Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the General Services Administration's (GSA) revenue estimation process for its Federal Technology Service (FTS) 2001 long-distance telecommunications services program."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed efforts by the White House China Trade Relations Working Group and selected agencies to garner support for permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with China, focusing on: (1) whether these efforts may be in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1913; and (2) applicable appropriations provisions that prohibit the expenditure of appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda purposes or to lobby Congress."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the costs of food stamp recipients' special diets, focusing on the: (1) number of food stamp recipients whose special dietary costs exceed the maximum food stamp benefit; and (2) costs of recipients' special diets compared with the maximum food stamp benefit."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) Antiarmor Master plan, focusing on whether it provided the data and analyses necessary to: (1) identify excess antiarmor weapons currently in the inventory or under development; and (2) support current acquisition plans."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the applicability of environmental laws to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), focusing on whether: (1) the National Nuclear Security Administration Act narrows the waivers of sovereign immunity contained in existing environmental, safety, and health laws that apply to the Department of Energy (DOE) and the NNSA; and (2) a bill now before the Committee on Commerce (H.R. 4288) might, if enacted, be interpreted to expand the application of existing environmental, safety, and health laws as they will be applied to the NNSA. GAO noted that the NNSA Act clearly states that current law will apply to the NNSA exactly as it applied to the NNSA's functions when performed previously by DOE. The continuation of current law necessarily carries forward all waivers of sovereign immunity in existing law, making further clarification superfluous. The proposed amendments in H.R. 4288 may have the inadvertent effect of expanding or confusing existing waivers of sovereign immunity."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the financial management of the Department of Defense's (DOD) Chemical Demilitarization Program, focusing on whether: (1) the program will meet the Chemical Weapons Convention timeframes within the costs projected; (2) obligations and liquidations of funds appropriated for the program have been adequately managed; and (3) the management structure of the program allows for coordinated accountability of the program."

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U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities across the country have radioactive waste underground storage tanks, which will require either complete removal of the tank contents and tank shells or in-place stabilization of sludge heels. Complete removal of the sludge and tank shells can become costly while providing little benefit to health, safety, and the environment. An alternative to the removal of the residual wastes and tank shells is the use of in situ solidification and stabilization techniques to immobilize the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and radioactive components present in waste storage tanks. One technology for in situ remediation of tank wastes is Ground Environmental Service's (GES's) Multi-Point-Injection (MPI.) technology. MPI technology is a patented delivery system, which uses simple and inexpensive injection tools for rapid delivery of grout or other treatment agents, as well as for the emplacement of subsurface barriers. Through the use of tailored grout formulations in conjunction with a system of specially designed grout injection tools, MPI technology is capable of producing a uniform mixture of sludge and grout. Grouts can be tailored for the immobilization of specific RCRA and radioactive constituents. The system of injection tools is designed to maximize the mixing efficiency of …

Many sorbents have been developed for the removal of mercury and heavy metals from water; however, the majority of data published to date do not address the removal of mercury to the target levels represented in this project. The application for which these sorbents were targeted for use was the removal of mercury from microgram-per-liter levels to low nanogram-per-liter levels. Overall, the thiol-based resins had the best performance when removing low concentrations of mercury in water at two U.S. Department of Energy facilities in field experiments. It was difficult to achieve the targeted low nanogram-per-liter levels at both sites; however, a substantial amount of mercury was removed by the resins. This is attributed to the mercury speciation, since filtration tests have shown that a significant portion of the mercury at each test location is particle bound or associated with particulate and colloidal matter. The engineered Self-Assembled Mercaptan on Mesoporous Silica (SAMMS) material proved to be as effective as some of the commercial sorbents in removing mercury at the Nonradiological Wastewater Treatment Plant (NRWTP) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The material performed almost as well as some of the best sorbents at the Upper East Fork Poplar Creek site at the …

The CH2M Hill Hanford Group, Inc., Information Resource Management Strategic Plan is the top-level planning document for applying information and information resource management to achieve the CHG mission for the management of the River Protection Project

Measurements and models show that enhanced aerosol concentrations can augment cloud albedo not only by increasing total droplet cross-sectional area, but also by reducing precipitation and thereby increasing cloud water content and cloud coverage. Aerosol pollution is expected to exert a net cooling influence on the global climate through these conventional mechanisms. Here we demonstrate an opposite mechanism through which aerosols can reduce cloud cover and thus significantly offset aerosol-induced radiative cooling at the top of the atmosphere on a regional scale. In model simulations the daytime clearing of trade cumulus is hastened and intensified by solar heating in dark haze (as found over much of the northern Indian Ocean during the northeast monsoon).

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The Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Canister Storage Building (CSB) is the interim storage facility for the K-Basin SNF at the US. Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site. The SNF is packaged in multi-canister overpacks (MCOs). The MCOs are placed inside transport casks, then delivered to the service station inside the CSB. At the service station, the MCO handling machine (MHM) moves the MCO from the cask to a storage tube or one of two sample/weld stations. There are 220 standard storage tubes and six overpack storage tubes in a below grade reinforced concrete vault. Each storage tube can hold two MCOs.

Newsletter of the Texas Department of Health discussing the news, activities, and events of the organization and other information related to health in Texas.

This report discusses aircraft noise regulations as they relate to hushkits, which is a combination of strategies designed to reduce aircraft noise. These strategies can include new technologies, redesigned engine enclosures, replacement engine components, entirely new engines, or a combination of any of the above. This report dicusses the new EU regulation limiting hushkitted commercial jet aircraft in the EU, the United States' response to this regulation, and the effect this could have on international air travel relations.

