At the Savannah River Site (SRS), oxalic acid is currently considered the preferred agent for chemically cleaning the large underground Liquid Radioactive Waste Tanks. It is applied only in the final stages of emptying a tank when generally less than 5,000 kg of waste solids remain, and slurrying based removal methods are no-longer effective. The use of oxalic acid is preferred because of its combined dissolution and chelating properties, as well as the fact that corrosion to the carbon steel tank walls can be controlled. Although oxalic acid is the preferred agent, there are significant potential downstream impacts. Impacts include: (1) Degraded evaporator operation; (2) Resultant oxalate precipitates taking away critically needed operating volume; and (3) Eventual creation of significant volumes of additional feed to salt processing. As an alternative to dealing with the downstream impacts, oxalate decomposition using variations of ozone based Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) were investigated. In general AOPs use ozone or peroxide and a catalyst to create hydroxyl radicals. Hydroxyl radicals have among the highest oxidation potentials, and are commonly used to decompose organics. Although oxalate is considered among the most difficult organic to decompose, the ability of hydroxyl radicals to decompose oxalate is considered to …

This report collects statistics from a variety of sources on casualties sustained during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which began on October 7, 2001, and is ongoing. OEF actions take place primarily in Afghanistan; however, OEF casualties also include American casualties in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Yemen.

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In recent years, many analysts have expressed concern that the international community's efforts over the past 15 years to stabilize Bosnia are failing. This report discusses the U.S. and European Union's roles in trying to stabilize the area.

This report is categorized into four categories: (I) Background: Congress and Performance, (II) GPRAMA's Products and Processes, (III) Viewing the Products and Processes Together and (IV) Potential Implications and Issues for Congress.

A task was undertaken to compare various properties of different glovebox gloves, having various compositions, for use in gloveboxes at the Savannah River Site (SRS). One aspect of this project was to determine the tensile strength (TS) of the gloves. Longitudinal tensile samples were cut from 15 different gloves and tensile tested. The stress, load, and elongation at failure were determined. All of the gloves that are approved for glovebox use and listed in the glovebox procurement specification met the tensile and elongation requirements. The Viton{reg_sign} compound gloves are not listed in the specification, but exhibited lower tensile strengths than permissible based on the Butyl rubber requirements. Piercan Polyurethane gloves were the thinnest samples and exhibited the highest tensile strength of the materials tested.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO identified 23 community development tax expenditures available in fiscal year 2010. For example, five ($1.5 billion) targeted economically distressed areas, and nine ($8.7 billion) supported specific activities such as rehabilitating structures for business use. The design of each community development tax expenditure appears to overlap with that of at least one other tax expenditure in terms of the areas or activities funded. Federal tax laws and regulations permit use of multiple tax expenditures or tax expenditures with other federal spending programs, but often with limits. For instance, employers cannot claim more than one employment tax credit for the same wages paid to an individual. Besides IRS, administering many community development tax expenditures involves other federal agencies as well as state and local governments. For example, the National Park Service oversees preservation standards for the 20 percent historic rehabilitation tax credit. Fragmented administration and program overlap can result in administrative burden, such as applications to multiple federal agencies to fund the needs of a distressed area or finance a specific."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "AHRQ used its standard, competitive review processes and criteria to select the recipients of CER grants and contracts using Recovery Act funds. Specifically, to select the recipients of Recovery Act CER grants, AHRQ used its standard review process that includes peer review of grant applications, the development of funding recommendations by a team of senior officials within AHRQ, and final funding determination by the agency’s director. As part of this process, AHRQ used its standard criteria to evaluate grant applications, as well as additional requirements that were specific to each funding opportunity. To select contractors who would receive Recovery Act funds, AHRQ used its standard contracting processes and criteria that are governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which establishes uniform policies for acquisition of supplies and services by executive agencies, and the Public Health Service Act. These processes included an evaluation of all contract proposals using standard criteria adapted to the specific needs of each project. Between February 2009 and September 2010, AHRQ awarded $311 million of its $474 million in Recovery Act CER funds through 110 grants. AHRQ also awarded $161 million of its Recovery …

Electroactive polymers (EAPs) that bend, swell, ripple (first generation materials), and now contract with low electric input (new development) have been produced. The mechanism of contraction is not well understood. Radionuclide-labeled experiments, molecular modeling, electrolyte experiments, pH experiments, and an ionic concentration experiment were used to determine the chain of events that occur during contraction and, reciprocally, expansion when the polarity is reversed, in these ionic EAPs. Plasma treatment of the electrodes, along with other strategies, allows for the embedded electrodes and the EAP material of the actuator to work and move as a unit, with no detachment, by significantly improving the metal-polymer interface, analogous to nerves and tendons moving with muscles during movement. Challenges involved with prototyping actuation using contractile EAPs are also discussed.

