Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the tax compliance burdens of small business taxpayers, focusing on: (1) why the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) compliance burden estimates are not reliable; (2) why the relationship of the no-change rates to audit rates for small businesses and other individuals is difficult to determine; and (3) why IRS has limited information on its interactions with small businesses."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the implementation of Executive Order 12612 on federalism, focusing on: (1) how often the preambles to covered agencies' final rules issued between April 1, 1996, and December 31, 1998, mentioned Executive Order 12612 and how often they indicated that the agencies had conducted federalism assessments under the order; (2) what selected agencies have done to implement the requirements of Executive Order 12612; and (3) what the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has done to oversee federal agencies' implementation of Executive Order 12612 in the rulemaking process."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) efforts to improve customer service."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its work concerning federally funded teacher training programs, focusing on the: (1) number of agencies and the programs they administer that support teacher training, along with some general characteristics of these programs; and (2) funding provided by these programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on issues related to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) reauthorization, focusing on issues related to derivatives that are traded on-exchange as well as those that are privately negotiated off-exchange, or over-the-counter (OTC)."

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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

Well 199-N-81 was drilled in 1993 as a RCRA groundwater monitoring for the 1324-N network. The well is completed at the top of the uppermost aquifer, in the Ringold Formation. This data package includes information on drilling, construction, development, and aquifer testing. Copies of forms, notes, and diagrams completed in the field comprise the bulk of this document. Few interpretations are included. Lithologic contacts were picked by the site geologist. An attempt was made to interpret aquifer test data.

Following is a modification of the IFEFUEL systems code, called IFEFUEL2, to treat specifically the HYLIFE-II target chamber concept. The same improved Recirculating Induction Accelerator (RIA) energy scaling model developed recently by Bieri is used in this survey of the economics of multi-unit IFE plants producing both electricity and hydrogen fuel. Reference cases will assume conventional HI-indirect target gains for a 2 mm spot, and improved HYLIFE-II BoP models as per Hoffman. Credits for improved plant availability and lower operating costs due to HYLIFE-II`s 30-yr target chamber lifetime are included, as well as unit cost reductions suggested by Delene to credit greater {open_quotes}learning curve{close_quotes} benefits for the duplicated portions of a multi-unit plant. To illustrate the potential impact of more advanced assumptions, additional {open_quotes}advanced{close_quotes} cases will consider the possible benefits of an MHD + Steam BoP, where direct MHD conversion of plasma from baseball-size LiH target blanket shells is assumed to be possible in a new (as yet undesigned) liquid Flibe-walled target chamber, together and separately, with advanced, higher-gain heavy-ion targets with Fast Ignitors. These runs may help decide the course of a possible future {open_quotes}HYLIFE-III{close_quotes} IFE study. Beam switchyard and final focusing system costs per target chamber are assumed …

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Permissible investments of Teacher Retirement System and related questions (RQ-1174)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether, under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure under article 11.07, section 3(b), the prosecuting attorney and court clerk may agree to substitute another method of service for service by certified mail, return receipt requested (RQ-1227)

A variety of elemental foils have been activated by neutron fluence from TFTR under conditions with the DT neutron yield per shot ranging from 10{sup 12} to over 10{sup 18}, and with the DT/(DD+DT) neutron ratio varying from 0.5% (from triton burnup) to unity. Linear response over this large dynamic range is obtained by reducing the mass of the foils and increasing the cooling time, all while accepting greatly improved counting statistics. Effects on background gamma-ray lines from foil-capsule-material contaminants. and the resulting lower limits on activation foil mass, have been determined. DT neutron yields from dosimetry standard reactions on aluminum, chromium, iron, nickel, zirconium, and indium are in agreement within the {plus_minus}9% (one-sigma,) accuracy of the measurements: also agreeing are yields from silicon foils using the ACTL library cross-section. While the ENDF/B-V library has too low a cross-section. Preliminary results from a variety of other threshold reactions are presented. Use of the {sup 115}In(n,n) {sup 115m}In reaction (0.42 times as sensitive to DT neutrons as DD neutrons) in conjunction with pure-DT reactions allows a determination of the DT/(DD+DT) ratio in trace tritium or low-power tritium beam experiments.

I review the current determinations of {alpha}{sub s}. Attention is given to the theoretical uncertainties inherent in most determinations. all current determinations are consistent with an average of {alpha}{sub s}(M{sub Z}) = 0.119{plus_minus}0.005. Prospects for reduction of the errors in the future are discussed.

