Geophysical imaging in the vadose zone poses unique issues. Groundwater contamination at DOE's Hanford, Washington site needs optimal imaging because extremely high drilling costs make direct characterization quite expensive. We conducted seismic and radar crosswell experiments to help answer basic questions about high resolution geophysical characterization. We acquired time lapse surveys during controlled injections of river water and saline solution. Radar imaging of dielectric changes delineated geological layers and moisture movement with 0.25 m resolution. Seismic velocity measurements delineated lithology at 0.25 m resolution with sensitivity to porosity and density changes in sediments and penetration of over 20 m using two sources of different bandwidths.

Accelerator-based measurements and model calculations have been used to study the heavy ion radiation transport properties of materials in use on the International Space Station (ISS). Samples of the ISS aluminum outer hull were augmented with various configurations of internal wall material and polyethylene. The materials were bombarded with high energy Fe ions characteristic of a significant part of the Galactic Cosmic Ray (GCR) heavy ion spectrum. Transmitted primary ions and charged fragments produced in nuclear collisions in the materials were measured near the beam axis, and a model was used to extrapolate from the data to lower beam energies and to a lighter ion. For the materials and ions studied, at incident particle energies from 1037 MeV/nucleon down to at least 600 MeV/nucleon, nuclear fragmentation reduces the average dose and dose equivalent per incident ion. At energies below 400 MeV/nucleon, the calculation predicts that as material is added, increased ionization energy loss produces increases in some dosimetric quantities. These limited results suggest that the addition of modest amounts of polyethylene or similar material to the interior of the ISS will reduce the dose to ISS crews from space radiation; however the radiation transport properties of ISS materials should be …

This data documentation discusses the procedures and methods used to measure total carbon dioxide (TCO{sub 2}) and the fugacity of CO{sub 2} (fCO{sub 2}) at hydrographic stations during the R/V Meteor oceanographic cruise 28/1 in the South Atlantic Ocean (Section A8). Conducted as part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), the cruise began in Recife, Brazil, on March 29, 1994, and ended after 35 days at sea in Walvis Bay, Namibia, on May 12, 1994. Instructions for accessing the data are provided. TCO{sub 2} was measured using two single-operator multiparameter metabolic analyzers (SOMMA) coupled to a coulometer for extracting and detecting CO{sub 2} from seawater samples. The overall precision and accuracy of the analyses was {+-}1.17 {micro}mol/kg. For the second carbonate system parameter, the fCO{sub 2} was measured in discrete samples by equilibrating a known volume of liquid phase (seawater) with a known volume of a gas phase containing a known mixture of CO{sub 2} in gaseous nitrogen (N{sub 2}). After equilibration, the gas phase CO{sub 2} concentration was determined by flame ionization detection following the catalytic conversion of CO{sub 2} to methane (CH{sub 4}). The precision of these measurements was less than or equal to 1.0%. The R/V …

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected caustic-side solvent extraction as the preferred cesium removal technology for the treatment of high-level waste stored at the Savannah River Site. Data for the solubility of the extractant, calix[4]arene-bis(tert-octyl benzo-crown-6), acquired and reported for the Salt Processing Program down-select decision, showed the original solvent composition to be supersaturated with respect to the extractant. Although solvent samples have been observed for approximately 1 year without any solids formation, work was completed to define a new solvent composition that was thermodynamically stable with respect to solids formation and to expand the operating temperature with respect to third-phase formation. Chemical and physical data as a function of solvent component concentrations were collected. The data included calix[4]arene-bis(tert-octyl benzo-crown-6) solubility; cesium distribution ratio under extraction, scrub, and strip conditions; flow sheet robustness; temperature range of third-phase formation; dispersion numbers for the solvent against waste simulant, scrub and strip acids, and sodium hydroxide wash solutions; solvent density; viscosity; and surface and interfacial tension. These data were mapped against a set of predefined performance criteria. The composition of 0.007 M calix[4]arene-bis(tert-octyl benzo-crown-6), 0.75 M 1-(2,2,3,3-tetrafluoropropoxy)-3-(4-sec-butylphenoxy)-2-propanol, and 0.003 M tri-n-octylamine in the diluent Isopar{reg_sign} L provided the best match between the …

