The Department of Energy contributes to the future of the Nation by ensuring energy security, maintaining the safety, security and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile, cleaning up the environment from the legacy of the Cold War, and developing innovations in science and technology. After 25 years in existence, the Department now operates 24 preeminent research laboratories and facilities and four power marketing administrations, and manages the environmental cleanup from 50 years of nuclear defense activities that impacted two million acres in communities across the country. The Department has an annual budget of about $23 billion and employs about 14,500 Federal and 100,000 contractor employees. The Department of Energy is principally a national security agency and all of its missions flow from this core mission to support national security. That is true not just today, but throughout the history of the agency. The origins of the Department can be traced to the Manhattan Project and the race to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. Following the war, Congress engaged in a vigorous and contentious debate over civilian versus military control of the atom. The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 settled the debate by creating the Atomic Energy Commission, …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The largest accounting firms, known as the "Big 4," currently audit over 78 percent of U.S. public companies and 99 percent of public company annual sales. To address concerns raised by this concentration and as mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, on July 30, 2003, GAO issued a report entitled Public Accounting Firms: Mandated Study on Consolidation and Competition, GAO-03-864. As part of that study, GAO surveyed a random sample of 250 public companies from the Fortune 1000 list; preliminary findings were included in the July report. This supplemental report details more comprehensively the 159 responses we received through August 11, 2003, focusing on (1) the relationship of their company with their auditor of record in terms of satisfaction, tenure relationship, and services provided; (2) the effects of consolidation on audit fees, quality, and independence; and (3) the potential implications of consolidation for competition and auditor choice."

The Quarter began with installing the new drill pipe, hooking up the new hydraulic power unit, completing the pipe rotation system (Task 4 has been completed), and making the SWACO choke operational. Detailed design and procurement work is proceeding on a system to elevate the drill-string section. The prototype Foam Generator Cell has been completed by Temco and delivered. Work is currently underway to calibrate the system. Literature review and preliminary model development for cuttings transportation with polymer foam under EPET conditions are in progress. Preparations for preliminary cuttings transport experiments with polymer foam have been completed. Two nuclear densitometers were re-calibrated. Drill pipe rotation system was tested up to 250 RPM. Water flow tests were conducted while rotating the drill pipe up to 100 RPM. The accuracy of weight measurements for cuttings in the annulus was evaluated. Additional modifications of the cuttings collection system are being considered in order to obtain the desired accurate measurement of cuttings weight in the annular test section. Cutting transport experiments with aerated fluids are being conducted at EPET, and analyses of the collected data are in progress. The printed circuit board is functioning with acceptable noise level to measure cuttings concentration at static …

Power generators are concerned with the maintenance costs associated with the advanced turbines that they are purchasing. Since these machines do not have fully established operation and maintenance (O&M) track records, power generators face financial risk due to uncertain future maintenance costs. This risk is of particular concern, as the electricity industry transitions to a competitive business environment in which unexpected O&M costs cannot be passed through to consumers. These concerns have accelerated the need for intelligent software-based diagnostic systems that can monitor the health of a combustion turbine in real time and provide valuable information on the machine's performance to its owner/operators. Such systems would interpret sensor and instrument outputs, correlate them to the machine's condition, provide interpretative analyses, forward projections of servicing intervals, estimate remaining component life, and identify faults. EPRI, Impact Technologies, Boyce Engineering, and Progress Energy have teamed to develop a suite of intelligent software tools integrated with a diagnostic monitoring platform that will, in real time, interpret data to assess the ''total health'' of combustion turbines. The Combustion Turbine Health Management System (CTHM) will consist of a series of dynamic link library (DLL) programs residing on a diagnostic monitoring platform that accepts turbine health data …

The program objective was to develop materials and processes for industrial gas separations to reduce energy use and enable waste reduction. The approach chosen combined novel oxygen selective adsorbents and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) processes. Preliminary materials development and process simulation results indicated that oxygen selective adsorbents could provide a versatile platform for industrial gas separations. If fully successful, this new technology offered the potential for reducing the cost of producing nitrogen/oxygen co-products, high purity nitrogen, argon, and possibly oxygen. The potential energy savings for the gas separations are appreciable, but the end users are the main beneficiaries. Lowering the cost of industrial gases expands their use in applications that can employ them for reducing energy consumption and emissions.

