A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

The main economic benefit of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is that, over time, it is expected to increase productivity and incomes in the United States, Mexico and Canada. In the near term, some reallocation of resources occurs within each country, generating gains for some producers and workers and costs for others. Since the Mexican and Canadian economies are small relative to the U.S. economy, both the long-term benefits and short-term adjustment costs of the NAFTA to the United States are expected to be small. The data suggest that NAFTA has had a positive, but small, effect on U.S. trade with Mexico and that U.S. direct investment in Mexico remains very small relative to total U.S. investment abroad. NAFTA-related job losses of almost 100,000 since 1994 are also very small compared with U.S. employment of 130 million (no data exist on jobs created by NAFTA).

Three-dimensional high-resolution simulations are performed of the Richtmyer- Meshkov (RM) instability for a Mach 6 shock, and of the passage of a second shock from the same side through a developed RM instability. The second shock is found to rapidly smear fine structure and strongly enhance mixing. Studies of the interaction of moderately strong shocks with a pre-existing turbulent field indicate amplification of transverse vorticity and reduction Of stream-wise vorticity, as well as the mechanisms for these changes.

We have designed a target to probe the use of the Pegasus Z-Pinch machine to image inertial instabilities that develop on cylindrical- convergent material interfaces. The Z-pinch is tailored so that the target, soft Al 1100-O, remains solid; instabilities and inertial effects are seeded by wire inclusions of different densities. We present here the first images and preliminary results from this experiment.

Objectives of this program are to provide an improved thermal barrier coating system with improved reliability and temperature capability. This report describes progress in manufacturing, bonding, deposition, non-destructive evaluation, repair, and maintenance.

Large-scale (>1 m) variability in hydraulic conductivity is usually the main influence on field-scale groundwater flow patterns and dispersive transport. Incorporating realistic hydraulic conductivity heterogeneity into flow and transport models is paramount to accurate simulations, particularly for contaminant migration. Sediment lithologic descriptions and geophysical logs typically offer finer spatial resolution, and therefore more potential information about site-scale heterogeneity, than other site characterization data. In this study, a technique for generating a heterogeneous, three- dimensional hydraulic conductivity field from sediment lithologic descriptions is presented. The approach involves creating a three-dimensional, fine-scale representation of mud (silt and clay) percentage using a stratified interpolation algorithm. Mud percentage is then translated into horizontal and vertical conductivity using direct correlations derived from measured data and inverse groundwater flow modeling. Lastly, the fine-scale conductivity fields are averaged to create a coarser grid for use in groundwater flow and transport modeling.

In 1946, President Harry Truman, in a document currently on display at the entrance to this auditorium, approved a directive to the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council (NAS-NRC) to initiate a long-term investigation of the health effects associated with exposure to radiation from the atomic bombs. With funding provided by the Atomic Energy Commission, now the Department of Energy, NAS-NRC established the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in March 1947. The government of Japan through the Japanese National Institute of Health, became a partner in that endeavor in 1948. In 1975, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF) was established and assumed the responsibilities of ABCC. This symposium commemorates 50 years of ABCC/RERF. It is dedicated to the many survivors and their families without whose cooperation we would not have learned as much as we have about the effects of radiation. It is also dedicated to the thousands of employees of RERF and scientists around the world who have contributed through the years to the analysis and interpretation of the information emerging from this unique study.

Concepts for producing tritium in an accelerator were translated into hardware for engineering studies of tritium generation, heat transfer, and effects of proton-neutron flux on materials. Small-scale target- blanket assemblies were fabricated and material samples prepared for these performance tests. Blanket assemblies utilize composite aluminum-lead modules, the two primary materials of the blanket. Several approaches are being investigated to produce large-scale assemblies, developing fabrication and assembly methods for their commercial manufacture. Small-scale target-blanket assemblies, designed and fabricated at the Savannah River Site, were place in Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) for irradiation. They were subjected to neutron flux for nine months during 1996-97. Coincident with this test was the development of production methods for large- scale modules. Increasing module size presented challenges that required new methods to be developed for fabrication and assembly. After development, these methods were demonstrated by fabricating and assembling two production-scale modules.