This report discusses the background information, analysis and the recent developments in the F-22 Aircraft Program. The F-22 program raises questions about its cost and the need for this aircraft, the capabilities it would have, and the number of these planes needed to meet military requirements. The F-22 has had strong congressional support, although some have criticized the program on grounds of cost, requirements, and coordination with other tactical aircraft programs. Deletion of procurement funds in the FY2000 defense appropriation bill passed by the House made the future of the program a major issue for House and Senate conferees in 1999.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a member of the Gilmer Volunteer Fire Department may simultaneously serve on a city council (RQ-0131-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether chapter 110 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code exempts a religious post-secondary educational institution from regulation by the Higher Education Coordinating Board (RQ-0134-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Department of Licensing and Regulation may require applicants for a boxing license to submit to HIV testing as a condition of licensure (RQ-0137-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Port of Bay City Authority of Matagorda County is authorized to accept the conveyance of certain easements from the United State Army Corps of Engineers for the purpose of conveying them to the private property owners whose fee interests are encumbered by the easements (RQ-0143-JC)

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the financial management issues facing the Department of Agriculture (USDA), focusing on problems in the areas of: (1) implementing the Federal Credit Reform Act (FCRA) of 1990 and related accounting standards; (2) reconciling its Fund Balance with Treasury accounts; (3) addressing weaknesses in the Forest Service's financial accounting and reporting; (4) correcting certain other material internal control weaknesses; and (5) complying with some key laws and regulations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the potential for duplicative weapons of mass destruction training, focusing on: (1) the principal federal organizations that provide weapons of mass destruction training to first responders; (2) whether the training is well coordinated among federal organizations; and (3) actions being taken to improve the federal government's role in weapons of mass destruction training."

SNLO is public domain software developed at Sandia National Laboratories. It is intended to assist in the selection of the best nonlinear crystal for a particular application, and in predicting its performance. This paper briefly describes its functions and how to use them.

Because of their strong internal bonding, S-decorated Cu trimers are a likely agent of S-enhanced Cu transport between islands on Cu(111). According to ab-initio calculations, excellent healing of dangling Cu valence results in an ad-Cu{sub 3}S{sub 3} formation energy of only {approximately}0.28 eV, compared to 0.79 eV for a self-adsorbed Cu atom, and a diffusion barrier {le}0.35 eV.

A scalable, distributed modeling and simulation framework has been developed at Argonne National Laboratory to study Intelligent Transportation Systems. The framework can run on a single-processor workstation, or run distributed on a multiprocessor computer or network of workstations. The framework is modular and supports plug-in models, hardware, and live data sources. The initial set of models currently includes road network and traffic flow, probe and smart vehicles, traffic management centers, communications between vehicles and centers, in-vehicle navigation systems, roadway traffic advisories. The modeling and simulation capability has been used to examine proposed ITS concepts. Results are presented from modeling scenarios from the Advanced Driver and Vehicle Advisory Navigation Concept (ADVANCE) experimental program to demonstrate how the framework can be used to evaluate the benefits of ITS and to plan future ITS operational tests and deployment initiatives.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) has become a valuable tool for analyzing microorganisms. The speed with which data can be obtained from MALDI-MS makes this a potentially important tool for biological health hazard monitoring and forensic applications. The excitement in the mass spectrometry community in this potential field of application is evident by the expanding list of research laboratories pursuing development of MALDI-MS for bacterial identification. Numerous research groups have demonstrated the ability to obtain unique MALDI-MS spectra from intact bacterial cells and bacterial cell extracts. The ability to differentiate strains of the same species has been investigated. Reproducibility of MALDI-MS spectra from bacterial species under carefully controlled experimental conditions has also been demonstrated. Wang et al. have reported on interlaboratory reproducibility of the MALDI-MS analysis of several bacterial species. However, there are still issues that need to be addressed, including the careful control of experimental parameters for reproducible spectra and selection of optimal experimental parameters such as solvent and matrix.

Waste Management Area U (WMA U) includes the U Tank Farm, is currently regulated under RCRA interim-status regulations, and is scheduled for closure probably post-2030. Groundwater monitoring has been under an evaluation program that compared general contaminant indicator parameters from downgradient wells to background values established from upgradient wells. One of the indicator parameters, specific conductance, exceeded its background value in one downgradient well triggering a change from detection monitoring to a groundwater quality assessment program. The objective of the first phase of this assessment program is to determine whether the increased concentrations of nitrate and chromium in groundwater are from WMA U or from an upgradient source. Based on the results of the first determination, if WMA U is not the source of contamination, then the site will revert to detection monitoring. If WMA U is the source, then a second part of the groundwater quality assessment plan will be prepared to define the rate and extent of migration of contaminants in the groundwater and their concentrations.

The authors examine pair mass dependence near threshold as a means to measure the spin of the top quark in hadron collisions, and they discuss the possibility that a top quark signal could be hidden among the top events.

