Summary sheet describing the findings of an internal audit by the Texas Department of Health regarding the Contract Leverage Team (CLT), including findings and recommendations.

March report of the U.S. Congressional Oversight Panel describing their activities and findings regarding the current state of mortgage performance across the country, including sections on foreclosures and current government policy.

February report of the U.S. Congressional Oversight Panel describing their activities and findings regarding the valuation of the U.S. Treasury's policy of investing capital in financial institutions through the Troubles Asset Relief Program (TARP).

November report of the U.S. Congressional Oversight Panel describing their activities and findings regarding the U.S. Treasury's Guarantee Program, including an overview of Guarantees in general, and the effectiveness and impacts of the Treasury's programs.

A survey of the technical literature was performed to summarize the mechanical properties of inorganic components in K Basins sludge. The components included gibbsite, ferrihydrite, lepidocrocite and goethite, hematite, quartz, anorthite, calcite, basalt, Zircaloy, aluminum, and, in particular, irradiated uranium metal and uranium dioxide. Review of the technical literature showed that information on the hardness of uranium metal at irradiation exposures similar to those experienced by the N Reactor fuel present in the K Basins (typically up to 3000 MWd/t) were not available. Measurements therefore were performed to determine the hardness of coupons taken from three irradiated N Reactor uranium metal fuel elements taken from K Basins. Hardness values averaged 30 {+-} 8 Rockwell C units, similar to values previously reported for uranium irradiated to {approx}1200 MWd/t. The physical properties of candidate uranium metal and uranium dioxide surrogates were gathered and compared. Surrogates having properties closest to those of irradiated uranium metal appear to be alloys of tungsten. The surrogate for uranium dioxide, present both as particles and agglomerates in actual K Basin sludge, likely requires two materials. Cerium oxide, CeO2, was identified as a surrogate of the smaller UO2 particles while steel grit was identified for the UO2 agglomerates.

During the last quarter of FY2004, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) conducted a brief study of power plant options for a z-pinch-based inertial fusion energy (Z-IFE) power plant. Areas that were covered include chamber design, thick-liquid response, neutronics and activation, and systems studies. This report summarizes the progress made in each of these areas, provides recommendations for improvements to the basic design concept, and identifies future work that is needed. As a starting point to the LLNL studies, we have taken information provided in several publications and presentations. In particular, many of the basic parameters were taken from the ZP-3 study, which is described in reference 4. The ZP-3 design called for 12 separate target chambers, with any 10 of them operating at a given time. Each chamber would be pulsed at a repetition rate of 0.1 Hz with a target yield of 3 GJ. Thus, each chamber would have a fusion power of 300 MW for a power plant total of 3000 MW. The ZP-3 study considered several options for the recyclable transmission lines (RTL). Early in the study, the LLNL group questioned the use of many chambers as well as the yield limitation of 3 GJ. The feeling …

Rheological and physical properties testing were conducted on actual AN-107 and AW-101 pretreated feed samples prior to the addition of glass formers. Analyses were repeated following the addition of glass formers. The AN-107 and AW-101 pretreated feeds were tested at the target sodium values of nominally 6, 8, and 10 M. The AW-101 melter feeds were tested at these same concentrations, while the AN-107 melter feeds were tested at 5, 6, and 8 M with respect to sodium. These data on actual waste are required to validate and qualify results obtained with simulants.

In this quarter, our primary effort has been focused on model verification, emphasizing on consistency in result for parallel and serial simulation runs, Progress has been made in refining the parallel thermal algorithms and in diminishing discretization effects in the contact region between the rollers and slab. We have received the metrology data of the ingot profile at the end of the fifth pass from Alcoa. Detailed comparisons between the data and the initial simulation result are being performed. Forthcoming from Alcoa are modifications to the fracture model based on additional experiments at lower strain rates. The original fracture model, was implemented in the finite element code, but damage in the rolling simulation was not correct due to the modeling errors at lower strain rates and high stress triaxiality. Validation simulations for the fracture model will continue when the experimentally-based adjustments to the parameter values become available.

