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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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 letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO: (1) identified practices that are both used in selected state programs at sites that may be contaminated enough to qualify for long-term cleanup under the Superfund program and that are believed by state officials to reduce the time and expense of cleanups; and (2) obtained the views of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), environmentalists, and other stakeholders about whether the states' practices may be applicable to the Superfund program."

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The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993, P.L. 103-62, encourages greater accountability, requiring agencies to set goals and use performance measures for management and budgeting. This report examines how agencies will solicit information from stakeholders and consult with Congress to develop strategic goals, to be provided in final form to Congress in September 1997; GAO and OMB are to report in May and June 1997 (but may advance the date to March 1997) to Congress on agency readiness for full scale implementation and to recommend changes in the statute; and agencies are expected to comply with OMB's requirements to use more performance measurement information in FY1998 budget requests.

Since their invention in the mid-1960's, surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices have become popular for a wide variety of applications. SAW devices represent a low-cost and compact method of achieving a variety of electronic signal processing functions at high frequencies, such as RF filters for TV or mobile wireless communications [1]. SAW devices also provide a convenient platform in chemical sensing applications, achieving extremely high sensitivity to vapor phase analytes in part-per-billion concentrations [2]. Although the SAW acoustic mode can be created on virtually any crystalline substrate, the development of SAW technology has historically focused on the use of piezoelectric materials, such as various orientations of either quartz or lithium niobate, allowing the devices to be fabricated simply and inexpensively. However, the III-V compound semiconductors, and GaAs in particular, are also piezoelectric as a result of their partially covalent bonding and support the SAW acoustic mode, allowing for the convenient fabrication of SAW devices. In addition, GaAs microelectronics has, in the past decade, matured commercially in numerous RF wireless technologies. In fact, GaAs was recognized long ago as a potential candidate for the monolithic integration of SAW devices with microelectronics, to achieve compact RF signal processing functions [3]. The details …

The annual Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations bill includes funding for agencies and programs in four separate federal departments, as well as numerous smaller agencies and diverse programs. This report discusses the FY1998 appropriations authorized under this bill.

Proton implantation in GaN is found to reduce the free carrier density through two mechanisms - first, by creating electron and hole traps at around Ec-0.8eV and Ev+0.9eV that lead to compensation in both n- and p-type material, and second, by leading to formation of (AH)O complexes, where A is any acceptor (Mg, Ca, Zn, Be, Cd). The former mechanism is usefid in creating high resistivity regions for device isolation, whereas the latter produces unintentional acceptor passivation that is detrimental to device performance. The strong affinity of hydrogen for acceptors leads to markedly different redistribution behavior for implanted in n- and p-GaN due to the chemical reaction to form neutral complexes in the latter. The acceptors may be reactivated by simple annealing at 2600{degrees}C, or by electron injection at 25-150{degrees}C that produces debonding of the (AH) centers. Implanted hydrogen is also strongly attracted to regions of strain in heterostructure samples during annealing, leading to pile-up at epi-epi and epi-substrate interfaces. II? spectroscopy shows that implanted hydrogen also decorates VG, defects in undoped and n-GaN.

In 1960, Hansen analyzed the problem of assembling fissionable material in the presence of a weak neutron source. Using point kinetics, he derived the weak source condition and analyzed the consequences of delayed initiation during ramp reactivity additions. Although not clearly stated in Hansen`s work, the neutron source strength that appears in the weak source condition actually corresponds to the equivalent, fundamental-mode source. In this work, they describe the concept of an equivalent, fundamental-mode source and they derive a deterministic expression for a factor, g*, that converts any arbitrary source distribution to an equivalent, fundamental-mode source. They also demonstrate a simplified method for calculating g* in subcritical systems. And finally, they present a new experimental method that can be employed to measure the equivalent, fundamental-mode source strength in a multiplying assembly. They demonstrate the method on the zero-power, XIX-1 assembly at the Fast Critical Assembly (FCA) Facility, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI).

Multilayer coatings manufactured from metallic hafnium and silica sources by reactive electron beam deposition, are being developed for high fluence optics in a fusion laser with a wavelength of 1053 nm and a 3 ns pulse length. Damage threshold studies have revealed a correlation between laser damage and nodular defects, but interestingly laser damage is also present in nodule-free regions. Photothermal studies of optical coatings reveal the existence of defects with strong optical absorption in nodule-free regions of the coating. A variety of microscopic techniques were employed to characterize the effects for a better understanding of the thermal properties of nodular defects and role of thermal defects in laser damage. Photothermal microscopy, utilizing the surface thermal lensing technique, was used to map the thermal characteristics of 3 mm x 3 mm areas of the coatings. High resolution subaperture scans, with a 1 pm step size and a 3 um pump beam diameter, W= conducted on the defects to characterize their photothermal properties. Optical and atomic force microscopy was used to visually identify defects and characterize their topography. The defects were then irradiated to determine the role of nodular and thermal defects in limiting the damage threshold of the multilayer.

