The collapse of the Soviet system led to a sharp contraction of state funding for science. Formerly privileged scientists suddenly confronted miserly salaries (often paid late), plummeting social prestige, deteriorating research facilities and equipment, and few prospects for improvement. Many departed the field of science for more lucrative opportunities, both within Russia and abroad. The number of inventions, patent applications, and publications by Russian scientists declined. Reports of desperate nuclear physicists seeking work as tram operators and conducting hunger strikes dramatized the rapid collapse of one of the contemporary world's most successful scientific establishments. Even more alarming was the 1996 suicide of Vladimir Nechai, director of the second largest nuclear research center in Russia (Chelyabinsk-70, now known as Snezhinsk). Nechai, a respected theoretical physicist who spent almost 40 years working on Soviet and Russian nuclear programs, killed himself because he could no longer endure his inability to rectify a situation in which his employees had not been paid for more than 5 months and were ''close to starvation.'' The travails of Russia's scientists sparked interest in the West primarily because of the security threat posed by their situation. The seemingly relentless crisis in science raised fears that disgruntled scientists might …

A theoretical model of combustion in spherical TNT explosions at large Reynolds, Peclet and Damk hler numbers is described. A key feature of the model is that combustion is treated as material transformations in the Le Chatelier plane, rather than ''heat release''. In the limit considered here, combustion is concentrated on thin exothermic sheets (boundaries between fuel and oxidizer). The products expand along the sheet, thereby inducing vorticity on either side of the sheet that continues to feed the process. The results illustrate the linking between turbulence (vorticity) and exothermicity (dilatation) in the limit of fast chemistry thereby demonstrating the controlling role that fluid dynamics plays in such problems.

Containment of spent nuclear fuel and vitrified forms of high level nuclear waste require use of materials that are highly corrosion resistant to all of the anticipated environmental scenarios that can occur in a geological repository. Ni-Cr-Mo Alloy 22 (UNS N60622) is proposed for the corrosion resistant outer barrier of a two-layer waste package container at the potential repository site at Yucca Mountain. A range of water compositions that may contact the outer barrier is under consideration, and a testing program is underway to characterize the forms of corrosion and to quantify the corrosion rates. Results from the testing support models for long term prediction of the performance of the container. Results obtained to date indicate a very low general corrosion rate for Alloy 22 and very high resistance to all forms of localized and environmentally assisted cracking in environments tested to date.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittees.

