In addition to promoting energy efficiency, China has actively pursued alternative energy development as a strategy to reduce its energy demand and carbon emissions. One area of particular focus has been to raise the share of alternative energy in China’s rapidly growing electricity generation with a 2020 target of 15% share of total primary energy. Over the last ten years, China has established several major renewable energy regulations along with programs and subsidies to encourage the growth of non-fossil alternative energy including solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, geothermal and biomass power as well as biofuels and coal alternatives. This study thus seeks to examine China’s alternative energy in terms of what has and will continue to drive alternative energy development in China as well as analyze in depth the growth potential and challenges facing each specific technology. This study found that despite recent policies enabling extraordinary capacity and investment growth, alternative energy technologies face constraints and barriers to growth. For relatively new technologies that have not achieved commercialization such as concentrated solar thermal, geothermal and biomass power, China faces technological limitations to expanding the scale of installed capacity. While some alternative technologies such as hydropower and coal alternatives have been slowed …

In the ongoing energy debate in Congress, one issue has been whether to approve energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR or Refuge) in northeastern Alaska or whether to continue to prohibit development to protect the area's biological, recreational, and subsistence values. ANWR is rich in fauna, flora, and oil and natural gas potential. Its development has been debated for more than 50 years, but sharp increases in energy prices from late 2000 to early 2001, in 2004-2008, and in 2011 from a variety of causes (e.g., terrorist attacks, oil spills, and energy infrastructure damage from hurricanes), have repeatedly intensified the debate. This primer provides background for analyzing the various claims through an examination of its history, and an analysis of its geological, biological, human, and economic resources.

Tank 50H is the feed tank for the Saltstone Production Facility (SPF). At present, Tank 50H contains two standard slurry pumps and two Quad Volute slurry pumps. Current requirements and mixing operation is to run three pumps for one hour prior to initiating a feed transfer to SPF. Savannah River Site (SRS) Liquid Waste would like to move one or both of the Quad Volute pumps from Tank 50H to Tank 51H to replace pumps in Tank 51H that are failing. In addition, one of the standard pumps in Tank 50H exhibits high seal leakage and vibration. SRS Liquid Waste requested Savannah River National (SRNL) to conduct a study to evaluate the feasibility of mixing the contents of Tank 50H with one to three standard slurry pumps. To determine the pump requirements to blend miscible and immiscible liquids in Tank 50H, the author reviewed the pilot-scale blending work performed for the Salt Disposition Integration Project (SDIP) and the technical literature, and applied the results to Tank 50H to determine the number, size, and operating parameters needed to blend the tank contents. The conclusions from this analysis are: (1) A single rotating standard slurry pump (with a 13.6 ft{sup 2}/s U{sub …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2010, auto manufacturers recalled more vehicles than any other year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal oversight authority for vehicle recalls. However, many recalled vehicles are never fixed, posing a risk to vehicle operators, other drivers, and pedestrians. After the recent recalls of Toyota vehicles, Congress raised questions about the auto safety defect recall process, including the sufficiency of NHTSA's oversight authorities and whether vehicle owners are being effectively motivated to comply with recalls. In response, GAO reviewed laws and documents and interviewed NHTSA and stakeholders about the (1) extent of NHTSA's role in the recall process, and how its authorities compare to selected federal and foreign agencies that oversee recalls; (2) benefits and challenges of the recall process for NHTSA and manufacturers; and (3) options for improving the recall process. GAO also conducted focus groups with vehicle owners to better understand their perspectives."

