Report on the military retirement system, including benefits, recent developments, key elements and issues, political climate, and more.

Report on prisoners of war and those missing in action, including issues in identifying them, historical context, Congressional interest, relevant terms, and more.

A combinative approach of microhardness testing, tensile testing, and TEM microstructural analysis was employed to study the microstructure and mechanical instability of a water-quenched U-6wt.% Nb (WQ-U6Nb) alloy subjected to different aging schedules including artificial aging at 200 C, 15-year natural aging at ambient temperatures, and 15-year natural aging followed by accelerative aging at 200 C. The changes in mechanical property during and after the aging processes were examined using microhardness and tensile-testing methods. During the early stages of artificial aging at 200 C, the microhardness of WQ-U6Nb alloy increased, i.e., age hardening, as a result of the development of nanoscale modulation caused by spinodal decomposition. Coarsening of the modulated structure occurred after a prolonged aging at 200 C for 16 hours, and it led to a decrease of microhardness, i.e., age softening. Phase instability was also found to occur in WQ-U6Nb alloy that was subjected to a 15-year natural aging at ambient temperatures. The formation of partially ordered domains resulting from a spinodal modulation with an atomic-scale wavelength rendered the appearance of swirl-shape antiphase domain boundaries (APBs) observed in TEM images. Although it did not cause a significant change in microhardness, 15-year natural aging has dramatically affected the aging …

For many years, the commercial nuclear business has remained relatively stable in many ways. The introduction of new plants, the spread to new countries, and the development of key elements of the fuel cycle such as enrichment, reprocessing and waste disposal have been quite modest. That is unlikely to be the case in the coming years. A number of events and trends are becoming increasingly apparent and are cause for both opportunity and caution: (1) New nuclear power plant orders are likely to grow and spread, particularly in the developing world, e.g. China and India. (2) The growing recognition that the developing world will be a major competitor for limited energy resources is raising awareness in the developed world regarding concerns for future energy security. (3) Clearer evidence of the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on global warming, largely from the burning of fossil fuels, is creating more attention on the environmental benefits of nuclear power. (4) The last decade has shown unequivocal evidence of countries lying, cheating on their NPT obligation, and covertly carrying out nuclear weapons-related activities. Some have suggested their presumed need for a domestic nuclear fuel cycle as a rationale to pursue enrichment and/or reprocessing capabilities, …

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The Tech-X contribution to the NTCC project was completed on 03/31/06. Below are some of the highlights of the #12;nal year. A TEQ users' meeting was held at the Sherwood 2005 conference and a tech-support mail list was created <teq-users@fusion.txcorp.com>. The stand-alone separatrix module was added to the NTCC repository and is available on the web. For the main TEQ module a portable build system was developed (based on GNU Autotools and similar to the the separatrix build system). Especially IBM xlf had problems with mixed code (F77 with F90 snippets) in the same #12;le and approximately 6000 lines of code was rewritten as pure F90. Circular dependencies between F90 modules were resolved to robustly allow correct compilation order. Exception handling was implemented in both the separatrix and TEQ modules and an user manual was written for TEQ. Johan Carlsson visited LLNL 05/16/05{05/20/05.

The tracking detector for the LAT science instrument on the GLAST mission is an example of a large-scale particle detection system built primarily by particle physicists for space flight within the context of a NASA program. The design and fabrication model in most ways reflected practice and experience from particle physics, but the quality assurance aspects were guided by NASA. Similarly, most of the electronics in the LAT as a whole were designed and built by staff at a particle physics lab. This paper reports on many of the challenges and lessons learned in the experience of designing and building the tracking detector and general LAT electronics for use in the NASA GLAST mission.

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This document describes the design of the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment. Recent discoveries in neutrino physics have shown that the Standard Model of particle physics is incomplete. The observation of neutrino oscillations has unequivocally demonstrated that the masses of neutrinos are nonzero. The smallness of the neutrino masses (&lt;2 eV) and the two surprisingly large mixing angles measured have thus far provided important clues and constraints to extensions of the Standard Model. The third mixing angle, {delta}{sub 13}, is small and has not yet been determined; the current experimental bound is sin{sup 2} 2{theta}{sub 13} &lt; 0.17 at 90% confidence level (from Chooz) for {Delta}m{sub 31}{sup 2} = 2.5 x 10{sup -3} eV{sup 2}. It is important to measure this angle to provide further insight on how to extend the Standard Model. A precision measurement of sin{sup 2} 2{theta}{sub 13} using nuclear reactors has been recommended by the 2004 APS Multi-divisional Study on the Future of Neutrino Physics as well as a recent Neutrino Scientific Assessment Group (NUSAG) report. We propose to perform a precision measurement of this mixing angle by searching for the disappearance of electron antineutrinos from the nuclear reactor complex in Daya Bay, China. A reactor-based …

Semantic graphs can be used to organize large amounts of information from a number of sources into one unified structure. A semantic query language provides a foundation for extracting information from the semantic graph. The graph query language described here provides a simple, powerful method for querying semantic graphs.

Operation Iraqi Freedom succeeded in overthrowing Saddam Hussein, but Iraq remains unstable because of Sunni Arab resentment and a related insurgency, compounded by burgeoning sectarian violence. According to its November 30, 2005, “Strategy for Victory,” the Bush Administration indicates that U.S. forces will remain in Iraq until the country is able to provide for its own security and does not serve as a host for radical Islamic terrorists. This report discusses the background of the issue and examines several security challenges, response, and other policy options for the U.S.

