The CRS report describes the battle with natural gas companies on helium gas, being wasted, and released into the environment. Incentives were put in place for natural gas companies sell this helium to the government and for it to be stored in a government facility. Consequently, this also brought up controversy for why funding is being used to store a surplus of helium. Congress would debate on whether government involvement was the best option and a consensus was reached to fund the National Academy of Science to find the best way to dispose of the helium. Their results of their studies and the H.R. 4168 bill that was passed are also described.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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

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 United States Postal Service’s change in designation from “second-class” to “periodicals” class affects Texas law (ID# 38824)

A common dilemma among builders of large scientific data stores is whether to use a lightweight object persistence manager or a genuine object-oriented database. There are often good reasons to consider each of these strategies; a few are described in this paper. Too often, however, electing to use a lightweight approach has meant programming to an interface that is entirely different than that expected by commercial object-oriented databases. With the emergence of object database standards, it is possible to provide an interface to persistence managers that does not needlessly inhibit coexistence with (and, perhaps, eventual migration to) object-oriented databases. This paper describes an implementation of a substantial subset of the ODMG-93[1]C++ specification that allows clients to use many of today`s lightweight object persistence managers through an interface that conforms to the ODMG standard. We also describe a minimal interface that persistence software should support in order to provide persistence services for ODMG implementations.

The ability to accurately and rapidly measure nuclear material within drums and examine their contents without having to unpack the drums saves time, reduces characterization costs and minimizes radiation exposure. Over the past two years, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has developed and fielded a suite of mobile nondestructive assay and examination systems for use primarily on its own transuranic (TRU) waste but that also have application to low level, mixed and hazardous wastes. It has become obvious that systems like these are generally useful and have applications at other Department of Energy (DOE) production and environmental technology sites. Mobile capabilities present a potential cost savings where waste drums have to be transported to a fixed NDA facility. In other cases they fill a void where there is no fixed facility available because construction costs are prohibitive (as in the case of small quantity sites) or the available facilities may not meet current or evolving safety standards. Rather than bringing waste to a facility to be characterized, one can bring the characterization capability to the waste. The three systems described are: (1) mobile radiography system; (2) mobile segmented/tomographic gamma scanner; and (3) mobile passive/active neutron assay system.

The computer codes at LLNL with capabilities for numerical analysis for multiphase flow; phenomenology and constitutive theory and modeling; advanced diagnostics, advanced test beds, facilities, and data bases; and multiphase flow applications are listed, with brief descriptions.

The generation of a stable colloidal suspension in geologic materials has a number of environmental implications. Mobile colloids may act as vectors for the transport of adsorbed contaminants through soils and within aquifers and can cause serious problems related to well monitoring and formation permeability in an injections well system. Colloid-facilitated transport has been implicated in the migration of contaminants from seepage basins on the Department of Energy`s Savannah River Site (SRS) at a rate greater than was predicted in two- phase transport models. From 1955 to 1988, seepage basins overlying the water-table aquifer received acidic wastes containing high levels of Na+ and nitric acid, as well as trace radionuclides and metals from the nuclear materials processing facilities. Numerical simulations predicted that metal contaminants would not reach the water table, but measurable quantities of these contaminants have been detected in monitoring wells down gradient from the basins. Lack of agreement between predicted and observed contaminant migration in this and other studies has been attributed to both local non equilibrium situation, preferential flow paths within the geologic material, and to transport of the contaminant in association with a mobile solid phase, i.e. dispersed colloids. Additionally, the association of contaminants with a …

Research was performed to develop an importance sampling procedure for a radiation source. The procedure was developed for the MCNP radiation transport code, but the approach itself is general and can be adapted to other Monte Carlo codes. The procedure, as adapted to MCNP, relies entirely on existing MCNP capabilities. It has been tested for very complex descriptions of a general source, in the context of the design of spent-reactor-fuel storage casks. Dramatic improvements in calculation efficiency have been observed in some test cases. In addition, the procedure has been found to provide an acceleration to acceptable convergence, as well as the benefit of quickly identifying user specified variance-reduction in the transport that effects unstable convergence.

Currently one of the most widely used high {Tc} superconductors is the Bi-based compounds Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub z} and Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Ca{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub z} (known as BSCCO 2212 and 2223 compounds) with {Tc} values of about 85 K and 110 K respectively. Lengths of high performance conductors ranging from 100 to 1000 m long are routinely fabricated and some test magnets have been wound. An additional difficulty here is that although Bi-2212 and Bi-2223 phases exist over a wide range of stoichiometries, neither has been prepared in phase-pure form. So far the most successful method of constructing reliable and robust wires or tapes is the so called powder-in-tube (PIT) technique [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] in which oxide powder of the appropriate stoichiometry and phase content is placed inside a metal tube, deformed into the desired geometry (round wire or flat tape), and annealed to produce the desired superconducting properties. Intermediate anneals are often incorporated between successive deformation steps. Silver is the metal used in this process because it is the most compatible with the reacting phase. In all of the commercial processes for BSCCO, Ag seems to play a special catalytic role promoting the growth …

