Letter opinion 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; Whether a city may pay the expenses of spouses of city council members and city employees who are attending conventions.

Letter opinion 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; Is the County Auditor authorized to accept a salary supplement for the administration of State and Federal Grant Programs when that supplement raises the auditor's salary higher than that of the county tax assessor-collector?

A radiological performance assessment of the Radioactive Waste Management Complex at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory was conducted to demonstrate compliance with appropriate radiological criteria of the US Department of Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency for protection of the general public. The calculations involved modeling the transport of radionuclides from buried waste, to surface soil and subsurface media, and eventually to members of the general public via air, ground water, and food chain pathways. Projections of doses were made for both offsite receptors and individuals intruding onto the site after closure. In addition, uncertainty analyses were performed. Results of calculations made using nominal data indicate that the radiological doses will be below appropriate radiological criteria throughout operations and after closure of the facility. Recommendations were made for future performance assessment calculations.

The vortices in the planar nematic are considered using the field-theoretical description in terms of the Rp{sup 2} {sigma}-model. In the strong-coupling expansion the vortices interactions are considered and the new type of phase transition is obtained in the mean-field approximation.

This report presents preliminary calculations of time-dependent release rates of selected radionuclides from the engineered barrier system in a potential high-level waste repository in unsaturated tuff, representative of a potential repository at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. These results are intended for use as preliminary source terms for calculating total system performance. The radionuclides specified for preliminary release-rate calculations are Tc-99, I-129, Cs-135, and Np-237 for ground-water pathways and C-14 for gaseous release.

The dissolution and radionuclide release behavior of spent fuel in groundwater is being studied by the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP), formerly the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) Project. Specimens prepared from pressurized water reactor fuel rod segments were tested in sealed stainless steel vessels in Nevada Test Site J-13 well water at 85{degree}C and 25{degree}C. The test matrix included three specimens of bare-fuel particles plus cladding hulls, two fuel rod segments with artificially defected cladding and water-tight end fittings, and an undefected fuel rod section with watertight end fittings. Periodic solution samples were taken during test cycles with the sample volumes replenished with fresh J-13 water. Test cycles were periodically terminated and the specimens restarted in fresh J-13 water. The specimens were run for three cycles for a total test duration of 15 months. 22 refs., 32 figs., 26 tabs.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) plan to initiate a cooperative research program on development of manufacturing processes for high-level radioactive waste containers. This joint program will benefit both countries in the development of processes for the fabrication, final closure in a hot-cell, and certification of the containers. Program activity objectives can be summarized as follows: to support the selection of suitable container fabrication, final closure, and inspection techniques for the candidate materials and container designs that are under development or are being considered in the US and Canadian repository programs; and to investigate these techniques for alternate materials and/or container designs, to be determined in future optimization studies relating to long-term performance of the waste packages. The program participants will carry out this work in a conditional phased approach, and the scope of work for subsequent years will evolve subject to developments in earlier years. The overall term of this cooperative program is planned to run roughly three years. 5 refs., 2 tabs.

The release of {sup 14}C as {sup 14}CO{sub 2} from partly failed spent fuel containers has been analyzed by the flow of gases into and out of the containers. This flow of gases is driven by pressure differences, which are in turn caused by heating by the spent fuel. In this analysis, the timing and size of holes in the containers are assumed to be given. A better means of predicting the time distribution and sizes of penetrations in nuclear waste containers is needed. For the purposes of far-field transport calculations, we have adopted release rates that are shown to be bonding for the large range of hole sizes studied. The transport of released {sup 14}CO{sub 2} has been analyzed by transport in equivalent porous medium. The peak {sup 14}CO{sub 2} concentration in pore gas at 350 m above the repository does not depend on the time of hole occurrence, although the time of penetration obviously affects the arrival and duration of exposure to {sup 14}C. Nor does water saturation have much effect on peak concentration. In this analysis we have used a constant gas Darcy velocity. We performed limited sensitivity analysis on gas Darcy velocity by using values one …

A high-level nuclear waste repository has inherent technical uncertainty due to its first-of-a-kind nature and the unprecedented time over which it must function. Three possible technical modifications to the currently planned US high-level nuclear waste system are reviewed in this paper. These modifications would be facilitated by inclusion of a monitored retrievable storage (MRS) in the system. The modifications are (1) an underground MRS at Yucca Mountain, (2) a phased repository, and (3) a ``cold`` repository. These modifications are intended to enhance scientific confidence that a repository system would function satisfactorily despite technical uncertainty. 12 refs.

