Domestic Production of Medical Isotope Mo-99 Moves a Step Closer at Los Alamos
Today, Los Alamos National Laboratory announced that for the first time, irradiated uranium fuel has been recycled and reused for molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) production, with virtually no losses in Mo-99 yields or uranium recovery. This demonstrates the viability of the separation process, as well as the potential for environmentally- and cost-friendly fuel recycling. Medical isotope production technology has advanced significantly now that scientists have made key advances in separating Mo-99 from an irradiated, low-enriched uranium (LEU) solution. (full story)
This story also appeared in Phys.Org and the Los Alamos Monitor
A Hack-Proof Internet Exists, Thanks to Quantum Physics
Leave it to the quantum physicists at Los Alamos National Labs to have run for the past two years something that sounded like science fiction: a quantum Internet that promises perfectly secure online communications. (full story)
This story also appeared in The Connectivist
Questions and answers with Eric J. Heller
Eric (Rick) Heller is the Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics at Harvard University, where he received his PhD in chemical physics in 1973. He has held faculty positions at UCLA and the University of Washington and a scientific staff position at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Heller's research focuses on few-body quantum mechanics, spectroscopy, scattering theory, nanophysics, and condensed-matter physics. He also produces computer-generated prints based on his research. His art has been featured in private and public collections, in traveling exhibits, and on his website. (full story)
Antibody evolution could guide HIV vaccine development
Observing the evolution of a particular type of antibody in an infected HIV-1 patient, a study spearheaded by Duke University, supported by analysis from Los Alamos National Laboratory, has provided insights that will enable vaccination strategies that mimic the actual antibody development within the body. (full story)
McMillan talks 'Moneyball'
Los Alamos National Laboratory director Charlie McMillan spent the good portion of his week in Washington and one of his stops was Capitol Hill where he testified at a hearing before a Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. (full story)
Also from the Monitor this week:
Two LANL scientists honored by DOE
Two Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers are among the 61 national recipients of the Energy Department’s Early Career Research Program awards for 2013.
Marian Jandel won for his proposal, “New Data on Neutron Reactions Relevant to Basic and Applied Science,” selected by the Office of Nuclear Physics. (full story)
This story also appeared in the Los Alamos Daily Post
Curious about Curiosity? Get scoop on rover at lecture
The NASA Mars rover Curiosity is a nuclear-powered workhorse about the size of a small Jeep. Since it landed Aug. 6, 2012, to great public fanfare back on Earth, the six-wheeled Curiosity has been busily photographing and sampling the planet and collecting data.
Scientists are pretty pleased with the results so far, said Roger Wiens, a Los Alamos National Laboratory geochemist, who is among the international gaggle of researchers using Curiosity’s data to learn more about the Red Planet. Wiens will talk about Mars, the rover mission and what scientists have learned so far during a free talk Tuesday, May 14, at 7 p.m. at the James A. Little Theater in Santa Fe. (full story)
RA Students Garner Lab Scholarships
Sixteen Rio Arriba County students are among 73 Northern New Mexicans who were awarded a total of $411,500 in scholarships from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Employees'Scholarship Fund to realize their dreams of attending college. (Story in hard-copy edition only)
Never-before-seen energy pattern observed at National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Two research teams at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) broke through a nearly40-year barrier recently when they observed a never-before-seen energy pattern.
“The observation of the ‘Hofstadter butterfly’ marks a real landmark in condensed matter physics and high magnetic field research,” said Greg Boebinger, director of the MagLab. “It opens a new experimental direction in materials research.” (full story)
Congressional committees OK added spending for LANL cleanup
Congressional committees have approved transferring funds that will provide an extra $19 million for cleaning up radioactive waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The votes came after a letter was sent to the committees by Democratic Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-3rd District) supporting the transfer, which was requested by the Department of Energy (full story).
This story also appeared on KRQE
as well as the Albuquerque Journal, the Los Alamos Monitor and elsewhere.
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Government Lab Reveals It Has Operated Quantum Internet for Over Two Years
A generation 1 QKarD. LANL photo.
