Corrosion of metallic oilfield pipelines by microorganisms is a costly but poorly understood phenomenon, with standard treatment methods targeting mesophilic sulfatereducing bacteria. In assessing biocorrosion potential at an Alaskan North Slope oil field, we identified thermophilic hydrogen-using methanogens, syntrophic bacteria, peptideand amino acid-fermenting bacteria, iron reducers, sulfur/thiosulfate-reducing bacteria and sulfate-reducing archaea. These microbes can stimulate metal corrosion through production of organic acids, CO2, sulfur species, and via hydrogen oxidation and iron reduction, implicating many more types of organisms than are currently targeted. Micromolar quantities of putative anaerobic metabolites of C1-C4 n-alkanes in pipeline fluids were detected, implying that these low molecular weight hydrocarbons, routinely injected into reservoirs for oil recovery purposes, are biodegraded and provide biocorrosive microbial communities with an important source of nutrients.

This report is about Broadband Infrastructure Programs in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was enacted in part to expedite oil and gas development. Section 390 of the act authorized the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to use categorical exclusions to streamline the environmental analysis required when approving certain oil and gas activities. Numerous questions have been raised about how and when BLM should use these section 390 categorical exclusions. GAO was asked to report on (1) the extent to which BLM has used section 390 categorical exclusions and the benefits, if any, associated with their use; (2) the extent to which BLM has complied with the act and agency guidance; and (3) key concerns, if any, associated with section 390 categorical exclusions. GAO analyzed documents from all 26 BLM field offices that have used this new tool, including a nongeneralizable random sample of 215 section 390 categorical exclusion decision documents."

This report details the Obama Administration's proposed FY2010 defense budget requests for F-35 program funding and outlines the issues that Congress must consider when deciding whether to approve, reject, or modify the administration's funding requests.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2008, the Department of the Interior collected over $22 billion in royalties and other fees related to oil and gas. Within Interior, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages onshore federal oil and gas leases, and the Minerals Management Service's (MMS) Offshore Energy and Minerals Management (OEMM) manages offshore leases. A federal lease gives the lessee rights to explore for and develop the lease's oil and gas resources. MMS is responsible for collecting royalties for oil and gas produced from both onshore and offshore leases. GAO has reviewed federal oil and gas management and revenue collection and found many material weaknesses. This testimony is based primarily on key findings from past GAO reports and some preliminary findings from ongoing work. These findings focus on Interior's: (1) policies for oil and gas leasing, (2) oversight of oil and gas production, (3) royalty regime and policies to boost oil and gas development, (4) oil and gas information technology (IT) systems, and (5) royalty-in-kind program. GAO's past reports provided recommendations that Interior officials report that they are working to implement."

This report reviews standard disaster housing procedures as well as options that could be taken to improve disaster housing including increased FEMA/HUD cooperation, the use of the case management authority, the repair and renovation of private rental housing units, and the use of alternative manufactured housing.

The US Department of Energy, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) conducted a Research Needs Workshop, referred to as ReNeW, in June 2009. The information developed at this workshop will help OFES develop a plan for US fusion research during the ITER era, roughly the next two decades. The workshop was organized in five Themes, one of which was Harnessing Fusion Power (or Fusion Power for short). The top level goal of the Fusion Power Theme was to identify the research needed to develop the knowledge to design and build, with high confidence, robust and reliable systems that can convert fusion products to useful forms of energy in a reactor environment, including a self-sufficient supply of tritium fuel. Each Theme was subsequently subdivided into Panels to address specific topics. The Fusion Power Panel topics were: fusion fuel cycle; power extraction; materials science; safety and environment; and reliability, availability, maintainability and inspectability (RAMI). Here we present the key findings of the Fusion Power Theme.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) and other executive agencies increasingly deploy civilians in support of contingency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior GAO reports show that the use of deployed civilians has raised questions about the potential for differences in policies on compensation and medical benefits. When these civilians are deployed and serve side by side, differences in compensation or medical benefits may become more apparent and could adversely impact morale. This statement is based on GAO's June 2009 congressionally requested report, which compared agency policies and identified any issues in policy or implementation regarding (1) compensation, (2) medical benefits, and (3) identification and tracking of deployed civilians. GAO reviewed laws, agency policies and guidance; interviewed responsible officials at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the six selected agencies, including DOD and State; reviewed workers' compensation claims filed by deployed civilians with the Department of Labor from January 1, 2006 through April 30, 2008; and conducted a survey of deployed civilians. GAO made ten recommendations for agencies to take actions such as reviewing compensation laws and policies, establishing medical screening requirements, and creating mechanisms to assist and …

