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This report discusses the scope and nature of the vulnerability of hazardous materials (hazmats) transportation and its potential relations to terrorists attacks.

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; Release of "provisional autopsy report" maintained by a justice of the peace (RQ-0380-JC)

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In the event of a domestic terrorist attack or other major disasters, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is to provide backup medical resources to the military health system and local communities. VA now assists other federal agencies that have lead responsibility for responding to disasters, including terrorism. Its areas of responsibility include disaster simulation exercises and maintaining medical stockpiles. VA's efforts in these areas have enhanced national emergency preparedness by improving medical response procedures and by strengthening the security of federal pharmaceutical stockpiles to ensure rapid response to local authorities. VA also has resources that could play a role in future federal homeland security efforts. Its assets include the bricks, mortar, and human capital components of its health care system; graduate medical education programs; and expertise involving emergency backup and support activities. In managing large-scale medical emergencies arising from terrorist attacks, VA's emergency response capabilities have strengths and weaknesses. Determining how VA can best contribute to homeland security is especially timely given the extraordinary level of federal activity underway to manage large-scale disasters."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Graduate School provides extensive training opportunities to government employees and others. As a nonappropriated fund instrumentality, the Graduate School relies solely on income from the training it offers. During fiscal year 1999, the federal agencies GAO reviewed had 20 interagency agreements with the Graduate School totaling about $5.7 million. The agencies also had 531 contracts, totaling $29 million, with private companies for training and related services. The Graduate School's financial statements for fiscal year 1999 incorrectly identified the portion of revenue that was earned through interagency agreements. This misclassification occurred primarily because of the Graduate School's reporting policies."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Following the 2000 presidential election, concerns were raised about the election process, including the ability of some voting equipment to render a complete and accurate vote count. Furthermore, minorities and disadvantaged voters were seen as more likely to have their votes not counted because they may have used less reliable voting equipment than affluent white voters. GAO found that although the state in which counties are located had more of an effect on the number of uncounted presidential votes than did counties' demographic characteristics or voting equipment, there were statistically significant effects on uncounted presidential votes. State differences accounted for 26 percent of the total variation in uncounted presidential votes across counties. State differences may have included such factors as statewide voter education efforts, state standards for determining what is a valid vote, the use of straight party ballots, the number of candidates on the ballot, the use of provisional ballots, and the extent to which absentee or early voting occurred."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Information sharing and coordination are key elements in any defense against cyber attacks. The organizations GAO reviewed identified factors they considered critical to their success in building successful information-sharing relationships with and among their members. All of the organizations identified trust as essential to successful relationships. They said that trust could only be built over time and through personal relationships. One of the most difficult challenges identified was the initial reluctance of new members to share information. Other challenges included (1) developing agreements on the use and protection of shared information, (2) obtaining adequate funding for websites and meetings while avoiding contributions intended primarily to promote the interests of an individual organization, (3) maintaining a focus on emerging issues of interest to members, and (4) maintaining appropriately skilled professional and administrative staff."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal law requires that disabled persons have access to polling places on election day. State political subdivisions must ensure that polling places used in federal elections are accessible. Exceptions are allowed if all potential polling places have been surveyed, no accessible place is available, and the political subdivision cannot make one temporarily accessible. In these cases, disabled voters must either be reassigned to an accessible polling place or provided another means for voting on election day. All states have provisions that address voting by people with disabilities, but these provisions vary greatly. All states provide for one or more alternative voting methods or accommodations that may facilitate voting by people with disabilities. States and localities have made several efforts to improve voting accessibility for the disabled, such as modifying poling places, acquiring new voting equipment, and expanding voting options. Nevertheless, state and county election officials GAO surveyed cited various challenges to improving access."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Events surrounding the 2000 presidential election raised concerns about the reliability of various types of voting equipment, the role of election officials, the disqualification of absentee ballots, and the accuracy of vote counts and recounts. As a result, public officials and various interest groups have proposed reforms to address perceived shortcomings. This report discusses: (1) voter registration; (2) absentee and early voting; (3) election day administration; and (4) vote counts, certification, and recounts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Events surrounding the last presidential election raised concerns about the people, processes, and technology used to administer elections. GAO has already reported on the scope of congressional authority in election administration and voting assistance to military and overseas citizens. This report focuses on the status and use of federal voting equipment standards, which define minimum functional and performance requirements for voting equipment. The standards define minimum life-cycle management processes for voting equipment developers to follow, such as quality assurance. No federal agency has been assigned explicit statutory responsibility for developing voting equipment standards; however, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) developed voluntary standards for computer-based systems in 1990, and Congress has provided funding for this effort. No federal agency is responsible for testing voting equipment against the federal standards. Instead, the National Association of State Election Directors accredits independent test authorities who test voting equipment against the standards."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "One of the priorities of the U.S. Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Council is to improve financial performance through better financial management systems. The Bush administration has identified several management reform initiatives, including strategic management of human capital, improving financial performance and expanding e-government. Under the auspices of the Financial Systems Committee and Human Resources Committee of the CFO Council and the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program, an interagency team was established to develop strategies to build the work force capacity for financial system implementation projects."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As a result of events surrounding the November 2000 presidential election, public officials and various interest groups have proposed reforms to address perceived shortcomings of various election systems. The complexity and intricacy of the American electoral system suggests that the success of an election system depends on the appropriate integration of people, processes, and technology. This report presents an analytical framework that Congress could use as it weighs the merits of various reform proposals."

