This paper examines three reasonably distinct starting points from which a U.S. response to the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change is being framed.

Japan-U.S. relations are more uncertain and subject to greater strain today than at any time since World War II. Longstanding military allies and increasingly interdependent economic partners, Japan and the United States have worked closely together to build a strong, multifaceted relationship based on democratic values and interests in world stability and development. But Japan today is our foremost economic and technological competitor. It consistently runs the largest annual international trade surplus with the U.S. ($59 billion in 1993). The end of the Cold War, lackluster international economic conditions, and the focus on economic issues in U.S. politics have raised new questions about the appropriate U.S. policy toward this Asian ally.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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.

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: Whether the Texas Department of Health is required to inspect and license as a personal care home a boarding facility registered by the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, and related questions (RQ-1974)

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: Whether a commissioners court may prescribe a prevailing wage for certain contracts, and related questions (RQ-1977)

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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the mayor or the city manager of the City DeSoto has the duties and powers assigned to the "chief executive" of the city in Local Government Code chapter 143 (ID# 35232)

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the project approval process the Postal Service used in proposing to relocate postal operations for the Antelope Valley, California, area from the Main Post Office in Mojave, California, to a new facility in Lancaster, California."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the status of federal agencies' research activities on indoor environmental air quality."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the effectiveness of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) fee collection activities, focusing on: (1) FCC's controls for ensuring that required regulatory and application fees are paid; and (2) the extent to which FCC is collecting the civil monetary penalties resulting from its enforcement actions against entities that have violated its regulations."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the capital structure of the Federal Home Loan Bank System."

Previously, adsorption and desorption behaviors of tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (TTAC) and pentadecylethoxylated nonyl phenol (NP-15) mixtures have been reported. It was observed that there was either synergistic or competitive adsorption between these two surfactants depending on the mixture ratios and the concentrations studied and that their adsorption/desorption behaviors were also rather complex. To better elucidate the mechanisms involved in these adsorption and desorption processes it is important to the understand the exact nature of the physico-chemical interactions between various components in mixtures and, how this in turn, controls the performance of the surfactant systems. Recently we have adapted the ultrafiltration technique to determine monomer concentrations in surfactant mixtures and to study the aggregation phenomenon between TTAC and NP-15. During the current report period, monomer concentrations of TTAC and NP-15 were measured for different mixing ratios at a constant ionic strength of 0.03 M NaCl and after adsorption for 4:1 TTAC:NP-15 mixture system. Possible behaviors of mixed micellization processes in solution are proposed and the relationship between monomer concentration and adsorption density is discussed.

We determine details of the adsorption of O{sub 2} or N{sub 2} in Na{sup +} and Li{sup +} exchanged zeolites by way of their effect on coadsorbed H{sub 2} molecules using inelastic neutron scattering (INS) techniques. Adsorption site occupancies are deduced with the aid of MC simulations. The expected stronger binding of N{sub 2} (compared with O{sub 2}) in LiX is evident in coadsorption spectra of N{sub 2} or O{sub 2} with H{sub 2}.

This report describes work performed by Spire Corporation during Phase 1 of this three-phase PVMaT subcontract to develop new automated post-lamination processes for PV module manufacturing. These processes are applicable to a very broad range of module types, including those made with wafer-based and thin-film solar cells. No off-the-shelf automation was available for these processes prior to this program. Spire conducted a survey of PV module manufacturers to identify current industry practices and to determine the requirements for the automated systems being developed in this program. Spire also completed detailed mechanical and electrical designs and developed software for two prototype automation systems: a module buffer storage system, designated the SPI-BUFFER 350, and an integrated module testing system, designated the SPI-MODULE QA 350. Researchers fabricated, tested, and evaluated both systems with module components from several module manufacturers. A new size simulator , th e SPI-SUN SIMULATOR 350i, was designed with a test area that can handle most production modules without consuming excessive floor space. Spire's subcontractor, the Automation and Robotics Research Institute (ARRI) at the University of Texas, developed and demonstrated module edge trimming, edge sealing, and framing processes that are suitable for automation. The automated processes under development throughout this …

The US Department of Energy`s (DOE) changing mission, coupled with the need to apply appropriate cleanup standards for current and future environmental restoration, prompted the need for a process to determine preferred Future Land Uses for DOE-owned sites. DOE began the ``Future Land Use`` initiative in 1994 to ensure that its cleanup efforts reflect the surrounding communities` interests in future land use. This plan presents the results of a study of stakeholder-preferred future land uses for the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), located in central Long Island, New York. The plan gives the Laboratory`s view of its future development over the next 20 years, as well as land uses preferred by the community were BNL ever to cease operations as a national laboratory (the post-BNL scenario). The plan provides an overview of the physical features of the site including its history, topography, geology/hydrogeology, biological inventory, floodplains, wetlands, climate, and atmosphere. Utility systems and current environmental operations are described including waste management, waste water treatment, hazardous waste management, refuse disposal and ground water management. To complement the physical descriptions of the site, demographics are discussed, including overviews of the surrounding areas, laboratory population, and economic and non-economic impacts.