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The Richtmyer-Meshkov instability is a fundamental fluid instability that occurs when perturbations on an interface separating gases with different properties grow following the passage of a shock. This instability is typically studied in shock tube experiments, and constitutes a fundamental example of a complex hydrodynamic flow. Numerical simulations and models for the instability growth and evolution have also been used to further understand the physics of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability. In the present work, the formally high-order accurate weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) shock-capturing method using a third-order total-variation diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta time-evolution scheme (as implemented in the HOPE code [57]) is applied to simulate the single-mode Richtmyer-Meshkov instability with reshock in two spatial dimensions. The initial conditions and computational domain for the simulations are modeled after the Collins and Jacobs [23] single-mode, Mach 1.21 air(acetone)/SF6 shock tube experiment. The following boundary conditions are used: (1) periodic in the spanwise direction corresponding to the cross-section of the test section; (2) outflow at the entrance of the test section in the streamwise direction, and; (3) reflecting at the end wall of the test section in the streamwise direction. The present investigation has three principal motivations: (1) to provide additional validation of the HOPE …

The testing reported here was performed on K East Basin consolidated sludge samples to generate data needed for the evaluation and design of the systems that will be used to disposition the K Basin sludge to T-Plant for interim storage. The tests were conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory from May through November 1999 under the direction of the Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Project. The samples used in the work discussed here were collected by the SNF Characterization Project from the KE Basin floor and canisters during March and April 1999. These samples (3 from the floor and 3 from the canisters) were shipped to the storage pool at the Postirradiation Testing Laboratory (327 Building) and later transferred to the PNNL Radiochemical Processing Laboratory (325 Building), where they were recovered for testing and analysis. Testing activities presented in this report include particle size measurement via wet sieving, sludge settling and sludge density measurements, sludge shear strength measurement, and measurement of sludge dissolution enthalpy to ascertain the uranium metal content of the sludge. Section 1.0 provides the summary and conclusions to date. Section 2.0 describes the consolidated sample container system, the sample collection and transfer, inspection, and recovery of the samples …

Preliminary experiments to study the ionization dynamics and equation of state of a strongly coupled plasma have been performed at the LLNL COMET laser facility. In these experiment, a 1.0 J, 500 fs, 532 nm laser was used to create a uniform, warm dense plasma.The primary diagnostic, Fourier Domain Interferometry (FDI), was used to provide information about the position of the critical density of the target and thus the expansion hydrodynamics, laying the ground work for the plasma characterization. The plasmas were determined to be strongly coupled. In addition work was performed characterizing the back-lighter. A von Hamos spectrograph coupled to a 500 fs X-ray streak camera (TREX-VHS) developed at LLNL was used for these measurements. This diagnostic combines high collection efficiency ({approx} 10{sup -4} steradians) with fast temporal response ({approx} 500 fs), allowing resolution of extremely transient spectral variations. The TREX-VHS will be used to determine the time history, intensity, and spectral content of the back-lighter resulting in absorption measurements that provide insight into bound states in strongly coupled conditions.

This Program Evaluation report is an updated revision to the annual assessment of PNNL's VPP Program performance with respect to DOE-VPP criteria. It contains a summary of results and a data sheet for each of the VPP Elements, including strengths, weaknesses, recent/anticipated changes that will affect each Element, and a rating for each Element. Recommendations are also offered for continuous improvement.

We present an overview of results from the most recent phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). This phase of CMIP has archived output from both unforced (''control run'') and perturbed (1% per year increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide) simulations by 15 modern coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models. The models are about equally divided between those employing and those not employing ad hoc flux corrections at the ocean-atmosphere interface. The new generation of non-flux-connected control runs are nearly as stable and agree with observations nearly as well as the flux-corrected models. This development represents significant progress in the state of the art of climate modeling since the Second (1995) Scientific Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC; see Gates et al. 1996). From the increasing-CO{sub 2} runs, we find that differences between different models, while substantial, are not as great as would be expected from earlier assessments that relied on equilibrium climate sensitivity.

