A major issue facing the United Nations, the United States, and Congress concerning United Nations peacekeeping is the extent to which the United Nations has the capacity to restore or keep the peace in the changing world environment. Associated with this the issue is the expressed need for a reliable source of funding and other resources for peacekeeping and improved efficiencies of operation.

In the spring of 2006, crude oil prices were exceeding $70/barrel (bbl) in response to tight markets and uncertainty over the security of world oil supply. A number of developments have placed additional pressure on world markets, including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (in late August and late September 2005), the phaseout of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and a renewable fuels mandate, and a continuing high and worldwide demand for oil. Energy policy issues for continuing interest include opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for leasing; Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards (CAFE) for passenger vehicles; improving U.S. energy infrastructure, including pipelines and refineries; seeking effective means to promote energy conservation using currently available technologies, and developing new technologies and alternative fuels.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To ensure that essential government services are available in emergencies, federal agencies are required to develop continuity of operations (COOP) plans. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is responsible for providing guidance to agencies on developing such plans. Its guidance states that in their continuity planning, agencies should consider the use of telework--that is, work performed at an employee's home or at a work location other than a traditional office. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently reported that 43 agencies have identified staff eligible to telework, and that more than 140,000 federal employees used telework in 2004. OPM also reported that many government operations can be carried out in emergencies using telework. For example, telework appears to be an effective strategy for responding to a pandemic--a global outbreak of disease that spreads easily from person to person and causes serious illness and death worldwide. In previous work, GAO identified steps that agencies should take to effectively use telework during an emergency. GAO was asked to testify on how agencies are addressing the use of telework in their continuity planning, which …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In August and September 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused devastating damage to states along the Gulf Coast. In the aftermath of the storms, many questions were raised about the status of the thousands of children living in the affected areas. We prepared this preliminary information under the Comptroller General's authority to learn more about (1) the number of missing children and the challenges and lessons learned in locating them; (2) the number of foster and other children receiving child welfare services in Louisiana, in particular, who were affected by the storm, and the challenges and lessons learned in locating and serving them; and (3) the number of schoolchildren displaced by the storm, the damage to their schools, and the challenges and lessons learned for educating displaced school-aged children."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Many servicemembers supporting Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) have engaged in intense and prolonged combat, which research has shown to be strongly associated with the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). GAO, in response to the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, (1) describes DOD's extended health care benefit and VA's health care services for OEF/OIF veterans; (2) analyzes DOD data to determine the number of OEF/OIF servicemembers who may be at risk for PTSD and the number referred for further mental health evaluations; and (3) examines whether DOD can provide reasonable assurance that OEF/OIF servicemembers who need further mental health evaluations receive referrals."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (the fees legislation) required the National Park Service to begin collecting fees from operators that conduct air tours over national park units that meet certain criteria. Currently, only Grand Canyon, Haleakala, and Hawaii Volcanoes National Parks meet the criteria to charge air tour fees. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in cooperation with the Park Service, also regulates air tours over park units pursuant to the National Parks Overflights Act of 1987 and the National Parks Air Tour Management Act of 2000. GAO was asked to (1) assess the Park Service's collection of air tour fees and (2) identify what factors, if any, hinder the collection of air tour fees. GAO is also providing information on the possible expansion of air tour fees to additional park units."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To ensure that essential government services are available in emergencies, federal agencies are required to develop continuity of operations (COOP) plans. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is responsible for overseeing and assessing the status of COOP capabilities of federal executive branch agencies. It has developed guidance stating that agency COOP plans must designate alternate facilities and prepare personnel for unannounced relocation to these facilities. The guidance also states that agencies should consider the use of telework in their continuity plans. GAO was asked to follow up on its previous work on COOP planning and determine, among other things, to what extent (1) 6 selected agencies prepared their alternate facilities and (2) 23 major agencies made preparations necessary to effectively use telework in emergency situations."

This report discusses the the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) ability to make loans to farmers to enable them to construct, improve, repair, or replace dwellings and other farm buildings to provide decent, safe, and sanitary living conditions for themselves or their tenants, lessees, sharecroppers, and laborers. USDA was also authorized to make grants or combinations of loans and grants to those farmers who could not qualify to repay the full amount of a loan, but who needed the funds to make the dwellings sanitary or to remove health hazards to the occupants or the community.

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This report discusses legislation and proposals regarding prices of gasoline. Policy options, oil-related legislation, and crude oil prices are among topics covered in this report.

