Report that examines the issues related to the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the state and substance of the negotiations (to the degree that the information is publicly available), the specific areas under negotiation, the policy and economic contexts in which the TPP would fit, and the issues for Congress that the TPP presents.

Report that provides an overview of Social Security financing and benefits under current law.

Report that identifies various online sources for planning and acquiring funds for postsecondary education. This list includes both general and comprehensive sources, as well as those targeted toward specific types of aid and circumstances.

Report that analyzes U.S. and international sanctions against Iran and provides examples of companies and countries that conduct business with Iran, based on a wide range of open-source reporting.

The purpose of this report is to provide Congress with an overview of the federal rulemaking process and a brief discussion of the major laws and executive orders that prescribe the procedures agencies are to apply when promulgating regulations.

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The work performed in this project consisted of the derivation, implementation, and testing of a new, computationally advantageous approximation to the 3D Boltz- mann transport equation. The solution of the Boltzmann equation is the neutron flux in nuclear reactor cores and shields, but solving this equation is difficult and costly. The new “2D/1D” approximation takes advantage of a special geometric feature of typical 3D reactors to approximate the neutron transport physics in a specific (ax- ial) direction, but not in the other two (radial) directions. The resulting equation is much less expensive to solve computationally, and its solutions are expected to be sufficiently accurate for many practical problems. In this project we formulated the new equation, discretized it using standard methods, developed a stable itera- tion scheme for solving the equation, implemented the new numerical scheme in the MPACT code, and tested the method on several realistic problems. All the hoped- for features of this new approximation were seen. For large, difficult problems, the resulting 2D/1D solution is highly accurate, and is calculated about 100 times faster than a 3D discrete ordinates simulation.

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The Objective of this project is to develop, implement, and test new deterministric methods to solve, as efficiently as possible, multigroup neutron transport problems having an extremely large number of groups. Our approach was to (i) use the standard CMFD method to "coarsen" the space-angle grid, yielding a multigroup diffusion equation, and (ii) use a new multigrid-in-space-and-energy technique to efficiently solve the multigroup diffusion problem. The overall strategy of (i) how to coarsen the spatial and energy grids, and (ii) how to navigate through the various grids, has the goal of minimizing the overall computational effort. This approach yields not only the fine-grid solution, but also coarse-group flux-weighted cross sections that can be used for other related problems.

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Neutron embrittlement of reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) is an unresolved issue for light water reactor life extension, especially since transition temperature shifts (TTS) must be predicted for high 80-year fluence levels up to approximately 1,020 n/cm{sup 2}, far beyond the current surveillance database. Unfortunately, TTS may accelerate at high fluence, and may be further amplified by the formation of late blooming phases that result in severe embrittlement even in low-copper (Cu) steels. Embrittlement by this mechanism is a potentially significant degradation phenomenon that is not predicted by current regulatory models. This project will focus on accurately predicting transition temperature shifts at high fluence using advanced physically based, empirically validated and calibrated models. A major challenge is to develop models that can adjust test reactor data to account for flux effects. Since transition temperature shifts depend on synergistic combinations of many variables, flux-effects cannot be treated in isolation. The best current models systematically and significantly under-predict transition temperature at high fluence, although predominantly for irradiations at much higher flux than actual RPV service. This project will integrate surveillance, test reactor and mechanism data with advanced models to address a number of outstanding RPV embrittlement issues. The effort will include developing new …

Ultraclean fuels production has become increasingly important as a method to help decrease emissions and allow the introduction of alternative feed stocks for transportation fuels. Established methods, such as Fischer-Tropsch, have seen a resurgence of interest as natural gas prices drop and existing petroleum resources require more intensive clean-up and purification to meet stringent environmental standards. This review covers some of the advances in deep desulfurization, synthesis gas conversion into fuels and feed stocks that were presented at the 245th American Chemical Society Spring Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA in the Division of Energy and Fuels symposium on "Ultraclean Fuels Production and Utilization".

Uranium speciation and retention mechanism onto Savannah River Site (SRS) wetland sediments was studied using batch (ad)sorption experiments, sequential extraction desorption tests and U L{sub 3}-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy of contaminated wetland sediments. U was highly retained by the SRS wetland sediments. In contrast to other similar but much lower natural organic matter (NOM) sediments, significant sorption of U onto the SRS sediments was observed at pH <4 and pH >8. Sequential extraction tests indicated that the U(VI) species were primarily associated with the acid soluble fraction (weak acetic acid extractable) and NOM fraction (Na-pyrophosphate extractable). Uranium L3- edge XANES spectra of the U-retained sediments were nearly identical to that of uranyl acetate. The primary oxidation state of U in these sediments was as U(VI), and there was little evidence that the high sorptive capacity of the sediments could be ascribed to abiotic or biotic reduction to the less soluble U(IV) species. The molecular mechanism responsible for the high U retention in the SRS wetland sediments is likely related to the chemical bonding of U to organic carbon.