Prepared by the United States Government, this report talks about Additional Scoping Calculations of Tank 50 and Tank 48 Vapor Space Mixing.

This report discusses House and Senate rules and guidelines, laws, and regulations affecting congressional casework, as well as the role of caseworkers.

On May 1, 2004, 10 states joined the European Union (EU), enlarging the Union to 25 members. The EU views the enlargement process as an historic opportunity to promote stability in Europe and further the integration of the continent by peaceful means. In addition to the 10 new members (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia), three other states — Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia — hope to accede to the EU by 2007. Turkey is also a candidate and is expected to begin accession negotiations in 2005. Macedonia has also applied for EU membership.

None

None

This report provides background information on the constitution, its key provisions, the current crisis, and possible implications for U.S. - EU relations.

The invention relates to a novel approach to containing and removing toxic waste from a subsurface environment. More specifically the present invention relates to a system for containing and removing volatile toxic chemicals from a subsurface environment using differences in surface and subsurface pressures. The present embodiment generally comprises a deep well, a horizontal tube, at least one injection well, at least one extraction well and a means for containing the waste within the waste zone (in-situ barrier). During operation the deep well air at the bottom of well (which is at a high pressure relative to the land surface as well as relative to the air in the contaminated soil) flows upward through the deep well (or deep well tube). This stream of deep well air is directed into the horizontal tube, down through the injection tube(s) (injection well(s)) and into the contaminate plume where it enhances volatization and/or removal of the contaminants.

None

This study examined five different branched molecular architectures to discern the effect of design on the ability of molecules to form ordered structures at interfaces. Photochromic monodendrons formed kinked packing structures at the air-water interface due to the cross-sectional area mismatch created by varying number of alkyl tails and the hydrophilic polar head group. The lower generations formed orthorhombic unit cell with long range ordering despite the alkyl tails tilted to a large degree. Favorable interactions between liquid crystalline terminal groups and the underlying substrate were observed to compel a flexible carbosilane dendrimer core to form a compressed elliptical conformation which packed stagger within lamellae domains with limited short range ordering. A twelve arm binary star polymer was observed to form two dimensional micelles at the air-water interface attributed to the higher polystyrene block composition. Linear rod-coil molecules formed a multitude of packing structures at the air-water interface due to the varying composition. Tree-like rod-coil molecules demonstrated the ability to form one-dimensional structures at the air-water interface and at the air-solvent interface caused by the preferential ordering of the rigid rod cores. The role of molecular architecture and composition was examined and the influence chemically competing fragments was shown to …

This quarter (Q1 FY06) marked the first time that the LLNL dynamic transmission electron microscope (DTEM) configuration had advanced to the point whereby it was possible to conduct in-situ experiments on specimens. DTEM improvements continue to progress at a rapid pace. We summarize important achievements in the following list: (1) Instrument performance and design improvements - (a) Reproducibly achieving >1 x 10{sup 7} e{sup -} per pulse. Adjustments in the cathode laser system design led to an improved quantum efficiency and electron yield per pulse. The current number of electrons in the pulse is sufficient for acquiring high quality, single-shot electron diffraction patterns. (b) Implementation of computer interface and Labview{reg_sign} programs for cathode and specimen drive alignment and cathode and pump laser trigger and delay settings. These controls provide a user friendly interface and ease in the experimental setup and implementation. (c) Cathode test chamber (offline test apparatus to asses photocathode design and laser induced photoemission) construction has been completed. (2) Notable instrument features brought into service - (a) Drive laser system was enhanced to improve beam shape and uniformity and to include continuous laser energy monitoring. The drive laser spot size on the specimen was also reduced from 70 …

None

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a nonprofit organization that sponsors a "poker run" violates gambling statutes (RQ-0357-GA)

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a legislator may simultaneously serve as president of a municipal management district operating under chapter 375, Local Government Code (RQ-0385-GA)

Both chemical weathering rates and fluid flow are difficultto measure in natural systems. However, these parameters are critical forunderstanding the hydrochemical evolution of aquifers, predicting thefate and transport of contaminants, and for water resources/water qualityconsiderations. 87Sr/86Sr and (234U/238U) activity ratios are sensitiveindicators of water-rock interaction, and thus provide a means ofquantifying both flow and reactivity. The 87Sr/86Sr values in groundwaters are controlled by the ratio of the dissolution rate to the flowrate. Similarly, the (234U/238U) ratio of natural ground waters is abalance between the flow rate and the dissolution of solids, andalpha-recoil loss of 234U from the solids. By coupling these two isotopesystems it is possible to constrain both the long-term (ca. 100's to1000's of years) flow rate and bulk dissolution rate along the flow path.Previous estimates of the ratio of the dissolution rate to theinfiltration flux from Sr isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) are combined with a modelfor (234U/238U) to constrain the infiltration flux and dissolution ratefor a 70-m deep vadose zone core from Hanford, Washington. The coupledmodel for both (234U/238U) ratios and the 87Sr/86Sr data suggests aninfiltration flux of 5+-2 mm/yr, and bulk silicate dissolution ratesbetween 10-15.7 and 10-16.5 mol/m2/s. The process of alpha-recoilenrichment, while primarily responsible for the observed variation …

