This report provides an overview of U.S. relations with the five Nordic countries -- Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden -- which share deep historical, linguistic, and cultural ties and many political and economic similarities. Topics include foreign and security policies, policies toward Russia, and countering terrorism.

This report discusses the Energy and Water Development bill, which includes funding for civil works projects of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), the Department of the Interior's Central Utah Project (CUP) and Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), the Department of Energy (DOE), and a number of independent agencies, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).

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This report provides information to aid policymakers related to the laws and administrative policies governing the disaster response and recovery process. It also reviews the legislative framework for providing federal financial assistance following disasters, as well as the policies the executive branch employs to provide supplemental help to state (or territory), tribal, and local governments during time of disasters.

This NNSSER was prepared to satisfy DOE Order DOE O 231.1B, “Environment, Safety and Health Reporting.” Its purpose is to (1) report compliance status with environmental standards and requirements, (2) present results of environmental monitoring of radiological and nonradiological effluents, (3) report estimated radiological doses to the public from releases of radioactive material, (4) summarize environmental incidents of noncompliance and actions taken in response to them, (5) describe the NNSA/NSO Environmental Management System and characterize its performance, and (6) highlight significant environmental programs and efforts. This NNSSER summarizes data and compliance status for calendar year 2010 at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) (formerly the Nevada Test Site) and its two support facilities, the North Las Vegas Facility (NLVF) and the Remote Sensing Laboratory–Nellis (RSL-Nellis). It also addresses environmental restoration (ER) projects conducted at the Tonopah Test Range (TTR). Through a Memorandum of Agreement, NNSA/NSO is responsible for the oversight of TTR ER projects, and the Sandia Site Office of NNSA (NNSA/SSO) has oversight of all other TTR activities. NNSA/SSO produces the TTR annual environmental report available at http://www.sandia.gov/news/publications/environmental/index.html.

Introduction to the Nevada National Security Site Environmental Report 2010. Included are subsections that summarize the site’s geological, hydrological, climatological, and ecological setting and the cultural resources of the NNSS. The subsections are meant to aid the reader in understanding the complex physical and biological environment of the NNSS. An adequate knowledge of the site’s environment is necessary to assess the environmental impacts of new projects, design and implement environmental monitoring activities for current site operations, and assess the impacts of site operations on the public residing in the vicinity of the NNSS. The NNSS environment contributes to several key features of the site that afford protection to the inhabitants of adjacent areas from potential exposure to radioactivity or other contaminants resulting from NNSS operations. These key features include the general remote location of the NNSS, restricted access, extended wind transport times, the great depths to slow-moving groundwater, little or no surface water, and low population density. This attachment complements the annual summary of monitoring program activities and dose assessments presented in the main body of this report.

This document summarizes the data reported in the Nevada National Security Site Environmental Report 2010.

This attachment expands on the general description of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) presented in the Introduction to the Nevada Test Site Environmental Report 2009. Included are subsections that summarize the site’s geological, hydrological, climatological, and ecological setting. The cultural resources of the NTS are also presented. The subsections are meant to aid the reader in understanding the complex physical and biological environment of the NTS. An adequate knowledge of the site’s environment is necessary to assess the environmental impacts of new projects, design and implement environmental monitoring activities for current site operations, and assess the impacts of site operations on the public residing in the vicinity of the NTS. The NTS environment contributes to several key features of the site that afford protection to the inhabitants of adjacent areas from potential exposure to radioactivity or other contaminants resulting from NTS operations. These key features include the general remote location of the NTS, restricted access, extended wind transport times, the great depths to slow-moving groundwater, little or no surface water, and low population density. This attachment complements the annual summary of monitoring program activities and dose assessments presented in the main body of this report.

