High pressure die casting is an intrinsically efficient net shape process and improvements in energy efficiency are strongly dependent on design and process improvements that reduce scrap rates so that more of the total consumed energy goes into acceptable, usable castings. Computer simulation has become widely used within the industry but use is not universal. Further, many key design decisions must be made before the simulation can be run and expense in terms of money and time often limits the number of decision iterations that can be explored. This work continues several years of work creating simple, very fast, design tools that can assist with the early stage design decisions so that the benefits of simulation can be maximized and, more importantly, so that the chances of first shot success are maximized. First shot success and better running processes contributes to less scrap and significantly better energy utilization by the process. This new technology was predicted to result in an average energy savings of 1.83 trillion BTUs/year over a 10 year period. Current (2011) annual energy saving estimates over a ten year period, based on commercial introduction in 2012, a market penetration of 30% by 2015 is 1.89 trillion BTUs/year …

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This report provides information on the United Nations (U.N.) framework and process for options being discussed regarding possible Palestinian statehood, including overviews of the following topics: the U.N. and recognition of states, observer status in the United Nations, and the criteria and process for United Nations membership. The report also analyzes the prospects for avoiding U.N. action by reaching an Israel-PLO agreement to resume negotiations, as well as the possibility of a compromise U.N. resolution that could set forth parameters for future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations but stop short of addressing the question of Palestinian statehood beyond expressing aspirations.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), under the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) contract, collected split surface water samples with Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) representatives on August 21, 2013. Representatives from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation were also in attendance. Samples were collected at four surface water stations, as required in the approved Request for Technical Assistance number 11-018. These stations included Nolichucky River upstream (NRU), Nolichucky River downstream (NRD), Martin Creek upstream (MCU), and Martin Creek downstream (MCD). Both ORAU and NFS performed gross alpha and gross beta analyses, and the comparison of results using the duplicate error ratio (DER), also known as the normalized absolute difference, are tabulated. All DER values were less than 3 and results are consistent with low (e.g., background) concentrations.

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