In previous papers (Shvidler and Karasaki, 1999, 2001, 2005, and 2008) we presented and analyzed an approach for finding the general forms of exactly averaged equations of flow and transport in porous media. We studied systems of basic equations for steady flow with sources in unbounded domains with stochastically homogeneous conductivity fields. A brief analysis of exactly averaged equations of nonsteady flow and nonreactive solute transport was also presented. At the core of this approach is the existence of appropriate random Green's functions. For example, we showed that in the case of a 3-dimensional unbounded domain the existence of appropriate random Green's functions is sufficient for finding the exact nonlocal averaged equations for flow velocity using the operator with a unique kernel-vector. Examination of random fields with global symmetry (isotropy, transversal isotropy and orthotropy) makes it possible to describe significantly different types of averaged equations with nonlocal unique operators. It is evident that the existence of random Green's functions for physical linear processes is equivalent to assuming the existence of some linear random operators for appropriate stochastic equations. If we restricted ourselves to this assumption only, as we have done in this paper, we can study the processes in any …

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Production of iron and steel is an energy-intensive manufacturing process. In 2006, the iron and steel industry accounted for 13.6% and 1.4% of primary energy consumption in China and the U.S., respectively (U.S. DOE/EIA, 2010a; Zhang et al., 2010). The energy efficiency of steel production has a direct impact on overall energy consumption and related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The goal of this study is to develop a methodology for making an accurate comparison of the energy intensity (energy use per unit of steel produced) of steel production. The methodology is applied to the steel industry in China and the U.S. The methodology addresses issues related to boundary definitions, conversion factors, and indicators in order to develop a common framework for comparing steel industry energy use. This study uses a bottom-up, physical-based method to compare the energy intensity of China and U.S. crude steel production in 2006. This year was chosen in order to maximize the availability of comparable steel-sector data. However, data published in China and the U.S. are not always consistent in terms of analytical scope, conversion factors, and information on adoption of energy-saving technologies. This study is primarily based on published annual data from the China Iron …

This report discusses legislative action that applied the Budget Control Act (BCA)-mandated spending reduction to FY2012 defense funding legislation was taken by the Senate Appropriations Committee on September 7, 2011, when it adopted discretionary spending ceilings for each of its 12 subcommittees that required the Defense Subcommittee to cut $25.9 billion from the President's request for programs funded by the DOD Appropriations bill. On September 15, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported an amended version of the House-passed DOD Appropriations bill (H.R. 2219) that would cut $29.3 billion from the Administration request.

This report discusses legislative action that applied the Budget Control Act (BCA)-mandated spending reduction to FY2012 defense funding legislation was taken by the Senate Appropriations Committee on September 7, 2011, when it adopted discretionary spending ceilings for each of its 12 subcommittees that required the Defense Subcommittee to cut $25.9 billion from the President's request for programs funded by the DOD Appropriations bill. On September 15, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported an amended version of the House-passed DOD Appropriations bill (H.R. 2219) that would cut $29.3 billion from the Administration request.

The purpose of this project was to conduct R&D on specified components and provide technical design support to a SuperPower team developing a high temperature superconducting Fault Current Limiter (SFCL). ORNL teamed with SuperPower, Inc. on a Superconductivity Partnerships with Industry (SPI) proposal for the SFCL that was submitted to DOE and approved in FY 2003. A contract between DOE and SuperPower, Inc. was signed on July 14, 2003 to design, fabricate and test the SFCL. This device employs high temperature superconducting (HTS) elements and SuperPower's proprietary technology. The program goal was to demonstrate a device that will address a broad range of the utility applications and meet utility industry requirements. This DOE-sponsored Superconductivity Partnership with Industry project would positively impact electric power transmission reliability and security by introducing a new element in the grid that can significantly mitigate fault currents and provide lower cost solutions for grid protection. The project will conduct R&D on specified components and provide technical design support to a SuperPower-led team developing a SFCL as detailed in tasks 1-5 below. Note the SuperPower scope over the broad SPI project is much larger than that shown below which indicates only the SuperPower tasks that are complementary …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, GAO has reported on challenges the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has faced in effectively managing major acquisitions, including programs which were deployed before appropriate testing and evaluation (T&E) was completed. In 2009 and 2010 respectively, DHS issued new T&E and acquisition directives to address these challenges. Under these directives, DHS Science and Technology Directorate's (S&T) Test & Evaluation and Standards Office (TES) is responsible for overseeing T&E of DHS major acquisition programs--that is, those with over $300 million in life-cycle costs--to ensure that T&E and certain acquisitions requirements are met. GAO was asked to identify (1) the extent to which TES oversees T&E of major acquisitions; and (2) what challenges, if any, TES officials report facing in overseeing T&E across DHS components. GAO reviewed DHS directives and test plans, interviewed DHS officials, and reviewed T&E documentation from a sample of 11 major acquisition programs from each of 11 different DHS components. The results of the sample cannot be generalized to all DHS programs, but provided insights."

