Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the passage of the General Mining Act of 1872, miners have extracted billions of dollars worth of gold, silver, copper, and other hardrock (locatable) minerals from federal lands without having to pay a royalty. Congress is now considering amending the General Mining Act to, among other things, assess a royalty to ensure that the public is compensated for hardrock minerals extracted from federal lands, as more recently enacted laws require for oil, gas, and other minerals. The vast majority of the federal lands where hardrock mining operations occur are in 12 western states, including Alaska (hereafter referred to as the 12 western states). These western states have statutes governing hardrock mining operations on lands in their state. However, unlike the federal government, these states charge royalties that allow them to share in the proceeds from hardrock minerals extracted from state-owned lands. In addition, most of these states charge taxes, such as severance taxes, mine license taxes, or resource excise taxes, on hardrock mining operations that occur on private, state, and federal lands. Although states may use similar names for functional royalties they assess, there can be wide …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Private defined benefit (DB) pension plans are an important source of retirement income for millions of Americans. However, from 1990 to 2006, plan sponsors have voluntarily terminated over 61,000 sufficiently funded single-employer DB plans. An event preceding at least some of these terminations was a so-called plan "freeze"--an amendment to the plan to limit some or all future pension accruals for some or all plan participants. Available information that the government collects about frozen plans is limited in scope and may not be recent. GAO conducted a stratified probability sample survey of 471 single-employer DB plan sponsors out of a population of 7,804 (with 100 or more total plan participants) to gather more timely and detailed information about frozen plans. We have prepared this report under the Comptroller General's authority as part of our ongoing reassessment of risks associated with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's (PBGC) single-employer pension insurance program, which, in 2003, we placed on our high-risk list of programs that need broad-based transformations and warrant the attention of Congress and the executive branch. Frozen DB plans have possible implications for PBGC's long-term financial position. …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) established a voluntary outpatient prescription drug benefit, known as Medicare Part D. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contracts with private companies to serve as Part D sponsors and administer the Part D prescription drug benefit plans. To protect beneficiaries and the fiscal integrity of the program, the MMA requires Part D sponsors to implement programs to control for fraud and abuse in Part D. Subsequent regulations and guidance from CMS contain requirements and recommended measures for these programs. This report examines (1) the extent to which certain Part D sponsors have implemented programs to control fraud, waste, and abuse and (2) the extent of CMS's oversight of Part D sponsors' programs to control fraud, waste, and abuse. GAO conducted on-site reviews of five of the largest Part D sponsors' fraud and abuse programs. GAO also interviewed officials from CMS and reviewed CMS documents."

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory conducted slug-test characterization at the final, completed BP-5 Remedial Investigation well 699-52-55A near the 200-East Area at the Hanford Site on April 22, 2008. The slug-test characterization was in support of the BP-5 Remedial Investigation. The portion of the unconfined aquifer tested is composed of sediments of the lower Ringold Formation and the underlying Elephant Mountain basalt flowtop. The basalt flowtop unit was included as part of the effective test-interval length for the slug-test analysis because the flowtop unit is hydraulically communicative with the unconfined aquifer. Estimates of hydraulic conductivity for the effective test-interval length represent composite values for the lower Ringold Formation and the underlying Elephant Mountain basalt flow top.

Photoionization efficiency curves were measured for gas-phase PtC, PtO, and PtO2 using tunable vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation at the Advanced Light Source. The molecules were prepared by laser ablation of a platinum tube, followed by reaction with CH4 or N2O and supersonic expansion. These measurements providethe first directly measured ionization energy for PtC, IE(PtC) = 9.45 +- 0.05 eV. The direct measurement also gives greatly improved ionization energies for the platinum oxides, IE(PtO) = 10.0 +- 0.1 eV and IE(PtO2) = 11.35 +- 0.05 eV. The ionization energy connects the dissociation energies of the neutral and cation, leading to greatly improved 0 K bond dissociation energies for the neutrals: D0(Pt-C) = 5.95 +- 0.07 eV, D0(Pt-O)= 4.30 +- 0.12 eV, and D0(OPt-O) = 4.41 +- 0.13 eV, as well as enthalpies of formation for the gas-phase molecules Delta H0 f,0(PtC(g)) = 701 +- 7 kJ/mol, Delta H0f,0(PtO(g)) = 396 +- 12 kJ/mol, and Delta H0f,0(PtO2(g)) = 218 +- 11 kJ/mol. Much of the error in previous Knudsen cell measurements of platinum oxide bond dissociation energies is due to the use of thermodynamic second law extrapolations. Third law values calculated using statistical mechanical thermodynamic functions are in much better agreement with …