This document details the research and development (R and D) activities that will be conducted in Fiscal Year 1998 (FY98) by the Thermally Induced Gallium Removal System (TIGRS) team for the Department of Energy Office of Fissile Materials Disposition. This work is a continuation and extension of experimental activities that have been conducted in support of using weapons-derived plutonium in the fabrication of mixed-oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel for reactor-based plutonium disposition. The ultimate purpose of this work is to demonstrate adequate Thermally Induced Gallium Removal with a prototypic system. This Test Plan presents more than the FY98 R and D efforts in order to frame the Task in its entirety. To achieve the TIGRS Program objectives, R and D activities during the next two years will be focused on (1) process development leading to a prototypic TIGRS design, and (2) prototypic TIGRS design and testing leading to and including a prototypic demonstration of TIGRS operation. Both the process development and system testing efforts will consist of a series of surrogate-based cold tests and plutonium-based hot tests. Some of this testing has already occurred and will continue into FY99.

The technical progress achieved during the period 30 October through 26 November, 1995 is described herein. This report is organized by program task structure: (1) spacecraft integration and liaison; (2) engineering support; (3) safety; (4) qualified unicouple production; (5) ETG fabrication, assembly, and test; (6) ground support equipment (GSE); (7) RTG shipping and launch support; (8) designs, reviews, and mission applications; (9) project management, quality assurance, reliability, contract changes, CAGO acquisition (operating funds), and GACO maintenance and repair; and CAGO acquisition (capital funds).

The integrated-gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) process is an emerging technology that utilizes coal for power generation and production of chemical feedstocks. However, the process generates large amounts of solid waste, consisting of vitrified ash (slag) and some unconverted carbon. In previous projects, Praxis investigated the utilization of ''as-generated'' slags for a wide variety of applications in road construction, cement and concrete production, agricultural applications, and as a landfill material. From these studies, we found that it would be extremely difficult for ''as-generated'' slag to find large-scale acceptance in the marketplace even at no cost because the materials it could replace were abundantly available at very low cost. It was further determined that the unconverted carbon, or char, in the slag is detrimental to its utilization as sand or fine aggregate. It became apparent that a more promising approach would be to develop a variety of value-added products from slag that meet specific industry requirements. This approach was made feasible by the discovery that slag undergoes expansion and forms a lightweight material when subjected to controlled heating in a kiln at temperatures between 1400 and 1700 F. These results confirmed the potential for using expanded slag as a substitute for conventional lightweight …

In this quarterly report, results of efforts on Tasks 2 and 3 are presented and discussed. Construction of a laboratory-type wetland (green house) has been begun and this undertaking is described in this report. The literature search has shown that clay amendments to wetlands are beginning to be used in Europe for P removal in agricultural drainage systems. The authors have undertaken similar studies on the use of inexpensive amendments to wetlands such as modified-clays and algae to enhance the performance of a constructed wetland for the treatment of oil and gas well wastewaters. The results from these studies are presented and analyzed in this report. Further, the literature search (nominally completed under Task 1) unearthed more recent studies (some unpublished) and a summary is included in this quarterly report.

A resolution study, employing a 3D nonlinear optimization technique, has been undertaken to study the viability of magnetotelluric (MT) measurements to detect and characterize buried facilities that make weapons of mass destruction. A significant advantage of the MT method is that no active source is required because the method employs passive field emissions. Thus measurements can be carried out covertly. Findings indicate it is possible to image WMD facilities, including depth of burial and lateral extent if a sufficient number of measurements are taken on the perimeter of the facility. Moreover if a station measurement can be made directly over the facility then the resolution is improved accordingly. In all cases it was not possible to image the base of the facility with any confidence as well as provide any precise inferences on the facility electrical conductivity. This later finding, however, is really not that critical since knowledge of facility geometry is far more important than knowledge of its conductivity. For the WMD problem it is recommended that MT measurements be made solely with the magnetic field ratios. In this context it would then be possible to deploy with far greater ease small coils about a suspected facility and would …

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