This report provides a detailed examination of the state grant formula under current law, focusing particularly on provisions that result in states receiving larger grants than they would have.

To detect and quantify subtle surface CO2 leakage signals, we present a strategy that combines measurements of CO2 fluxes or concentrations in the near-surface environment with an algorithm that enhances temporally- and spatially-correlated leakage signals while suppressing random background noise. The algorithm consists of a filter that highlights spatial coherence in the leakage signal, and temporal stacking (averaging) that reduces noise from temporally uncorrelated background fluxes/concentrations. We assess the performance of our strategy using synthetic data sets in which the surface leakage signal is either specified directly or calculated using flow and transport simulations of leakage source geometries one might expect to be present at sequestration sites. We estimate the number of measurements required to detect a potential CO2 leakage signal of given magnitude and area. Results show that given a rigorous field-sampling program, subtle CO2 leakage may be detected using the algorithm; however, leakage of very limited spatial extent or exceedingly small magnitude may be difficult to detect with a reasonable set of monitoring resources.

The main purpose of this paper is to present the current status of development of the Lead-cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) in Generation IV (GEN IV), including the European contribution, to identify needed R&D and to present the corresponding GEN IV International Forum (GIF) R&D plan [1] to support the future development and deployment of lead-cooled fast reactors. The approach of the GIF plan is to consider the research priorities of each member country in proposing an integrated, coordinated R&D program to achieve common objectives, while avoiding duplication of effort. The integrated plan recognizes two principal technology tracks: (1) a small, transportable system of 10-100 MWe size that features a very long refuelling interval, and (2) a larger-sized system rated at about 600 MWe, intended for central station power generation. This paper provides some details of the important European contributions to the development of the LFR. Sixteen European organizations have, in fact, taken the initiative to present to the European Commission the proposal for a Specific Targeted Research and Training Project (STREP) devoted to the development of a European Lead-cooled System, known as the ELSY project; two additional organizations from the US and Korea have joined the project. Consequently, ELSY will …

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has monitored groundwater on the Hanford Site since the 1940s to help determine what chemical and radiological contaminants have made their way into the groundwater. As regulatory requirements for monitoring increased in the 1980s, there began to be some overlap between various programs. DOE established the Groundwater Performance Assessment Project (groundwater project) in 1996 to ensure protection of the public and the environment while improving the efficiency of monitoring activities. The groundwater project is designed to support all groundwater monitoring needs at the site, eliminate redundant sampling and analysis, and establish a cost-effective hierarchy for groundwater monitoring activities. This document provides the quality assurance guidelines that will be followed by the groundwater project. This QA Plan is based on the QA requirements of DOE Order 414.1C, Quality Assurance, and 10 CFR 830, Subpart A--General Provisions/Quality Assurance Requirements as delineated in Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Standards-Based Management System. In addition, the groundwater project is subject to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Requirements for Quality Assurance Project Plans (EPA/240/B-01/003, QA/R-5). The groundwater project has determined that the Hanford Analytical Services Quality Assurance Requirements Documents (HASQARD, DOE/RL-96-68) apply to portions of this project and to the subcontractors. HASQARD …

In order to understand the physical processes associated with fs-laser waveguide writing in glass, the effects of the laser repetition rate, the material composition and feature size were studied. The resulting material changes were observed by collecting Raman and fluorescence spectra with a confocal microscope. The guiding behavior of the waveguides was evaluated by measuring near field laser coupling profiles in combination with white light microscopy. Waveguides and Bragg gratings were fabricated in fused silica using pulse repetition rates from 1 kHz to 1 MHz and a wide range of scan speeds and pulse energies. Two types of fluorescence were detected in fused silica, depending on the fabrication conditions. Fluorescence from self trapped exciton (E{prime}{sub {delta}}) defects, centered at 550 nm, were dominant for conditions with low total doses, such as using a 1 kHz laser with a scan speed of 20 {micro}m/s and pulse energies less than 1 {micro}J. For higher doses a broad fluorescence band, centered at 650 nm, associated with non-bridging oxygen hole center (NBOHC) defects was observed. Far fewer NBOHC defects were formed with the 1 MHz laser than with the kHz lasers possibly due to annealing of the defects during writing. We also observed an …

