This report examines the U.S. preparations process for WARC-92, highlighting efforts to integrate the needs and concerns of various interest groups. It also reviews the forces and trends affecting the United States as it approaches WARC-92, and is intended to inform future congressional oversight of the domestic and international radio communication policy process.
"The program concerning Acoustic Emission/Flaw Relationships for Inservice Monitoring of LWRs was entitled in FY76 with the objective of validating the application of acoustic emission (AE) to monitor nuclear reactor pressure-containing components during operation to detect cracking."
This background paper, OTA sought information and advice from a broad spectrum of knowledgeable individuals and organizations whose contributions are gratefully acknowledged. As with all OTA studies, the content of this background paper is the sole responsibility of the Office of Technology Assessment and does not necessarily represent the views of our advisers and reviewers.
This OTA’s report responds to the request of numerous Members of Congress to review the physical, emotional, and behavioral health status of contemporary American adolescents, including adolescents in groups who might be more likely to be in special need of health-related interventions: adolescents living in poverty, adolescents from racial and ethnic minority groups, Native American adolescents, and adolescents in rural areas. In addition, OTA was asked to: 1 ) identify risk and protective factors for adolescent health problems and integrate national data in order to understand the clustering of specific adolescent problems, 2) evaluate options in the organization of health services and technologies available to adolescents (including accessibility and financing), 3) assess options in the conduct of national health surveys to improve collection of adolescent health statistics, and 4) identify gaps in research on the health and behavior of adolescents.
The report responds to the request of numerous Members of Congress to review the physical, emotional, and behavioral health status of contemporary American adolescents, including adolescents in groups who might be more likely to be in special need of health-related interventions: adolescents living in poverty, adolescents from racial and ethnic minority groups, Native American adolescents, and adolescents in rural areas.
OTA’s report responds to the request of numerous Members of Congress to review the physical, emotional, and behavioral health status of contemporary American adolescents, including adolescents in groups who might be more likely to be in special need of health-related interventions: adolescents living in poverty, adolescents from racial and ethnic minority groups, Native American adolescents, and adolescents in rural areas.
Long lifetimes are required for AMTEC (or sodium heat engine) components for aerospace and terrestrial applications, and the high heat input temperature as well as the alkali metal liquid and vapor environment places unusual demands on the materials used to construct AMTEC devices. In addition, it is important to maximize device efficiency and power density, while maintaining a long life capability. In addition to the electrode, which must provide both efficient electrode kinetics, transport of the alkali metal, and low electrical resistance, other high temperature components of the cell face equally demanding requirements. The beta{double prime} alumina solid electrolyte (BASE), the seal between the BASE ceramic and its metallic transition to the hot alkali metal (liquid or vapor) source, and metallic components of the device are exposed to hot liquid alkali metal. Modification of AMTEC components may also be useful in optimizing the device for particular operating conditions. In particular, a potassium AMTEC may be expected to operate more efficiently at lower temperatures.
Long lifetimes are required for AMTEC (or sodium heat engine) components for aerospace and terrestrial applications, and the high heat input temperature as well as the alkali metal liquid and vapor environment places unusual demands on the materials used to construct AMTEC devices. In addition, it is important to maximize device efficiency and power density, while maintaining a long life capability. In addition to the electrode, which must provide both efficient electrode kinetics, transport of the alkali metal, and low electrical resistance, other high temperature components of the cell face equally demanding requirements. The beta{double_prime} alumina solid electrolyte (BASE), the seal between the BASE ceramic and its metallic transition to the hot alkali metal (liquid or vapor) source, and metallic components of the device are exposed to hot liquid alkali metal. Modification of AMTEC components may also be useful in optimizing the device for particular operating conditions. In particular, a potassium AMTEC may be expected to operate more efficiently at lower temperatures.
This report examines potential new crops and traditional crops for industrial uses including replacements for petroleum and imported strategic materials; replacements for imported newsprint, wood rosins, rubbers, and oils; and degradable plastics. This report finds that, in the absence of additional and more comprehensive policies, developing industrial uses for agricultural commodities alone is unlikely to revitalize rural economies and solve the problems of American agriculture.
Aerial image shows the result of an airborne radioactive survey over an area of 65 square miles in the vicinity of Miller Hill, Carbon County, Wyoming with the approximate location of eleven radioactivity anomalies found. Text describes methods used and discusses the anomalies.
This background paper outlines some of the issues of importance for making choices about the future nature and role of U.S. armed forces, and suggests how these choices will affect defense base requirements. The final report of the assessment, to be delivered in the spring of 1992, will address specific policy options arising from the strategic choices and tactical decisions discussed here.