In order to prepare policies and plans to reduce GHG emissions, national policy-makers need information on the costs and benefits of different mitigation options in addition to their carbon implications. Policy-makers must weigh the costs, benefits, and impacts of climate change mitigation and adaptation options, in the face of competition for limited resources. The policy goal for mitigation options in the land use sector is to identify which mix of options is likely to best achieve the desired forestry service and production objectives at the least cost, while attempting to maximize economic and social benefits, and minimize negative environmental and social impacts. Improved national-level cost estimates of response options in the land use sector can be generated by estimating the costs and benefits of different forest management practices appropriate for specific country conditions which can be undertaken within the constraint of land availability and its opportunity cost. These co st and land use estimates can be combined to develop cost curves, which would assist policy-makers in constructing policies and programs to implement forest responses.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal agencies rely extensively on computer systems and electronic data to support their missions. The security of these systems is essential to avoiding disruptions in critical operations and to prevent data tampering, fraud, and inappropriate disclosure of sensitive information. GAO analyzed information security audits and evaluations at 24 major federal departments and agencies since July 2000. This testimony summarizes (1) the pervasive weaknesses that led GAO to begin reporting information security as a government-wide high-risk issue in 1997, (2) the serious risks that these weaknesses pose at selected agencies and common weaknesses that agencies need to address to improve their information security programs, and (3) the importance of establishing strong agency-wide security management programs and developing a comprehensive government-wide strategy for improvement."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Because the military's weapon systems, particularly communication systems, have not been sufficiently interoperable, the services have experienced difficulty in operations ranging from the Gulf War to Kosovo. In Joint Vision 2020, a strategic statement on the transformation efforts of U.S. military forces, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff recognizes that a joint force is essential to operational success and envisions an interoperable joint force with technologically advanced warfighting capabilities able to dominate any adversary by 2020. This vision also emphasizes the importance of experimenting with new joint warfighting concepts. The Joint Requirements Oversight Council plays a key role in advancing the joint warfighting capabilities of U.S. forces in support of Joint Vision 2020. The Council oversees the joint requirements process by assessing and approving the services' joint requirements and deficiencies. The Council also reviews and approves plans for correcting those deficiencies. Finally, the Council ensures interoperability and that the services have linked their capabilities to Joint Vision 2020. The Chairman of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council and others have identified and begun to address several weaknesses. Because these efforts are in the early stages, it is …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal law states that not more than 50 percent of annual depot maintenance funding can be used for work by private sector contractors. In an earlier report, GAO could not determine whether the Department of Defense (DOD) had complied with the 50-percent limitation. More recent GAO testimony highlighted continuing and pervasive weaknesses in DOD's financial management systems, operations, and controls that impair its ability to accurately accumulate and report reliable budget execution and cost data. This report found that the military had mixed results complying with the 50-50 requirement for private sector workloads in fiscal years 1999 and 2000. The projections of the Army, Air Force, and Navy in DOD's report for fiscal years 2001 through 2005 are neither accurate nor reasonable estimates of the future allocations of public and private sector workloads. The services placed much less emphasis on the future-years data and reports. The reported projections use incorrect data and questionable assumptions and are inconsistent with existing budgets and management plans. DOD's report should be viewed with caution because it does not provide the best data available to DOD decisionmakers and congressional overseers, and …

None

This report discusses intelligence issues for Congress including narcotics trafficking, conflicts between Israel and Palestine, in Iraq, and among the former Yugoslav states, and North Korean missile capabilities. Updated November 9, 2001.

We present recent results on light mesons based on Dalitz plot analyses of charm decays from Fermilab experiment E791. Scalar mesons are found to have large contributions to the decays studied, D{sup +} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup +} and D{sup +}, D{sub s}{sup +} {yields} {pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup +}. From the K{pi}{pi} final state, we find good evidence for the existence of the light and broad k meson and we measure its mass and width. We also discuss recently published results on the 3{pi} final states, especially the measurement of the f{sub 0} parameters and the evidence for the {sigma} meson from D{sup +} {yields} {sigma}{pi}{sup +}. These results demonstrate the importance of charm decays as a new environment for the study of light meson physics.

The civil construction for the MiniBooNE project includes a 50-m decay path and beam absorbers. The decay path is a six-foot diameter corrugated metal pipe (CMP). To prevent activation of the groundwater, the CMP and beam absorbers are surrounded by crushed aggregate, and enclosed in a double-walled geotextile membrane, referred to as the liner. The minimum distance from the beam centerline to the liner is 10 feet. The double-wall construction of the liner forms three regions, the containment volume, the interstitial volume, and the exterior. Each of these volumes is connected to monitoring wells at both the upstream and downstream ends of the decay volume, i.e. a total of six monitoring pipes extend to the surface. To confirm the integrity of the liner system following its placement, the firm Earth Tech was contracted to perform tests. Michael Williams was the primary contact with Earth Tech. The following is the report from Earth Tech, with minor changes in the interest of clarity. A sketch of the decay region is shown; only one of the layers of the liner is shown, and only one monitoring port. At the time of these tests, the excavation in general, but particularly in the vicinity of …

None

We review the current status of the nuclear reaction rates needed to study nucleosynthesis in massive stars. Results for the calculated nucleosynthesis of all stable species from Hydrogen to Bismuth in a completely evolved 25 M{sub {circle_dot}} star of initial solar metallicity will be presented. Special emphasis will be paid to two particular reactions, {sup 12}C({alpha}, {gamma}){sup 16}O and {sup 22}Ne({alpha},n){sup 25}Mg, and their effect on the structure of the star and resultant nucleosynthesis. Both have been measured many times, but the present range of experimental uncertainty translates into remarkable sensitivity of the calculated nucleosynthesis.