As an energy carrier, electricity has no rival with regard to its environmental cleanliness, flexibility in interfacing with multiple production sources and end uses, and efficiency of delivery. In fact, the electric power grid was named ?the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century? by the National Academy of Engineering. This grid, a technological marvel ingeniously knitted together from local networks growing out from cities and rural centers, may be the biggest and most complex artificial system ever built. However, the growing demand for electricity will soon challenge the grid beyond its capability, compromising its reliability through voltage fluctuations that crash digital electronics, brownouts that disable industrial processes and harm electrical equipment, and power failures like the North American blackout in 2003 and subsequent blackouts in London, Scandinavia, and Italy in the same year. The North American blackout affected 50 million people and caused approximately $6 billion in economic damage over the four days of its duration. Superconductivity offers powerful new opportunities for restoring the reliability of the power grid and increasing its capacity and efficiency. Superconductors are capable of carrying current without loss, making the parts of the grid they replace dramatically more efficient. Superconducting wires carry up to …

Early in FY04, the Advanced Nuclear Transformation Technology (ANTT) subcommittee of the Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee (NERAC) requested a report on repository benefits for recycling of key transuranics in existing light water-cooled reactors (LWRs). The ANTT reviewers specifically requested a quantification of how such a campaign would impact (improve) the achievable loading of nuclear waste in the Yucca Mountain facility. The request stipulated that the transuranics be separated from commercial spent nuclear fuel (CSNF) and recycled a finite number of times in LWR-compatible fuel forms. The spent fuel remaining at the end of the recycling campaign, as well as all other nuclear waste generated by spent fuel reprocessing, would be permanently disposed in a geologic repository. In response, two reports have been prepared and distributed as deliverables for the AFCI program. Reference 1 provides the final report which addresses the original ANTT sub-committee request. Plutonium, neptunium, and americium recycling strategies in assemblies fabricated from mixed-oxide (MOX), CORAIL (heterogeneous UO{sub 2} and MOX), and inert-matrix fuel (IMF) forms were evaluated; the focus of the report is the time-dependent thermal response of the repository to a given loading of nuclear waste in the storage tunnels (drifts), as well as a quantification …

The methods and interim results from a testing program to quantify hydrogen effects on mechanical properties of carbon steel pipeline and pipeline weld materials are provided. The scope is carbon steels commonly used for natural gas pipelines in the United States that are candidates for hydrogen service in the hydrogen economy. The mechanical test results will be applied in future analyses to evaluate service life of the pipelines. The results are also envisioned to be part of the bases for construction codes and structural integrity demonstrations for hydrogen service pipeline and vessels. Tensile properties of one type of steel (A106 Grade B) in base metal, welded and heat affected zone conditions were tested at room temperature in air and high pressure (1500 psig) hydrogen. A general reduction in the materials ability to plastically deform was noted in this material when specimens were tested in 1500 psig hydrogen. Furthermore, the primary mode of fracture was changed from ductile rupture in air to cleavage with secondary tearing in hydrogen. The mechanical test program will continue with tests to quantify the fracture behavior in terms of J-R curves for these materials at air and hydrogen pressure conditions.

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As a market segment for solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption, new homes have a number of attractive attributes. Homebuyers can easily roll the cost of the PV system into their mortgage and, with rebates or other financial incentives, potentially realize an immediate net positive cash flow from the investment. PV system performance can be optimized by taking roof orientation, shading, and other structural factors into account in the design of new homes. Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), which are subject to fewer aesthetic concerns than traditional, rack-mounted systems, are well-suited to new construction applications. In large new residential developments, costs can be reduced through bulk purchases and scale economies in system design and installation. Finally, the ability to install PV as a standard feature in new developments - like common household appliances - creates an opportunity to circumvent the high transaction costs and other barriers typically confronted when each individual homeowner must make a distinct PV purchase decision.

A new experimental technique to study crystallographic slip system activity in metallic single crystals deformed under a condition of uniaxial stress is applied to study the behavior of Zn single crystals. The experimental apparatus allows essentially unconstrained shape change of inherently anisotropic materials under a condition of uniaxial stress by allowing 3 translational and 3 rotational degrees of freedom during compression; hence we have named the experiment 6 degrees of freedom (6DOF). The experiments also utilize a 3-D digital image correlation system to measure full-field displacement fields, which are used to calculate strain and make direct observations of slip system activity. We show that the experimental results associated with a pristine zinc single crystal are precisely consistent with the theoretical predicted shape change (sample distortion) assuming that the most favored slip system on the basal plane is the only one that is active. Another experiment was performed on a processed and annealed Zn single crystal to investigate slip that is inconsistent with the critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) theory. These experiments on zinc illustrate the ability of the 6DOF experiment, together with image correlation (IC) data, to measure slip system activity with a high degree of fidelity.