As part of the characterization of various glovebox glove material from four vendors, the permeability of gas through each type as a function of temperature was determined and a discontinuity in the permeability with temperature was revealed. A series of tests to determine the viscoelastic properties of the glove materials as a function of temperature using Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) was initiated. The glass transition temperature and the elastic and viscoelastic properties as a function of temperature up to maximum use temperature were determined for each glove material. The glass transition temperatures of the gloves were -60 C for butyl, -30 C for polyurethane, -16 C Hypalon{reg_sign}, - 16 C for Viton{reg_sign}, and -24 C for polyurethane-Hypalon{reg_sign}. The glass transition was too complex for the butyl-Hypalon{reg_sign} and butyl-Viton{reg_sign} composite gloves to be characterized by a single glass transition temperature. All of the glass transition temperatures exceed the vendor projected use temperatures.

This report serves as a primer on the EU and provides a brief description of U.S.-EU relations. It also discusses about how EU works, how EU is governed and Eurozone crisis.

The Eurozone's economic crisis threatens economic stability in Europe and beyond. Four specific economic challenges faced are high debt levels and public deficits, weaknesses in the European banking system, recession and high unemployment in some Eurozone countries, and persistent trade imbalances. Three issues for Congress regarding these challenges are how this situation will impact the US economy, IMG involvement, and how the US and Europe will cooperate to solve these issues.

There are specific components in the SRS Tritium Facilities that are required to introduce as few chemical impurities (such as protium and methane) as possible into the process gas. Two such components are the inlet systems for the mass spectroscopy facilities and hydrogen isotope mix standard containers. Two vendors now passivate stainless steel components for these systems, and both are relatively small businesses whose future viability can be questioned, which creates the need for new sources. Stainless steel containers were designed to evaluate alternate surface treatment vendors for tritium storage and handling for these high purity tritium systems. Five vendors applied their own 'best' surface treatments to two containers each - one was a current vendor, another was a chemical vapor deposited silicon coating, and the other three were electropolishing and chemical cleaning vendors. Pure tritium gas was introduced into all ten containers and the composition was monitored over time. The only observed impurities in the gas were some HT, less CT{sub 4}, and very small amounts of T{sub 2}O in all cases. The currently used vendor treated containers contained the least impurities. The chemical vapor deposited silicon treatment resulted in the highest impurity levels. Sampling one set of containers …

A research and development task was undertaken to determine the permeabilities of hydrogen and dry air through different polymeric glove materials that are used to maintain the integrity of glovebox secondary containment. Fifteen different glove samples were obtained from four different manufacturers and samples cut from these gloves were tested. The gloves included baseline butyl rubber, Viton{reg_sign}, Dupont{reg_sign} Hypalon{reg_sign}, polyurethane, as well as composite gloves. The testing indicated that all of the vendor's butyl rubber gloves and the Jung Viton{reg_sign} gloves performed comparably in both gases.

This document updates the Eh-pH transitions from grout aging simulations and the plutonium waste release model of Denham (2007, Rev. 1) based on new data. New thermodynamic data for cementitious minerals are used for the grout simulations. Newer thermodynamic data, recommended by plutonium experts (Plutonium Solubility Peer Review Report, LA-UR-12-00079), are used to estimate solubilities of plutonium at various pore water compositions expected during grout aging. In addition, a new grout formula is used in the grout aging simulations and apparent solubilities of coprecipitated plutonium are estimated using data from analysis of Tank 18 residual waste. The conceptual model of waste release and the grout aging simulations are done in a manner similar to that of Denham (2007, Rev. 1). It is assumed that the pore fluid composition passing from the tank grout into the residual waste layer controls the solubility, and hence the waste release concentration of plutonium. Pore volumes of infiltrating fluid of an assumed composition are reacted with a hypothetical grout block using The Geochemist's Workbench{reg_sign} and changes in pore fluid chemistry correspond to the number of pore fluid volumes reacted. As in the earlier document, this results in three states of grout pore fluid composition throughout …

We report on measurements of the cosmic-ray induced {gamma}-ray emission of Earth's atmosphere by the Large Area Telescope onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The LAT has observed the Earth during its commissioning phase and with a dedicated Earth-limb following observation in September 2008. These measurements yielded {approx} 6.4 x 10{sup 6} photons with energies > 100 MeV and {approx} 250 hours total livetime for the highest quality data selection. This allows the study of the spatial and spectral distributions of these photons with unprecedented detail. The spectrum of the emission - often referred to as Earth albedo gamma-ray emission - has a power-law shape up to 500 GeV with spectral index {Lambda} = 2.79 {+-} 0.06.