The purpose of this manual is to provide Program policy and oversight for the maintenance of Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) within the Environmental Survey and Site Assessment Program (ESSAP) of Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. This manual describes administrative systems, as well as specific quality control procedures, which apply to all functional groups in ESSAP. The sites surveyed under this program are primarily those where residual contamination from previous operations may pose a potential risk to the environment or to the health and safety of those in the immediate vicinity. Other major activities include environmental assessments, training related to decommissioning survey activities, effluent sampling and monitoring, special laboratory analyses, program appraisals and document reviews, consulting on environment-related topics, and technical assistance for guideline development. The methodology for performance of particular field and laboratory activities is presented in the ESSAP Survey Procedures Manual and the Laboratory Procedures Manual.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducted a bench-scale study to determine how effective chemically treated Ft. Lewis sediments can degrade trichloroethylene (TCE). The objectives of this experimental study were to quantify: (1) sediment reduction and oxidation reactions, (2) TCE degradation reactions, and (3) other significant geochemical changes that occurred. Sediment reduction and oxidation were investigated to determine the mass of reducible iron in the Ft. Lewis sediments and the rate of this reduction and subsequent oxidation at different temperatures. The temperature dependence was needed to be able to predict field-scale reduction in the relatively cold ({approximately}11 C) Ft. Lewis aquifer. Results of these experiments were used in conjunction with other geochemical and hydraulic characterization to design the field-scale injection experiment and predict barrier longevity. For example, the sediment reduction rate controls the amount of time required for the dithionite solution to fully react with sediments. Sediment oxidation experiments were additionally conducted to determine the oxidation rate and provide a separate measure of the mass of reduced iron. Laboratory experiments that were used to meet these objectives included: (1) sediment reduction in batch (static) systems, (2) sediment reduction in 1-D columns, and (3) sediment oxidation in 1-D columns. Multiple reaction modeling …

This article describes experiments on arc deflection instability carried out during the past few years at the Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The approach has been that of plasma physicists interested in arcs, but they believe these results may be useful to engineers who are responsible for controlling arc behavior in large electric steel furnaces.

{sup 1}H NMR studies of the protonation of highly nonplanar porphyrins with strong acids reveal the presence of the previously elusive monocation, and show that its stability can be related to the amount of saddle distortion induced by protonation; the amount of saddle distortion for a porphyrin dication is also found to correlate well with the rate of intermolecular proton transfer.

The current BNFL Inc. flow sheet for the pretreatment of the Hanford High-Level tank wastes includes the use of Superlig{reg_sign} materials in a dual column system for the removal of {sup 137}Cs and {sup 99}Tc from the aqueous fraction of the waste. The Superlig{reg_sign} materials include the cesium selective Superlig 632and Superlig 644 for removal of {sup 137}Csband Superlig 639 for the removal of {sup 99}Tc present as TcO{sub 4}{sup {minus}}. These materials have been developed and supplied by IBC Technologies, Inc., American Fork, UT. The objectives of this work were to: Evaluate the equilibrium behavior of the Superlig materials for the removal of {sup 137}Cs and {sup 99}Tc (as pertechnetate) from AW-101 (Envelope A) and AN-107 (Envelope C) clarified supernatants; Obtain information of the composition of ion exchange feed streams and the pertechnetate/nonpertechnetate fraction in the samples; and Determine some of the Superlig material physical properties including particle size distribution, dry density and water content. To evaluate the equilibrium behavior, batch contacts at a phase ratio of 100 (5 mL of waste solution: 0.05g of exchanger) were conducted with each of the Superlig materials and each of the waste envelope samples. In order to obtain equilibrium data that bounds …

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for three separately parameterized embedded atom methods (EAM) function sets are used to determine the liquid/vapor surface tension {gamma} for Al, Ni, Cu, Ag, and Au. The three EAM models differ in both the functional forms employed and the fitting procedure used. All the EAM potentials underestimate {gamma} but one of the models performs consistently better than the others. The authors show that including a correction to the local charge density associated with gradients in the density together with exploiting the invariance of the EAM bulk potential to appropriate transformations in the charge density can lead to improved values for {gamma}, as well as for solid free surface energies, within existing EAM function sets.

Bent crystal monochromators were developed for the neutron scattering community: (1) doubly focusing bulk silicon, for high-resolution neutron diffraction; (2) doubly focusing multi-wafer silicon, for residual stress instruments; (3) silicon-wafer: (a) with pneumatic spherical bending, (b) with mechanical cylindrical bending, (c) with mechanical two-dimensional bending, for high-resolution three-axis spectrometry; (4) doubly focusing multi-wafer silicon, for epithermal (eV range) neutrons; (5) doubly focusing composite pyrolytic graphite (low-cost), for high-flux applications.

{sup 207}Bi (t{sub 1/2}=32.2 y) was generated by activation of weapons material during a few ''clean'' nuclear tests at the U.S. Western Pacific Proving Grounds of Enewetak and Bikini Atolls. The radionuclides first appeared in the Enewetak environment during 1958 and in the environment of Bikini during 1956. Crater sediments from Bikini with high levels of {sup 207}Bi were analyzed by gamma spectrometry in an attempt to determine the relative concentrations of {sup 208}Bi (t{sup 1/2} = 3.68 x 10{sup 5} y). The bismuth isotopes were probably generated during the ''clean'', 9.3 Mt Poplar test held on 7/12/58. The atom ratio of {sup 208}Bi to {sup 207}Bi (R value) ranges from {approx}12 to over 200 in sections of core sediments from the largest nuclear crater at Bikini atoll. The presence of bismuth in the device is suggested to account for R values in excess of 10.

This document is a printout of the S-102 software for the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) for Pumping, Instrumentation and Control Skid ''E''.

This document provides an initial program plan for retrieval of the single-shell tank waste. Requirements, technical approach, schedule, organization, management, and cost and funding are discussed. The program plan will be refined and updated in fiscal year 2000.

This document provides the ''Partial'' Acceptance for Beneficial Use (ABU), for the Type 4 in-situ vapor sampler system (ISVS). This document is generated to support the completion of equipment modifications and engineering documentation for the ISVS system that is used for sampling gaseous vapors in the Hanford single shell radioactive waste storage tanks. The ABU is used to document the items required for transferring the ISVS system to operations for field use. This document is generated following Characterization Engineering Desk Instruction DI-CE-004-001.