Sen. Bingaman vows to push to restore
balance on security issues during talk at Lab Wednesday
Los Alamos and the nation's other defense laboratories suffered through a difficult 1999 caused in part by a "highly political environment in Washington, D.C." and "exaggerated" reactions by some in Congress to allegations of espionage, according to U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
Speaking in the Administration Building Auditorium Wednesday, Bingaman noted that despite this, Los Alamos remains clearly a pre-eminent laboratory in the world, as witnessed by its excellence in broad areas of scientific research, industrial and technical partnerships, and the number of awards won.
The Lab's long history of success means the "stakes for maintaining scientific excellence will be even higher -- if that's possible -- than in the past," said Bingaman. The senator's talk, "Los Alamos Today and Tomorrow: Sustaining the Laboratory's Science Excellence," included brief comments on science based stockpile stewardship, the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, security and the proposed new National Nuclear Security Administration.
While he praised the Laboratory for "an admirable" job of upgrading its security program, Bingaman said the executive and legislative branches of government in Washington, D.C., over-reacted in imposing stringent new security requirements in response to the allegations of espionage. He vowed to work in the upcoming congressional session to "restore some balance."
The senator also acknowledged that the strict new security requirements drive away good people and stifle great science. "I do think that's a threat to the national security of our country," said Bingaman.
Turning to the LDRD program, Bingaman said some members of the U.S. House are "at the very least skeptical" about the LDRD program, and he noted that he would work with New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici to restore LDRD funding in the next fiscal year.
On the subject of polygraph examinations, Bingaman said he objects to using them as a screening tool and is pleased that Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has scaled back widespread use of polygraph testing.
Briefly discussing science-based stockpile stewardship, Bingaman called it a "challenging mission" in the absence of nuclear weapons testing. Later, in response to an audience question about the Senate last year voting down the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Bingaman said a vote should have been put off and that some in the Senate would have welcomed much more debate on the issue before it was put to a vote. "The far wiser course would have been to postpone a vote on it," said Bingaman, calling the vote a "low point" of Congress' last session.
He later said he's not optimistic CTBT will come up again for discussion between now and the November presidential election.
Regarding the new National Nuclear Security Administration, Bingaman said Los Alamos would suffer if it becomes isolated within the NNSA. "Los Alamos would become intellectually poorer," Bingaman said. "Science and technology cannot be compartmentalized into neat little pigeon holes. Clearly, we need to keep you in the middle of ... larger research and development issues."
Bingaman's talk was shown live on LABNET. Immediately following the talk, the senator met briefly with news media reporters.
--Steve Sandoval
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Robert Wilson, a Manhattan Project pioneer and founding director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, died Sunday at his home in Ithaca, N.Y. Wilson, 85, was a major figure in the history of the development of particle accelerators and was noted for his role in the creation of Fermilab on farmland west of Chicago -- Fermilab is home to the world's most powerful accelerator and is expected to remain so until 2006, when the Large Hadron Collider is scheduled to be completed at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Wilson also was known for the environment he created at the Fermilab site, which has hundreds of acres of restored prairie, a herd of bison, fishing holes, abstract sculpture and a central building modeled on the Beauvais Cathedral in France. A physicist, Wilson received his bachelor's and graduate degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. He worked with Ernest O. Lawrence on the cyclotron before joining the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. In 1947 Wilson became director of the Laboratory of Nuclear Studies at Cornell University and remained at Cornell until 1967 when he took a leave to become founding director of Fermilab. |
Energy secretary releases Task Force
Against Racial Profiling report
Speaking to Department of Energy employees and top management in Washington, D.C., and around the nation, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson Wednesday vowed to continue to fight racial discrimination at DOE and announced eight immediate actions the department is taking to ensure that racial profiling is not used at any DOE facility. He made the announcement after receiving a report and recommendations from the Task Force Against Racial Profiling that he established last June to investigate the climate at the department's facilities and make recommendations to ensure that the department's policies against racial profiling are carried out effectively. For more information and a copy of the report, see the DOE news release.
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Quantum cryptography focus of 'Science for the 21st Century' More advances in quantum cryptography is the focus of this week's issue of "Science for the 21st Century," a communication project launched by the Lab's Public Affairs Office. The project, which involves a series of one-page papers describing Laboratory technologies and research that have an impact on science and will continue to do so for the next century and beyond, covers diverse topics and highlights many areas of Laboratory research, including those efforts that involve numerous groups, divisions and directorates. A "Science for the 21st Century" article will be distributed each week during the next year to science editors at national, regional and local publications. The articles also will be available to employees on the Web at http://www.lanl.gov./orgs/pa/science21 as they are released (see the Jan. 12 Newsbulletin). |
UCTV takes to the airwaves
The University of California has announced that it has launched its own public interest television channel (UCTV) capable of reaching more than three million viewers on prime-time television seven days a week throughout North America.
"This is an important milestone for the University of California," said UC President Richard C. Atkinson, a prime proponent of inviting the public to find out more about UC through new electronic media.
For more information, see the UC news release.
Repository science for nuclear materials exhibit on display through Feb. 11
Floyd Archuleta, left, of the Community Relations Office (CRO) and Leeroy Herrera of Protocol (PA) check out a new display featuring repository science for nuclear materials at the Laboratory. The exhibit is located on the second floor of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center in the Santa Clara Gallery and will remain on display through Feb. 11.
The colorful display was created for the Department of Energy's International Conference on Geological Repositories held recently in Denver. The poster highlights capabilities for basic and applied research for waste characterization, geologic site characterization and numerical modeling, and safeguards and surveillance of nuclear waste repositories. The Lab's Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES), Environmental Science and Waste Technology (E) and Nonproliferation and International Security (NIS) divisions contribute to these capabilities, which are instrumental to repository science initiatives at the Lab.
The repository science display features:
* Site characterization. The geology of potential repository sites must be characterized to determine whether they are suitable for permanent disposal of nuclear waste, which includes such items as spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors and transuranic waste. Laboratory scientists, primarily through support of DOE's Yucca Mountain Project, have developed multiple capabilities for characterizing and assessing potential sites as geologic repositories.
* Waste Characterization. The Lab was one of the first facilities to develop a process for identifying and documenting waste characteristics that led DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency to name Los Alamos as the first site approved to ship waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. In addition, mobile and portable characterizations systems developed at the Lab will be used throughout the DOE complex, an initiative that saves money by preventing duplication of waste characterization capabilities.
* Safeguards Surveillance and Monitoring. Because nuclear waste represents a global disposal problem, Laboratory scientists are using its decades of safeguards expertise to demonstrate to the international community repository storage and monitoring measures to reduce the threat of diversion of nuclear materials for nonpeaceful purposes. The International Atomic Energy Agency has approved Los Alamos-developed remote and unattended monitoring systems, while ongoing research into advanced surveillance technologies will be applicable to future requirements."
Those with questions about repository science can contact Wes Myers, director of EES Division, at 7-3644. Photo by James E. Rickman
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Fermilab founding
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