ORISE conducted onsite verification activities of the Building 330 project footprint during the period of June 6 through June 7, 2011. The verification activities included technical reviews of project documents, visual inspections, radiation surface scans, and sampling and analysis. The draft verification report was issued in July 2011 with findings and recommendations. The contractor performed additional evaluations and remediation.

The goal of this program is to understand in a fundamental way the impact of strain, defects, polarization, and Stokes loss in relation to unique device structures upon the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) and efficiency droop (ED) of III-nitride (III-N) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and to employ this understanding in the design and growth of high-efficiency LEDs capable of highly-reliable, high-current, high-power operation. This knowledge will be the basis for our advanced device epitaxial designs that lead to improved device performance. The primary approach we will employ is to exploit new scientific and engineering knowledge generated through the application of a set of unique advanced growth and characterization tools to develop new concepts in strain-, polarization-, and carrier dynamics-engineered and low-defect materials and device designs having reduced dislocations and improved carrier collection followed by efficient photon generation. We studied the effects of crystalline defect, polarizations, hole transport, electron-spillover, electron blocking layer, underlying layer below the multiplequantum- well active region, and developed high-efficiency and efficiency-droop-mitigated blue LEDs with a new LED epitaxial structures. We believe new LEDs developed in this program will make a breakthrough in the development of high-efficiency high-power visible III-N LEDs from violet to green spectral region.

Under this project, General Atomics (GA) was tasked to develop the experimental validation plans for two high priority ISAs, Boundary and Pedestal and Whole Device Modeling in collaboration with the theory, simulation and experimental communities. The following sections have been incorporated into the final FSP Program Plan (www.pppl.gov/fsp), which was delivered to the US Department of Energy (DOE). Additional deliverables by GA include guidance for validation, development of metrics to evaluate success and procedures for collaboration with experiments. These are also part of the final report.

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Decision and Risk Analysis capabilities will be developed for industry consideration and possible adoption within Year 1. These tools will provide a methodology for merging qualitative ranking of technology maturity and acknowledged risk contributors with quantitative metrics that drive investment decision processes. Methods and tools will be initially introduced as applications to the A650.1 case study, but modular spreadsheets and analysis routines will be offered to industry collaborators as soon as possible to stimulate user feedback and co-development opportunities.

A look at the history of U.S.-Israeli relationships and current Israeli issues such as border security, defense, Israel-Palestinian conflicts, economy, and democracy.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "While the most recent national data show instruction time for PE decreased from 2000 to 2006, officials GAO interviewed stated that school sports opportunities have generally increased in recent years. Specifically, the percentage of schools that offered PE at least 3 days a week decreased from 2000 to 2006, but the percentage of schools that required students in each grade to take some PE increased during the same period. For example, the estimated percentage of schools that required PE in ninth grade increased from 13 percent in 2000 to 55 percent in 2006. Moreover, states, districts, and schools appear to have increased emphasis on the quality of PE programs, such as helping students develop lifelong fitness skills, according to national data and GAO interviews. Data on high school students show that participation in PE varies by grade level but not by gender or across racial groups. In addition, most state, district, and school officials GAO interviewed said opportunities to participate in interscholastic sports have increased, particularly for girls, and that many schools have responded to increased demand by adding new sports teams over the last few …

The Savannah River Site (SRS) has conducted performance assessment (PA) calculations to determine the risk associated with closing liquid waste tanks. The PA estimates the risk associated with a number of scenarios, making various assumptions. Throughout all of these scenarios, it is assumed that the carbon-steel tank liners holding the liquid waste do not sorb the radionuclides. Tank liners have been shown to form corrosion products, such as Fe-oxyhydroxides (Wiersma and Subramanian 2002). Many corrosion products, including Fe-oxyhydroxides, at the high pH values of tank effluent, take on a very strong negative charge. Given that many radionuclides may have net positive charges, either as free ions or complexed species, it is expected that many radionuclides will sorb to corrosion products associated with tank liners. The objective of this report was to conduct a literature review to investigate whether Pu, U, Np, Am and Tc would sorb to corrosion products on tank liners after they were filled with reducing grout (cementitious material containing slag to promote reducing conditions). The approach was to evaluate radionuclides sorption literature with iron oxyhydroxide phases, such as hematite ({alpha}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}), magnetite (Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}), goethite ({alpha}-FeOOH) and ferrihydrite (Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} {center_dot} 0.5H{sub 2}O). The …