Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how the Antiquities Act of 1906 has been used since its passage, focusing on: (1) the monuments that have been established under the act; and (2) a comparison of the requirements, if any, for environmental documentation and public participation, and of the processes, if any, for facilitating congressional oversight found in the act and in three other pieces of legislation--the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), and the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA)."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the progress being made in addressing the year 2000 computing challenge, focusing on: (1) the federal government's progress and the challenges that remain in correcting its systems; (2) state and local government year 2000 issues; and (3) the readiness of key public infrastructure and economic sectors."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO followed up on its report on Amtrak's financial performance, focusing on: (1) Amtrak's overall financial performance in fiscal year (FY) 1998; (2) the prospects for Amtrak to meet its financial goals for operating self-sufficiency outlined in its most recent strategic business plan; and (3) the extent to which current and anticipated federal funding and recently enacted legislative reforms aimed at helping Amtrak better control its costs are likely to help improve its financial condition."

The objective of this contract is to extend and optimize UOP's single-stage slurry-catalyzed co-processing scheme. Particular emphasis is given to defining and improving Mo catalyst utilization and cost, evaluating alternative and disposable slurry-catalyst systems, and improving catalyst recycle and recovery techniques. During the previous quarter, a catalyst concentration study was completed. The study showed that the highest nondistillable conversions and liquid yields were achieved using liquid recycle at temperatures in the range of 450--460{degree}C. At these high severity conditions, the liquid product yield and light ends yield were nearly independent of catalyst concentration. During the current quarter a follow-up study was conducted without catalyst. The objective of this study was to determine whether the improved high temperature operability was due to improved hydrodynamics resulting from the use of liquid recycle or whether catalyst, also plays a role, even at small concentrations. The results of bench-scale Run 28 are discussed in this report. 1 ref., 12 figs.

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.

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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Disposal of property forfeited to a municipality pursuant to the Texas Controlled Substances Act (RQ-1730)

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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a Texas Department of Criminal Justice may operate a work program facility that produces goods and services that are marketed for profit or exempted under the Federal Private Industry Enhancement Program and its related question (RQ-504)

The aims of the US Department of Energy`s Carbon Dioxide Research Program are to improve assessments of greenhouse-gas-induced climatic change and to define and reduce uncertainties through selected research. The main research areas covered by this proposal are (b), First Detection and (c) Supporting Data. The project will also include work under area (a), Modeling: specifically, analysis of climate forcing factors, the development and refinement of transient response climate models, and the use of instrumental data in validating General Circulating Models (GCMs).

The superconducting magnets in Fusion Reactors are subjected to pulsed, nuclear, and resistive heating. The thermo-hydraulic response of the helium forced-flow cooled conductors to the various heat sources is critical to magnet design and performance. Recently developed computer codes allow accurate modeling of conductor response and have been used as an aid to design of the toroidal field (TF) magnets for the Tokamak Physics experiment (TPX). We present results of design studies that determine the trade-off between double- and single-pancake helium flow configurations, the minimum-temperature margin, and the stability against rapid heat input. The results guide the choice and design of the liquid helium refrigerator.

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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification.

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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification.

The purpose of this contract has been to explore the limits of miniaturization of heat exchangers with the goals of (1) improving the theoretical understanding of laminar heat exchangers, (2) evaluating various manufacturing difficulties, and (3) identifying major applications for the technology. A low-cost, ultra-compact heat exchanger could have an enormous impact on industry in the areas of cryocoolers and energy conversion. Compact cryocoolers based on the reverse Brayton cycle (RBC) would become practical with the availability of compact heat exchangers. Many experts believe that hardware advances in personal computer technology will rapidly slow down in four to six years unless lowcost, portable cryocoolers suitable for the desktop supercomputer can be developed. Compact refrigeration systems would permit dramatic advances in high-performance computer work stations with ``conventional`` microprocessors operating at 150 K, and especially with low-cost cryocoolers below 77 K. NASA has also expressed strong interest in our MTS exchanger for space-based RBC cryocoolers for sensor cooling. We have demonstrated feasibility of higher specific conductance by a factor of five than any other work in high-temperature gas-to-gas exchangers. These laminar-flow, microtube exchangers exhibit extremely low pressure drop compared to alternative compact designs under similar conditions because of their much shorter flow …

