The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) commitment to assuring the health and safety of its workers includes the conduct of epidemiologic surveillance activities that provide an early warning system for health problems among workers. The Illness and Injury Surveillance Program monitors illnesses and health conditions that result in an absence of workdays, occupational injuries and illnesses, and disabilities and deaths among current workers.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) filing season is an enormous undertaking that includes processing tax returns, issuing refunds, and responding to taxpayer questions. IRS's efforts to ensure compliance begin during the filing season. GAO was asked to assess IRS's 2009 filing season performance, identify ways to reduce taxpayers' use of short-term, high-interest refund anticipation loans (RAL) offered by paid preparers or banks, and identify ways to enhance compliance during processing. GAO analyzed IRS performance data, reviewed IRS operations, interviewed IRS officials, and reviewed its compliance programs and relevant statutes."

This report provides a brief historical background of Chile, examines recent political and economic developments, and addresses issues in U.S.-Chilean relations.

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) initiated a sludge matrix study to evaluate the impact of changing insoluble solid composition on the processing characteristics of slurries in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). Three compositional ranges were developed for three groups of elements in the waste. The first was high iron/low aluminum versus low iron/high aluminum. The second was high calcium-manganese/low nickel, chromium, and magnesium versus low calcium-manganese/high nickel, chromium, and magnesium. The third was high noble metals (Ag, Pd, Rh, Ru) versus low noble metals. These three options can be combined to form eight distinct sludge compositions. The sludge matrix study called for testing each of these eight simulants near the minimum acid required for nitrite destruction and at a second acid level that produced significant hydrogen by noble metal catalyzed decomposition of formic acid. Four simulants were prepared based on the four possible combinations of the Al/Fe and Mn-Ca/Mg-Ni-Cr options. Preliminary simulant preparation work has already been documented. The four simulants can be used for both high and low noble metal concentration testing and high and low acid testing. This report summarizes preliminary testing of each of the four simulants at low noble metals and low acid stoichiometry. …

This report provides a brief overview of Iran's nuclear program and describes the legal basis for the actions taken by the IAEA board and the Security Council. It will be updated as events warrant.

On April 15, 2008, the Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Advanced Water Power Projects which included a Topic Area for Marine and Hydrokinetic Renewable Energy Market Acceleration Projects. Within this Topic Area, DOE identified potential navigational impacts of marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy technologies and measures to prevent adverse impacts on navigation as a sub-topic area. DOE defines marine and hydrokinetic technologies as those capable of utilizing one or more of the following resource categories for energy generation: ocean waves; tides or ocean currents; free flowing water in rivers or streams; and energy generation from the differentials in ocean temperature. PCCI was awarded Cooperative Agreement DE-FC36-08GO18177 from the DOE to identify the potential navigational impacts and mitigation measures for marine hydrokinetic technologies, as summarized herein. The contract also required cooperation with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and two recipients of awards (Pacific Energy Ventures and reVision) in a sub-topic area to develop a protocol to identify streamlined, best-siting practices. Over the period of this contract, PCCI and our sub-consultants, David Basco, Ph.D., and Neil Rondorf of Science Applications International Corporation, met with USCG headquarters personnel, with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters and regional personnel, …

The purpose of this analysis is to validate the Monte Carlo N-Particle 5 (MCNP5) code Version 1.40 (LA-UR-03-1987, 2005) and its cross-section database for k-code calculations of intermediate enriched uranium systems on INTEL{reg_sign} processor based PC's running any version of the WINDOWS operating system. Configurations with intermediate enriched uranium were modeled with the moderator range of 39 {le} H/Fissile {le} 1438. See Table 2-1 for brief descriptions of selected cases and Table 3-1 for the range of applicability for this validation. A total of 167 input cases were evaluated including bare and reflected systems in a single body or arrays. The 167 cases were taken directly from the previous (Version 4C [Lan 2005]) validation database. Section 2.0 list data used to calculate k-effective (k{sub eff}) for the 167 experimental criticality benchmark cases using the MCNP5 code v1.40 and its cross section database. Appendix B lists the MCNP cross-section database entries validated for use in evaluating the intermediate enriched uranium systems for criticality safety. The dimensions and atom densities for the intermediate enriched uranium experiments were taken from NEA/NSC/DOC(95)03, September 2005, which will be referred to as the benchmark handbook throughout the report. For these input values, the experimental benchmark k{sub …

Summaries of the followings tasks are given in this report: Task 1 - Lightweight, Thermally Conductive Bipolar Plates for Improved Thermal Management in Fuel Cells; Task 2 - Exploration of pseudomorphic nanoscale overlayer bimetallic catalysts; Task 3 - Hybrid inorganic/organic polymer nanocomposites; Task 4 - Carbonaceous Monolithic Electrodes for Fuel Cells and Rechargeable Batteries; and Task 5 - Movement and Freeze of Water in Fuel Cell Electrodes.

This report discusses the President's Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 budget request for the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, which provides funding for the planning, design, construction, alteration, and improvement of facilities used by active and reserve military components worldwide

This report discusses military uniform procurement through the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), an agency of the Department of Defense.

