This document is a program from the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) Forum on Technology and Governance in the 1990s, held on January 27, 1993. The program includes a schedule of events and biographical information on each of the forum speakers.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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

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 the Fort Bend County Tax Assessor/Collector may collect additional taxes for change of use of agricultural land in light of the 1989 amendment to section 23.55(e) of the Tax Code (RQ-325)

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: Term of office of directors of the El Paso County Water Control and Improvement District (Westway), and related questions (RQ-479)

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 County of El Paso may use the county law library fund to maintain statutes and reporters located in the chambers of district and county courts (ID# 19317)

Precipitated iron catalysts are expected to be used in next generation slurry reactors for large-scale production of transportation fuels from synthesis gas. These reactors are expected to operate at higher temperatures and lower H{sub 2}:CO ratios relative to the Sasol Arge reactor (Table 1A). The feasibility of using iron catalysts has been demonstrated under relatively mild Arge-type conditions but not under more severe slurry conditions. Possibly, an improvement in catalytic stability will be needed to make iron catalysts suitable for slurry operation. This program was aimed at identifying the chemical principles governing the deactivation of precipitated iron catalysts during Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and use of these chemical principles in the design of more stable catalysts. A new precipitated Fe catalyst was developed in this program for slurry reactor operation. The new Fe catalyst is predicted to perform slightly below the performance targets for slurry bubble column operation. Stability targets appear to be achievable. This catalyst did not noticeably deactivate during 1,740 hours on-stream. Compared to the selectivity target, an excess of 2% C{sub 1} + C{sub 2} was formed at 265{degrees}C. Based on the initial catalyst inventory in the autoclave, the catalyst seems to be short of the activity target by …

This invention comprises a new deflection structure which deflects a beam of charged particles, such as an electron beam, includes a serpentine set for transmitting a deflection field, and shielding frame for housing the serpentine set. The serpentine set includes a vertical serpentine deflection element and a horizontal serpentine deflection element. These deflection elements are identical and are interdigitatedly and orthogonally disposed relative to each other, for forming a central transmission passage, through which the electron beam passes and is deflected by the deflection field to minimize drift space signal distortion. The shielding frame includes a plurality of ground blocks and forms an internal serpentine trough within these ground blocks for housing the serpentine set. The deflection structure further includes a plurality of feedthrough connectors which are inserted through the shielding frame and which are electrically connected to the serpentine set.

In this short note we wish to describe schemes which mix atomic and nuclear energy levels and so permit transfer of nuclear energy to the atomic system from which it is extracted. In addition, we will describe a scheme for stimulating this transfer process which offers the possibility of multi-kilovolt coherent radiation. These ideas are based upon newly available, novel experimental techniques which permit the precise filling of atomic levels and the availability of a broad range of lasers. These new abilities permit the tuning of atomic levels so that they are degenerate or nearly degenerate with nuclear isomeric levels. Such processes permit the exploration of highly leveraged research which could lead to radiation free Ultra High Energy Density Materials in addition to X-Ray Lasers with Gamma ray energies. 2 refs.

This work had as its original goals the theoretical evaluation of a unique method of performing mixed field dosimetry by using focused and unfocused laser heating to extract dose information from the superficial layers, followed by the deeper layers, of a single, thick thermoluminescent detector (TLD). This report will review the original stated goals for this award, then review the results obtained during the first year of the grant. Software tools required to accomplish these goals were completed during the first year of the grant, and preliminary simulated data were obtained. A modification to the approach, utilizing sequential laser heating with different pulse powers and durations and deconvolution of the resulting glow curves was devised as a method for obtaining more complete depth dose information. Optimization and error analysis of the method will be accomplished in detail during Year 2.

This report is a critical evaluation of the effort for the restart of the Omega West reactor. It is divided into the following areas: progress made; difficulties in restart effort; current needs; and suggested detailed steps for improvement. A brief discussion is given for each area of study.

This report documents the results of the corrosion tests that were performed to aid in the selection of the construction materials for multi-function waste tanks to be built in the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford Site. Two alloys were tested: 304L and Alloy 20 austenitic stainless steel. The test media were aqueous solutions formulated to represent the extreme of the chemical compositions of waste to be stored in the tanks. The results summerized by alloy are as follows: For 304L the tests showed no stress-corrosion cracking in any of the nine test solutions. The tests showed pitting in on of the solutions. There were no indications of any weld heat-tint corrosion, nor any sign of preferential corrosion in the welded areas. For Alloy 20 the tests showed no general, pitting, or stress-corrosion cracking. One crevice corrosion coupon cracked at the web between a hole and the edge of the coupon in one of the solutions. Mechanical tests showed some possible crack extension in the same solution. Because of the failure of both alloys to meet test acceptance criteria, the tank waste chemistry will have to be restricted or an alternative alloy tested.

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Work on ICRF interaction with the edge plasma is reported. ICRF generated convective cells have been established as an important mechanism for influencing edge transport and interaction with the H-mode, and for controlling profiles in the tokamak scrape-off-layer. Power dissipation by rf sheaths has been shown to be significant for some misaligned ICRF and IIBW antenna systems. Near-field antenna sheath work has been extended to the far-field case, important for experiments with low single pass absorption. Impurity modeling and Faraday screen design support has been provided for the ICRF community. In the area of core-ICRF physics, the kinetic theory of heating by applied ICRF waves has been extended to retain important geometrical effects relevant to modeling minority heated tokamak plasmas, thereby improving on the physics base that is standard in presently employed codes. Both the quasilinear theory of ion heating, and the plasma response function important in wave codes have been addressed. In separate studies, it has been shown that highly anisotropic minority heated plasmas can give rise to unstable field fluctuations in some situations. A completely separate series of studies have contributed to the understanding of tokamak confinement physics. Additionally, a diffraction formalism has been produced which will be …

The Michigan Technological University Teacher Education Program received funding from the US Department of Energy for the purpose of providing capable and suitably inclined, MTU Engineering and Science students a chance to explore high school level science and mathematics teaching as a career option. Ten undergraduate students were selected from nominations and were paired with mentor teachers for the study. This report covers the experience of the first ten nominees and their participation in the program.