A 1.5 W (at the second stage) Gifford McMahon (GM) cryocooler was selected for cooling the superconducting SuperBend dipoles for the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Berkeley. A GM cryocooler is a reasonable choice if conduction cooled leads are used to provide current to the superconducting magnet. The expected parasitic heat leaks are expected to range from 0.1 to 0.5 W at 4.2 K depending on the temperature of the shield and the cold mass support intercepts. Heat flow to 4 K down the SuperBend 350 A high Tc superconducting leads is expected to vary from 0.11 to 0.35 W depending on the intercept temperature and the current in the leads. The high Tc leads are designed to carry 350 A without significant resistive heating when the upper end of the lead is at 80 K. The 1.5 W cryocooler is expected to provide 45 to 50 W of refrigeration at the first stage at 50 K. The parasitic beat load into the first stage of the cryocooler will be about 8 W. The heat flow from 300 K down the upper copper leads is expected to be around 30 W. The cryocooler and high Tc lead test will measure …

The 1.9 GeV Advance Light Source (ALS) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) produces photons with a critical energy of about 3.1 kev at each of its thirty-six 1.3 T gradient bending magnets. It is proposed that at three locations around the ring the conventional gradient bending magnets be replaced with superconducting bending magnets with a maximum field of 5.6 T. At the point where the photons are extracted, their critical energy will be about 12 keV. In the beam lines where the SuperBend superconducting magnets are installed, the X ray brightness at 20 keV will be increased over two orders of magnitude. This report describes three different refrigeration options for cooling the three SuperBend dipoles. The cooling options include: (1) liquid helium and liquid nitrogen cryogen cooling using stored liquids, (2) a central helium refrigerator (capacity 70 to 100 W) cooling all of the SuperBend magnets, (3) a Gifford McMahon (GM) cryocooler on each of the dipoles. This paper describes the technical and economic reasons for selecting a small GM cryocooler as the method for cooling the SuperBend dipoles on the LBNL Advanced Light Source.

The purpose of this contract has been to explore the limits of miniaturization of heat exchangers with the goals of (1) improving the theoretical understanding of laminar heat exchangers, (2) evaluating various manufacturing difficulties, and (3) identifying major applications for the technology. A low-cost, ultra-compact heat exchanger could have an enormous impact on industry in the areas of cryocoolers and energy conversion. Compact cryocoolers based on the reverse Brayton cycle (RBC) would become practical with the availability of compact heat exchangers. Many experts believe that hardware advances in personal computer technology will rapidly slow down in four to six years unless lowcost, portable cryocoolers suitable for the desktop supercomputer can be developed. Compact refrigeration systems would permit dramatic advances in high-performance computer work stations with conventional'' microprocessors operating at 150 K, and especially with low-cost cryocoolers below 77 K. NASA has also expressed strong interest in our MTS exchanger for space-based RBC cryocoolers for sensor cooling. We have demonstrated feasibility of higher specific conductance by a factor of five than any other work in high-temperature gas-to-gas exchangers. These laminar-flow, microtube exchangers exhibit extremely low pressure drop compared to alternative compact designs under similar conditions because of their much shorter flow …

A new approach is being pursued to study corrosion in Cu alloy systems by using combinatorial analysis combined with microscopic experimentation (the Combinatorial Microlab) to determine mechanisms for copper corrosion in air. Corrosion studies are inherently difficult because of complex interactions between materials and environment, forming a multidimensional phase space of corrosion variables. The Combinatorial Microlab was specifically developed to address the mechanism of Cu sulfidation, which is an important reliability issue for electronic components. This approach differs from convention by focusing on microscopic length scales, the relevant scale for corrosion. During accelerated aging, copper is exposed to a variety of corrosive environments containing sulfidizing species that cause corrosion. A matrix experiment was done to determine independent and synergistic effects of initial Cu oxide thickness and point defect density. The CuO{sub x} was controlled by oxidizing Cu in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) O{sub 2} plasma, and the point defect density was modified by Cu ion irradiation. The matrix was exposed to 600 ppb H{sub 2}S in 65% relative humidity air atmosphere. This combination revealed the importance of oxide quality in passivating Cu and prevention of the sulfidizing reaction. A native oxide and a defect-laden ECR oxide both react at …

A new forcefield model was developed for the computer simulation of phosphate materials that have many important applications in the electronics and biomedical industries. The model provides a fundamental basis for the evaluation of phosphate glass structure and thermodynamics. Molecular dynamics simulations of a series of lithium phosphate glass compositions were performed using the forcefield model. A high concentration of three-membered rings (P{sub 3}O{sub 3}) occurs in the glass of intermediate composition (0.2 Li{sub 2}O {center_dot} 0.8P{sub 2}O{sub 5}) that corresponds to the minimum in the glass transition temperature curve for the compositional series. Molecular orbital calculations of various phosphate ring clusters indicate an increasing stabilization of the phosphate ring structure going from two- to four-membered rings.