Thermally sprayed coating characteristics and mechanical properties are in part a result of the residual stress developed during the fabrication process. The total stress state in a coating/substrate is comprised of the quench stress and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch stress. The quench stress is developed when molten particles impact the substrate and rapidly cool and solidify. The CTE mismatch stress results from a large difference in the thermal expansion coefficients of the coating and substrate material. It comes into effect when the substrate/coating combination cools from the equilibrated deposit temperature to room temperature. This paper describes a laser-based technique for measuring the curvature of a coated substrate and the analysis required to determine residual stress from curvature measurements. Quench stresses were determined by heating the specimen back to the deposit temperature thus removing the CTE mismatch stress. By subtracting the quench stress from the total residual stress at room temperature, the CTE mismatch stress was estimated. Residual stress measurements for thick (>1mm) spinel coatings with a Ni-Al bond coat on 304 stainless steel substrates were made. It was determined that a significant portion of the residual stress results from the quenching stress of the bond coat and …

Since 1993, the IAEA has made great progress in the implementation of remote monitoring. Equipment has been developed and tested, and installed systems are being used for safeguards purposes. The cost of equipment, the complexity of communication technology, and maintenance of the equipment are challenges that still face the IAEA. Resolution of these challenges will require significant effort. The USSP is committed to assisting the IAEA to overcome these challenges.

Since 1981, more than 7,000 wind turbines have been installed in the Altamont Wind Resource Area in north-central California. Currently, about 5,000 turbines are operating. Past research efforts demonstrated that wind turbines frequently kill birds, especially raptors. Little is known about the specific flight and perching behaviors by birds near wind turbines. A better understanding of these interactions may one day yield insights on how to minimize bird fatalities. This Phase 1 progress report summarizes research findings obtained at 20 study plots totaling 785 turbines of various configurations and conducted between March 1998 and February 1999. The authors examined bird use and behaviors and collected data on fatalities at the same turbines throughout the course of the surveys. They completed 745 30-minute point counts (1,702 bird observations) that quantified bird risk behaviors and bird use of the study plots. The four most frequently observed bird species were red-tailed hawks, common ravens, turkey vultures, and golden eagles. During the same period, the authors recorded 95 bird fatalities. Raptors represent 51% (n=49) of the kills found. The data indicate that the relative abundance of species observed does not predict the relative frequency of fatalities per species. Phase II of the research is …

The Experimental Breeder Reactor--II (EBR-II) at Argonne National Laboratory--West (ANL-W) in Idaho, was shutdown in September, 1994 as mandated by the US Department of Energy. This sodium cooled reactor had been in service since 1964, and was to be placed in an industrially and radiologically safe condition for ultimate decommissioning. The deactivation of a liquid metal reactor presents unique concerns. The first major task associated with the project was the removal of all fueled assemblies. In addition, sodium must be drained from systems and processed for ultimate disposal. Residual quantities of sodium remaining in systems must be deactivated or inerted to preclude future hazards associated with pyrophoricity and generation of potentially explosive hydrogen gas. A Sodium Process Facility was designed and constructed to react the elemental sodium from the EBR-II primary and secondary systems to sodium hydroxide for disposal. This facility has a design capacity to allow the reaction of the complete inventory of sodium at ANL-W in less than two years. Additional quantities of sodium from the Fermi-1 reactor are also being treated at the Sodium Process Facility. The sodium environment and the EBR-II configuration, combined with the radiation and contamination associated with thirty years of reactor operation, posed …

In this paper a methodology for analytically estimating the response of replacement components in a system subjected to worst-case hostile shocks is presented. This methodology does not require the use of system testing but uses previously compiled shock data and inverse dynamic analysis to estimate component shock response. In the past component shock responses were determined from numerous system tests; however, with limitations on system testing, an alternate methodology for determining component response is required. Such a methodology is discussed. This methodology is mathematically complex in that two inverse problems, and a forward problem, must be solved for a permutation of models representing variabilities in dynamics. Two conclusions were deduced as a result of this work. First, the present methodology produces overly conservative results. Second, the specification of system variability is critical to the prediction of component response.

Over the past two decades, Sandia has developed a variety of specialized analytical techniques for evaluating the long-term aging and stability of cable insulation and other related materials. These techniques have been applied to cable reliability studies involving numerous insulation types and environmental factors. This work has allowed the monitoring of the occurrence and progression of cable material deterioration in application environments, and has provided insights into material degradation mechanisms. It has also allowed development of more reliable lifetime prediction methodologies. As a part of the FAA program for intrusive inspection of aircraft wiring, they are beginning to apply a battery of techniques to assessing the condition of cable specimens removed from retired aircraft. It is anticipated that in a future part of this program, they may employ these techniques in conjunction with accelerated aging methodologies and models that the authros have developed and employed in the past to predict cable lifetimes. The types of materials to be assessed include 5 different wire types: polyimide, PVC/Glass/Nylon, extruded XL-polyalkene/PVDF, Poly-X, and XL-ETFE. This presentation provides a brief overview of the main techniques that will be employed in assessing the state of health of aircraft wire insulation. The discussion will be illustrated …

The super-conducting Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) with two separate rings and six combined interaction regions will provide collisions between equal and unequal heavy ion species up to Au ions in typically 60 bunches. The betatron tunes of the two beams are among the most important parameters to be measured. The tunes have to be acquired at any moment during accelerator operation and in particular during the acceleration process. At RHIC the tune measurement device (ARTUS) consists of a fast horizontal and vertical kicker magnet and a dedicated beam position monitor in each ring. The system layout is described and first experiences from operation is reported.

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The goal of this project is to determine the role of glycolytic intermediates in regulation of cell physiology. It is known that many glycolytic intermediates are involved in regulation of enzyme activities at the kinetic level. However, little is known regarding the role of these metabolites in global regulation and signal transduction. This project aims to investigate the role of glycolytic intermediates in the regulation of gene expression.