Although U.S. intelligence agencies have not identified any terrorist acts targeting agricultural production (i.e., agroterrorism) in the United States to date, the events of September 11, 2001 have awakened the nation to their possibility. Some experts estimate that a single agroterrorist attack using a highly contagious livestock disease could cost between $10 billion and $30 billion to the U.S. economy. This report examines the potential threats to America’s agriculture from a deliberate biological attack, describes the current defense structure and capabilities available to respond to agroterrorism, and analyzes current congressional proposals to address the threat of biological weapons to U.S. agriculture.

The collections of IEEE and 1EC standards have some overlap, but in many cases cover significantly different topics. For example, 1EEE standards go to great depth on environmental qualification of many specific types of components, while IEC covers the topic only at the general level. Conversely, certain IEC standards deal with specific instrumentation and control functions, a topic area where IEEE standards are largely mute. This paper studies two questions related to the above observations. Which standards in each body should be coordinated with each other? What opportunities exist for the two bodies to build on each other's standards to efficiently improve upon the coverage of their sets of standards? Poor coordination between the two sets of standards poses a problem for the developers of systems for plant upgrades. Developers must try to address both sets of standards to avail themselves of a sufficiently broad market. Additionally, the IEEE and IEC standards together form a more comprehensive set of guidance than either set alone. If the interfaces between the standard sets were smoother, plant staff and system designers would have a better set of tools to help in the design and specification of I and C upgrades. To understand the …

Iron- and cobalt-exchanged ZSM-5 are active catalysts for the dissociation of nitrous oxide. In this study, density functional theory was used to assess a possible reaction pathway for the catalytic dissociation of N2O. The active center was taken to be mononuclear [FeO]+ or [CoO]+, and the surrounding portion of the zeolite was represented by a 24-atom cluster. The first step of N2O decomposition involves the formation of [FeO2]+ or [CoO2]+ and the release of N2. The metal-oxo species produced in this step then reacts with N2O again, to release N2 and O2. The apparent activation energies for N2O dissociation in Fe-ZSM-5 and Co-ZSM-5 are 39.4 and 34.6 kcal/mol, respectively. The preexponential factor for the apparent first-order rate coefficient is estimated to be of the order 107 s-1 Pa-1. While the calculated activation energy for Fe-ZSM-5 is in good agreement with that measured experimentally, the value of the preexponential factor is an order of magnitude smaller than that observed . The calculated activation energy for Co-ZSM-5 is higher than that reported experimentally. However, consistent with experiment, the rate of N2O decomposition on Co-ZSM-5 is predicted to be significantly higher than that on Fe-ZSM-5.

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Expression profiling and genomic DNA sequence comparisons are increasingly being applied to the identification and analysis of the genes involved in lipid metabolism. Not only has genome-wide expression profiling aided in the identification of novel genes involved in important processes in lipid metabolism such as sterol efflux, but the utilization of information from these studies has added to our understanding of the regulation of pathways participating in the process. Coupled with these gene expression studies, cross species comparison, searching for sequences conserved through evolution, has proven to be a powerful tool to identify important non-coding regulatory sequences as well as the discovery of novel genes relevant to lipid biology. An example of the value of this approach was the recent chance discovery of a new apolipoprotein gene (apo AV) that has dramatic effects upon triglyceride metabolism in mice and humans.

Particle physics is driven by five great topics. Neutrino oscillations and masses are now at the fore. The standard model with extensions to supersymmetry and a Higgs to generate mass explains much of the field. The origins of CP violation are not understood. The possibility of extra dimensions has raised tantalizing new questions. A fifth topic lurking in the background is the possibility of something totally different. Many of the questions raised by these topics require powerful new accelerators. It is not an overstatement to say that for some of the issues, the accelerator is almost the experiment. Indeed some of the questions require machines beyond our present capability. As this volume attests, there are parts of the particle physics program that have been significantly advanced without the use of accelerators such as the subject of neutrino oscillations and many aspects of the particle-cosmology interface. At this stage in the development of physics, both approaches are needed and important. This chapter first reviews the status of the great accelerator facilities now in operation or coming on within the decade. Next, midrange possibilities are discussed including linear colliders with the adjunct possibility of gamma-gamma colliders, muon colliders, with precursor neutrino factories, …

This report provides information about the Human Cloning where a human embryo produced via cloning involves the process called somatic cell nuclear transfer. The nuclear of the egg is removed and replaced with a mature body cell.

