The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Ohio Coal Development Office (OCDO) have recently initiated a project aimed at identifying, evaluating, and qualifying the materials needed for the construction of the critical components of coal-fired boilers capable of operating at much higher efficiencies than current generation of supercritical plants. This increased efficiency is expected to be achieved principally through the use of ultrasupercritical steam conditions (USC). The project goal initially was to assess/develop materials technology that will enable achieving turbine throttle steam conditions of 760 C (1400 F)/35 MPa (5000 psi), although this goal for the main steam temperature had to be revised down to 732 C (1350 F), based on a preliminary assessment of material capabilities. The project is intended to build further upon the alloy development and evaluation programs that have been carried out in Europe and Japan. Those programs have identified ferritic steels capable of meeting the strength requirements of USC plants up to approximately 620 C (1150 F) and nickel-based alloys suitable up to 700 C (1300 F). In this project, the maximum temperature capabilities of these and other available high-temperature alloys are being assessed to provide a basis for materials selection and application under …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has experienced significant financial problems in recent years. BPA's cash reserves at the end of fiscal year 2002 had fallen to $188 million, and BPA estimated in February 2003 that it had a 74 percent chance of missing its Treasury debt payment that year. While BPA's finances have recently improved, and the agency made its Treasury payment in 2003, BPA's financial condition is still far from robust. In this context, GAO was asked to report on (1) the advantages and disadvantages BPA faces in marketing electric power in a more competitive environment, (2) the major causes of BPA's recent cost increases, and (3) the extent to which BPA is taking actions to control its costs."

Monthly publication documenting statistics related to economic information in the Mexico-Texas border areas including types of border crossings, employment, customs revenues, and other related data.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Strategy for Homeland Security calls for preventing foreign terrorists from entering our country and using all legal means to identify; halt; and where appropriate, prosecute or bring immigration or other civil charges against terrorists in the United States. GAO reported in June 2003 that the visa revocation process needed to be strengthened as an antiterrorism tool and recommended that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in conjunction with the Departments of State (State) and Justice, develop specific policies and procedures to ensure that appropriate agencies are notified of revocations based on terrorism grounds and take proper actions. GAO examined whether weaknesses in the visa revocation process identified in its June 2003 report were addressed."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Strategy for Homeland Security calls for preventing foreign terrorists from entering our country and using all legal means to identify; halt; and where appropriate, prosecute or bring immigration or other civil charges against terrorists in the United States. GAO reported in June 2003 that the visa revocation process needed to be strengthened as an antiterrorism tool and recommended that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in conjunction with the Departments of State (State) and Justice, develop specific policies and procedures to ensure that appropriate agencies are notified of revocations based on terrorism grounds and take proper actions. GAO examined whether weaknesses in the visa revocation process identified in our June 2003 report were addressed."

Earthquake ground motions have been assessed using a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) of the proposed repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive wastes at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. To meet the applicable regulations, consideration must be given to ground motions that have probabilities of exceedance as low as 10{sup -8}/yr. In the PSHA, aleatory variability in ground motion attenuation relations is characterized by unbounded lognormal distributions. At extremely low annual probability levels, the tails of these distributions, along with large assessed epistemic uncertainties in ground motions from large, close earthquakes, result in upper-percentile and mean ground motions that are extremely high and probably unphysical. To address this issue, we evaluated site-specific geologic evidence with respect to an upper bound on peak ground velocity (PGV), the ground motion measure that is correlated with damage to underground repository systems. Ground-motion amplitudes are limited by the strength of the materials through which they propagate. At high enough levels of seismic shaking, the rocks at the waste-emplacement level, particularly the lithophysal tuffs, will fracture and fail. A key finding of geologic relations from underground explorations and rock-mechanics modeling is the absence of mechanical damage of the type expected from seismic shaking in the …

This is a brief prepared for the NSF management to explain the particle and accelerator physics motivations for MICE.