This study is the initial stage of further investigation into the dynamics of injury to fish during passage through a turbine runner. As part of the study, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) estimated the probability of blade strike, and associated injury, as a function of fish length and turbine operating geometry at two adjacent turbines in Powerhouse 1 of Bonneville Dam. Units 5 and 6 had identical intakes, stay vanes, wicket gates, and draft tubes, but Unit 6 had a new runner and curved discharge ring to minimize gaps between the runner hub and blades and between the blade tips and discharge ring. We used a mathematical model to predict blade strike associated with two Kaplan turbines and compared results with empirical data from biological tests conducted in 1999 and 2000. Blade-strike models take into consideration the geometry of the turbine blades and discharges as well as fish length, orientation, and distribution along the runner.

The sixth evaluation of the RIKEN BNL Research Center (RBRC) took place on November 20-21, 2003, at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The present members of the Scientific Review Committee are Dr. Jean-Paul Blaizot, Professor Makoto Kobayashi, Dr. Akira Masaike, Professor Charles Young Prescott (absent), Professor Stephen Sharpe, and Professor Jack Sandweiss, Committee Chair. In order to illustrate the breadth and scope of the program, each member of the Center made a presentation on his research efforts. In addition, a special presentation was given jointly by our collaborators, Professors Norman Christ and Robert Mawhinney of Columbia University, on the progress and status of the IRBRC QCDSP/QCDOC Supercomputer program. A demonstration of a 64-node (64 Gflops peak speed) QCDOC machine in action followed. Although the main purpose of this review is a report to RIKEN Management (Dr. Ryoji Noyori, RIKEN President) on the health, scientific value, management and future prospects of the Center, the RBRC management felt that a compendium of the scientific presentations are of sufficient quality and interest that they warrant a wider distribution. Therefore we have made this compilation and present it to the community for its information and enlightenment.

In this project we studied several fundamental issues arising in the parallel adaptive solution of linear and nonlinear elliptic and parabolic PDEs using multilevel algorithms. We focused our attention on a new approach described in the paper ''A New Paradigm for Parallel Adaptive Mesh Refinement'' by Bank and Hoist. The new approach requires almost no communication to solve an elliptic equation in parallel, and therefore has the potential to scale much more efficiently on massively parallel computers than do more traditional algorithms. The algorithm described in the Bank and Hoist paper has an inherently multilevel structure, in that a sequence of problems on a refinement hierarchy of meshes is solved during the course of the calculation. In particular, the algorithm has three main components: (1) We solve a small problem on a coarse mesh, and use a posteriori error estimates to partition the mesh. (2) Each processor is provided the complete coarse mesh and instructed to solve the entire problem, but with its adaptive refinement largely limited to its own assigned mesh partition. (3) A final mesh is computed using the union of the refined partitions provided by each processor. The mesh is regularized into a global conformal mesh, and …

{gamma}-ray excitation functions have been measured for the interaction of fast neutrons with {sup 48}Ti (neutron energy from 1 MeV to 250 MeV). The Los Alamos National Laboratory spallation neutron source, at the LANSCE/WNR facility, provided a ''white'' neutron beam which is produced by bombarding a natural W target with a pulsed proton beam. The prompt-reaction {gamma} rays were measured with the large-scale Compton-suppressed Ge spectrometer, GEANIE. Neutron energies were determined by the time-of-flight technique. Excitation functions were converted to partial {gamma}-ray cross sections, taking into account the dead-time correction, the target thickness, the detector efficiency, and neutron flux (monitored with an in-line fission chamber). The data analysis is presented here for neutron energies between 1 to 20 MeV. Partial {gamma}-ray cross sections for transitions in {sup 47,48}Ti, {sup 48}Sc, and {sup 45}Ca have been determined. These results are compared to Hauser-Feshbach predictions calculated using the STAPRE code, which includes compound nuclear and pre-equilibrium emission. The partial cross sections for {gamma} rays, whose discrete {gamma}-ray cascade path leads to the ground state in {sup 48}Ti, {sup 47}Ti, {sup 48}Sc, and {sup 45}Ca have been summed to obtain estimates of the lower limits for reaction cross sections. Partial cross sections for …