Dataset documenting the software programs used in the acoustic emission (AE) instruments systems developed under the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) / Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) AE program.
This report assesses the proposals and prospects for automated checks, ranging from the point-of-sale “instant” check now used by the State of Virginia, to the establishment of a computerized national felons file, to live scanning of fingerprints, or the issuance of ‘smart’ cards to identify firearm purchasers. It considers the benefits, costs, and risks of automated checks. The report examines the relationship between automated record checks and waiting periods, the wide variability in State criminal record systems, and the challenges of improving the automation and quality of record systems.
This report discusses biological rhythms: what they are, how they are controlled by the brain, and the role they play in regulating physiological and cognitive functions. The major focus of the report is the examination of the effects of nonstandard work hours on biological rhythms and how these effects can interact with other factors to affect the health, performance, and safety of workers.
This OTA background paper evaluates the current state of knowledge and assesses the potential of bioremediation for responding to marine oil spills. Our basic message is a dual one: we caution that there are still many uncertainties about the use of bioremediation as a practical oil spill response technology; nevertheless, it could be appropriate in certain circumstances, and further research and development of bioremediation technologies could lead to enhancing the Nation’s capability to fight marine oil spills.
This report examines the impact of biotechnology in several industries, including pharmaceuticals, chemicals, agriculture, and hazardous waste clean-up; the efforts of 16 Nations to develop commercial uses of biotechnology; and the actions, both direct and indirect, taken by various governments that influence innovation in biotechnology.
This report discusses the biotechnology in the following countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Switzerland, and United Kingdom.
This report discusses the biotechnology development, government, research institutes and industry and finance in the following countries: Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Summary of the birds of the Kilbuck and Ahklun Mountain region, including geographical distribution, population status, migration habits, nesting habitat, and zoogeography.
This report discusses the actions necessary to effect a major reduction of United States. carbon dioxide emissions. The U.S. is the world’s leading industrial society and largest single emitter of carbon dioxide. Climate change therefore presents a unique challenge to this Nation. It is a threat that will require major prudent political actions even before all the scientific certainties are resolved. The analysis, prevention, and remediation of global warming will require unprecedented international cooperation and action—an effort requiring actions sustained over decades, not just a few years.
The objective of this work is to investigate, in the laboratory, the parameters associated with a chemically assisted in situ recovery procedure, using hydrogen chloride (HCI), carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}), and steam (H{sub 2}O), to obtain data useful to develop a process more economic than existing processes and to report all findings. The technical progress of the project is reported. The project status is that the solutions to the problems discussed in the third quarter status, were found to function satisfactorily. Future needs have been considered, and appropriate equipment and instrumentation changes have been designed. Only one experiment was performed this quarter, with some improvement over the previous experiments. The increase in shale oil recovery followed directly from the changes discussed last quarter, but the improvement could have been larger with wider-spread implementation of the changes. Equipment was purchased to rectify the need, and will be installed shortly. Further, a minor change in the design was necessary to account for the brittleness of high temperature electrical resistance heating tapes. The focus of the work this quarter has been on the development of computer software to enable the use of on-line parameter identification, the design of the instrumentation necessary to adequately observe the system, and the design of a continuous gas mixer to implement the experiment.
The objective of this work is to investigate, in the laboratory, the parameters associated with a chemically assisted in situ recovery procedure, using hydrogen chloride (HCI), carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}), and steam (H{sub 2}O), to obtain data useful to develop a process more economic than existing processes and to report all findings. Quarter summary: all modifications previously planned where completed and a reaction experiment was run. A couple design flaws were discovered, improvements were designed, and all parts are expected in the first week of July. Experiment {number_sign}6 is expected to run the following Monday. Barring further mishap, experiments will be run one each week thereafter. The project is behind schedule, but the project is well positioned to make significant and considerable progress.
This report examines how the economic environment of the United States can be made more conducive to improving manufacturing performance. It considers how Federal institutions, in cooperation with industry, can develop competitiveness strategies for high-tech, fast growing industries; and how trade, financial, and technology policies could be combined into a strategic competitiveness policy.
This report is a comprehensive look at the problem as we now know it, the public concerns about the problem, and DOE’s plans for addressing it. It focuses especially on the need for additional attention to those areas which DOE has neither the capability nor the credibility to handle.
