A dual-cathode arc plasma source was combined with acomputer-controlled bias amplifier such as to synchronize substrate biaswith the pulsed production of plasma. In this way, bias can be applied ina material-selective way. The principle has been applied to the synthesismetal-doped diamond-like carbon films, where the bias was applied andadjusted when the carbon plasma was condensing, and the substrate was atground when the metal was incorporated. In doing so, excessive sputteringby too-energetic metal ions can be avoided while the sp3/sp2 ratio can beadjusted. It is shown that the resistivity of the film can be tuned bythis species-selective bias. The principle can be extended tomultiple-material plasma sources and complex materials

Keynote presentation given by Dan Arvizu at the Green Engineering Summit held in Anaheim, California on October 5, 2006.

This report provides a context for evaluating legislative proposals through examples of how science has been used in selected cases, a discussion of the nature and role of science in general, and its role in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) process in particular, together with general and agency information quality requirements and policies, and a review of how the courts have viewed agency use of science.

This report provides a context for evaluating legislative proposals through examples of how science has been used in selected cases, a discussion of the nature and role of science in general, and its role in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) process in particular, together with general and agency information quality requirements and policies, and a review of how the courts have viewed agency use of science.

The influence of incident neutron attenuation on signal strengths in the Nuclear Car Wash has been observed experimentally for both wood and steel-pipe mock cargos. Measured decay curves are presented for {beta}-delayed high-energy {gamma}-rays and thermalized neutrons following neutron-induced fission of HEU through varying irradiation lengths. Error rates are extracted for delayed-{gamma} and delayed-n signals integrated to 30 seconds, assuming Gaussian distributions for the active background. The extrapolation to a field system of 1 mA deuterium current and to a 5 kg sample size is discussed.

Section 401 of the Clean Water Act requires that an applicant for a federal license or permit provide a certification that any discharges from the facility will comply with the Act, including water quality standard requirements. Disputes have arisen over the states' exercise of authority under Section 401. Until recently, much of the debate over the Section 401 certification issue has been between states and hydropower interests. A 1994 Supreme Court decision which upheld the states' authority in this area dismayed development and hydroelectric power interest groups. The Court revisited these issues in a 2006 ruling that unanimously upheld the states' authority to condition hydropower licenses. The dispute between states and industry groups about Section 401 authority has been a legislative issue on several occasions, but Congress has not responded by modifying the provision's scope. In addition, there has been interest in clarifying whether Section 401 certification applies to nonpoint source discharges, such as rainfall runoff, as well as point source discharges from pipes or ditches.

This report provides information on the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Circular A-76, "Performance of Commercial Activities," and the impact of a related reform initiative, the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act (FAIR) of 1998, within the Department of Defense (DOD). The Circular defines federal policy for determining whether recurring commercial activities should be transferred to performance by the private sector, or performed by federal government employees. The FAIR Act creates statutory reporting requirements for federal executive agencies, by requiring federal executive agencies to identify activities both "inherently governmental" and those not inherently governmental, and to conduct managed competitions to determine who is best to perform the service.

This report provides information on the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Circular A-76, “Performance of Commercial Activities,” and the impact of a related reform initiative, the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act (FAIR) of 1998, within the Department of Defense. The Circular defines federal policy for determining whether recurring commercial activities should be outsourced to commercial sources, Governmental facilities, or through inter-service support agreements. The FAIR Act creates statutory reporting requirements for federal executive agencies, by requiring Federal executive agencies to identify activities “not inherently governmental” and consider outsourcing through managed competitions. However, FAIR does not require that agencies contract out these activities.

CDX-U has been operated with the vacuum vessel wall and limiter surfaces nearly completely coated with lithium, producing dramatic improvements to plasma performance. Discharges achieved global energy confinement times up to 6 ms, exceeding previous CDX-U results by a factor of 5, and ITER98P(y,1) scaling by 2-3. Lithium wall coatings up to 1000 {angstrom} thick were applied between discharges by electron-beam-induced evaporation of a lithium-filled limiter and vapor deposition from a resistively heated oven. The e-beam power was modest (1.6 kW) but it produced up to 60 MW/m2 power density in a 0.3 cm{sup 2} spot; the duration was up to 300 s. Convective transport of heat away from the beam spot was so effective that the entire lithium inventory (140 g) was heated to evaporation (400-500 C) and there was no observable hot spot on the lithium surface within the beam footprint. These results are promising for use of lithium plasma-facing components in reactor scale devices. Lithium coating has also been applied to NSTX carbon plasma-facing surfaces, to control the density rise during long-duration H-modes for non-inductive current sustainment. First, lithium pellets were injected into sequences of Ohmically heated helium plasmas in both center stack limiter (CSL) and lower …