Hundreds of highly conserved distal cis-regulatory elementshave been characterized to date in vertebrate genomes1. Many thousandsmore are predicted based on comparative genomics2,3. Yet, in starkcontrast to the genes they regulate, virtually none of these regions canbe traced using sequence similarity in invertebrates, leaving theirevolutionary origin obscure. Here we show that a class of conserved,primarily non-coding regions in tetrapods originated from a novel shortinterspersed repetitive element (SINE) retroposon family that was activein Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fishes and terrestrial vertebrates) in theSilurian at least 410 Mya4, and, remarkably, appears to be recentlyactive in the "living fossil" Indonesian coelacanth, Latimeriamenadoensis. We show that one copy is a distal enhancer, located 500kbfrom the neuro-developmental gene ISL1. Several others represent new,possibly regulatory, alternatively spliced exons in the middle ofpre-existing Sarcopterygian genes. One of these is the>200bpultraconserved region5, 100 percent identical in mammals, and 80 percentidentical to the coelacanth SINE, that contains a 31aa alternativelyspliced exon of the mRNA processing gene PCBP26. These add to a growinglist of examples7 in which relics of transposable elements have acquireda function that serves their host, a process termed "exaptation"8, andprovide an origin for at least some of the highly-conservedvertebrate-specific genomic sequences recently discovered usingcomparative genomics.

Modern scientific simulations generate large datasets at remote sites with appropriate resources (supercomputers and clusters). Bringing these large datasets to the computers of all members of a distributed team of collaborators is often impractical or even impossible: there might not be enough bandwidth, storage capacity or appropriate data analysis and visualization tools locally available. To address the need to access remote data, avoid heavy Internet traffic and unnecessary data replication, Tech-X Corporation developed a tool, which allows running remote data visualization collaboratively and sharing the visualization objects as they get generated. The size of these objects is typically much smaller than the size of the original data. For marketing reasons, we renamed the product CoReViz. The detailed information on this product can be found at http://www.txcorp.com/products/CoReViz/. We installed and tested this tool at multiple machines at Tech-X and on seaborg at NERSC. In what follows, we give a detailed description of this tool.

The objective of the performed research is to develop an early anomaly detection methodology so as to enhance safety, availability, and operational flexibility of Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) nuclear power plants. The technical approach relies on suppression of potential power oscillations in BWRs by detecting small anomalies at an early stage and taking appropriate prognostic actions based on an anticipated operation schedule. The research utilizes a model of coupled (two-phase) thermal-hydraulic and neutron flux dynamics, which is used as a generator of time series data for anomaly detection at an early stage. The model captures critical nonlinear features of coupled thermal-hydraulic and nuclear reactor dynamics and (slow time-scale) evolution of the anomalies as non-stationary parameters. The time series data derived from this nonlinear non-stationary model serves as the source of information for generating the symbolic dynamics for characterization of model parameter changes that quantitatively represent small anomalies. The major focus of the presented research activity was on developing and qualifying algorithms of pattern recognition for power instability based on anomaly detection from time series data, which later can be used to formulate real-time decision and control algorithms for suppression of power oscillations for a variety of anticipated operating conditions. The …

We have searched for strangelets in a triggered sample of 61 million central (top 4percent) Au+Au collisions at sqrt sNN = 200 GeV near beam rapidities at the STAR solenoidal tracker detector at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. We have sensitivity to metastable strangelets with lifetimes of order>_0.1 ns, in contrast to limits over ten times longer in BNL Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) studies and longer still at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). Upper limits of a few 10-6 to 10-7 per central Au+Au collision are set for strangelets with mass>~;;30 GeV/c2.

This report is on Amtrak: Budget and Reauthorization.

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). A limiting factor in this can be the materials of construction. The project goal is to assess/develop materials technology that will enable achieving turbine throttle steam conditions of 760 C (1400 F)/35 MPa (5000 psi). This goal seems achievable based on a preliminary assessment of material capabilities. The project is further 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 range of …

Collection of BRAC related news articles and clippings. Produced for Commission staff review.

Congress has recently focused legislative attention on narrow bills to extend or modify selected Clean Water Act (CWA) programs, rather than taking up comprehensive proposals. In the 109th Congress, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has approved S. 1400, a bill authorizing $20 billion in federal grants to capitalize state clean water infrastructure loan programs. Also, a House committee has approved bills to reauthorize several Clean Water Act programs: H.R. 624 would provide $1.5 billion in grants over six years for sewer overflow projects; H.R. 1359 would extend a pilot program for alternative water source projects; H.R. 1721 would reauthorize coastal water quality programs; and H.R. 3963 would extend the Long Island Sound Program.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Economic Development Administration (EDA) Reauthorization Act of 2004 (P. L. 108-373) included a requirement that GAO evaluate grants made by EDA for the economic development of brownfield sites. More than 450,000 brownfield sites--properties where redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination--are scattered across the United States. This report discusses specifics of grants made by EDA at brownfields sites, including (1) the types, extent, and amount of EDA funds used for remediation activities; (2) the environmental standards and agencies involved; and (3) the economic development activities, standards, and impact."

None