The purpose of the inventory abstraction, which has been prepared in accordance with a technical work plan (CRWMS M&O 2000e for ICN 02 of the present analysis, and BSC 2001e for ICN 03 of the present analysis), is to: (1) Interpret the results of a series of relative dose calculations (CRWMS M&O 2000c, 2000f). (2) Recommend, including a basis thereof, a set of radionuclides that should be modeled in the Total System Performance Assessment in Support of the Site Recommendation (TSPA-SR) and the Total System Performance Assessment in Support of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (TSPA-FEIS). (3) Provide initial radionuclide inventories for the TSPA-SR and TSPA-FEIS models. (4) Answer the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)'s Issue Resolution Status Report ''Key Technical Issue: Container Life and Source Term'' (CLST IRSR) key technical issue (KTI): ''The rate at which radionuclides in SNF [spent nuclear fuel] are released from the EBS [engineered barrier system] through the oxidation and dissolution of spent fuel'' (NRC 1999, Subissue 3). The scope of the radionuclide screening analysis encompasses the period from 100 years to 10,000 years after the potential repository at Yucca Mountain is sealed for scenarios involving the breach of a waste package and subsequent degradation …

We report a method for making weld joints, capable of transmitting high supercurrent densities, in bulk samples of melt textured YBCO. The joining procedure is carried out in a flowing atmosphere of O{sub 2} to eliminate problems associated with nitrogen gas, which can become trapped in the joint. No filler or fluxing material is used. The method can be used to join large areas (several cm{sup 2}) that are capable of transmitting supercurrent densities exceeding 10{sup 4} A/cm{sup 2}.

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Discovered three new proteins involved in DNA damage assessment. Interestingly they are all proteins involved in recombination, but they have very different roles in that process and other proteins that might be expected to be equivalently involved are not. This is developing into a very significant area of research.

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The extended use of Zircaloy cladding in light water reactors degrades its mechanical properties by a combination of irradiation embrittlement, coolant-side oxidation, hydrogen pickup, and hydride formation. The hydrides are usually concentrated in the form of a dense layer or rim near the cooler outer surface of the cladding. Utilizing plane-strain ring-stretch tests to approximate the loading path in a reactivity-initiated accident (RIA) transient, we examined the influence of a hydride rim on the fracture behavior of unirradiated Zircaloy-4 cladding at room temperature and 300 C. Failure is sensitive to hydride-rim thickness such that cladding tubes with a hydride-rim thickness >100 {micro}m ({approx}700 wppm total hydrogen) exhibit brittle behavior, while those with a thickness <90 {micro}m ({approx}600 wppm) remain ductile. The mechanism of failure is identified as strain-induced crack initiation within the hydride rim and failure within the uncracked ligament due to either a shear instability or damage-induced fracture. We also report some preliminary results of the uniaxial tensile behavior of low-Sn Zircaloy-4 cladding tubes in a cold-worked, stress-relieved condition in the transverse (hoop) direction at strain rates of 0.001/s and 0.2/s and temperatures of 26-400 C.

We have investigated the surface degradation of bare and sol-gel coated deuterated potassium dihydrogen phosphate (DKDP) crystals when exposed to 351-nm laser pulses in atmospheric air and nitrogen and at pressures ranging from atmospheric down to 10{sup -5} Torr vacuum. Optical microscopy, surface topography, surface chemical analyses, 351-nm pumped photoemission maps, and photometry results have been used to characterize these samples. We report the occurrence of two potentially linked surface degradation phenomena: the development of increased photoemission and the development of unacceptable surface roughening in the region exposed to the beam in vacuum. We note no degradation for surfaces exposed in air or nitrogen at pressures exceeding 1 torr. Diamond-turned DKDP surfaces show a ubiquitous, low-intensity photoemission signature before exposure to any laser fluence. The observed reduction of this emission signal as a function of operating pressure and accumulated laser energy when crystals are exposed to 351-nm laser pulses in air can be correlated with the removal of surface carbon.

A recent increase in interest and development of wind energy in the Midwestern United States has focused the need for updating wind resource maps of this area. The wind resource assessment group at the National Renewable Energy Lab., a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory, has produced updated high-resolution (1-km) wind resource maps for several states in this region. This abstract describes the computerized tools and methodology used by NREL to create the higher resolution maps.