This report discusses nuclear energy issues currently facing Congress, such as federal incentives for new commercial reactors, radioactive waste management policy, research and development priorities, power plant safety and regulation, nuclear weapons proliferation, and security against terrorist attacks.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been tasked by Bechtel National Inc. (BNI) on the River Protection Project-Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (RPP-WTP) project to perform research and development activities to resolve technical issues identified for the Pretreatment Facility (PTF). The Pretreatment Engineering Platform (PEP) was designed, constructed and operated as part of a plan to respond to issue M12, “Undemonstrated Leaching Processes” of the External Flowsheet Review Team (EFRT) issue response plan.( ) The PEP is a 1/4.5-scale test platform designed to simulate the WTP pretreatment caustic leaching, oxidative leaching, ultrafiltration solids concentration, and slurry washing processes. The PEP replicates the WTP leaching processes using prototypic equipment and control strategies. The PEP also includes non-prototypic ancillary equipment to support the core processing.

This report covers the importance of the democratization of Hong Kong to U.S. foreign policy as well as to Hong Kong itself. It specifically looks at two recent election changes which indicate the Hong Kong government's willingness to press for democratic reforms and also give more power to current government officials over incumbent officials.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report is the fourth in a series responding to a mandate under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). As of November 27, 2009, $69.1 billion, or about one quarter of the approximately $280 billion of total Recovery Act funds for programs administered by states and localities, had been paid out. The largest programs were the Medicaid Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF), and highways. The Government Accountability Office's (GAO) work continues to focus on 16 states and the District of Columbia (District)."

This report examines the standard under which hospitals qualify for tax-exempt charitable status under federal law, recent inquiries made by Congress and the IRS into whether hospitals are conducting sufficient activities to justify their exemption, and section 6007 of S. 1796.

This report discusses the current political state of Iran, focusing particularly on the influence of the Taliban and other militant groups and on the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. This report also discusses the U.S.-Iran relationship and U.S. efforts under the Obama Administration to provide military, reconstructive, and stabilization aid.

This is the final report for the Department of Energy (DOE) project DE-FG02-06ER25746, entitled, "Continuing High Performance Computing Research and Education at AAMU". This three-year project was started in August 15, 2006, and it was ended in August 14, 2009. The objective of this project was to enhance high performance computing research and education capabilities at Alabama A&M University (AAMU), and to train African-American and other minority students and scientists in the computational science field for eventual employment with DOE. AAMU has successfully completed all the proposed research and educational tasks. Through the support of DOE, AAMU was able to provide opportunities to minority students through summer interns and DOE computational science scholarship program. In the past three years, AAMU (1). Supported three graduate research assistants in image processing for hypersonic shockwave control experiment and in computational science related area; (2). Recruited and provided full financial support for six AAMU undergraduate summer research interns to participate Research Alliance in Math and Science (RAMS) program at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL); (3). Awarded highly competitive 30 DOE High Performance Computing Scholarships ($1500 each) to qualified top AAMU undergraduate students in science and engineering majors; (4). Improved high performance computing laboratory at …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is responsible for the custody and care of about 209,000 federal inmates--a population which has grown by 44 percent over the last decade. In fiscal years 2008 and 2009, the President requested additional funding for BOP because costs for key operations were at risk of exceeding appropriated funding levels. Government Accountability Office (GAO) was congressionally directed to examine (1) how BOP estimates costs when developing its annual budget request to DOJ; (2) the extent to which BOP's methods for estimating costs follow established best practices; and (3) the extent to which BOP's costs for key operations exceeded requested funding levels identified in the President's budget in recent years, and how this has affected BOP's ability to manage its growing inmate population. In conducting our work, GAO analyzed BOP budget documents, interviewed BOP and DOJ officials, and compared BOP's cost estimation documentation to criteria in GAO's Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide."

This report provides a brief overview of the existing statutory authority of the Department of Homeland Security to regulate chemical facilities and the regulation implementing this authority. It describes several policy issues raised in previous debates regarding chemical facility security and identifies policy options that might resolve components of these issues. Finally, legislation introduced in the 111th Congress is discussed.

This report discusses the passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which included tax cut and spending provisions totaling at a cost of $787 billion in an attempt to mitigate the economic fallout of the housing and financial crises on the general economy. The report examines issues surrounding fiscal stimulus such as timeliness, the magnitude of stimulus, long-term effects and previously adopted policies.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO is required to audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government. Because of the significance of the federal debt held by the public to the governmentwide financial statements, GAO audits the Bureau of the Public Debt's (BPD) Schedules of Federal Debt annually. The audit of these schedules is done to determine whether, in all material respects, (1) the schedules are reliable and (2) BPD management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting relevant to the Schedule of Federal Debt. Further, GAO tests compliance with a significant provision of law related to the Schedule of Federal Debt (statutory debt limit). Federal debt managed by BPD consists of Treasury securities held by the public and by certain federal government accounts, referred to as intragovernmental debt holdings. The level of debt held by the public primarily reflects how much of the nation's wealth has been absorbed by the federal government to finance prior federal spending in excess of federal revenues. Intragovernmental debt holdings represent balances of Treasury securities held by federal government accounts, primarily federal trust funds such as Social Security, that typically have an obligation to …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Because of the significance of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collections to overall federal receipts and, in turn, to the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government, which Government Accountability Office (GAO) is required to audit, and Congress's interest in financial management at IRS, GAO audits IRS's financial statements annually to determine whether (1) the financial statements are fairly stated, and (2) IRS management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting. GAO also tests IRS's compliance with selected provisions of significant laws and regulations and its financial systems' compliance with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA)."

This report discusses military personnel issues that typically generate significant interest from many Members of Congress and their staffs. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) selected a number of the military personnel issues considered in deliberations on the House-passed version of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2010. This report provides a brief synopsis of sections that pertain to personnel policy. This report focuses exclusively on the annual defense authorization process.

None