This report is designed to give information and statistical data about a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication provides statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the f.o.b. and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiner's acquisition cost of crude oil. Sales data for motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane are presented. 12 figs., 55 tabs.

A unique benchmark neutron field has been established at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to study deep penetration neutron transport. At LLNL, a tandem accelerator is used to generate a monoenergetic neutron source that permits investigation of deep neutron penetration under conditions that are virtually ideal to model, namely the transport of mono-energetic neutrons through a single material in a simple geometry. General features of the Lawrence Tandem (LATAN) benchmark field are described with emphasis on neutron source characteristics and room return background. The single material chosen for the first benchmark, LATAN-1, is a steel representative of Light Water Reactor (LWR) Pressure Vessels (PV). Also included is a brief description of the Little Boy replica, a critical reactor assembly designed to mimic the radiation doses from the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and its us in neutron spectrometry. 18 refs.

This project revolves around understanding the fundamental processes involved in the catalytic removal of harmful oxygenated organics present in coal liquids. We will model the complex type of sulfided Mo catalyst proposed for these reactions with a simple single crystal surfaces that display a controlled range and number of reaction sites and can be extensively characterized by surface science techniques.

The macropore structure of chars is a major factor in determining their reactivity during the gasification stage. The major objectives of this contract were to (a) quantify by direct measurements the effect of pyrolysis conditions of the macropore structure, and (b) establish how the macropores affected the reactivity pattern, the ignition behavior and the fragmentation of the char particles during gasification in the regime of strong diffusional limitations. Results from this project provide much needed information on the factors that affect the quality of the solid products (chars) of coal utilization processes (for example, mild gasification processes). The reactivity data will also provide essential parameters for the optimal design of coal gasification processes. (VC)

The nuclear fuel cycle consists of mining and milling uranium ore, processing the uranium into a form suitable for generating electricity, burning'' the fuel in nuclear reactors, and managing the resulting spent nuclear fuel. This report presents projections of domestic and foreign requirements for natural uranium and enrichment services as well as projections of discharges of spent nuclear fuel. These fuel cycle requirements are based on the forecasts of future commercial nuclear power capacity and generation published in a recent Energy Information Administration (EIA) report. Also included in this report are projections of the amount of spent fuel discharged at the end of each fuel cycle for each nuclear generating unit in the United States. The International Nuclear Model is used for calculating the projected nuclear fuel cycle requirements. 14 figs., 38 tabs.

The modern era of electron-electron interactions began a decade ago. Plummer's group initiated a program of using angular resolved photoemission to examine the band structure of the simple metals. Beginning with aluminum, and carrying on to sodium and potassium, they always found that the occupied energy bands were much narrower than expected. For example, the compressed energy bands for metallic potassium suggest a band effective mass of m* = 1.33m{sub e}. This should be compared to the band mass found from optical conductivity m*/m{sub e} = 1.01 {plus minus} 0.01. The discrepancy between these results is startling. It was this great difference which started my group doing calculations. Our program was two-fold. On one hand, we reanalyzed the experimental data, in order to see if Plummer's result was an experimental artifact. On the other hand, we completely redid the electron-electron self-energy calculations for simple metals, using the most modern choices of local-field corrections and vertex corrections. Our results will be reported in these lectures. They can be summarized as following: Our calculations give the same effective masses as the older calculations, so the theory is relatively unchanged; Our analysis of the experiments suggests that the recent measurements of band narrowing …

This report summarizes the results of a joint project on renewable energy of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and the US DOE. NARUC'S Task Force on Renewable Energy conducted a review of the current state of renewable energy technologies to evaluate their potential and extract key policy lessons from experience already gained in deployment of these technologies in numerous states. The main focus of this effort has been to clarify how utility regulators affect the development of renewable energy resources. The goal of the project was twofold: (1) identify the factors that have led to success or failure or renewable energy technologies in various energy markets, and (2) to develop an agenda on renewable energy and utility regulation for NARUC and the DOE. This report consists of three sections: renewable energy contributions, costs and potential; factors affecting development of renewable energy resources; and a renewable energy agenda for NARUC.

