Monthly newsletter discussing environmental issues and policies in Texas. This issue discusses the budget for environmental conservation projects.

Newsletter issued by the Texas Main Street Program discussing news, events, and other information related to the program as well as featuring designated participating communities and providing technical advice regarding conservation and restoration.

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 an official court reporter for a multi-county judicial district is a state employee or a county employee and related questions (RQ-1124-GA).

Flood protection plan to address flooding in the city of Sherman, Texas.

Annual report on the Texas Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) state grant (SG) program outlining the objects of the program, implementation of the grant, evaluation based on surveys, recommendations, and supplementary appendices.

Annual report detailing USAID's biodiversity conservation and forestry programs, including results and funding, for the fiscal year 2012.

This plan looks at the rising sea temperatures shifting precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events.

This report serves as an Annual Report for the Regional Laboratory Network for the Environmental Protection Agency. It discusses the highlights of the ten regional laboratory networks and includes appendices detailing the regional laboratories core capabilities, unique capabilities, and methods in development.

This document, created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lists environmental justice small grants for fiscal year 2013. Grants are arranged by regions.

A report on active shooter incidents in the United State between 2000 and 2013. Contains statistics related to shootings as well as a breakdown of shootings by location type.

The PARFUME (PARticle Fuel ModEl) modeling code was used to assess the overall fuel performance of uranium nitride (UN) tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) ceramic fuel in the frame of the design and development of Fully Ceramic Matrix (FCM) fuel. A specific modeling of a TRISO particle with UN kernel was developed with PARFUME, and its behavior was assessed in irradiation conditions typical of a Light Water Reactor (LWR). The calculations were used to access the dimensional changes of the fuel particle layers and kernel, including the formation of an internal gap. The survivability of the UN TRISO particle was estimated depending on the strain behavior of the constituent materials at high fast fluence and burn-up. For nominal cases, internal gas pressure and representative thermal profiles across the kernel and layers were determined along with stress levels in the pyrolytic carbon (PyC) and silicon carbide (SiC) layers. These parameters were then used to evaluate fuel particle failure probabilities. Results of the study show that the survivability of UN TRISO fuel under LWR irradiation conditions might only be guaranteed if the kernel and PyC swelling rates are limited at high fast fluence and burn-up. These material properties are unknown at the irradiation levels …

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During the processing of used nuclear fuel, volatile radionuclides will be discharged to the atmosphere if no recovery processes are in place to limit their release. The volatile radionuclides of concern are 3H, 14C, 85Kr, and 129I. Methods are being developed, via adsorption and absorption unit operations, to capture these radionuclides. It is necessary to model these unit operations to aid in the evaluation of technologies and in the future development of an advanced used nuclear fuel processing plant. A collaboration between Fuel Cycle Research and Development Offgas Sigma Team member INL and a NEUP grant including ORNL, Syracuse University, and Georgia Institute of Technology has been formed to develop off gas models and support off gas research. This report is discusses the development of a tritium specific adsorption model. Using the OSPREY model and integrating it with a fundamental level isotherm model developed under and experimental data provided by the NEUP grant, the tritium specific adsorption model was developed.

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This report summarizes the efforts performed under

This document is part of an effort to reevaluate 37 FFACO and Administrative URs against the current Soils Risk-Based Corrective Action Evaluation Process. After reviewing 37 existing FFACO and Administrative URs, 3 URs addressed in this document have sufficient information to determine that these current URs may be removed, based on the RBCA criteria. This document presents recommendations on modifications to existing URs that will be consistent with the RBCA criteria.

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The UREX+1 process is under consideration for the separation of transuranic elements from spent nuclear fuel. The first steps of this process extract the fission product technicium-99 ({sup 99}Tc) into an organic phase containing tributylphosphate together with uranium. Treatment of this stream requires the separation of Tc from U and placement into a suitable waste storage form. A potential candidate waste form involves immobilizing the Tc as an alloy with either excess metallic zirconium or stainless steel. Although Tc-Zr alloys seem to be promising waste forms, alternative materials must be investigated. Innovative studies related to the synthesis and behavior of a different class of Tc materials will increase the scientific knowledge related to development of Tc waste forms. These studies will also provide a better understanding of the behavior of {sup 99}Tc in repository conditions. A literature survey has selected promising alternative waste forms for further study: technetium metallic alloys, nitrides, oxides, sulfides, and pertechnetate salts. The goals of this project are to 1) synthesize and structurally characterize relevant technetium materials that may be considered as waste forms, 2) investigate material behavior in solution under different conditions of temperature, electrochemical potential, and radiation, and 3) predict the long-term behavior of …

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Solid-state lighting based on LEDs has emerged as a superior alternative to inefficient conventional lighting, particularly incandescent. LED lighting can lead to 80 percent energy savings; can last 50,000 hours – 2-50 times longer than most bulbs; and contains no toxic lead or mercury. However, to enable mass adoption, particularly at the consumer level, the cost of LED luminaires must be reduced by an order of magnitude while achieving superior efficiency, light quality and lifetime. To become viable, energy-efficient replacement solutions must deliver system efficacies of ≥ 100 lumens per watt (LPW) with excellent color rendering (CRI > 85) at a cost that enables payback cycles of two years or less for commercial applications. This development will enable significant site energy savings as it targets commercial and retail lighting applications that are most sensitive to the lifetime operating costs with their extended operating hours per day. If costs are reduced substantially, dramatic energy savings can be realized by replacing incandescent lighting in the residential market as well. In light of these challenges, Cree proposed to develop a multi-chip integrated LED package with an output of > 1000 lumens of warm white light operating at an efficacy of at least 128 …