Presentation about the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Hydrogen Secure Data Center and its work with fuel cell vehicles, fuel cell early market demonstrations, and fuel cell bus demonstrations. This presentation includes results of composite data products and a summary of the analysis objectives and data flow for the projects.

None

The DOE Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) Office of Engineering and Technology is responsible for implementing EM's International Cooperative Program. Over the past 15 years, collaborative work has been conducted through this program with researchers in Russia, Ukraine, France, United Kingdom and Republic of Korea. Currently, work is being conducted with researchers in Russia and Ukraine. Efforts aimed at evaluating and advancing technologies to support U.S. high-level waste (HLW) vitrification initiatives are being conducted in collaboration with Russian researchers. Work at Khlopin Radium Institute (KRI) is targeted at improving the throughput of current vitrification processes by increasing melting rate. These efforts are specifically targeted at challenging waste types identified at the Savannah River Site (SRS) and Hanford Site. The objectives of current efforts at SIA Radon are to gain insight into vitrification process limits for the cold crucible induction melter (CCIM) technology. Previous demonstration testing has shown that the CCIM offers the potential for dramatic increases in waste loading and waste throughput. However, little information is known regarding operational limits that could affect long-term, efficient CCIM operations. Collaborative work with the Russian Electrotechnical University (ETU) 'LETI' is aimed at advancing CCIM process monitoring, process control and design. The goal is …

None

Endo-xylanase (from Bacillus subtilis) or ferulic acid esterase (from Aspergillus niger) were expressed in wheat under the control of the endosperm specific 1DX5 glutenin promoter. Constructs both with and without the endoplasmic reticulum retention signal KDEL were used. Transgenic plants were recovered in all four cases but no qualitative differences could be observed whether KDEL was added or not. Endo-xylanase activity in transgenic grains was increased between two and three fold relative to wild type. The grains were shriveled and had a 25-33% decrease in mass. Extensive analysis of the cell walls showed a 10-15% increase in arabinose to xylose ratio, a 50% increase in the proportion of water extractable arabinoxylan, and a shift in the MW of the water extractable arabinoxylan from being mainly larger than 85 kD to being between 2 kD and 85 kD. Ferulic acid esterase expressing grains were also shriveled and the seed weight was decreased by 20-50%. No ferulic acid esterase activity could be detected in wild type grains whereas ferulic acid esterase activity was detected in transgenic lines. The grain cell walls had 15-40% increase in water unextractable arabinoxylan and a decrease in monomeric ferulic acid between 13 and 34%. In all the …

This report summarizes and compares provisions for green jobs training and worker adaptation assistance for climate change mitigation impacts in two recent bills.

This report provides an overview of high speed rail in the United States. It discusses definitions of high speed rail, looks at high speed rail in selected other countries, and describes congressional initiatives to promote HSR, including provisions in the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-432) and ARRA. The report then surveys rationales for developing HSR, cost estimates for HSR, and some of the challenges expected in implementing HSR.

This report provides an overview of Iraq's political transition from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to a plural polity that encompasses varying sects and ideological and political factions. This report also addresses ongoing governmental instabilities and their causes, as well as U.S. concerns about possible Iranian influence in Iraq as U.S. forces depart the country.

None

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Rail transit generally has been one of the safest forms of public transportation. However, several recent notable accidents are cause for concern. For example, a July 2009 crash on the Washington Metro Red Line resulted in nine deaths. The federal government does not directly regulate the safety of rail transit. Through its State Safety Oversight program, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) requires states to designate an oversight agency to directly oversee the safety of rail transit systems. In 2006, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report that made recommendations to improve the program. The Department of Transportation (DOT) is planning to propose legislation that, if passed, would result in a greater role for FTA in regulating and overseeing the safety of these systems. This statement (1) summarizes the findings of GAO's 2006 report and (2) provides GAO's preliminary observations on key elements DOT has told us it will include in its legislative proposal for revamping rail transit safety oversight. It is based primarily on GAO's 2006 report, an analysis of the Administration's proposal through review of documents and interviews with DOT officials, and GAO's previous work on …

Presentation that reviews reliability issues related to various types of photovoltaic tecnnologies, including crystalline silicon, thin films, and concentrating PV.

The Department of Energy (DOE) Complex has over two-hundred underground storage tanks containing over 80-million gallons of legacy waste from the production of nuclear weapons. The majority of the waste is located at four major sites across the nation and is planned for treatment over a period of almost forty years. The DOE Office of Technology Innovation & Development within the Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) sponsors technology research and development programs to support processing advancements and technology maturation designed to improve the costs and schedule for disposal of the waste and closure of the tanks. Within the waste processing focus area are numerous technical initiatives which included the development of a suite of waste removal technologies to address the need for proven equipment and techniques to remove high level radioactive wastes from the waste tanks that are now over fifty years old. In an effort to enhance the efficiency of waste retrieval operations, the DOE-EM Office of Technology Innovation & Development funded an effort to improve communications and information sharing between the DOE's major waste tank locations as it relates to retrieval. The task, dubbed the Retrieval Knowledge Center (RKC) was co-lead by the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) …

The problems addressed by this work include cloud optical depth retrieval from satellite and surface data and 3D radiative transfer in dynamical models.

