Composite Analyses (CA's) are required per DOE Order 435.1 [1], in order to provide a reasonable expectation that DOE low-level waste (LLW) disposal, high-level waste tank closure, and transuranic (TRU) waste disposal in combination with Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) actions, will not result in the need for future remedial actions in order to ensure radiological protection of the public and environment. This Order requires that an accounting of all sources of DOE man-made radionuclides and DOE enhanced natural radionuclides that are projected to remain on the site after all DOE site operations have ceased. This CA updates the previous CA that was developed in 1997. As part of this CA, an inventory of expected radionuclide residuals was conducted, exposure pathways were screened and a model was developed such that a dose to the MOP at the selected points of exposure might be evaluated.

In 2008, a new Multi-Probe Corrosion Monitoring System (MPCMS) was installed in double-shell tank 241-AN-102 on the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site in Washington State. Developmental design work included laboratory testing in simulated tank 241-AN-102 waste to evaluate metal performance for installation on the MPCMS as secondary metal reference electrodes. The MPCMS design includes coupon arrays as well as a wired probe which facilitates measurement of tank potential as well as corrosion rate using electrical resistance (ER) sensors. This paper presents the MPCMS design, field data obtained following installation of the MPCMS in tank 241-AN-102, and a comparison between laboratory potential data obtained using simulated waste and tank potential data obtained following field installation.

The results of previous government financial interventions are summarized in this report. In response to ongoing financial turmoil that began in the subprime mortgage-backed securities market, the federal government has intervened with private corporations on a large scale and in an ad hoc manner three times from the beginning of 2008 through September 19, 2008.

This report discusses negotiation issues and evolution of the CAFTA-DR agreement from the time negotiations commenced on January 27, 2003 until its implementation by the last country on January 1, 2009.

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Project 2003-038-00, Evaluate the restoration potential of Snake River fall Chinook salmon spawning habitat, began in FY04 (15 December 2003) and continues into FY06. This status report is intended to summarize accomplishments during FY04 and FY05. Accomplishments are summarized by Work Elements, as detailed in the Statement of Work (see BPA's project management database PISCES). This project evaluates the restoration potential of mainstem habitats for fall Chinook salmon. The studies address two research questions: 'Are there sections not currently used by spawning fall Chinook salmon within the impounded lower Snake River that possess the physical characteristics for potentially suitable fall Chinook spawning habitat?' and 'Can hydrosystem operations affecting these sections be adjusted such that the sections closely resemble the physical characteristics of current fall Chinook salmon spawning areas in similar physical settings?' Efforts are focused at two study sites: (1) the Ice Harbor Dam tailrace downstream to the Columbia River confluence, and (2) the Lower Granite Dam tailrace. Our previous studies indicated that these two areas have the highest potential for restoring Snake River fall Chinook salmon spawning habitat. The study sites will be evaluated under existing structural configurations at the dams (i.e., without partial …

The Expert Panel Oversight Committee (EPOC) has been overseeing the implementation of selected parts of Recommendation III of the final report, Expert Panel workshop for Hanford Site Double-Shell Tank Waste Chemistry Optimization, RPP-RPT-22126. Recommendation III provided four specific requirements necessary for Panel approval of a proposal to revise the chemistry control limits for the Double-Shell Tanks (DSTs). One of the more significant requirements was successful performance of an accelerated stress corrosion cracking (SCC) experimental program. This testing program has evaluated the optimization of the chemistry controls to prevent corrosion in the interstitial liquid and supernatant regions of the DSTs.

Under the terms of the Federal Employees' Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-509), pay for civilian federal employees is adjusted each year to keep the salaries of federal workers competitive with comparable occupations in the private sector. The annual increases in federal employee pay are based on changes in the cash compensation paid to workers in the private sector, as measured by the ECI. Under certain circumstances, the President may limit the annual increase in federal pay by executive order. Federal law also requires Social Security benefits and the pensions paid to retired federal employees to be adjusted each year. The COLAs for both Social Security and civil service pensions are based on the rate of inflation as measured by the CPI.

