Special update at 2 p.m.
Pajarito Road to close on Saturday for repair of water line break
Repair work on a water transmission line has been scheduled for Saturday on a section of Pajarito Road. Pajarito Road will be closed for the day. Please plan alternate routes going to and from Los Alamos and White Rock. Los Alamos County Utilities will begin work at approximately 8 a.m. and will continue until the repair is completed. No water services will be affected by this work.
Independent assessment of health risks from Cerro Grande Fire planned
Independent Auditor John Till, left, of Risk Assessment Corp. of Neeses, S.C., and Dennis Erickson, director of the Laboratory's Environment, Safety and Health (ESH) Division listen to Los Alamos County Councilor Fran Berting of the Northern New Mexico Citizens' Advisory Board after Till outlined a strategy for assessing potential health risks from the Cerro Grande Fire during a meeting Wednesday at the Cities of Gold Hotel in Pojoaque. The New Mexico Environment Department is funding an independent assessment of health risks potentially created by last May's fire, which charred nearly 50,000 acres of land. Laboratory Director John Browne lauded the state agency's decision to contract with Till's company. Risk Assessment Corp. has performed two independent audits of Laboratory radioactive air emissions. Photo by James E. Rickman, Public Affairs
Childcare arrangements
As the Laboratory continues work on implementing its childcare initiative, parents should proceed with making their fall childcare arrangements. It will take some time to go through the process of Department of Energy approval, space acquisition and program implementation.
For more information on the Lab's childcare initiative, see the Jan. 24 Daily Newsbulletin.
Using trichloroethylene to spray away the waste
Large volumes of trichloroethylene used to be used to clean
plutonium parts for pit manufacturing, until now.
A new system for spray cleaning parts that reduces the amount
of trichloroethylene waste by 75 percent has been developed and
is in use by a team from Weapons Component Technology (NMT-5).
The team of Peter Lopez, David Mann, Debra Johnson, Jose Ortega
and Stephanie Lopez developed a method that has significantly
cut the hazardous waste and worker exposure to the suspected carcinogen,
as well as improving process efficiency.
NMT-5 provides fabrication, assembly and engineering services for the stewardship and management of the plutonium components in the nuclear weapon stockpile program.
In the past, NMT-5 workers used large volumes of trichloroethylene to clean plutonium parts for pit manufacturing. The old cleaning method required that the parts be manually immersed in an 18-liter bath of trichloroethylene to ensure all surfaces of the part were clean. During the final rinse, workers prepared a second bath of trichloroethylene to further minimize organic contamination. This resulted in about 200 liters of contaminated trichloroethylene a year. It was also potentially hazardous to the workers, not only because of the risk of exposure to radiation from the parts, but also the risk of exposure to the trichloroethylene itself.
The NMT-5 team developed the new spray cleaning system by modifying a commercially available product. The new sprayer uses only 4.5 liters of solvent. The part to be cleaned is put in a rotating basket, which then gets sprayed from the top, bottom and side. The new system ensures all surfaces are cleaned while using the least amount of solvent possible. It also minimizes inconsistencies in the cleaning process due to differences in cleaning technique.
This innovative new design won the NMT-5 team a Laboratory Pollution Prevention award for the year 2000. The Environmental Stewardship Office (E-ESO) gives the awards to those individuals or teams who have demonstrated a commitment to the environment.
For more information regarding the Pollution Prevention Awards or other environmental programs at the Laboratory, go to http://emeso.lanl.gov online.
--John Bass
April Body Bulletin newsletter is being
distributed to mail stops
The April issue of the Body Bulletin newsletter is being distributed to Laboratory employee mail stops. Body Bulletin, Safety Check and the online Personal Best replace the Wellstreet Journal formerly published by Occupational Medicine (ESH-2).
The April issue features information on peak performance in the workplace. The eight ways to boost productivity are discussed along with information on the April High Performance Institute offered though Training and Development (HR-6). Also included in this issue: cancer-warning signs, common causes of fatigue, walking program guidelines and money saving tips.
Test your knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases and learn how caregivers manage not only chronically ill persons, but their own health. There also is a list of resources for caregivers. Safety tips are provided to prevent falls and for avoiding microwave mishaps. The recipe of the month is banana pudding.
Body Bulletin, Safety Check and Personal Best are publish by Scott Publishing in Edmonds, Wash., and are part of the Lab's Positive Health Directions Program in ESH-2 and Compensation and Benefits (HR-1).
Lab hosts Colorado, New Mexico National Guard training exercise
Colorado National Guard members are briefed during a recent terrorist threat exercise at Technical Area 49. The 8th Civil Support Team of the Colorado National Guard and the 64th Civil Support Team of the New Mexico National Guard participated in a joint exercise responding to a special bulletin on the hijacking of radioactive material by a foreign terrorist organization. Inset photo, Major Chris Petty, right, of the Colorado National Guard briefs Paul Nelson of Hazardous Materials Response (ESH-10) on strategic plans. Nelson was playing the role of a FBI agent. ESH-10's Hazmat team routinely assists emergency response teams, such as the National Guard, in their exercises. The Civil Support teams were established by Congress to respond to terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction and are on call and ready to respond to any incident or occurrence where their expertise is needed. Photo by Ed Vigil, Public Affairs
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Research
Policy Open House
