Letters from Ronnie Birdson to each of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) commissioners in support of Cannon Air Force Base.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) relies extensively on computerized systems to support its financial and mission-related operations. As part of GAO's audit of the calendar year 2004 financial statements for the three funds administered by FDIC, GAO assessed (1) the progress FDIC has made in correcting or mitigating information system control weaknesses identified in our audits for calendar years 2002 and 2003 and (2) the effectiveness of the corporation's information system general controls."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Beginning in the 1990s, there was a substantial increase in the number of short-term acute care hospitals that primarily treat patients with specific medical conditions or who need surgical procedures. Advocates of such hospitals, commonly referred to as specialty hospitals, contend that their focused missions and dedicated resources can both improve quality and reduce health care costs. Critics contend that specialty hospitals siphon off the most profitable procedures and patient cases, typically without providing emergency care or other vital community services, and thus erode the financial health of neighboring general hospitals. Critics also contend that the ability of physicians to invest in a specialty hospital and then refer patients to that hospital creates financial incentives that may inappropriately affect physicians' clinical and referral behavior. In 2003, we issued two reports on the growth, characteristics, and performance of specialty hospitals. More than two-thirds of the 100 specialty hospitals we identified as being in existence in June 2003 had opened their doors since the beginning of 1990. The specialty hospitals in existence in fiscal year 2000, the most recent year for which we then had data, accounted for about 1 …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As required by the 2005 D.C. Appropriations Act, we examined the performance of D.C. charter school authorizers in their approval and oversight roles. In fall 2005, we will publish the full results of our research. However, as required by law, we provided Congress with an interim report on our work. For this interim report, we addressed the following questions: (1) what are the responsibilities specified for the D.C. charter school authorizers in the School Reform Act? and (2) how are the D.C. authorizers carrying out these responsibilities?"

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to conserve endangered and threatened species and the ecosystems upon which they depend. This law currently protects more than 1,260 animal and plant species. Within the Department of the Interior, the Fish and Wildlife Service implements and enforces the act. In addition, all federal agencies, such as the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Land Management, must ensure that their activities do not jeopardize a protected species' continued existence or adversely modify or destroy habitat that has been designated as critical to its survival. The Endangered Species Act and its implementation can be controversial when there are conflicting uses for a natural resource as, for example, when timber on federal lands is both habitat for endangered and threatened species and a valuable commodity to be harvested. Conflicts also occur over the adequacy or interpretation of scientific information in making species protection decisions. GAO has issued numerous reports on the implementation of the Endangered Species Act. This testimony is based primarily on four of these reports and addresses (1) collaboration among federal agencies to conserve threatened and endangered species and …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the passage of the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (RRA 98), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has faced the challenge of managing its resources to simultaneously improve service to taxpayers, assure taxpayers' compliance with the tax laws, and modernize its antiquated information systems. As requested, this statement provides our assessment of IRS's current performance in the areas of taxpayer service, tax law enforcement, and systems modernization. Looking ahead, this statement also describes the challenges that IRS faces in addressing resource constraints as well as realizing efficiency and information systems improvements."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the onset of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), the Department of Defense (DOD) reported that more than 12,000 servicemembers have been injured in combat. While many return to active duty, others with more serious injuries are likely to be discharged from the military. To ensure the continuity of medical care and access to all other Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) benefits, such as vocational rehabilitation, VA formed its Seamless Transition Task Force. In January 2005, GAO reported that VA had given high priority to OEF/OIF servicemembers, but faced challenges in identifying, locating, and following up with seriously injured servicemembers. GAO recommended that VA and DOD reach an agreement for VA to obtain systematic data from DOD, and the departments concurred. However, DOD raised privacy concerns. GAO was asked to review VA's efforts to expedite vocational rehabilitation services to seriously injured servicemembers and to determine the status of an agreement between DOD and VA to share health data. GAO relied on its prior work; interviewed VA and DOD officials; and reviewed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the HIPAA …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "A Congressional letter, dated June 30, 2004, to the Comptroller General expressed concern that the federal government may not have a uniform approach to protecting its facilities from lightning strikes. As a result, Congress requested a GAO study on issues related to whether the federal government should adopt a uniform standard for lightning protection systems. We selected four agencies for this study--the General Services Administration (GSA), the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), and the Department of Defense (DOD). These agencies hold over 80 percent (in terms of square footage) of the government's owned and leased property. The objectives of this study were to determine (1) to what extent these selected federal agencies use applicable lightning protection standard(s) to help protect buildings they own from lightning strikes; (2) how these selected federal agencies assess the need for lightning protection systems on their buildings; (3) what practices and lightning protection standard(s) the General Services Administration uses when leasing privately owned buildings; and (4) what data exist related to the financial impact of lightning protection and damage to the federal government, such as the number of buildings …