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The United States and other countries are in the midst of the worst financial crisis in more than 75 years. While much of the attention of policymakers understandably has been focused on taking short-term steps to address the immediate nature of the crisis, these events have served to strikingly demonstrate that the current U.S. financial regulatory system is in need of significant reform. To help policymakers better understand existing problems with the financial regulatory system and craft and evaluate reform proposals, this report (1) describes the origins of the current financial regulatory system, (2) describes various market developments and changes that have created challenges for the current system, and (3) presents an evaluation framework that can be used by Congress and others to shape potential regulatory reform efforts. To do this work, GAO synthesized existing GAO work and other studies and met with dozens of representatives of financial regulatory agencies, industry associations, consumer advocacy organizations, and others. Twenty-nine regulators, industry associations, and consumer groups also reviewed a draft of this report and provided valuable input that was incorporated as appropriate. In general, reviewers commented that the …

The Heavy Duty Truck Engine Program at Cummins embodied three significant development phases. All phases of work strove to demonstrate a high level of diesel engine efficiency in the face of increasingly stringent emission requirements. Concurrently, aftertreatment system development and refinement was pursued in support of these efficiency demonstrations. The program's first phase focused on the demonstration in-vehicle of a high level of heavy duty diesel engine efficiency (45% Brake Thermal Efficiency) at a typical cruise condition while achieving composite emissions results which met the 2004 U.S. EPA legislated standards. With a combination of engine combustion calibration tuning and the development and application of Urea-based SCR and particulate aftertreatment, these demonstrations were successfully performed by Q4 of 2002. The second phase of the program directed efforts towards an in-vehicle demonstration of an engine system capable of meeting 2007 U.S. EPA legislated emissions requirements while achieving 45% Brake Thermal Efficiency at cruise conditions. Through further combustion optimization, the refinement of Cummins Cooled EGR architecture, the application of a high pressure common rail fuel system and the incorporation of optimized engine parasitics, Cummins Inc. successfully demonstrated these deliverables in Q2 of 2004. The program's final phase set a stretch goal of demonstrating …

This report describes recent research that shows how housing and health status are related and the effects of stable housing on HIV/AIDS patient health. It also describes the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program, the only federal program that provides housing and services specifically for persons who are HIV positive or who have AIDS, together with their families. In addition, the report describes how a small portion of funds appropriated through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program may be used by states and local jurisdictions to provide short-term housing assistance for persons living with HIV/AIDS.

This report provides a brief overview of the federal debt and net interest payments. Of the three broad categories of federal spending, the only category that cannot be reduced by legislative action is net interest payments. The report provides information about federal debt, interest payments on the federal dept, and determinants of net interest payments.

This report provides a brief overview of the major issues facing the Iraqi Kurds. The Iraqi Kurds' political autonomy, demands, and ambitions are causing friction with Christian and other minorities in the north, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Arab leaders of Iraq, neighboring Turkey, and Iran. The U.S. ability to keep these tensions contained could wane as U.S. forces, as planned, draw down from Iraq over the next three years.

Identifying the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter in the recently-discovered ferrooxypnictide family of superconductors, RFeAsO{sub 1-x}F{sub y}, where R is a rare earth, is a high priority. Many of the proposed order parameters have internal {pi} phase shifts, like the d-wave order found in the cuprates, which would result in direction-dependent phase shifts in tunneling. In dense polycrystalline samples, these phase shifts in turn would result in spontaneous orbital currents and magnetization in the superconducting state. We perform scanning SQUID microscopy on a dense polycrystalline sample of NdFeAsO{sub 0.94}F{sub 0.06} with T{sub c} = 48K and find no such spontaneous currents, ruling out many of the proposed order parameters.

These proceedings are based on lectures given at the Helmholtz International Summer School Heavy Quark Physics at the Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Dubna, Russia, during August 2008. I review the current status of CP violation in B meson decays from the B factories. These results can be used, along with measurements of the sides of the Unitarity Triangle, to test the CKM mechanism. In addition I discuss experimental studies of B decays to final states with 'spin-one' particles.

