Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the security protection of executive branch officials in fiscal years 1997 through 1999, focusing on: (1) how many federal government officials were protected, who protected them, and how many security personnel protected them; (2) how much did it cost to protect these officials; (3) under what legal authorities were agencies providing security protection; (4) under what circumstances were officials protected; (5) how agencies were preparing threat assessments, and the implications of standardizing and centralizing threat assessments; (6) what training did protective personnel receive, and what are the implications of standardizing and centralizing security protection training; (7) what are the implications of centralizing protection services under one agency; and (8) what are the views of the protected officials regarding the need for and adequacy of their protection."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army's acquisition strategy for its Suite of Integrated Infrared Countermeasures Systems, focusing on whether the requirements of the Army's helicopters."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the extent of improper payment estimates reported in agencies' during fiscal year (FY) 1999 financial statements."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) effort to reduce and prevent patient adverse events in VA health care facilities through its new patient safety initiative."

Between 1992 and 1996 CDF collected about 100 pb{sup {minus}1} of data at a {radical}s = 1.8 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. This data sample led to a large number of precision measurements of B hadrons properties including their masses, lifetimes and neutral B meson oscillation parameters and the discovery of the B{sub c} meson. Here the author reports on three recent results: the measurement of the B{sup +} production cross section, the search for radiative penguin B hadron decays and the measurement of the CP violating parameter sin 2{beta}. These results are significant examples of the breadth of the CDF program. In 2001 the main injector will allow the Tevatron initially to deliver 1 fb{sup {minus}1} per year at {radical}s = 2 TeV. The CDF detector will undergo major upgrades which will further increase the B physics reach.

Hanford RadioactiveWaste materials have been categorized into four envelopes labeled A through D as specified in the Tank Waste Remediation Contract between BNFL and DOE. 1 Envelopes A, B and C contain only solubilized species and are specified as Low-Activity Waste (LAW). Each envelope is defined based on compositional maximums of chemical and radioactive constituents. Envelopes A and B contain low concentrations of organic species and the primary form of technetium is pertechnetate (TcO4-). Envelope C contains higher levels of organic species and technetium which is primarily in the nonpertechnetate form (presumably complexed TcO2). Envelope D is sludge which has been separated from the supernate and is referred to as High Activity Waste. The current plant design utilizes SuperLig ion exchange resins to remove cesium and technetium (the primary radioactive constituents) from the Hanford LAW. The process is designed to produce a decontaminated waste stream and a concentrated eluate waste stream for vitrification into low and high activity glasses, respectively.

Hanford Radioactive Waste materials have been categorized into four envelopes labeled A through D as specified in the Tank Waste Remediation Contract between BNFL and DOE. 1 Envelopes A, B and C contain only solubilized species and are specified as Low-Activity Waste (LAW). Each envelope is defined based on compositional maximums of chemical and radioactive constituents. Envelopes A and B contain low concentrations of organic species and the primary form of technetium is pertechnetate (TcO4-). Envelope C contains higher levels of organic species and technetium which is primarily in the nonpertechnetate form (presumably complexed TcO2). Envelope D is sludge which has been separated from the supernate and is referred to as High Activity Waste. The current plant design utilizes SuperLig ion exchange resins to remove cesium and technetium (the primary radioactive constituents) from the Hanford LAW. The process is designed to produce a decontaminated waste stream and a concentrated eluate waste stream for vitrification into low and high activity glasses, respectively.

The BNFL removal processes for strontium and transuranic components from the AN-102 and AN-107 supernate originally proposed are co-precipitation methods. In initial testing, the precipitates formed during the strontium and ferric nitrate additions were not filterable.

