This report provides background information on PUHCA, including its history and impact. It also discusses how PUHCA reform fits into the current electric utility industry restructuring debate. This report will be updated as events warrant. For related information on electricity restructuring, see the CRS Electronic Briefing Book.

Over the past decade, worldwide production of illicit drugs has risen dramatically: opium and marijuana production has roughly doubled and coca production tripled. Street prices of cocaine and heroin have fallen significantly in the past 20 years, reflecting increased availability. Despite apparent national political resolve to deal with the drug problem, inherent contradictions regularly appear between U.S. anti-drug policy and other national policy goals and concerns. The mix of competing domestic and international pressures and priorities has produced an ongoing series of disputes within and between the legislative and executive branches concerning U.S. international drug policy. One contentious issue has been the Congressionally-mandated certification process, an instrument designed to induce specified drug-exporting countries to prioritize or pay more attention to the fight against narcotics businesses.

Proposals to increase competition in the electric utility industry involve segmenting electric functions (generation, transmission, distribution) that are currently integrated (or bundled) in most cases (both in terms of corporate and rate structures). This report identifies five basic issues this effort raises for the Congress to consider as the debate on restructuring proceeds.

The continued interest in regulatory reform measures in the final moments of the 104th Congress suggests that the 105th Congress will consider them again. At the same time the fact that the 104th Congress enacted flexibility provisions in drinking water and food safety/pesticides legislation could be an indicator that the 105th Congress may pursue reforms in individual reauthorization legislation rather than in broad regulatory reform bills.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Letter opinion 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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification;Whether the Harris county flood County District may engage in wetland mitigation programs pursuant to the Wetlands Mitigation Act,V.T.C.S art,5421u (RQ-377).

Subsurface data is being collected, organized, and a digital database is being prepared. An ACCESS database and PC-Arcview if being used to manage and interpret the data. Well data and base map have been successfully imported to Arcview and customized. All of the four 30 feet by 60 feet geologic surface geologic quadrangles have been scanned to produce a digital surface data base for the Crow Reservation. Field investigations inventoried for the presence of valley-fill deposits. These appear to represent at least a four major westward-trending valley systems.

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This paper presents an overview of the preclosure seismic hazards and the influence of these hazards on determining the suitability of Yucca Mountain as a national high-level nuclear-waste repository. Geologic data, engineering analyses, and regulatory guidelines must be examined collectively to assess this suitability. An environmental assessment for Yucca Mountain, written in 1986, compiled and evaluated the existing tectonic data and presented arguments to satisfy, in part, the regulatory requirements that must be met if the Yucca Mountain site is to become a national waste repository. Analyses have been performed in the past five years that better quantify the local seismic hazards and the possibility that these hazards could lead to release of radionuclides to the environment. The results from these analyses increase the confidence in the ability of Yucca Mountain and the facilities that may be built there to function satisfactorily in their role as a waste repository. Uncertainties remain, however, primarily in the input parameters and boundary conditions for the models that were used to complete the analyses. These models must be validated and uncertainties reduced before Yucca Mountain can qualify as a viable high-level nuclear waste repository.

By designing the engineered barrier system in an unsaturated tuff repository to constructively use heat, the waste containers can be kept dry for hundreds of years. Without water, the aqueous processes that release and transport radionuclides do not operate. In the plans of most international programs, waste is cooled prior to disposal in granite or salt. For these rocks there are technical issues favoring reduced heat. Recently, it has been suggested that the US Program adopt a strategy of cooling nuclear waste prior to disposal. This paper reviews technical issues associated with the role of heat in an unsaturated tuff repository and concludes that the overall effect of heat in such a setting appears to be beneficial to waste isolation. 20 refs.

This report summarizes work fimded jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and by the Gas Research Institute (GRI) to (1) identi& barriers to establishing sustainable natural gas vehicle (NGV) infrastructure and (2) develop planning information that can help to promote a NGV infrastructure with self-sustaining critical maw. The need for this work is driven by the realization that demand for NGVS has not yet developed to a level that provides sufficient incentives for investment by the commercial sector in all necessary elements of a supportive infrastructure. The two major objectives of this project were: (1) to identifi and prioritize the technical barriers that may be impeding growth of a national NGV infrastructure and (2) to develop input that can assist industry in overcoming these barriers. The approach used in this project incorporated and built upon the accumulated insights of the NGV industry. The project was conducted in three basic phases: (1) review of the current situation, (2) prioritization of technical infrastructure btiiers, and (3) development of plans to overcome key barriers. An extensive and diverse list of barriers was obtained from direct meetings and telephone conferences with sixteen industry NGV leaders and seven Clean Cities/Clean Corridors coordinators. This …

