The CH-TRU Waste Content Codes (CH-TRUCON) document describes the inventory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) CH-TRU waste within the transportation parameters specified by the Contact-Handled Transuranic Waste Authorized Methods for Payload Control (CH-TRAMPAC). The CH-TRAMPAC defines the allowable payload for the Transuranic Package Transporter-II (TRUPACT-II) and HalfPACT packagings. This document is a catalog of TRUPACT-II and HalfPACT authorized contents and a description of the methods utilized to demonstrate compliance with the CH-TRAMPAC. A summary of currently approved content codes by site is presented in Table 1. The CH-TRAMPAC describes "shipping categories" that are assigned to each payload container. Multiple shipping categories may be assigned to a single content code. A summary of approved content codes and corresponding shipping categories is provided in Table 2, which consists of Tables 2A, 2B, and 2C. Table 2A provides a summary of approved content codes and corresponding shipping categories for the "General Case," which reflects the assumption of a 60-day shipping period as described in the CH-TRAMPAC and Appendix 3.4 of the CH-TRU Payload Appendices. For shipments to be completed within an approximately 1,000-mile radius, a shorter shipping period of 20 days is applicable as described in the CH-TRAMPAC and Appendix 3.5 …

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Prostate cancer (PC) is the second leading cause of male U.S. cancer deaths, with African-Americans having the highest rate of PC mortality worldwide, as well as more abnormal results from screening tests that correlate with current or eventual PC. A 3-year prospective clinic-based study is studying the performance of current (PSA and DRE) vs. (% free PSA) clinical biomarkers of PC risk in 400 African-American men 50 to 70 years of age who undergo PC screening in Oakland, CA (East Bay San Francisco area), as well as possible association of PC screening results for these men with their dietary exposures to the cancer-causing heterocyclic amine, 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP) that forms when meat is cooked. This study expands an ongoing NIH-funded study (by the same research team) to add a new %-free-PSA test, results of which will be compared with PSA/DRE results and PhIP exposures estimated by dietary interviews. For 392 men studied under the NIH protocol, an odds ratio (95% CL) of 32 (3.2, 720) for highly elevated PSA ({ge}20 ng/mL) was observed in the highest 15% vs. the lower 50% of estimated daily PhIP intakes. Approximately 100 additional men have completed participation in the expanded NIH/DOD-supported study. This study will …

During Modular Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction (CSSX) Unit (MCU) operations, Cs-137 concentrations in product streams will vary depending on the location in the process and on the recent process conditions. Calculations of cesium concentrations under a variety of operating conditions reveal the following: (1) Under nominal operations with salt solution feed containing 1.1 Ci Cs-137 per gallon, the maximum Cs-137 concentration in the process will occur in the strip effluent (SE) and equal 15-16.5 Ci/gal. (2) Under these conditions, the majority of the solvent will contain 0.005 to 0.01 Ci/gal, with a limited portion of the solvent in the contactor stages containing {approx}4 Ci/gal. (3) When operating conditions yield product near 0.1 Ci Cs-137/gal in the decontaminated salt solution (DSS), the SE cesium concentration will be the same or lower than in nominal operations, but majority of the stripped solvent will increase to {approx}2-3 Ci/gal. (4) Deviations in strip and waste stream flow rates cause the largest variations in cesium content: (a) If strip flow rates deviate by -30% of nominal, the SE will contain {approx}23 Ci/gal, although the cesium content of the solvent will increase to only 0.03 Ci/gal; (b) If strip flow rate deviates by -77% (i.e., 23% of …

Efforts have been under way at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to develop detailed analytical models that simulate enrichment and conversion facilities for the purpose of aiding in the detection of material diversion as part of an overall safeguards strategy. These models could be used to confirm proper accountability of the nuclear materials at facilities worldwide. Operation of an enrichment process for manufacturing commercial reactor fuel presents proliferation concerns including both diversion and the potential for further enrichment to make weapons grade material. While inspections of foreign reprocessing facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are meant to ensure that such diversion is not occurring, it must be verified that such diversion is not taking place through both examination of the facility and taking specific measurements such as the radiation fields outside of various process lines. Our current effort is developing algorithms that would be incorporated into the current process models that would provide both neutron and gamma radiation fields outside any process line for the purpose of to determining the most effective locations for placing in-plant monitoring equipment. These algorithms, while providing dose and spectral information, could also be designed to provide detector responses that could be physically …

Encouraged by the latest SNO results, we consider the lepton mixing matrix in the approximation that the {nu}{sub 2} mass eigenstate is trimaximally (democratically) mixed. This suggests a new parameterization of the remaining mixing degrees of freedom, which eschews mixing angles, dealing instead, directly with the complex parameter U{sub e3} of the mixing matrix. Unitarity triangles then take a particularly simple form, which we hope will facilitate comparison with experiment.