Given the advanced state of operational plans for late Run II (132 nsec bunch spacing) the C0 IR insert should be designed to operate such that it does not impact nominal Tevatron parameters. This implies an entirely localized insert -- one which is completely transparent to the rest of the machine. This condition has several important design implications, some of which are pointed out below. An IR design similar to that employed at CDF and D0 is unacceptable as a C0 candidate. The addition of such a (single) low-{beta} region to the machine raises the tune by a half-integer in each plane, moving them far from the standard operating point and right onto the 21.0 integer resonance. The nominal (fractional) operating point is most elegantly maintained by adding 2 local low-{beta} in each plane, thereby boosting the tunes by a full integer. The B0 and D0 IR's are not optically-isolated entities. Progression through the low-{beta}squeeze involves adjusting, not only the main IR quadrupoles, but also the tune quad strings distributed around the ring. The result is that the nominal lattice functions at any point in the ring, and the phase advances across any section of the ring, are not fixed, …

A gridless technique for the solution of the integral form of the radiative heat flux equation for emitting and absorbing media is presented. Treatment of non-uniform absorptivity and gray boundaries is included. As part of this work, the authors have developed fast multipole techniques for extracting radiative heat flux quantities from the temperature fields of one-dimensional and three-dimensional geometries. Example calculations include those for one-dimensional radiative heat transfer through multiple flame sheets, a three-dimensional enclosure with black walls, and an axisymmetric enclosure with black walls.

The objective of this study was to achieve a fundamental understanding of SuperLig resin swelling and shrinking characteristics, which lead to channeling and early breakthrough during loading cycles. The density of salt solution that causes resin floating was also determined to establish a limit for operation. Specific tests performed include (a) pH dependence, (b) ionic strength dependence and (c) buoyancy effect vs. simulant composition.

The pretreatment process for BNFL, Inc.'s Hanford River Protection Project is to provide decontaminated low activity waste and concentrated eluate streams for vitrification into low activity and high level waste glass, respectively. The pretreatment includes sludge washing, filtration, precipitation, and ion exchange processes to remove entrained solids, cesium, transuranics, technetium, and strontium. The ion exchange removal of cesium (Cs) and technetium (Tc) ions is accomplished by using SuperLig 644, and 639 resins from IBC Advanced Technologies, American Fork, Utah. The resins were shown to selectively remove cesium and technetium (as pertechnetate), from alkaline salt solutions. The efficiency of ion exchange column loading and elution is a complex function involving feed compositions, equilibrium and kinetic behavior of ion exchange resins, diffusion, and the ionic strength and pH of the aqueous solution. A previous experimental program completed at the Savannah River Technology Center demonstrated the conceptualized flow sheet parameters with a similar Hanford tank sample (241-AW-101). Those experiments included determination of Cs and Tc batch distribution coefficients by SuperLig 644 and 639 resins and demonstration of small-scale column breakthrough and elution. The experimental findings were used in support of preliminary design bases and pretreatment flow sheet development by BNFL, Inc.

The Department of Energy must treat and dispose of large volumes of radioactive waste stored in underground storage tanks at five DOE sites. Technology development has been focused on the separation and removal of various radionuclides from the supernatant contained in the Hanford waste tanks.

The pretreatment process for BNFL, Inc.'s Hanford River Protection Project is to provide decontaminated low activity waste and concentrated eluate streams for vitrification into low and high activity waste glass, respectively. The pretreatment includes sludge washing, filtration, precipitation, and ion exchange processes to remove entrained solids, cesium, transuranics, technetium, and strontium. The cesium (Cs-137) and technetium (Tc-99) ion exchange removal is accomplished by using SuperLig 644, and 639 resins from IBC Advanced Technologies, American Fork, Utah. The resins were shown to selectively remove cesium and technetium (as anionic pertechnetate ) from alkaline salt solutions. The efficiency of ion exchange column loading and elution is a complex function involving feed compositions, equilibrium and kinetic behavior of ion exchange resins, diffusion, and the ionic strength and pH of the aqueous solution. A previous experimental program completed at the Savannah River Tech nology Center2 demonstrated the conceptualized flow sheet parameters with an Envelope C sample from Hanford Tank 241-AN-107. Those experiments also included determination of Cs and Tc batch distribution coefficients by SuperLig 644 and 639 resins and demonstration of small-scale column breakthrough and elution. The experimental findings were used in support of preliminary design bases and pretreatment flow sheet development by BNFL, …

An automated online sampling system has been developed for the BNFL-Hanford Technetium Monitoring Program. The system was designed to be flexible and allows for the collection and delivery of samples to a variety of detection devices that may be used.

