B-Cell is currently being cleaned out (i.e., removal of equipment, fixtures and residual radioactive materials) and deactivated. TPA Milestone M-89-02 dictates that all mixed waste and equipment be removed from B-Cell by 5/31/99. The following sections describe the major activities that remain for completion of the TPA milestone. This includes: (1) Size Reduce Tank 119 and Miscellaneous Equipment. This activity is the restart of hotwork in B-Cell to size reduce the remainder of Tank 119 and other miscellaneous pieces of equipment into sizes that can be loaded into a grout container. This activity also includes the process of preparing the containers for shipment from the cell. The specific activities and procedures used are detailed in a table. (2) Load and Ship Low-Level Waste. This activity covers the process of taking a grouted LLW container from B-Cell and loading it into the cask in the REC airlock and Cask Handling Area (CHA) for shipment to the LLBG. The detailed activities and procedures for this part of cell cleanout are included in second table.

The choice of vacuum state for a quantum scalar field propagating in a de Sitter spacetime (massive and arbitrarily coupled to the gravitational field) is discussed. The problem of finite-time initial conditions for the mode functions is analyzed, as well as how these determine the vacuum state of the quantum system. The principle guiding the choice of vacuum state is the following: one wants the vacuum contribution to the energy-momentum tensor to contain all the ultraviolet divergent terms, so that the particle creation terms are finite, and covariantly conserved. There is a suitable set of modes (instantaneous adiabatic basis) in which this splitting of the expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor can be carried out. Numerical results are presented for different finite-time initial conditions (m = 0.6, {zeta} = 1/6). The nature of the particle creation effect is described and its relationship to the concept of a horizon crossing time is shown. These numerical results imply that back-reaction can be important and should be the subject of further research.

This report describes how the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ) and enhancement programs function, examines the policy issues surrounding them, and summarizes relevant provisions in major legislation to reauthorize ISTEA in the 105th Congress.

Federal funding to assist states in addressing the environmental impacts of surface transportation is a major issue for the second session of the 105th Congress. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 (P.L. 102-240) authorized a total of $155 billion for transportation projects from FY1992 to FY1997. This report describes how the Congrestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ) and enhancement programs function, examines the policy issues surrounding them, and summarizes relevant provisions in major legislation to reauthorize ISTEA in the 105th Congress.

The demanding energy, power, pulse shape, focusability, pointing, and availability requirements placed on the 192 National Ignition Facility (NIF) beams lead to the need for an automatic operation capability that is well beyond that of previous inertial confinement fusion (ICF) lasers. Alignment, diagnostic, and wavefront correction subsystems are integrated in an approach that, by permitting maximal sharing of instrumentation between subsystems, meets performance requirements at a reasonable cost.

This report summarizes and compares the 11 substitute amendments to campaign finance reform bills that have passed the House and Senate.

This report provides a summary and comparison of the 11 substitute amendments to H.R. 2183, a campaign finance reform bill offered by Representatives Hutchinson and Allen, that, under H. Res. 442, will be in order for consideration by the House. The House began consideration of the bill and these substitute amendments (as well as additional perfecting amendments) on May 21, 1998. This report is intended for use by House Members and staff in preparation for and during House debate and assumes basic familiarity with the underlying issues. It may be updated to reflect further legislative actions.

Chip mills turn trees into chips for paper, particle-boards, and exports. While the federal government does not collect data on a chip mill industry, chip production in the South has apparently been expanding. The timber supply appears sufficient to allow some increased harvests, but could be depleted by continued industrial expansion. The federal government does not directly regulate timber cutting but could become engaged if requirements of the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts were triggered. The government also has export promotion programs and export tax incentives. Recently, concerns have been expressed to Congress about the possible effects of clear-cutting for chip exports on water quality and wildlife habitat. This report will not be updated.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has initiated remediation for stored high-level radioactive wastes. At the DOE Hanford site in southeastern Washington, 149 large underground tanks contain such wastes, generated by various chemical processes during the manufacture of plutonium for nuclear weapons. One of the key steps in this remediation effort is to characterize the waste stored in these tanks so that it can be treated properly and safely. A number of samples have been extracted from a subset of the tanks and analyzed for various chemical and radiological constituents. The analytical results were used to cluster tanks into groups with similar waste compositions. The tank groups determined by clustering of the analytical data are compared to tank groups determined using process-based historical models. Agreement between the two grouping strategies may reduce the number of samples required to characterize the waste in a tank, and perhaps support the use of the historical models to characterize tanks that have not been sampled. A successful implementation of this approach with one tank group is described here. This particular case yielded DOE significant savings of characterization resources.

This report lists the dates of 1998 primary elections and, where applicable, runoff primary dates for the states and the District of Columbia.

This report lists the dates of 1998 primary elections and, where applicable, runoff primary dates for the states and the District of Columbia. The election dates listed herein were provided by the respective election offices in the states and the District of Columbia; they are the dates for congressional primaries and for other state offices for which primaries will be held in 1998.

