the industry`s activities for the survey year and also include some information about industry`s plans and commitments for the near-term future. Data on uranium raw materials activities for 1989 through 1998, including exploration activities and expenditures, EIA-estimated reserves, mine production of uranium, production of uranium concentrate, and industry employment, are presented in Chapter 1. Data on uranium marketing activities for 1994 through 2008, including purchases of uranium and enrichment services, enrichment feed deliveries, uranium fuel assemblies, filled and unfilled market requirements, and uranium inventories, are shown in Chapter 2. The methodology used in the 1998 survey, including data edit and analysis, is described in Appendix A. The methodologies for estimation of resources and reserves are described in Appendix B. A list of respondents to the ``Uranium Industry Annual Survey`` is provided in Appendix C. The Form EIA-858 ``Uranium Industry Annual Survey`` is shown in Appendix D. For the readers …

Room-temperature tensile tests were conducted on B-doped (300 wppm) and B-free polycrystalline FeAl alloys containing 37, 40, 45, and 48 at. % aluminum in pure hydrogen gas at pressures in the range of 10 sup minus 8 to 10 sup 3 Pa. The ductilities of both B-free and B-doped FeAl decreased with increasing Al content. However, at a given Al level, the ductility of B-doped FeAl was higher than that of its B-free counterpart. Fracture mode was independent of environment and dependent mainly on stoichiometry. Ductility was found to be very sensitive to environment, particularly in the lower Al alloys. Alloys that exhibited >10% ductility in UHV showed a decrease in elongation to fracture with increasing hydrogen pressure. Tests conducted in dry hydrogen gas result in greater ductilities than those conducted in air, indicating that water vapor is more detrimental than H sub 2 to the ductility of FeAl alloys.

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has developed the electrometallurgical treatment process for conditioning various Department of Energy (DOE) spent fuel types for long-term storage or disposal. This process uses electrorefining to separate the constituents of spent fuel into three product streams: metallic uranium, a metal waste form containing the cladding and noble metal fission products, and a ceramic waste form containing the transuranics, and rare earth, alkali, and alkaline earth fission products. While metallic fuels can be directly introduced into the electrorefiner, the actinide components of oxide fuels must first be reduced to the metallic form. The Chemical Technology Division of AFT has developed a process to reduce the actinide oxides that uses lithium at 650 C in the presence of molten LiCl, yielding the actinide metals and Li{sub 2}O. A significant amount of work has already been accomplished to investigate the basic chemistry of the lithium reduction process and to demonstrate its applicability to the treatment of light-water reactor- (LWR-) type spent fuel. The success of this work has led to conceptual plans to construct a pilot-scale oxide reduction facility at ANL's Idaho site. In support of the design effort, a series of laboratory- and engineering-scale experiments is being conducted …

Several Hanford waste tanks have been observed to exhibit periodic releases of significant quantities of flammable gases. Because potential safety issues have been identified with this type of waste behavior, applicable tanks were equipped with instrumentation offering the capability to continuously monitor gases released from them. This document was written to cover three primary areas: (1) describe the current technical basis for requiring flammable gas monitoring, (2) update the technical basis to include knowledge gained from monitoring the tanks over the last three years, (3) provide the criteria for removal of Standard Hydrogen Monitoring System(s) (SHMS) from a waste tank or termination of other flammable gas monitoring activities in the Hanford Tank farms.

The Greening of the Department of Energy Headquarters is a comprehensive, multi-year project designed to identify and implement specific actions DOE can take to save energy and money, improve the comfort and productivity of employees, and benefit the environment. It is part of the Administration`s overall effort to promote greening in all of the nation`s federal buildings. Present Clinton started the Greening of the White House in 1993, and similar efforts have been undertaken by the Department of Defense at the Pentagon, the National Park Service at the Presidio, and now the Department of Energy at the Forrestal and Germantown buildings. The Greening of the Department of Energy Headquarters, An Action Plan for Success (Action Plan), unveiled on April 22, 1996, outlined more than 80 action items for DOE`s Forrestal and Germantown buildings. The action items were designed to increase energy efficiency, improve resource management, improve air quality, reduce water use, reduce paper use, improve landscape management, improve maintenance and operational procedures, increase employee participation, and promote education and outreach. In the two years since the Action Plan was introduced, the Department of Energy has made major progress in implementing specific action items designed to target four major subject areas: …

The objectives of this quarterly report are to summarize the work conducted under each task during the reporting period January - March 1998 and to report all technical data and findings as specified in the "Federal Assistance Reporting Checklist". The main objective of this project is the transfer of technologies, methodologies, and findings developed and applied in this project to other operators of Slope and Basin Clastic Reservoirs. This project will study methods to identify sands with high remaining oil saturation and to recomplete existing wells using advanced completion technology. The identification of the sands with high remaining oil saturation will be accomplished by developing a deterministic three dimensional (3-D) geologic model and by using a state of the art reservoir management computer software. The wells identified by the geologic and reservoir engineering work as having the best potential will be logged with cased-hole logging tools. The application of the logging tools will be optimized in the lab by developing a rock-log model. This rock-log model will allow us to translate measurements through casing into effective porosity and hydrocarbon saturation. The wells that are shown to have the best oil production potential will be recompleted. The recompletions will be optimized …

The oxidation behavior of uranium metal ZPPR fuel corrosion products in environments of Ar-4%O{sub 2} and Ar-20%O{sub 2} were studied using thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). These tests were performed to extend earlier work in this area specifically, to assess plate-to-plate variations in corrosion product properties and the effect of oxygen concentration on oxidation behavior. The corrosion products from two relatively severely corroded plates were similar, while the products from a relatively intact plate were not reactive. Oxygen concentration strongly affected the burning rate of reactive products, but had little effect on low-temperature oxidation rates.

This Quality Assurance Program Plan (QAPP) identifies project quality assurance requirements for all contractors involved in the planning and execution of Hanford Site activities for design, procurement, construction, testing and inspection for Project W-460, Plutonium Stabilization and Handling. The project encompasses procurement and installation of a Stabilization and Packaging System (SPS) to oxidize and package for long term storage remaining plutonium-bearing special nuclear materials currently in inventory at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP), and modification of vault equipment to allow storage of resulting packages of stabilized SNM.

A technical review of the DOE criteria for storage of plutonium metals and oxides determined the maximum pressure that could be obtained from 50-year storage of 5.0-kg of PuO{sub 2} powder under the assumed worst-case conditions derived from the DOE standard [1,2]. Those conditions included a final temperature of 400 F and the reaction to yield H{sub 2} gas in accordance with the equation PuO{sub 2}(c) + x H{sub 2}O {r_arrow} PuO{sub 2+x}(c) + x H{sub 2}(g) where the x moles of sorbed water represents 0.5 wt.% of the PuO{sub 2}. The worst-case conditions also included the generation of He gas from the 50-year {alpha}-decay of the plutonium, that was considered to be power grade plutonium with the maximum limit of 3% for the short-lived isotope, Pu-238. The free volume for containment of the gases generated in the primary containment vessel, assuming failure of its inner boundary container, was assumed to be 2.5-L value given in the original standard.

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