This report identifies several immediate steps the Federal Government could take. First, new environmental standards, population shifts, and industrial changes have transformed the nature of many public works problems, and Federal programs must be refocused to fit the new circumstances. Second, if we expect to maintain our economic health, the Nation must increase its investment in public works, despite budget dilemmas.
This paper presents the status of national efforts to cleanup dioxin-contaminated sites and the technologies that have been used, proposed, and researched. It covers thermal and nonthermal treatment techniques as well as approaches such as stabilization and storage. It discusses the development of these technologies as well as advantages and disadvantages of their use.
The Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA) near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, is one of eight continental United States (CONUS) Army installations where lethal unitary chemical agents and munitions are stored and where destruction of agents and munitions is proposed under the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (CSDP). The chemical agent inventory at PBA consists of approximately 12%, by weight, of the total US stockpile. The destruction of the stockpile is necessary to eliminate the risk to the public from continued storage and to dispose of obsolete and leaking munitions. In 1988 the US Army issued a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (FPEIS) for the CSDP that identified on-site disposal of agents and munitions as the environmentally preferred alternative (i.e., the alternative with the least potential to cause significant adverse impacts). The purpose of this report is to examine the proposed implementation of on-site disposal at PBA in light of more recent and more detailed data than those on which the FPEIS is based. New population data were used to compute fatalities using the same computation methods and values for all other parameters as in the FPEIS. Results indicate that all alternatives are indistinguishable when the potential health impacts to the PBA community are considered. However, risks from on-site disposal are in all cases equal to or less than risks from other alternatives. Furthermore, no unique resources with the potential to prevent or delay implementation of on-site disposal at PBA have been identified.
This report presents all analytical data on the aluminum phosphate zone on lands owned by the American Agricultural Chemical Co. (A. A. C. Co.), and is one of a series of reports on lands of the companies active in the Land-Pebble Phosphate district.
A large component of radon entry cannot be explained by pressure differences between the soil and inside the structures. The persistence of this radon entry even when the house is pressurized by 1 Pa indicates that it must be due to molecular diffusion. The radon entry rate as measured by accumulators below ground level (soil + concrete) is roughly 2 times greater than that measured above ground level (concrete alone). The soil permeability is about 10{sup {minus}12} m{sup 2} and does not change dramatically with depth down to 2 m. The diffusion component of radon entry is reduced by about 30% when the floor wall joint is sealed. The Rn3D model is operating on our computer system and is being modified to accommodate the geometrical configurations of the underground test structure.
This report focuses on the Federal Government, the Nation’s largest single energy consumer, in terms of the opportunities and constraints for the use of energy efficient technologies. Energy efficient technologies could greatly reduce energy demand growth and spending in the United States and lessen environmental impacts while increasing productivity. Yet, in today’s public and private markets, adoption rates for many of these technologies are low. This report reviews past and current efforts to improve Federal energy efficiency and discusses policy options that could accelerate the adoption of these measures by the Federal Government.
This report, the first of two, was prepared in response to the requesting committees’ interest in receiving an interim product. It examines how energy is supplied and used in developing countries, and how energy use is linked with economic and social development and environmental quality.
The report provides a broad overview of energy choices facing the Nation. It is not an exhaustive analysis of any one technology; rather, it draws together the main themes of OTA reports from the past 16 years, and other documents, into an outline of the main directions the country could follow.
The purpose of this report is to characterize the seeps identified at the Shiprock UMTRA Project site during the prelicensing custodial care inspection conducted in December of 1990, to evaluate the relationship between the seeps and uranium processing activities or tailings disposal, and to evaluate the risk posed by the seep water to human health and the environment. The report provides a brief description of the geology, groundwater hydrology, and surface water hydrology. The locations of the seeps and monitor wells are identified, and the water quality of the seeps and groundwater is discussed in the context of past activities at the site. The water quality records for the site are presented in tables and appendices; this information was used in the risk assessment of seep water.
This report, the result of an assessment of the potential for automation and robotics technology to assist in the exploration of the Moon and Mars, raises a number of issues related to the goals of the U.S. civilian space program. Among other things, the report discusses how greater attention to automation and robotics technologies could contribute to U.S. space exploration efforts.
This report focuses on key assumptions that will affect the sizing and procurement of the new FBI system, and on other related steps that appear necessary to ensure complete and up-to-date record systems. These include full implementation of a Federal/State/local partnership for maintaining and exchanging fingerprint and criminal history records; enactment of an interstate compact or Federal legislation setting out uniform rules for the exchange of such records; standards and funding for improving criminal history record completeness and disposition reporting; and privacy and security protections for electronic fingerprint and record information.
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