A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal offenders who were ordered to pay criminal fines and victim restitution, focusing on: (1) the percentage of offenders who were ordered to pay fines or restitution in fiscal year (FY) 1997 and those who were not; (2) differences across judicial circuits and districts in the percent of offenders who were ordered to pay fines or restitution and those who were not; and (3) officials' opinions about possible reasons for those differences."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal courts and the differences that exist in ordering fines and restitution, focusing on: (1) the percentages of those offenders who were ordered to pay fines and restitution in fiscal year (FY) 1997 and those who were not; (2) differences across judicial circuits and districts in the percentages of those offenders who were ordered to pay fines or restitution and those who were not; and (3) officials' opinions about possible reasons for these differences."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed how well kinship care is serving foster children, focusing on the: (1) quality of care that children in kinship care receive compared with that received by other foster children, as measured by a caseworker's assessment of a caregiver's parenting skills, the extent to which a foster child is able to maintain contact with familiar people and surroundings, and a caregiver's willingness to enforce court-ordered restrictions on parental visits; (2) frequency with which state child welfare agencies pursue various permanent living arrangements and the time children in kinship care have spent in the system compared with other foster children; and (3) recent state initiatives intended to help ensure that children in kinship care receive good quality foster care and are placed in permanent homes in a timely manner."

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A glass-bonded sodalite ceramic waste form is being developed for the long-term immobilization of salt wastes that are generated during spent nuclear fuel conditioning activities. A durable waste form is prepared by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) a mixture of salt-loaded zeolite powders and glass frit. A mechanistic description of the corrosion processes is being developed to support qualification of the CWF for disposal. The initial set of characterization tests included two standard tests that have been used extensively to study the corrosion behavior of high level waste (HLW) glasses: the Material Characterization Center-1 (MCC-1) Test and the Product Consistency Test (PCT). Direct comparison of the results of tests with the reference CWF and HLW glasses indicate that the corrosion behaviors of the CWF and HLW glasses are very similar.

The Natural Gas Monthly (NGM) highlights activities, events, and analyses of interest to public and private sector organizations associated with the natural gas industry. Volume and price data are presented each month for natural gas production, distribution, consumption, and interstate pipeline activities. Producer-related activities and underground storage data are also reported. From time to time, the NGM features articles designed to assist readers in using and interpreting natural gas information. There are two feature articles in this issue: Natural gas 1998: Issues and trends, Executive summary; and Special report: Natural gas 1998: A preliminary summary. 6 figs., 28 tabs.

To physically investigate permeability upscaling over 13,000 permeability values were measured with four different sample supports (i.e., sample volumes) on a block of Berea Sandstone. At each sample support spatially-exhaustive permeability data sets were measured, subject to consistent flow geometry and boundary conditions, with a specially adapted minipermeameter test system. Here, we present and analyze a subset of the data consisting of 2304 permeability values collected from a single block face oriented normal to stratification. Results reveal a number of distinct and consistent trends (i.e., upscaling) relating changes in key summary statistics to an increasing sample support. Examples include the sample mean and semivariogram range that increase with increasing sample support and the sample variance that decreases. To help interpret the measured mean upscaling we compared it to theoretical models that are only available for somewhat different flow geometries. The comparison suggests that the non-uniform flow imposed by the rninipermeameter coupled with permeability anisotropy at the scale of the local support (i.e., smallest sample support for which data is available) are the primary controls on the measured upscaling. This work demonstrates, experimentally, that it is not always appropriate to treat the local-support permeability as an intrinsic feature of the porous …

This report details the results of a quantitative research study undertaken to better understand the marketplace for solar pool-heating systems from the perspective of residential pool owners.

The PFP Issues/Assumptions Development and Management Planning Guide presents the strategy and process used for the identification, allocation, and maintenance of an Issues/Assumptions Management List for the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) integrated project baseline. Revisions to this document will include, as attachments, the most recent version of the Issues/Assumptions Management List, both open and current issues/assumptions (Appendix A), and closed or historical issues/assumptions (Appendix B). This document is intended be a Project-owned management tool. As such, this document will periodically require revisions resulting from improvements of the information, processes, and techniques as now described. Revisions that suggest improved processes will only require PFP management approval.

This report details the results of a quantitative research study undertaken to better understand the marketplace for solar water-heating systems from the perspective of home builders, architects, and home buyers.

Radio-frequency (RF) driven ion sources are being developed in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) for sealed-accelerator-tube neutron generator application. By using a 5-cm-diameter RF-driven multicusp source H{sup +} yields over 95% have been achieved. These experimental findings will enable one to develop compact neutron generators based on the D-D or D-T fusion reactions. In this new neutron generator, the ion source, the accelerator and the target are all housed in a sealed metal container without external pumping. Recent moderator design simulation studies have shown that 14 MeV neutrons could be moderated to therapeutically useful energy ranges for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). The dose near the center of the brain with optimized moderators is about 65% higher than the dose obtained from a typical neutron spectrum produced by the Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor (BMRR), and is comparable to the dose obtained by other accelerator-based neutron sources. With a 120 keV and 1 A deuteron beam, a treatment time of {approx}35 minutes is estimated for BNCT.

The computing power available to scientists and engineers has increased dramatically in the past decade, due in part to progress in making massively parallel computing practical and available. The expectation for these machines has been great. The reality is that progress has been slower than expected. Nevertheless, massively parallel computing is beginning to realize its potential for enabling significant break-throughs in science and engineering. This paper provides a perspective on the state of the field, colored by the authors' experiences using large scale parallel machines at Sandia National Laboratories. We address trends in hardware, system software and algorithms, and we also offer our view of the forces shaping the parallel computing industry.

This paper presents criticality safety evaluations from an enduser's perspective. Overall issues related to a criticality safety evaluation in an operations support setting are discussed. A work flow process is presented which shows the key steps in conducting an effective criticality evaluation. Finally, a few suggestions are given to assist newcomers to this field.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) examination is presented of the microstructure of a ceramic waste form developed at Argonne National Lab - West for immobilization of actinides and fission products present in an electrorefiner salt. The material is produced by occluding the salt in zeolite granules, followed by hot isostatic pressing of the occluded zeolite in a mixture with a borosilicate glass. The paper presents results from a cold surrogate ceramic waste form, as well as {sup 239}Pu and {sup 238}Pu loaded samples.

The purpose of this paper is to stimulate thought and discussion in the technical community on standardization of the experimental determination of the pertinent electrochemical properties of solid electrolytes in lithium batteries. This standardization is needed for comparison and modeling of solid electrolytes in a practical lithium battery. The appropriate electrochemical properties include transport, thermodynamic, and physical parameters that generally depend on concentration and temperature. While it is beyond the scope of this work to put forward definitive measurement techniques for all types of solid electrolytes, it is hoped that comparisons between various techniques to examine a dissolved binary lithium salt in a dry polymer solvent will lead to improved understanding and methodology for examining solid electrolytes.

A new approach in utilizing a computer data acquisition system is proposed to address many issues associated with criticality safety control. This Criticality Safety Support System (CSSS) utilizes many features of computer and information process technology such as digital pictures, barcodes, voice data entry, etc. to enhance criticality safety in an R and D environment. Due to on-line data retrieving, data recording, and data management offered by new technology, the CSSS would provide a framework to design new solutions to old problems. This pilot program is the first step in developing this application for the years to come.

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