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

We have designed and lab tested a new ferrite cored induction coil sensor for measuring the secondary fields from metallic UXO with the BUD system. The objective was to replace the 5-inch diameter air-cored coils in the BUD system with smaller sensors that would allow the placement of multiple sensors in the smaller package of the new BUD hand-held system. A ferrite-cored solenoidal coil of length L can easily be made to have sensitivity and noise level roughly the same as an air-cored coil of a diameter on the same order as L. A ferrite-cored solenoidal coil can easily have a feedback configuration to achieve critical damping. The feedback configuration leads to a very stable response. Feedback ferrite-cored solenoidal coils show very little interaction as long as they are separated by one half their length.

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Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter responds to the mandate contained in Section 1312(c) of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, for GAO to conduct a study of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Procurement Center Representatives (PCR) and Commercial Market Representatives (CMR), including ways to improve their effectiveness. To fulfill this mandate, we provided congressional staff a briefing on the results of this work in meetings with them on March 22, 23, and 24, 2011. Each year, the federal government awards hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts for goods and services--more than $500 billion in fiscal year 2010 alone. It uses this buying power to maximize procurement opportunities for small businesses through long-standing policies such as set-asides and requiring large contractors to set goals for using small business subcontractors. SBA's PCRs and CMRs play an important role in helping ensure that small businesses gain access to contracting and subcontracting opportunities. In particular, a PCR's key responsibilities include reviewing proposed agency contract events--such as potentially bundled or consolidated contracts--and making set-aside recommendations to agency contracting officers (through informal and formal means), reviewing agency small business programs (surveillance reviews), and counseling small …

The final beam cooling stages of a Muon Collider may require DC solenoid magnets with magnetic fields of 30-50 T. In this paper we present progress in insert coil development using commercially available YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7-{delta}} Coated Conductor. Technological aspects covered in the development, including coil geometry, insulation, manufacturing process and testing are summarized and discussed. Test results of double pancake coils operated in liquid nitrogen and liquid helium are presented and compared with the performance of YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7-{delta}} tape short samples.

Proceedings of the House of Representatives of Texas for the 9th day of the first called session of the 82nd Legislature documenting legislation, reports, discussions, votes, and points-of-order.

This report gives an overview of the status of FY2012 appropriations and funding issues for the Senate, House of Representatives, and support agencies.

This report provides an overview of federal legislative history research, the legislative process, and where to find congressional documents. The report also summarizes some of the reasons researchers are interested in legislative history, briefly describes the actions a piece of legislation might undergo during the legislative process, and provides a list of easily accessible print and electronic resources.

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Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "A mentor-protege program is an arrangement in which mentors--businesses, typically experienced prime contractors--provide technical, managerial, and other business development assistance to eligible small businesses, or protege. In return, the programs provide incentives for mentor participation, such as credit toward subcontracting goals, additional evaluation points toward the awarding of contracts, an annual award to the mentor providing the most effective developmental support to a protege, and in some cases, cost reimbursement. Overall, mentor-protege programs seek to enhance the ability of small businesses to compete more successfully for federal government contracts by furnishing them with assistance to improve their performance. We identified 13 federal agencies that currently have mentor-protege programs including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of State (DOS), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Small Business Administration (SBA), Department of the Treasury (Treasury), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 required that we conduct a study …