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) fifth ministerial conference (held September 10-14, 2003 in Cancun, Mexico) ended without an agreement on a framework for continuing multilateral negotiations on agricultural trade liberalization. The inconclusive end of the Cancun ministerial places in doubt the ability of WTO member countries to complete the current round of negotiations by the scheduled January 1, 2005 deadline. This report discusses the various agricultural negotiations currently underway in the WTO.

The main goal of the project is to study analytically and experimentally condensation heat transfer for the passive condenser system relevant to the safety of next generation nuclear reactor such as Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (BWR). The objectives of this three-year research project are to: (1) obtain experimental data on the phenomenon of condensation of steam in a vertical tube in the presence of non-condensable for flow conditions of PCCS, (2) develop a analytic model for the condensation phenomena in the presence of non-condensable gas for the vertical tube, and (3) assess the RELAP5 computer code against the experimental data. The project involves experiment, theoretical modeling and a thermal-hydraulic code assessment. It involves graduate and undergraduate students' participation providing them with exposure and training in advanced reactor concepts and safety systems

ASPEN Plus simulations have been created for a CO{sub 2} capture process based on adsorption by monoethanolamine (MEA). Three separate simulations were developed, one each for the flue gas scrubbing, recovery, and purification sections of the process. Although intended to work together, each simulation can be used and executed independently. The simulations were designed as template simulations to be added as a component to other more complex simulations. Applications involving simple cycle or hybrid power production processes were targeted. The default block parameters were developed based on a feed stream of raw flue gas of approximately 14 volume percent CO{sub 2} with a 90% recovery of the CO{sub 2} as liquid. This report presents detailed descriptions of the process sections as well as technical documentation for the ASPEN simulations including the design basis, models employed, key assumptions, design parameters, convergence algorithms, and calculated outputs.

This primer is intended for people interested in environmental problems of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and in their potential solutions. It will specifically look at some of the more hazardous metal and radionuclide contaminants found on DOE lands and at the possibilities for using bioremediation technology to clean up these contaminants. The second edition of the primer incorporates recent findings by researchers in DOE's Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research (NABIR) Program. Bioremediation is a technology that can be used to reduce, eliminate, or contain hazardous waste. Over the past two decades, it has become widely accepted that microorganisms, and to a lesser extent plants, can transform and degrade many types of contaminants. These transformation and degradation processes vary, depending on the physical-chemical environment, microbial communities, and nature of the contaminant. This technology includes intrinsic bioremediation, which relies on naturally occurring processes, and accelerated bioremediation, which enhances microbial degradation or transformation through the addition of nutrients (biostimulation) or inoculation with microorganisms (bioaugmentation). Over the past few years, interest in bioremediation has increased. It has become clear that many organic contaminants such as hydrocarbon fuels can be degraded to relatively harmless products such as CO{sub 2} (the end result of …

Managing large-scale software products is a complex software engineering task. The automation of the software development, release and distribution process is most beneficial in the large collaborations, where the big number of developers, multiple platforms and distributed environment are typical factors. This paper describes Build and Output Analyzer framework and its components that have been developed in CMS to facilitate software maintenance and improve software quality. The system allows to generate, control and analyze various types of automated software builds and tests, such as regular rebuilds of the development code, software integration for releases and installation of the existing versions.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In America, breast cancer is reported as the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women. Given this statistic, the importance of finding a cure cannot be overemphasized. To supplement the billions of federal dollars being spent on breast cancer research, Congress passed legislation creating the Breast Cancer Research Semipostal (BCRS) to increase public awareness of the disease and allow the public to participate directly in raising funds for such research. Since the BCRS was the first semipostal issued by the Postal Service, Congress mandated, and GAO issued, a report in April 2000 on the BCRS' cost, effectiveness, and appropriateness as a fund-raiser. After the report, Congress extended the BCRS sales period through 2003. As mandated, this report updates GAO's prior work as Congress considers another extension to the BCRS sales period."

