In July 2005 the North American Solar Challenge (NASC) featured university built solar powered cars ran across the United States into Canada. The competition began in Austin, Texas with stops in Weatherford, Texas; Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; Topeka, Kansas; Omaha, Nebraska; Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Fargo, North Dakota; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Brandon, Manitoba; Regina, Saskatchewan; Medicine Hat, Alberta; mainly following U.S. Highway 75 and Canadian Highway 1 to the finish line in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, for a total distance of 2,500 miles. NASC major sponsors include the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Natural Resources Canada and DOEs National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The event is designed to inspire young people to pursue careers in science and engineering. NASCs predecessors, the American Solar Challenge and Sunrayce, generally have been held every two years since 1990. With each race, the solar cars travel faster and further with greater reliability. The NASC promotes: -Renewable energy technologies (specifically photovoltaic or solar cells) -Educational excellence in science, engineering and mathematics -Creative integration of technical and scientific expertise across a wide-range of disciplines -Hands-on experience for students and engineers to develop and demonstrate their technical and creative abilities. Safety is the first priority for the NASC. Each team put …

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It is with great pleasure that I present to you the 2008 Chief Financial Officer's Annual Report. The data included in this report has been compiled from the Budget Office, the Controller, Procurement and Property Management and the Sponsored Projects Office. Also included are some financial comparisons with other DOE Laboratories and a glossary of commonly used acronyms.

This report summarizes the results of a proejct sponsored by DTRA to 1) Assess the readiness of private-sector businesses, building owners, and service providers to restore property and recover operations in the aftermath of a wide-area dispersal of anthrax; and 2) Understand what private property owners and businesses "want and need" from federal, state, and local government to support recovery and restoration from such an incident.

This report reviews the statutory basis for the triennial exemptions, explains the Copyright Office's rulemaking process pursuant to 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), summarizes the exemptions granted and rejected in 2006, and describes public reactions to the 2006 exemptions.

A coordinate system adapted to the invariant structures of chaotic magnetic fields is constructed. The coordinates are based on a set of ghost-surfaces, defined via an action-gradient flow between the minimax and minimizing periodic orbits. The construction of the chaotic coordinates allows an expression describing the temperature gradient across a chaotic magnetic field to be derived. The results are in close agreement with a numerical calculation.

Growth and dissolution of Fe and Mn oxide films are key regulators of the fate and transport of heavy metals in the environment, especially during changing seasonal conditions of pH and dissolved oxygen. The Fe and Mn are present at much higher concentrations than the heavy metals, and, when Fe and Mn precipitate as oxide films, heavy metals surface adsorb or co-precipitate and are thus essentially immobilized. Conversely, when the Fe and Mn oxide films dissolve, the heavy metals are released to aqueous solution and are thus mobilized for transport. Therefore, understanding the dynamics and properties of Fe and Mn oxide films and thus on the uptake and release of heavy metals is critically important to any attempt to develop mechanistic, quantitative models of the fate, transport, and bioavailablity of heavy metals. A primary capability developed in our earlier work was the ability to grow manganese oxide (MnO{sub x}) films on rhodochrosite (MnCO{sub 3}) substrate in presence of dissolved oxygen under mild alkaline conditions. The morphology of the films was characterized using contact-mode atomic force microscopy. The initial growth began by heteroepitaxial nucleation. The resulting films had maximum heights of 1.5 to 2 nm as a result of thermodynamic constraints. …

Detailed models for hydrogen storage systems provide essential design information about flow and temperature distributions, as well as, the utilization of a hydrogen storage media. However, before constructing a detailed model it is necessary to know the geometry and length scales of the system, along with its heat transfer requirements, which depend on the limiting reaction kinetics. More fundamentally, before committing significant time and resources to the development of a detailed model, it is necessary to know whether a conceptual storage system design is viable. For this reason, a hierarchical system of models progressing from scoping models to detailed analyses was developed. This paper, which discusses the scoping models, is the first in a two part series that presents a collection of hierarchical models for the design and evaluation of hydrogen storage systems.