This document provides a systematic approach for determining the temperature limits for a tank given that the supernate concentration is known, or for ''dry'' tanks, given that the supernate concentration from the last sample of free supernate that was collected is known. A decision tree was developed to provide the logic for the temperature limit determination.

In November 1996, Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC), and the Department of Energy Savannah River Site (SRS) Operations Office, established formal Mutual Aid Agreements (MAA) with five local counties to provide meteorological assistance for emergency preparedness and response. The agreements defined three areas of collaboration: (1) establish meteorological monitoring stations in industrial corridors, (2) providing dispersion modeling software for emergency response, and (3) meteorological consultations during severe weather. In a related collaboration, WSRC partnered with a local television station to purchase and install a Doppler weather radar. Two monitoring sites have been installed in Augusta/Richmond Co., Georgia; two additional sites are planned. Real-time meteorological data from the new installations and from the existing SRS sites are now available to the participating counties via the Internet. The successful implementation of these initiatives is attributed to structuring agreements such that all participants become stakeholders who mutually share in the costs and benefits. More importantly, the project demonstrated that coordinated leveraging of resources existing within a community can provide a cost-effective benefit to the public.

The J-integral fracture methodology was applied to evaluate the stability of postulated flaws in mild steel storage tanks. The material properties and the J-resistance (JR) curve were obtained from the archival A285 Grade B carbon steel test data. The J-integral calculation is based on the center-cracked panel (CCP) solution of Shih and Hutchinson (1976). A curvature correction was applied to account for the cylindrical shell configuration. A finite element analysis of an arbitrary flaw in the storage tank demonstrated that the curvature-corrected CCP solution is a close approximation. The maximum storage tank fluid level for a postulated flaw size can be established based on the J-integral flaw stability methodology.

Tank 49H contains wash water from the 1983 demonstration of the In-Tank Precipitation Process. SRTC helped study the decomposition of sodium and potassium tetraphenylborate present within the tank.

The Petroleum Marketing Monthly (PMM) provides information and statistical data on a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication presents 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 fob and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiners` acquisition cost of crude oil. Refined petroleum product sales data include motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane. The Petroleum Marketing Division, Office of Oil and Gas, Energy Information Administration ensures the accuracy, quality, and confidentiality of the published data in the Petroleum Marketing Monthly.

Two types of magnet errors are considered--the random phase error (RPE), in which the phase errors are evenly distributed along the magnet, and the random kick error (RKE), in which the errors in the derivative of the phase are evenly distributed. We compute the reduction in performance of both spontaneous radiation and high-gain free-electron lasers for both types of errors within the framework of 1-D free-electron laser theory.

The purpose of this report is to provide the office of Waste Management (WM) with recommended contingency calculation procedures for typical WM projects. Typical projects were defined as conventional construction-type activities that use innovative elements when necessary to meet the project objectives. Projects involve treatment, storage, and disposal of low level, mixed low level, hazardous, transuranic, and high level waste. Cost contingencies are an essential part of Total Cost Management. A contingency is an amount added to a cost estimate to compensate for unexpected expenses resulting from incomplete design, unforeseen and unpredictable conditions, or uncertainties in the project scope (DOE 1994, AACE 1998). Contingency allowances are expressed as percentages of estimated cost and improve cost estimates by accounting for uncertainties. The contingency allowance is large at the beginning of a project because there are more uncertainties, but as a project develops, the allowance shrinks to adjust for costs already incurred. Ideally, the total estimated cost remains the same throughout a project. Project contingency reflects the degree of uncertainty caused by lack of project definition, and process contingency reflects the degree of uncertainty caused by use of new technology. Different cost estimation methods were reviewed and compared with respect to terminology, …

This assessment covers thermal screening, differential scanning calorimetry, and impact sensitivity testing on Mercury Fulminate, and mixtures of the fulminate in dry inorganic sludge, which is present in large quantities in a number of storage tanks at Westinghouse Savannah River.