Fire danger: Very high
Director to meet with students today
Laboratory Director John Browne will meet with students at 1:30 p.m. today in the Physics Building Auditorium.
Browne will discuss the value of students at the Laboratory and allow the students an opportunity to ask questions or express concerns.
Due to the limited seating capacity of the auditorium, the hour-long presentation will be shown live on LABNET with televisions set up in the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center.
Los Alamos is still the crown jewel
Former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker, right,
listens as Laboratory Director John Browne points to some of the
hillsides and ridges around Los Alamos damaged by the Cerro Grande
Fire in May shortly after Baker deplaned Tuesday at Los Alamos
County Airport. Baker and former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton were at
Los Alamos Wednesday to conduct an investigation and assessment
of the circumstances surrounding the hard drive security incident.
The former congressmen also addressed employees late Tuesday in
the Administration Building Auditorium. In the background left
is Karl Braithwaite, the Lab's Government Relations Office (GRO)
director. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez
Los Alamos remains the pre-eminent national Laboratory in the United States, according to two former congressmen who visited the Laboratory on Tuesday.
The Laboratory also will continue to play a vital role in helping the United State remain "leagues above" the rest of the world in scientific expertise. That was the message former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker and former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton gave employees.
Without Los Alamos, this country won't have a scientific future," said Baker, adding that Los Alamos is "an essential, important part of the future of this nation and the peacefulness of the whole world."
Baker and Hamilton earlier this summer were asked by the Clinton administration to conduct a thorough investigation and assessment of the circumstances surrounding the computer hard drive security incident.
Before and after speaking to Laboratory employees in the Administration Building Auditorium and on LABNET, Baker and Hamilton held discussions with senior managers and scientists. They also were briefed on security programs, including the Lab's Integrated Safeguards and Security Management program, as well as stockpile stewardship and threat reduction.
Baker, the three-term Tennessee Republican, said he shares a particular fondness for "things technical," having grown up a stone's throw from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The mission and world-class science that is done at Los Alamos is unique, he said.
"Los Alamos is still the crown jewel of the laboratory system of the United States," said Baker.
Baker said he came to Los Alamos with Hamilton to listen to scientists and Lab senior managers in hopes of trying to understand what happened in May and June. "This is a real dilemma to say what happened and why it happened," he said. "We're here to hear, to understand what you say and what you think," said Baker.
Hamilton said the report they submit to Richardson and the president won't end the problems Los Alamos and other national labs face in dealing with security. And he said Congress is now beginning to understand the intricacies of security and provide more money for security.
"We understand that you have been through a very rough patch," said Hamilton, who served 34 years in the House of Representatives as an Indiana Democrat. He said he always has held the highest regard for the Laboratory and what it has meant to the country's security, saying the United States has been "free and secure because of the work that goes on in the offices we've seen [at Los Alamos]."
In discussions with Lab senior managers and scientists, Hamilton said the mood at the Lab of dismay, anger and fear has come through loud and clear. "That mood was conveyed to us very intensely," said Hamilton.
He also said the two former congressmen are committed to keeping politics out of their investigation. "This is not a matter of partisan politics to us ... We are not here to blame you ... we're here to try and find out what happened."
Both Hamilton and Baker concurred that good science and good security are compatible. "The problem of having good science and good security is a difficult one ... but one that can be worked through," said Hamilton.
"A scientist can't feel like security is being rammed down his or her throat," he said. The bureaucrats in Washington, he said, also need to understand how work is done at Los Alamos.
Baker added that the incident in the long run will strengthen the Lab and the "great tradition of the scientists who preceded you will be strengthened and continued in the nation's interest."
Hamilton said is it helpful to remember that many in Congress don't know much about the science at Los Alamos. What caught the attention of Congress wasn't Los Alamos' good science, but the security incidents, he said.
Baker also said that Congress considers the laboratories as national assets and will continue to do so.
In response to a question about whether Congress will provide the additional funding to implement stricter security measures at the national labs, Hamilton and Baker both indicated that Congress takes time to respond to issues and is beginning to provided increased resources for security.