Research in earth and atmospheric sciences has become increasingly important in light of the energy, climate change, and other environmental issues facing the United States and the world. The development of new energy resources other than fossil hydrocarbons, the safe disposal of nuclear waste and greenhouse gases, and a detailed understanding of the climatic consequences of our energy choices are all critical to meeting energy needs while ensuring environmental safety. The cleanup of underground contamination and the preservation and management of water supplies continue to provide challenges, as they will for generations into the future. To address the critical energy and environmental issues requires continuing advances in our knowledge of Earth systems and our ability to translate that knowledge into new technologies. The fundamental Earth science research common to energy and environmental issues largely involves the physics, chemistry, and biology of fluids in and on the Earth. To manage Earth fluids requires the ability to understand their properties and behavior at the most fundamental molecular level, as well as prediction, characterization, imaging, and manipulation of those fluids and their behavior in real Earth reservoirs. The broad range of disciplinary expertise, the huge range of spatial and time scales, and the …

State of the art soft x-ray spectroscopy techniques like Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS) require diffraction gratings which can provide extremely high spectral resolution of 105-106. This problem may be addressed with a sliced multilayer grating with an ultra-high groove density (up to 50,000 mm-1) proposed in the recent publication [Voronov, D. L., Cambie, R., Feshchenko, R. M., Gullikson, E., Padmore, H. A., Vinogradov, A. V., Yashchuk, V. V., Proc. SPIE 6705, 67050E (2007)]. It has been suggested to fabricate such a grating by deposition of a soft x-ray multilayer on a substrate which is a blazed saw-tooth grating (echellette) with low groove density. Subsequent polishing applied to the coated grating removes part of the coating and forms an oblique-cut multiline structure that is a sliced multilayer grating. The resulting grating has a short-scale periodicity of lines (bilayers), which is defined by the multilayer period and the oblique-cut angle. We fabricated and tested a Sc/Si multilayer sliced grating suitable for EUV applications, which is a first prototype based on the suggested technique. In order to fabricate an echellette substrate, we used anisotropic KOH etching of a Si wafer. The etching regime was optimized to obtain smooth and flat echellette facets. …

The above quote, taken from the executive summary of the Report from the US DOE Basic Energy Sciences Workshop held August 6–8, 2007,[1] places in context the research carried out at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which is reported in this document. The enormous impact of heterogeneous catalysis is exemplified by the Haber process for the synthesis of ammonia, which consumes a few % of the world’s energy supply and natural gas, and feeds as many as a third of the world’s population. While there have been numerous advances in understanding the process,[2] culminating in the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Gerhard Ertl in 2007, it is interesting to note that the catalysts themselves have changed very little since they were discovered heuristically in the the early part of the 20th century. The thesis of this report is that modern materials chemistry, with all the empirical knowledge of solid state chemistry, combined with cutting edge structural tools, can help develop and better heterogeneous catalysis. The first part of this report describes research in the area of early transition metal carbides (notably of Mo and W), potentially useful catalysts for water gas shift (WGS) and related reactions of use …

We present measurements of net charge fluctuations in Au + Au collisions at {radical}s{sub NN} = 19.6, 62.4, 130, and 200 GeV, Cu + Cu collisions at {radical}s{sub NN} = 62.4, 200 GeV, and p + p collisions at {radical}s = 200 GeV using the dynamical net charge fluctuations measure {nu}{sub {+-},dyn}. We observe that the dynamical fluctuations are non-zero at all energies and exhibit a modest dependence on beam energy. A weak system size dependence is also observed. We examine the collision centrality dependence of the net charge fluctuations and find that dynamical net charge fluctuations violate 1/N{sub ch} scaling, but display approximate 1/N{sub part} scaling. We also study the azimuthal and rapidity dependence of the net charge correlation strength and observe strong dependence on the azimuthal angular range and pseudorapidity widths integrated to measure the correlation.

A variety of MHD phenomena have been observed on NSTX. Many of these affect fast particle losses, which are of major concern for future burning plasma experiments. Usual diagnostics for studying these phenomena are arrays of Mirnov coils for magnetic oscillations and PIN diode arrays for soft x-ray emission from the plasma core. Data reported here are from an unique fast soft x-ray imaging camera (FSXIC) with a wide-angle (pinhole) tangential view of the entire plasma minor cross section. The camera provides a 64x64 pixel image, on a CCD chip, of light resulting from conversion of soft x-rays incident on a phosphor to the visible. We have acquired plasma images at frame rates of 1-500 kHz (300 frames/shot), and have observed a variety of MHD phenomena: disruptions, sawteeth, fishbones, tearing modes, and ELMs. New data including modes with frequency > 90 kHz are also presented. Data analysis and modeling techniques used to interpret the FSXIC data are described and compared, and FSXIC results are compared to Mirnov and PIN diode array results.