The overall objective of the EM-31 Rheological Modifiers and Wetting Agents program is to utilize commercially available rheology modifiers to increase the solids fraction of radioactive sludge based waste streams, resulting in an increase in throughput and decreasing the overall processing time. The program first investigates the impact of rheology modifiers on slurry simulants and then utilizes the most effective rheology modifiers on radioactive slurries. The work presented in this document covers the initial investigation of rheology modifier testing with simulants. This task is supported by both the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The SRNL EM-31 task, for this year, was to investigate the use of rheology modifiers on simulant Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) melter feeds. The task is to determine, based on the impact of the rheology modifier, if there are rheology modifiers that could reduce the water content of the slurry going to the DWPF melter, hence increasing the melt rate by decreasing the water loading. The rheology modifier in essence would allow a higher solids content slurry to have the same type of rheology or pumpability of a lower solids slurry. The modifiers selected in this report were determined based …

Proposed budget for the Texas State Office of Risk Management outlining projected income and expenditures, with supporting documentation.

The Laser Inertial Fusion-based (LIFE) engine is an advanced energy concept under development at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). LIFE engine could be used to drive a subcritical fission blanket with fertile or fissile fuel. Current LIFE engine designs envisages fuel in pebble bed form with TRISO (tristructural isotropic) particles embedded in a graphite matrix, and pebbles flowing in molten salt Flibe (2LiF+BeF{sub 2}) coolant at T {approx} 700C. Weapons-grade plutonium (WGPu) fuel is an attractive option for LIFE engine involving the achievement of high fractional burnups in a short lifetime frame. However, WGPu LIFE engine operating conditions of high neutron fast fluence, high radiation damage, and high Helium and Hydrogen production pose severe challenges for typical TRISO particles. The thermo-mechanical fuel performance code HUPPCO (High burn-Up fuel Pebble Performance COde) currently under development accounts for spatial and time dependence of the material elastic properties, temperature, and irradiation swelling and creep mechanisms. In this work, some aspects of the thermo-mechanical response of TRISO particles used for incineration of weapons grade fuel in LIFE engine are analyzed. Preliminary results show the importance of developing reliable high-fidelity models of the performance of these new fuel designs and the need of new experimental …

This report provides background information on the World Heritage Convention, outlines U.S. participation and funding, and highlights criteria for adding and removing sites from the World Heritage Lists. It also discusses possible issues for the 111th Congress.

A look at how the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act of 1979 affected TARP funding for the Detroit Big Three.

This report discusses Federal laws and policies related to Greenhouse Gas Reductions regarding Climate Change.

This report describes the steps which precede the joint session and the procedures set in the Constitution and statute by which the House and Senate jointly certify the results of the electoral vote. It also discusses the procedures set in law governing challenges to the validity of an electoral vote, and makes reference to the procedures followed during the joint session in 2005 by which the election of George W. Bush was certified.

None

None

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are conducting research to investigate the feasibility of producing mixed alcohols from biomass-derived synthesis gas (syngas). PNNL is tasked with obtaining commercially-available catalysts or preparing promising mixed-alcohol catalysts and screening them in a laboratory-scale reactor system. Commercially-available catalysts and the most promising experimental catalysts are provided to NREL for testing using a slipstream from a pilot-scale biomass gasifier. A total of 28 tests were conducted to evaluate 22 different promoters as well as an unpromoted catalyst. The following general trends were observed for the test results: • The highest carbon selectivity to C2+ oxygenates occurred at the lowest reaction temperatures and accompanying lowest space time yields (STYs). • The lowest carbon selectivity to C2+ oxygenates occurred at the highest reaction temperatures because of high carbon conversion to hydrocarbons. • The highest C2+-oxygenate STYs occurred between 300°C and 325°C, with the gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) adjusted when necessary to maintain carbon conversion ranges between ~ 30 and 40 percent. Higher carbon selectivity to hydrocarbons at higher temperatures resulted in lower C2+-oxygenate STYs. • When catalysts were heated to between 300°C and 325°C the catalysts showed evidence of some deactivation …

We have reexamined our previously published data to search for evidence of correlations between the rates for the alpha, beta-minus, beta-plus, and electron capture decays of 22Na, 44Ti, 108Agm, 121Snm, 133Ba, and 241Am and the Earth?Sun distance. We find no evidence for such correlations and set limits on the possible amplitudes of such correlations substantially smaller than those observed in previous experiments.