Achievement of a balanced federal budget by 2002 was a high priority for the 105th Congress and the President. After months of negotiations and debate, starting in February 1997 and ending in July 1997, congressional leaders and the White House forged a consensus on legislation to accomplish this goal. The legislation, signed into law by President Clinton on August 5, 1997, sets “caps” on discretionary spending, constrains entitlement programs, and on balance reduces federal taxes.

Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act requires states to identify waters that are impaired by pollution, even after application of pollution controls. For those waters, states must establish a total maximum daily load (TMDL) of pollutants to ensure that water quality standards can be attained. Implementation of this provision has been dormant until recently, when states and EPA were prodded by numerous lawsuits. The TMDL issue has become controversial, in part because of requirements and costs now facing states to implement a 25-year-old provision of the law. Congressional activity to reauthorize the Act, a possibility in the 2nd Session of the 105th Congress, could include TMDL issues, but the direction for any such action is unclear at this time.

In 1990 and 1991, approximately 697,000 U.S. troops were deployed in the Persian Gulf during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The United States suffered relatively few casualties during the brief air and ground war against Iraq. Since returning home, however, many veterans have developed illnesses that appear to be related to their military service in the Gulf. Researchers caution that it may be impossible to identify the causes of these illnesses because of the absence of baseline data on the health of military personnel and the lack of reliable exposure data. This report provides concise answers to a series of questions concerning Gulf War veterans' illnesses, based on currently available scientific information.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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 a district court is authorized to require a defendant to post a warning sign at his residence stating that he is a convicted sex offender as a condition of community supervision (RQ-908)

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 a municipality that displaces private solid waste haulers after annexing an area violates the haulers' constitutional rights (ID# 39336)

Spent light water reactor fuel is to be moved out of the 324 Building. It is anticipated that intact fuel assemblies will be loaded in a modified Multi-Canister Overpack Canister, which in turn will be placed in an Overpack Transportation Cask. An estimate of gamma ray dose rates from a transportation cask is desired.

Convergent geometry Rayleigh-Taylor experiments have been performed with a 122-point detonation initiation system on cylinders having sinusoidal perturbations on the outer surface ranging from mode-6 to mode-36. Experiments were performed with various perturbation mode numbers, perturbation amplitudes, and ring accelerations. Feedthrough perturbation growth on the inner surface was observed in several experiments, and in one experiment the feed through perturbation underwent a phase inversion. These experimental results were found to be in good agreement with linear, small-amplitude analysis of feedthrough growth in an incompressible, cylindrically convergent geometry.

Recent simulations and experiments on Nova indicate that some level of smoothing may be required to suppress filamentation in plasmas on the National Ignition Facility (NIF), resulting in the addition of 1-D smoothing capability to the current baseline design. Control of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and filamentation is considered essential to the success of laser fusion because they affect the amount and location of laser energy delivered to the x-ray conversion region (hohlraum wall) for indirect drive and to the absorptive region for direct drive, Smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD)[1], reduces these instabilities by reducing nonuniformities in the focal irradiance when averaged over a finite time interval. We have installed SSD on Nova to produce beam smoothing on all 10 beam lines. A single dispersion grating is located in a position common to all 10 beam lines early in the preamplifier chain. This location limits the 1{omega} bandwidth to 2.2 {angstrom} with sufficient dispersion to displace the speckle field of each frequency component at the target plane by one half speckle diameter. Several beam lines were modified to allow orientation of the dispersion on each arm relative to the hohlraum wall. After conversion to the third harmonic the beam passes …

This System Design Description (SDD) is for the Master Equipment List Phase I (MEL). It has been prepared following the WI-IC-CM-3-10, ''Software Practices,'' (Ref. 6). This SDD describes the internal design for implementation of the MEL Phase I.