This study was part of the Megacities Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations (MILAGRO) field campaign conducted in Mexico City Metropolitan Area during spring 2006. The physical and chemical transformations of particles aged in the outflow from Mexico City were investigated for the transport event of 22 March 2006. A detailed chemical analysis of individual particles was performed using a combination of complementary microscopy and micro-spectroscopy techniques. The applied techniques included scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) coupled with near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS) and computer controlled scanning electron microscopy with an energy dispersive X-ray analyzer (CCSEM/EDX). As the aerosol plume evolves from the city center, the organic mass per particle increases and the fraction of carbon-carbon double bonds (associated with elemental carbon) decreases. Organic functional groups enhanced with particle age include: carboxylic acids, alkyl groups, and oxygen bonded alkyl groups. At the city center (T0) the most prevalent aerosol type contained inorganic species (composed of sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, and potassium) coated with organic material. At the T1 and T2 sites, located northeast of T0 (~;;29 km and ~;;65 km, respectively), the fraction of homogenously mixed organic particles increased in both size and number. These observations illustrate the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2002, the Department of Defense (DOD) began developing and rapidly fielding a global Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) composed of elements that include radars, interceptors, and command and control systems. These elements are envisioned to be linked together to defend against a broad range of ballistic missile threats. In 2009, DOD began a broadly scoped review of missile defense policy and strategy intended to reassess the BMDS and set direction for the future. In response to congressional interest in missile defense requirements and operations, GAO reviewed the extent to which DOD has (1) identified the types and quantities of elements and interceptors it needs and (2) established the units to operate elements that have been put into use. GAO reviewed key analyses, studies, plans, and other documents from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the services, combatant commands, and Joint Staff; and interviewed officials from across DOD."

The US has a national set of codes and standards that address the use of hydrogen technologies. These documents are published by several organizations and are not all directly adopted by government authorities. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has acted as the central organizing group to identify these documents and present them as a coherent and integrated set of requirements.

This report begins by describing the change in the age distribution of the U.S. population that will occur between 2010 and 2030 and by summarizing the historical data on the labor force participation of older workers. This discussion is followed by an analysis of data from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) on employment and receipt of pension income among persons aged 55 and older.

We have conducted a combined experimental and theoretical study on the formation of distinct isomers of resonantly stabilized free radicals, C4H3, which are important intermediates in the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in combustion flames and possibly in the interstellar medium. Our study utilized laser ablation of graphite in combination with seeding the ablated species in neat methylacetylene gas which also acted as a reagent. Photoionization efficiency (PIE) curves were recorded of the C4H3 isomers at the Advanced Light Source from 8.0 to 10.3 eV. The experimental PIE curve was compared with theoretical ones suggesting the formation of four C4H3 radicals: two acyclic structures i-C4H3 [1] and E/Z-n-C4H3 [2E/2Z]and two cyclic isomers 3 and 4. These molecules are likely formed via an initial addition of ground state carbon atoms to the carbon-carbon triple bond of the methylacetylene molecule followed by isomerization via hydrogen migrations and ring opening and emission of atomic hydrogen from these intermediates.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Disability benefits available through the Social Security Administration (SSA) can be an important source of financial support for some wounded warriors, and Congress has mandated that the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) help them learn about and apply for such benefits. GAO was asked to determine: (1) how many wounded warriors have applied and been approved for SSA benefits and the extent to which they are receiving benefits from across the three agencies; (2) what steps DOD, VA, and SSA have taken to inform wounded warriors about SSA benefits, and the challenges that confront this process; and (3) steps taken by all three agencies to facilitate the processing of wounded warrior disability claims. Focusing on those wounded since 2001, GAO reviewed policy documents, contacted DOD and VA medical facilities, surveyed wounded warriors, and analyzed administrative data."