The minor isotope 232U may ultimately be used for detection or confirmation of uranium in a variety of applications. The primary advantage of 232 U as an indicator of the presence of enriched uranium is the plentiful and penetrating nature of the radiation emitted by its daughter radionuclide 208Tl. A possible drawback to measuring uranium via 232U is the relatively high uncertainty in 232U abundance both within and between material populations. An important step in assessing this problem is to ascertain what determines the 232U concentration within any particular sample of uranium. To this end, we here analyze the production and eventual enrichment of 232 U during fuel-cycle operations. The goal of this analysis is to allow approximate prediction of 232 U quantities, or at least some interpretation of the results of 232U measurements. We have found that 232U is produced via a number of pathways during reactor irradiation of uranium and is subsequently concentrated during the later enrichment of the uranium' s 235U Content. While exact calculations are nearly impossible for both the reactor-production and cascade-enrichment parts of the prediction problem, estimates and physical bounds can be provided as listed below and detailed within the body of the report. …

This brief report describes progress made in the development of insulated building block. Areas of research include the development of a stuffing machine; block fabrication, and noise and earthquake design tests.

Hanford publishes extensive estimates of their offsite releases of various chemical and radiological species annuaIly. In this report we examine using these estimates to develop additional insight into how effectively such releases of hazardous materials are being controlled at Hanford. Historical estimates of airborne and surface water releases of selected contaminants are compared with estimates of the overall Site inventory of those contaminants and with the corresponding release limits and background levels. These comparisons are also examined over a five-year period (1993 to 1997) to determine how these releases have changed during that time. Most of the waste management and environmental restoration activities under way at Hanford are intended to provide final, permanent disposition of the Site's inventory of hazardous materials, with the ultimate objective of ensuring that risks to the public and the environment are controlled to an acceptable level. An important consideration during the conduct of these activities is prott%ting the public and the environment while accomplishing the longer-term ~~ objectives. The amounts of hazardous materials that are being released to the air or surface water while waste management and environmental activities are being conducted is one important measure of their overall effectiveness. The comparisons described in this …

The objective of this study was to define areas of previous disturbance in the 300 Area of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site to eliminate these areas from the cultural resource review process, reduce cultural resource monitoring costs, and allow cultural resource specialists to focus on areas where subsurface disturbance is minimal or nonexistent. Research into available sources suggests that impacts from excavations have been significant wherever the following construction activities have occurred: building basements and pits, waste ponds, burial grounds, trenches, installation of subsurface pipelines, power poles, water hydrants, and well construction. Beyond the areas just mentioned, substrates in the' 300 Area consist of a complex, multidimen- sional mosaic composed of undisturbed stratigraphy, backfill, and disturbed sediments; Four Geographic Information System (GIS) maps were created to display known areas of disturbance in the 300 Area. These maps contain information gleaned from a variety of sources, but the primary sources include the Hanford GIS database system, engineer drawings, and historic maps. In addition to these maps, several assumptions can be made about areas of disturbance in the 300 Area as a result of this study: o o Buried pipelines are not always located where they are mapped. As …

Motion detectors consisting of Pb(Zr{sub x}Ti{sub (1{minus}x)})O{sub 3} (PZT) thin films, between platinum electrodes, on micromachined silicon compound clamped-clamped or cantilever beam structures were fabricated using either hot KOH or High Aspect Ratio Silicon Etching (HARSE) to micromachine the silicon. The beams were designed such that a thicker region served as a test mass that produced stress at the top of the membrane springs that supported it when the object to which the detector was mounted moved. The PZT film devices were placed on these membranes to generate a charge or a voltage in response to the stress through the piezoelectric effect. Issues of integration of the PZT device fabrication process with the two etching processes are discussed. The effects of PZT composition and device geometry on the response of the detectors to motion is reported and discussed.

This document provides specific test procedures and instructions to implement the test plan for the preparation and conduct of a cesium removal test, using Hanford Single Shell Tank Saltcake from tanks 24 t -BY- I 10, 24 1 -U- 108, 24 1 -U- 109, 24 1 -A- I 0 1, and 24 t - S-102, in a bench-scale column. The cesium sorbent to be tested is crystalline siticotitanate. The test plan for which this provides instructions is WHC-SD-RE-TP-024, Hanford Single Shell Tank Saltcake Cesium Removal Test Plan.

