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Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2000

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Fire danger: High   Laboratory to assist victims of Española apartment fire The Laboratory is providing assistance to victims of a catastrophic fire that destroyed a low-income housing complex in Española last week. "Our neighbors in Española have suffered a tremendous loss," said Director John Browne. "We are grateful for the support we received from Northern New Mexico during the Cerro Grande Fire, and I hope that Laboratory employees will do everything possible to alleviate the suffering caused by this disaster." The fire left 38 families -- about 100 people -- homeless. Victims are most urgently in need of temporary housing and monetary support to help them afford deposits and rent for new housing or to obtain medications and other necessities, said Christina Armijo, leader of the Laboratory's Community Relations Office (CRO). CRO Personnel are helping with the assistance efforts. Laboratory employees and others can make donations to the "Santa Clara Apartments Fire Victims Fund," which has been established through Valley National Bank in Española. Those wishing to contribute can go to the Community Relations Office, 1619 Central Avenue in Los Alamos. Donors will receive a receipt for their contribution. CRO personnel will deliver donations to the bank daily. In addition, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation -- a nonprofit entity established in 1997 to provide support to regional community and educational programs -- is acting as a conduit for a $30,000 donation from Silicon Graphics, a major Laboratory subcontractor, to help Santa Clara Apartment fire survivors. The donation will be administered by Self Help Inc. The LANL Foundation has been instrumental in soliciting funds for this and other disasters. CRO personnel also are helping facilitate the redistribution of items that had been donated to help Cerro Grande Fire survivors to victims of the apartment-complex fire. Laboratory personnel will help sort items for easy distribution. Those interested in helping this process should contact Linda Anderman, the Laboratory's volunteer coordinator, at 505-665-4400. "A number of Laboratory employees already have shown their support to Santa Clara Apartment Fire victims through donations or volunteer efforts," Armijo said. "We hope others will, too, and quickly. People need our help now." Armijo said she also is encouraging employees to help victims find suitable housing or temporary housing. Anyone wanting to provide short-term housing should contact Española City Hall at 505-747-6015. Those with questions about how to make a donation to the victims' fund should contact Josephine Arellano in the Laboratory's Community Relations Office at 505-667-2194. --James E. Rickman Researchers study microorganisms in soil following Cerro Grande fire The forest areas and lands burned by the Cerro Grande Fire eventually will recover. But how long will that take? That is the 48,000-acre question. Aside from the hundreds of thousands of pounds of grass seed, hydromulch and straw that have been laid down over the past several weeks, the fact remains that little is known about the multitude of vital microorganisms that live in the soil and play an important role in the forest ecosystem. These microorganisms ultimately will affect just how long it will take for the burned areas to return to "normal." "The microorganisms in the soil are absolutely essential for normal plant establishment, growth and development, yet we know very little about their resiliency when subjected to extreme heat and burning," said Cheryl Kuske of the Bioscience (B) Division. "Which ones die, and which ones recover? And for those that do recover, how long does it take for full recovery? We simply don't know the answers to these questions." Kuske and other researchers are trying to find out. After the fire, she and some of her colleagues have collected close to 50 soil samples from extremely burned, heavily burned, lightly burned and nonburned areas in the Los Alamos Ski Hill area and around Pipeline Road. Using a variety of analytical techniques based on DNA analysis, the researchers hope to get a better idea of the diversity and composition of the soil microorganisms in the different burn areas. The researchers plan to collect more samples from the same areas approximately every two months for about a year and perform the same analyses, looking for any changes in the DNA representing the community of soil microbes. The preliminary results will give researchers a better understanding of the recovery process and which microorganisms fared better under the extreme heat. "We hope to use these preliminary findings to compete for grant money to perform a formal, more detailed study of the soil microorganisms and their roles in recovery of burned environments," said Kuske. --Ternel N. Martinez   CIC to host poster session Thursday The Computing, Information and Communication (CIC) Division will present its third annual Student Poster Session from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center. Students from CIC will present work that they have done during the summer. Officials from CIC say it's a chance for people to get to know the students in that division. The public is invited to attend. For more information, contact Christie Morrison at 7-9900. NHMFL experiences instrument failure At 9:15 a.m. July 28, there was a mechanical failure of the 60 Tesla Long-Pulse Magnet at the Pulsed Field Facility of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, located at the Laboratory. According to Greg Boebinger, NHMFL Center leader, "While this was certainly not a welcome event, this structural failure represents the end-of-lifetime for this large electromagnet, which designed and operated at the limits of materials strengths." Sixty tesla magnetic fields provide a state-of-the-art platform for cutting edge research. Scientific results obtained with the 60 Tesla Long-Pulse Magnet recently appeared in such prestigious journals as Physical Review Letters and Nature magazine. "The Laboratory is now assessing this event and making plans to re-establish this unique capability that has proven to be so useful to the international research community," said Boebinger. Former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory director dead at 78 Roger Batzel, who led Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for more than a third of its history, from 1971 to 1988, died Saturday evening, July 29, after suffering a massive heart attack. He was 78. For more information, see the LLNL news release. We have a winner PHOTO: Frank Valdez of Computer, Science and Technology is the winner this new mountain bike, given way in ARAMARK Corp's monthly drawing. ARAMARK Corp. is giving