This report discusses the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which affected alien eligibility for federal, state, and local government assistance programs, both imposing and broadening restrictions on a number of immigration benefits and programs.

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This report is about the Finance reform in May 1998 in the 105th congress.

The goal of the proposed work described in this Final Report was the development of iron-based Fischer-Tropsch catalysts that combined high activity, selectivity and life with physical robustness for slurry phase reactors that will produce either low-alpha or high-alpha products. The work described here has optimized the catalyst composition and pretreatment operation for a low-alpha catalyst. In parallel, work has been conducted to design a high-alpha iron catalyst that is suitable for slurry phase synthesis. Studies have been conducted to define the chemical phases present at various stages of the pretreatment and synthesis stages and to define the course of these changes. The oxidation/reduction cycles that are anticipated to occur in large, commercial reactors have been studied at the laboratory scale. Catalyst performance has been determined for catalysts synthesized in this program for activity, selectivity and aging characteristics.

This report discusses the efforts to reach an agreement on the fiscal year (FY) 1998 budget were, in many respects, a continuation of the efforts to balance the federal budget by (or before) FY2002. The proposals and legislation for FY1998 were designed to move the budget further towards balance.

The Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) project technical databook provides project-approved summary tables of selected parameters and derived physical quantities, with nominal design and safety basis values. It contains the parameters necessary for a complete documentation basis of the SNF Project technical and safety baseline. The databook is presented in two volumes. Volume 1 presents K Basins SNF related information. Volume 2 (not yet available) will present selected sludge and water information, as it relates to the sludge and water removal projects. The values, within this databook, shall be used as the foundation for analyses, modeling, assumptions, or other input to SNF project safety analyses or design. All analysis and modeling using a parameter available in this databook are required to use and cite the appropriate associated value, and document any changes to those values (i.e., analysis assumptions, equipment conditions, etc). Characterization and analysis efforts are ongoing to validate, or update these values.

The USDOE Material Protection Control and Accountability Program (MPC&A) has established a Project Team with the goal of providing the Russian Electrochemical Plant (ECP) with equipment and training to enable ECP to evaluate, develop, and implement a comprehensive plan and systems for physical protection, material controls, and accountancy upgrades. The MPC&A project will provide for improvements such as risk assessments, access control upgrades, computerized MC&A, communications systems upgrades, building perimeter surveillance and intrusion detection upgrades, vault upgrades, metal and nuclear material detection upgrades, along with mass measurement and non- destructive analysis (NDA) instrumentation. This paper outlines the overall objectives of the MPC&A project at the Electrochemical Plant.

A parametric study of the Spent Nuclear Fuel Project system capacity is presented. The study was completed using a commercially available software package to develop a summary level model of the major project systems. A base case, reflecting the Fiscal Year 1998 process configuration, is evaluated. Parametric evaluations are also considered, investigating the impact of higher fuel retrieval system productivity and reduced shift operations at the canister storage building on total project duration.

This test procedure was developed to determine if the 702AZ Tank Ventilation Facility system is Year 2000 Compliant. The procedure provides detailed instructions for performing the operations necessary and documenting the results. This verification procedure will document that the 702AZ Facility Systems are year 2000 compliant and will correctly meet the criteria established in this procedure.

This supporting document has been prepared to make the FDNW calculations for Project W-320 readily retrievable. The Equipment Removal System (ERS) has been identified by WHC as not having any safety class 1 items present in the tank pits during equipment removal activities. Documentation of this finding is provided in Letter of Instruction 3/1 Analysis Requirements for Project W-320 Equipment Removal System (REF: LOI KGS-94-013). Based on this specific direction from WHC, 3/1 analysis for any component of the Project W-320 ERS is required. No further documentation of non-safety impacting safety items is required per DOE-RL Audit finding No. 90-02, and filing of this memorandum in the W-320 project files satisfies the intent of the referenced DOE observation.