This month's issue has the following articles: (1) Without Fanfare, Technicians Safely Keep the Laboratory Humming--Commentary by Bruce T. Goodwin; (2) These People Make Things Happen--Technicians at Lawrence Livermore, comprising more than 20 percent of the workforce, are essential to research efforts. March 2006; (3) The Shocking Truth about Detonations and Metals--The multichannel x-ray system Hydra records the changes in metals undergoing a high-explosives shock, revealing phenomena not predicted by material models; (4) Floating into Thin Air--High-flying balloon gathers images from x-ray sources that are out of this world; and (5) Carbon Goes Full Cycle in the Amazon--Recent measurements indicate that the Amazon River basin returns carbon to the atmosphere in only 5 years.

Searches for lepton flavor violating tau {yields} l gamma, tau {yields} lhh decays at the BABAR experiment are presented. Upper limits on the branching ratios are obtained at the level of O(10{sup -7}) at 90% confidence level.

The process of continuous galvanizing of rolled sheet steel includes immersion into a bath of molten zinc/aluminum alloy. The steel strip is dipped in the molten bath through a series of driving motors and rollers which control the speed and tension of the strip, with the ability to modify both the amount of coating applied to the steel as well as the thickness and width of the sheet being galvanized. There are three rolls used to guide the steel strip through the molten metal bath. The rolls that operate in the molten Zn/Al are subject to a severely corrosive environment and require frequent changing. The performance of this equipment, the metallic hardware submerged in the molten Zn/Al bath, is the focus of this research. The primary objective of this research is to extend the performance life of the metallic hardware components of molten Zn/Al pot hardware by an order of magnitude. Typical galvanizing operations experience downtimes on the order of every two weeks to change the metallic hardware submerged in the molten metal bath. This is an expensive process for industry which takes upwards of 3 days for a complete turn around to resume normal operation. Each roll bridle consists …

The CH2M HILL Manford Group, Inc. (CHG) conducts business to achieve the goals of the Office of River Protection (ORP) at Hanford. As an employee owned company, CHG employees have a strong motivation to develop innovative solutions to enhance project and company performance while ensuring protection of human health and the environment. CHG is responsible to manage and perform work required to safely store, enhance readiness for waste feed delivery, and prepare for treated waste receipts for the approximately 53 million gallons of legacy mixed radioactive waste currently at the Hanford Site tank farms. Safety and environmental awareness is integrated into all activities and work is accomplished in a manner that achieves high levels of quality while protecting the environment and the safety and health of workers and the public. This paper focuses on the innovative strategy to identify, retrieve, treat, and dispose of Hanford Transuranic (TRU) tank waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).

This report discusses H.R. 5, which would preempt state law regarding some aspects of medical malpractice liability and liability for defective medical products, including drugs. The legislation would among other things, place caps on noneconomic and punitive damages (in states that have not enacted and do not enact caps), eliminate joint and several liability, modify the collateral source rule, limit lawyers' contingent fees, enact a federal statute of limitations, and provide for periodic payment of future damages.

This report describes the EdTech program, including the allocation of grant funds to state and local education agencies.

This report discusses the constitutionality of proposal that there be a separate domain on the Internet exclusively for websites that contain sexually explicit material; it might be labeled “.xxx” to complement the current “.com,” “.org,” and others.

This report considers the AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean and Central America. The report measures the support the region has received from countries outside of it along with which agencies within the U.S. have been leading the charge. Moreover, the report examines the additional consequences an epidemic of this size could have on the region.

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This report considers how the Air Force is changing itself to meet new defensive needs. The issues for Congress on this are mostly budgetary and how effective it will be.

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This report provides information about the Future of the Balkans and U.S. Policy Concerns where the Unites states,its allies, and local leaders have achieved substantial success in the Balkans in the mid-1990's.

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This report provides information about the Provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 on Education of Limited English Proficient and Recent Immigrant Students.

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This report surveys the econometric literature on oil shocks to provide quantitative estimates of how large an effect oil price changes have on economic activity. It also reviews the statistical robustness of these findings and discusses some of the limitations of these types of statistical analyses.

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