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Memorial service Monday for Allan Johnston
A memorial service for Allan Johnston, the Laboratory's Business Operations Division (BUS) director, is scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday in the Duane Smith Auditorium at Los Alamos High School. Father Colin Kelly will preside over the service. A reception follows the service in Fuller Lodge on Central Avenue.
Johnston, 58, died June 15 after a brief illness.
Johnston came to the Laboratory in 1993. He had been controller and director of finance of Batelle Memorial Institute at Pacific Northwest Laboratories prior to joining Los Alamos. A U.S. Army veteran, Johnston also was previously employed by Arthur Andersen & Co. and Union Carbide Corp.
He is survived by his wife, Suzanne, of Weapons Engineering (ESA-WE), and children David, Christy and Jeff and other family.
The nonprofit Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation has established a scholarship in Johnston's name. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Laboratory Foundation in Johnston's name. The foundation address is 1850 Old Pecos Trail, Suite F, Santa Fe, N.M. 87505. Or donations can be made to Los Alamos Visiting Nurse Service, 116 Central Park Square, Los Alamos, N.M. 87544.
Andrew Hime, of Neutron Science and Technology (P-23) and scientific director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory program at Los Alamos, presented data from the SNO collaboration Monday in the Orange Box Auditorium at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Recent data from SNO indicates that some of the vast numbers of electron-neutrinos radiated by the sun are transformed to a different forms, muon and tau neutrinos, in the course of their journey from the sun to the Earth. The SNO results resolve the 30 year mystery of the missing solar neutrinos and yield evidence that neutrinos have mass. The work of Hime and his collaborators continues a long Los Alamos tradition of neutrino research. Photos by Leroy Sanchez, Public Affairs
Solved -- The case of the missing neutrinos
For thirty years, particle physicists have struggled with the mystery - where do all the solar neutrinos go? Now Los Alamos scientists, working as part of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory collaboration, seem to have solved the puzzle. As it turns out, the neutrinos were not actually missing after all, but had been transformed to a different form in the course of their journey from the sun to the Earth.
Since the early 1970s, numerous experiments have substantiated the theory that a shower of solar neutrinos was constantly streaming from the sun toward Earth. The problem was, however, that the amount of neutrinos detected by terrestrial neutrino detectors was only a fraction of the number predicted by detailed theories of solar energy production. There seemed to be something wrong with either existing theories of the sun or our understanding of neutrinos.
Based on recently released research results, however, it is now apparent that this discrepancy is not caused by problems with any of the models of the Sun, but rather by changes in the neutrinos themselves as they travel across space toward the earth from their birthplace in the core of the Sun.
An international teams of scientists have combined the first SNO results with measurements from the Super Kamiokande detector in Japan to provide solid evidence that neutrinos oscillate. The evidence of solar neutrino transformation, along with the oscillation of neutrinos, is part of the mounting evidence indicating that these particles, which have been generally considered massless, indeed have mass, even if that mass is no more than the current estimate of one billionth that of a proton. Neutrino oscillations can only occur if neutrinos have mass.
First theorized by Wolfgang Pauli 60 years ago, neutrinos are elementary particles of matter with no electric charge that exist in three known forms: the electron-neutrino, muon-neutrino and tau-neutrino. Their actual existence was not proven until 1955 when Los Alamos scientists Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan Jr. used a detector called "Herr Auge" to gather the first tangible evidence of the existence of neutrinos. The discovery earned Reines the 1995 Nobel Prize.
In 1996 a team of Los Alamos scientists used the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector - a chamber filled with 60,000 gallons of pure mineral oil and 1,220 detectors - to demonstrate with neutrinos created by a linear accelerator that the tiny particles might indeed have mass. The nuclear reactions that fuel the Sun emit vast numbers of electron-neutrinos, some of which change into muon and tau neutrinos, as indicated by the SNO experiment.
The solution to the missing neutrino mystery was made possible by the construction and operation of the SNO detector, a 12-meter diameter acrylic plastic heavy-water-filled vessel located more than 6,800 feet below ground in a nickel mine near Sudbury, Ontario. The SNO detector uses an array of 9,456 photomultiplier tubes to capture the tiny flashes of Cherenkov light that are created when the roughly 10 solar neutrinos per day that are stopped or scattered in the 1,000 tons of heavy water contained in the SNO detector. The construction of the SNO began in 1990 and was completed in 1998. The SNO team began taking measurements in 1999.
For more than a decade, Los Alamos scientists have played a valuable role in construction, commissioning and detector calibration at SNO, as well as more recent work in data reduction and analysis. The group has also been instrumental in the design and construction of a neutral-current detector array that, when it is deployed about a year from now, will further increase the sensitivity of SNO. Los Alamos researchers currently involved in the SNO collaboration include Andrew Hime, Mel Anaya, Tom Bowles, Steve Brice, Mike Dragowsky, Malcolm Fowler, Andre Hamer, Klaus Kirch, Azriel Goldschmidt, Geoff Miller, Bill Teasdale, Jerry Wilhelmy and Jan Wouters.
The discovery that electron neutrinos from the sun are somehow transformed into other neutrino types is important in understanding the Universe at its most microscopic level because the transformation of neutrino types has not been a part of the "Standard Model", the prevailing theory in particle physics.
There now seems little doubt that particle physics theoreticians will now have plenty of mysteries of their own to work on as they look for the best ways to incorporate this new information about neutrinos into existing or new comprehensive theories.
