Lab director predicts bright, challenging future
Thom Mason, LANL photo.Thom Mason, the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s new director, isn’t so new anymore, and he’s fine with that. He’s been busy. “I’m having a lot of fun, and Los Alamos is an amazing place… I’ve been getting to know the community’s stakeholders and the community’s challenges,” Mason said.
After accepting the position as Los Alamos National Laboratory director three months ago, the former Battelle Memorial Institute executive just completed guiding the lab through a three-month transition period to a new management and operations contractor. (Full Story)
We shouldn’t be scared of nuclear rockets in space
Kiwi-B4A reactor awaits testing at the Nevada Test Site in 1962, LANL photo.
At the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, the output was Project Rover, a program that was eventually folded into NASA and saw three development phases: Kiwi (from 1955 to 1964), Phoebus (from 1964 to 1969), and Pewee (from 1969 to 1972 when the project was ended).
In 1961, NASA and the AEC created a joint office called the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office. SNPO oversaw another nuclear propulsion program that would build off the lessons learned in Los Alamos. With Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Aerojet-General Corporation as the main contractors, the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application, or NERVA, was born. (Full Story)
The day the dinosaurs died
Chicxulub asteroid impact model, LANL image.
A few years ago, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory used what was then one of the world’s most powerful computers, the so-called Q Machine, to model the effects of the impact. The result was a slow-motion, second-by-second false-color video of the event.
The result was a slow-motion, second-by-second false-color video of the event. Within two minutes of slamming into Earth, the asteroid, which was at least six miles wide, had gouged a crater about eighteen miles deep and lofted twenty-five trillion metric tons of debris into the atmosphere. Picture the splash of a pebble falling into pond water, but on a planetary scale. (Full Story)
New tungsten alloy defies radiation
Osman El Atwani (left) and Enrique Martinez at the transmission electron microscope, LANL photo.
Material engineers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a tungsten-based alloy that can withstand unprecedented amounts of radiation without damage. This would make it an ideal choice for the interiors of magnetic fusion reactors. Materials previously explored for this purpose fracture too easily under similar conditions, but this new alloy seems to defeat that problem as well. Still, the team continues to investigate the material’s mechanical properties under different stress levels and responses to plasma exposure. (Full Story)
Also from Machine Design this week:
Handling trillions of supercomputer files just got simpler
A new distributed file system for high-performance computing, Delta FS, was developed by computer scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Carnegie Mellon University and will be distributed via Git Hub, a software collaboration site. It is predicted Delta FS will vastly improve the tasks of creating, updating, and managing extreme numbers of files. (Full Story)
The job benefit that can help lower your rising health insurance payroll deduction
Los Alamos National Laboratory has focused on employee wellness in recent years, LANL photo.
In 2014, Los Alamos had implemented a new employee wellness program. In fact, as its health-care costs went down — in the first year after the wellness program, the total cost declined from $141 million to $138 million — Los Alamos had an unexpected problem: what to do with the extra money.
“We started having so much money in reserve, we had to do something with it or the government was going to take it back,” said Jamie Aslin, team leader of institutional employee well-being. Overall, Los Alamos saved $21 million in three years, and while the health insurance premium trend could not stay negative forever, it has stabilized at an annual rate of 2.5 percent, much lower than the national average of more than 7 percent. (Full Story)
Two LANL researchers win women in tech awards
Laura Monroe, left, and Janette Frigo, LANL photos.
Two researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory were recognized with 2019 Women in Technology Awards by the New Mexico Technology Council. Janette Frigo, an electrical engineer with the Laboratory’s Intelligence and Space Research division, and Laura Monroe, a mathematician with the Laboratory’s High-Performance Computing division, were recognized for their exceptional work in the STEM fields, their commitment to community, and mentoring other women. (Full Story)
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