Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Department of Energy have largely kept quiet about a cybersecurity hack that was announced Thursday.
The United States Office of Personnel Management announced that there was an incident that had been discovered in April that affected its Information Technology systems and that data may have been compromised.
While it is unknown who was behind a potential hack, U.S. officials believe it might have been hackers from China that have gotten into personnel files and other sensitive material at the OPM, which does background checks for the vast majority of government employees.
Following the incident, LANL and Los Alamos Field Office personnel were directing all questions to the NNSA headquarters. A NNSA official, which the Los Alamos Monitor reached late Friday, redirected questions to the OPM.
The NNSA spokesperson said only that DOE personnel were notified by Secretary Ernest Moniz Thursday following the announcement.
The Department of Homeland Security on Friday said it was possible employees all departments of the government could have personal data compromised.
Starting Monday and continuing through June 19, OPM will send notifications to approximately 4 million individuals whose information was potentially compromised.

NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover’s “ChemCam” instrument recently got a major capability fix, as Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists uploaded a software repair for the auto-focus system on the instrument.
“Last November we discovered that a small laser used to focus the ChemCam telescope on its targets had failed” said Roger Wiens, instrument lead at LANL. “Without this laser rangefinder, the ChemCam instrument was somewhat blind. The main laser that creates flashes of plasma when it analyzes rocks and soils up to 25 feet from the rover was not affected,” he said, “but the laser analyses only work when the telescope projecting the laser light to the target is in focus.”
The team knows approximate distances to each target, but this information is not accurate enough to provide an in-focus image.
Since November the team had limped along by taking nine images, each at a different focus, for every target. The data that was returned contained eight blurry images and one in focus, “a rather poor return for the effort and time, but better than nothing,” Wiens said.

Each May, employees of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) pledge contributions to help create the leaders of tomorrow through the Los Alamos Employees’ Scholarship Fund (LAESF).
In 2008, Alicia Salazar-Crockett was the Platinum Award Winner, receiving $30,000 toward her education.
A new LANL Community Connections Podcast features Salazar-Crockett relaying the impact the LAESF award has had on her life.
Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Community Programs Office Deputy Director Carole Rutten interviews Salazar-Crockett in the episode.
“Alicia is the perfect example of the scholarship fund,” said Rutten. “At 18 years of age, she received the top scholarship from LAESF for her undergraduate studies. She went on to receive her graduate degree in nuclear engineering. Now she is a full-time laboratory employee.”
This year, 78 scholars received more than $400,000. Since 1999, more than $4.9 million has been awarded through 1,000 scholarships. Los Alamos National Security, LLC matches each employee’s pledge — up to $250,000 annually — to LAESF, which is co-managed by the LANL Foundation and LANL Community Programs Office.

It’s been awhile since Los Alamos County has experienced May weather as wet as it did last month. It’s been 23 years, to be exact.
The last time the county has seen that kind of rain was in 1992. Los Alamos County got nearly 3 inches of rain in some spots, that according to Los Alamos National Laboratory weather reports.
May 2015 ranks as the ninth wettest on record, according to the lab.
According to LANL meteorologist Jean Dewart, the meter at Technical Area 6’s weather station recorded 2.80 inches, which was a little more than double the long-term average of 1.39 inches in May.
The biggest totals, however, were recorded at TA-49 and TA-53, as well as in White Rock. At TA-49, near Bandelier, the total was 3.11 inches and at TA-53, near the Los Alamos Airport, the measurement was 3.30 inches.
The TA-54 gauge near White Rock received 2.92 inches last month, which was nearly triple that of a typical May.
Dewart said since last month and May 1992 there have been eight Mays that have seen a quarter-inch of rain or less.
Since January, Los Alamos has received 6.61 inches, 20 percent higher than the townsite’s long-term average and White Rock has received 6.06 inches, nearly double that of what is typical year-to-date.