There is significant interest in hydrogen storage systems that employ a media which either adsorbs, absorbs or reacts with hydrogen in a nearly reversible manner. In any media based storage system the rate of hydrogen uptake and the system capacity is governed by a number of complex, coupled physical processes. To design and evaluate such storage systems, a comprehensive methodology was developed, consisting of a hierarchical sequence of models that range from scoping calculations to numerical models that couple reaction kinetics with heat and mass transfer for both the hydrogen charging and discharging phases. The scoping models were presented in Part I [1] of this two part series of papers. This paper describes a detailed numerical model that integrates the phenomena occurring when hydrogen is charged and discharged. A specific application of the methodology is made to a system using NaAlH{sub 4} as the storage media.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks (MFWP) wrote the 'Fisheries Mitigation Plan for Losses Attributable to the Construction and Operation of Hungry Horse Dam' in March 1991 to define the fisheries losses, mitigation alternatives and recommendations to protect, mitigate and enhance resident fish and aquatic habitat affected by Hungry Horse Dam. On November 12, 1991, the Northwest Power Planning Council (NPPC) approved the mitigation plan with minor modifications, called for a detailed implementation plan, and amended measures 903(h)(1) through (7). A long-term mitigation plan was submitted in August 1992, was approved by the Council in 1993, and the first contract for this project was signed on November 11, 1993. The problem this project addresses is the loss of habitat, both in quality and quantity, in the Flathead Lake and River basin resulting from the construction and operation of Hungry Horse Dam. The purpose of the project is to both implement mitigation measures and monitor the biological responses to those measures including those implemented by Project Numbers 9101903 and 9101904. Goals and objectives of the 1994 Fish and Wildlife Program (Section 10.1) addressed by this project are the rebuilding to sustainable levels weak, but …

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The present program is centered on the experimental study of shock-induced interfacial fluid instabilities. Both 2-D (near-sinusoids) and 3-D (spheres) initial conditions are studied in a large, vertical square shock tube facility. The evolution of the interface shape, its distortion, the modal growth rates and the mixing of the fluids at the interface are all objectives of the investigation. In parallel to the experiments, calculations are performed using the Raptor code, on platforms made available by LLNL. These flows are of great relevance to both ICF and stockpile stewardship. The involvement of three graduate students is in line with the national laboratories' interest in the education of scientists and engineers in disciplines and technologies consistent with the labs' missions and activities.

The chemistry of Br species associated with sea salt ice and aerosols has been implicated in the episodes of ozone depletion reported at Arctic sunrise. However, Br{sup -} is only a minor component in sea salt, which has a Br{sup -}/Cl{sup -} molar ratio of {approx}0.0015. Sea salt is a complex mixture of many different species, with NaCl as the primary component. In recent years experimental and theoretical studies have reported enhancement of the large, more polarizable halide ion at the liquid/vapor interface of corresponding aqueous alkali halide solutions. The proposed enhancement is likely to influence the availability of sea salt Br{sup -} for heterogeneous reactions such as those involved in the ozone depletion episodes. We report here ambient pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies and molecular dynamics simulations showing direct evidence of Br{sup -} enhancement at the interface of an aqueous NaCl solution doped with bromide. The experiments were carried out on samples with Br{sup -}/Cl{sup -} ratios in the range 0.1% to 10%, the latter being also the ratio for which simulations were carried out. This is the first direct measurement of interfacial enhancement of Br{sup -} in a multi-component solution with particular relevance to sea salt chemistry.

This research examined the following items/issues: the NSFD methodology, technical achievements and applications, dissemination efforts and research related professional activities. Also a list of unresolved issues were identified that could form the basis for future research in the area of constructing and analyzing NSFD schemes for both ODE's and PDE's.

The overall goal of this project was to better understand the mechanisms by which Geobacter species transfer electrons outside the cell onto Fe(III) oxides. The rationale for this study was that Geobacter species are often the predominant microorganisms involved in in situ uranium bioremediation and the growth and activity of the Geobacter species during bioremediation is primarily supported by electron transfer to Fe(III) oxides. These studies greatly expanded the understanding of electron transfer to Fe(III). Novel concepts developed included the potential role of microbial nanowires for long range electron transfer in Geobacter species and the importance of extracytoplasmic cytochromes functioning as capacitors to permit continued electron transfer during the hunt for Fe(III) oxide. Furthermore, these studies provided target sequences that were then used in other studies to tract the activity of Geobacter species in the subsurface through monitoring the abundance of gene transcripts of the target genes. A brief summary of the major accomplishments of the project is provided.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Natural hazards adversely affect hundreds of thousands of people worldwide each year and cause extensive property damage. In 2007, a year that was not considered an exceptional one for natural hazards, natural hazards caused an estimated 14,600 deaths and $70 billion in property losses. For that year, the insurance industry covered $23.3 billion in losses. In catastrophic loss years, such as 2005--the year that saw Hurricane Katrina--losses can be far greater. Scientific assessments indicate that climate change is expected to alter the frequency and severity of natural hazard events, and as a result, losses can be expected to climb. Given this scenario, examining policies that are used in other countries to reduce the loss of life and property caused by natural hazard events and examining insurance approaches that provide coverage for natural hazard losses can help identify practices in both areas that could benefit the United States. Similarly, given the ongoing challenges facing the United States, international cooperative efforts may provide instructive examples of risk management and disaster reduction. Because of Congressional interest in these areas, GAO was asked to (1) identify policies used by other countries to …

This project focused on the microbial physiology and biochemistry of heterotrophic hyperthermophiles with respect to mechanisms by which these organisms process polypeptides and polysaccharides under normal and stressed conditions. Emphasis is on two model organisms, for which completed genome sequences are available: Pyrococcus furiosus (growth Topt of 98°C), an archaeon, and Thermotoga maritima (growth Topt of 80°C), a bacterium. Both organisms are obligately anaerobic heterotrophs that reduce sulfur facultatively. Whole genome cDNA spotted microarrays were used to follow transcriptional response to a variety of environmental conditions in order to identify genes encoding proteins involved in the acquisition, synthesis, processing and utilization of polypeptides and polysaccharides. This project provided new insights into the physiological aspects of hyperthermophiles as these relate to microbial biochemistry and biological function in high temperature habitats. The capacity of these microorganisms to produce biohydrogen from renewable feedstocks makes them important for future efforts to develop biofuels.