We have developed a variety of processes for fabricating components for micro devices based on deep x-ray lithography (DXRL). Although the techniques are applicable to many materials, we have demonstrated them using hard (Nd{sub 2}Fe{sub 14}B) and soft (Ni-Zn ferrite) magnetic materials because of the importance of these materials in magnetic micro-actuators and other devices and because of the difficulty fabricating them by other means. The simplest technique involves pressing a mixture of magnetic powder and a binder into a DXRL-formed mold. In the second technique, powder is pressed into the mold and then sintered to densify. The other two processes involve pressing at high temperature either powder or a dense bulk material into a ceramic mold that was previously made using a DXRL mold. These techniques allow arbitrary 2-dimensional shapes to be made 10 to 1000 micrometers thick with in-plane dimensions as small as 50 micrometers and dimensional tolerances in the micron range. Bonded isotropic Nd{sub 2}Fe{sub 14}B micromagnets made by these processes had an energy product of 7 MGOe.

This document is to validate that the WRAP facility is physically ready to start up phase 1, and that the managers and operators are prepared to safely manage and operate the facility when all pre-start findings have been satisfactorily corrected. The DOE Readiness Assessment (RA) team spent a week on-site at Waste Receiving and Processing Module 1 (WRAP-1) to validate the readiness for phase 1 start up of facility. The Contractor and DOE staff were exceptionally cooperative and contributed significantly to the overall success of the RA. The procedures and Conduct of Operations areas had significant discrepancies, many of which should have been found by the contractor review team. In addition the findings of the contractor review team should have led the WRAP-1 management team to correcting the root causes of the findings prior to the DOE RA team review. The findings and observations include many issues that the team believes should have been found by the contractor review and corrective actions taken. A significantly improved Operational Readiness Review (ORR) process and corrective actions of root causes must be fully implemented by the contractor prior to the performance of the contractor ORR for phase 2 operations. The pre-start findings as …

Fiscal Year 1998 represents the second full year utilizing a results-oriented, performance-based contract. This document describes the critical outcomes, objectives, performance indicators, expected levels of performance, and the basis for the evaluation of the Contractors performance for the period October 1, 1997 through September 30, 1998, as required by Articles entitled Use of Objective Standards of Performance, Self Assessment and Performance Evaluation and Critical Outcomes Review of the Contract DE-AC06-76RL01830. In partnership with the Contractor and other key customers, the Department of Energy (DOE) Richland Operations Office has defined six critical outcomes that serve as the core for the Contractors performance evaluation. The Contractor also utilizes these outcomes as a basis for overall management of the Laboratory. The Critical Outcome system focuses all of the customer desires into specific objectives and performance indicators, with supporting measures to track and foster continued improvement in meeting the needs (outcomes) of the Laboratory`s customers. Section 1 provides information on how the overall performance rating for the Contractor will be determined. Section 2 provides the detailed information concerning critical outcomes, objectives, performance indicators and expectations of performance. Section 3 describes the commitments for documenting and reporting the Laboratory`s self-evaluation.

Westinghouse Energy Services provided start up testing at the WRAP Facility Hanford. This report covers services provided October 9, 1995 to October 18, 1995.

Readiness to Proceed With Phase 1B Privatization documents the processes used to determine readiness to proceed with tank waste treatment technologies from private industry, now known as TWRS privatization. An overall systems approach was applied to develop action plans to support the retrieval and disposal mission of the TWRS Project. The systems and infrastructure required to support the mission are known. Required systems are either in place or plans have been developed to ensure they exist when needed. Since October 1996 a robust system engineering approach to establishing integrated Technical Baselines, work breakdown structures, tank farms organizational structure and configurations, work scope, and costs has become part of the culture within the TWRS Project. An analysis of the programmatic, management, and technical activities necessary to declare readiness to proceed with execution of the mission demonstrates that the system, personnel, and hardware will be on line and ready to support the private contractors. The systems approach included defining the retrieval and disposal mission requirements and evaluating the readiness of the Project Hanford Management Contract (PHMC) team to support initiation of waste processing by the private contractors in June 2002 and to receive immobilized waste shortly thereafter. The Phase 1 feed delivery …