A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government is dramatically changing the way it purchases goods and services--by relying more on judgment and initiative versus rigid rules to make purchasing decisions. At the same time, agencies are dealing with reductions in the civilian acquisition workforce. GAO was asked to determine what efforts federal civilian agencies are making to address their future acquisition workforce needs."

This report presents an overview of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. This is a clash between the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination that is occurring in the Caucasus, creating the longest inter-ethnic dispute in the former Soviet Union. The report includes the background and analysis of history, warfare and peace process in the region. The report discusses the Armenian and Azerbaijani perspective, the role and views of others (Iran, Turkey, Russia), as well as the U.S. policy regarding the conflict.

This procedure provides instructions for assembling the following contact-handled (CH) packaging payloads: - Drum payload assembly - Standard Waste Box (SWB) assembly - Ten-Drum Overpack (TDOP) In addition, this procedure also provides operating instructions for the TRUPACT-II CH waste packaging. This document also provides instructions for performing ICV and OCV preshipment leakage rate tests on the following packaging seals, using a nondestructive helium (He) leak test: - ICV upper main O-ring seal - ICV outer vent port plug O-ring seal - OCV upper main O-ring seal - OCV vent port plug O-ring seal.

This report reviews five newly-emergent constitutional areas related to environmental issues, based on Supreme Court decisions. For each area, the focus is its significance for current and future federal environmental legislation.

This report summarizes work to develop CFCC's for various applications in the Industries of the Future (IOF) and power generation areas. Performance requirements range from relatively modest for hot gas filters to severe for turbine combustor liners and infrared burners. The McDermott Technology Inc. (MTI) CFCC program focused on oxide/oxide composite systems because they are known to be stable in the application environments of interest. The work is broadly focused on dense and porous composite systems depending on the specific application. Dense composites were targeted at corrosion resistant components, molten aluminum handling components and gas turbine combustor liners. The development work on dense composites led to significant advances in fiber coatings for oxide fibers and matrix densification. Additionally, a one-step fabrication process was developed to produce low cost composite components. The program also supported key developments in advanced oxide fibers that resulted in an improved version of Nextel 610 fiber (commercially available as Nextel 650) and significant progress in the development of a YAG/alumina fiber. Porous composite development focused on the vacuum winding process used to produce hot gas filters and infrared burner components.

This report contains information regarding the Current Economic Conditions, Recent Macroeconomic Developments, Posture of Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Summary of Current Developments, Sources of GDP Growth, Economic Forecasts 2001, and Promotion of Economic Growth. The report also presents statistics regarding the Growth Rate of Real GDP v. Final Sales, Civilian Unemployment Rate, Rate of Change in the Consumer Price Index, Rate of Change in the GDP Deflators, Rate of Change in Labor Costs, U.S. Foreign Trade Deficit, Alternative Measures of Fiscal Policy, The Growth Rates of the Monetary Aggregates, etc.

The Waste Acceptance Product Specifications (WAPS) 1.2 require that ''The Producer shall report the inventory of radionuclides (in Curies) that have half-lives longer than 10 years and that are, or will be, present in concentrations greater than 0.05 percent of the total inventory for each waste type indexed to the years 2015 and 3115''. As part of the strategy to meet WAPS 1.2, the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) will report for each waste type, all radionuclides (with half-lives greater than 10 years) that have concentrations greater than 0.01 percent of the total inventory from time of production through the 1100 year period from 2015 through 3115. The initial listing of radionuclides to be included is based on the design-basis glass as identified in the Waste Form Compliance Plan (WCP) and Waste Form Qualification Report (WQR). However, it is required that this list be expanded if other radionuclides with half-lives greater than 10 years are identified that meet the greater than 0.01 percent criterion for Curie content.

This report provides an analysis of the economic impacts arising from the construction and operation of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) and Joint Institute of Neutron Science (JINS) facilities on the State of Tennessee. The study was conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in cooperation with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the Science Alliance at UTK. Estimates provided are based on data provided by ORNL and the Office of Research at UTK. The estimates contained in the report quantify the income, employment, and sales tax revenue which will be generated by the activities of the SNS and JINS by accounting for the (1) direct impacts, those arising directly from the expenditures for the construction and operation of the facilities; (2) indirect impacts, those arising from the visitors to the facilities and from facility expenditures in Tennessee; and (3) multiplier impacts, those arising from the ripple effects created as new income is spent and respent in the state economy.