--Todd Hanson
EES Division hosting Science Day
Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) Division will be hosting the first EES Science Day, a division-wide poster session and lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday at the Topper Cafe at Los Alamos High School. The poster session will be EES division employees only from 11 a.m. to noon. Families of EES Division members are invited for lunch from noon to 1 p.m. and it will be open to all employees in the afternoon from 1 to 3 p.m. Researchers will display approximately 70 posters highlighting recent research in EES Division. Titles and authors of the posters are on the division web site at http://geont4.lanl.gov/studhandbook/posterlist.html online. This is an opportunity for staff and students in EES to find out what others in in the division do and have lunch with each other. It will also be an opportunity for people from other divisions to see what kinds of research the division conducts.
Laboratory to hold carbon management workshop in September
Abstracts due July 15
The Laboratory's Strategic and Supporting Research Directorate is sponsoring a workshop Sept. 11, "Carbon Management Science and Engineering at Los Alamos." The goal of the workshop is to foster integration and an institution-scale view of carbon management-related research and development in several technical organizations at the Laboratory, said Greg Valentine of Hydrology, Geochemistry and Geology (EES-6) and one of the technical program organizers.
The workshop, which is only open to Laboratory employees and students, is in the Jemez and Cochiti rooms on the second floor of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center at Technical Area 3. The workshop is free, but is limited to the first 125 people to sign up. Registration forms and additional workshop information is available on the SSR Web site at http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/ssr/ online.
The workshop will consist of oral and poster presentations that will be selected from submitted abstracts. Abstracts for the workshop must be submitted to Debbie Pirkl in the Energy and Sustainable Systems (ESS) Division by July 15. The workshop Web site has template abstracts that can be downloaded and submitted electronically.
Carbon management focuses on technical approaches to reduce the impact of carbon dioxide released from the combustion of fossil fuels. Possible impacts of heightened carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere range from climate change to acidification of the ocean.
Carbon management research includes efforts to improve energy efficiency, to use low or non-carbon fuels, and to capture and secure storage of carbon dioxide, known as carbon sequestration.
Tom Baker of ESS and a member of the technical program team, noted that the Laboratory is actively engaged in research and development in all three of these approaches and is developing a number of innovative concepts combining expertise in earth sciences, chemistry, physics, biology, materials science, engineering, theory, and modeling and simulation.
Tom Meyer, associate Laboratory director for SSR, said, "As long as the world continues to rely on fossil fuels as a primary energy source, carbon management research will be of extreme importance. The Lab has so many positive efforts in this area and I'm looking forward to getting all these folks in the same room to discuss research directions, collaborations and next steps."
Questions about the workshop can be directed to any member of the technical program committee: George Guthrie of EES-6, 5-6340; Baker, 7-9274; Andrea Pistone of ESS, 7-8718; Valentine, 5-0259; or to Pirkl at 7-9005.
--David Lyons
Stress-ercize and frito pies
Gail Fox (above) of the Wellness Center demonstrates easy stretches for stress relief at the third annual Community Safety Days on Thursday. Community Relations Office hosted an open house and served free frito pies. More than 700 people attended the event. Photo by LeRoy Sanchez, Public Affairs
Editor's Note: This news story was written for the Daily Newsbulletin by Monica Wenzel of the Environmental Science and Waste Technology (E) Division.
Recycling oil made easier
Ever wonder what happens to the motor oil from your car after it is changed out? It's most likely taken away and properly disposed of. But what about oil that has been used somewhere else?
Used oil at the Laboratory comes from things like vacuum pumps and various facility systems. "It's used for a wide range of applications," said Tom Starke of the Environmental Stewardship Office (E-ESO). Oil generated at nuclear facilities, such as the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) facility and Technical Area 55 requires characterization for both radioactivity and Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations.
Previous characterization methods were specifically designed to analyze soil and water matrices, so inaccurate analytical readings were possible. Much of the oil being analyzed was characterized as radioactive.
Last year, Hazardous and Solid Waste (ESH-19) characterized 30, 55-gallon drums of oil for potential recycle and RCRA characterization. The processes that generated the oil indicated that it should be free of radioactive components. Yet, the analysis indicated the opposite. Twenty-five of them were generated in facilities that handle radioactive materials and required radioactive characterization and RCRA characterization. At a cost $7,000 each, the drums were characterized and then disposed.
Dustie Stephens of ESH-19 realized the tolerance in the radioactive analysis was highly vulnerable to error. She teamed with American Radiation Services to develop a new method to more accurately characterize the oil. The new method reduces the chance oil will be characterized as low level waste or mixed low-level waste, reduces analytical and disposal costs and increases the volume of oil that can be recycled by 90 percent.
For her efforts toward pollution prevention and waste minimization the Laboratory awarded Stephens with a 2001 Pollution Prevention Award, administered by E-ESO.
For more information about oil characterization write to Stephens at stephensd@lanl.gov by electronic mail.
For more information about P2 Awards, pollution prevention, or waste minimization visit the ESO website at http://emeso.lanl.gov online.
DOE Pulse highlights Energy Department Laboratories
The latest issue of DOE Pulse is available online. Pulse is an online newsletter about accomplishments at the Department of Energy's national laboratories. The highlights are short, written to be interesting and very understandable.
In addition to the highlights, each issue features two longer articles -- one about a researcher and one about a multilabcollaborative effort.
Some of the headlines in this issue are "Little detector performs with the big ones," "Environmentally friendly grout," "Reducing diesel NOX" and "Testing a self-contained fuel-cell battery."
In time for Christmas
Construction of the Strategic Computing Complex located at Technical Area 3 is progressing at a steady pace. The facility is 80 percent completed and under budget. Crews are painting walls, hanging doors and installing ceiling tile. A security fence also is being erected around the facility that will be Q-cleared. Employees should be able to move in by Christmas time. Community leaders got a chance to tour the complex last Friday on a trip organized by the Community Relations Office (CRO). For more information about the SCC, visit http://www.lanl.gov/projects/asci/scc/index.shtml online. Photo by Michael Carlson, Public Affairs
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Wellness
Center offers Safe on Your Plate class