A two-dimensional fluid code called UEDGE is used to simulate the edge plasma in tokamak divertors and to evaluate methods for reducing the heat load on divertor plates by radiating some of the power before it reaches the plates. UEDGE is a fully-implicit code being developed jointly by us, D. A. Knoll and R. B. Campbell. For these studies, UEDGE uses a banded matrix solver and a fixed-fraction impurity model. Work is presently underway with Knoll and Campbell to include a memory-efficient iterative solver and a model of impurity transport. Simulations of the proposed TPX device show that a few percent nitrogen concentration in the scrape-off layer can radiate up to 80% of the divertor power, thus reducing the peak heat flux and electron temperature at the divertor plate to acceptable values. A comparison of the neutral gas distribution from UEDGE with results from the DEGAS Monte Carlo neutrals code confirms the validity of our fluid neutrals model.

After a number of refinements, the stability and ease of tuning of the LBL AECR ion source are greatly improved. Several nuclear science experiments have now used cyclotron ion beams injected by the AECR ion source and have taken advantage of its good short and long term-stability and high performance. Refinements include installation of a dc filament power supply for the electron gun, improved gas flow control.and temperature stabilization of parts of the microwave transmission network. Measurements of the mean plasma potential and plasma potential difference were made on the AECR and the LBL ECR sources. The absolute. mean potentials of plasmas of oxygen, argon, and argon mixed with oxygen in the AECR have been determined. These plasma potentials are positive with respect to the plasma wall and are on the order of a few tens of volts for microwave power up to 600 W and normal operating gas flow. Electrons injected by an electron gun into the AECR plasma reduce the plasma potentials. Beam energy spreads of oxygen, argon and argon mixed with oxygen have also been measured. Measurement of the plasma potential difference between the first and the second stage of the LBL ECR ion source shows that …

Using a {sup 137}Cs source we have determined the position of two of the source tubes embedded in the Pb absorber in the cast EMC module used in the Fermilab test beam. Two scintillator tiles placed in the gaps on both sides of an absorber containing a source tube were readout into independent phototubes. The difference in scintillator response was measured in two towers at two different source tube layers. We find the source tube to be displaced towards the (radial) front of the EMC by about 1.6 mm in both measurements. Work is proceeding now to check other source tubes in other locations.

At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) we have recently developed several techniques for volume visualization of scalar and vector fields, all of which use back-to-front compositing. The first renders volume density clouds by compositing polyhedral volume cells or their faces. The second is a ``splatting`` scheme which composites textures used to reconstruct the scalar or vector fields. One version calculates the necessary texture values in software, and another takes advantage of hardware texture mapping. The next technique renders contour surface polygons using semi-transparent textures, which adjust appropriately when the surfaces deform in a flow, or change topology. The final one renders the ``flow volume`` of smoke or dye tracer swept out by a fluid flowing through a small generating polygon. All of these techniques are applied to a climate model data set, to visualize cloud density and wind velocity.

This report discusses the arguments for and against the amendments adoption and analyzes the legal implications of the proposed amendment.

This report provides a brief overview of FEHBP under current law and brief descriptions of proposed changes to the existing program included in various bills introduced in the 103rd Congress.

This report describes the basic elements and issues of the Department of Defense's (DOD) Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) Program. It defines basic activities supported by the program, presents budget trends, discusses the management of program, and describes the infrastructure in which the program is implemented. This report is for staff new to the area of defense research and for senior staff interested in historical trends.

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This report provides current statistical data on every fuel assembly irradiated in commercial nuclear reactors operating in the United States. It also provides data on the current inventories and storage capacities of those reactors to a wide audience, including Congress, Federal and State agencies, the nuclear and electric industries and the general public. It uses data from the mandatory, ``Nuclear Fuel Data`` survey, Form RW-859 for 1992 and historical data collected by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on previous Form RW-859 surveys. The report was prepared by the EIA under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

In a September 1990 report entitled, ``General Management Inspection of the San Francisco Operations Office,`` we made recommendations to Departmental officials regarding the administration of M&O contractor post retirement health benefits. The majority of these recommendations were directed to the administration of benefits paid by one M&O contractor, the University of California. The purpose of this inspection was to determine what actions Departmental officials have taken in response to the recommendations made in our September 1990 report.

The B and W Hanford Company`s (BWHC) 327 Facility [Postirradiation Testing Laboratory (PTL)] houses 10 hot cells in which a variety of postirradiation examinations have been performed since its construction in the mid 1950s. Over the years, the waste that was generated in these cells has been collected in one gallon buckets. These buckets are essentially one gallon cylindrical cans made of thin wall stainless steel with welded bottoms and slip fit lids. They contain assorted compactable waste (i.e., Wipe-Alls, Q-tips, towels, etc.) as well as non-compactable waste (i.e., small tools, pieces of metal tubing, etc.). There is a FY-98 BWHC Performance Agreement (PA) milestone in place to package 200 of these buckets in drums and ship them from the 327 facility to the Central Waste Complex (CWC) by September 30, 1998.