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 of Category 2 weapons systems."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Real Estate Assessment Center's (REAC) new physical inspection system for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) public and multifamily housing properties, focusing on whether: (1) REAC's inspection system represents an improvement over HUD's prior inspection systems; and (2) REAC's inspections are reliable."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the various schemes used to defraud the Medicare and Medicaid programs and private insurance companies and how the proposed legislation contained in H.R. 3461 and S.1231 could strenghten federal and state health care programs."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) new rule on the Medicare Choice Program. GAO held that: (1) the final rule responds to comments on a June 26, 1998, interim final rule implementing the Medicare Choice program and revises the interim rule to reflect changes made to the program by the Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999; and (2) HCFA complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed information on the actions needed to sustain reform initiatives and achieve greater results in the Department of Defense (DOD), focusing on the: (1) effectiveness of the Department's management emphasis and oversight structure in providing sustained direction and emphasis to the program; (2) status of individual reform initiatives and the barriers that could limit their success; and (3) extent to which the Reform Initiative resulted in savings enabling DOD to shift operation and maintenance funds to support weapons modernization."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the roles of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the U.S. housing finance system, focusing on: (1) the benefits and costs of the enterprises' housing finance activities; (2) federal efforts to ensure the enterprises' safety and soundness; and (3) federal efforts to ensure that the enterprises promote home ownership opportunities for all Americans."

This report chronicles major developments in U.S. - China relations during the Clinton Administration, and in the 103rd through the 106th Congresses, from late 1992 to 1999.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was awarded ten Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) research grants in fiscal year 1996, six in fiscal year 1997, eight in fiscal year 1998 and seven in fiscal year 1999.(a) All of the fiscal year 1996 awards have been completed and the Principal Investigators are writing final reports, so their summaries will not be included in this document. This section summarizes how each of the currently funded grants addresses significant U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) cleanup issues, including those at the Hanford Site. The technical progress made to date in each of these research projects is addressed in more detail in the individual progress reports contained in this document. This research performed at PNNL is focused primarily in four areas: Tank Waste Remediation, Decontamination and Decommissioning, Spent Nuclear Fuel and Nuclear Materials, and Soil and Groundwater Cleanup.

This DIE applies to the surface facilities component of the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project (W) ESF. The ESF complex-including surface and subsurface accommodations--encompasses an area that is approximately six miles wide and nine miles long (approximately 30,000 acres total) (United States Department of Energy [DOE] 1997, p. 9.04). It is located on federally withdrawn lands, near the southwest border of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in southern Nevada (DOE 1997, p. 9.04). Site characterization activities are conducted within the subsurface ESF to obtain the information necessary to determine whether the Yucca Mountain Site is suitable as a geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Most ESF surface facilities are located within the Conceptual Controlled Area Boundary (CCAB) (DOE 1997, p. 9.04), with the exception of the southeastern most portions of the H-Road and the Water Supply System. Various SBT activities are also conducted throughout the Yucca Mountain region as a part of the overall site-characterization effort. In general, the DIE for SBT Activities (Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System [CRWMS] Management and Operating Contractor [M&O] 1998a) evaluates activities associated with SBT. Potential test-to-test interference and waste isolation impacts associated with SBT activities are also evaluated in CRWMS …

Thinly laminated (<0.01 mm) opal sheets and globules associated with calcite in fractures and cavities in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, have U concentrations of 50 to 300 ppm. Previous uranium-series thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) analyses of 0.2- to 1-mm-thick subsamples resulted in a model of slow mineral growth at rates of 0.5 to 5 mm/m.y. To test this growth model using finer sampling resolution, in situ microdigestions were performed by applying a drop of hydrofluoric acid directly to opal surfaces within a small area encircled by jeweler's wax. After several minutes, the liquid was removed, spiked with a tracer solution, and analyzed by TIMS for both U and Th using a single rhenium filament with colloidal graphite. Solutions contained about 0.5 nanograms of U, equivalent to opal weights of 1 to 10 micrograms and dissolved-layer thicknesses less than 0.003 mm. Microdigested opal surfaces have Th-230/U ages of 5 to 10 thousand years (ka) in contrast to much older ages of 150 to 250 ka obtained previously from whole-globule digestions. Additional tests of the growth model were made on cross sections of identical opal globules using the sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) with a 0.04-mm-diameter O-minus primary …