The Detector Development Group at the University of Florida has identified the only known optically radiation hard polymer, scintillator and wavelength shifter materials. The authors summarize their findings here. They conducted an extensive study of siloxane polymers using monomers of dimethyl, diphenyl and methylphenyl siloxanes. An important finding of that study was that polymethylphenylsiloxane is a candidate polymer for use at the SSC. However, the most important result of that work was the demonstration of the existence of optical polymers with extreme resistance to radiation damage. It held out the promise that other possibly more convenient polymers with similar properties could be identified. The first high viscosity, transparent, radiation hard siloxane with high fluor solubility was processed into prototype plates. The authors propose a mechanism to account for radiation induced annealable color center formation in commercial scintillator polymers such as PS and PMMA. The authors produced analogues of these polymers with T{sub g} < room temperatures. These polymers are optically radiation hard. The University of Florida has applied for a patent on this breakthrough discovery. It was found that dye mobility for radiation hard elastomers (T{sub g} < room temperature) was unacceptable over a period of one year. Dyes would …

This report presents an analysis of steam heating of a two-layer tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP)/n-paraffin-nitric acid mixture.The purpose of this study is to determine if the degree of mixing provided by the steam jet or by bubbles generated by the TBP/nitric acid reaction is sufficient to prevent a runaway reaction.

A 3 cm{sup 3} multichannel gamma spectrometer for DOE applications is under development by Digirad Corporation. The device is based on a position sensitive detector packaged in a compact multi-chip module (MCM) with integrated readout circuitry. The modular, multichannel design will enable identification and quantitative analysis of radionuclides in extended sources, or sources containing low levels of activity. The MCM approach has the advantages that the modules are designed for imaging applications, and the sensitivity can be arbitrarily increased by increasing the number of pixels, i.e. adding modules to the instrument. For a high sensitivity probe, the outputs for each pixel can be corrected for gain and offset variations, and summed digitally. Single pixel results obtained with discrete low noise readout indicate energy resolution of 3 keV can be approached with currently available CdZnTe. The energy resolution demonstrated to date with MCMs for 511 keV gamma rays is 10 keV.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory� s (LLNL� s) management assigned the responsibility of conducting TSDF audits to the Waste Certification Office in August of 1994. Prior to this date, there was no mandate for LLNL to audit waste facilities, nor was there a structured program in place for conducting the audits Program development took approximately 10 months. This included writing a TSDF Audit Procedure, writing a Quality Assurance (QA) Plan, developing the required audit check lists, and using the documentation on a trial basis. A typical TSDF audit lasted one full day using three hazardous waste specialists The QA Plan is based on the quality assurance and management system requirements of DOE Order 5700.6C (Quality Assurance) and ASME NQA-1 (Quality Assurance Program Requirements for Nuclear Facilities).

The SAS-DIF3DK code couples a detailed 3-D neutron kinetics treatment with a detailed thermal hydraulics treatment. One goal of the work on SAS-DIF3DK is to produce a detailed code that will run a wide range of transients in real time. Achieving this goal will require efficient numerical methods and efficient coding, and it will probably require the use of multiple processors for larger problems. It has previously been reported that the thermal hydraulics treatment in the code achieves the required speed for typical PWR and BWR cases. This paper presents results from thermal hydraulic analysis of severe LOCA cases in a Soviet design RBMK reactor, and shows that the computing speed goals are also met in these cases.

This report discusses the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which affected alien eligibility for federal, state, and local government assistance programs, both imposing and broadening restrictions on a number of immigration benefits and programs.

As pledged by Speaker Gingrich, the House renewed consideration of campaign finance reform in May 1998. The principal bill is H.R. 2183, known as the freshman bipartisan bill, introduced July 17, 1997, by Messrs. Hutchinson and Allen. Selected floor amendments and substitutes will be in order. The legislation that has generated the most publicity in the 105th Congress has been the McCain-Feingold bill (S. 25), offered on March 19, 1998, as H.R. 3526 by Messrs. Shays and Meehan;1 this has also been offered as substitute amendment no. 13 to H.R. 2183 in the current debate. Table 1 highlights key differences between the two bills, and Table 2 summarizes and compares H.R. 2183, H.R. 3526, and current law.

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