Electrochemical noise (ECN) probes were deployed in a carbon steel continuous kraft digester at five locations roughly equi-spaced from top to bottom of the vessel. Current and potential noise, the temperature at each probe location, and the value of about 60 process parameters (flow rates, liquor chemistry, etc.) were monitored continuously for a period of one year. Historical vessel inspection data, including inspections accomplished immediately prior to and immediately following probe deployment, and post-test evaluation of the probe components were used to assess/compare corrosion indications from the probes with physical changes in wall thickness and corrosion patterns on the digester shell. The results indicate that furnish composition is a significant variable influencing digester corrosion, with increasing amounts of Douglas fir in the nominal furnish correlating directly with increased corrosion activity on the ECN probes. All five probes detected changes in furnish composition approximately simultaneously, indicating rapid chemical communication through the liquor, but the effect was strongest and persisted longest relatively high in the digester. The ECN probes also indicate significant corrosion activity occurred at each probe position during shutdown/restart transients. Little or no correlation between ECN probe corrosion activity and other operational variables was observed. Post-test evaluation of the probes …

This ecological risk assessment for a testing program at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, is a demonstration of the Military Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (MERAF; Suter et al. 2001). The demonstration is intended to illustrate how risk assessment guidance concerning-generic military training and testing activities and guidance concerning a specific type of activity (e.g., low-altitude aircraft overflights) may be implemented at a military installation. MERAF was developed with funding from the Strategic Research and Development Program (SERDP) of the Department of Defense. Novel aspects of MERAF include: (1) the assessment of risks from physical stressors using an ecological risk assessment framework, (2) the consideration of contingent or indirect effects of stressors (e.g., population-level effects that are derived from habitat or hydrological changes), (3) the integration of risks associated with different component activities or stressors, (4) the emphasis on quantitative risk estimates and estimates of uncertainty, and (5) the modularity of design, permitting components of the framework to be used in various military risk assessments that include similar activities. The particular subject of this report is the assessment of ecological risks associated with a testing program at Cibola Range of Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. The program involves an Apache Longbow helicopter firing …

Gamma-ray spectroscopy is a valuable tool of science and technology. Many applications for this tool are in need of a detector technology capable of achieving excellent energy resolution and efficient detection while operating at room temperature. Detectors based on the material cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) could potentially meet this need if certain material deficiencies are addressed. The coplanar-grid as well as other electron-only detection techniques are effective in overcoming some of the material problems of CdZnTe and, consequently, have led to efficient gamma-ray detectors with good energy resolution while operating at room temperature. At the present time, the performance of these detectors is mainly limited by the degree of uniformity in electron generation and transport. Despite recent progress in the growth of CdZnTe material, small variations in these properties remain a barrier to the widespread success of such detectors. Alpha-particle response characterization of Cd ZnTe crystals fabricated into simple planar detectors provides an effective tool to accurately study such variations. We have used a finely collimated alpha source to produce two-dimensional maps of detector response. For a number of crystals, a clear correlation has been observed between their alpha response maps and the distribution of tellurium inclusions inside the crystals. …

In typical observations of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), a magnetic structure of a helmet-shaped closed configuration bulges out and eventually opens up. However, a spontaneous transition between these field configurations has been regarded to be energetically impossible in force-free fields according to the Aly-Sturrock theorem. The theorem states that the maximum energy state of force-free fields with a given boundary normal field distribution is the open field. The theorem implicitly assumes the existence of the maximum energy state, which may not be taken for granted. In this study, we have constructed force-free fields containing tangential discontinuities in multiple flux systems. These force-free fields can be generated from a potential field by footpoint motions that do not conserve the boundary normal field distribution. Some of these force-free fields are found to have more magnetic energy than the corresponding open fields. The constructed force-free configurations are compared with observational features of CME-bearing active regions. Possible mechanisms of CMEs are also discussed.

Laboratory measurements of the electrical resistivity of fractured analogue geothermal reservoir rocks were performed to investigate the resistivity contrast caused by active boiling and to determine the effects of variable fracture dimensions and surface area on water extraction. Experiments were performed at confining pressures up to 10 h4Pa (100 bars) and temperatures to 170 C. Fractured samples show a larger resistivity change at the onset of boiling than intact samples. Monitoring the resistivity of fractured samples as they equilibrate to imposed pressure and temperature conditions provides an estimate of fluid migration into and out of the matrix. Measurements presented are an important step toward using field electrical methods to quantitatively search for fractures, infer saturation, and track fluid migration in geothermal reservoirs.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century changed the budgetary treatment of programs financed by the Highway Trust Fund. The act guaranteed annual funding levels for most highway and transit programs and linked highway user tax receipts, such as those from motor fuel and truck tire taxes, to the annual funding levels for highway programs. Revenue aligned budget authority adjustments are made to the annual guaranteed funding level provided in the act as highway account receipt levels change. For the first time, the adjustment for fiscal year 2003 is negative--decreasing the guaranteed level of highway funding by $4.369 billion. GAO found that the amounts distributed to the Highway Trust Fund for the first nine months of fiscal year 2001, as adjusted based on the Internal Revenue Service's certifications, were reasonable and adequately supported."