A quantum internet capable of sending perfectly secure messages has been running at Los Alamos National Labs for the last two and a half years, say researchers.
One of the dreams for security experts is the creation of a quantum internet that allows perfectly secure communication based on the powerful laws of quantum mechanics. (Full Story)
"Quantum" Internet tested in government lab for two years
Quantum Cryptography researcher Richard Hughes. LANL photo.
A more secure Internet is possible, and a government lab has been testing it for over two years.
Researchers at the Los Alamos National Lab released a paper called "Network-Centric Quantum Communications with Application to Critical Infrastructure Protection" last week that outlined a way to achieve a more secure Internet connection by using its hub and spokes model. The researchers don't actually use the term "quantum Internet." Instead, what the paper describes is network-centric quantum communications(NQC). (Full Story)
This story also appeared in Forbes, Popular Science, Physics Today, NBCNews.com, The Verge, and many others.
The Power of the Muon
A Muon Tomography Detection System. LANL illustration.
A team of scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, led by Chris Morris, originally demonstrated the possibility of using charged particles to generate images of objects. Seeing a ubiquitous,free source of high-energy charged particles in cosmic ray muons, they began looking into the feasibility of muon-based imaging. (Full Story)
New LANL plans call for lower-cost approach to nuke facility
Charlie McMillan testified before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic forces. LANL photo.
The new preliminary plans, which would undergo a business case analysis over the next year if Congress approves a $120 million budget reprogramming request, are sketched out in an April 8 letter from the Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The strategy not only aims to address the abandoned Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility project, but also aims to enhance the capacity of the lab’s existing Plutonium Facility, where up to 50 plutonium triggers, known as pits, could be made annually, McMillan testified. (Full Story)
New techniques behind Energy's plan for exascale computing
The Cielo supercomputer. LANL photo.
From the outside, it may look like several countries are in a neck-and-neck race to produce the fastest supercomputer, but the truth, at least for the United States, is that supercomputer growth is driven by application needs. And it’s an ongoing process…
…Gary Grider, acting leader of the High Performance Computing Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory, says that similar leaps have been made in the past. “We saw this type of jump in the ‘90s with the ASCI program to get us from gigaflops to teraflops,” he said, “So it’s not unheard of.” (Full Story)
LANL improves biofuels process
Microscopic image of blue green algae.
For years, scientists have been seeking efficient means to convert non-food based biomass into fuels and chemical feedstocks, reducing fossil-fuel dependence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To that end, Los Alamos scientists and collaborators from The University of Guelph in Canada published an article in the scientific journal Nature Chemistry this week that could offer a big step on the path to renewable energy. (Full Story)
Mars rover wakes up, gets better laser aiming
Spring break is over for NASA's Mars rover. But before it can get to work, Curiosity will receive some upgrades, such as the ability to fire its laser with more autonomy.
…The rover woke up on 1 May and is transitioning to new software. As a result, the ChemCam tool, which shoots rocks with a laser to analyse the resulting puff of gas, will be able to auto-adjust to avoid glare from the sun, letting it aim at a wider range of rocks. (Full Story)
US warheads to get a facelift
The B-61 bomb. NNSA photo.
When he took office in 2009, US President Barack Obama bolstered efforts to secure nuclear materials around the globe. That spring, speaking in Prague, he said that he would push Congress to ratify a long-pending treaty to ban nuclear testing. By 2010, he had reached an agreement with Russia to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in both countries’ arsenals to historic lows. (Full Story)
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Secret Los Alamos tunnel revealed
For decades, area residents whispered about what the government was doing deep inside the walls of Los Alamos Canyon.
“They would keep gold in there,” said David Roybal, a Los Alamos resident. “That’s all I remember people saying.”
