A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and water utility industry groups, communities will need as much as $1 trillion during the next 20 years to repair, replace, or upgrade aging drinking water and wastewater facilities; accommodate a growing population; and meet new water quality standards. GAO found that the amount of funds obtained from user charges and other local sources of revenue was less than the full cost of providing service--including operation and maintenance, debt service, depreciation, and taxes--for more than a quarter of drinking water utilities and more than 4 out of 10 wastewater utilities in their most recent fiscal year. GAO also found that more than a quarter of utilities lacked plans recommended by utility associations for managing their existing capital assets, but nearly all had plans that identify future capital improvement needs. A privatization agreement's potential to generate profits is the key factor influencing decisions by private companies that enter into such agreements with publicly owned utilities or the governmental entities they serve, according to the companies GAO contacted."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For fiscal year 2002, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will pay $25 billion in cash disability benefits to 3.3 million disabled veterans and their families. Veterans who are dissatisfied with VA's 57 regional offices' decisions may file appeals with VA's Board of Veteran's Appeals. In about half of such appeals, the Board has either granted the benefits denied or returned the cases to regional offices for rework. Additionally, VA reported an accuracy rate of less than 70 percent for regional office disability decisions when it tested a new quality assurance program in fiscal year 1998. When the Board itself denies benefits, veterans may appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. In over half of these appeals, the Court has either granted the benefits denied by the Board or returned the decisions to the Board for rework. In fiscal year 1998, the Board of Veteran's Appeals established a quantitative evaluation program to score its decisionmaking accuracy and collect data to improve decisionmaking. The accuracy measure used by the Board understates its true accuracy rate because the calculations include certain deficiencies, such as errors …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "From 1990 through 2001, the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) of the United States provided export financing commitments totaling $31 billion to promote the export of U.S. goods and services for use in the energy sector. The energy sector is divided into fossil fuel, renewable, and nuclear energy. Financing is provided through a range of products, including loans and guarantees, export credit insurance, and working capital guarantees. Of the $28 billion Ex-Im Bank provided in loans and guarantees for energy-related projects from 1990 to 2001, 93 percent was used to finance fossil fuel projects, and 3 percent was for renewable energy projects. Trends in applications for fossil fuel and renewable energy projects largely mirrored trends in the energy projects financed because 90 percent of applications submitted were financed. Since 1990, Ex-Im Bank has not consistently provided information about its renewable energy program to Congress; its 1995 and 1998 annual reports did not address renewable energy. Ex-Im Bank's energy portfolio is affected by broad factors such as worldwide market conditions and to some degree by its policies, promotion efforts, and programs. The relatively small share of renewable energy …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is the nation's largest cash assistance program for the poor. The program paid $33 billion in benefits to 6.8 million aged, blind, and disabled persons in fiscal year 2001. Benefit eligibility and payment amounts for the SSI population are determined by complex and often difficult to verify financial factors such as an individual's income, resource levels, and living arrangements. Thus, the SSI program tends to be difficult, labor intensive, and time consuming to administer. These factors make the SSI program vulnerable to overpayments. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has demonstrated a stronger commitment to SSI program integrity and taken many actions to better deter and detect overpayments. Specifically, SSA has (1) obtained legislative authority in 1999 to use additional tools to verify recipients' financial eligibility for benefits, including strengthening its ability to access individuals' bank account information; (2) developed additional measures to hold staff accountable for completing assigned SSI workloads and resolving overpayment issues; (3) provided field staff with direct access to state databases to facilitate more timely verification of recipient's wages and unemployment information; and (4) significantly increased, since …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The worldwide trafficking and smuggling of nuclear material has reportedly increased in recent years. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports 181 confirmed cases of illicit trafficking of nuclear material since 1993. Many of the cases reported by IAEA involved material that could be used to produce a "dirty bomb" that could spread radioactive contamination over a wide area. Nuclear material can be smuggled across a country's border through various means. Many nuclear smuggling cases have been traced to nuclear material that originated in the former Soviet Union. The United States, through the Department of Energy's Material Protection, Control, and Accounting program, has helped them secure nuclear material at civilian and defense facilities--the first line of defense against potential theft and diversion of nuclear materials. To address the threat posed by nuclear smuggling, the United States is helping these countries improve their border security--a second line of defense--but these assistance efforts face daunting challenges. U.S. efforts to combat nuclear smuggling are divided among six federal agencies--the Departments of Energy, State, and Defense; the U.S. Customs Service; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the U.S. Coast Guard. …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For 50 years, the General Services Administration (GSA) has maintained the federal government's real property assets, including military installations, office buildings, laboratories, courthouses, postal facilities, and embassies. Separately, the Department of the Treasury produces annual financial information on these assets. GSA's worldwide inventory is the only central source of detailed information on on the government's real property inventory, such as addresses, square footage, acquisition dates, and property type. GAO found that GSA's inventory contains unreliable data. The inventory lacks key data for budgeting and strategic management, such as space utilization, facility condition, historical significance, security, and facility age. Poor communication between GSA and the reporting agencies, technical difficulties with agency data, and resource constraints contributed to the problems. GSA lacks the authority to require agencies to submit data and has been pursuing real property reform legislation. The agency has also begun to improve the effectiveness of the worldwide inventory as a decisionmaking tool. With OMB's concurrence, GSA suspended the reporting process for fiscal year 2001 and plans to develop an enhanced database with real-time capabilities to complement the yearly inventory reports."