This report discusses results of testing done in the Savannah River Laboratory half tank and full tank mockup facilities using kaolin clay slurries and the relationship between cleaning radius and pump and slurry characteristics.

We present a preliminary measurement of the central inclusive jet cross section using a successive combination algorithm based on relative transverse momenta (k{perpendicular}) for jet reconstruction. We analyze a 87.3 pb{sup -1} data sample collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron p{bar p} Collider during 1994-1995. The cross section, reported as a function of transverse momentum (p{sub T} > 60 GeV) in the central region of pseudo-rapidity (|{eta}| < 0.5), is in reasonable agreement with next-to-leading order QCD predictions. This is the first jet production measurement in a hadron collider using a successive combination type of jet algorithm.

We point out what we may learn from the investigation of identical two-particle interferometry in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions if we assume a particular model scenario by the formation of a thermalized quark-gluon plasma hadronizing via a first-order phase transition to an interacting hadron gas. The bulk properties of the two-pion correlation functions are dominated by these late and soft resonance gas rescattering processes. However, we show that kaons at large transverse momenta have several advantages and a bigger sensitivity to the QCD phase transition parameters.

This reports summarizes results of a study of devitrification (or crystallization) of three simulated Savannah River Plant waste glass compositions.

This report presents the results of an investigation of the magnitudes and orientations of the in situ stresses in basement rocks beneath the Savannah River Site (SRS). Stress magnitudes were measured using the hydraulic fracturing technique. Stress orientations were obtained from the orientation of stress-induced wellbore breakouts and hydraulically-induced fractures. The measurements reported here were carried out in the New Production Reactor (NPR) hole, drilled to a total depth of 4000 feet near the center of the Savannah River Site, at roughly the location of the proposed NPR. The results obtained in this study are compared to previous stress measurements made using the same techniques in a series of shallower holes on the SRS, and discussed in the context of the regional stress field and potential seismic hazard.

This report discusses the results of a study of catalyzed hydrazine reduction of ferrous nitrate. It is apparent that there is a substantial reaction between hydrazine and nitrate ion (or nitric acid) to produce HN3 during both the reduction of Fe(III) and during storage at room temperature.

This report summarizes results of a sensitivity analysis that predicts which features of the waste form and barrier system will have the greatest impact on dose to man.

Influence of p-dopants (Mg and Be) on the structure of GaN has been studied using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Bulk GaN:Mg and GaN:Be crystals grown by a high pressure and high temperature process and GaN:Mg grown by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) have been studied. Structural dependence on growth polarity was observed in the bulk crystals. Spontaneous ordering in bulk GaN:Mg on c-plane (formation of Mg-rich planar defects with characteristics of inversion domains) was observed for growth in the N to Ga polar direction (N polarity). On the opposite site of the crystal (growth in the Ga to N polar direction) Mg-rich pyramidal defects empty inside (pinholes) were observed. Both these defects were also observed in MOCVD grown crystals. Pyramidal defects were also observed in the bulk GaN:Be crystals.

Comparative finite element modeling simulations of initial intergranular fracture of two iron aluminides (FA186 and FA189) were carried out to study the intrinsic and extrinsic fracture behavior of the alloys as related to hydrogen embrittlement. The computational simulations involved sequentially-coupled stress and mass-diffusion analyses to determine the stress/strain distribution and the extent of hydrogen concentration at the crack tip region. Simulations of initial intergranular fracture of the two alloys under either air or vacuum conditions were conducted. With judicious selection of grain boundary failure strains for each alloy and assumed material degradation at hydrogen diffusion zone, the numerical results agree well with previous experimental test results. We have considered the various methods by which the thermal expansion of Fe{sub 3}Al can be modeled. As a matter of practicality, we have started with a conceptually simple continuum medium modeling, which we have used in initial calculations reported here, despite its limitations in neglecting the effects of optical phonons. This makes the results increasingly suspect for temperatures above the Debye temperature. However, the results we obtain are surprisingly good considering this important limitation. Nevertheless, we regard these results as being suspect. Therefore, in addition, we discuss a wholly new ab-initio-based method which …

This report documents tests performed to verify that the monitoring system for the 296-Z-7 ventilation stack meets the applicable regulatory criteria regarding the placement of the air sampling probe, sample transport, and stack flow measurement accuracy.

This report documents the U.S. Department of Transportation Specification 7A Type A compliance test and evaluation results of the Standard Waste Box. Testing and evaluation activities documented herein are on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy-Headquarters, Office of Safety, Health and Security (EM-5), Germantown, Maryland. Duratek Federal Services, Inc., Northwest Operations performed an evaluation of the changes as documented herein under Docket 01-53-7A.