Demonstration of stability or control of a measurement process over time is often required for critical processes. Measurement control is monitored by calculating measurement errors for a collection of comparison standards over time and producing a Shewhart control chart. However, measurement errors inherently occur one-at-a-time and not in batches. Additionally there is often a non-deterministic drift in the mean measurement error. These facts make it challenging to develop warning and alarm limits for a control chart. Previous studies have suggested using the mean squared successive difference to estimate the variance of one-at-a-time data. This technique can also reduce or eliminate estimation bias due to a fluctuating mean. Application of a control charting methodology based on the mean squared successive difference is demonstrated using data from the nondestructive assay of nuclear materials, and the performance and potential limitations of the method are explored.

This report provides a summary of work completed in FY-94 by FSU to develop and investigate the feasibility of using Raman spectroscopy with Hanford tank waste materials. Raman performance impacts from sample morphology, including the effects of absorption, particle size, density, color and refractive index, are discussed. An algorithm for relative species concentration measurement from Raman data is presented. An Algorithm for applying Raman to tank waste core screening is presented and discussed. A library of absorption and Raman spectra are presented that support this work.

The goal of this project is to develop a protocol for measuring the electric and magnetic fields around sources. Data from these measurements may help direct future biological effects research by better defining the complexity of magnetic and electric fields to which humanity is exposed, as well asprovide the basis for rigorous field exposure analysis and risk assessment once the relationship between field exposure and biological response. is better understood. The data base also should have sufficient spatial and temporal characteristics to guide electric and magnetic field management. The goal of Task A is to construct a set of characteristics that would be ideal to have for guiding and interpreting biological studies and for focusing any future effort at field management. This ideal set will then be quantified and reduced according to the availability (or possible development of) instrumentation to measure the desired characteristics. Factors that also will be used to define pragmatic data sets will be the cost of collecting the data, the cost of developing an adequate data base, and the needed precision in measuring specific characteristics. A field, electric or magnetic, will always be ,some function of time and space. The first step in this section of …

The purpose of this project was to document widely applicable methods for characterizing the magnetic fields in a given environment, recognizing the many sources co-existing within that space. The guidelines are designed to allow the reader to follow an efficient process to (1) plan the goals and requirements of a magnetic-field study, (2) develop a study structure and protocol, and (3) document and carry out the plan. These guidelines take the reader first through the process of developing a basic study strategy, then through planning and performing the data collection. Last, the critical factors of data management, analysis reporting, and quality assurance are discussed. The guidelines are structured to allow the researcher to develop a protocol that responds to specific site and project needs. The Research and Public Information Dissemination Program (RAPID) is based on exposure to magnetic fields and the potential health effects. Therefore, the most important focus for these magnetic-field measurement guidelines is relevance to exposure. The assumed objective of an environment-specific measurement is to characterize the environment (given a set of occupants and magnetic-field sources) so that information about the exposure of the occupants may be inferred. Ideally, the researcher seeks to obtain complete or "perfect" information …

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is charged with measuring the occupational exposure to radiological workers and contractors throughout the Laboratory, which includes many different sites with multiple and varied radiation fields. Of concern here are the high energy neutrons such as those generated during accelerator operations at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). In 1993, the Los Alamos National Laboratory purchased an Autoscan 60 automated reader for use with chemically etched CR39 detectors. The dosimeter design employed at LANL uses a plastic, hemispherical case, encompassing a polystyrene pyramidal detector holder. The pyramidal holder supports three detectors at a 35{degree} angle. Averaging the results of the three detectors minimizes the angular dependence normally associated with a planar dosimeter. The Autoscan 60 is an automated reading system for use with CR39 chemical etch detectors. The detectors are immersed in an etch solution to enhance the visibility of the damage sites caused by recoil proton impact with the hydrogen atoms in the detector. The authors decided to increase the etch time from six hours to 15 hours, while retaining the 70 C temperature. The reason for the change in the etch is to enhance the sensitivity and precision of the CR39 detector as …

This document serves as a notice of construction (NOC), pursuant to the requirements of Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 246-247- 060, and as a request for approval to construct pursuant to 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 61.96, for the use of a portable exhauster at the 244-AR Vault during transfers or movement of radioactive waste as part of pumping of secondary containment, tank stabilization/pumping, and other activities (i.e., transfer or pumping of radioactive waste using established procedures, entries for maintenance and inspections) within the 244-AR Vault.