This report provides the technical justification for locating a large detector underground in a US based Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory. A large detector with a fiducial mass greater than 100 kTon will most likely be a multipurpose facility. The main physics justification for such a device is detection of accelerator generated neutrinos, nucleon decay, and natural sources of neutrinos such as solar, atmospheric and supernova neutrinos. The requirement on the depth of this detector will be guided by the rate of signals from these sources and the rate of backgrounds from cosmic rays over a very wide range of energies (from solar neutrino energies of 5 MeV to high energies in the range of tens of GeV). For the present report, we have examined the depth requirement for a large water Cherenkov detector and a liquid argon time projection chamber. There has been extensive previous experience with underground water Cherenkov detectors such as IMB, Kamioka, and most recently, Super-Kamiokande which has a fiducial mass of 22 kTon and a total mass of 50 kTon at a depth of 2700 meters-water-equivalent. Projections for signal and background capability for a larger and deeper (or shallower) detectors of this type can …

This document provides the user of the Waste Management Information System (WMIS) instructions on how to use the WMIS software. WMIS allows users to initiate, track, and close waste packages. The modular design supports integration and utilization of data throuh the various stages of waste management. The phases of the waste management work process include generation, designation, packaging, container management, procurement, storage, treatment, transportation, and disposal.

A new, fast, single-pulse x-ray diffraction (XRD) diagnostic for determining phase transitions in shocked polycrystalline materials has been developed. The diagnostic consists of a 37-stage Marx bank high-voltage pulse generator coupled to a needle-and-washer electron beam diode via coaxial cable, producing line and bremsstrahlung x-ray emission in a 35-ns pulse. The characteristic Kα lines from the selected anodes of silver and molybdenum are used to produce the diffraction patterns, with thin foil filters employed to remove the characteristic Kβ line emission. The x-ray beam passes through a pinhole collimator and is incident on the sample with an approximately 3-mm by 6-mm spot and 1° full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) angular divergence in a Bragg-reflecting geometry. For the experiments described in this report, the angle between the incident beam and the sample surface was 8.5°. A Debye-Scherrer diffraction image was produced on a phosphor located 76 mm from the polycrystalline sample surface. The phosphor image was coupled to a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera through a coherent fiberoptic bundle. Dynamic single-pulse XRD experiments were conducted with thin foil samples of tin, shock loaded with a 1-mm vitreous carbon back window. Detasheet high explosive with a 2-mm-thick aluminum buffer was used to shock the sample. Analysis …

We study dependence of jet quenching on matter density, using 'tomography' of the fireball provided by RHIC data on azimuthal anisotropy v{sub 2} of high p{sub t} hadron yield at different centralities. Slicing the fireball into shells with constant (entropy) density, we derive a 'layer-wise geometrical limit' v{sub 2}{sup max} which is indeed above the data v{sub 2} < v{sub x}{sup max}. Interestingly, the limit is reached only if quenching is dominated by shells with the entropy density exactly in the near-T{sub c} region. We show two models that simultaneously describe the high p{sub t} v{sub 2} and R{sub AA} data and conclude that such a description can be achieved only if the jet quenching is few times stronger in the near-T{sub c} region relative to QGP at T > T{sub c}. One possible reason for that may be recent indications that the near-T{sub c} region is a magnetic plasma of relatively light color-magnetic monopoles.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently released a proposed rule that would effectively reclassify equity indexed annuities as a security product in addition to being an insurance product. This report presents the different types of annuities, explains the taxation of annuities, and disentangles the federal and state roles in the regulation of annuities. It outlines the proposed SEC rule and its current status.

This report provides an overview of legislative developments in the 110th Congress regarding campaign finance laws.

New and advanced methodologies have been developed to characterize the nano and microstructure of cement paste and concrete exposed to aggressive environments. High resolution full-field soft X-ray imaging in the water window is providing new insight on the nano scale of the cement hydration process, which leads to a nano-optimization of cement-based systems. Hard X-ray microtomography images on ice inside cement paste and cracking caused by the alkali-silica reaction (ASR) enables three-dimensional structural identification. The potential of neutron diffraction to determine reactive aggregates by measuring their residual strains and preferred orientation is studied. Results of experiments using these tools will be shown on this paper.