National Laboratory

Police and Lab Join Forces for Robot Rodeo

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Los Alamos Police Department explosive devices experts and LANL hazardous devices experts joined forces to compete against seven other teams in the sixth annual Robot Rodeo underway this week in Technical Area 49 at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In this scenario, a pair of robots inspect a car involved in a chase and abandoned by drug traffickers.  Photo by Salvador Zapien/ladailypost.com

Bob Clark, a Hazardous Devices technician at Los Alamos National Laboratory makes some final adjustments to the LANL/LAPD team robot. Photo by Salvador Zapien/ladailypost.com

One of the tasks Read More

LANL Helps Medicine, Cosmetics and Crop Irrigation Businesses Gain Traction

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LANL News:

Three small companies in the diverse fields of medicine, cosmetics and crop irrigation are the latest recipients of Venture Acceleration Fund (VAF) awards from the Los Alamos National Security, LLC.

Integrative Enzymatics, Vapour Organic Beauty and HydroBio will receive startup funding from the Laboratory to help them gain traction in their respective markets.

“The VAF program fills a unique need by providing capital that reduces a company’s risk,” said David Pesiri, the Laboratory’s Technology Transfer Division leader. “VAF is a catalyst for start-ups as well Read More

NNSA Production Office Open for Business

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NNSA Production Office Manager Steve Erhart, left, presents DOE Secretary Steven Chu with an overview last year of a B83 tooling system. Courtesy/NNSA
NNSA News:
  • New organization combines federal offices in Tennessee and Texas

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Production Office (NPO) is now in operation, providing federal oversight of nuclear production missions at the Pantex Site in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

“This is an historic move for NNSA that puts us in a position to improve performance, reduce

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Seeing the Color of Disease

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Microarrayer machines (A) now can mix colors and deposit them on microscope slides, which can be used to calibrate hyperspectral imagers (HSI) for use in medical applications. The finished slides can be custom-colored (B) to calibrate HSIs to find specific types of tumors or disease tissue. Close up, they resemble dot-matrix printwork (C). Credit: Clarke/NIST

NIST News:

A powerful color-based imaging technique is making the jump from remote sensing to the operating room—and a team of scientists* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have taken steps to ensure it Read More

LANL to Host Robot Rodeo Tuesday

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Courtesy/LANL

  • Events test skills of hazardous devices team from around the Southwest

Hazardous devices teams from around the Southwest will wrangle their bomb squad robots at the sixth annual Robot Rodeo beginning Tuesday, June 19 at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL.)

The rodeo gets under way at 8 a.m. in Technical Area 49, a remote section of Laboratory property near the entrance to Bandelier National Monument.

Eight teams are scheduled to participate in the three-day competition.

“The Robot Rodeo gives bomb squad teams the opportunity to practice and hone their skills in a lively but Read More

World’s Fastest Supercomputer Passes 16 Petaflops!

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NNSA News:

An IBM technician loads CPUs into Sequoia, the world’s fastest supercomputer. Courtesy Courtesy LLNL.gov/IBM

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced this morning that a supercomputer called Sequoia at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was ranked the world’s most powerful computing system.

Every six months, the biggest supercomputers have a giant race to see which can lay claim to being the world’s fastest high-performance computing cluster.

Clocking in at 16.32 sustained petaflops (quadrillion floating point Read More

U.S. and Latvia Commission Radiation Detection Equipment

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NNSA News:

Freeport of Riga in Latvia. Courtesy photo

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the State Border Guard of Latvia (SBG) Friday announced the commissioning of specialized radiation detection equipment at the Freeport of Riga, in an effort to prevent the illicit trafficking of nuclear and other radioactive materials.

Under a 2007 agreement between the U.S. and Latvia, NNSA’s Second Line of Defense (SLD) Program has been working with SBG on projects at seven sites and a training center in Latvia. The most recent installation represents a significant

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LANL: After-hours, Weekend Changes Through East Jemez Road Vehicle Access Portal Begin Monday

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Courtesy/LANL

Beginning Monday, June 18, all vehicles entering Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Vehicle Access Portal at East Jemez Road must use center lane number 4 between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. weekdays and all day on weekends.

All other lanes will be closed during LANL’s non-work hours.

During these hours, drivers and bicyclists must stop at the center lane guard post and proceed only upon verbal or hand-signal direction from a LANL protective force officer.

Orange traffic safety cones will be used to funnel vehicle traffic into the center lane.

All drivers are reminded that the speed Read More

UK Continues Support for NNSA Nuclear Nonproliferation Programs

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NNSA News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has announced that NNSA and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will continue cooperation to secure vulnerable nuclear and radiological material and reduce nuclear threats around the world.

Under an agreement signed with NNSA’s Office of Global Threat Reduction (GTRI), the U.K. Global Threat Reduction Programme will provide the U.S. $3.5 million to support efforts in Uzbekistan, Belarus and Afghanistan.

“We welcome the U.K.’s longstanding and generous partnership

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Manhattan Project Historical Park Site Bill Moves Through Congress

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Chairman Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) today introduced legislation that would designate Manhattan Project sites around the country as a National Historic Park. 

Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tom Udall (D-NM) and Patty Murray (D-WA) are cosponsors of S. 3300. 

In the House of Representatives, Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) said today that he will introduce a similar bill when the House returns to session next week.

As an expert panel of historians reported in 2001, the top-secret program to create an atomic bomb during World War II centered Read More