Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) new rule on fee recovery for fiscal year (FY) 1999. GAO noted that: (1) the final rule implements for FY 1999 section 6101 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990; (2) it requires NRC to recover from its applicants and licensees approximately 100 percent of its budget authority, less amounts appropriated from the Nuclear Waste Fund; (3) for FY 1999, NRC must collect approximately $449.6 million through these fees; (4) two types of fees are assessed: (a) applicants and licensees are charged for specific services, such as inspections and licensing reviews, that are provided by NRC; and (b) NRC assesses an annual fee to its licensees to recover generic costs that cannot be attributed to specific licensees; and (5) NRC complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the methodologies used in four reports on bankruptcy debtors' ability to pay their debts--two by Ernst Young LLP, one by Creighton University, and one by the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the progress made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the states in implementing the National Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS), focusing on: (1) the status of grants and agreements made under NEPPS between EPA and participating states; (2) the progress that EPA and the states have made in developing results-oriented performance measures to be incorporated into NEPPS agreements and grants to the states; (3) how EPA oversight may or may not be changing in states that are participating in NEPPS; and (4) the extent to which the use of these performance partnership agreements and grants has achieved the benefits envisioned for the states and the public."

Thirty-three waste drums were returned to Rocky Flats in support of EG G Idaho's quality control program for the Stored Waste Examination Pilot Plant. The drums were opened and examined in the size reduction facility at the Rocky Flats Plant. Contents of each drum were consistent with the Item Description Codes; however, four sludge drums and one combustible drum contained free liquids. These five drums failed to meet the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and the Department of Transporation criteria. The proper amount of cement was not used in the sludge drums. A cemented layering process, which also contributed to accumulation of free liquid, is no longer used when cementing sludges at the Rocky Flats Plant. The drum of combustibles contained a polyethylene bottle with a small amount of liquid sludge inside. 2 refs., 2 tabs.

'This monthly report summarizes Programs and Accomplishments of the Savannah River Technology Center in support of activities at the Savannah River Site. The following categories are addressed: Reactor, Tritium, Separations, Environmental, Waste Management, General, and Items of Interest.'

Experiments have been developed for measuring the rates of chemical reactions liquids and in supercritical Co[sub 2]. A pulsed (Q-switch) Nd:YAG laser at 355 nm was the pump beam for laser flash photolysis studies of molybdenum and tungsten hexacarbonyls undergoing ligand displacement reactions by bidentate chelating agents such as 2,2[prime]-bipyridine in toluene. Experiments were carried out at 0.1 to 150 MPa. In the case of molybdenum complexes, the reaction mechanism for thermal ring closure is found from activation volumes to change from associative interchange to dissociative interchange as substituents on the 2,2[prime]-bipyridine ligands become bulkier. In a similar study of more rigid, substituted phenanthroline bidentate ligands it was found that substituent bulkiness had little effect on the thermal ring closure mechanism. Similar high pressure flash photolysis experiments with tungsten hexacarbonyl have also been completed. The concentration dependence of the fluorescence and nonradiative decay quantum yields for cresyl violet in several solvent have been reported as well as stability constants for the complexation of lithium ion by four different crown ethers dissolved in a room temperature molten salt.

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.

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.

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.

Letter opinion issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the district judges who appoint the county auditor or the county commissioners court may require the county auditor to document the auditor’s travel expenses (ID# 38805)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the General Land Office validly conveyed title to certain submerged land to the City of Aransas Pass in 1944, and related questions (RQ-0009)

Letter opinion issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification;Clarification and reconsideration of Attorney General Opinion DM-210(1993)(ID# 19950)

Experiments have been developed for measuring the rates of chemical reactions liquids and in supercritical Co{sub 2}. A pulsed (Q-switch) Nd:YAG laser at 355 nm was the pump beam for laser flash photolysis studies of molybdenum and tungsten hexacarbonyls undergoing ligand displacement reactions by bidentate chelating agents such as 2,2{prime}-bipyridine in toluene. Experiments were carried out at 0.1 to 150 MPa. In the case of molybdenum complexes, the reaction mechanism for thermal ring closure is found from activation volumes to change from associative interchange to dissociative interchange as substituents on the 2,2{prime}-bipyridine ligands become bulkier. In a similar study of more rigid, substituted phenanthroline bidentate ligands it was found that substituent bulkiness had little effect on the thermal ring closure mechanism. Similar high pressure flash photolysis experiments with tungsten hexacarbonyl have also been completed. The concentration dependence of the fluorescence and nonradiative decay quantum yields for cresyl violet in several solvent have been reported as well as stability constants for the complexation of lithium ion by four different crown ethers dissolved in a room temperature molten salt.