We describe a revolutionary new approach to high spectral resolution soft x-ray optics. Conventionally in the soft x-ray energy range, high spectral resolution is obtained by use of a relatively low line density grating operated in 1st order with small slits. This severely limits throughput. This limitation can be removed by use of a grating either in very high order, or with very high line density, if one can maintain high diffraction efficiency. We have developed a new technology for achieving both of these goals which should allow high throughput spectroscopy, at resolving powers of up to 106 at 1 keV. Such optics should provide a revolutionary advance for high resolution lifetime free spectroscopy, such as RIXS, and for pulse compression of chirped beams. We report recent developmental fabrication and characterization of a prototype grating optimized for 14.2 nm EUV light. The prototype grating with a 200 nm period of the blazed grating substrate coated with 20 Mo/Si bilayers with a period of 7.1 nm demonstrates good dispersion in the third order (effective groove density of 15,000 lines per mm) with a diffraction efficiency of more than 33percent.

This report discusses the VH-71 program which is intended to provide 23 new presidential helicopters to replace the current fleet of 19 aging presidential helicopters.

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This report examines wildfire biomass fuels. It begins with a discussion of fuel characteristics and their relation to wildfire intensity and spread. This is followed with a description of actions proposed to reduce biomass fuel levels, their effectiveness for protecting property and resources from wildfires, and their impacts on other resource values. It concludes with an examination of the federal authorities for fuel reduction activities on federal and non-federal lands, together with data on the funding provided under each of these authorities.

In this study the radionuclide databases for two versions of the Clean Air Act Assessment Package-1988 (CAP88) computer model were assessed in detail. CAP88 estimates radiation dose and the risk of health effects to human populations from radionuclide emissions to air. This program is used by several Department of Energy (DOE) facilities to comply with National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) regulations. CAP88 Mainframe, referred to as Version 1.0 on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website (http://www.epa.gov/radiation/assessment/CAP88/), was the very first CAP88 version released in 1988. Some DOE facilities including the Savannah River Site still employ this version (1.0) while others use the more user-friendly personal computer Windows-based Version 3.0 released in December 2007. Version 1.0 uses the program RADRISK based on International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 30 as its radionuclide database. Version 3.0 uses half-life, dose and risk factor values based on Federal Guidance Report 13. Differences in these values could cause different results for the same input exposure data (same scenario), depending on which version of CAP88 is used. Consequently, the differences between the two versions are being assessed in detail at Savannah River National Laboratory. The version 1.0 and 3.0 database files contain …

This report provides an overview of China's economic development, challenges China faces to maintain growth, and the implications of China's rise as a major economic power for the United States.

This report first describes the current select committees on intelligence and then the former Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, often cited as a model for a counterpart on intelligence. The study also sets forth proposed characteristics for a joint committee on intelligence, differences among these, and their pros and cons. The report examines other actions and alternatives affecting congressional oversight in the field.

This report discusses the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107-171) as amended by the 2008 farm bill (P.L. 110-246), which states that many U.S. retailers must begin providing country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for fresh produce, red meats, peanuts, chicken, ginseng, pecans, and macadamia nuts.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Recent cyber attacks demonstrate the potentially devastating impact these pose to our nation's computer systems and to the federal operations and critical infrastructures that they support. They also highlight that we need to be vigilant against individuals and groups with malicious intent, such as criminals, terrorists, and nation-states perpetuating these attacks. Federal law and policy established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the focal point for coordinating cybersecurity, including making it responsible for protecting systems that support critical infrastructures, a practice commonly referred to as cyber critical infrastructure protection. Since 2005, GAO has reported on the responsibilities and progress DHS has made in its cybersecurity efforts. GAO was asked to summarize its key reports and their associated recommendations aimed at securing our nation's cyber critical infrastructure. To do so, GAO relied on previous reports, as well as two reports being released today, and analyzed information about the status of recommendations."