|
Oil leak halts research in Atlas Building Lab crews are cleaning up a leak of nearly 6,000 gallons of mineral oil that occurred in the building that houses the Atlas machine over the weekend. No one was injured as a result of the spill, which was contained mostly within the building. A small amount of oil leaked out a door, but was contained by a permanent berm specially constructed to contain such spills. None of the oil left Lab property. The greatest existing hazard is to workers cleaning up the slippery substance. Atlas is a non-nuclear facility and there were no radioactive materials involved. The oil spill was discovered by employees entering Building 125 at TA-35 at 6 a.m. Monday morning. The Laboratory's Hazmat team was called in and went to work immediately. The ultrapure oil came from a test tank holding 12,000 gallons of oil that had been used in the testing of components as part of the construction of the recently-completed Atlas pulsed power experiment machine. The Atlas machine, which also uses large quantities of the transformer oil in its operation, did not leak, nor was it damaged by the spill. The precise cause of the leak is still under investigation, but a preliminary analysis of the situation indicates the leak occurred at a gasketed seal on the tank. Similar seals on the Atlas machine are being inspected; so far no evidence of problems have been observed. Most of the damage from the spill occurred in laboratories located downstairs in the Atlas facility when the oil leaked through the ceiling into an ultrafast laser laboratory operated by staff and students from the Materials Science and Technology division. Both Physics and MST division management are particularly concerned about the deleterious effect the loss of equipment will have on ultrafast laser researcher work. Staff from the building will be relocated until the spill is cleaned up and the building can be returned to normal operating condition. Officials are still developing damage and clean-up estimates. --Todd Hanson First American on Everest will revisit feat nearly 40 years later In 1963, Dr. Thomas Hornbein was a member of the first American expedition to climb Mount Everest, whose summit is the highest point on earth. For the past 30 years, he has been a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Hornbein will describe how his Everest experience has informed his subsequent life and career at a Director's Colloquium at 1:10 p.m. today in the Administration Building Auditorium. For more information see Jan. 5 Newsbulletin. Laboratory reports contaminated water overflow Officials at the Laboratory reported to state and federal regulators the unintended release of less than 50 gallons of partially treated radioactive waste water at a Laboratory technical area. No one was injured or exposed to contamination as a result of the release, which occurred last Thursday afternoon at the Laboratory's DP Site. None of the waste water left Laboratory property. The unintended release occurred when a waste-water holding tank overflowed. The waste water had been used in cooling towers at the Laboratory's Tritium System Test Assembly building and had been partially treated before reaching the tank. Water from the release remained within a fenced area inside the boundary of DP Site. The fenced area is not publicly accessible and contains known contamination from Laboratory operations dating back to the 1950s. The site where the release occurred already had been selected for legacy-waste cleanup operations by the Laboratory's Environmental Restoration (E-ER) Project. Signs on the fence surrounding the area warn of the radioactive contamination inside. A preliminary screening analysis of the water showed that it was slightly radioactive, but below radiation levels already present within the fenced zone. The water was slightly alkaline due to partial treatment methods, but not enough to be corrosive. The water also contained trace levels of nitrates. The amount of tritium possibly in the water is unknown at this time, but similar wastewater discharged into the tanks contains tritium concentrations that are below DOE waste-water standards. Under normal circumstances, waste water from TSTA is partially treated at DP Site to remove some contaminants and then is pumped into the holding tanks. The tank water then is transported to the Laboratory's Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility for further processing and treatment. On Thursday, a Laboratory employee in the area noticed the tank overflowing and immediately turned off the tank pumps. The cause of the overflow appears to have been due to a faulty gauge. The incident is under investigation to determine its cause, and corrective actions will be taken to help ensure that a similar event does not occur in the future at the facility or similar facilities. The Laboratory notified state and federal regulators about the incident and has made courtesy notifications to Los Alamos County and neighboring pueblos. --James Rickman Formal Call for LDRD Directed Research Pre-proposals The Laboratory Directed Research and Development office is accepting pre-proposals for fiscal year 2002 funding. The deadline for submitting pre-proposals is 5 p.m., Feb. 7. They should be submitted to the LDRD office, room 156 of the Canyon School Complex. For more information, call 7-1235 and/or see the master management memo. (Adobe Acrobat required.) "A Change of Habit" new class at Wellness Center Ever wonder why New Year's resolutions don't result in any lasting change? The Wellness Center is offering a one-hour class from noon to 1 p.m. on Jan. 16 and again on Jan. 30 where Laboratory workers can learn about a process of change that can improve the chances for having success with New Year's resolutions. "A Change of Habit" is limited to a maximum of 15 people in each class and will be held in Room 106 of the Wellness Center at Technical Area 3. To register, call the Wellness Center at 7-7166 or register at http://www.esh.lanl.gov/~wellness/svc/classes/olreg.htm online. A fee of $13 (check payable to the Wellness Center) will cover the purchase of the required class book, "Changing for Good: A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward," by James O. Prochaska and others. The class is based on the research of psychologist James Prochaska and his colleagues, said Amy Anderson of the Lab's Employee Assistance Program, part of Occupational Medicine (ESH-2). Their research shows that people go through a number of stages as they move through the process of change. They titled the stages: Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, Maintenance, and Termination (see accompanying box). "The key to making lasting change is to assess what stage you are at in relation to a behavior you want to change, and progress through the stages for your best chance of reaching lasting change," said Anderson, who also is one of the class instructors. Most change programs, such as smoking cessation groups, assume that participants are all in Preparation and Action and the activities are geared toward people in those stages. People who are in the Precontemplation or Contemplation stages will most likely fail in that setting if they don't address the important tasks that will move them forward to either Contemplation or Preparation, she said. Class participants will receive an introduction to the Stages of Change model and complete an assessment related to readiness for change. They also will perform an exercise examining the pros and cons of making a lifestyle change and learn about a number of techniques to build confidence in making change. A follow-up session and individual "change coaching" by health and fitness experts will be offered to all participants, she added. For a summary of the Stages of Change model, go to www.uri.edu/research/cprc/transtheoretical.htm online. For more information, call Anderson at 7-7339.
Lab to conduct a burn of slash piles The Lab will be conducting a burn of slash piles beginning on Wednesday or Thursday in the vicinity of Technical Area 36. These piles are the result of thinning of trees around buildings prior to the Cerro Grande Fire. The burn is anticipated to last two days. Weather will be a determining factor for allowing the burn to proceed.
|
|||||||
