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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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.

The Natural Gas Monthly NGM highlights activities, events, and analyses of interest to public and private sector organizations associated with the natural gas industry. Volume and price data are presented each month for natural gas production, distribution, consumption, and interstate pipeline activities. Producer-related activities and underground storage data are also reported. From time to time, the NGM features articles designed to assist readers in using and interpreting natural gas information.

This publication presents information and compiled data on energy sources. The following information is presented: energy overview; energy consumption; petroleum; natural gas; oil and gas resource development; coal; electricity; nuclear energy; energy prices; and international energy.

In many applications, x-ray multilayer mirrors are exposed to high peak fluxes of x-rays with subsequent damage to the mirror. Mirror damage is a particularly severe problem with the use of multilayers as cavity optics for short wavelength x-ray lasers. Intense optical and x-ray radiation, from the x-ray laser plasma amplifier, often damage the multilayer mirror on time scales of hundreds of picoseconds. The phenomenon of multilayer mirror damage by pulsed x-ray emission has been studied using short duration (500 psec) bursts of soft x-rays 1 from a laser produced gold plasma. The results of the experiments will be compared with some simple models and the possibility of increasing the damage thresholds of short wavelength multilayer mirrors will be discussed.

High-power copper vapor lasers (CVLs) have been under development at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for more than 15 years in support of the DOE`s Program in Laser Isotope Separation. The technology is now quite mature, having met many of its goals in system architecture, power, reliability, and maintainability. Over the past several years we have begun an effort to utilize this technology in other industrial applications, such as metals processing, and have found a number of unique processes. In this paper we describe briefly the general characteristics of the CVL, our recent progress in developing the laser as an industrial tool, and our progress in using the laser in precision drilling and cutting.

During this reporting period procurements and installations were made for the purpose of refurbishing and refitting the two SBCR units that had been used in the recent past for Fischer-Tropsch development projects. The objective of Subtask 2.2 is to test in a slurry bubble column reactor catalysts that have shown satisfactory performance in a fixed-bed reactor. This is necessary because catalysts which perform satisfactorily in a fixed bed environment will not necessarily perform as well in a slurry environment. Catalyst density is particularly important. A catalyst with a high metals loading may show high activity in a fixed bed but perform poorly in a slurry reactor due to catalyst settling. Successful development of new or improved catalysts requires catalyst testing at various levels. Because complete testing (aging, complete characterization, etc.) of a catalyst is very expensive and time consuming, such complete testing will only be done for a select number of samples. Thus, it is imperative that preliminary testing be conducted in a rapid and efficient manner to reduce the number of catalyst formulations that proceed to further testing. Two virtually identical units, called M-3 and M-4, have been created from existing equipment/hardware with the addition of new procurements. Also, …

This article begins with a historical perspective of satellite usage in monitoring nuclear detonations. Current capabilities of the 24 GPS satellites in detecting the light, gamma rays, x-rays and neutrons from a nuclear explosion are described. In particular, an optical radiometer developed at Sandia National Laboratories is characterized. Operational information and calibration procedures are emphasized.

The mathematical foundation of the Ito interpretation of stochastic ordinary and partial differential equations is briefly explained. This provides the basis for a review of simple difference approximations to stochastic differential equations. An example arising in the theory of optical switching is discussed.

In this short note we wish to describe schemes which mix atomic and nuclear energy levels and so permit transfer of nuclear energy to the atomic system from which it is extracted. In addition, we will describe a scheme for stimulating this transfer process which offers the possibility of multi-kilovolt coherent radiation. These ideas are based upon newly available, novel experimental techniques which permit the precise filling of atomic levels and the availability of a broad range of lasers. These new abilities permit the tuning of atomic levels so that they are degenerate or nearly degenerate with nuclear isomeric levels. Such processes permit the exploration of highly leveraged research which could lead to radiation free Ultra High Energy Density Materials in addition to X-Ray Lasers with Gamma ray energies. 2 refs.