The U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office (NNSA/NSO) directs the management and operation of the Nevada Test Site (NTS). NNSA/NSO prepares the Nevada Test Site Environmental Report (NTSER) to provide the public an understanding of the environmental monitoring and compliance activities that are conducted on the NTS to protect the public and the environment from radiation hazards and from nonradiological impacts. The NTSER is a comprehensive report of environmental activities performed at the NTS and offsite facilities over the previous calendar year. It is prepared annually to meet the requirements and guidelines of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the information needs of NNSA/NSO stakeholders. This summary provides an abbreviated and more readable version of the NTSER. It does not contain detailed descriptions or presentations of monitoring designs, data collection methods, data tables, the NTS environment, or all environmental program activities performed throughout the year. The reader may obtain a hard copy of the full NTSER as directed on the inside front cover of this summary report.

This report provides background information on the negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program that began in the early 1990s under the Clinton Administration. As U.S. policy toward Pyongyang evolved through the George W. Bush and Obama presidencies, the negotiations moved from mostly bilateral to the multilateral Six-Party Talks (made up of China, Japan, Russia, North Korea, South Korea, and the United States).

Clipper Windpower, in collaboration with United Technologies Research Center, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation, developed a low-cost, deflection-compliant, reliable, and serviceable chain drive speed increaser. This chain and sprocket drivetrain design offers significant breakthroughs in the areas of cost and serviceability and addresses the key challenges of current geared and direct-drive systems. The use of gearboxes has proven to be challenging; the large torques and bending loads associated with use in large multi-MW wind applications have generally limited demonstrated lifetime to 8-10 years [1]. The large cost of gearbox replacement and the required use of large, expensive cranes can result in gearbox replacement costs on the order of $1M, representing a significant impact to overall cost of energy (COE). Direct-drive machines eliminate the gearbox, thereby targeting increased reliability and reduced life-cycle cost. However, the slow rotational speeds require very large and costly generators, which also typically have an undesirable dependence on expensive rare-earth magnet materials and large structural penalties for precise air gap control. The cost of rare-earth materials has increased 20X in the last 8 years representing a key risk to ever realizing the promised cost of energy reductions from direct-drive generators. A common challenge …

Two formulations of EPDM elastomer, one substituting a UV stabilizer for the normal antioxidant in this polymer, and the other the normal formulation, were synthesized and samples of each were exposed to gamma irradiation in initially pure deuterium gas to compare their radiation stability. Stainless steel containers having rupture disks were designed for this task. After 130 MRad dose of cobalt-60 radiation in the SRNL Gamma Irradiation Facility, a significant amount of gas was created by radiolysis; however the composition indicated by mass spectroscopy indicated an unexpected increase in the total amount deuterium in both formulations. The irradiated samples retained their ductility in a bend test. No change of sample weight, dimensions, or density was observed. No change of the glass transition temperature as measured by dynamic mechanical analysis was observed, and most of the other dynamic mechanical properties remained unchanged. There appeared to be an increase in the storage modulus of the irradiated samples containing the UV stabilizer above the glass transition, which may indicate hardening of the material by radiation damage. Revision 1 adds a comparison with results of a study of tritium exposed EPDM. The amount of gas produced by the gamma irradiation was found to be …

BlueFire Ethanol, Inc., a U.S. based corporation with offices in Irvine, California developed a cellulosic biorefinery to convert approximately 700 dry metric tons per day in to 18.9 million gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol. The Project is proposed to be located in the city of Fulton, County of Itawamba, Mississippi.

The UREX+1 process is under consideration for the separation of transuranic elements from spent nuclear fuel. The first steps of this process extract the fission product technicium-99 ({sup 99}Tc) into an organic phase containing tributylphosphate together with uranium. Treatment of this stream requires the separation of Tc from U and placement into a suitable waste storage form. A potential candidate waste form involves immobilizing the Tc as an alloy with either excess metallic zirconium or stainless steel. Although Tc-Zr alloys seem to be promising waste forms, alternative materials must be investigated. Innovative studies related to the synthesis and behavior of a different class of Tc materials will increase the scientific knowledge related to development of Tc waste forms. These studies will also provide a better understanding of the behavior of {sup 99}Tc in repository conditions. A literature survey has selected promising alternative waste forms for further study: technetium metallic alloys, nitrides, oxides, sulfides, and pertechnetate salts. The goals of this project are to 1) synthesize and structurally characterize relevant technetium materials that may be considered as waste forms, 2) investigate material behavior in solution under different conditions of temperature, electrochemical potential, and radiation, and 3) predict the long-term behavior of …

Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–Visible) and time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) optical techniques can permit on-line analysis of actinide elements in a solvent extraction process in real time. These techniques have been used for measuring actinide speciation and concentration under laboratory conditions and are easily adaptable to multiple sampling geometries, such as dip probes, fiber-optic sample cells, and flow-through cell geometries. To fully exploit these techniques, researchers must determine the fundamental speciation of target actinides and the resulting influence on spectroscopic properties. Detection limits, process conditions, and speciation of key actinide components can be established and utilized in a range of areas, particularly those related to materials accountability and process control. Through this project, researchers will develop tools and spectroscopic techniques to evaluate solution extraction conditions and concentrations of U, Pu, and Cm in extraction processes, addressing areas of process control and materials accountability. The team will evaluate UV– Visible and TRLFS for use in solvent extraction-based separations. Ongoing research is examining efficacy of UV-Visible spectroscopy to evaluate uranium and plutonium speciation under conditions found in the UREX process and using TRLFS to evaluate Cm speciation and concentration in the TALSPEAK process. A uranyl and plutonium nitrate UV–Visible spectroscopy study met with …

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This report provides a detailed description of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The first section describes participant eligibility criteria. The second section indicates a participant's entitlement to benefits and the period during which the benefits must be used. The third section describes the eligible programs of education. The subsequent section explains the eligible benefit payments. The final sections illustrate key links to other programs administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and current data on obligations and participation.

This report is an abridged version of CRS Report R42001, Attempt: An Overview of Federal Criminal Law, by Charles Doyle, without the footnotes, attributions, citations to authority, or appendix found in the longer report.

It is not a crime to attempt to commit most federal offenses. Unlike state law, federal law has no generally applicable crime of attempt. Congress, however, has outlawed the attempt to commit a substantial number of federal crimes on an individual basis. In doing so, it has proscribed the attempt, set its punishment, and left to the federal courts the task of further developing the law in this area. This report gives a background on, defines, explores defenses of, the sentencing of, and relations of other offenses to attempts of federal crimes.

This report begins with a short overview of Canada's political scene, economic conditions, security and foreign policy, and environmental initiatives, focusing particularly on issues that may be relevant to U.S. policymakers. This country survey is followed by several summaries of current bilateral issues in the political, international security, trade, and environmental arenas. The questions following each summary are designed as potential inquiries to Canadian officials to promote thought and discussion among policymakers.

Report regarding the slower than normal pace of the ongoing economic recovery and the likely role in that of weak consumer spending forced by a sharp loss of household net worth during the recession and the subsequent need to rebuild that lost wealth.

This report describes progress made during the final phase of our DOE-funded program on Nanostructured Magnetic Materials. This period was quite productive, resulting in the submission of three papers and presentation of three talks at international conferences and three seminars at research institutions. Our DOE-funded research efforts were directed toward studies of magnetism at surfaces and interfaces in high-quality, well-characterized materials prepared by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and sputtering. We have an exceptionally well-equipped laboratory for these studies, with: Thin film preparation equipment; Characterization equipment; Equipment to study magnetic properties of surfaces and ultra-thin magnetic films and interfaces in multi-layers and superlattices.

This report provides an overview of the federal response to domestic violence--defined broadly to include acts of physical and nonphysical violence against spouses and other intimate partners--through the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA). The report begins with background on the definitions of domestic violence, family violence, and related terms. This background section also describes the risk factors for domestic violence and estimates of the number of victims. The next section of the report addresses the history leading up to the enactment of FVPSA, and the major components of the act: a national domestic violence hotline, support for domestic violence shelters and non-residential services, and coordination efforts to prevent domestic violence. The report then discusses recent efforts under FVPSA to assist children and youth exposed to domestic violence, including teen dating violence. Finally, the report provides an overview of FVPSA's interaction with other federal laws, including the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).