Monday, May 12, 1997
New Mexico students participate in Critical Issues Forum
Noe DeLa Sancha of Santa Teresa High School used overhead viewgraphs to present his team's findings during Friday's Critical Issues Forum in the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center. Santa Teresa's project, "Can Anybody Paradigm?" explored the issue of world overpopulation and how the continued growth rate will deplete present-day and future nonrenewable resources.
Students from Los Alamos, Alamogordo, Sandia and Rio Grande in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Los Lunas and Menaul high schools participated in the Critical Issues Forum. The forum is a school-year-long critical thinking and problem solving exercise for New Mexico high school students and teachers and is sponsored by the Science Education Team of the Lab's Science and Technology Programs (STB/SE) Office.
This year's Critical Issues Forum topic was the Lab's Global Nuclear Vision Project. Other student presentations discussed the benefits and drawbacks of nuclear power, conflicting visions for the future of nuclear technology and environmental impacts to the world from "things nuclear." Photo by Fred Rick
Lab deputy director to speak on integrated safety management at DOE workshop
Laboratory Deputy Director Jim Jackson will attend a Department
of Energy workshop on "Integrated Safety Management: Lessons Learned"
Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nev. Joining him willl be Phil Thullen, program manager
of the Lab's Integrated Safety Program office; Carl Ostenak, leader of the
Laboratory Standards Project office; Juan Corpion of Chemical Science and
Technology (CST) Division and an ISM team member; and Hillard Howard of
Environment, Safety and Health (ESH) Division.
Jackson will make an invited presentation as part of an executive panel discussion on "Perspectives of Safety Management: Why is the Safety Management System important and what lessons have we learned as it is being implemented?" An abstract of Jackson's talk is available on the Web.
The workshop should be particularly interesting in light of the recent events at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Apparently one factor in the DOE's decision to drop Associated Universities Inc. as the contractor for the management of Brookhaven after nearly 50 years was a perceived lack of adequate progress in implementing Integrated Safety Management.
Disability workshop slated for Tuesday
The benefits office in Compensation and Benefits (HR-1) is sponsoring a disability workshop for expectant mothers from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday in the Otowi Building.
Sylvia Herrera of HR-1 and Anne Brown and Deanne Phillips of Occupational Medicine (ESH-2) will conduct the workshop for University of California Laboratory employees.
The benefits office will sponsor similar workshops every other month, Herrera said.
The workshop is in Room P280 on the second floor of the Otowi Building and no registration is required.
Herrera said the workshop will cover the Lab's policy on short-term disability, the federal Family Medical Leave Act, parental leave and safety to the unborn child and expectant mother.
Herrera will talk about short-term disability, Brown will do the safety portion of the presentation and Phillips will present the Family and Medical Leave Act and parental leave portion of the workshop.
--Steve Sandoval
NM 502 update
The contractor building a new interchange at NM 502 and NM 30 on Monday will begin applying the second layer of asphalt on ramps off and onto NM 502.
The work should take a couple of weeks to complete, weather permitting, and may cause small delays for motorists, said Danny Gallegos, project supervisor with the state Highway and Transportation Department's Española project office.
The ramps that take motorists from westbound NM 502 onto NM 30 and from NM 30 onto westbound NM 502 already were paved with base course asphalt. Two additional asphalt layers will be applied before striping and other safety guardrails are installed, Gallegos explained.
While this paving work is under way, one lane of the ramps will be closed, Gallegos said. Flagpersons will be in place to direct motorists through the construction area; signs also will be in place to alert motorists to the work, he said.
Corn Construction Co. of Albuquerque, the general contractor for the $4 million interchange project, will work from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the week, so morning commuters to the Laboratory from Santa Fe and Española shouldn't be affected by this new phase of work.
However, delays should be expected in the afternoon, Gallegos said.
The contractor also will begin installing some 500 feet of safety guardrail under the new bridge on both sides of NM 502, said Gallegos. This work will cause one lane of NM 502 to be closed in each direction, he said. Flagpersons again will direct motorists through the work area and signs will be posted.
Gallegos said the contractor has completed the bridge and bridge walls and will begin paving the bridge and the bridge "approach" from eastbound NM 502 onto the bridge and to NM 30.
The posted speed limit through the construction area is 45 miles per hour.
NM 30 is a two-lane road that cuts through Santa Clara Pueblo intersecting with NM 502 on the south and Española on its northern end.
The project is expected to be completed in late summer, weather permitting.
About 1,830 Laboratory employees and subcontractor personnel live in Santa Fe County; 2,100 live in Rio Arriba County and another 450 live in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties south and west of Santa Fe. Many of them travel Interstate 25, U.S. 84-285 and NM 502 to work daily.
The Lab allows managers to use flex-time scheduling, but employees should plan on delays and adjust their schedules accordingly.
Employees and subcontract personnel traveling from Santa Fe and points south who commute along this route also may consider joining car or vanpools. Those interested in joining a vanpool can call 988-7433, 294-0302 or 877-9597.
--Steve Sandoval
Hispanic Diversity Working Group accepting nominations
The Laboratory's Hispanic Diversity Working Group is accepting nominations from employees interested in serving on the group.
The working group was created last year by the Lab's Diversity Office to provide input to management on Hispanic diversity issues at the Lab, said Debbi Wersonick of the Diversity Office (DV).
Virginia Rey of Policy and Program Analysis (ESH-12) and Gloria Garcia of the Environmental Management (EM) Programs Office are chairperson and vice chairperson, respectively, of the Laboratory's Hispanic Diversity Working Group.
There are eight vacancies on the Hispanic Diversity Working Group, said Wersonick. Those employees selected for the group will serve two-year terms, she added.
Interested employees can obtain a nomination form online by accessing a master management memo on the request for nominations, or from Wersonick. They should be returned to Wersonick at Mail Stop C329 by Wednesday.
According to Rey, among the goals the working group plans to pursue are obtaining 501 (c)3 status as a nonprofit organization to raise money to award scholarships to worthy students; improving communications with the other diversity working groups at the Lab; developing a unified statement on diversity; working as a vehicle to bring issues to the attention of the Laboratory Leadership Council; and enhancing awareness at the Lab of Hispanic culture through activities like national Hispanic Heritage Month.
Other members of the Hispanic Diversity Working Group are Carlos Garcia of Technology Development (EM/TD), Bennie Martinez of Environmental Science and Waste Technology (CST-7), Olivia Martinez of the Industrial Partnership (IPO) Office, J. David Olivas of Weapon Component Technology (NMT-5) and past chairman of the working group, Lorraine Segura of Facility Risk Management (ESH-3), Cristella Trujillo-Neal of Planning and Assessment (STB-P&A) and secretary of the working group, and Armando Vigil of Engineering Analysis (ESA-EA).
--Steve Sandoval
Gregg Obbink of Space Engineering (NIS-4), uses a headset to talk to Jim Lake of Measurement Technology (ESA-MT) while the FORTE satellite is subjected to a series of vibration tests recently at Technical Area 16. Lake is in a control room operating a shake table, which simulates the vibration experienced during a rocket firing. FORTE, which is an acronym for Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events, is an advanced radio frequency impulse detection and characterization experiment. FORTE is scheduled for launch in late July from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez |
Past Daily Newsbulletins | Last week's headlines
Other Laboratory news sources
Reflections
| News Releases
| Dateline: Los Alamos
LANL | Phone Book | Search | Help
L O S A L A M O S
N A T I O N A L L A B O R A T O R Y
Operated by the University of California for the US Department of Energy
Newsbulletin Comments - Copyright © UC 1996 - Disclaimer - 12 May 1997
FORTE undergoes vibration tests