National Laboratory

World Record Shattered During Six-Experiment Pulse at LANL

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Charles Mielke, center, receives congratulations at the moment of the 100-T pulse. Courtesy LANL

LANL News:

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s biggest magnet facility today met the grand challenge of producing magnetic fields in excess of 100 tesla while conducting six different experiments. The hundred-tesla level is roughly equivalent to 2 million times Earth’s magnetic field.

“This is our moon shot, we’ve worked toward this for a decade and a half,” said Chuck Mielke, director of the Pulsed Field Facility at Los Alamos.

The team used the 100-tesla pulsed, multi-shot magnet, Read More

Nanopower: Avoiding Electrolyte Failure in Nanoscale Lithum Batteries

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Using a transmission electron microscope, NIST reearchers were able to watch individual nanosized batteries with electrolytes of different thicknesses charge and discharge. The NIST team discovered that there is likely a lower limit to how thin an electrolyte layer can be made before it causes the battery to malfunction. Photo by Talin/NIST

From NIST Tech Beat:

It turns out you can be too thin—especially if you’re a nanoscale battery.

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the University of Maryland, College Park, and Sandia National Laboratories Read More

Local governments to Discuss Funding for LANL, Environmental Liabilities, Jobs

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WHAT: Press conference to discuss funding for Los Alamos National Laboratory and the impacts on jobs, environmental cleanup and national security.

Proposed funding cuts are resulting in a reduction of jobs at LANL, missed environmental cleanup deadlines, and significant changes in LANL’s nuclear mission.

WHO: Mayor Alice Lucero, City of Espanola; Council Chair Sharon Stover, Los Alamos County; Commissioner Alfredo Montoya, Rio Arriba County; Commissioner Danny Mayfield, Santa Fe County; Mayor David Coss, City of Santa Fe; Commissioner Andrew Chavez, Taos County; Elmer Torres, San Read More

SFI Seminar: Free Will and the Brain: Some Current Confusions

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Daniel Dennett

Daniel Dennett of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute is presenting the seminar, Free Will and the Brain: Some Current Confusions at 12:15 p.m., Monday in the Medium Conference Room at the Santa Fe Institute.

Abstract: There has been a recent explosion of writing by neuroscientists and psychologists about how “science shows us” that we don’t have free will.

The problem with this work is that it confuses several quite different issues.

Once we sort it out, we find that there have been in fact some important discoveries Read More

Heather Wilson Draws Many LANL Employees to Her Town Hall Meeting

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LANL employees and others listen to Senatorial candidate Heather Wilson during her Town Hall meeting late Wednesday afternoon at the Hilltop House Hotel. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

By Carol A. Clark

A large crowd turned out to hear Republican U.S. Senatorial candidate Heather Wilson speak at a Town Hall Meeting at the Best Western Hilltop House Hotel late Wednesday afternoon.

Wilson spoke of her background and experience before fielding questions from the audience of slightly more than 100 people.

At age 17, she entered the U.S. Air Force Academy and graduated in 1982. A Rhodes Read More

LANL’s Terry Wallace Addresses Workforce Action at Wednesday’s Community Forum

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LANL Official Terry Wallace briefs audience members at Duane Smith Auditorium Wednesday evening about the voluntary separation program under way at the Lab. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

 

By Carol A. Clark

Terry Wallace, Principal Associate Director for Science, Technology, and Engineering at Los Alamos National Laboratory conducted the third and final community forum about the Lab’s Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) now under way.

On March 1, the National Nuclear Security Administration approved the plan to reduce the Laboratory workforce by 400 to 800 employees Read More

Wednesday’s HazMat Incident Categorized as ‘Non-emergency Significant’

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HazMat and other emergency responders worked near this section of TA-21 at the east end of DP Road Wednesday after a small chemical reaction occurred during cleanup activities. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

LANL NEWS:

At about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Los Alamos police and firefighters left the scene of a HazMat incident that began just before noon at the east end of DP Road.

A small chemical reaction in a bottle containing liquid drawn from a 60-year-old cylinder at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Technical Area 21 caused Laboratory officials to call in hazardous material personnel, Read More

HazMat Situation Winding Down

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Los Alamos Deputy Police Chief Kevin Purtymun just reported that as of 1:43 p.m. today, the air monitors surrounding the HazMat spill near Enclosure 12 toward the far end of DP Road are registering clean.

“The roadblocks at the intersection of DP Road and Trinity Drive are being removed and placed down around the building involved while cleanup work there continues,” Purtymun said. “The roadblocks were placed at the entrance to DP Road as a precautionary measure until the situation was assessed. The public can now come and go nomally along the majority of DP Road.” Read More

DP Road Residents Ordered to Shelter in Place

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Coordinator Philmont Taylor of the Los Alamos County Emergency Management Department just released a reverse 911 meesage ordering all residents along DP Road to shelter in place.

The cause for this emergency is a hazmat leak in Enclosure 12 at TA-21, Taylor said.

DP Road residents are to stay inside and close off all ventilation to the outside until they hear the “all clear” signal.

Check back for more on this developing story.

  Read More

DP Road Shut Down Due to TA-21 HazMat Issue

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DP Road is shut down at about noon today because of some type of hazmat issue at Technical Area 21.

Police are directing drivers away from the intersection of DP Road at Trinity Drive.

There is a report of a small brush fire at TA-21 and police and other emergency responders are on scene.

Check back for more details on this developing story.

Read More