A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Transportation's (DOT) proposed policy concerning aviation competition, focusing on: (1) why DOT developed the proposed policy; (2) what process DOT used to develop the proposed policy; and (3) whether the proposed policy addresses the specific problems that led DOT to issue it."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the federal government's efforts to implement total quality management initiatives."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's Chemical Demilitarization Program, focusing on the : (1) extent to which the program retains significant levels of prior years' appropriations in excess of spending plans; (2) amounts of reported unallocated appropriations and unliquidated obligations from prior years' appropriations; (3) extent to which more obligations have been liquidated than previously reported; (4) primary reasons for the reported unliquidated obligations; and (5) actions that have affected or will affect unliquidated obligations."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Lewis and Clark Rural Water Project, focusing on: (1) federal assistance criteria for rural water projects and; (2) potential benefits of rural water projects such as Lewis and Clark."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD), General Services Administration's (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) new rule on the federal acquisition regulation concerning affirmative action in federal procurement. GAO noted that: (1) the rule adopts as final the interim rules that were the subject of GAO's major rule report issued on July 16, 1998; (2) the interim rules reformed affirmative action in federal procurement to ensure compliance with the constitutional standards established by the Supreme Court; (3) the only significant change in the interim rules involves the provision allowing contractors acting in good faith to rely upon the self-representations of their subcontractors as to their status as small disadvantaged business concerns; (4) the period of time for subcontractors to become certified under rules issued by the Small Business Administration has been extended by the final rule until September 30, 1999; (5) this change does not affect the factual statements or the conclusions concerning the agencies' compliance with the statutes and executive orders discussed in the July 16, 1998, major rule report; and (6) DOD, GSA, and NASA complied …

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the operational and demographic profiles of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM); and (2) GAO's observations on the major similarities and differences emerging from this information."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the management and program challenges facing the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the results of its review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) strategies and operations in the 1990s, focusing on: (1) the major enforcement strategies, programs, initiatives, and approaches DEA has implemented in the 1990s to carry out its mission; and (2) whether DEA's strategic goals and objectives, programs and initiatives, and performance measures are consistent with the Office of National Drug Control Policy's National Drug Control Strategy."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) and its planning activities under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, focusing on: (1) VETS' strategic plan for fiscal years (FY) 1999 through 2004; and (2) VETS' FY 2000 performance plan."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Social Security Administration's (SSA) progress in implementing key information technology initiatives critical to its ability to effectively serve the public, focusing on SSA's efforts to: (1) achieve year 2000 readiness; (2) implement the Intelligent Workstation/Local Area Network (IWS/LAN); and (3) develop its Reengineered Disability System (RDS)."

'Leak detection from the transfer lines in the tank farm has been a concern for many years because of the need to minimize exposure of personnel and contamination of the environment. The leak detection box (LDB) is one line of defense, which must be maintained to meet this objective. The evaluation of a failed LDB was one item from an action plan aimed at minimizing the degradation of LDBs. The Tank 40 LDB, which failed in service, was dug up and shipped to SRTC for evaluation. During a video inspection while in service, this LDB was found to have black tubercles on the interior, which suggested possible microbial involvement. The failure point, however, was believed to have occurred in the drain line from the transfer line jacket. Visual, metallurgical, and biological analyses were performed on the LDB. The analysis results showed that there was not any adverse microbiological growth or significant localized corrosion. The corrosion of the LDB was caused by exposure to aqueous environments and was typical of carbon steel pipes in soil environments.'

The report presents a thermal stability analysis of partially metallic particulate in two IWTS components, the knock out pot and settlers. Particulate in the knock out pot is thermally stable for combinations of average particle size and metal mass fraction which appear realistic. Particulate in the settlers is thermally stable when a realistic account of particle reactions over time, metal fraction, and size distribution is considered.

This sampling and analysis plan (SAP) identifies the type, quantity, and quality of data needed to support characterization of the sludge that remains in Tank 241-2-361. The procedures described in this SAP are based on the results of the 241-2-361 Sludge Characterization Data Quality Objectives (DQO) (BWHC 1999) process for the tank. The primary objectives of this project are to evaluate the contents of Tank 241-2-361 in order to resolve safety and safeguards issues and to assess alternatives for sludge removal and disposal.

This report contains documentation for improvements in a model for predicting the volume of gas bubble retention based on changes in waste level for high-level waste tanks at the Savannah River Site.

Dense arrays of high-aspect-ratio silicon microcolumns and microcones are formed by cumulative nanosecond pulsed excimer laser irradiation of single-crystal silicon in oxidizing atmospheres such as air and SF₆. Growth of such surface microstructures requires a redeposition model and also involves elements of self-organization. The shape of the microstructures, i.e. straight columns vs steeply sloping cones and connecting walls, is governed by the type and concentration of the oxidizing species, e.g. oxygen vs fluorine. Growth is believed to occur by a �catalyst-free� VLS (vapor-liquid-solid) mechanism that involves repetitive melting of the tips of the columns/cones and deposition there of the ablated flux of Si-containing vapor. Results are presented of a new investigation of how such different final microstructures as microcolumns or microcones joined by walls nucleate and develop. The changes in silicon surface morphology were systematically determined and compared as the number of pulsed KrF (248 nm) laser shots was increased from 25 to several thousand in both air and SF₆. The experiments in air and SF₆ reveal significant differences in initial surface cracking and pattern formation. Consequently, local protrusions are first produced and column or cone/wall growth is initiated by different processes and at different rates. Differences in the spatial …

We construct intersecting brane configurations in Anti-de-Sitter space localizing gravity to the intersection region, with any number n of extra dimensions. This allows us to construct two kinds of theories with infinitely large new dimensions, TeV scale quantum gravity and sub-millimeter deviations from Newton's Law. The effective 4D Planck scale M{sub Pl} is determined in terms of the fundamental Planck scale M{sub *} and the AdS radius of curvature L via the familiar relation M{sub Pl}{sup 2} {approx} M{sub *}{sup 2+n} L{sup n}; L acts as an effective radius of compactification for gravity on the intersection. Taking M{sub *} {approx} TeV and L {approx} sub-mm reproduces the phenomenology of theories with large extra dimensions. Alternately, taking M{sub *} {approx} L{sup -1} {approx} M{sub Pl}, and placing our 3-brane a distance {approx} 100M{sub Pl}{sup -1} away from the intersection gives us a theory with an exponential determination of the Weak/Planck hierarchy.