None

The readback accuracy on the high-energy toroids is about 0.26 mA. This does not consider, completely, the relative offsets among the toroids, just the accuracy of one reading on one toroid. Similarly, if you remove the way in which the beam moves in the beam pipe and ignore the relative offsets of the BPMs themselves, then the absolute accuracy of the reading on a BPM is 35 microns.

Project Objective: Develop a polymeric based membrane that can withstand greater temperatures and pressures than current materials.

This is a multiyear experimental research program that focuses on improving relevant material properties of high-T{sub c} superconductors (HTSs) and developing fabrication methods that can be transferred to industry for production of commercial conductors. A key element of this Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) program is the development of teaming relationships with industrial partners in the areas of conductor development and prototype electric power system product demonstration.

Preliminary KTEV results are presented based on the 1997 data set, and include an improved measurement of R({epsilon}{prime}/{epsilon}), CPT tests, and precise measurements of {tau}{sub S} and {Delta}{sub m}.

The stability of the superheavy elements depends on the shell corrections which are governed by the single-particle spectra. Ideally one would like to experimentally determine the single-particle levels in the superheavy nuclei but the production of only a few atoms of these nuclides precludes such measurements. One therefore has to identify single-particle levels in the heaviest nuclei which are available in at least nanoCurie amounts. They have studied the structure of such heavy nuclei in the Z=98 region and identified many single-particle states. In particular, they have studied the structure of {sup 251}Cf and {sup 249}Bk by measuring the radiations emitted in the {alpha} decay of {sup 255}Fm and {sup 253}Es. These single-particle spectra can be used to test theoretical models for superheavy elements.

This report presents the tensile properties of EC316LN austenitic stainless steel and 9Cr-2WVTa ferritic/martensitic steel after 800 MeV proton and spallation neutron irradiation to doses in the range 0.54 to 2.53 dpa. Irradiation temperatures were in the range 30 to 100 C. Tensile testing was performed at room temperature (20 C) and 164 C to study the effects of test temperature on the tensile properties. Test materials displayed significant radiation-induced hardening and loss of ductility due to irradiation. The EC316LN stainless steel maintained notable strain-hardening capability after irradiation, while the 9Cr-2WVTa ferritic/martensitic steel posted negative strain hardening. In the EC316LN stainless steel, increasing the test temperature from 20 C to 164 C decreased the strength by 13 to 18% and the ductility by 8 to 36%. The tensile data for the EC316LN stainless steel irradiated in spallation conditions were in line with the values in a database for 316 stainless steels for doses up to 1 dpa irradiated in fission reactors at temperatures below 200 C. However, extra strengthening induced by helium and hydrogen contents is evident in some specimens irradiated to above about 1 dpa. The effect of test temperature for the 9Cr-2WVTa ferritic/martensitic steel was less significant than …

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

18th Edition of TOP500 List of World's Fastest Supercomputers Released MANNHEIM, GERMANY; KNOXVILLE, TENN.; BERKELEY, CALIF. In what has become a much-anticipated event in the world of high-performance computing, the 18th edition of the TOP500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers was released today (November 9, 2001). The latest edition of the twice-yearly ranking finds IBM as the leader in the field, with 32 percent in terms of installed systems and 37 percent in terms of total performance of all the installed systems. In a surprise move Hewlett-Packard captured the second place with 30 percent of the systems. Most of these systems are smaller in size and as a consequence HP's share of installed performance is smaller with 15 percent. This is still enough for second place in this category. SGI, Cray and Sun follow in the number of TOP500 systems with 41 (8 percent), 39 (8 percent), and 31 (6 percent) respectively. In the category of installed performance Cray Inc. keeps the third position with 11 percent ahead of SGI (8 percent) and Compaq (8 percent).

None