Last fall, the federal government declassified the 230-foot-long tunnel located at the base of Los Alamos Canyon to cut the costs of maintaining the once-heavily guarded facility. (full story)
Los Alamos National Lab improves biomass-to-fuel process
One of the more promising roads toenergy independence leads away from crude oil and into the forests and fields. For years, scientists have been seeking efficient means to convert nonfood-based biomass into fuels and chemical feedstocks, reducing fossil-fuel dependence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Los Alamos scientists and collaborators in Canada published an article in Nature Chemistry this week that outlines an efficient means to convert nonfood-based biomass into fuels and chemical feedstocks. (full story)
Los Alamos: National security, broad array of work, excellence
While Los Alamos remains in the national defense and nuclear business, it, like Sandia, does much more. Website wandering at www.lanl.gov uncovers some of the diversity.
LANL.gov states the mission as "scientific inquiry supporting nuclear deterrence, reducing global threats, fostering energy security." The Science and Innovation tag on the top left of the lanl.gov home page lists a dozen "capabilities." (full story)
LANL associate director to chair scholarship campaign
Nan Sauer, Associate Director for Chemistry, Life and Earth Science at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is chairing the 2013 employees’ scholarship campaign.
Laboratory employees contributed $273,300 to the campaign last year, and Los Alamos National Security, LLC, through its employee gift-match program, gave $250,000. (full story)
Senator Martin Heinrich visits WIPP
Heinrich co-authored a letter withSen. Tom Udall requesting funding in the DOE’s Defense Environmental Cleanup 2014 budget of at least $255 million for cleanup at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Heinrich said the completion of the defense legacy waste cleanup at Los Alamos is an important commitment that Congress and DOE havemade to the community and the state, and he believes it should remain a topfunding priority for the DOE. (full story)
Electric Grid Security
Recently a Los Alamos National Laboratory quantum cryptography (QC) team successfully completed the first-ever demonstration of securing control data for electric grids using quantum cryptography. (full story)
Talking about Mars
Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Roger Wiens talks about the NASA Mars Curiosity rover, its journey to Mars and some of its discoveries on the Red Planet thus far in a series of Frontiers in Science presentations beginning May 7 in the Duane Smith Auditorium at Los Alamos High School. After the talk, Wiens will sign copies of his book “Red Rover: Inside the Story of Robotic Space Exploration, from Genesis to the Mars Rover Curiosity.” (full story)
Also appearing this week in the Los Alamos Monitor:
LASO employee wins top NNSA award
Cary Bronson is the top federal security professional of year
Cary Bronson of the Los Alamos Field Office Security Operations Team is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Federal Security Professional of the Year.
Bronson provides federal oversight of the nuclear Material Control and Accountability (MC&A) operations and programs at Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Full story)
This story also appeared in the Los Alamos Daily Post
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LANL scientists asked to help save Italian landmark
Los Alamos visitors and Italian scholars at the top of the cupola of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence, Italy. Photo courtesy Yvonne Keller.
Can a national nuclear weapons laboratory find meaningful work helping to preserve one of the grand architectural treasures of the Renaissance?
Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently hosted a delegation of Italian experts to brainstorm ways of using some of the laboratory’s technology to protect Brunelleschi’s dome, a UNESCO world heritage site in Florence, Italy. (Full Story)
LANL to help Italian Landmark
Dick Knipfing introduces a story about LANL expertise being employed to preserve a threatened cathedral.
Los Alamos Lab scientists have been asked to help save an Italian landmark. Brunelleschi's Dome has topped the Cathedral of Florence since 1426, but there's growing concern about its structural stability.
The dome has several cracks and the worry is that a big earthquake could bring it down. LANL hastechnology to create a high-resolution model of the dome and simulate what would happen if there is major quake. (Full Story)
Editorial: Tech transfer working
Revolutionary ideas that could benefit society soon are bubbling out of New Mexico’s national laboratories. University of New Mexico Medical Center will start clinical trials this summer to screen women for breast cancer using a new ultrasound three-dimensional technology developed at Los AlamosNational Laboratory. (Full Story)
Also appearing this week in the Albuquerque Journal:
Trees may get a dose of healing
The cottonwood trees at Alameda Park might get a new lease on life. The Alamogordo parks department is working with a Los Lunas-based company to purchase a soil conditioning product that will help flush accumulated salts from soil around the trees in an effort to restore them to good health, according to Parks Supervisor Erik Marion.