This paper describes the first application of reverse polarity capillary zone electrophoresis (RPCE) for rapid and accurate determination of nitrate and nitrite in Hanford Defense Waste (HDW). The method development was carried out by using Synthetic Hanford Waste (SHW), followed by the analysis of 4 real HDW samples. Hexamethonium bromide (HMB) was used as electroosmotic flow modifier in borate buffer at pH 9.2 to decrease the electroosmotic flow (EOF) in order to enhance the speed of analysis and the resolution of nitrate and nitrite in high ionic strength HDW samples. The application of this capillary zone electrophoresis method, when compared with ion chromatography for two major components of HDW, nitrate and nitrite slightly reduced analysis time, eliminated most pre-analysis handling of the highly radioactive sample, and cut analysis wastes by more than 2 orders of magnitude. The analysis of real HDW samples that were validated by using sample spikes showed a concentration range of 1.03 to 1.42 M for both nitrate. The migration times of the real HDW and the spiked HDW samples were within a precision of less than 3% relative standard deviation. The selectivity ratio test used for peak confirmation of the spiked samples was within 96% of …

The scales that grow from oxidation often develop a convoluted morphology or interface pores. High thermal stresses can develop locally and are potentially detrimental to the scale or interface integrity. Finite element simulations are used to examine residual thermal stresses and strains that result when these deviations from a flat interface have formed, and the resulting geometry is subsequently cooled to room temperature. A variety of geometries will be considered for alumina scales on a FeCrAl substrate.

The US Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office (RL) uses this Hanford Site Environmental Management Specification (Specification) to document top-level mission requirements and planning assumptions for the prime contractors involved in Hanford Site cleanup and infrastructure activities under the responsibility of the US Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management. This Specification describes at a top level the activities, facilities, and infrastructure necessary to accomplish the cleanup of the Hanford Site and assigns this scope to Site contractors and their respective projects. This Specification also references the key National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), and safety documentation necessary to accurately describe the cleanup at a summary level. The information contained in this document reflects RL`s application of values, priorities, and critical success factors expressed by those involved with and affected by the Hanford Site project. The prime contractors and their projects develop complete baselines and work plans to implement this Specification. These lower-level documents and the data that support them, together with this Specification, represent the full set of requirements applicable to the contractors and their projects. Figure 1-1 shows the relationship of this Specification to the other basic …

This document provides the test procedure for cold testing of the first article skids for the Cold Vacuum Drying (CVD) process at the Facility. The primary objective of this testing is to confirm design choices and provide data for the initial start-up parameters for the process. The current scope of testing in this document includes design verification, drying cycle determination equipment performance testing of the CVD process and MCC components, heat up and cool-down cycle determination, and thermal model validation.

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), PL. 102-240, set aside $6 billion from FY1992 to FY1997 for the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ) to assist states in complying with federal air quality standards by funding transportation projects that lower emissions.

Hong Kong's return to China on July 1, 1997, went surprisingly smoothly. In the ensuing months, policy analysts are trying to assess how the territory will fare in the longer run under Chinese rule. The answer is important to U.S. interests because of the enormous U.S. economic presence in Hong Kong; because any adverse developments in Hong Kong are likely to affect U.S.-China relations; and because China's promise to give Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy under the "one-China, two-systems" policy has major implications for Taiwan. But given the political situation, the American ability to affect the course of events in Hong Kong seems marginal unless the U.S. decides to confront Beijing more directly. Developments in U.S.-China relations in recent years suggest Washington might be hesitant to do so.

The genome of Methanococcus jannaschii has been sequenced completely and has been found to contain approximately 1,770 predicted protein-coding regions. When these coding regions are expressed and how their expression is regulated, however, remain open questions. In this work, mass spectrometry was combined with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis to identify which proteins the genes produce under different growth conditions, and thus investigate the regulation of genes responsible for functions characteristic of this thermophilic representative of the methanogenic Archaea.

The world's largest environmental cleanup effort continues to be focused on the Department of Energy (DOE) complex. The significant technical and economic concerns associated with this effort underscore the need for crucial cost-effective technologies and management approaches.

Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) final operations and post-shutdown neutron activation measurements were made. Ionization chambers were used to follow TFTR activation during operations and after shutdown. Gamma-ray energy spectroscopy measurements were performed to characterize TFTR activation at accessible vessel-bays and on sample hardware removed from structures at various distances from the vessel. The results demonstrate long-lived activations from common, commercially available materials used in the fabrication and field engineering of TFTR. The measurements allow characterization of residual TFTR neutron activation, the projection of residual activation decay, and benchmarking of low activation issues simulations.

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Tax-exempt bonds subsidize public power's cost of capital and enable it to lower price. The subsidy is economically beneficial (enables public power price to reflect the true cost of electric service) only if the private market fails to provide the correct amount of electricity. In general, the private market does provide the correct amount of electricity; in those cases when it does not, the tax-exempt bond subsidy is unlikely to correct the problem. Tax-exempt bond legislation over the last 30 years is consistent with this perspective; its focus has been to prohibit the spread of subsidized public power beyond its traditional service areas.

An important issue for the long-term performance of underground nuclear waste repositories is the rate of seepage into the waste emplacement drifts. A prediction of the future seepage rate is particularly complicated for the potential repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as it is located in thick, partially saturated, fractured tuff formations. The long-term situation in the drifts several thousand years after waste emplacement will be characterized by a relative humidity level close to or equal to 100%. as the drifts will be sealed and unventilated, and the waste packages will have cooled. The underground tunnels will then act as capillary barriers for the unsaturated flow, ideally diverting water around them, if the capillary forces are stronger than gravity and viscous forces. Seepage into the drifts will only be possible if the hydraulic pressure in the rock close to the drift walls increases to positive values; i.e., the flow field becomes locally saturated. In the present work, we have developed and applied a methodology to study the potential rate of seepage into underground cavities embedded in a variably saturated, heterogeneous fractured rock formation. The fractured rock mass is represented as a stochastic continuum where the fracture permeabilities vary by several …

Expressions are presented for various magneto-optical Kerr effects in the ultrathin film limit with arbitrary magnetization direction by considering the multiple reflections within an optically thin film. The Kerr effect of p- and s-polarization consists of products of two factors: the prefactor, dependent only on the optical parameters of the system, and the main factor of the polar Kerr effect for normal incidence in the ultrathin limit.