Research is being conducted for the NRC at PNNL to assess the effectiveness and reliability of advanced NDE methods for the inspection of LWR components. The scope of this research encompasses primary system pressure boundary materials including cast austenitic stainless steels (CASS), dissimilar metal welds (DMWs), piping with corrosion-resistant cladding, weld overlays, and far-side examinations of austenitic piping welds. A primary objective of this work is to evaluate various NDE methods to assess their ability to detect, localize, and size cracks in coarse-grained steel components. This interim technical letter report (TLR) provides a synopsis of recent investigations at PNNL aimed at evaluating the capabilities of phased-array (PA) ultrasonic testing (UT) methods as applied to the inspection of CASS welds in nuclear reactor piping. A description of progress, recent developments and interim results are provided.

The Mie-Gruneisen formalism is used to fit a Birch-Murnaghan equation of state to high-temperature (T), high-pressure (P) X-ray diffraction unit-cell volume (V) measurements on synthetic goethite (alpha-FeOOH) to combined conditions of T = 23-250o C and P = 0-29.4 GPa. We find the zero-pressure thermal expansion coefficient of goethite to be alpha0 = 2.3 (+-0.6) x 10-5 K-1 over this temperature range. Our data yield zero-pressure compressional parameters: V0 = 138.75 (+- 0.02) Angstrom3, bulk modulus K0 = 140.3 (+- 3.7) GPa, pressure derivative K0' = 4.6 (+- 0.4), Gruneisen parameter gamma0 = 0.91 (+- 0.07), and Debye temperature Theta0 = 740 (+- 5) K. We identify decomposition conditions for 2alpha-FeOOH --> alpha-Fe2O3 + H2O at 1 - 8 GPa and 100-400oC, and the polymorphic transition from alpha-FeOOH (Pbnm) to epsilon-FeOOH (P21mn). The non-quenchable, high-pressure epsilon-FeOOH phase P-V data are fitted to a second-order (Birch) equation of state yielding, K0 = 158 (+- 5) GPa and V0 = 66.3 (+- 0.5) Angstrom3.

This report discusses the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), which is an agreement among member states to provide assistance after disasters overwhelm a state's capacity to manage consequences.

This report examines initial responses to the 9/11 Commission's call for a board to oversee adherence to presidential guidelines on information sharing that safeguard the privacy of individuals about whom information is shared, and the implementation of this board.

This report aims to inform consideration of H.R. 1746 and possible alternatives by providing: background on Holocaust-era compensation and restitution issues; an overview of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), including criticism and support of its claims process and Administration policy on ICHEIC; and an overview of litigation on Holocaust-era insurance claims and the proposed legislation.

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This report provides information about the Threat Assessments on High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and High Power Microwave (HPM) Devices that can overload at distant numerous systems.

This report presents Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) amendments of 110th Congress.

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This report discusses military personnel issues that typically generate significant interest from many Members of Congress and their staffs. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) selected a number of the military personnel issues considered in deliberations on the House-passed version of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2010. This report provides a brief synopsis of sections that pertain to personnel policy; it focuses exclusively on the annual defense authorization process.

This report discusses the current political and social climate of Iraq, specifically in regards to the influence of the U.S. military presence over recent years. It addresses planned and possible future efforts under the Obama Administration, including the scheduled gradual troops withdrawal; some U.S. officials believe that a U.S. military presence is needed beyond the scheduled August 31, 2010 date. This report also discusses the continued tensions between various Iraqi sociocultural groups.

This report briefly summarizes the UC program, its authorization, appropriations, benefit, determination, and funding.

This report provides an introduction to German foreign and security policy. The report discusses the foundations of German foreign policy, Germany in the European Union (EU), evolving security and defense policy, and transatalantic implications.

China has experienced a sharp rise in the inflow of so-called "hot money," foreign capital entering the country supposedly seeking short-term profits, especially in 2008. Chinese estimates of the amount of "hot money" in China vary from $500 billion to $1.75 trillion. The influx of "hot money" is contributing to China's already existing problems with inflation. Efforts to reduce the inflationary effects of "hot money" may accelerate the inflow, while actions to reduce the inflow of "hot money" may threaten China's economic growth, as well as have negative consequences for the U.S. and global economy.