Afghanistan Drawdown Preparations: DOD Decision Makers Need Additional Analyses to Determine Costs and Benefits of Returning Excess Equipment (open access)

Afghanistan Drawdown Preparations: DOD Decision Makers Need Additional Analyses to Determine Costs and Benefits of Returning Excess Equipment

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Characteristics of Short Wavelength Compressional Alfven Eigenmodes (open access)

Characteristics of Short Wavelength Compressional Alfven Eigenmodes

Most Alfvenic activity in the frequency range between Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes and roughly one half of the ion cyclotron frequency on NSTX [M. Ono, et al., Nucl. Fusion 40 (2000) 557], that is, approximately 0.3 MHz up to ≈ 1.2 MHz, are modes propagating counter to the neutral beam ions. These have been modeled as Compressional and Global Alfven Eigenmodes (CAE and GAE) and are excited through a Doppler-shifted cyclotron resonance with the beam ions. There is also a class of co-propagating modes at higher frequency than the counter-propagating CAE and GAE. These modes have been identified as CAE, and are seen mostly in the company of a low frequency, n=1 kink-like mode. In this paper we present measurements of the spectrum of these high frequency CAE (hfCAE), and their mode structure. We compare those measurements to a simple model of CAE and present evidence of a curious non-linear coupling of the hfCAE and the low frequency kink-like mode.
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Fredrickson, E. D.; Podesta, M.; Bortolon, A.; Crocker, N. A.; Gerhardt, S. P.; Bell, R. E. et al.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Child Protection Act of 2012: A Brief Legal Analysis (open access)

Child Protection Act of 2012: A Brief Legal Analysis

This report discusses several categories such as: (I) Legislative History, (II) Penalty for Possession of Child Pornography, (III) Harassment of Child Victim or Witnesses etc.
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Doyle, Charles
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Chile: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations (open access)

Chile: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations

This report provides a brief historical background of Chile, examines recent political and economic developments, and addresses issues in U.S.-Chilean relations.
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Meyer, Peter J.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Concept Development for Astrophysically Relevant Turbulence on NIF (open access)

Concept Development for Astrophysically Relevant Turbulence on NIF

None
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Drake, R P
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Credit Union Department Newsletter, Number 12-12, December 2012 (open access)

Credit Union Department Newsletter, Number 12-12, December 2012

Newsletter of the Texas Credit Union Department containing departmental news and announcements, deadlines, and other information of importance to credit unions.
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Texas. Credit Union Department.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The Portal to Texas History
Department of Energy: Better Information Needed to Determine If Nonmajor Projects Meet Performance Targets (open access)

Department of Energy: Better Information Needed to Determine If Nonmajor Projects Meet Performance Targets

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Of the 71 nonmajor projects that the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) completed or had under way from fiscal years 2008 to 2012, 21 met or are expected to meet their performance targets for scope, cost, and completion date. These projects included a $22 million EM project to expand an existing waste disposal facility at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee and a $199 million NNSA project to equip a radiological laboratory and office building at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Another 23 projects did not meet or were not expected to meet one or more of their three performance targets for scope, cost, and completion date. Among these, 13 projects met or are expected to meet two targets, including a $548 million NNSA project to shut down a nuclear reactor in Russia for nonproliferation purposes; 8 projects met or are expected to meet one target; 1 project did not meet any of its targets; and 1 project was cancelled. Of the remaining 27 projects, many had insufficiently documented performance targets for scope, …
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Engineered Trench #3 Infiltration Estimates (open access)

Engineered Trench #3 Infiltration Estimates

This report documents the appropriate ET#3 infiltration rates to utilize as part of the ET#3 Special Analysis (SA).
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Phifer, M. A.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Real Property: Improved Cost Reporting Would Help Decision Makers Weigh the Benefits of Enhanced Use Leasing (open access)

Federal Real Property: Improved Cost Reporting Would Help Decision Makers Weigh the Benefits of Enhanced Use Leasing

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Agency officials told us that enhanced use leases (EUL) help them utilize their underutilized property better; commonly cited benefits include enhanced mission activities, cash rent revenue, and value received through in-kind consideration. However, some agencies we reviewed do not include all costs associated with their EULs when they assess the performance of their EUL programs. Guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) does not specify what costs agencies should include in their EUL evaluations, resulting in variance among agencies. For example, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of State do not consistently attribute EUL-related costs of consultant staff who administer the leases, and VA does not attribute various administrative costs that offset EUL benefits. Without fully accounting for all EUL costs, agencies may overstate the net benefits of their EUL programs."
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Focus Report, Volume 83, Number 1, December 19, 2012 (open access)

Focus Report, Volume 83, Number 1, December 19, 2012

This report highlights many of the issues the 83rd Legislature may consider during its 2013 regular session.
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Texas. Legislature. House of Representatives. Research Organization.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fundamental Studies of Irradiation-Induced Defect Formation and Fission Product Dynamics in Oxide Fuels (open access)