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Many organizations worldwide develop standards that affect nuclear instrumentation and control (I and C). Two of the primary standards organizations are the US IEEE's Nuclear Power Engineering Committee (NPEC), and the IEC subcommittee on Reactor Instrumentation (SC45A). This paper surveys the contents of the two sets of standards. Opportunities for complementary use of IEEE and IEC standards are discussed. The collections of IEEE. and IEC standards have some overlap, but in many cases cover significantly different topics. For example, IEEE standards go to great depth on environmental qualification of many specific types of components, while IEC covers the topic only at the general level. Conversely, certain IEC standards deal with specific instrumentation and control functions, a topic area where IEEE standards are largely mute. This paper considers how the two sets of standards may be used in a complementary fashion to achieve broader topic coverage than is possible using only one or the other standard suite. To understand the similarities and differences between IEC and IEEE nuclear standards layer diagrams were developed for each set of standards. Another paper [Johnson, 2001] used the same layer diagrams to investigate where coordination between the two sets of standards is most critical.

Testing was completed to compare the filtration performance of modified monosodium titanate (mMST) with that of monosodium titanate (MST) with the rotary microfilter. In addition, the performance of the new laminated filter disk was compared to that of the original baseline welded filter disk. Results showed that flux rates for mMST exceeded that of MST with both the baseline and laminated filter disks in deployment concentrations of 0.2 g/L of mMST and 0.4 g/L of MST. The filtration rate of the mMST with the laminated filter disk exceeded that of the baseline filter disk. However, the baseline filter disk filtration rate for MST was greater than that of the laminated disk. The measured sample turbidity for all tests was 1.06 NTU or less. A contract was established with SpinTek Filtration{trademark} to operate a 3-disk pilot scale unit with prototypic filter disks and various feeds and two different filter disk membranes. SpinTek evaluated a set of the baseline 0.5 micron filter disks as well as a set of laminated filter disks using the same 0.5 micron filter disks. The membrane used for both disk sets was manufactured by the Pall Corporation (PMM 050). Each set of disks was run with monosodium …

We have investigated the flash of light that accompanies laser damage using time-resolved spectroscopy. Damage events were initiated in the bulk of both fused silica and DKDP crystals with 355-nm 3-ns pulsed radiation. Spectra from the accompanying flash were recorded in the 200-500 nm wavelength range with 5-ns temporal resolution. Ten ns following damage initiation, the spectra were found to be roughly blackbody with temperatures on the order of 5000 K to 7000 K, depending on the material studied and excitation energy used. The observed temperatures and cooling rates can be related to the size and electron density of the plasma ''fireball'' that initiates the damage event.

The plasma wake-field mechanism can be used to couple energy at a high rate from a bunched electron beam into a plasma wave. We will present results from the Fermilab A0 facility where a beam with an initial energy of 14 MeV passes through the plasma to emerge with a much broader energy spread, spanning from a low of 3 MeV to a high of over 20 MeV. Over the 8 cm length of the 10{sup 14} cm{sup -3} plasma, this implies a 140 MeV/m deceleration and 72 MeV/m acceleration gradient.

The conventional approach of source-term evaluation for performance assessment of nuclear waste repositories uses speciation-solubility modeling tools and assumes pure phases of radioelements control their solubility. This assumption may not reflect reality, as most radioelements (except for U) may not form their own pure phases. As a result, solubility limits predicted using the conventional approach are several orders of magnitude higher then the concentrations of radioelements measured in spent fuel dissolution experiments. This paper presents the author's attempt of using a non-conventional approach to evaluate source term of radionuclide release for Yucca Mountain. Based on the general reactive-transport code AREST-CT, a model for spent fuel dissolution and secondary phase precipitation has been constructed. The model accounts for both equilibrium and kinetic reactions. Its predictions have been compared against laboratory experiments and natural analogues. It is found that without calibrations, the simulated results match laboratory and field observations very well in many aspects. More important is the fact that no contradictions between them have been found. This provides confidence in the predictive power of the model. Based on the concept of Np incorporated into uranyl minerals, the model not only predicts a lower Np source-term than that given by conventional Np …

The goal of this project was to assess the economic feasibility of CO{sub 2} flooding the naturally fractured Spraberry Trend Area in west Texas. This objective was accomplished through research in four areas: (1) extensive characterization of the reservoirs, (2) experimental studies of crude oil/brine/rock (COBR) interactions in the reservoirs, (3) reservoir performance analysis, and (4) experimental investigations on CO{sub 2} gravity drainage in Spraberry whole cores. The four areas have been completed and reported in the previous annual reports. This report provides the results of the final year of the project including two SPE papers (SPE 71605 and SPE 71635) presented in the 2001 SPE Annual Meeting in New Orleans, two simulation works, analysis of logging observation wells (LOW) and progress of CO{sub 2} injection.