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The fundamentals of welding-induced phase transformations in metals and alloys are being investigated using a combination of advanced synchrotron based experimental methods and modem computational science tools. In-situ experimental methods have been developed using a spatially resolved x-ray probe to enable direct observations of phase transformations under the real non- isothermal conditions experienced during welding. These experimental techniques represent a major step forward in the understanding of phase transformations that occur during welding, and are now being used to aid in the development of models to predict microstructural evolution under the severe temperature gradients, high peak temperatures and rapid thermal fluctuations characteristic of welds. Titanium alloys, stainless steels and plain carbon steels are currently under investigation, and the phase transformation data being obtained here cannot be predicted or measured using conventional metallurgical approaches. Two principal synchrotron-based techniques have been developed and refined for in-situ investigations of phase transformation dynamics in the heat-affected zone (HAZ) and fusion zone (FZ) of welds: Spatially Resolved X-Ray Diffraction (SRXRD) and Time Resolved X-Ray Diffraction (TRXRD). Both techniques provide real-time observations of phases that exist during welding, and both have been developed at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) using a high flux wiggler beam …

Predictions of the properties of nuclides near the extreme limits of nuclear stability provide a measure of our understanding of the fundamental properties of matter and the fission process. Predictions of an ''island of stability'' of long-lived superheavy elements beyond the limits of the known nuclides date back more than 30 years; during this time, there have been many unsuccessful searches for these nuclei. During the last decade, there has been a large effort by our group and others to systematically discover and characterize the properties of the intervening unstable nuclei. Starting 10 years ago, in an on-going collaboration with Russian scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) at Dubna, Russia, we observed the decays of previously unknown isotopes of elements 106, 108, and 110 whose properties are determined by subtleties in the nuclear structure caused by the shell effects that are predicted to result in the island of stability in the still-heavier elements. The resulting data have been successfully reproduced by the theoreticians, whose refined predictions of the decay modes and production rates of the superheavy elements have enabled us to design experiments with the sensitivity to locate these elusive nuclides.

This is the final report for LDRD 01-ERD-005. The Principal Investigator was Niel Madsen of the Defense Sciences Engineering Division (DSED). Collaborators included Daniel White, Joe Koning and Nathan Champagne of DSED, Mark Stowell of Center for Applications Development and Software Engineering (CADSE), and Ph.D. students Rob Rieben and Aaron Fisher at the UC Davis Department of Applied Science. It should be noted that the students were partially supported by the LLNL Student-Employee Graduate Research Fellow program. We begin with an Introduction which provides background and motivation for this research effort. Section II contains high-level description of our Approach, and Section III summarizes our key research Accomplishments. A description of the Software deliverables is provided in Section IV, and Section V includes simulation Validation and Results. It should be noted we do not get into the mathematical details in this report, rather these can be found in our publications which are listed in Section III.

About one-third of the carbon dioxide (2 Pg C/yr of 6 Pg C/yr) we emit into the atmosphere is already being sequestered naturally by the ocean by the process of CO{sub 2} gas transfer across the air-sea interface. Over twenty years ago Brewer (1978) and Chen and Millero (1979) presented the first fundamental estimates of anthropogenic CO{sub 2} in the ocean based the hypothesis of CO{sub 2} penetration along isopycnal surfaces and observations of total inorganic carbon (TCO2) and total alkalinity (TA). At that time the anthropogenic CO{sub 2} signal was not as large as today and given the uncertainty of the approach, the uncertainties of the results were generally regarded as relatively large. However, since then, variations of this approach have been used to estimate anthropogenic CO{sub 2} in many areas of the world ocean. A recent modeling study using the DOCS model, confirms that penetration along isopycnal surfaces is the dominate mode of natural carbon sequestration by the ocean.

TART 2002 is a coupled neutron-photon, 3 Dimensional, combinatorial geometry, time dependent Monte Carlo radiation transport code. This code can run on any modern computer. It is a complete system to assist you with input preparation, running Monte Carlo calculations, and analysis of output results. TART 2002 is also incredibly FAST; if you have used similar codes, you will be amazed at how fast this code is compared to other similar codes. Use of the entire system can save you a great deal of time and energy. TART 2002 is distributed on CD. This CD contains on-line documentation for all codes included in the system, the codes configured to run on a variety of computers, and many example problems that you can use to familiarize yourself with the system. TART 2002 completely supersedes all older versions of TART, and it is strongly recommended that users only use the most recent version of TART 2002 and its data files.