Los Alamos National Laboratory

The Los Alamos Police Department received a report of a suspicious package at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
LAPD bomb team and LANL Hazardous Devices team responded to examine the item at Technical Area 3.
 At about 11:40 a.m., the joint LAPD/LANL team concluded that the item was not dangerous and an all clear was issued.
Apparently, it was a legitimate delivery of something they ordered, but there was a label mix up, according to police.
Cpl. Ben Hinrichs later determined the item was not dangerous.
 

 Los Alamos National Laboratory would see a 7 percent budget increase, while spending for Sandia National Laboratories would remain basically flat under the Obama Administration budget plan unveiled on Wednesday.
The Department of Energy spending proposal requests $1.96 billion for Los Alamos and $1.8 billion for Sandia in fiscal 2014. In FY13, Los Alamos was operating on a $1.83 billion budget.
Officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration say that given the tight budget times, they are also going back to reevaluate what might be done to more affordably upgrade the plutonium research facilities at Los Alamos.
The administration last year proposed putting on hold any further work on a controversial $6 billion project known as the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility.
On Wednesday, the acting administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration, Neile Miller, said the lab is “clearly not affordable” and alternatives are being studied.
The proposed budget also calls for a 5 percent cut for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, to $203 million.
U.S. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said he was “encouraged that Los Alamos and Sandia labs are well-supported in the President’s budget proposal.”

Col. Paul Tibbets IV, grandson of Enola Gay pilot Paul W. Tibbets Jr., talks about his grandfather and his experiences as a U.S. Air Force pilot flying B-1 and B-2 bombers during a talk at 5:30 p.m., April 10 at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Bradbury Science Museum.
The talk is part of Los Alamos’ 70th anniversary lecture series.
Paul Tibbets IV is commander of the Air Force Inspection Agency at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, a post he has been assigned since July 2011. The agency provides independent inspection, evaluation and analysis to advance continuous improvement of mission effectiveness at all Air Force levels.
Tibbets IV’s grandfather, the late Brigadier General Paul Tibbets Jr., piloted the Enola Gay B-29 airplane from which the first atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima Aug. 6, 1945. Tibbets died in 2007 at age 92.
Tibbets IV received his Air Force commission in 1989. He has flown combat missions in southwest Asia, the Balkans and Afghanistan and has more than 3,800 flying hours. Paul Tibbets IV and his team of senior officers visited the laboratory in spring 2012 to share their stewardship and operational experience concerning the Air Force’s nuclear weapons systems with LANL designers and engineers.

Ten New Mexico small businesses participating in projects using the technical expertise and assistance of Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories were recognized at the 12th annual Innovation Celebration Thursday at Technology Venture Corporation’s Deal Stream Summit at the Tamaya Resort in Bernalillo.
The New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) program was created in 2000 by the New Mexico State Legislature to bring national laboratory technology and expertise to small businesses in New Mexico and promote economic development with an emphasis on rural areas. The program, which started at Sandia, was joined by Los Alamos in 2007. In 2012, Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories through NMSBA assisted 347 small businesses in 27 counties across the state.
The businesses and individuals being recognized include:
• Members of the Coalition of Renewable Energy Landowner Associations (CRELA) in eastern New Mexico, which asked NMSBA for help exploring the renewable energy potential of their land. Loren Toole of LANL and Craig White of UNM offered a five-course class through NMSBA covering wind-data evaluation, wind-turbine siting, power sales markets and pricing, and other factors affecting wind-energy development.