This report combines six work units performed in FY`85--86 by the Copper Development Association and the International Copper Research Association under contract with the University of California. The work includes literature surveys and state-of-the-art summaries on several considerations influencing the feasibility of the use of copper-base materials for fabricating high-level nuclear waste packages for the proposed repository in tuff rock at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The general conclusion from this work was that copper-base materials are viable candidates for inclusion in the materials selection process for this application. 55 refs., 48 figs., 22 tabs.

There appears to be no compelling public health protection reason for EPA`s promulgation of NESHAP regulations to control air emissions of radioactive materials from NRC-licensed facilities engaged in activities associated with the practice and development of nuclear medicine. The NRC`s existing regulations provide the necessary controls for protection and EPA`s regulations would only add burdensome reporting requirements at substantial cost to medical treatment and diagnosis. Availability of nuclear medicine practice could be impacted and advancements through research delayed.

ROD development was proceeding apace until recent budgetary decisions caused funding support for ROD development to be drastically reduced. The funding which was originally provided by DARPA and the Balanced Technology Initiative (BTI) Office has been cut back to zero from $800K. To determine the aeroballistic coefficients of a candidate dart, ARDEC is currently supporting development out of its own 6.2 funds at about $100K. ARDEC has made slow progress toward achieving this end because of failures in the original dart during testing. It appears that the next dart design to be tested will diverge from the original concept visualized by DARPA and Science and Technology Associates (STA). STA, the design engineer, takes exception to these changes on the basis of inappropriate test conditions and insufficient testing. At this time, the full resolution of this issue will be difficult because of the current management structure, which separates the developer (ARDEC) from the designer (STA).

This assessment monitoring plan has been prepared in accordance with the guidance provided by the SCDHEC in a letter dated December 7, 1989 from Pearson to Wright and a letter dated October 9, 1989 from Keisler to Lindler. The letters are included a Appendix A, for informational purposes. Included in the plan are all of the monitoring data from the landfill monitoring wells for 1989, and a description of the present monitoring well network. The plan proposes thirty-two new wells and an extensive coring project that includes eleven soil borings. Locations of the proposed wells attempt to follow the SCDHEC guidelines and are downgradient, sidegradient and in the heart of suspected contaminant plumes. Also included in the plan is the current Savannah River Site Sampling and Analysis Plan and the well construction records for all of the existing monitoring wells around the sanitary landfill.

Two recent LBL design studies, (1) an rf gun with a laser driven photocathode, (2) and a conventional thermionic gun with three stages of bunching, are summarized and compared. The rf gun was designed as a possible injector to a 1 GeV test experiment consisting of a high gradient rf structure and a relativistic klystron. The rf gun cavity had (1/2 + 2) cells. Analytic calculations and computer simulations suggest that emittance growth was mainly caused by space-charge effects and the rf fringe field effects at the exit of the last cell. Emittance growth was found to be strongly dependent on the size and the length of the pulse. The conventional gun is being considered as an injector for the proposed Infra-Red-Free-Electron-Laser (IRFEL) facility. In order to reduce the space charge effects the final bunching is done in a tapered L-band tank where acceleration and bunching occur at the same time. Beam emittance of a conventional gun was measured at the ALS gun-test-stand and found to be satisfactory for the IRFEL application.

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This report contains the document control information and abstracts for SERI Photovoltaic (PV) Program Branch publications resulting from SERI's subcontracted PV research. The information is presented for reports published or distributed during fiscal year (FY) 1988.