The objective of proposed research is development of catalysts with enhanced slurry phase activity and better selectivity to fuel range products, through a more detailed understanding and systematic studies of the effects of pretreatment procedures and promoters/binders (silica) on catalyst performance.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the United Service Organizations, Incorporated, for the years ended December 31, 1996 and 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, focusing on the: (1) act's cancellation and termination provisions for private mortgage insurance; (2) act's high-risk provisions; (3) effect high-risk provisions would have on mortgage lenders; and (4) number and characteristics of residential mortgage loans that are considered high risk and are therefore excluded from the routine cancellation and termination provisions."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the total acquisition costs of the Air Force's B-2A bomber program through completion of the production program, focusing on the: (1) deficiencies in achieving B-2A operational requirements; and (2) status of acquisition costs."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) new rule on migratory bird hunting regulations on certain federal Indian reservations and ceded lands for the 1999-2000 early season. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would prescribe special early-season hunting regulations for certain tribes on federal Indian reservations, off-reservation trust lands, and ceded lands; and (2) FWS complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO performed procedures to assist the House Committee on International Relations in evaluating the extent to which five House interparliamentary groups' financial records appropriately reflected their cash receipts and disbursements and fund balance for the years ended December 31, 1997 and 1998."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO followed up on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) efforts to implement GAO's recommendations addressing FDA's property control weaknesses."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO compared airlines' contracts of carriage with the Air Transport Association's (ATA) Customer Service Commitment."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on quality management in the federal government, focusing on: (1) whether a vigorous quality management program should be implemented in addition to the strategic planning framework mandated by the Government Performance and Results Act; (2) whether the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has the necessary resources and institutional knowledge to implement a quality management initiative; (3) whether the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) initiative should be located in an agency like OMB; (4) whether there were other quality management programs that were initiated by previous administrations; (5) how information in agency strategic plans, annual performance plans, and performance reports can be used to identify and facilitate improvements in the quality processes; (6) whether agencies can successfully integrate total quality management and the Results Act to address management problems; (7) how Congress can best use agencies' strategic and performance plans to identify the degree to which agencies have implemented quality management; and (8) how the Results Act provides for employee involvement."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Coast Guard's major administrative and support functions, focusing on: (1) areas of possible budget savings; and (2) if additional opportunities for cost savings exist."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the Navy's progress in implementing the Pearl Harbor Pilot project, focusing on: (1) the preliminary results of the Pearl Harbor Pilot on improving performance of maintenance activities; (2) the usefulness of the pilot as a model for future consolidations; and (3) issues related to financial and organizational structures for such consolidations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the mechanisms of coordination between Medicaid and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), focusing on: (1) how Medicaid and IDEA interact to meet the needs of low-income school-aged children with disabilities; and (2) issues that have arisen in coordinating Medicaid and IDEA services in schools."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges facing the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Office of the Taxpayer Advocate, focusing on IRS' need to: (1) address complex staffing and operational issues within the Advocate's Office; (2) strengthen efforts within the Advocate's Office to determine the causes of taxpayer problems; and (3) develop performance measures that the National Taxpayer Advocate needs to manage operations and measure effectiveness."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Defense's (DOD) monitoring of health care claims processing activities, focusing on: (1) GAO's preliminary findings on claims processing timeliness and accuracy; and (2) the effectiveness of a commercially available software program to edit TRICARE claims."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on alternative land uses that could save water at Fallon Naval Air Station, Nevada, focusing on: (1) the aviation safety and operational requirements for the runway protection zone at Fallon Naval Air Station (NAS); (2) the alternative land use strategies Fallon NAS identified in response to congressional direction and how it evaluated them; and (3) the land use strategies at five military facilities and two commercial airports that operate in similar environments."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reported on the conclusions and recommendations resulting from its audits and other reviews of federal departments and agencies. GAO provided summary information on the status of all recommendations that have not been fully implemented in the areas of national security, international affairs, community and economic development, natural resources, human resources, justice, general government, and financial and information management for use in congressional review of budget requests."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the independent living program (ILP), focusing on: (1) the extent of services provided under ILPs; and (2) what is known about the effect of these services on youths' ability to live on their own."