--Steve Sandoval
NNSA administrator Gordon at Lab Monday; talk with employees scheduled for 9:30 a.m.
Gen. John Gordon, undersecretary for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, will be at Los Alamos Monday and plans to speak to employees in the Administration Building Auditorium.
Gordon, who visited the Laboratory briefly last month, will talk to employees from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. His talk, open to all Lab badgeholders and also will be shown on LABNET. Afterward, employees can ask questions of Gordon.
While at Los Alamos, Gordon also will tour Technical Area 55 and receive a safety briefing and tour part of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building.
Los Alamos Computer Science Institute
Symposium planned Aug. 28 through 30
Is Santa Fe becoming a major high-tech hang-out?
That most-recent image of this beautiful, four-centuries-old southwestern town will be reinforced Aug. 28 through 30 as many of the nation's top computer scientists gather in the "City Different" for a Symposium to Explore the State of the Art in Advanced Computing.
The Los Alamos Computer Science Institute 2000 Symposium will bring together computer science researchers from the government, national laboratories, major universities and industry. The annual meeting, sponsored by the Laboratory and four universities, brings together the best minds in the field for technical talks and intense discussion. This year's LACSI 2000 meeting takes place at the Eldorado Hotel in downtown Santa Fe.
Paul Messina, who heads the Department of Energy's Advanced Simulation and Computing Initiative, will present the symposium's keynote address, "ASCI and Computer Science." Other prominent researchers in high-performance computing will present thought-provoking talks covering the spectrum of computer science, from Open Source, Java and clustered computing, to petaFLOPS computing and future applications. The final half-day of the symposium on Aug. 30 will be dedicated to workshops and small discussion groups.
"This symposium presents a unique opportunity for discussion of the most challenging aspects of high-performance computing," said Andy White, co-director of the institute. "We hope that this conference fosters relationships that will define the course of future computer science research."
LACSI consists of computer science departments at universities, companies and the Laboratory. The institute's goal is to enhance computer science while supporting DOEs Advanced Simulation and Computing Initiative Office.
The Laboratory founded LACSI in 1998 to execute long-term research in support of high-performance computing critical to the Laboratory's mission. When possible, the institute applies its intermediate stages of research to current problems of national or global interest. LACSI operates as a partnership between the Laboratory and four academic institutions: Rice University, the University of Houston, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Tennessee.
--Jim Danneskiold
Parking options increase at Albuquerque
Sunport for Lab travelers
Laboratory employees flying out of Albuquerque now have more parking options available at the Sunport.
Beginning Tuesday, Lab employees can use either the Park and Shuttle or Airport Fast Park parking lots on Yale Boulevard, said Guy Sandusky of the Lab's Travel Office in Accounting (BUS-1).
He explained that Park and Shuttle, which the Lab contracts with for parking, has formed a joint venture with Airport Fast Park to offer travelers more parking services. He said Lab employees may use either parking lot for both official and personal travel at the discounted rate of $3.50 a day.
"While the daily parking rate has increased slightly from the prior rate of $2.75 a day, there is far more parking available than previously," said Sandusky.
In order to receive the discounted rate, employees must present a parking coupon identifying themselves as a Laboratory employee. The coupons for the new agreement will be available beginning today and can be printed from the travel group homepage at: http://bus.lanl.gov/bus1/travel/transportation.htm online. The coupons are transferable and family members of Lab employees can use them, Sandusky added.
For more information, contact Sandusky at 5-0459, or write to sandusky@lanl.gov by e-mail.
--Steve Sandoval
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Just hanging around Donald Velarde of Johnson Controls Northern New Mexico removes a bat that was resting and roosting on the Public Affairs building in Technical Area 3. The bat was taken for a quick blood test and then if he was disease free, he would be set free. James Biggs, from the Ecology Group (ESH-20) says there are 15 to 20 different types of bats in our area. Photos by LeRoy N. Sanchez |
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On today's bulletin board |
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Commuter's Corner | Parking areas around TA-3 | Parking shuttle routes (pdf) or jpeg |
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