The order parameter of the recently-discovered ferric arsenide family of superconductors remains uncertain. Some early experiments on polycrystalline samples suggested line nodes in the order parameter, however later experiments on single crystals have strongly supported fully-gapped superconductivity. An absence of nodes does not rule out unconventional order: {pi} phase shifts between the separate Fermi sheets and time-reversal symmetry-breaking components in the order parameter remain possibilities. One test for unconventional order is scanning magnetic microscopy on well-coupled polycrystalline samples: d- or p-wave order would result in orbital frustration, leading to spontaneous currents and magnetization in the superconducting state. We have performed scanning SQUID microscopy on SmFeAsO{sub 0.85} and NdFeAsO{sub 0.94}F{sub 0.06}, and in neither material do we find spontaneous orbital currents, ruling out p- or d-wave order.

We quantify natural methane hydrate reservoirs by generating synthetic seismic traces and comparing them to real seismic data: if the synthetic matches the observed data, then the reservoir properties and conditions used in synthetic modeling might be the same as the actual, in-situ reservoir conditions. This approach is model-based: it uses rock physics equations that link the porosity and mineralogy of the host sediment, pressure, and hydrate saturation, and the resulting elastic-wave velocity and density. One result of such seismic forward modeling is a catalogue of seismic reflections of methane hydrate which can serve as a field guide to hydrate identification from real seismic data. We verify this approach using field data from known hydrate deposits.

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The Expert Panel Oversight Committee (EPOC) on Double-Shell Tank Corrosion Monitoring and Testing has been overseeing the Fiscal Year FY 2008 experimental program being performed at CC Technologies (CCT) to optimize the chemistry control for corrosion limits in Double-Shell Tanks (DSTs). The EPOC met at the M & D Professional Services Conference Facility on August 4 and 5, 2008 to discuss various aspects of that responsibility including FY 2009 planning. Formal presentations were made to update the EPOC on the these subjects.

Mixed conductive oxides are a topic of interest for applications in oxygen separation membranes as well as use in producing hydrogen fuel through the partial oxidation of methane. The oxygen flux through the membrane is governed both by the oxygen ionic conductivity as well as the material's electronic conductivity; composite membranes like Ce{sub 0.8}Gd{sub 0.2}O{sub 2-{delta}} (CGO)-CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} (CFO) use gadolinium doped ceria oxides as the ionic conducting material combined with cobalt iron spinel which serves as the electronic conductor. In this study we employ {approx} 50 nm sputtered CeO{sub 2} layers on the surface of porous CGO ceramic substrates which serve as solution 'blocking' layers during the thin film fabrication process facilitating the control of film thickness. Films with thickness of {approx} 2 and 4 microns were prepared by depositing 40 and 95 separate sol-gel layers respectively. Oxygen flux measurements indicated that the permeation increased with decreasing membrane thickness; thin film membrane with thickness on the micron level showed flux values an order of magnitude greater (0.03 {micro}mol/cm{sup 2} s) at 800 C as compared to 1mm thick bulk ceramic membranes (0.003 {micro}mol/cm{sup 2}).

The Upgraded Coal Interest Group (UCIG) is an EPRI 'users group' that focuses on clean, low-cost options for coal-based power generation. The UCIG covers topics that involve (1) pre-combustion processes, (2) co-firing systems and fuels, and (3) reburn using coal-derived or biomass-derived fuels. The UCIG mission is to preserve and expand the economic use of coal for energy. By reducing the fuel costs and environmental impacts of coal-fired power generation, existing units become more cost effective and thus new units utilizing advanced combustion technologies are more likely to be coal-fired.

This report details the information related to the Wilderness act, which was enacted by Congress in 1964. The contents include the history of wilderness, what exactly it is, prohibited and permitted uses, and the data presented in figures and tables.