Sandia National Laboratories is developing a new form of flexural plate wave device (FPW) for sensor applications. In this device, Lorentz forces cause out of plane vibrations in a silicon nitride membrane. Current induced in transducer lines on the membrane provides information about the amplitude and phase of these surface vibrations. By tracking the large amplitude vibrations that occur at resonant frequencies, it is possible to infer information about loading on the membrane. In fabricating FPWs, it is important to understand the impact that minor defects can have on operation. Through modeling and testing, they are developing resilient designs that provide large amplitude signals with a high tolerance to defects. A finite element model has been developed to perform design trade-off studies, and results from the model are being verified with a unique measurement system that can image Angstrom scale displacements at vibrational frequencies up to 800 kHz. Results from FPW modeling and imaging efforts are presented in this paper.

A review is made of the infrastructure, technology and capabilities of Sandia National Laboratories for the development of micromechanical systems. By incorporating advanced fabrication processes, such as chemical mechanical polishing, and several mechanical polysilicon levels, the range of micromechanical systems that can be fabricated in these technologies is virtually limitless. Representative applications include a micro-engine driven mirror, and a micromachined lock. Using a novel integrated MEMS/CMOS technology, a six degree-of-freedom accelerometer/gyroscope system has been designed by researchers at U.C. Berkeley and fabricated on the same silicon chip as the CMOS control circuits to produce an integrated micro-navigational unit.

The purpose of the report is to summarize the process used to identify the Short List alternatives that will be evaluated during Phase III and to document the results of the selection process. The Phase III evaluation will result in the determination of the preferred alternative(s) to be used for final disposition of the HLW salt to a permitted waste form.

The purpose of this report is to summarize the process used by the Team to systematically develop alternative methods or technologies for final disposition of HLW salt. Additionally, this report summarizes the process utilized to reduce the total list of identified alternatives to an ''initial list'' for further evaluation. This report constitutes completion of the team charter major milestone Phase I Deliverable.

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.

Angular asymmetries have been measured in polarized Z{sup 0} decays to b{bar b}g collected by the SLD experiment at the SLC. A high purity b{bar b}g event sample is selected by utilizing B lifetime information given by the SLD CCD pixel vertex detector and the stable micron-size SLC beams, and the b- and {bar b}-jets are identified using lifetime information and momentum- weighted track charge. The forward-backward asymmetry is observed in the b-quark polar angle distribution, and the parity-violation parameter is measured to test the Standard Model. Two angular correlations between the three-jet plane and the Z{sup 0} polarization are studied. The CP-even and T-odd, and the CP-odd and T-odd, angular asymmetries are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. The latter requires tagging both the b- and {bar b}-jet. We measure the expectation values of these quantities to be consistent with zero and set limits on the correlations at the 5% level.

We present preliminary results of a new measurement of the inclusive b quark fragmentation function in Z{sup 0} decays using a novel kinematic B hadron energy reconstruction technique. The measurement is performed using 150,000 hadronic Z{sup 0} events recorded in the SLD experiment at SLAC between 1996 and 1997. The small and stable SLC beam spot and the CCD-based vertex detector are used to reconstruct topological B-decay vertices with high efficiency and purity, and to provide precise measurements of the kinematic quantities used in this technique. We measure the B energy with good efficiency and resolution over the full kinematic range. We compare the measured scaled B hadron energy distribution with several functional forms of the B hadron energy distribution and predictions of several models of b quark fragmentation. Several functions are excluded by the data. The average scaled energy of the weakly decaying B hadron is measured to be x{sub B} = 0.714 {+-} 0.005 (stat) {+-} 0.007 (syst) {+-} 0.002 (model) (preliminary).