Friday, July 2, 2010



Gates tours Los Alamos National Laboratory

DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates receives a tour from Michael R. Anastasio, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, right, June 30, 2010. (See the photos here)



Plutonium lab demolished

Two giant excavators - one equipped with a claw, the other with a cutting shear - tore through the walls and ceiling on one of Los Alamos National Laboratory's most historically significant buildings Tuesday.

The demolition, part of continuing Recovery-Act-funded cleanup of LANL's Technical Area 21, was making its way through DP West, where plutonium cores for bombs were made from 1945 through 1978. For years, it was the only such facility in the world. (Full Story - nonsubscribers may be required to view an advertisement)

Also in the Journal this week:

Sandia official aids oil spill effort

Crews aboard vessels around the drillship Discoverer Enterprise continue operations to minimize the impact from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Reuters photo.

Mobile X-ray equipment is routinely used in oil fields, but the equipment was not sensitive enough to reveal what the engineers needed to know about the crimped pipe.

Nuclear weapon scientists routinely use powerful X-rays to study metal objects, so the team brought in experts and equipment from Los Alamos to help, Said Tom Hunter, head of the team of U.S. national lab scientists working on the problem. (
Full Story - nonsubscribers may be required to view an advertisement)



Neutrino experiments sow seeds of possible revolution

Adjusting phototubes from the MiniBooNE experiment. FermiLab photo

There's about a 3 percent chance the MiniBooNE finding is a fluke. However, it matches findings, earlier refuted, from the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector experiment, which operated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico during the 1990s. (Full Story)



Scientists decode genome sequence of jute

A flowering jute plant

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Dr Maqsudul Alam, Prof. Emeritus Dr Mohd. Zawawi Ismail, Chairman of the Board of University Sains Malaysia, and world famous genome scientist Dr Chris Detter of Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA also spoke on the occasion. (Full Story)




Excavation at Manhattan Project landfill begins

The Los Alamos National Laboratory began excavating a World War II era landfill on Thursday that could contain an entire truck used at the Trinity atomic bomb test. (Full Story)




'Next Big Idea' fest aims to spark interest among NM youth
in science, technology as future career path


Future Inventors at the Next Big Idea Festival 2009

The Next Big Idea is sponsored by Los Alamos Main Street, Los Alamos National Bank, Los Alamos National Securities LLC, Compa Industries Inc, Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation, Innovate-Educate New Mexico and New Mexico Consortium, among others. (Full Story)




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