This report discusses the developments in Iranian foreign policy, their involvement with terrorist organizations, the developments made with respect to weapons of mass destruction, and human rights concerns. It also details the Bush Administration's efforts to maintain the sanctions put in place by the Clinton Administration.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plans to spend $2.9 billion to modernize its information systems. This report reviews the latest draft of IRS' Investment Decision Management Business Case Procedure, which guides the agency's information technology (IT) investments. GAO discusses changes to the guidance that would ensure that the economic analyses in IRS business cases are consistent with commonly accepted principles. IRS' draft guidance on business case documentation represents an important step toward ensuring that IRS management has relevant information on which to base its critical IT investment decisions. However, some aspects of IRS' guidance are inconsistent with commonly held principles of public sector cost-benefit analysis. Most important, the guidance does not require the computation of a comprehensive social net present value (NPV)--the standard for deciding whether a government investment can be justified on economic grounds. The two partial NPV computations that IRS' guidance requires are inappropriate because they do not incorporate the proper values for all relevant benefits and costs for investment projects with significant effects outside of IRS. In addition, IRS' two NPV's are not additive, so even if all benefits and costs were properly valued, decision …

This report provides a concise historical account of the dispute, summarizes the subsidy and injury evidence, and discusses the current issues and events regarding lumber imports from Canada.

None

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) paid $2.1 billion in medical and death benefits and received 174,000 new injury claims during fiscal year 2000. GAO found that (1) one in four appealed claims' decisions are reversed or remanded to OWCP district offices for additional consideration and a new decision because of questions about or problems with the initial claims decision; (2) OWCP set a goal of informing 96 percent of claimants within 110 days of the date of the hearing; (3) nearly all doctors used by OWCP to provide opinions on injuries claimed were board certified and state licensed and were specialists in areas consistent with the injuries they evaluated; and (4) OWCP has used mailed surveys, telephone surveys, and focus groups to measure customer satisfaction. The Labor inspector general is monitoring fraud within OWCP's workers compensation program and using the claims examiners as one source to identify potentially fraudulent claims. This testimony is based on a May report (GAO-02-637)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) paid $2.1 billion in medical and death benefits and received about 174,000 new injury claims during fiscal year 2000. GAO found that (1) one in four appealed claims' decisions are reversed or remanded to OWCP district offices for additional consideration and a new decision because of questions about or problems with the initial claims decision; (2) OWCP set a goal of informing 96 percent of claimants within 110 days of the date of the hearing; (3) nearly all doctors used by OWCP to provide opinions on injuries claimed were board certified and state licensed, and were specialists in areas consistent with the injuries they evaluate; and (4) OWCP has used mailed surveys, telephone surveys, and focus groups to measure customer satisfaction. The Labor inspector general is monitoring fraud within OWCP's workers compensation program and using the claims examiners as one source in identifying potentially fraudulent claims."

The Physics and Advanced Technologies (PAT) Directorate was created in July 2000 by Bruce Tarter, Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The Director called for the new organization to execute and support programs that apply cutting-edge physics and advanced technology to develop integrated solutions to problems in national security, fusion energy, information science, health care, and other national grand challenges. When I was appointed a year later as the PAT Directorate's first Associate Director, I initiated a strategic planning project to develop a vision, mission, and long-term goals for the Directorate. We adopted the goal of becoming a leader in frontier physics and technology for twenty-first-century national security missions: Stockpile Stewardship, homeland security, energy independence, and the exploration of space. Our mission is to: (1) Help ensure the scientific excellence and vitality of the major LLNL programs through its leadership role in performing basic and applied multidisciplinary research and development with programmatic impact, and by recruiting and retaining science and technology leaders; (2) Create future opportunities and directions for LLNL and its major programs by growing new program areas and cutting-edge capabilities that are synergistic with, and supportive of, its national security mission; (3) Provide a direct conduit to …

Based on Renormalization Group method, a reduction of non integratable multi-dimensional Hamiltonian systems has been performed. The evolution equations for the slowly varying part of the angle-averaged phase space density and for the amplitudes of the angular modes have been derived. It has been shown that these equations are precisely the Renormalization Group equations. As an application of the approach developed, the modulational diffusion in one-and-a-half degrees of freedom dynamical system has been studied in detail.