The plutonium stabilization program at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) includes conversion of acidic plutonium nitrate solution into plutonium oxide. Conversion is facilitated through use of a vertical calciner installed in Glovebox HC-23OC-2, which is located in RM 230C of this facility. This evaluation supports the Criticality Prevention Specification for the calcining process inside this glovebox. As the product of the calciner is a high density plutonium oxide, a number of limits are required to insure criticality safety. The containers allowed are product receiver vessels and 0.5 C slip lid cans and polyjars. The limits allow for two ``unit masses`` of 2 V total volume each, separated by a distance of at least 25.4 cm (10 in.). This evaluation allows for operation of the calciner for product densities not in excess of 5.5 g Pu/cm{sup 3}.

The floors of the K Basins at the Hanford Site are refinished to make decontamination easier if spills occur as the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is being unloaded from the basins for shipment to dry storage. Without removing the contaminated existing coating, the basin floors are to be coated with an epoxy coating material selected on the basis of the results of field tests of several paint products. The floor refinishing activities must be reviewed by a management review board to ensure that work can be performed in a controlled manner. Major documents prepared for management board review include a report on maintaining radiation exposure as low as reasonably achievable, a waste management plan, and reports on hazard classification and unreviewed safety questions. To protect personnel working in the radiation zone, Operational Health Physics prescribed the required minimum protective methods and devices in the radiological work permit. Also, industrial hygiene safety must be analyzed to establish respirator requirements for persons working in the basins. The procedure and requirements for the refinishing work are detailed in a work package approved by all safety engineers. After the refinishing work is completed, waste materials generated from the refinishing work must be disposed of …

This is the operational test report for 241-AN Tank Farm primary ventilation system inlet air filter and control stations, following their installation in the field and prior to their acceptance for beneficial use.

The purpose of this CRADA was to develop advanced microwave heating systems for both ion cyclotron heating and electron cyclotron heating for magnetic fusion reactors. This involved low-frequency (UHF), high-power (millimeter-wave) microwave components, such as antennas, windows, and matching elements. This CRADA also involved developing conceptual designs for new microwave sources. General Atomics built and tested the distributed cooled window and provided LLNL with transmission and reflection test data in order to then benchmark the EM computer codes. The combline antenna built and analyzed by LLNL was based on a GA design. GA provided LLNL with a number of niobium plates for hot pressing and provided the necessary guidance to allow successful bonding. GA representatives were on site at LLNL on numerous occasions to consult and give guidance on the ferroelectric tuner, combline antenna and distributed window analysis.

This document contains a technical assessment of the cause and disposition of Interstitial Liquid Level(ILL) readings taken in February 1997 on Hanford waste tank 241-BY-112 that were below specified limits. Some readings were determined to be spurious while other readings were below the limit because of normal data scatter. The data assessment did discover that a new ILL had formed below the currently established baseline because of the normal drainage of the interstitial liquid over time. A new baseline and limit will be established. Because the new ILL appears to be stable and consistent with post saltwell pumping behavior, and because there is no other evidence to the contrary, the tank is judged not to be leaking.

Energy Conversions Incorporated has continued to work on the EMD-710 dual-fuel test cell in the second quarter of the project. The project is on schedule and is sticking to their original timeline. The tasks performed and percent complete are spark prechamber work--50% done; diesel prechamber work--50% done; gas compressor--100% complete; port injection work--50% complete; hydraulic gas inlet valve work--30% complete; knock board modifications--75% complete; test documentation--50% complete; record data from navy generator and offshore rigs--50% complete and single cylinder testing--50% complete. The authors continued to do much of their parts testing on single cylinder gas operation. The single cylinder testing will likely continue throughout the 710 development.