This report summarizes the accomplishment made during the first year of this cooperative research effort between Washington University, Ohio State University and Air Products and Chemicals. A technical review of the variables affecting the SBCR performance, some aspects of bubble dynamics and hydrodynamics properties and physical properties of FT waxes and catalyst have been performed. The needed experimental facilities and measurement techniques have been evaluated and prepared. Exxon Norpar 14 has been suggested as a solvent to be used that mimics at room temperature and pressure up to 200 psi the hydrodynamics of FT waxes. A new correlation has been developed and tested to predict gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient at high pressure operation based on high pressure gas holdup and atmospheric data of gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient.

The uncertainties in calculated solubilities in the Na-F-PO{sub 4}-HPO{sub 4}-OH system. at 25 C for NaOH concentrations up to 5 mol/kg were assessed. These uncertainties were based on an evaluation of the range of values for the Gibbs energies of the solids. Comparative calculations using the Environmental Simulation Program (ESP) and SOLGASMIX indicated that the variation in activity coefficients with NaOH concentration is much greater in the ESP code than in SOLGASMIX. This resulted in ESP calculating a higher solubility in water and a lower solubility in NaOH concentrations above 1 mol/kg: There was a marked discrepancy in the solubilities of the pure components sodium fluoride and trisodium phosphate predicted by ESP and SOLGASMIX. In addition, different solubilities for these components were obtained using different options in ESP. Because of these observations, a Best Practices Guide for ESP will be assembled.

This is the first of two papers describing the application of simulator-optimization methods to a natural gas storage field development planning problem. The results presented here illustrate the large gains in cost-effectiveness that can be made by employing the reservoir simulator as the foundation for a wide-ranging search for solutions to management problems. The current paper illustrates the application of these techniques given a deterministic view of the reservoir. A companion paper will illustrate adaptations needed to accommodate uncertainties regarding reservoir properties.

The area of study is the bonding in heavy element complexes, and the application of more sophisticated electronic structure theories. Progress is recounted in several areas: (a) technological advances and current methodologies - Relativistic effects are extremely important in gaining an understanding of the electronic structure of compounds of the actinides, transactinides, and other heavy elements. Therefore, a major part of the continual benchmarking was the proper inclusion of the appropriate relativistic effects for the properties under study. (b) specific applications - These include organoactinide sandwich complexes, CO activation by actinide atoms, and theoretical studies of molecules of the transactinide elements. Finally, specific directions in proposed research are described.

This Acceptance Test Procedure (ATP) verifies proper construction per the design drawings and tests for proper functioning of the Pumping Instrumentation and Control (PIC) skid ''V''. The scope section lists the systems and functions to be checked. This ATP will be performed at the Site Fabrication Services (SFS) shop upon completion of the construction of the PIC skid.

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on an issue concerning the responsibility of federal departments, agencies, or independent establishments to pay for water and sewer services provided to them by the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA). GAO was also asked to comment on what legal powers are available to the Department of the Treasury to obtain payment from agencies that are delinquent in making deposits into the United States Treasury account to facilitate federal payments to WASA. GAO held that: (1) District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1990 established that the Secretary of the Treasury is to pay the District of Columbia for water services provided to federal agencies and that federal agencies are required to make payments to the United States Treasury account from appropriated funds; and (2) GAO is unaware of any law that grants the Secretary of the Treasury the power to unilaterally transfer from an agency's appropriation to the Treasury any amount the agency was required to but did not deposit into the account."

X-ray backlighting is a powerful tool for diagnosing a large variety of high-energy-density phenomena. Traditional area backlighting techniques used at Nova and Omega cannot be extended efficiently to NIF-scale. New, more efficient backlighting sources and techniques are required and have begun to show promising results. These include a backlit-pinhole point projection technique, pinhole and slit arrays, distributed polychromatic sources, and picket fence backlighters. In parallel, there have been developments in improving the data SNR and hence quality by switching from film to CCD-based recording media and by removing the fixed-pattern noise of MCP-based cameras.