This report is the superfund program for cleaning up the nation's worst hazardous waste sites that was created by the comprehensive environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, or CERLA.

The Consortium for Advanced Residential Building (CARB), one of the Building America teams, describes recommended best practices to achieve 30% - 40% energy savings without compromising health or safety in houses built in cold climates, hot-humid climates, and hot-dry climates.

The RHIC luminosity is limited by pressure rises with high intensity beams. At injection and store, the dominating cause for the pressure rise was shown to be electron clouds. We discuss bunch distributions along the circumference that minimize the electron cloud effect in RHIC. Simulation results are compared with operational observations.

The material in this book is intended to provide the reader with information about the biodiesel and liquid fuels industry, biodiesel start-up issues, legal and regulatory issues, and operational concerns.

The principle research research effort for Year 1 of the project in data compilation and the determination of the tectonic and depositional histories of the North Lousiana Salt Basin..

The California Bay-Delta Program (CALFED) was initiated in 1995 to resolve water resources conflicts in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Rivers Delta and San Francisco Bay (Bay-Delta) in California. The program planning effort focused on developing a plan to address three main problem areas in the Bay-Delta: ecosystem health, water quality, and water supply reliability. CALFED was authorized to receive federal funding from FY1998 to FY2000, and is now being considered for reauthorization.

The objective of this Public Interest Energy Research (PIER)scoping project is to identify options for public-interest research and development (R&D) to improve transmission-planning tools, techniques, and methods. The information presented was gathered through a review of current California utility, California Independent System Operator (ISO), and related western states electricity transmission-planning activities and emerging needs. This report presents the project teams findings organized under six topic areas and identifies 17 distinct R&D activities to improve transmission-planning in California and the West. The findings in this report are intended for use, along with other materials, by PIER staff, to facilitate discussions with stakeholders that will ultimately lead to development of a portfolio of transmission-planning R&D activities for the PIER program.

Prior to enactment of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA), P.L. 107-155, the term “soft money” generally referred to unregulated funds, perceived as resulting from loopholes in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), 2 U.S.C. §§ 431 et seq. Generally, the intent of BCRA, (effective Nov. 6, 2002), which amends FECA, is to restrict the raising and spending of soft money. This Issue Brief discusses constitutional and legal issues surrounding two major types of soft money that BCRA regulates: political party soft money and soft money used for issue advocacy communications. Corporate and labor union soft money, which FECA exempts from regulation and is not addressed by BCRA, is also discussed.

This is one report in the series of reports that discuss the campaign finance practices and related issues. Concerns over financing federal elections have become a seemingly perennial aspect of our political system, centered on the enduring issues of high campaign costs and reliance on interest groups for needed campaign funds. The report talks about the today’s paramount issues such as perceived loopholes in current law and the longstanding issues: overall costs, funding sources, and competition.

This report describes research conducted between April 1, 2004 and June 30, 2004 on the preparation and use of dry regenerable sorbents for removal of carbon dioxide from flue gas. Support materials and supported sorbents were prepared by spray drying. Sorbents consisting of 20 to 50% sodium carbonate on a ceramic support were prepared by spray drying in batches of approximately 300 grams. The supported sorbents exhibited greater carbon dioxide capture rates than unsupported calcined sodium bicarbonate in laboratory tests. Preliminary process design and cost estimation for a retrofit application suggested that costs of a dry regenerable sodium carbonate-based process could be lower than those of a monoethanolamine absorption system. In both cases, the greatest part of the process costs come from power plant output reductions due to parasitic consumption of steam for recovery of carbon dioxide from the capture medium.

