Powering Up the Los Alamos Smart Grid & Smart House
Let the Demo Begin! Powering up the Los Alamos Smart Grid & Smart House
By Greg Kendall
- First international project in the U.S. to demonstrate how to provide a significant proportion of renewable power on the electric grid to meet a community’s residential needs.
A $52 million state‐of‐the‐art, international smart grid project will power up at 2 p.m. Monday, Sept. 17 at 1925‐D Trinity Dr. in Los Alamos, a high desert residential community of scientists, engineers and their families.
At the event, the New Energy and Industrial Technology and Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan, Read More
SFI Seminar: On the Interface between Movement and Sociality in Animal Behavior & What Lies on Either Side
Nicolas Perony
ETH Zurich, Chair of Systems Design
SFI News:
The Santa Fe Institute presents the talk, “On the Interface between Movement and Sociality in Animal Behavior, and What Lies on Either Side” by Nicolas Perony at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13 in the Medium Conference Room at the Santa Fe Institute in Santa Fe.
Abstract: Scientists working on the study of animal groups are mainly divided between two schools: those who study social behaviour, and those who study spatial dynamics.
Whilst these two dimensions are intrinsically linked, traditionally there has been little Read More
DOE Extends Comment Period, Adds Hearing in Espaňola for Draft Supplemental Environmental Study on Plutonium Disposition
DOE News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration has given the public an additional 15 days and a fourth hearing in New Mexico to comment on the Draft Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
The Draft Supplemental EIS analyzes the potential environmental impacts of alternatives for the disposition of 7.1 metric tons (MT) of additional weapons-usable plutonium from pits that were declared surplus to national defense needs in 2007 but were not included in DOE’s prior decisions Read More
LANL Study’s Tree Death Climate Change Connection [VIDEO]
Los Alamos National Laboratory News:
What are the exact physiological mechanisms that lead to tree death during prolonged drought and rising temperatures?
These are the questions that scientists are trying to answer in a Los Alamos National Laboratory research project called SUMO.
SUMO stands for SUrvival/MOrtality study; it's a plot of land on the Lab's southern border that features 18 climate controlled tree study chambers and a large drought structure that limits rain and snowfall.
Scientists are taking a wide variety of measurements over a long period of time to determine Read More
UPDATE: SFI Lecture: Leveraging Social Science for Prediction
Richard Colbaugh of Sandia National Laboratories will give the talk, “Leveraging Social Science for Prediction” at 12:15 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7 in the Medium Conference Room at the Santa Fe Institute.
Abstract: There is significant interest in developing methods for predicting human behavior, for instance to enable the outcomes of unfolding events to be forecast or the nature of ongoing but “hidden” activities to be inferred, and machine learning (ML) has proven to be a useful approach to such problems.
In this talk I suggest that the performance of ML algorithms can often be improved Read More
Comment Dates on Plans to Expand Disposal at WIPP
Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety News:
There are two opportunities to make public comment on the Department of Energy (DOE) proposals to expand the disposal options at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).
DOE is seeking to use lead shielded containers for disposal of “hot” Remote-Handled (RH) waste and to dispose of six metric tons of “surplus plutonium.”
Fact sheets and sample comment letters about both proposals are available on the CCNS website: https:////www.nuclearactive.org. Public comments about the proposal to use shielded containers are due to the New Mexico Environment Read More
Disseminating the Kilogram, No Strings Attached
Patrick Abbot inspects the upper (vacuum) section of the apparatus. Courtesy/ NIST
NIST News:
The impending redefinition of the kilogram presents a weighty dilemma. Methods to be used to realize the redefined kilogram are based on the Planck constant and the Avogadro constant respectively and realize the kilogram in vacuum.
But secondary standards, as well as transfer standards for laboratory and industrial use, must be deployed in air.
Devising a practical method of resolving this difference is extremely complicated. Two masses can easily be compared when both are in vacuum. But an artifact’s Read More
LANL News and Information [Links to LANL]