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Agriculture provided $15 billion in food stamp benefits to 17 million recipients in 2000. Until the mid-1990s, most recipients received paper coupons that they could use to buy food; today, 80 percent of all benefits are provided electronically. Recipients use cards, much like debit cards, to pay for their groceries at the checkout counter, and the costs are deducted from the recipients' monthly allocation. GAO found that 42 of the 53 jurisdictions it studied will likely meet the October 1, 2002, deadline for implementing a statewide electronic benefit transfer (EBT) system. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia had already implemented a statewide EBT system by October 2001, and six other states had signed EBT contracts and were on track to meet the October 2002 deadline for statewide implementation. GAO did not identify any technical barriers to statewide implementation of EBT systems that are interoperable and portable."

This report provides an overview of the major exceptions to the First Amendment -- of the ways that the Supreme Court has interpreted the guarantee of freedom of speech and press to provide no protection or only limited protection for some types of speech.

This report reviews how the program works and provides analysis of program funding, recipients (numbers and characteristics), and the role being played by the program in the distribution of federal student aid. It concludes with an examination of several Pell-related issues that may be considered by the 108th Congress in the HEA reauthorization process.

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A validated Johnson-Cook model could be employed to perform simulations that conform to FAA standards for evaluating aircraft and engine designs for airworthiness and containment considerations. A previous LLNL report [1] described the motivation for using the Johnson-Cook material model in simulations involving engine containment and the effect of uncontained engine debris on aircraft structures. In that report, experimental studies of the deformation and failure behavior of Ti-6Al-4V and 2024-T3 aluminum at high strain rates and large strains were conducted. The report also describes the generation of material constants for the Johnson-Cook strength model. This report describes the determination and validation of parameters for Ti-6Al-4V and 2024-T3 aluminum that can be used in the failure portion of the Johnson-Cook material.

In 2000, PNNL conducted a two-year study for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to investigate energy use and swimming performance of adult spring chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawystcha) migrating upstream through a large hydropower dam on the Columbia River. The investigation involved one year of laboratory study and one year of field study at Bonneville Dam. The objectives of the laboratory study were to 1) measure active rates of oxygen consumption of adult spring chinook salmon at three water temperatures over a range of swimming speeds; 2) estimate the upper critical swimming speed (Ucrit) of adult spring chinook salmon; and 3) monitor electromyograms (EMGs) of red and white muscle in the salmon over a range of swimming speeds. Laboratory results showed rate of oxygen consumption and red and white muscle activity in adult spring chinook salmon were strongly correlated with swimming speed over a range of fish sizes and at three different temperatures. In the field studies at Bonneville Dam, EMG radiotelemetry was used to examine the amount of energy spring chinook salmon expend while migrating upstream past the dam?s tailraces, fishways, and forebays. Aerobic and anaerobic energy use rates were determined. Energy use was estimated for different specific sections …