The Consortium for Fossil Fuel Science (CFFS) is a research consortium with participants from the University of Kentucky, University of Pittsburgh, University of Utah, West Virginia University, and Auburn University. The CFFS is conducting a research program to develop C1 chemistry technology for the production of clean transportation fuel from resources such as coal and natural gas, which are more plentiful domestically than petroleum. The processes under development will convert feedstocks containing one carbon atom per molecular unit into ultra clean liquid transportation fuels (gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel) and hydrogen, which many believe will be the transportation fuel of the future. These feedstocks include synthesis gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen produced by coal gasification or reforming of natural gas, methane, methanol, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. Some highlights of the results obtained during the first year of the current research contract are summarized as: (1) Terminal alkynes are an effective chain initiator for Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactions, producing normal paraffins with C numbers {ge} to that of the added alkyne. (2) Significant improvement in the product distribution towards heavier hydrocarbons (C{sub 5} to C{sub 19}) was achieved in supercritical fluid (SCF) FT reactions compared to that of …

The entry into force, on January 1, 1994, of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has eliminated the advantage that the beneficiaries of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) and related provisions of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) had enjoyed in trade with the United States relative to Mexico, and gave Mexico an increasingly significant competitive edge over the CBERA countries. The scheduled further implementation of the NAFTA would have resulted in a substantial advantage to Mexico over the CBERA countries and vitiate in part the purpose of the CBERA.

The work performed during this quarter by SRD scientists and engineers focused on a number of tasks. The initial acquisition of some hardware needed and the actual construction of the sampling system have begun. This sampling system will contain the pyrolysis oven to atomize the sample gas stream needed for total gaseous mercury measurements, the CRD cavity to acquire the ring-down signal needed to obtain the mercury concentration, various tubing, and temperature and pressure measurement equipment. The amount of tubing and valves have been cut to a minimum to try and reduce the resident time the sample flue gas stream is in the sampling system and minimize the possibility that the gases in the sample gas stream will react with the elements of the sampling system and change the component mixture contained in the flue gas. In an effort to minimize the equipment that needs to be close to the actual sampling port, SRD scientists decided to fiber optically couple the laser to the CRD cavity. However, the ultra-violet (UV) light needed for the mercury transition presents a problem as fiber optics can be solarized by the UV radiation thereby changing the transmission characteristics. SRD has obtained a solarization-resistant fiber. …

The 108th Congress has resumed efforts to pass tax incentives for private giving (S. 476, passed by the Senate on April 9, and H.R. 7, introduced May 7, 2003). However, these bills do not contain provisions intended to promote religious organizations as providers of federally funded social services – charitable choice provisions.. The House voted in 2001 to extend charitable choice rules, which now apply to a limited set of programs, to numerous new programs (H.R. 7 in the 107th Congress), as the President urged, but the Senate refused. However, in an Executive Order, President Bush on December 12, 2002, directed six cabinet-level departments and the Agency for International Development (AID) to bring policies concerning social service programs into line with charitable choice principles set forth in the Order.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Search and rescue--one of the Coast Guard's oldest missions--involves minimizing the loss of life, injury, and property damage by aiding people and boats in distress. The Coast Guard has previously reported that its 30-year-old search and rescue communication system, called the National Distress and Response System, has several deficiencies and is difficult to maintain. Thus, the Coast Guard contracted to replace and modernize it with a new system, called Rescue 21. GAO was asked to identify the status and plans of the Coast Guard's acquisition of Rescue 21 and the technical and program risks associated with Rescue 21."

The integrity of coatings used in hot section components of combustion turbines is crucial to the reliability of the buckets. This project was initiated in recognition of the need for predicting the life of coatings analytically, and non-destructively; correspondingly, three principal tasks were established. Task 1, with the objective of analytically developing stress, strain and temperature distributions in the bucket and thereby predicting thermal fatigue (TMF) damage for various operating conditions; Task 2 with the objective of developing eddy current techniques to measure both TMF damage and general degradation of coatings and, Task 3 with the objective of developing mechanism based algorithms. Task 4 would be aimed at verifying analytical predictions from Task 1 and the NDE predictions from Task 3 against field observations. Task 5 would develop a risk-based decision analysis model to make run/repair decisions. This report is a record of the progress to date on these four tasks.

