National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory Issues Statement On Death Of Former Director Dr. Charles ‘Charlie’ McMillan

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Former LANL Director Charlie McMillan addressing legislators at a meeting in September 2017 on the UNM-Los Alamos campus. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

LANL statement on today’s death of Charlie McMillan:

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is deeply saddened to learn of Dr. Charles “Charlie” McMillan’s unexpected death in a traffic accident in Los Alamos on Friday, Sept. 6.

Charlie served as the Laboratory’s director from 2011 to 2017, leading a growing workforce through a period that showcased the Lab’s multidisciplinary capabilities and included advancing our analytical Read More

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich Recognizes The Life Of Former LANL Director Dr. Charles McMillan

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Dr. Charles F. (Charlie) McMillan

From the Office of U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) released the following statement this afternoon in recognition of the life of Dr. Charles F. (Charlie) McMillan, the former Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

“Julie and I extend our sincerest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Dr. Charlie McMillan. He had an incredible mind, a kind heart, and a strong commitment to our country. His tragic passing today is a loss to Los Alamos and the entire scientific community. 

“Just Read More

LANL’s ChemCam Fires Laser For Millionth Time On Mars

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The ChemCam instrument on the Curiosity rover has fired 1 million times since it landed on Mars in 2012. Courtesy/NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
LANL News:
  • The Curiosity rover has been roaming the red planet for 12 years

The ChemCam instrument, developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, recently zapped its laser for the 1 millionth time on Mars. Sitting on top of NASA’s Curiosity rover, ChemCam has been helping make groundbreaking discoveries since 2012.

“Not only is this a remarkable technical accomplishment for our instrument, but it also represents a staggering amount of chemistry data from Read More

LANL Foundation Launches Scholarship Fund For Northern New Mexico Veterans

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LANL Foundation News:

ESPAÑOLA – The LANL Foundation has announced the creation of the Veteran’s Scholarship Fund to provide scholarships to students across Northern New Mexico with ties to the military.

The LANL Foundation’s Board of Directors, in partnership with the Los Alamos Employees’ Scholarship Fund (LAESF) Advisory Committee and the LANL Veterans Employee Resource Group, established the fund with the goal of raising $10,000 in the first year. The Foundation met this goal within the first two months and will continue to grow the fund with donations from LANL employees, local Veterans Read More

New Mexico Environment Department Signs Consent Order With DOE For LANL Legacy Waste Clean-Up

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From the Office of the Governor:

SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration and the U.S. Department of Energy have executed a Settlement Agreement to clean-up legacy radioactive wastes at Los Alamos National Laboratory, marking a historic moment in the fight to hold the federal government accountable for the toxic waste it left behind in the wake of nuclear weapons testing in New Mexico.

The Settlement Agreement, executed on Aug. 30, and associated Compliance Order on Consent supersedes the contested 2016 agreement that failed to deliver meaningful clean-up of legacy radioactive Read More

Mason: Acid Canyon Well Within Safe Exposure Ranges

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By THOM MASON
Director
Los Alamos National Laboratory

During the Manhattan Project, the nation’s urgency to develop a weapon that could win World War II led to environmental decisions that have had long-standing consequences. That is why the Department of Energy Environmental Management and its contractor N3B continue to work to clean up legacy waste in Los Alamos.

This important cleanup work will continue for many years, however, cleanup has also yielded many success stories, returning once-contaminated land to a condition that is safe for the community once again. Acid Canyon in the Los Read More

J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee Presents Check To Kha’p’o Community School In Support Of Tewa Language Program

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From left, Liz Martineau and John Ruminer from the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee (JROMC) present Executive Director Porter Swentzell of Kha’p’o Community School (KCS), with a $1,000 check to support their Tewa language program. KCS is a tribally controlled, pre-k through 6th grade, dual language (Tewa/English) school at Santa Clara Pueblo. This is an example of JROMC’s increased efforts to honor Oppenheimer’s legacy through community and educational outreach. Courtesy photo Read More

Los Alamos National Laboratory Team Cracks The Code On Bane Of Quantum Machine Learning Algorithms

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Barren plateaus were a little-understood but common problem in quantum algorithm development. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • Barren plateaus have long plagued progress in the field of variational quantum computing, but their understanding has been limited — until now

Quantum computers are still a nascent technology, but researchers are busy building complex machine learning algorithms to test the capabilities of quantum learning. Sometimes, however, their algorithms hit a mysterious dead end; a mathematical path from which there is no way forward or backward — the dreaded barren plateau. Read More

Don And Lois Coffin Celebrate 75th Wedding Anniversary … A Diamond Jubilee!

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Don and Lois Coffin of Los Alamos on their wedding day, Sept. 10, 1949. Courtesy photo

COMMUNITY News:

On September 10,1949, Don Owen Coffin, the son of a teacher, and Lois Mabel Hamilton, the daughter of a preacher, promised “till death do us part”, and began a long, happy, and fruitful marriage. Don was just starting his senior year at Simpson College (Indianola, IA) and Lois was working for the Bell telephone company. A year later, after Don received his BS from Simpson, Don and Lois packed up a 1951 Ford borrowed from his dad, along with the wedding gift from her folks, which was a small travel trailer Read More

Public Comment Period Opens For Fire Fuels Mitigation Project Around TA-72 At Los Alamos National Laboratory

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NNSA News:

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is proposing a fire fuels mitigation project in lower Sandia Canyon at the Technical Area 72 Outdoor Live Fire Range and surrounding areas at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

This assessment focuses on activities occurring in the Sandia Canyon 100-year floodplain that include:

  • Vegetation maintenance that involves mowing and thinning of the defensible space around the existing buildings;
  • Vegetation maintenance under the existing above ground power line right-of-way; 
  • Vegetation maintenance along the existing
Read More