The King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) have concern about the aftermath of a radiological dispersion event (RDE) leading to the introduction of significant quantities of radioactive material into its combined sanitary and storm sewer system. Radioactive material could come from the use of a radiological dispersion device (RDD). RDDs include "dirty bombs" that are not nuclear detonations but are explosives designed to spread radioactive material. Radioactive material also could come from deliberate introduction or dispersion of radioactive material into the environment, including waterways and water supply systems. Volume 2 of PNNL-15163 assesses the radiological instrumentation needs for detection of radiological or nuclear terrorism, in support of decisions to treat contaminated wastewater or to bypass the West Point Treatment Plant (WPTP), and in support of radiation protection of the workforce, the public, and the infrastructure of the WPTP. Fixed radiation detection instrumentation should be deployed in a defense-in-depth system that provides 1) early warning of significant radioactive material on the way to the WPTP, including identification of the radionuclide(s) and estimates of the soluble concentrations, with a floating detector located in the wet well at the Interbay Pump Station and telemetered via the internet to all authorized locations; 2) monitoring …

The U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) is sponsoring a project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with the objective of conducting the research and development necessary to evaluate the use of sphere-pac transmutation fuel. Sphere-pac fuels were studied extensively in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, this fuel form is being studied internationally as a potential plutonium-burning fuel. For transmutation fuel, sphere-pac fuels have potential advantages over traditional pellet-type fuels. This report provides a review of development efforts related to the preparation of sphere-pac fuels and their irradiation tests. Based on the results of these tests, comparisons with pellet-type fuels are summarized, the advantages and disadvantages of using sphere-pac fuels are highlighted, and sphere-pac options for the AFCI are recommended. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory development activities are also outlined.

The movement of high-specific-activity radioactive particles (i.e., alpha recoil) has been observed and studied since the early 1900s. These studies have been motivated by concerns about containment of radioactivity and the protection of human health. Additionally, studies have investigated the potential advantage of alpha recoil to effect separations of various isotopes. This report provides a review of the observations and results of a number of the studies.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to civil claims involving exposure to asbestos and silica.

None

None

None

Although computer simulation has played a central role in the study of nucleation and growth since the earliest molecular dynamics simulations almost 50 years ago, confusion surrounding the effect of finite size on such simulations have limited their applicability. Modeling solidification in molten tantalum on the BlueGene/L computer, we report here on the first atomistic simulation of solidification that verifies independence from finite size effects during the entire nucleation and growth process, up to the onset of coarsening. We show that finite size scaling theory explains the observed maximal grain sizes for systems up to about 8,000,000 atoms. For larger simulations, a cross-over from finite size scaling to more physical size-independent behavior is observed.

The sterically demanding 1,2,4-tri-t-butylcyclopentadienylligand (1,2,4-(Me3C)3C5H2, hereafter Cp') has been used to preparemonomeric cerium metallocenes, Cp 2CeX (X = Cl, I, OSO2CF3), which areused to synthesize the benzyl, Cp'2CeCH2C6H5. The benzyl is a usefulstarting material for preparing other complexes in the Cp'2CeZ system (Z= BF4, F, NH2, C6H5, H). X-ray crystal structures of Cp'2CeOSO2CF3,Cp'2CeF, Cp'2CeCH2C6H5, and Cp'2CeH are presented. The benzyl slowlydecomposes in solution to toluene and a metallacycle,[Cp'][(Me3C)2C5H2(CMe2CH2)]Ce. The ring CMe3 groups of both themetallacycle and the hydride, Cp'2CeH, can be fully deuterated byprolonged exposure to C6D6, providing a useful labeling tool inmechanistic studies.The hydride activates C-F and/or C-H bonds influorobenzenes, C6HxF6-x , x = 0-5. The reactions are selective, with theselectivity depending on the presence of two fluorines ortho to thereaction site more than on the type of bond activated. Complexes of thetype Cp'2CeC6HxF5-x , x = 0-4, are formed as intermediates, which slowlydecompose in solution to Cp'2CeF and fluorobenzynes, C6HxF4-x, x = 0-4,which are trapped. The rate at which Cp'2CeC6HxF5-x complexes decomposeincreases as the number of fluorines decreases. Complexes with oneortho-fluorine decompose much faster than those with two ortho-fluorines.The metallacycle activates only C-H bonds in fluorobenzenes, permittingthe synthesis of specific Cp'2CeC6HxF5-x complexes. The crystal structureof Cp'2CeC6F5 is presented. …