Prior to 1988, a variety of materials were buried on the US DOE Oak Ridge Reservation. Records of the disposal operations are incomplete and toxic materials may have been placed adjacent to potential explosives. One of the safety concerns in conducting an environmental restoration project at the burial sites, is the possibility of an explosion which could release toxic materials to the atmosphere. A safety analysis examined the consequences of such releases by first postulating an upper bound for the strength of an explosive. A correlation, developed by Steindler and Seefeldt of Argonne National Laboratory, was then used to estimate the amount and particle-size distribution of the material that could become airborne from the explosion. The estimated amount of airborne material was the source term in an atmospheric dispersion model which was used to calculate infinite-time, concentration-time integrals and 5-minute, time- weighted average concentrations at locations down-wind from the explosion. The dispersion model includes particle deposition as a function of particle-size distribution class. The concentration-time integrals and average concentrations were compared to published guidelines to assess the consequences of an accidental explosion.

As wind energy development expands, concern over possible negative impacts of wind farms on birds remains an issue to be addressed. The concerns are twofold: (1) possible litigation over the killing of even one bird if it is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and/or the Endangered Species Act, and (2) the effect of avian mortality on bird populations. To properly address these concerns, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), working collaboratively with stakeholders including utilities, environmental groups, consumer advocates, regulators, government officials, and the wind industry, supports an avian-wind interaction research program. The objectives of the program are to conduct and sponsor scientifically based research that will ultimately lead to the reduction of avian fatality due to wind energy development throughout the United States. The approach for this program involves cooperating with the various stakeholders to study the impacts of current wind plants on avian populations, developing approaches to siting wind plants that avoid avian problems in the future, and investigating methods for reducing or eliminating impacts on birds due to the development of wind energy. This paper summarizes the research projects currently supported by NREL.

The purpose and objective of this analysis is to design concrete supports for the miscellaneous utility equipment used at the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF). Two utility systems are analyzed: (1) the surface collection tanks of the Waste Water System, and (2) the chemical tracer mixing and storage tanks of the Non-Potable Water System. This analysis satisfies design recommended in the Title III Evaluation Reports for the Subsurface Fire Water System and Subsurface Portion of the Non-Potable Water System (CRWMS M&O 1998a) and Waste Water Systems (CRWMS M&O 1998b).

The management of risks from radioactive and chemical materials has been a major environmental concern in the United states for the past two or three decades. Risk management of these materials encompasses the remediation of past disposal practices as well as development of appropriate strategies and controls for current and future operations. This symposium is concerned primarily with low-level radioactive wastes and mixed wastes. Individual reports were processed separately for the Department of Energy databases.

E787 at BNL has reported evidence for the rare decay K{sup +} {r_arrow} {pi}{sup +}{nu}{bar {nu}}, based on the observation of one candidate event. In this paper, we present the result of analyzing a new dataset of comparable sensitivity to the published result.

The project described in this Report was to investigate the possibility of using sorbent added to coal-water fuel (CWF) mixtures as a means of reducing SOX emissions when burning Ohio coal. The results are significantly encouraging, with SOX concentrations reduced by amounts ranging from 25% to 65%, depending on the sorbent type and the firing conditions, where one major condition identified was the residence time in the flame gases. With the sorbent-loaded slurrys, the trend generally showed increasing SO{sub 2} capture with increasing sorbent loading. There were significant differences between the two different mixture formulations, however: The calcite/No. 8-seam mixture showed significantly higher SO{sub 2} capture at all times (ranging from 45% to 65%) than did the dolomite/No. 5 seam mixture (ranging from 25% to 45%). If the successes so far achieved are not to be wasted, advantage should be taken of these encouraging results by extending the work at both the present scale to determine the other unknown factors controlling sorption efficiency, and at larger scale to start implementation in commercial systems.

The uniqueness of the Argonne design is given here: (1) by overlapping the spacer plates the compression load is carried through the module without affecting the scintillator slots; (2) flat thin straps are used in place of tie rods; (3) a supermodule is constructed of six 1 meter modules; (4) it is not necessary to drill holes through the scintillator; (5) absorber structure can be assembled independent of scintillator; (6) straps provide better load distribution across the plates; and (7) this design, as currently drawn, does not include internal sourcing, but does not preclude it being used.

We have recently completed a two-year study of recirculating induction heavy-ion accelerators (recirculators) as low-cost drivers for inertial-fusion-energy power plants. We present here a summary of that study and other recent work on recirculators.

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The objective of this report is to evaluate the effect of potential changes to the TSPA-VA base case design on long-term repository performance. The design changes that are evaluated in this report include two configurations for post-closure ventilation. bow tie and open loop (Design Alternative 3 or D3). The following paragraphs briefly describe the motivation for evaluating post-closure ventilation. The bow tie configuration for post closure ventilation has been identified as a design alternative to the TSPA-VA base case model (CRWMS M&O, 1998a) that may provide improved performance by reducing the temperature and relative humidity within the waste package drifts. The bow tie configuration for post-closure ventilation is a closed-loop design. In this design. cross drifts are placed in pairs with each drift angling up on opposite sides of the repository. From the side, the cross drifts and side drifts form the shape of a bow tie. Movement of air through the system is driven by convective heating from the waste packages in the cross drifts. The open loop configuration is also being considered for its potential to improve post-closure performance of the repository. As with the bow tie configuration, the open loop is designed to decrease temperature and relative …