The workshop was called to assess the performance of neutron dosimetry per the responses from ten DOE accelerator facilities to an Office of Energy Research questionnaire regarding implementation of a personnel dosimetry requirement in DRAFT DOE 5480.ACC, Safety of Accelerator Facilities''. The goals of the workshop were to assess the state of dosimetry at high energy accelerators and if such dosimetry requires improvement, to reach consensus on how to proceed with such improvements. There were 22 attendees, from DOE Programs and contract facilities, DOE, Office of Energy Research (ER), Office of Environmental Safety and Health (EH), Office of Fusion Energy, and the DOE high energy accelerator facilities. A list of attendees and the meeting agenda are attached. Copies of the presentations are also attached.

This study employs Lycopersicon esculentum and L. pennellii as model systems to study the interspecific reproductive barriers unilateral incongruity (UI), hybrid breakdown and interspecific aberrant ratio syndrome (IARS).

Newsletter of the Texas Department of Health discussing the news, activities, and events of the organization and other information related to health in Texas. This issue includes the annual index for 1993.

Weekly newsletter discussing natural resources, parks, hunting and fishing, and other information related to the outdoors in Texas.

The composites industry employs a method of high speed continuous reinforcement lay-down called filament winding. This is a process where resin impregnated tows, bundles of filament, are wound over a rotating mandrel. The tows, hereafter referred to as filament, are laid down over the rotating mandrel at a prescribed wind angle. Consider a cylindrical filament winding mandrel with conical features such that the filament is tangent to both the cylinder and the cone simultaneously. A gap is formed between the points of tangency. The gap distance measured along a line normal to the filament and intersecting the mandrel`s axis of rotation. The maximum distance occurs between the filament and a point on the intersection of the cylinder and the cone. The problems this paper addresses are: given a cylindrical filament winding mandrel with conical features, what is the gap size for a given wind angle; conversely what is the wind angle for a given gap size; and what does the geometry need to be in the mandrel transition area between the cylinder cone such that the filament remains in contact with the mandrel at all times?

The Inventory of Power Plants in the United States is prepared annually by the Survey Management Division, Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels, Energy Information Administration (EIA), US Department of Energy (DOE). The purpose of this publication is to provide year-end statistics about electric generating units operated by electric utilities in the United States (the 50 States and the District of Columbia). The publication also provides a 10-year outlook of future generating unit additions. Data summarized in this report are useful to a wide audience including Congress, Federal and State agencies, the electric utility industry, and the general public. Data presented in this report were assembled and published by the EIA to fulfill its data collection and dissemination responsibilities as specified in the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-275) as amended. The report is organized into the following chapters: Year in Review, Operable Electric Generating Units, and Projected Electric Generating Unit Additions. Statistics presented in these chapters reflect the status of electric generating units as of December 31, 1992.

We apply dual-band infrared (DBIR) imaging as a dynamic thermal tomography tool for wide area inspection of a Boeing 737 aircraft, and several Boeing KC-135 aircraft panels. Our analyses are discussed in this report. After flash-heating the aircraft skin, we record synchronized DBIR images every 40 ms, from onset to 8 seconds after the heat flash. We analyze selective DBIR image ratios which enhance surface temperature contrast and remove surface-emissivity clutter (from dirt, dents, tape, markings, ink, sealants, uneven paint, paint stripper, exposed metal and roughness variations). The Boeing 737 and KC-135 aircraft fuselage panels have varying percent thickness losses from corrosion. We established the correlation of percent thickness loss with surface temperature rise (above ambient) for a partially corroded F-18 wing box structure and several aluminum reference panels. Based on this correlation, lap splice temperatures rise 1{degrees}C per 24 {plus_minus} 5 % material loss at 0.4 s after the heat flash. We show tables, charts and temperature maps of typical lap splice material losses for the riveted (and bonded) Boeing 737, and the riveted (but unbonded) Boeing KC-135. We map the fuselage composite thermal inertia, based on the (inverse) slope of the surface temperature versus inverse square root of …

The main advantage of the project is that it allowed PTI to gain knowledge and experience about the proper approach, methods and hardware required to properly optimize and control column flotation performance. Many operational problems were incurred during the project, some of that PTI was able to solve during the project and other that must be overcome as the technology is further developed and commercialized. The key operating problems experienced with the KEN-FLOTE{sup TM} Column that must be further researched and overcome include: (1)The low concentrate solids content which limited the throughput capacity of the column, due to high froth washing requirements. The low concentrate solids content also lead to difficulty obtaining accurate On-Line Monitor measurements, due to the poor measurement sensitivity obtained with low solids content samples (particularly less than 5.0 wt %). (2) The higher-than-anticipated reagent dosages that undoubtedly contributed to the low solids content listed above, and also caused foaming problems within PTI`s On-Line Monitor. A defoaming reagent addition (Nalco 7810) was required to provide consistent sample size and reproducible On-Line Monitor counts for the concentrate samples collected within the circuit. PTI and UK`s CAER staff will continue to research alternative column design, particularly alternative air bubble …