The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) has made considerable progress in advancing the scientific understanding of high performance long-pulse plasmas needed for ITER and future low-aspect-ratio Spherical Torus (ST) devices. Plasma durations up to 1.6s (5 current redistribution times) have been achieved at plasma currents of 0.7 MA with non-inductive current fractions above 65% while achieving {beta}{sub T} and {beta}{sub N} values of 16% and 5.7 (%mT/MA), respectively. Newly available Motional Stark Effect data has allowed systematic study and validation of current drive sources and improved the understanding of ''hybrid''-like scenarios. In MHD research, six mid-plane ex-vessel radial field coils have been utilized to infer and correct intrinsic error fields, provide rotation control, and actively stabilize the n=1 resistive wall mode at ITER-relevant low plasma rotation values. In transport and turbulence, the low aspect ratio and wide range of achievable {beta} in NSTX provide unique data for confinement scaling studies. A new high-k scattering diagnostic is investigating turbulent density fluctuations with wavenumbers extending from ion to electron gyro-scales. In the area of energetic particle research, cyclic neutron rate drops have been associated with the destabilization of multiple large Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes (TAEs) similar to the ''sea-of-TAE'' modes predicted for ITER. …

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Ultrafast excited state structural dynamics of [Cu{sup I}(dmp){sub 2}]{sup +} (dmp = 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline) have been studied to identify structural origins of transient spectroscopic changes during the photoinduced metal-to-ligand-charge-transfer (MLCT) transition that induces an electronic configuration change from Cu(I) (3d{sup 10}) to Cu(II) (3d{sup 9}). This study has important connections with the flattening of the Franck-Condon state tetrahedral geometry and the ligation of Cu(II)* with the solvent observed in the thermally equilibrated MLCT state by our previous laser-initiated time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy (LITR-XAS) results. To better understand the structural photodynamics of Cu(I) complexes, we have studied both [Cu{sup I}(dmp){sub 2}]{sup +} and [Cu{sup I}(dpp){sub 2}]{sup +} (dpp = 2,9-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline) in solvents with different dielectric constants, viscosities and thermal diffusivities by transient absorption spectroscopy. The observed spectral dynamics suggest that a solvent-independent inner-sphere relaxation process is occurring despite the large amplitude motions due to the flattening of the tetrahedral coordinated geometry. The singlet fluorescence dynamics of photoexcited [Cu{sup I}(dmp){sub 2}]{sup +} were measured in the coordinating solvent acetonitrile, using the fluorescence upconversion method at different emission wavelengths. At the bluest emission wavelengths, a prompt fluorescence lifetime of 66 fs is attributed to the excited state deactivation processes due to the internal conversion …

Increasingly, Congress and the Bush Administration are looking to utilize nonproliferation assistance programs, including cooperative threat reduction (CTR), to help reduce the risk of terrorist access to weapons of mass destruction (WMD). This report analyzes the range of possible applications of CTR funds, the kinds of assistance that might be supplied, and describes legal, financial, technical, and political constraints on possible assistance.

This report analyzes the range of possible applications of Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) funds, the kinds of assistance that might be supplied, and describes legal, financial, technical, and political constraints on possible assistance.

This report discusses the Regulatory Developments and Issues regarding Arsenic in Drinking Water. The report reviews issues surrounding the arsenic rule and related congressional and Environmental Protection Agency actions.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO continues to have concerns about restatements to federal agencies' previously issued financial statements. During fiscal year 2005, at least 7 of the 24 Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies restated certain of their fiscal year 2004 financial statements to correct misstatements. To study this trend, GAO reviewed the nature and causes of the restatements made by certain CFO Act agencies in fiscal year 2004 to their fiscal year 2003 financial statements. Eleven CFO Act agencies had restatements for fiscal year 2003. Nine of those 11 received unqualified opinions on their originally issued fiscal year 2003 financial statements. GAO's view is that users of federal agencies' financial statements and the related audit reports need to be provided at least a basic understanding of why a restatement was necessary and its effect on the agencies' previously issued financial statements and related audit reports. This report communicates GAO's observations on the transparency and timeliness of the 9 federal agencies' and their auditors' restatement disclosures."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Despite various reform efforts, significant inefficiencies in United Nations (UN) management operations persist. In September 2005, heads of UN member states approved a resolution that called for a series of reforms to strengthen the organization. As the largest financial contributor to the UN, the United States has a strong interest in the progress of UN reform initiatives. GAO was asked to (1) identify and track the status of UN management reforms in five key areas and (2) identify factors that may affect the implementation of these reform initiatives. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed documents proposing UN management reform and interviewed U.S. and UN officials."

In this document we discuss specific implementations for gamma-ray imaging instruments including the principle of operation and describe systems which have been built and demonstrated as well as systems currently under development. There are several fundamentally different technologies each with specific operational requirements and performance trade offs. We provide an overview of the different gamma-ray imaging techniques and briefly discuss challenges and limitations associated with each modality (in the appendix we give detailed descriptions of specific implementations for many of these technologies). In Section 3 we summarize the performance and operational aspects in tabular form as an aid for comparing technologies and mapping technologies to potential applications.

The complexation of plutonium(IV) with sulfate at variable temperatures has been investigated by solvent extraction method. A NaBrO{sub 3} solution was used as holding oxidant to maintain the plutonium(IV) oxidation state throughout the experiments. The distribution ratio of Pu(IV) between the organic and aqueous phases was found to decrease as the concentrations of sulfate were increased. Stability constants of the 1:1 and 1:2 Pu(IV)-HSO{sub 4}{sup -} complexes, dominant in the aqueous phase, were calculated from the effect of [HSO{sub 4}{sup -}] on the distribution ratio. The enthalpy and entropy of complexation were calculated from the stability constants at different temperatures using the Van't Hoff equation.

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