This note provides calculations of heat load and coil sizing for a LN2 subcooler which will be installed in the liquid nitrogen line going from Dewar 42 to the. Liquid argon calorimeters. This subcooler must improve LN2 quality and facilitate LAr pressure regulation. The system is described in Engineering note 3740.510-EN-382. This note contains the calculations of heat loads/pressure drops of the liquid Nitrogen supply line going from the Dewar 42 to the liquid Argon calorimeters, and also the sizing of existing LN2 subcooler located in the V-tube. The note is used as a reference. The state of Nitrogen {at} point 6 - ECS entrance (according to 3740.510-EN-382) is used in the calculations. The quality of liquid x = 0.0066 with the use of existing 75 W LN2 subcooler. It has been determined that we need 29.3 W of additional subcooling in order to obtain. 100% liquid at this point with the mass flow of 25 g/s. Keeping in mind the possible error in heat transfer calculations, a 300W subcooler will be installed to replace the old 75 W subcooler. In order to achieve an acceptable conclusion, an assumption of a fully developed boundary layer was made. The hot fluid …

Environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site and surrounding areas is conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Sampling is conducted to evaluate levels of radioactive and nonradioactive pollutants in the Hanford environs. The document contains the CY 2002 schedules for the routine collection of samples for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP) and Drinking Water Monitoring Project.

A comprehensive carbon management program to sequester excess CO{sub 2} includes the maximization of the carbon sink potential of the terrestrial ecosystem. The establishment of sustainable vegetation on semi-arid or damaged land is necessary to increase the carbon inventory in the terrestrial ecosystem, as it is increasing the depth of the soil carbon sink. The availability of water for sustained growth at acceptable costs, when or where precipitation is too scarce or unpredictable, may, however, significantly affect the cost and sustainability of the revegetation efforts. We tested an innovative technology that enables the establishment of 'plantations' that are independent of erratic water supplies or irrigation by developing deep root systems that tap into deeper groundwater. Applied Natural Sciences (ANS) patented technologies (TreeMediation{reg_sign} and TreeWell{reg_sign} systems) overcome soil conditions unfavorable to deep rooting and 'engineer' the growth of phreatophytic tree roots into soil to reliably reach the groundwater. Carbon sinks can then be increased by increasing rooting depths and especially by enabling vegetative growth altogether. We collected soil cores from three phytoremediation sites where these technologies have been previously deployed. From these, we developed detailed information on root density and soil conditions at increasing depths to estimate C gains. The largest …

The study described in this report evaluated spawning distribution, overlap with naturally-arriving spawners, and pre-spawning mortality of spring chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, outplanted as adults in the Clearwater River Subbasin in 2001. Returns of spring chinook salmon to Snake River Basin hatcheries and acclimation facilities in 2001 exceeded needs for hatchery production goals in Idaho. Consequently, management agencies including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) and Nez Perce Tribe (NPT) agreed to outplant chinook salmon adults as an adaptive management strategy for using hatchery adults. Adult outplants were made in streams or stream sections that have been typically underseeded with spawners. This strategy anticipated that outplanted hatchery chinook salmon would spawn successfully near the areas where they were planted, and would increase natural production. Outplanting of adult spring chinook salmon from hatcheries is likely to be proposed in years when run sizes are similar to those of the 2001 run. Careful monitoring of results from this year's outplanting can be used to guide decisions and methods for future adult outplanting. Numbers of spring chinook salmon outplanted was based on hatchery run size, hatchery needs, and available spawning habitat. Hatcheries involved in outplanting …

In Phase IIA of this project, CeraMem has further developed and scaled up ceramic HEPA filters that are appropriate for use on filtration of vent gas from HLW tanks at DOE sites around the country. This work included procuring recrystallized SiC monoliths, developing membrane and cement materials, and defining a manufacturing process for the production of prototype full sizes HEPA filters. CeraMem has demonstrated that prototype full size filters can be manufactured by producing 9 full size filters that passed DOP aerosol testing at the Oak Ridge Filter Test Facility. One of these filters was supplied to the Savannah River Technical Center (SRTC) for process tests using simulated HLW tank waste. SRTC has reported that the filter was regenerable (with some increase in pressure drop) and that the filter retained its HEPA retention capability. CeraMem has also developed a Regenerable HEPA Filter System (RHFS) design and acceptance test plan that was reviewed by DOE personnel. The design and acceptance test plan form the basis of the system proposal for follow-on work in Phase IIB of this project.