Supersymmetry provides the most promising solution to the gauge hierarchy problem. For supersymmetry to stablize the hierarchy, it must be broken at the weak scale. The combination of weak scale supersymmetry and grand unification leads to a successful prediction of the weak mixing angle to within 1{percent} accuracy. If supersymmetry is a symmetry of nature, the mass spectrum and the flavor mixing pattern of the scalar superpartners of all the quarks and leptons will provide important information about a more fundamental theory at higher energies. We studied the scalar mass relations which follow from the assumption that at high energies there is a grand unified theory which leads to a significant prediction of the weak mixing angle; these will serve as important tests of grand unified theories. Two intragenerational mass relations for each of the light generations are derived. A third relation is also found which relates the Higgs masses and the masses of all three generation scalars. In a realistic supersymmetric grand unified theory, nontrivial flavor mixings are expected to exist at all gaugino vertices. This could lead to important contributions to the neutron electric dipole moment, the decay mode p {r_arrow} K{sup 0}{mu}{sup +}, weak scale radiative corrections …

The performance of insertion devices would achieve almost the ultimate level if a proper set of techniques could be developed to correct the magnetic field imperfections. It has been shown experimentally that the measured radiation characteristics of a magnetically fine-tuned insertion device are very close to those calculated for an ideal device. There are different techniques for correction of magnetic field errors. One used most often is a shimming technique capable of correcting both integrated and local field errors. In this note, some specific results of a shimming technique applied to APS insertion devices will be presented. This technique uses two types of shims: one for trajectory corrections and one for phase corrections. It has been demonstrated that trajectory shims could bring the rms phase errors to the level of 5 degrees, and the next shimming step when only phase shims are applied brings the rms phase errors as low as 1.5 degree.

Thus publication contains information compiled by the Energy information administration (EIA) on the following topics: heating fuel supplies; alternative fuel vehicles; natural gas production; clean air laws and coal transportation; EIA`s world Wide Web Site; EIA`s CD-ROM; Press Releases; Microfiched products; electronic publishing; new reports; machine-readable files; how to order EIA publications; and Energy Data Information Contracts.

Much of the US Department of Energy`s (DOE`s) research on plutonium metallurgy and plutonium processing is performed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), in Los Alamos, New Mexico. LANL`s main facility for plutonium research is the Plutonium Facility, also referred to as Technical Area 55 (TA-55). The main laboratory building for plutonium work within the Plutonium Facility (TA-55) is the Plutonium Facility Building 4, or PF-4. This Environmental Assessment (EA) analyzes the potential environmental effects that would be expected to occur if DOE were to stage sealed containers of transuranic (TRU) and TRU mixed waste in a support building at the Plutonium Facility (TA-55) that is adjacent to PF-4. At present, the waste containers are staged in the basement of PF-4. The proposed project is to convert an existing support structure (Building 185), a prefabricated metal building on a concrete foundation, and operate it as a temporary staging facility for sealed containers of solid TRU and TRU mixed waste. The TRU and TRU mixed wastes would be contained in sealed 55-gallon drums and standard waste boxes as they await approval to be transported to TA-54. The containers would then be transported to a longer term TRU waste storage area at …

This activity plan is prepared in accordance with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Yucca Mountain Project procedure 033.YMP-QP 3.0, �Scientific Investigation Control.� This plan is written for activity E-20-46, entitled �Galvanic Corrosion Testing,� which is a part of the Scientific Investigation Plan (SIP) �Metal Barrier Selection and Testing� (SIP-CM-01, Rev 2, CN SIP-CM-01-2-l).

This publication presents monthly electricity statistics for a wide audience including Congress, Federal and state agencies, the electric utility industry, and the general public. Purpose is to provide energy decisionmakers with accurate, timely information that may be used in forming various perspectives on electric issues that lie ahead. EIA collected the information to fulfill its data collection and dissemination responsibilities as specified in the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974. Statistics are presented in this publication on net generation by energy source; consumption, stocks, quantity, quality, and cost of fossil fuels; and capability of new generating units by company and plant.

This is the fourth wellhead productive capacity report. The three previous ones were published in 1991, 1993, and 1994. This report should be of particular interest to those in Congress, Federal and State agencies, industry, and the academic community, who are concerned with the future availability of natural gas. The EIA Dallas Field Office has prepared five earlier reports regarding natural gas productive capacity. These reports, Gas Deliverability and Flow Capacity of Surveillance Fields, reported deliverability and capacity data for selected gas fields in major gas producing areas. The data in the reports were based on gas-well back-pressure tests and estimates of gas-in-place for each field or reservoir. These reports use proven well testing theory, most of which has been employed by industry since 1936 when the Bureau of Mines first published Monograph 7. Demand for natural gas in the United States is met by a combination of natural gas production, underground gas storage, imported gas, and supplemental gaseous fuels. Natural gas production requirements in the lower 48 States have been increasing during the last few years while drilling has remained at low levels. This has raised some concern about the adequacy of future gas supplies, especially in periods of …

Neutron scattering techniques have been used to study the magnetic structure and lattice dynamical properties of various members of the recently discovered RENi{sub 2}B{sub 2}C family, were RE stands for a rare-earth element. The magnetic structures of superconducting DyNi{sub 2}B{sub 2}C, ErNi{sub 2}B{sub 2}C, HoNi{sub 2}B{sub 2}C, and non superconducting TbNi{sub 2}B{sub 2}C have been determined as a function of temperature, in the 2-300 K temperature range.