Active interrogation with low-energy neutrons provides a search technique for shielded highly-enriched uranium. We describe the technique and show initial results using a low-dose 60 keV neutron beam. This technique produces a clear induced fission signal in the presence of small quantities of {sup 235}U. The technique has been validated with low-Z and high-Z shielding materials. The technique uses a forward-directed beam of 60 keV neutrons to induce fission in {sup 235}U. The induced fission produces fast neutrons which are then detected as the signature for {sup 235}U. The beam of neutrons is generated with a 1.93 MeV proton beam impinging on a natural lithium target. The proton beam is produced by a radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) LINAC. The 60 keV neutron beam is forward directed because the {sup 7}Li(p,n) reaction is just at threshold for the proton energy of 1.93 MeV.

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center(NERSC) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are twocomputing centers that have traditionally supported large national usercommunities. Both centers have developed responsive approaches to supportthese user communities and their changing needs, providing end-to-endcomputing solutions. In this report we provide a short overview of thestrategies used at our centers in supporting our scientific users, withan emphasis on some examples of effective programs and futureneeds.

In early May 2006, assessments of insufficient Serbian cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) led the European Union (EU) to suspend association talks with Serbia. Later that month, the U.S. Secretary of State withheld certification of full Serbian cooperation with ICTY, leading to a partial suspension of U.S. bilateral assistance to Serbia. From late 2004 through early 2005, a combination of intensified international pressure and deadlines associated with Euro-Atlantic integration processes prompted a spate of transfers of indicted persons to the tribunal. Full cooperation with ICTY is a key prerequisite to further progress toward a shared long-term goal for the western Balkan countries: closer association with and eventual membership in the European Union and NATO.

The report is about the Balkan Cooperation on War Crimes Issues.In early May 2006, assessments of insufficient Serbian cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) led the European Union (EU) to suspend association talks with Serbia. Later that month, the U.S. Secretary of State withheld certification of full Serbian cooperation with ICTY, leading to a partial suspension of U.S. bilateral assistance to Serbia.

An induction system comprises an array of single turn pulse transformers. Ferromagnetic cores of transformers are toroids that are stacked along the longitudinal core axis. Another name for this array is a fraction transformer or an adder. The primary and secondary windings of such a design have one turn. The step up mode is based on the number of primary pulse sources. The secondary windings are connected in series. Performances of such a system for the nanosecond range mode operation are different in comparison to the performances of traditional multi-turn pulse transformers, which are working on a 100+ nanosecond mode operation. In this paper, the author discusses which aspects are necessary to take into account for the high power nanosecond fractional transformer designs. The engineering method of the nanosecond induction system design is presented.

This report provides a chronology of recent events involving Pakistan and Pakistan-U.S. relations. Sources include, but are not limited to, major newswires, the U.S. Department of State, and Pakistani news outlets. For a substantive review, see CRS Issue Brief IB94041, Pakistan-U.S. Relations.

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A precision measurement of the lifetime of the lowest exited level of the He-like S{sup 14+} ion carried out at the Livermore EBIT-II electron beam ion trap yielded a value of (703 {+-} 4) ns. Our method extends the range of lifetime measurements accessible with electron beam ion traps into the nanosecond region and improves the accuracy of currently available data for this level by an order of magnitude.

Finite-difference weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) simulations of the reshocked two-dimensional single-mode Richtmyer-Meshkov instability using third-, fifth- and ninth-order spatial flux reconstruction and uniform spatial grid resolutions corresponding to 128, 256 and 512 points per initial perturbation wavelength are presented. The dependence of the density, vorticity, simulated density Schlieren and baroclinic production fields, mixing layer width, circulation deposition, mixing profiles, chemical products and mixing fractions, energy spectra, statistics, probability distribution functions, effective turbulent kinetic energy and enstrophy production/dissipation rates, numerical Reynolds numbers, and effective numerical viscosity on the order and resolution is comprehensively investigated to long evolution times. The results are interpreted using the computed implicit numerical diffusion arising from the truncation errors in the characteristic projection-based WENO method. It is quantitatively shown that simulations with higher order and higher resolution have lower numerical dissipation. The sensitivity of the quantities considered to the order and resolution is further amplified following reshock, when the energy deposition on the evolving interface by the second shock-interface interaction induces the formation of small-scale structures. Simulations using lower orders of reconstruction and on coarser grids preserve large-scale structures and flow symmetry to late times, while simulations using higher orders of reconstruction and on finer grids exhibit …

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is located in northern California, USA. Radiological environmental protection is one of the main elements of the radiation protection program. One of SLAC's accelerator facilities is B-Factory, whose PEP-II accelerator ring has been operating since 1997 and is being upgraded to higher luminosity operation. Four radiological issues associated with high luminosity operation up to CY2008 are re-evaluated: (1) annual doses in IR halls, (2) annual skyshine doses at site boundaries, (3) potential radioactive air releases, and (4) potential groundwater activation. This paper presents the skyshine doses and air emission doses to the Maximally Exposed Individual (MEI) at SLAC site boundaries. The normal beam loss scenarios around PEP-II ring are presented first. In CY2008, the luminosity is 2 x 10{sup 34} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}, and the stored current is 4.0-A for low-energy ring (LER ) and 2.2-A for high-energy ring (HER). The beam losses around PEP-II ring include those near injection region in IR10 and IR8 and those at collimators (e.g., HER collimators in IR12, LER collimators in IR4 and IR6). The beam losses in IR8 and IR10 (where injection into ring occurs) are further divided into septum, BAD (beam abort dump) and TD (tune-up …

The article talks about the impact of Hurricane Katrine and the debris that was left as a result od the destruction. It provides the background and information necessary to understand why additional funding of debris removal activities will be needed for months to come.