This report documents an uncertainty analysis on a local groundwater flow and transport model for the C-Area Reactor Groundwater Operable Unit. The work is a continuation of the recently completed regional groundwater flow model for C Area (Bills et al. 2000) and the local flow and transport model for the southern C-Area plumes (Fogle and Brewer, 2001). The local flow and transport model is a representation of groundwater flow and contaminant migration through the Upper Three Runs aquifer, southwest to Fourmile Branch and Castor Creek. The uncertainty analysis is focused on total TCE flux to the streams, as well as maximum concentration discharge locations.

This report summarizes the research of the Principal Investigator, his postdoctoral research associates, and his students during the period of the award. The majority of the work concerns the behavior of hadrons containing strange, charm, bottom and top quarks, with a particular focus on the extraction of Cabibbo--Kobayashi--Maskawa matrix elements from experiments performed on such systems.

The Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA) Program was initiated in fiscal year 2001 (FY-01) by the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in partnership with other national laboratories. The AAA Project and the R&D for its underlying science and technology will require a large cadre of educated scientists and trained technicians in the future. In addition, other applications of nuclear science and engineering (e.g., proliferation monitoring and defense, nuclear medicine, safety regulation, industrial processes, and many others) require increased academic and national infrastructure and student populations. Thus, the DOE AAA Program Office has begun a multi-year program to involve university faculty and students in various phases of the Project to support the infrastructure requirements of nuclear energy, science and technology fields as well as the special needs of the DOE transmutation program. Herein I summarize the goals and accomplishments of the university programs that have supported the AAA Project during FY-01, including the involvement of more than eighty students.

In previous reports, we have identified two potentially important issues, solutions to which would increase the attractiveness of DOE-developed technologies in commercial buildings energy systems. One issue concerns the fact that in addition to saving energy, many new technologies offer non-energy benefits that contribute to building productivity (firm profitability). The second issue is that new technologies are typically unproven in the eyes of decision makers and must bear risk premiums that offset cost advantages resulting from laboratory calculations. Even though a compelling case can be made for the importance of these issues, for building decision makers to incorporate them in business decisions and for DOE to use them in R&D program planning there must be robust empirical evidence of their existence and size. This paper investigates how such measurements could be made and offers recommendations as to preferred options. There is currently little systematic information on either of these concepts in the literature. Of the two there is somewhat more information on non-energy benefits, but little as regards office buildings. Office building productivity impacts can be observed casually, but must be estimated statistically, because buildings have many interacting attributes and observations based on direct behavior can easily confuse the process …

The program has led to better climate model components, has developed new and more efficient methods of solving climate model equations and has taken advantage of the new computing technologies thus providing more reliable estimates of potential climate change. The CHAMMP sponsored and the NCAR-CSM (Climate System Model) are complimentary efforts and under this leadership are developing state-of-the-art, high resolution, computationally efficient components thus providing a more realistic simulation.

Matrix diffusion has been recognized as an important mechanism affecting solute transport through unsaturated fractured rock, where a significant fraction of the fracture network remains relatively dry and inactive in conducting liquid flow. This simulation study shows that dry fractures act as strong diffusion barriers to solute transport when such fractures divide the matrix into discrete blocks. Where fracture surface roughness causes some regions of direct contact between matrix blocks separated by a dry fracture, the contacts of the matrix blocks provide conduits for liquid flow and molecular diffusion across dry fractures. Simulation results indicate that the presence of dry fractures and their discontinuities considerably affect solute transport in unsaturated fractured rocks.

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