Fundamental Studies of Irradiation-Induced Defect Formation and Fission Product Dynamics in Oxide Fuels

The objective of this research program is to address major nuclear fuels performance issues for the design and use of oxide-type fuels in the current and advanced nuclear reactor applications. Fuel performance is a major issue for extending fuel burn-up which has the added advantage of reducing the used fuel waste stream. It will also be a significant issue with respect to developing advanced fuel cycle processes where it may be possible to incorporate minor actinides in various fuel forms so that they can be 'burned' rather than join the used fuel waste stream. The potential to fission or transmute minor actinides and certain long-lived fission product isotopes would transform the high level waste storage strategy by removing the need to consider fuel storage on the millennium time scale.
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Stubbins, James
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Hanford Waste Treatment Plant: DOE Needs to Take Action to Resolve Technical and Management Challenges (open access)

Hanford Waste Treatment Plant: DOE Needs to Take Action to Resolve Technical and Management Challenges

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Energy (DOE) faces significant technical challenges in successfully constructing and operating the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) project that is to treat millions of gallons of highly radioactive liquid waste resulting from the production of nuclear weapons. DOE and Bechtel National, Inc. identified hundreds of technical challenges that vary in significance and potential negative impact and have resolved many of them. Remaining challenges include (1) developing a viable technology to keep the waste mixed uniformly in WTP mix tanks to both avoid explosions and so that it can be properly prepared for further processing; (2) ensuring that the erosion and corrosion of components, such as tanks and piping systems, is effectively mitigated; (3) preventing the buildup of flammable hydrogen gas in tanks, vessels, and piping systems; and (4) understanding better the waste that will be processed at the WTP. Until these and other technical challenges are resolved, DOE will continue to be uncertain whether the WTP can be completed on schedule and whether it will operate safely and effectively."
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Interim Report to the 83rd Texas Legislature: House Committee on Land & Resource Management (open access)

Interim Report to the 83rd Texas Legislature: House Committee on Land & Resource Management

Report from the Texas House Committee on Land & Resource Management describing the group's goals, activities, accomplishments, and other information, for review by the 83rd Texas Legislature.
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Texas. Legislature. House of Representatives. Committee on Land and Resource Management.
Object Type: Report
System: The Portal to Texas History
Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons (open access)

Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons

This report provides basic information about U.S. and Russian nonstrategic nuclear weapons. It begins with a brief discussion of how these weapons have appeared in public debates in the past few decades, then summarizes the differences between strategic and nonstrategic nuclear weapons. It then provides some historical background, describing the numbers and types of nonstrategic nuclear weapons deployed by both nations during the Cold War and in the past decade; the policies that guided the deployment and prospective use of these weapons; and the measures that the two sides have taken to reduce and contain their forces. The report reviews the issues that have been raised with regard to U.S. and Russian nonstrategic nuclear weapons, and summarizes a number of policy options that might be explored by Congress, the United States, Russia, and other nations to address these issues.
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Woolf, Amy F.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Observation and Simulation of Long-Period Ground Motions In the Persian/Arabian Gulf From Earthquakes in Zagros Thrust Belt (open access)

Observation and Simulation of Long-Period Ground Motions In the Persian/Arabian Gulf From Earthquakes in Zagros Thrust Belt

None
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Pitarka, Arben; Pasyanos, Michael E.; Mellors, Robert J. & Rodgers, Arthur J.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Passenger Rail Security: Consistent Incident Reporting and Analysis Needed to Achieve Program Objectives (open access)

Passenger Rail Security: Consistent Incident Reporting and Analysis Needed to Achieve Program Objectives

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has inconsistently overseen and enforced its rail security incident reporting requirement because it does not have guidance and its oversight mechanisms are limited, leading to considerable variation in the types and number of incidents reported. Though some variation is expected in the number and type of incidents reported because of differences in rail agency size, location, and ridership, local TSA inspection officials have provided rail agencies with inconsistent interpretations of the reporting requirement. For example, local TSA officials instructed one rail agency to report all incidents related to individuals struck by trains. However, local TSA officials responsible for another rail agency said these incidents would not need to be reported as they are most often suicides with no nexus to terrorism. Providing guidance to local TSA inspection officials and rail agencies on the types of incidents that are to be reported could improve consistency across different TSA field offices. GAO also found inconsistency in TSA compliance inspections and enforcement actions because TSA has not utilized limited headquarters-level mechanisms as intended for ensuring consistency in these activities. TSA's rail security inspection policies …
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Peacekeeping and Stabilization Missions Abroad: The Development of Civilian Capabilities, 2004-2011 (open access)

Peacekeeping and Stabilization Missions Abroad: The Development of Civilian Capabilities, 2004-2011