The city will try the product sold by Soil Secrets at Alameda Park. The product, called Terrapro, was developed and tested with the help of Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories. (Full Story)
UCLA space scientists find way to monitor elusive collisions in space
Many collisions occur between asteroids and other objects in our solar system, but scientists are not always able to detect or track these impacts from Earth. The "rogue debris" created by such collisions can sometimes catch us by surprise.
UCLA space scientists have now devised a way to monitor these types of collisions in interplanetary space by using a new method to determine the mass of magnetic clouds that result from the impacts. The research was made possible by the acquisition of data by Pioneer Venus and by Venus Express missions, and received support from both NASA and the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. (Full Story)
Airborne Terrorist Attack Study To Be Conducted In Subways
Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers are involved in an effort to safeguard Americans from airborne terrorism. “Terrorist Balloon” by Vlad Nanca.
A multimillion-dollar airflow study will be conducted this summer to help authorities better understand the risks of airborne terrorist attacks on New York City and its subway system.
The study is "the first of its scale to study airflow in a dense, complex urban environment both below and above-ground." Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, along with other meteorologists and engineers, will assist scientists from BNL as they "track the movement of harmless tracer gases" through the urban atmosphere. (Full Story)
La Cueva trio wins with words
Justin Sanchez of Albuquerque La Cueva High School during the finalist team judging at the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge. LANL Photo.
Not everyone has the aptitude to comprehend computer languages. But a group of astute La Cueva High School students who do came up with a way for computers to understand relationships between words in human language through statistical analysis,thereby winning the top prize at this year’s New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge.
In all, more than $49,000 in individual scholarships were awarded, including $28,0000 from LANL’s Computer, Computational and Statistical Sciences Division and Los Alamos National Security, which runs the Lab. (Full Story)
This story also appeared in the Los Alamos Monitor
LANL makes progress on tuberculosis
Tuberculosis bacteria. CDC Photo.
New work from Los Alamos National Laboratory shows promise for stemming the advance of tuberculosis (TB) by revealing how the bacterium interacts with its human hosts and thus providing a new pathway for early detection in patients.
A recent publication from the Los Alamos Biosensor Team describes the association of a key tuberculosis virulence factor, lipoarabinomannan (LAM) with human high-density lipoproteins (HDL) in blood. (Full Story)
Also appearing this week in the Los Alamos Monitor:
Wallace spells out seismic hazards
Terry Wallace, Principal Associate Director for Global Security. LANL photo.
One of the highlights at Friday’s meeting of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities was a presentation by Terry Wallace, principal associate director for global security at Los Alamos National Laboratory, on “The Seismic Hazard of New Mexico: Earthquakes & Building Codes.” (Full Story)
Scholarships given to 73 students
Los Alamos Employee Scholarship recipients Micaela Lucero, Kevin Gao and Danielle Harrier. Courtesy photos.
Seventy-three students from seven Northern New Mexico counties were announced this week as recipients of this year’s scholarships through the Los Alamos Employees’ Scholarship Fund.
Funding for the scholarships comes from $411,500 in donations from Los Alamos National Laboratory employees and Los Alamos National Security, LLC. (Full Story)
This story also appeared in the Los Alamos Monitor
Los Alamos National Laboratory Employees Receive Pollution Prevention Awards
Molten plutonium in a crucible. LANL photo.
Nearly 400 Los Alamos National Laboratory employees on 47 teams received Pollution Prevention awards for protecting the environment and saving taxpayers more than $8 million. The employees were recognized at the Laboratory’s annual Pollution Prevention Awards ceremony on Monday (April 22), Earth Day. (Full Story)
This story also appeared in the Los Alamos Daily Post
Top BioEnergy Researchers to Establish U.S.-Israel Collaboration
Blue Green Algae.
Officials of the U.S. Department of Energy’s algae programs based at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Israeli government officials who coordinate aspects of their nation’s energy and technology commercialization programs also have flown in for the meetings. The delegation’s activities here follow two and one half days in Washington DC that included a briefing by senior White House staff and meetings with headquarters scientists. (Full Story)
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