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Soil CO{sub 2} flux surveys have been conducted over known CO{sub 2} reservoirs at Farnham Dome, Utah, Crystal Geyser-Ten Mile Graben in Utah and Springerville-St. Johns, Arizona. No anomalous CO{sub 2} flux was detected at the Farnham Dome and Springerville-St. Johns. At Crystal Geyser-Ten Mile Graben, localized areas of anomalously high CO{sub 2} flux ({approx}100 g m{sup -2} day{sup -1}) occur along a fault zone near visibly degassing features. Isotopic measurements on CO{sub 2} collected from nearby springs indicate that it originated at depth. Evidence of widespread vein calcite at the surface (Farnham Dome) and travertine deposits at the other two areas suggests that discharge of CO{sub 2}-rich fluids has occurred in the past. Despite the lack of evidence for significant present day leakage of CO{sub 2} to the atmosphere at Springerville-St. Johns and Crystal Geyser-Ten Mile Graben, there are significant outflows of high-bicarbonate water in both areas suggesting continuous migration of CO{sub 2} in the aqueous phase from depth. The very localized nature of the CO{sub 2} flux anomalies, and the outflow of ground water containing dissolved CO{sub 2} present challenges for effective, long term monitoring of CO{sub 2} leakage.

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This study identifies vital gas turbine (GT) parameters and quantifies their influence in meeting the DOE Turbine Program overall Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant goals of 50% net HHV efficiency, $1000/kW capital cost, and low emissions. The project analytically evaluates GE advanced F class air cooled technology level gas turbine conceptual cycle designs and determines their influence on IGCC plant level performance including impact of Carbon capture. This report summarizes the work accomplished in each of the following six Tasks. Task 1.0--Overall IGCC Plant Level Requirements Identification: Plant level requirements were identified, and compared with DOE's IGCC Goal of achieving 50% Net HHV Efficiency and $1000/KW by the Year 2008, through use of a Six Sigma Quality Functional Deployment (QFD) Tool. This analysis resulted in 7 GT System Level Parameters as the most significant. Task 2.0--Requirements Prioritization/Flow-Down to GT Subsystem Level: GT requirements were identified, analyzed and prioritized relative to achieving plant level goals, and compared with the flow down of power island goals through use of a Six Sigma QFD Tool. This analysis resulted in 11 GT Cycle Design Parameters being selected as the most significant. Task 3.0--IGCC Conceptual System Analysis: A Baseline IGCC Plant configuration was chosen, …

Nuclear structure data pertaining to {sup 225}Fr have been evaluated, and incorporated into the ENSDF data file. This evaluation includes literature available by 16 May 2005 and supersedes the previous publication for {sup 225}Fr (Y.A. Akovali, ''Nuclear Data Sheets 60, 617 (1990)'', literature cutoff date 1 June 1989). Data have been incorporated from the following references: 1987Co19, 1997BuO3 and 2003AuO3.

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The Edge Coordinating Committee (ECC) was formed in July 14-15, 2004 when OFES Theory Team invited 14 plasma researchers to a two-day meeting in Germantown, MD to discuss the state of edge-plasma research in the U.S. with a focus on theory and modeling (see http://www.mfescience.org/ecc/ ecc/). At that time, OFES tasked the ECC with providing, in about a six month period, a report on the present status of key issues in this area together with a roadmap of what range of activities should be undertaken in the next five years to resolve these issues. This document is a response to that charge. Future edge-plasma research described here is assumed to fit into a budget constraint of a ''flat budget,'' with some additional activities cited for budget increases of as much as 50%. To obtain some measure of the relative fraction of OFES Theory funding presently devoted to edge plasma research, the OFES Theory Team informally surveyed funded work they support in this area at National Labs, Universities, and industry. John Mandrekas reported to us that approximately 10% of the present budget goes to edge-physics areas at 10 institutions, for a total of {approx}$2.5M each year. While not explicitly estimated, we …

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This report examines Congress' legislative authority with respect to the Judicial Branch. While Congress has broad power to regulate the structure, administration and jurisdiction of the courts, its powers are limited by precepts of due process, equal protection and separation of powers. This report addresses the constitutional foundation of the federal courts, and the explicit and general authorities of Congress to regulate the courts. It then addresses Congress’ ability to limit the jurisdiction of the courts over particular issues, sometimes referred to as “court-stripping.” The report then analyzes Congress’ authority to regulate the availability of certain judicial processes and remedies for litigants. Congressional power to legislate regarding specific judicial decisions is also discussed.

This report examines Congress' legislative authority with respect to the Judicial Branch. While Congress has broad power to regulate the structure, administration and jurisdiction of the courts, its powers are limited by precepts of due process, equal protection and separation of powers.

Several environmental statutes contain national security exemptions, which the Department of Defense (DOD) can obtain on a case-by-case basis. Since FY2003, DOD has sought broader exemptions that it argues are needed to preserve training capabilities and ensure military readiness. There has been disagreement in Congress over the need for broader exemptions in the absence of data on the overall impact of environmental requirements on training and readiness.

Title II of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for FY2006 (P.L. 109-54, H.R. 2361) provides $7.73 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), subject to an across-the-board rescission of 0.476%. Section 439 of Title IV indicates that the rescission is to be applied proportionately among each account, program, project, and activity specified in the law, accompanying reports, and the President’s budget request. The total FY2006 EPA appropriation includes an additional $80 million in unobligated funds “rescinded” from past appropriations, as noted in the following table. P.L. 109-54 provides more funding for EPA than the Administration’s FY2006 request of $7.52 billion, but less than the FY2005 appropriation of $8.03 billion.