Various operations are authorized in Hanford single- and double-shell tanks that disturb all or a large fraction of the waste. These globally waste-disturbing activities have the potential to release a large fraction of the retained flammable gas and to affect future gas generation, retention, and release behavior. This report presents analyses of the expected flammable gas release mechanisms and the potential release rates and volumes resulting from these activities. The background of the flammable gas safety issue at Hanford is summarized, as is the current understanding of gas generation, retention, and release phenomena. Considerations for gas monitoring and assessment of the potential for changes in tank classification and steady-state flammability are given.

This report discusses issues debated in the 107th Congress while is considering various proposals to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). Major issues in recent years have included changing the role of science in decision-making, changing the role of critical habitat, reducing conflicts with Department of Defense activities, incorporating further protection for property owners, and increasing protection of listed species, among others. In addition, many have advocated including significant changes to ESA regulations made during the Clinton Administration in the law itself.

This report evaluates a new method to calculate the sum-of-fractions (SOF) for multiple radionuclides. The purpose of this report is to determine the potential benefits of the new method for the first set of five slit trenches.

This study considers the technical and economic feasibility of several passive and active evaporation technologies for treatment of groundwater contaminated with radionuclides and metals.

This report provides an overview of U.S farm disaster assistance.

This report covers the three main projects that collectively comprised the Advanced Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry Program. Chapter 1 describes the direct interrogation of individual particles by laser desorption within the ion trap mass spectrometer analyzer. The goals were (1) to develop an ''intelligent trigger'' capable of distinguishing particles of biological origin from those of nonbiological origin in the background and interferent particles and (2) to explore the capability for individual particle identification. Direct interrogation of particles by laser ablation and ion trap mass spectrometry was shown to have good promise for discriminating between particles of biological origin and those of nonbiological origin, although detailed protocols and operating conditions were not worked out. A library of more than 20,000 spectra of various types of biological particles has been assembled. Methods based on multivariate analysis and on neural networks were used to discriminate between particles of biological origin and those of nonbiological origin. It was possible to discriminate between at least some species of bacteria if mass spectra of several hundred similar particles were obtained. Chapter 2 addresses the development of a new ion trap mass analyzer geometry that offers the potential for a significant increase in ion storage capacity for …

A novel implementation for GAInAsSb/AlGaAsSb/GaSb TPV cells with an internal back-surface reflector (BSR) formed by wafer bonding to GaAs is demonstrated. The SiO{sub x}/Ti/Au internal BSR enhances optical absorption within the device, while the dielectric layer provides electrical isolation. This configuration has the potential to improve TPV device performance; is compatible with monolithic series-interconnection of TPV cells for building voltage; and can mitigate the requirements of filters used for front-surface spectral control. At a short-circuit density of 0.4 A/cm{sup 2}, the open-circuit voltage of a single TPV cell is 0.2 V, compared to 0.37 and 1.8 V for 2- and 10-junction series-interconnected TPV cells, respectively.

This report describes the causes, costs, and current status of inflation.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Concerned that minimum personnel experience or education requirements in agency solicitations for information technology (IT) services were contributing to worker shortages, Congress included a provision in the fiscal year 2001 Defense authorization act requiring that the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) be amended to limit the use of such requirements. Specifically, agencies are not to include such minimum personnel requirements in solicitations for IT services that result in performance-based contracts--those with performance work statements that set forth contract requirements in clear, specific, and objective terms with measurable outcomes--unless the contracting officer determines that the needs of the agency cannot be met without them. This law also required GAO to study and report on the government's implementation of this provision. Accordingly, GAO assessed whether the FAR rule implementing this requirement conforms with the provision (section 813 of P.L. 106-398) and to what extent executive agencies have complied with the new requirement. GAO chose nine agencies to review, based on its analysis of data in FedBizOpps, a governmentwide Web site containing government business opportunities over $25,000."

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SiC was hot-pressed with aluminum, boron, and carbon additives. The Al content was modified either to obtain SiC samples containing a continuous Al gradient, or to vary the average Al content. In both cases, dramatic changes in microstructure, phase composition, and grain boundary structure were observed as a result of the Al variation. Similar processing and characterization were done with modified boron and carbon average contents. The systematic experiments allowed identification of the roles of Al, B, and C in developing grain morphology and phase composition. The experiments also clarified the mechanical property responses to microstructural modification. Tailoring of the SiC microstructure to suit different applications would be possible.

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