An investigation was undertaken of the effect of gamma radiation on metastable pitting of mild carbon steels immersed in a solution similar to those existing at high level waste (HLW) deposits in the US. The object was to observe the extent to which a dosage rate of 1 Mrad/hour (10 Kgrey/hour) affected measurable electrochemical parameters such as pitting potential, open circuit potential, rate of metastable pitting and repassivation potential. Methods for reliably measuring electrochemical potentials in a high radiation field were developed. Exploratory analyses were made of the ion product release and electrolyte composition change in a confined volume simulating the conditions of a corrosion initiated pit during gamma irradiation. As expected the results indicated that the metastable pitting rate (as well as the general rate of corrosion) was significantly enhanced by a radiation field.

With support from this award we studied a novel silicon microtexturing process and its application in silicon-based infrared photodetectors. By irradiating the surface of a silicon wafer with intense femtosecond laser pulses in the presence of certain gases or liquids, the originally shiny, flat surface is transformed into a dark array of microstructures. The resulting microtextured surface has near-unity absorption from near-ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths well below the band gap. The high, broad absorption of microtextured silicon could enable the production of silicon-based photodiodes for use as inexpensive, room-temperature multi-spectral photodetectors. Such detectors would find use in numerous applications including environmental sensors, solar energy, and infrared imaging. The goals of this study were to learn about microtextured surfaces and then develop and test prototype silicon detectors for the visible and infrared. We were extremely successful in achieving our goals. During the first two years of this award, we learned a great deal about how microtextured surfaces form and what leads to their remarkable optical properties. We used this knowledge to build prototype detectors with high sensitivity in both the visible and in the near-infrared. We obtained room-temperature responsivities as high as 100 A/W at 1064 nm, two orders of magnitude …

None

This report provides information about A Brief History and Summary of Recent Supreme Court Decisions and Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Flag Protection.This report is divided into two reports.The first report gives a brief history of the flag protection issue and the other summarizes the two decisions of the United States supreme court.

For more than a century, the federal government has constructed water resource projects for a variety of purposes including flood control, navigation, power generation, and irrigation. While most municipal and industrial water supplies have been built by non-federal entities, most of the large, federal water supply projects in the West, including Hoover and Grand Coulee dams, were constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation (Department of the Interior) to provide water for irrigation.

None

Natural convection plays an important role in determining the thermal load from molten core accumulated in the reactor vessel lower head during a severe accident. Several numerical and experimental programs were conducted to study the heat transfer in the molten pool. Previous investigations were mostly related to the rectangular and semicircular pools. Except for COPO, UCLA, ACOPO, and BALI, previous investigations suffer from inadequate representation of high modified Rayleigh number (Ra') in the hemispherical pool that may be formed in the reactor core and lower plenum. Thus, experimental work is conducted utilizing SIGMA SP (Simulant Internal Gravitated Material Apparatus Spherical Pool) producing high Ra' turbulent natural convection in a hemispherical pool up to 5.3 x ~1011. The heating method has already been tested in SIGMA CP (Circular Pool). Six thin cable-type heaters, each with a diameter of 6 mm, are employed to simulate internal heating in the pool. They are uniformly distributed in the hemispherical pool to supply a maximum of 7.8 kW power to the pool. SIGMA SP has the inner and outer diameters of 500 mm and 520 mm, respectively. The upper flat plate and the curved wall of pool, with a 10 mm thick stainless steel plate, …