SANDIA HISTORY PROGRAM

NEWSLETTER

Unlimited Distribution  Sand98-2706

December 1998

     As 1998 rapidly draws to an end, the History/Archives staff can look back with a sense of accomplishment on a fruitful, one might say even historic, year.

Corporate Historian Carl Mora takes a respite from dodging Parisian traffic to pose in front of the Palais de Congres, site of the PATRAM conference in May 1998.  The Palais, which consists of a convention center, shops, restaurants, and theaters, was undergoing extensive renovation at the time.

 In May, Corporate Historian Carl Mora attended the 12th International Conference on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials (PATRAM) in Paris to present a paper and poster session on the history of packaging at Sandia titled " 'We Crash, Burn, and Crush':  A History of Packaging at Sandia National Laboratories, 1978- 1997."  Carl also has completed a draft of Sandia's role in the WIPP project.  The draft is now undergoing reviews and has an anticipated date of publication for summer 1999.    On November 14, Carl and Research Historian Rebecca Ullrich taught a one-day class on Sandia's history to the interns of John Hogan's (5507) Weapons Course.  Rebecca also attended the History of Science in Society meeting in Kansas City, October 22-25, 1998.

     Corporate Archivist Myra O'Canna has been admitted to the Academy of Certified Archivists after passing the exam given at the Society of American Archivists September annual meeting in Orlando. Myra also was invited to speak on Sandia's institutional culture and history to Professor Merry Stubblefield's Introduction to Management class at UNM's Anderson School of Management on November 24.

     Research and writing continue on Volume 2 of the technical/administrative history of Sandia, which is a sequel to Necah Furman's Sandia National Laboratories:  The Postwar Decade, published in 1990. The second volume will cover the years 1956 to 1974, when the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was abolished and replaced by the Environmental Resources Development Administration (ERDA).

     In FY 1998, the Corporate Archives/History Program answered 218 reference questions/calls received by phone and email.