Report that discusses the use or loss of control of chemical weapons stocks in Syria. It provides a brief history of the chemical weapons program in Syria and reports on the current situation of the chemical weapons program.

Report that provides government-wide, multi-agency, and individual agency analyses of the President's Fiscal Year 2014 request as it relates to R&D and related activities.

The subject matter covered within this report is European Union (EU) renewable electricity generation--specifically onshore wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity.

This report discusses the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) responsibilities in regard to immigration-related worksite enforcement, or enforcement of the prohibitions on unauthorized employment in Section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The INA §274A provisions, sometimes referred to as employer sanctions, make it unlawful for an employer to knowingly hire, recruit or refer for a fee, or continue to employ an alien who is not authorized to be so employed. This report looks at enforcement measures of this act.

This report provides background information and presents potential issues for Congress concerning the Navy's ship force-structure goals and shipbuilding plans. The planned size of the Navy, the rate of Navy ship procurement, and the prospective affordability of the Navy's shipbuilding plans have been matters of concern for the congressional defense committees for the past several years. Decisions that Congress makes on Navy shipbuilding programs can substantially affect Navy capabilities and funding requirements, and the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base.

This report provides information on locating military unit histories and individual service records of discharged, retired, and deceased military personnel. It also provides information on locating and replacing military awards and medals as well as contact information for military history centers, websites for additional sources of research, and a bibliography of other publications, including related CRS reports.

This report provides an overview of Serbia and its governmental structure, economy, and foreign relations with the U.S., Kosovo, Turkey, Russia, and the EU.

This report discusses the natural gas pipeline project, Nord Stream 2, that would allow Germany to increase the amount of natural gas it imports directly from Russia via the Baltic Sea, which has been criticized by President Trump.

This report discusses the fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which would authorize $708.1 billion in discretionary appropriations for national defense-related activities of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and other agencies. The bill (H.R. 5515) would authorize $16 billion (2.3%) more than the amount authorized by the FY2018 NDAA (P.L. 115-91) and match the amount requested by the Administration.

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The work reported in this presentation was establishing a theoretical procedure to identify most potential candidates of CO{sub 2} solid sorbents from a large solid material databank; and to explore the optimal working conditions for the promised CO{sub 2} solid sorbents and provide guidelines to the experimentalists. Our methodology can predict thermodynamic properties of solid materials and their CO{sub 2} capture reactions. Single solid may not satisfy the industrial operating conditions as CO{sub 2} sorbent, however, by mixing two or more solids, the new formed solid may satisfy the industrial needs. By exploring series of lithium silicates with different Li{sub 2}O/SiO{sub 2} ratio, we found that with decreasing Li{sub 2}O/SiO{sub 2} ratio the corresponding silicate has a lower turnover temperature and vice versa. Compared to pure MgO, the Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3}, K{sub 2}CO{sub 3} and CaCO{sub 3} promoted MgO sorbent has a higher turnover T. These results provide guidelines to synthesize sorbent materials by mixing different solids with different ratio.

This presentation focuses on how thermal energy can effectively be used to enhance characterization, promote the remediation, and aid in delivering a sequestering agent to stabilize elemental mercury in subsurface soils. Slides and speaker notes are provided.

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Radiation portal monitors used for interdiction of illicit materials at borders include highly sensitive neutron detection systems. The main reason for having neutron detection capability is to detect fission neutrons from plutonium. The currently deployed radiation portal monitors (RPMs) from Ludlum and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) use neutron detectors based upon 3He-filled gas proportional counters, which are the most common large neutron detector. There is a declining supply of 3He in the world, and thus, methods to reduce the use of this gas in RPMs with minimal changes to the current system designs and sensitivity to cargo-borne neutrons are being investigated. Four technologies have been identified as being currently commercially available, potential alternative neutron detectors to replace the use of 3He in RPMs. Reported here are the results of tests of a boron-lined proportional counter design variation. In the testing described here, the neutron detection efficiency and gamma ray rejection capabilities of a system manufactured by Proportional Technologies, Inc, was tested.

Research has been completed in a pilot scale, eight foot diameter tank to investigate blending, using a pump with dual opposing jets. The jets re-circulate fluids in the tank to promote blending when fluids are added to the tank. Different jet diameters and different horizontal and vertical orientations of the jets were investigated. In all, eighty five tests were performed both in a tank without internal obstructions and a tank with vertical obstructions similar to a tube bank in a heat exchanger. These obstructions provided scale models of several miles of two inch diameter, serpentine, vertical cooling coils below the liquid surface for a full scale, 1.3 million gallon, liquid radioactive waste storage tank. Two types of tests were performed. One type of test used a tracer fluid, which was homogeneously blended into solution. Data were statistically evaluated to determine blending times for solutions of different density and viscosity, and the blending times were successfully compared to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. The other type of test blended solutions of different viscosity. For example, in one test a half tank of water was added to a half tank of a more viscous, concentrated salt solution. In this case, the fluid …

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On March 26, 2013, the Snohomish County Public Utility District (PUD) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) jointly hosted the Pacific Northwest Cyber Summit with the DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, the White House, Washington State congressional delegation, Washington State National Guard, and regional energy companies.

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