Looking inside plutonium
Plutonium alpha phase metal samples are mirror finished 6mmx6mm squares, LANL image.Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories have recently conducted plutonium experiments using Sandia's pulsed power Z Machine that have reached regions of pressure, temperature and density in plutonium never before explored in the laboratory.
"With Z we have very carefully reached pressure, temperature and density regimes that are relevant to those seen during a nuclear weapon detonation," said Russell Olson, a Dynamic Material Properties project leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Full Story)
Also in the Los Alamos Daily Post
Removing intercalated water from nitrogen-doped graphene-oxide sheets
Steps one and two of the four step process developed to make NrGO catalysts. From PhysOrg.Fuel cells require a catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction. One type of catalyst is nitrogen-doped graphene-oxide nanosheets.
The process of making graphene-oxide nanosheets is done in an aqueous media and results in water molecules residing between the graphene sheets. Several researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of New Mexico, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Rutgers University have characterized the effects of removing these intercalated water molecules. (Full Story)
Los Alamos - U.S. Navy: Partners since World War II
“Deak” Parsons, head of Ordnance Division in 1943. From National Security Science.The Navy-Los Alamos partnership was forged during the dark days of history’s most deadly conflict. Today, the partnership continues. For example, every year, midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy vie for summer internships at the Laboratory (through the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Service Academies Research Associates program).
The Laboratory continues to ensure the safety and reliability of every naval nuclear weapon, while the Navy reminds adversaries that acts of aggression against the United States or her allies will be met, just as they were in 1941, in a swift and decisive manner. (Full Story)
Also from the Daily Post this week
Science in 60 Seconds: Training explosives experts
Military Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technicians have a tough job. Their lives—and others’ lives too—depend on their knowledge of explosive materials and the correct procedures for identifying and dismantling homemade explosives.During the Advanced Homemade Explosives training course at Los Alamos National Laboratory, lab scientists use their expertise to teach EOD techs from the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy how to recognize homemade explosives labs and the raw ingredients commonly used to make IEDs and other bombs. (Full Story)
Watch Science in 60
HPC storage and IO trends and workflows
In this video from the 2016 OpenFabrics Workshop, Gary Grider from Los Alamos National Laboratory presents: HPC Storage and IO Trends and Workflows.“Trends in computer memory/storage technology are in flux perhaps more so now than in the last two decades. Economic analysis of HPC storage hierarchies has led to new tiers of storage being added to the next fleet of supercomputers including Burst Buffers or In-System Solid State Storage and Campaign Storage. (Full Story)
Nanotubes line up to form films
Nanotube films, from Rice University.A simple filtration process helped Rice University researchers create flexible, wafer-scale films of highly aligned and closely packed carbon nanotubes.
Scientists at Rice, with support from Los Alamos National Laboratory, have made inch-wide films of densely packed, chirality-enriched single-walled carbon nanotubes through a process revealed today in Nature Nanotechnology. (Full Story)
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