EUVE, ROSAT, and ASCA observations of the boundary layer emission of nonmagnetic cataclysmic variables (CVs) are reviewed. EUVE spectra reveal that the effective temperature of the soft component of high-M nonmagnetic CVs is kT {approx}10-20 eV and that its luminosity is {approx} 0.1-0.5 times the accretion disk luminosity. Although the EUV spectra are very complex and belie simple interpretation, the physical conditions of the boundary layer gas are constrained by emission lines of highly ionized Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe. ROSAT and ASCA spectra of the hard component of nonmagnetic CVs are satisfactorily but only phenomenologically described by multi-temperature thermal plasmas, and the constraints imposed on the physical conditions of this gas are limited by the relatively weak and blended fines. It is argued that significant progress in our understanding of the X-ray spectra of nonmagnetic CVs will come with future observations with XMM, AXAF, and Astro-E.

The US DOE Office of Fissile Material Disposition is examining options for placing fissile materials that were produced for fabrication of weapons, and now are deemed to be surplus, into a condition that is substantially irreversible and makes its use in weapons inherently more difficult. The principal fissile materials subject to this disposition activity are plutonium and uranium containing substantial fractions of plutonium-239 uranium-235. The data in this report, prepared as technical input to the fissile material disposition Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) deal only with the disposition of plutonium that contains well over 80% plutonium-239. In fact, the data were developed on the basis of weapon-grade plutonium which contains, typically, 93.6% plutonium-239 and 5.9% plutonium-240 as the principal isotopes. One of the options for disposition of weapon-grade plutonium being considered is the power reactor alternative. Plutonium would be fabricated into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel and fissioned (``burned``) in a reactor to produce electric power. The MOX fuel will contain dioxides of uranium and plutonium with less than 7% weapon-grade plutonium and uranium that has about 0.2% uranium-235. The disposition mission could, for example, be carried out in existing power reactors, of which there are over 100 in the United …

At the end of calender year 1992, the Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP) had approximately 12,500 drums of mixed low-level waste in storage and the Fernald Environmental Restoration Management Corporation (FERMCO) had just begun to develop an aggressive project based program to treat and dispose of this mixed waste. By 1996 the FERMCO mixed waste management program had reduced the aforementioned 12,500 drums of waste once in inventory to approximately 5800 drums. Projects are currently in progress to completely eliminate the FEMP inventory of mixed waste. As a result of these initiatives and aggressive project management, the FEMP has become a model for mixed waste handling, treatment and disposal for DOE facilities. Mixed waste management has traditionally been viewed as a singular and complex environmental problem. FERMCO has adopted the viewpoint that treatment and disposal of mixed waste is an engineering project, to be executed in a disciplined fashion with timely and economic results. This approach allows the larger mixed waste management problem to be divided into manageable fractions and managed by project. Each project is managed by problem solving experts, project managers, in lieu of environmental experts. In the project approach, environmental regulations become project requirements for individual resolution, …

The Ames Laboratory Chemical Disposal Site is located in northwestern Ames, Iowa west of Squaw Creek. From 1957 to 1966, Ames Laboratory conducted research to develop processes to separate uranium and thorium from nuclear power fuel and to separate yttrium from neutron shielding sources. The wastes from these processes, which contained both hazardous and radiological components, were placed into nine burial pits. Metal drums, plywood boxes, and steel pails were used to store the wastes. Uranium was also burned on the ground surface of the site. Monitoring wells were placed around the waste burial pits. Groundwater testing in 1993 revealed elevated levels of Uranium 234, Uranium 238, beta and alpha radiation. The north side of the burial pit had elevated levels of volatile organic compounds. Samples in the East Ravine showed no volatile organics; however, they did contain elevated levels of radionuclides. These analytical results seem to indicate that the groundwater from the burial pit is flowing down hill and causing contamination in the East Ravine. Although there are many avenues for the contamination to spread, the focus of this project is to understand the hydrogeology of the East Ravine and to determine the path of groundwater flow down the …

Smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) with standard frequency modulation (FM), although simple to implement, has the disadvantage that low spatial frequencies present in the spectrum of the target illumination are not smoothed as effectively as with a more general smoothing method (eg, induced spatial incoherence method). The reduced smoothing performance of standard FM-SSD can result in spectral power of the speckle noise at these low spatial frequencies as much as one order of magnitude larger than that achieved with a more general method. In fact, at small integration times FM-SSD has no smoothing effect at all for a broad band of low spatial frequencies. This effect may have important implications for both direct and indirect drive ICF.