away a barbecue grill at the end of August. Patrons can register by filling out a ticket containing contact information at either the Otowi, Mesa or TA-55 cafeteria. No purchase is necessary, and individuals can register multiple times. For more information, contact ARAMARK at 7-3591. Photo by Michael Carlson ERT public meeting scheduled for Friday morning David Gurule, area manager of the Department of Energy's Los Alamos Area Office, is hosting the sixth Emergency Rehabilitation Team public meeting Friday at 10 a.m. Members of the media and public will be able to ask questions, provide input and engage in discussions with team members. The meeting will be held in Room 100 at DOE LAAO, located at 528 35th Street, off Trinity Drive. Protect Laboratory facilities and infrastructure Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons Construction work on the low-head weir in Los Alamos Canyon continues today with the installation of additional rock gabions, wire baskets filled with river rock. Crews expect to finish the rock-gabion wall late today. Weirs are low walls, constructed of rock gabions, that will stretch across the canyon channels and will act to slow the flow of water and trap sediment in the event of flooding. Crews continue clean-up work at Technical Area 2 in Los Alamos Canyon. Crews today continue to apply shotcrete to the downstream face of Los Alamos Reservoir. Shotcrete is sprayed, liquid concrete designed to prevent water from penetrating or causing erosion. Johnson Controls Northern New Mexico crews are placing protective concrete blocks around an underground electric line in Los Alamos Canyon. The blocks are designed to prevent the line from washing out in a flood. Pajarito, Two-Mile and Water Canyons Work continues at the flood retention structure in Pajarito Canyon (upstream from Technical Area 18, the Laboratory's criticality facility, and White Rock). Crews with the Army Corps continue full-scale concrete production and placement at the structure. Now that crews have moved into full-scale production mode, four trucks are delivering concrete from the on-site concrete plant on a 24-hour basis. Supply trucks will continue to use Pajarito Road for the delivery of aggregate (rocks) and cement to the concrete plant. The trucks will make a total of 400 deliveries to the concrete plant per 24-hour period. The goal of the concrete structure is to allow a normal flow of runoff down Pajarito Canyon, but prevent significant flooding downstream. The structure is designed to discharge the water at a controlled rate over a period of time not to exceed 96 hours. Crews today are applying shotcrete to the roadway at the intersection of State Road 501 and Two-Mile Canyon. Crews are also preparing the roadway at 501 and Pajarito and Water Canyons for similar treatment. The treatments are being applied to prevent the road from washing out during significant flooding. Minimize movement of contamination off Laboratory property Maintenance of sediment traps in Mortandad Canyon Crews from Laboratory subcontractor Morrison Knudsen continued the routine maintenance of sediment traps (large, broad holes dug in the stream channel to catch sediment, some of which is slightly contaminated, moving downstream) in Mortandad Canyon. The traps were originally dug in 1976 and have been expanded and added to over the last 25 years. Sediment was removed from the traps most recently in 1992. To date, crews have removed 42 dump truck loads of sediment (approximately 420 cubic yards) and took it to Area G, the Laboratory's disposal facility, at TA-54 for disposal. Once the sediment trap cleaning is complete, the traps will be able to hold 1.2 million gallons of water and sediment. The total amount of sediment that will be removed is estimated between 1,000 and 1,500 cubic yards. Ongoing projects Crews are approximately 90 percent complete with the removal of debris and shrapnel from R-44, a firing site located at TA-15. Laboratory officials decided to remove the shrapnel now because the vegetation and brush that used to cover it were destroyed in the fire. The shrapnel is being removed now to take advantage of the unique circumstances and meet the Laboratory's goal of environmental stewardship. Once the shrapnel is removed, it will be analyzed to determine proper disposal. To date, crews have picked up the following amounts of material: 15 cubic yards of scrap metal and other industrial waste 5 cubic yards of low-level radioactive waste 0.5 cubic yards of mixed waste 0.25 cubic yards of hazardous waste Laboratory and New Mexico Environment Department personnel continue to assess potential release sites, areas of possible contamination, located in areas that may be affected by flooding. The PRSs reside for the most part in three technical areas: TA-2, 41 and 18. On today's bulletin board Commuter's Corner | Parking areas around TA-3 | Parking shuttle routes (pdf) or jpeg NEW Verizon Wireless at Lab on Aug. 8 NEW Engineering data acquisition course to be offered Aug. 16 - 24 NEW Image Services Group responsible for Lab printing & duplicating services NEW Los Alamos Dog Obedience registration on Aug. 24 UPTE meeting on Aug. 3 Fidelity representative at Lab Aug. 15 - 17 Work Wear New Mexico will provide shoe mobile service Aug. 2 YMCA is holding registration for Kinderkick soccer program Los Alamos Little Theater to read Henry IV, Part 1 L.A. Therapist Network to hold meeting Project Recovery to host support group sessions Hunter Education class to be held August 26th and 27th at the UNM-LA Fire victims benefit archery 3D shoot Moratorium on recycling metal from areas posted for radiological hazards Dance Till Dawn dance/concert to benefit fire victims UNM-LA academic advisors coming in August to Otowi cafeteria Contract Associates has new floor covering mechanic Microsoft Certified Solution Developer study group forming Found: silver ring Los Alamos County Rodeo scheduled for Aug. 12 and 13, parade entry deadline is Aug. 7 Rover reunion to be held on Sept. 23 Registration for master's degree programs for NTU, Stanford University via distance learning underway ASM International hosts annual summer cookout on Aug. 2 YMCA to host women's softball tournament Aug. 12 Teflon sealing material in radiological service/compression fitting testing and acceptance Leadership Center offers Management & Leadership Institutes Ski club needs volunteers to help clean up fire damage IBM Thinkpads available through McBride ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) beginners' class continuing Modification of schedule in Notice 0045 University Technical Representative training for subcontracts Pool memberships available at prorated rates Sportmen's Club hold Co-Ed Introductory Shooting class Research Library looking for donations of books destroyed by fire Franklin Covey coming in August

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