A 9 cm cylindrical thruster with a ceramic channel exhibited performance comparable to the state-of-the-art Hall thrusters at low and moderate power levels. Significantly, its operation is not accompanied by large amplitude discharge low frequency oscillations. Preliminary experiments on a 2 cm cylindrical thruster suggest the possibility of a high performance micro Hall thruster.

The objective of this task was to obtain powder property data on candidate glass former materials, sufficient to guide conceptual design and estimate the cost of glass former handling facilities as requested under Part B1 of BNFL Technical and Development Support. Twenty-nine glass forming materials were selected and obtained from vendors for the characterization of their physical properties, durability in caustic solution, and powder flow characteristics. A glass former was selected based on the characterization for each of the ten oxide classes required for Envelope A, B, and C mixtures. Three blends (A, B, and C) were prepared based on formulations provided by Vitreous State Laboratory and evaluated with the same methods employed for the glass formers. The properties obtained are presented in a series of attached Tables. It was determined that five of the ten glass formers, (kyanite, iron oxide, titania, zircon, and zinc oxide) have the potential to cause some level of solids f low problems. The problems might include arching or ratholing in the silo/hopper. In addition, all of the blends may require consideration for their handling.

This report discusses the results of the operation of a cross-flow filter in a pilot-scale experimental facility that was designed, built, and run by the Experimental Thermal Fluids Laboratory of the Savannah River Technology Center of the Westinghouse Savannah River Company. This filtration technology was evaluated for its inclusion in the pretreatment section of the nuclear waste stabilization plant being designed by BNFL, Inc. The plant will be built at the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site as part of the River Protection Project.

This paper addresses the work that SRTC is performing in the design, fabrication, assembly, and testing of the TRU-Waste Repackaging Module.

The objective of this task was to obtain powder property data on candidate glass former materials, sufficient to guide conceptual design and estimate the cost of glass former handling facilities as requested under Part B1 of BNFL Technical and Development Support. Twenty-nine glass forming materials were selected and obtained from vendors for the characterization of their physical properties, durability in caustic solution, and powder flow characteristics. A glass former was selected based on the characterization for each of the ten oxide classes required for Envelope A, B, and C mixtures. Three blends (A, B, and C) were prepared based on formulations provided by Vitreous State Laboratory and evaluated with the same methods employed for the glass formers. The properties obtained are presented in a series of attached Tables. It was determined that five of the ten glass formers, (kyanite, iron oxide, titania, zircon, and zinc oxide) have the potential to cause some level of solids f low problems. In addition, all of the blends may require consideration for their handling. A number of engineering considerations and recommendations were prepared based on the experimental findings, experience, and other process considerations. Recommendations for future testing are included. In conjunction with future work, …

This report provides supplemental information to an earlier report BNF-98-003-0199, ''Evaluation of Emission Spectroscopy for the On-Line Analysis of Technetium''. In this report data is included from real Hanford samples as well as for solutions spiked with technetium. This supplemental work confirms the ability of ICP-ES to monitor technetium as it breaks through an ion exchange process.

Precipitation chemistries for strontium and transuranic (TRU) removal have been tested for crossflow filterability and lanthanide removal with simulants of Hanford tank 241-AN-107 supernate. This is the initial work indicating the usefulness of a strontium and permanganate precipitation process as applied to the Hanford River Protection Project. Precipitations with both ferric and ferrous iron were shown to be at least two orders of magnitude less filterable than a 0.1 gpm/ft target average flux that was desired at the time. A precipitate from a strontium nitrate strike alone was found to filter easily and to make the desired average flux. Other chemistries tested included precipitant of lanthanum(III), nickel (II), calcium (II), and a redox chemistry using sodium permanganate. Of these chemistries a strontium and permanganate strike including calcium provided the highest filter flux compared to the other chemistries. It showed the most promise in lanthanide removal as well. This work provides a promising direction for further work to achieve both acceptable filterability and decontamination for Envelope C wastes to be treated by the Hanford River Protection Project. The work reported here was originally intended to satisfy needs for crossflow filter testing of a strontium and ferric precipitation method for treating Envelope …

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