This report provides background on the origins and development of Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) and related capabilities.
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Serafino, Nina M.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Quantifying advective and nonstationary effects on eddy fluxes in the AmeriFlux network (open access)

Quantifying advective and nonstationary effects on eddy fluxes in the AmeriFlux network

Our goal was to study the flows within and above of a forested area and assess the degree to which horizontal subcanopy motions transport significant amounts of CO2. This process can explain why ecosystem respiration appears to be underestimated on calm nights. It is essential to understand the physical and biological mechanisms that determine relevant processes that occur on these ‘suspect’ nights.
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Fitzjarrald, David R.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Saltstone 3QCY12 TCLP Results (open access)

Saltstone 3QCY12 TCLP Results

A Saltstone waste form was prepared in the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) from a Tank 50H sample and Z-Area premix material for the third quarter of calendar year 2012 (3QCY12). After a 34 day cure, samples of the saltstone were collected, and the waste form was shown to meet the South Carolina Hazardous Waste Management Regulations (SCHWMR) R.61-79.261.24 and R.61-79.268.48(a) requirements for a nonhazardous waste form with respect to RCRA metals and underlying hazardous constituents. These analyses met all quality assurance specifications of USEPA SW-846.
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Eibling, R. E.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tank 26F-2F Evaporator Study (open access)

Tank 26F-2F Evaporator Study

Tank 26F supernate sample was sent by Savannah River Remediation to Savannah River National Laboratory for evaporation test to help understand the underlying cause of the recent gravity drain line (GDL) pluggage during operation of the 2F Evaporator system. The supernate sample was characterized prior to the evaporation test. The evaporation test involved boiling the supernate in an open beaker until the density of the concentrate (evaporation product) was between 1.4 to 1.5 g/mL. It was followed by filtering and washing of the precipitated solids with deionized water. The concentrate supernate (or concentrate filtrate), the damp unwashed precipitated solids, and the wash filtrates were characterized. All the precipitated solids dissolved during water washing. A semi-quantitative X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis on the unwashed precipitated solids revealed their composition. All the compounds with the exception of silica (silicon oxide) are known to be readily soluble in water. Hence, their dissolution during water washing is not unexpected. Even though silica is a sparingly water-soluble compound, its dissolution is also not surprising. This stems from its small fraction in the solids as a whole and also its relative freshness. Assuming similar supernate characteristics, flushing the GDL with water (preferably warm) should facilitate dissolution and …
Date: December 19, 2012
Creator: Adu-Wusu, K.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meetings in Vladivostok, Russia: Postscript (open access)

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meetings in Vladivostok, Russia: Postscript

Report that examines the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's (APEC) week-long series of senior-level meetings in Vladivostok on September 2-9, 2012, as well as the role of Congress with respect to APEC, including appropriations necessary to finance APEC's secretariat and U.S. support of APEC activities.
Date: November 19, 2012
Creator: Martin, Michael F.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bonneville Project: CFD of the Spillway Tailrace (open access)

Bonneville Project: CFD of the Spillway Tailrace

US Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District (CENWP) operates the Bonneville Lock and Dam Project on the Columbia River. High spill flows that occurred during 2011 moved a large volume of rock from downstream of the spillway apron to the stilling basin and apron. Although 400 cubic yards of rocks were removed from the stilling basin, there are still large volumes of rock downstream of the apron that could, under certain flow conditions, move upstream into the stilling basin. CENWP is investigating operational changes that could be implemented to minimize future movement of rock into the stilling basin. A key analysis tool to develop these operational changes is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the spillway. A free-surface CFD model of the Bonneville spillway tailrace was developed and applied for four flow scenarios. These scenarios looked at the impact of flow volume and flow distribution on tailrace hydraulics. The simulation results showed that areas of upstream flow existed near the river bed downstream of the apron, on the apron, and within the stilling basin for all flows. For spill flows of 300 kcfs, the cross-stream and downstream extent of the recirculation zones along Cascade and Bradford Island was very …
Date: November 19, 2012
Creator: Rakowski, Cynthia L.; Serkowski, John A.; Richmond, Marshall C. & Romero Gomez, Pedro DJ
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Cornell-SLAC Pixel Array Detector at LCLS (open access)

The Cornell-SLAC Pixel Array Detector at LCLS

None
Date: November 19, 2012
Creator: Hart, P.; Boutet, S.; Carini, G.; Dragone, A.; Duda, B.; Freytag, D. et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Does Foreign Aid Work? Efforts to Evaluate U.S. Foreign Assistance (open access)

Does Foreign Aid Work? Efforts to Evaluate U.S. Foreign Assistance

This report focuses primarily on U.S. bilateral assistance, and less on the work of multilateral aid entities, such as the World Bank, to which the United States contributes. This report also provides an overview of the current evaluation policies of the primary implementing agencies, and discusses related issues for Congress, including recent legislation.
Date: November 19, 2012
Creator: Lawson, Marian Leonardo
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library