This report contains analytical data for samples taken during Second Quarter 1999 from wells of the LFW series located at the Sanitary Landfill at the Savannah River Site. The data are submitted in reference to the Sanitary Landfill Operating Permit. The report presents monitoring results that equaled or exceeded the Safe Drinking Water Act final Primary Drinking Water Standards or screening levels, established by the US Environmental Protection Agency, the South Carolina final Primary Drinking Water Standard for lead, or the SRS flagging criteria.

As a result of the end of the Cold War, approximately 50 metric tons of plutonium are no longer needed and have been identified for disposition. A ceramic waste form is the chosen option for immobilization of the excess plutonium. The plutonium ceramic form then will be encased in high-level waste glass using can-in-canister technology for final disposition. The precursor materials are the non-radioactive components that are added to the plutonium feed stream to form the desired phases in the immobilization product. The precursor materials are blended and calcined prior to being mixed with the plutonium feed stream. The purpose of the calcine step is to remove any physical or chemical water retained in the precursors and convert any hydroxides or carbonates to the oxides. Initially, a temperature of 750 degrees C for a period of one hour was chosen for the calcining of the precursors. In this effort, several different calcine temperatures were investigated to evaluate the effect on initial phase formation (in the calcined precursors), thermal expansion of the pressed pellets during heating, and mineralogy and porosity of the final product.

Within the next few decades, several million tons of scrap materials (such as metals or concrete) are expected to be removed from nuclear facilities across the world as a result of decontamination and decommissioning activities. Although much of the materials are expected to be free of radioactive contents, some will contain above-background concentrations of residual radioactive material. In many cases, materials containing or potentially containing above-background residual radioactive material have been disposed through burial at licensed facilities. However, some of the materials may be in the form of expensive equipment or devices that are still useful, and the incentive to recover them is high. Others may be expensive raw materials such as nickel, copper, or high-quality stainless steel that can easily be recovered by recycling. Yet another category, which includes carbon steel or concrete, is bulky and requires considerable space for burial. Although the value of these latter materials may not be significant, disposition options such as recycling present an attractive option for alleviating the limited burial capacity and the ever-increasing disposal costs at licensed burial facilities.

We report a new measurement of A{sub b} using data obtained by SLD in 1997-98. This measurement uses a vertex tag technique, where the selection of a b hemisphere is based on the reconstructed mass of the bottom hadron decay vertex. The method uses the 3D vertexing capabilities of SLD's CCD vertex detector and the small and stable SLC beams to obtain a high b-event tagging efficiency and purity of 78% and 97%, respectively. Charged kaons identified by the CRID detector provide an efficient quark-antiquark tag, with the analyzing power calibrated from the data. We obtain a preliminary result of A{sub b} = 0.997 {+-} 0.044 {+-} 0.067.

We have studied the synthesis of TiC films by vacuum arc deposition and reactive magnetron sputtering over a wide range of compositions. The films were deposited on silicon and tool steel. The films were characterized by various techniques: Auger electron and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies, Rutherford backscattering, transmission electron diffraction and X-ray diffraction. Mechanical properties such as stress, adhesion, friction coefficient and wear resistance were obtained by carrying measurements of the curvature of the silicon substrate, pull tests, and ball-on-disk tests, respectively.

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It is well known that the attenuation of X-rays as they pass through a material can be used to quantify the amount of matter in their path. This is the basis for the gamma ray densitometer which can measure the amount of material on a moving conveyor belt. It is also the rationale for using X-rays for medical imaging as the attenuation can discriminate between tissue of different density and composition, yielding images of great diagnostic utility. Spatial resolution is obviously important with regard to detecting small features. However, it is less obvious that it plays an important role in obtaining quantitative information from the X-ray transmission data since the spatial resolution of the instrument can affect the accuracy of those measurements. This problem is particularly severe in the case of computed tomography where the accuracy of the reconstruction is dependent on the accuracy of the initial projection data. It should be noted that spatial resolution is not a concern for the case where the material is uniform. Here uniform is defined by small variations related to either the scale size of the resolution element in the detector, or to the size of a collimated X-ray beam. However, if the …

This document summarizes the results of the U.S. Department of Energy's Near-Facility Environmental Monitoring program conducted by Waste Management Federal Services of Hanford, Inc. for Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc. for 1998 in the 100,200/600, and 300/400 Areas of the Hanford Site, in southcentral Washington State. Surveillance activities included sampling and analyses of ambient air, surface water, groundwater, soil, sediments, and biota. Also, external radiation measurements and radiological surveys were taken at waste disposal sites, radiologically controlled areas, and roads. These activities were conducted to assess and control the effects of nuclear facilities and waste sites on the local environment. In addition, diffuse sources were monitored to determine compliance with federal, state, and/or local regulations. In general, although effects from nuclear facilities can still be observed on the Hanford Site and radiation levels are slightly elevated when compared to offsite locations, the differences are less than in previous years.