This research project is aimed at assessing the soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration potential of reclaimed minesoils (RMS). The experimental sites, owned and maintained by the American Electrical Power, are located in Guernsey, Morgan, Noble, and Muskingum Counties of Ohio. These sites, characterized by age chronosequences, were reclaimed with and without topsoil application and are under continuous grass or forest cover. During this quarter, bulk and core soil samples were collected from all 13 experimental sites for 0-15 cm, 15-30 cm, and 30-50 cm depths. In addition, 54 experimental plots (4 x 4 m) were established at three separate locations on reclaimed minesites to assess the influence of compost application on SOC during project period 2. This report presents the results from two sites reclaimed during 1978. The first site is under grass and the other under forest cover. The soil bulk density ({rho}{sub b}), SOC, total nitrogen (TN) concentrations and stocks were determined for these two sites on a 20 x 20 m grid. The preliminary analysis showed that the {rho}{sub b} ranged from 0.88 Mg m{sup -3} to 1.16 Mg m{sup -3} for 0-15 cm, 0.91 Mg m{sup -3} to 1.32 Mg m{sup -3} for 15-30 cm, and …

The 2175 {angstrom} extinction feature is by far the strongest spectral signature of interstellar dust observed by astronomers. Forty years after its discovery the origin of the feature and the nature of the carrier remain controversial. The feature is enigmatic because although its central wavelength is almost invariant its bandwidth varies strongly from one sightline to another, suggesting multiple carriers or a single carrier with variable properties. Using a monochromated transmission electron microscope and valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy we have detected a 5.7 eV (2175 {angstrom}) feature in submicrometer-sized interstellar grains within interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) collected in the stratosphere. The carriers are organic carbon and amorphous silicates that are abundant and closely associated with one another both in IDPs and in the interstellar medium. Multiple carriers rather than a single carrier may explain the invariant central wavelength and variable bandwidth of the astronomical 2175 {angstrom} feature.

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The CDFII silicon detector consists of 8 layers of double-sided silicon micro-strip sensors totaling 722,432 readout channels, making it one of the largest silicon detectors in present use by an HEP experiment. After two years of data taking, we report on our experience operating the complex device. The performance of the CDFII silicon detector is presented and its impact on physics analyses is discussed. We have already observed measurable effects from radiation damage. These results and their impact on the expected lifetime of the detector are briefly reviewed.

We have cloned the celC gene and its homologue from E. coli, yhjM, in an expression vector and expressed the both genes in E. coli; we have determined that the YhjM protein is able to complement in vitro cellulose synthesis by extracts of A. tumefaciens celC mutants, we have purified the YhjM protein product and are currently examining its enzymatic activity; we have examined whole cell extracts of CelC and various other cellulose mutants and wild type bacteria for the presence of cellulose oligomers and cellulose; we have examined the ability of extracts of wild type and cellulose mutants including CelC to incorporate UDP-14C-glucose into cellulose and into water-soluble, ethanol-insoluble oligosaccharides; we have made mutants which synthesize greater amounts of cellulose than the wild type; and we have examined the role of cellulose in the formation of biofilms by A. tumefaciens. In addition we have examined the ability of a putative cellulose synthase gene from the tunicate Ciona savignyi to complement an A. tumefaciens celA mutant. The greatest difference between our knowledge of bacterial cellulose synthesis when we started this project and current knowledge is that in 1999 when we wrote the original grant very few bacteria were known to …

This summary report describes data management and visualization activities in the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The report covers the period from approximately October 2003 to June 2004 and describes activities within the Visual Interactive Environment for Weapons Simulation (VIEWS) ASC program element. This report and the references herein are intended to document the completion of the following Level 2 Milestone from the ASC FY04-05 Implementation Plan, due at the end of Quarter 3 in FY04:

The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) Engineering requested characterization of three glass samples that were taken from Melter number 2 after the waste loading had been increased, e.g. after the new quasicrystalline liquidus model had been implemented and after DWPF switched from processing with Frit 200 to Frit 320. These samples were taken after DWPF observed very rapid buildup of deposits in the upper pour spout bore and on the pour spout insert while processing the high waste loading (approximate 38 wt percent feedstock). Rapid deposition in these locations had not occurred prior to this and, in turn, stopped after waste loading decreased. These samples were evaluated at SRTC using various analytical techniques for potential impacts on pouring problems recently experienced by the DWPF.