Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Constitutionality of delegation of authority to General 1700 Land Office in article 5414a-2, V.T.C.S., to select a tract of state-owned land for placement in the permanent school fund in "exchange" for a tract to be patented out under the bill's provisions.

Technical discussions at the various sites visited centered on application of boundary integral methods for environmental modeling, seismic analysis, and computational fracture mechanics in composite and smart'' materials. The traveler also attended the International Association for Boundary Element Methods Conference at Rome, Italy. While many aspects of boundary element theory and applications were discussed in the papers, the dominant topic was the analysis and application of hypersingular equations. This has been the focus of recent work by the author, and thus the conference was highly relevant to research at ORNL.

The International Institute of Welding is composed of some 600 technical experts from 36 countries. These individuals are divided by talent and personal interest into fifteen separate groups called Commissions, each with its own charter and goals. The title, and by inference the charter, of Commission V is : Quality Control and Quality Assurance of Welded Products. In pursuit of its charter Commission V has several subcommissions engaged in the development of drafts, procedures, and standards. Those documents subsequently considered suitable may be submitted to the International Organization for Standards (ISO), an organization similar to the American Society for Testing Materials, for acceptance as international standards. All ISO Procedures and standards which have been in effect for five years must undergo review by the initiating body. The results from review of five-year-old standards and procedures and the discussion of other documents proposed for international publication are presented.

Battelle is undertaking engineering development of an advanced process for the dewatering of fine and ultrafine coals. The advanced process, called Electroacoustic Dewatering (EAD), capitalizes on the adaptation of synergistic effects of electric and acoustic fields to commercial coal dewatering systems, such as belt filter presses. The Battelle project for demonstrating the potential for commercial application of the EAD process for coal has the following objectives: to validate the expected technical feasibility and energy conservation/economic benefits of the EAD process as applied to fine ({minus}100 mesh) and ultrafine ({minus}325 mesh) coal; and to obtain data from a continuous, process research unit (PRU) in order to conduct a reliable economic analysis and to design commercial EAD filters as well as to promote adaptation of the process by the coal preparation industry. Progress is discussed. 4 figs.

FSARs. Rockwell International, as operating contractor at the Rocky Flats plant, conducted a safety analysis program during the 1980s. That effort resulted in Final Safety Analysis Reports (FSARs) for several buildings, one of them being the Building 707 Final Safety Analysis Report, June 87 (707FSAR) and a Plant Safety Analysis Report. Rocky Flats Risk Assessment Guide, March 1985 (RFRAG85) documents the methodologies that were used for those FSARs. Resources available for preparation of those Rocky Flats FSARs were very limited. After addressing the more pressing safety issues, some of which are described below, the present contractor (EG&G) intends to conduct a program of upgrading the FSARs. This report presents the results of a review of the methodologies described in RFRAG85 and 707FSAR and contains suggestions that might be incorporated into the methodology for the FSAR upgrade effort.