National Laboratory

NNSA Selects CNS to Manage Consolidated Contract for Nuclear Production Operations

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NNSA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Courtesy/NNSA

NNSA News:

  • New Partnership Shapes Future of Nuclear Security, Saves Taxpayers more than $3 Billion

WASHINGTON, D.C.–In a move that shapes the future of the United States’ nuclear security enterprise and will save $3.27 billion in taxpayer dollars over the next decade, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced that Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC (CNS) has been selected to be the management and operating contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Read More

Bringing Calorimetry to CT Dose Assessment

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Heather Chen-Mayer at the PET/CT scanner with HDPE phantoms. The large sections are for whole-torso measurements; the small cylinder is one of two other sizes tested in the course of the project. Courtesy/NIST.

NIST News:

In the United States, about 80 million x-ray computed tomography (CT) scans are made every year – 7 million of them on children – according to the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM.)

Not surprisingly, there is intense interest in accurate determination of the radiation doses that patients receive from CT machines, and researchers are actively seeking Read More

LANL’s Terwilliger Named American Crystallographic Fellow

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LANL News:

Tom Terwilliger of the Biosecurity and Public Health Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory has been named Fellow of the American Crystallographic Association.

Terwilliger graduated magna cum laude in Physics from Harvard College in 1978. He obtained his PhD on the structure of melittin from bee venom with David Eisenberg at UCLA in 1981.

He was a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow with Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., at UC Berkeley from 1981-1985, then a Presidential Young Investigator at the University of Chicago from 1985-1990, and has been on the staff of LANL since 1991.

Terwilliger Read More

LANL Inaugural Lecture: Homesteading on the Pajarito Plateau

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Local authors Dorothy Hoard, Judy Machen and Ellen McGehee stand next to their informational plaque in front of the Romero homesteader cabin in Los Alamos. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • Lecture series begins yearlong commemoration of 70th anniversary

In commemoration of its 70th anniversary, Los Alamos National Laboratory kicks off a yearlong lecture series at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 9 with a presentation about homesteading on the Pajarito Plateau at the Bradbury Science Museum, 1350 Central Ave., Los Alamos.

The inaugural lecture is based on a book by local writers Dorothy Hoard, Judy Machen Read More

Quantum Gas Goes Below Absolute Zero

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Temperature in a gas can reach below absolute zero thanks to a quirk of quantum physics. Michal Bednarek/Thinkstock

NATURE News:

Quantum Gas Goes Below Absolute Zero
By Zeeya Merali

It may sound less likely than hell freezing over, but physicists have created an atomic gas with a sub-absolute-zero temperature for the first time1.

Their technique opens the door to generating negative-Kelvin materials and new quantum devices, and it could even help to solve a cosmological mystery.

Lord Kelvin defined the absolute temperature scale in the mid-1800s in such a way that nothing could be colder Read More

SFI Colloquium: Reconstructing the Wiring Diagrams of Earth’s Biogeochemical Cycles

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Dr. Paul G. Falkowsk

SFI News:

The next SFI Colloquium features Paul G. Falkowski (Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Rutgers University) speaking on “Reconstructing the Wiring Diagrams of Earth’s Biogeochemical Cycles.”

Falkowski’s talk is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8 in the Noyce Conference Room at the Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road. 

Abstract: Life is far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Over the past decade, together with collaborators, I have been analyzing the biochemical reactions responsible Read More

Korea Increases Support of NNSA’s Anti-Nuclear Smuggling Efforts

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DOE and Korean officials sign a memorandum of understanding in 2010. Courtesy/NNSA News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Republic of Korea announced Wednesday that the Republic of Korea renewed its partnership to combat nuclear smuggling with a $300,000 contribution to support NNSA’s ongoing nonproliferation work in Azerbaijan.

The funding, provided by the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and facilitated by the U.S. Department of State’s Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative (NSOI), will be used for the installation of radiation Read More

Local Trial Set For Anti-Nuclear Protestors

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LANL 6 protestors Cathie Sullivan, Wind Euler, Janet Greenwald, Benjamin (Summer) Abbott, Barbara Grothus and Pam Gilchrist. Photo by Greg Kendall/ladailypost.com

 

Staff Report

 

Trial is set for 9 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 9 for six protestors arrested during last year’s Hiroshima Day demonstration at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

 

The trial will be heard by Judge Alan Kirk in Los Alamos Municipal Court, 2500 Trinity Dr., in Los Alamos.

 
Police arrested the six protestors Aug. 6 on LANL property and charged them with criminal trespass, refusing to obey an officer
Read More

LANL Employee to Share Amazing Workplace Discoveries

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Dr. Jack Shlachter

By Kirsten Laskey

Work sometimes gets a bad rep. It is easy to consider a job a necessity but not something that is entirely embraced.

Sometimes to truly appreciate an occupation you need to do what Theoretical Division Deputy Division leader Jack Shlachter did and do some digging. You may just luck out, as Shlachter did, and discover some amazing insights about your workplace.

Shlachter is a Ph.D. physicist as well as an ordained rabbi. He has worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 33 years. He arrived as a graduate student and stayed on, and has worked in various divisions Read More

NNSA Awards LANS Additional Contract Year

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Courtesy/LANS

LANS News:

Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan issued the following memo Friday, Dec. 21 to all employees regarding a recent NNSA evaluation of Lab performance:

MEMO

As a premier national security laboratory, we are held to very high standards for safety, security and mission performance – and rightly so.

These expectations are reflected in NNSA’s evaluation of our performance for Fiscal Year 2012, which we received last week.

While we fell short in some areas, I can report that NNSA gave us a final score of 80 percent and – I’m very pleased to say – did award Read More