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This report talks about Comparative Performance Study of Heavy Ion Injector Systems for High Energy Synchrotrons

The population of white sturgeon in the Kootenai River has continued to decline since 1983, in spite of a closure to harvest in the U.S. section of the river. Setline and angling techniques were used to sample 228 sturgeon from the river between Kootenai Falls and Kootenay Lake during 1989. Sturgeon were found in Montana within 4 km of Kootenai Falls and downstream from Bonners Ferry, Idaho to Kootenay Lake, British Columbia. Our data indicate there is a complete lack of recruitment of juveniles into the population. The youngest fish sampled was of the 1977 year class, and the population is estimated at 850 individuals with 95% confidence intervals of 574 to 1,463. At present, we do not understand what mechanisms are limiting recruitment. Over the past 70 years, the lower Kootenai River has been extensively diked for flood control, effectively eliminating backwater and slough areas that may have provided juvenile rearing habitat: Contaminants have entered the river system via mining operations and agricultural practices. In 1972, Libby Dam began operation, reversing the natural flow regime of the river, and releasing frequent power peaking flows. Of 179 fish that were surgically sexed, 37% were female and 35% were male. Thirty-four …

This project is aimed at decreasing the costs and increasing the efficiency of drilling gas wells in excess of 15,000 feet. This volume presents a summary of an evaluation of various drilling techniques. Drilling solutions were compared quantitatively against typical penetration rates derived from conventional systems. A qualitative analysis measured the impact of a proposed system on the drilling industry. The evaluations determined that the best candidates f o r improving the speed and efficiency of drilling deep gas wells include: PDC/TSD bits, slim-hole drilling, roller-cone bits, downhole motors, top-driven systems, and coiled-tubing drilling.

The first section of this Volume will discuss the ''Conventional Drilling System''. Today's complex arrangement of numerous interacting systems has slowly evolved from the very simple cable tool rigs used in the late 1800s. Improvements to the conventional drilling rig have varied in size and impact over the years, but the majority of them have been evolutionary modifications. Each individual change or improvement of this type does not have significant impact on drilling efficiency and economics. However, the change is almost certain to succeed, and over time--as the number of evolutionary changes to the system begin to add up--improvements in efficiency and economics can be seen. Some modifications, defined and described in this Volume as Advanced Modifications, have more than just an evolutionary effect on the conventional drilling system. Although the distinction is subtle, there are several examples of incorporated advancements that have had significantly more impact on drilling procedures than would a truly evolutionary improvement. An example of an advanced modification occurred in the late 1970s with the introduction of Polycrystalline Diamond Compact (PDC) drill bits. PDC bits resulted in a fundamental advancement in drilling procedures that could not have been accomplished by an evolutionary improvement in materials metallurgy, …

A review is presented of the new techniques which have been proposed for use in particle accelerators. Attention is focused upon those areas where significant progress has been made in the last two years--in particular, upon two-beam accelerators, wakefield accelerators, and plasma focusers.

We evaluated the effectiveness of new fish screening facilities in the Westside Ditch and Wapato Canal in south-central Washington State. The screen integrity tests indicated that test fish released in front of the screens could enter the canal behind the screens. At Westside Ditch, between 6% and 25% of the zero-age fry passed through the rotary drum screens. The 6% estimate is based on tests with rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss fry. The 25% estimate is based on monitoring chinook salmon 0. tshawytscha fry that were diverted from the river into the irrigation ditch. At Westside Ditch, we estimated that 1.8% of steelhead 0. mykiss smolts and 0.3% of chinook salmon smolts released during tests were descaled. The time required for 50% of the test fish to exit from the Westside Ditch Screen forebay was 3 to 8 h for chinook salmon smolts and up to 28 h for steelhead smolts. Methods used in 1988 were first used at Sunnyside in 1985 and were used in subsequent years at Richland. Toppenish/Satus. Wapato. and Toppenish Creek. The methods and 1985 through 1987 results have been reviewed by the Washington State Department of Fisheries, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, …