Los Alamos Press Highlights

Ford gets $6 million from feds for fuel-cell research

Fuel cell stack in a test stand at Los Alamos, LANL photo.

The U.S. Department of Energy is awarding $6 million to Ford Motor Co. and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to help pay for projects that will advance efforts to develop fuel cell and hydrogen technologies for cars.

Ford will use the funding to develop a fuel-cell catalyst production process that will result in lower cost, higher purity and more active and durable catalysts, according to the office of Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn. (Full Story)

NASA selects microphone for Mars 2020 mission

NASA artist’s concept of Mars 2020 rover.

Mars Microphone will be integrated with SuperCam and delivered early in 2018 to the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and then to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) end 2018, where it will be mounted on the Mars 2020 rover.

SuperCam is the result of close scientific cooperation between teams led by Dr Roger Wiens at LANL and Dr Sylvestre Maurice at the IRAP astrophysics and planetology research institute. (Full Story)

Editorial: Plutonium plan makes sense

TA-55, LANL photo.

The Obama administration and Congress have ordered up new plutonium pits as part of a plan to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.        

Currently, the only place where [new plutonium pits] may be manufactured is Los Alamos National Laboratory. The overall modernization plan is estimated to cost $350 billion in the next decade.

If a nation is going to have a nuclear arsenal – and in today’s world, the U.S. should – it is important to keep it up to date and reliable. (Full Story)

UbiQD gets Solar Energy grant

The UbiQD team, from CS

UbiQD, a New Mexico-based quantum dot manufacturer, has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant by the US National Science Foundation.

The 12-month $225,000 award is intended to help fund research and development of luminescent solar concentrating glass windows with quantum dot coatings. In July, the company expanded its license to include the proof-of-concept work on this technology, originally developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in collaboration with Italy's University of Milano-Bicocca. (Full Story)

New Mexico National Guard wins HAZMAT Challenge

NM Guard personnel at the HAZMAT Challenge. NM Guard photo.

One of the survey teams of the New Mexico National Guard’s 64th Civil Support Team – Weapons of Mass Destruction earned first place overall in the 20th Annual Los Alamos National Laboratory’s HAZMAT Challenge. The competition was held July 25-29, 2016, here, and saw nine teams compete for the coveted title. This is the second time in three years the 64th CST earned the top ranking. (Full Story)

SF brewery startup bubbles to the top

HoneyMoon Brewery, a Santa Fe startup that developed a new ‘kombucha beer,’ got a huge boost last month, when it won $20,000 at the Miller Lite Tap the Future regional competition in Houston.

HoneyMoon Brewery, launched in 2014 by CEO Ayla Bystrom-Williams and co-founder James Hill, developed a process with help from Los Alamos National Laboratory that combines kombucha and beer fermentation to create a tasty new beer with potential health benefits. (Full Story)


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