National Laboratory

Udall, Kyl Announce NNSA Reform in Defense Bill

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U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Tom Udall, D-N.M. and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., announced the adoption of their amendment to the Senate-passed 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), to evaluate the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in light of major management issues, cost overruns and security breaches in recent years.

 

“The NNSA has been plagued with problems that have impacted the scientific and stockpile stewardship work being done at Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, as well as the security and safety of the workers there,”
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LANL’s ‘Individual Permit for Storm Water’ Public Meeting is Dec. 13

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LANL News:

Los Alamos National Laboratory is holding an “Individual Permit for Storm Water” public meeting is set for 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 13 at Fuller Lodge, 2132 Central Ave.

The Individual Permit for Storm Water encompasses corrective actions and monitoring for 405 sites across Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The public is invited to attend the meeting and find out about the results of monitoring, design and installation work completed during the summer season and LANL’s plans for upcoming permit-related actions.

The design criteria for retaining storm water will be Read More

Los Alamos County Council Honors Kevin Smith

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Los Alamos County Councilor Vincent Chiravalle, right, on behalf of the Council, presents Los Alamos Site Office Manager Kevin W. Smith with a gift of a framed photograph of aspen trees by Leslie Bucklin in recognition of his service to the County. The DOE/NNSA recently announced that Smith will be departing Los Alamos in January to become the manager of the Office of River Protection. Smith came to Los Alamos in June 2010 as LASO manager, and has worked with the County Council, County Administrator and various department directors on a number of projects and joint initiatives in the last two years. Read More

SFI Seminar: Reconceptualizing Cultural Evolutionary Typologies

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Peter N. Peregrine

SFI news:

SFI Seminar: Reconceptualizing Cultural Evolutionary Typologies

Wednesday, Dec. 5 • 12:15 p.m. • Medium Conference Room

Peter N. Peregrine, Professor of Anthropology, Lawrence University and External Professor, Santa Fe Institute

Abstract: Typological approaches to understanding cultural evolution have been utilized, and strongly criticized, for more than a century (Sanderson 2007.)

Some of my own work has been a part of that long critique. But recent statistical analyses of cultural evolution suggest that there are patterns of punctuated equilibrium, Read More

NNSA Exceeds 2012 Goal for Nuclear Weapons Dismantlements

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U.S. nuclear weapons declared excess to the stockpile are sent to Pantex Plant, America’s only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. Pantex Plant is on a 16,000-acre site 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, Texas. Courtesy/Pantex

NNSA’s Don Cook

NNSA News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced that it has accomplished 112 percent of its goal for planned stockpile dismantlements in FY 2012.

“NNSA delivered on President Obama’s commitment to reduce the numbers of U.S. nuclear weapons declared excess to the stockpile Read More

Regional Coalition of LANL Communities Launches New Website

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RCLC News:

 

The Regional Coalition of LANL Communities announced today that it has launched a new website at www.regionalcoalition.org.

 

As part of the Regional Coalition‘s goal to increase transparency, the website includes the latest information regarding Regional Coalition Board members, meeting notices and minutes and news related to the Regional Coalition.

 

It also has a sign-up feature where community members can be added to the Regional Coalition’s information distribution list.

 

“We are excited to launch the new website to ensure Read More

Administration Strongly Objects to 2013 Construction Start Date for CMRR Project

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Courtesy/LANL

WHITE HOUSE News:

In a statement of administration policy issued Nov. 29 by the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, the Obama Administration expresses its reluctance to commence construction in 2013 on the replacement project for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building (CMRR) at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

To do so would require taking funding from other National Nuclear Security Administration priorities, which would create “undue risks” for other parts of the program, according to the policy statement.

S. 3254 Read More

LANL Director Addresses Protective Force Terminations

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Illustration photo of SOC guards from SOC-NM.com

Staff Report

Five protective force firing range personnel at Los Alamos National Laboratory were terminated earlier this month for inappropriate behavior while on duty.

These individuals worked for SOC (Securing Our Country), a full-service security management company under contract to protect the Laboratory.

SOC is owned by Day & Zimmerman, a 110-year-old company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pa.

SOC’s mission is to provide security services for individuals, domestic facilities, nuclear power plants and military bases

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LANL Cosponsors Northern New Mexico Resource Fair

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LANL News:

 

Doing Business With LANL

 

Business owners who want to learn more about doing business with Los Alamos National Laboratory or other government agencies are encouraged to attend the Northern New Mexico Resource Fair.

 

When: 8-11 a.m., Dec. 5.

Where: Ohkay Owingeh Convention Center, north of Española.

 

At the resource fair, attendees can:

 

• get up-to-date information on how to register their business with various state government agencies;

• learn how to become more successful in bidding for contracts from LANL and other government agencies;

• learn

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SFI Seminar: A Hidden Markov

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SFI Seminar: A Hidden Markov

Tuesday, Dec, 6 • 12:15 p.m. • Medium Conference Room • 1399 Hyde Park, Santa Fe

Speaker: Aram Galstyan
University of Southern California

Abstract: A Hidden Markov

Model (HMM) is a Markov process observed through a noisy channel. HMMs are used extensively for modeling sequential data and have various applications in natural language processing, bioinformatics, mathematical economics, and so on.

One of the main problems underlying HMMs is inferring the hidden state sequence based on noise-corrupted observations, which is usually solved via the maximum a posteriori Read More