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This project was directed by NREL to pursue development of an all polymer solar thermal collector. The proposed design utilized a dual sheet thermoform process to coincidentally form the absorber as well as the containment structure to support the glazing. It utilized ventilation to overcome stagnation degradation of the polymer materials.

The Department of Energy has plans, during the next two or three years, to design an electron cooling section for the collider ring at RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) [1]. Located at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), RHIC is the premier nuclear physics facility. The new cooling section would be part of a proposed luminosity upgrade [2] for RHIC. This electron cooling section will be different from previous electron cooling facilities in three fundamental ways. First, the electron energy will be 50 MeV, as opposed to 100's of keV (or 4 MeV for the electron cooling system now operating at Fermilab [3]). Second, both the electron beam and the ion beam will be bunched, rather than being essentially continuous. Third, the cooling will take place in a collider rather than in a storage ring. Analytical work, in combination with the use and further development of the semi-analytical codes BETACOOL [4,5] and SimCool [6,7] are being pursued at BNL [8] and at other laboratories around the world. However, there is a growing consensus in the field that high-fidelity 3-D particle simulations are required to fully understand the critical cooling physics issues in this new regime. Simulations of the friction coefficient, using the …

On April 28, 2005, Congress approved an FY2006 budget resolution (H.Con.Res.95) with reconciliation instructions calling for three bills: a bill containing spending cuts ($1.5 billion in FY2006 and $34.7 billion over five years); a bill increasing the public debt limit by $781 billion (to $8,965 billion); and a bill containing tax cuts.

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The authors have deduced the {sup 237}U(n,f) cross-section over an equivalent neutron energy range of 0 to 20 MeV using the Surrogate Ratio method. A 55 MeV {sup 4}He{sup 2+} beam from the 88 Inch Cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was used to induce fission in the following reactions {sup 238}U({alpha},{alpha}'f) and {sup 236}U({alpha},{alpha}'f). The {sup 238}U reaction was a surrogate for {sup 237}U(n,f) and the {sup 236}U reaction was used as a surrogate for {sup 235}U(n,f). The energies of the scattered alpha particles were detected in a fully depleted segmented silicon telescope array (STARS) over an angle range of 35{sup o} to 60{sup o} with respect to the beam axis. The fission fragments were detected in a third independent silicon detector located at backward angles between 106{sup o} to 131{sup o}.

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This report addresses the concerns over financing federal elections campaign in the aspect of the political system. It discusses campaign finance practices and related issues.

Potential episodic hydrocarbon inputs associated with oil mining and transportation together with chronic introduction of hydrocarbons via urban runoff into the relatively pristine coastal Florida waters poses a significant threat to Florida's fragile marine environment. It is therefore important to understand the extent to which indigenous bacterial populations are able to degrade hydrocarbon compounds and also determine factors that could potentially control and promote the rate at which these compounds are broken down in situ. Previous controlled laboratory experiments carried out by our research group demonstrated that separately both photo-oxidation and cometabolism stimulate bacterial hydrocarbon degradation by natural bacterial assemblages collected from a chronically petroleum contaminated site in Bayboro Bay, Florida. Additionally, we also demonstrated that stable carbon and radiocarbon abundances of respired CO{sub 2} could be used to trace in situ hydrocarbon degradation by indigenous bacterial populations at this same site. This current proposal had two main objectives: (a) to evaluate the cumulative impact of cometabolism and photo-oxidation on hydrocarbon degradation by natural bacterial assemblages collected the same site in Bayboro Bay, Florida and (b) to determine if in situ hydrocarbon degradation by indigenous bacterial populations this site could be traced using natural radiocarbon and stable carbon abundances of …

This report describes a scientific analysis to bound credible horizontal peak ground velocities (PGV) for the repository waste emplacement level at Yucca Mountain. Results are presented as a probability distribution for horizontal PGV to represent uncertainties in the analysis. The analysis also combines the bound to horizontal PGV with results of ground motion site-response modeling (BSC 2004 [DIRS 170027]) to develop a composite hazard curve for horizontal PGV at the waste emplacement level. This result provides input to an abstraction of seismic consequences (BSC 2004 [DIRS 169183]). The seismic consequence abstraction, in turn, defines the input data and computational algorithms for the seismic scenario class of the total system performance assessment (TSPA). Planning for the analysis is documented in Technical Work Plan TWP-MGR-GS-000001 (BSC 2004 [DIRS 171850]). The bound on horizontal PGV at the repository waste emplacement level developed in this analysis complements ground motions developed on the basis of PSHA results. In the PSHA, ground motion experts characterized the epistemic uncertainty and aleatory variability in their ground motion interpretations. To characterize the aleatory variability they used unbounded lognormal distributions. As a consequence of these characterizations, as seismic hazard calculations are extended to lower and lower annual frequencies of being …

This report discusses the ongoing debate about whether or not to approve energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Current law forbids energy leasing in the Refuge. This report addresses several legislative options on the issue, as well as policymakers' arguments for and against development, especially in the wake of increasing terrorism since 2000-2001.

This report discusses arguments surrounding the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) intelligence and national security reforms following the September 11th Terrorist Attacks and provides options for Congress to address the FBI's reforms.