The debate about consular identification cards in the United States has centered around the matrícula consular, the consular identification card issued by Mexican consulates to Mexican citizens in the United States. In May 2003, the Treasury Department issued regulations allowing acceptance of the cards as proof of identity for the purpose of opening a bank account, and the cards are accepted for other purposes as well, including issuance of drivers’ licenses.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, the federal government has introduced new ways to streamline the acquisition process. One of those vehicles is the simplified acquisition procedures test program, which removes some of the procedural requirements for buying commercial goods and services. Using the test program, federal procurement officials can make purchases faster than they have in the past for procurements not exceeding $5 million. Congress mandated that GAO determine the extent to which federal executive agencies--at a minimum, the Department of Defense (DOD)--have taken advantage of the test program and any benefits realized. One way to measure use is to examine test program data from the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS). It is the central repository of contracting information. In addition to examining FPDS data, GAO looked at data from DOD's data system."

This report provides Review of 10 States based on Home and Community-Based Services — States Seek to Change the Face of Long-Term Care of Maine.

The Delaware Basin Drilling Surveillance Program (DBDSP) is designed to monitor drilling activities in the vicinity of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). This program is based on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements. The EPA environmental standards for the management and disposal of transuranic (TRU) radioactive waste are codified in 40 CFR Part 191 (EPA 1993). Subparts B and C of the standard address the disposal of radioactive waste. The standard requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to demonstrate the expected performance of the disposal system using a probabilistic risk assessment or performance assessment (PA). This PA must show that the expected repository performance will not release radioactive material above limits set by the EPA's standard. This assessment must include the consideration of inadvertent drilling into the repository at some future time.

The increasing role of coal as a source of energy in the 21st century will demand environmental and cost-effective strategies for the use of coal combustion by-products (CCBPs), mainly unburned carbon in fly ash. Unburned carbon is nowadays regarded as a waste product and its fate is mainly disposal, due to the present lack of efficient routes for its utilization. However, unburned carbon is a potential precursor for the production of adsorbent carbons, since it has gone through a devolatilization process while in the combustor, and therefore, only requires to be activated. Accordingly, the principal objective of this work was to characterize and utilize the unburned carbon in fly ash for the production of activated carbons. The unburned carbon samples were collected from different combustion systems, including pulverized utility boilers, a utility cyclone, a stoker, and a fluidized bed combustor. LOI (loss-on-ignition), proximate, ultimate, and petrographic analyses were conducted, and the surface areas of the samples were characterized by N2 adsorption isotherms at 77K. The LOIs of the unburned carbon samples varied between 21.79-84.52%. The proximate analyses showed that all the samples had very low moisture contents (0.17 to 3.39 wt %), while the volatile matter contents varied between 0.45 …

Burnable poisons are used in nuclear reactors to produce a more level distribution of power in the reactor core and to reduce to necessity for a large control system. An ideal burnable poison would burn at the same rate as the fuel. In this study, separation of neutron-absorbing isotopes was investigated in order to eliminate isotopes that remain as absorbers at the end of fuel life, thus reducing useful fuel life. The isotopes Gd-157, Dy-164, and Er-167 were found to have desirable properties. These isotopes were separated from naturally occurring elements by means of plasma separation to evaluate feasibility and cost. It was found that pure Gd-157 could save approximately $6 million at the end of four years. However, the cost of separation, using the existing facility, made separation cost- ineffective. Using a magnet with three times the field strength is expected to reduce the cost by a factor of ten, making isotopically separated burnable poisons a favorable method of increasing fuel life in commercial reactors, in particular Generation-IV reactors. The project also investigated various burnable poison configurations, and studied incorporation of metallic burnable poisons into fuel cladding.

For the academic year 2001-2002, the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences received $50,000 of industrial contributions, matched by a DOE grant of $35,000. We used the combined DOE/Industry Matching Grant of $85,000 toward (a) undergraduate merit scholarships and research support, (b) graduate student support, and (c) partial support of a research scientist.