National Laboratory

Atomic Heritage Foundation Launches ‘Ranger in Your Pocket’ Website

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Ranger in Your Pocket website. Courtesy/AHF

AHF News:

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Heritage tourists around the world are now able to tour the historic B Reactor and learn about life at the Hanford site on a new website. “Ranger in Your Pocket,” launched Wednesday at RangerInYourPocket.org. The website features dozens of first-hand accounts of working on the top-secret Manhattan Project from solving the mysterious “poisoning” of the B Reactor to enduring the “termination winds.”   

The Atomic Heritage Foundation (AHF) has created a powerful new interpretive tool called “Ranger in Your Read More

NNSA Announces Recipient of $25 Million Grant to Improve Nuclear Arms Control Verification Technology

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NNSA News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development March 31 announced the award of a $25 million grant to a consortium, which includes Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), for research and development (R&D) in nuclear arms control verification technologies, including nuclear safeguards effectiveness.
 
The long-term investment will support the consortium, led by the University of Michigan, at $5 million per year for five years. The award is in response to a funding
Read More

AGU: Scientists Reconstruct Ancient Impact That Dwarfs Dinosaur-Extinction Blast

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A graphical representation of the size of the asteroid thought to have killed the dinosaurs, and the crater it created, compared to an asteroid thought to have hit the Earth 3.26 billion years ago and the size of the crater it may have generated. A new study reveals the power and scale of the event some 3.26 billion years ago which scientists think created geological features found in a South African region known as the Barberton greenstone belt. Courtesy/AGU

AGU News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Picture this: A massive asteroid almost as wide as Rhode Island and about three to five times larger than Read More

Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz Confirmed as DOE Under Secretary for Nuclear Security

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Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz

NNSA News:

WASHINGTON D.C. – Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz, United States Air Force (Ret), was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday as the Department of Energy’s Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

“Lt. Gen. Klotz’s confirmation comes at a critical point for the National Nuclear Security Administration,” Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said. “His breadth of military and national security leadership experience makes him uniquely suited to lead the NNSA, fulfilling its commitments to the management Read More

Audubon Society Hosts Tree Mortality Program Today

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AUDUBON SOCIETY News:

Trees are dying around the world, and some predict that they will disappear from the Southwest by the end of this century, but scientists do not have a complete understanding of just how trees die.

An experiment is underway at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to study the steps in the process that leads to tree mortality. Henry Adams, postdoctoral fellow at LANL, will describe this study and its findings so far, at an Audubon Society program at 7:30 p.m., today at the Unitarian Church in Santa Fe (at the corner of Galisteo and Barcelona Streets). The talk is free and everyone Read More

Nate McDowell ‘s Forests & Climate Change Lecture Tonight

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Nathan McDowell measures photosynthesis at one of his research team’s drought experiments. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • It’s not easy staying green…

Los Alamos National Laboratory climate researcher Nate McDowell will discuss climate change and its effects on forest systems in a Frontiers in Science lecture at 7 p.m. today at Duane W. Smith Auditorium at Los Alamos High School.

“The data we have suggests that forests of the Southwest and many other areas are in jeopardy of a massive die-off in the next few decades,” McDowell said. “I was a doubter of these results until we generated more Read More

Nuclear Arms Control R&D Consortium Includes Los Alamos

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A neutron detector like this one at LANL is an invaluable national-security technology tool. Researchers at Los Alamos can help train and mentor the next generation of nation-security scientists thanks to formation of consortium led by the University of Michigan that focuses on R&D of arms control verification technologies. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • Laboratory can help groom next generation of arms-control-technology experts

A consortium led by the University of Michigan that includes Los Alamos National Laboratory as a partner has been awarded a $25 million grant by the National Read More

World’s Largest Single Crystal of Gold Verified at Los Alamos

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Neutron diffraction data collected on the single-crystal diffraction (SCD) instrument at the Lujan Center, from the Venezuelan gold sample, indicate that the sample is a single crystal. Courtesy/LANL

Science staff prepares measurements on the Single Crystal Diffraction Device at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Lujan Neutron Scattering Center. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • Lujan Center neutron diffraction team confirms structure

When geologist John Rakovan needed better tools to investigate whether a dazzling 217.78-gram piece of gold was in fact the world’s largest Read More

WIPP Conducts Q&A With Public

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WIPP News:

With regard to the Feb. 5 incident, the public has asked a number of questions at recent Town Hall meetings and in an effort to share this information, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has provided some of the questions and corresponding answers:

Q. If the filters were not deployed, how much radiation would have come out of the exhaust?
A. We cannot speculate. The filtration system is in place to minimize the amount released to the environment, and this is what happened.

Q. Wasn’t there some time after the air monitors went off, but before the filters were deployed?
A. The shift to Read More

CCNS Calls For Independent Investigation of WIPP

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Courtesy/WIPP

CCNS News:

By Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS)

It has been almost two months since the vehicle fire and radiation release from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and we don’t know the essential facts about what happened. We do know that the radiation release was never supposed to happen, and the federal government is unprepared to safely address the situation. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency, charged with determining whether WIPP would leak in 10,000 years, said it would not.  

On Wednesday, two eight-person teams traveled down an elevator Read More