[Tl(OCH{sub 2}CH{sub 3})]{sub 4}, (1) was reacted with excess HOR to prepare a series of [Tl(OR)]{sub n} where OR= OCHMe{sub 2} (2, n = 4), OCMe{sub 3} (3, n = 4), OCH{sub 2}CMe{sub 3} (4, n = 4), OC{sub 6}H{sub 3}(Me){sub 2}-2,6 (5, n = {infinity}), and OC{sub 6}H{sub 3}(Pr{sup i}){sub 2}-2,6 (6, n = {infinity}). Single crystal X-ray diffraction was used to determine the structure of compounds ligated by more sterically demanding ligands. Compound 4 was found to adopt a cubane structure, while 5 and 6 formed linear polymeric structures. These compounds were additionally characterized by {sup 203,205}Tl solution and {sup 205}Tl solid state NMR. Compounds 1--4 were found to remain intact in solution while the polymeric species, 5 and 6, appeared to be fluxional. While variations in the solution and solid state structures for the tetrameric [Tl(OR)]{sub 4} and polymeric [Tl(OAr)]{sub {infinity}} may be influenced by the steric hindrance of their respective ligands, the covalency of the species is believed to be more an effect of the parent alcohol acidity.

Plate impact experiments were performed on B270 glass in order to measure the properties of post-failure wave material. The initial failure wave velocity is 1.27 km/s . After the material is released, the failure wave velocity drops to 0.65 km/s. At a stress of 6.72 GPa, the sound speed in the failed material is 4.97 km/s (compare to 5.79 km/s in the intact material) with a density comparable to the predicted shock value. At a stress of 0.26 GPa, the average sound speed in the failed material is 3.55 km/s, and the density drops to 65% of the intact value. The spall strength of the failed material is greater than 0.14 GPa.

This document describes the tasks included in the Hanford Low-Activity Tank Waste Performance Assessment activity though the close of the project in 2028. Near-term (2001-2006) tasks are described in detail, while tasks further in the future are simply grouped by year. The major tasks are displayed in the table provided. The major goals of the performance assessment activity are to provide the technical basis for the Department of Energy to continue to authorize the construction of disposal facilities, the onsite disposal of immobilized low-activity Hanford tank waste in those facilities, and the closure of the disposal facilities. Other significant goals are to provide the technical basis for the setting of the specifications of the immobilized waste and to support permitting of the disposal facilities.

Distributed power is modular electric generation or storage located close to the point of use. Based on interviews of distributed generation project proponents, this report reviews the barriers that distributed generators of electricity are encountering when attempting to interconnect to the electrical grid. Descriptions of 26 of 65 case studies are included in the report. The survey found and the report describes a wide range of technical, business-practice, and regulatory barriers to interconnection. An action plan for reducing the impact of these barriers is also included.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) teamed with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and ITT Flygt Corporation to conduct a test program evaluating shrouded axial propeller mixers (Flygt mixers) for heel removal in SRS Tank 19. SRS is identifying and investigating techniques to remove sludge heels from waste tanks such as Tank 19.

Semi-Solid Technologies, Inc. developed a semi-solid deposition system for semi-solid aluminum alloys. This technology addresses the direct, rapid, freeform fabrication of relatively large metallic components.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is a US Department of Energy (DOE) multi-program research facility, located in Suffolk County in Long Island, New York. In 1997, groundwater monitoring revealed significant levels of tritium contamination from a reactor fuel pool. The public reaction was immediate and intense. In an unprecedented move, DOE terminated the contractor and rebid the Laboratory management contract. Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA), a partnership between Battelle and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, won the contract. BSA faced enormous challenges in the environmental area. One was changing the culture and mindset of staff and management with regard to environmental protection. Another was changing operations to fully integrate environmental stewardship into all facets of the Laboratory's missions. And finally, BSA needed to change the Laboratory's public image. This paper describes how BSA faced those challenges. DOE and BSA entered into a voluntary agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency to conduct an in-depth evaluation of the environmental aspects and impacts of all activities onsite. A project was initiated to explore environmental problems associated with historical activities. BSA also has made significant investments in developing and implementing an Environmental Management System that is consistent with the ISO 14001 standard, …