Releasing the energy stored in an isomeric nuclear state in a controlled way with an atomic or electromagnetic trigger is an attractive speculation: the energy gain may be on the order of the ratio of nuclear/atomic energies - MeV/keV. (Nuclear isomers are loosely defined as excited nuclear states with lifetimes longer than 10{sup -9} s.) Nuclear isomers, therefore, represent an opportunity for a stand-alone energy source if suitable schemes for trigger and control of the energy release can be found. Potential applications include space drive, as well as very bright {gamma}-ray sources. The nucleus {sup 178}Hf has a nuclear isomer with excitation energy E{sub x} = 2.447 MeV. The 2.447-MeV isomeric state decays slowly (t{sub 1/2} = 31 y) to the nearby state at 2.433 MeV. The J{sup {pi}} = 13{sup -} state loses energy in a rapid (t {approx} 10{sup -12} s) {gamma}-ray cascade ending at the 8{sup -} rotational band head which in turn decays via the ground-state rotational band cascade. The {gamma}-ray cascade is delayed at the 8{sup -} state at 1.147 MeV, since the 8{sup -} state is also isomeric, with t{sub 1/2} = 4 s. Very scarce quantities of the 16{sup +}, 31-yr isomer are …

The stochastic engine uses modern computational capabilities to combine simulations with observations. We integrate the general knowledge represented by models with specific knowledge represented by data, using Bayesian inferencing and a highly efficient staged Metropolis-type search algorithm. From this, we obtain a probability distribution characterizing the likely configurations of the system consistent with existing data. The primary use will be optimizing knowledge about the configuration of a system for which sufficient direct observations cannot be made. Programmatic applications include underground systems ranging from environmental contamination to military bunkers, optimization of complex nonlinear systems, and timely decision-making for complex, hostile environments such as battlefields or the detection of secret facilities. We create a stochastic ''base representation'' of system configurations (states) from which the values of measurable parameters can be calculated using forward simulators. Comparison of these predictions to actual measurements drives embedded Bayesian inferencing, updating the distributions of states in the base representation using the Metropolis method. Unlike inversion methods that generate a single bestcase deterministic solution, this method produces all the likely solutions, weighted by their likelihoods. This flexible method is best applied to highly non-linear, multi-dimensional problems. Staging of the Metropolis searches permits us to run the simplest model …

Advances in data collection and storage capabilities during the past decades have led to an information overload in most sciences. Researchers working in domains as diverse as engineering, astronomy, biology, remote sensing, economics, and consumer transactions, face larger and larger observations and simulations on a daily basis. Such datasets, in contrast with smaller, more traditional datasets that have been studied extensively in the past, present new challenges in data analysis. Traditional statistical methods break down partly because of the increase in the number of observations, but mostly because of the increase in the number of variables associated with each observation. The dimension of the data, is the number of variables that are measured on each observation. High-dimensional datasets present many mathematical challenges as well as some opportunities, and are bound to give rise to new theoretical developments. One of the problems with high-dimensional datasets is that, in many cases, not all the measured variables are ''important'' for understanding the underlying phenomena of interest. While certain computationally expensive novel methods can construct predictive models with high accuracy from high-dimensional data, it is still of interest in many applications to reduce the dimension of the original data prior to any modeling of …

A research-scale, liquid-fed, ceramic-melter was used to conduct a flowsheet evaluation of a nonradioactive surrogate of sodium-bearing waste currently being stored in underground tanks at the Department of Energy?s Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. During this 120-h melter test, the processing characteristics of a glass formulated to have a high sulfur capacity were evaluated with and without reductant (sucrose and glycolic acid) additives. Beyond processing rates, this integrated melter/off-gas system demonstration test evaluated the impacts of reductant type (if used) and concentration upon 1) the partitioning of volatile (sulfur, mercury, and the halogens) and nonvolatile effluents, 2) the oxidation state of the melter glass, 3) the reduction of waste constituent nitrate, 4) the composition of secondary waste streams, and 5) the durability of the melter?s glass product.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2002, U.S. Postal Service employees accounted for one-third of both the federal civilian workforce and the $2.1 billion in overall costs for the Federal Workers' Compensation Program (WCP). Postal workers submitted half of the claims for new work-related injuries that year. Postal Service employees with job-related traumatic injuries or occupational diseases almost always provided the evidence required to make a determination on their entitlement. In two percent of the cases, the Office of Workers' Compensation Program (OWCP) found that evidence was missing for one or more of the required elements. However, the length of time taken to process claims varied widely even though all were subject to the same OWCP processing standards. OWCP claims examiners took 59 days to process traumatic injury claims after receiving the notice of injury claim forms from the Postal Service--a process that should take 45 days for all but the most complex cases, according to OWCP performance standards. The case files lacked the information necessary to determine whether the claims for compensation were prepared and filed by the employees within the time frame set by OWCP regulations. OWCP claims examiners …