Los Alamos National Laboratory

Ten scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are being inducted into the ranks of fellowship in the American Physical Society for 2012.

The criterion for election as an APS Fellow involves exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise; such as performing outstanding physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or significant contributions to physics education.

Fellowship is an honor signifying recognition by professional peers. APS represents more than 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories and industry in the United States and throughout the world.

“In our fields, the respect of one’s peers is a most valuable reward,” Los Alamos Director Charlie McMillan said. “I congratulate this year’s inductees. They again show the depth of talent here at the laboratory and we’re proud to call them colleagues.”

Los Alamos trackers will use state-of-the-art technology to mark the course taken this year by Santa Claus and his eight tiny reindeer during the jolly elf’s annual mission to spread joy to all the children of the world. Visit LAMonitor.com beginning at 6 a.m. Monday to see St. Nick’s whirlwind journey.

Dec. 21 marks the Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere and also the eve of the completion of the 13th b’ak’tun on the Mayan calendar. Despite some rumors to the contrary that are being spread by very naughty children, Santa Claus takes to the skies above the North Pole again this year on Christmas Eve, bringing joy to all those who believe in the spirit of Christmas.

“We expect Santa and his team to arrive in Northern New Mexico about midnight on Christmas Eve,” said Los Alamos space scientist Diane Roussel-Dupré of the lab’s Space Data Systems group.

While Santa’s tradition of delivering toys and goodies across the world has endured for countless generations, Los Alamos has helped track Father Christmas for nearly two decades. Working in concert with the North American Aerospace Defense Command and other agencies, Los Alamos has helped ensure Santa’s safe passage across the globe.

The Chemistry Metallurgy Research Replacement facility may be alive after all, but then again, maybe not.

Legislators are almost finished debating the defense authorization bill for FY 2013 and the language in the bill would mandate that the federal government construct the controversial facility by 2026.

The Obama administration and the National Nuclear Security Administration have deferred the project for five years.

According to Global Security News Wire, the administration has argued that delaying construction of the new CMRR facility by five years would save money without harming nuclear-weapon readiness, but the plan has received mixed reviews on Capitol Hill.

Some lawmakers sought to proceed on a schedule that would have construction completed by 2024, though a budget resolution Congress approved for the first half of the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1 included no funds for the project.

On Tuesday, however, a conference committee established to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization legislation released a bill that would establish a legal mandate that the CMRR building be up and running within 14 years.

New research uncovered by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reveals that plutonium can age gracefully.

A story by Arnie Heller in Science and Technology Review gives a synopsis of the history of the research.
In 1997, the National Nuclear Security Administration launched a comprehensive study at Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories to examine in detail how plutonium pits age and provide a firmer scientific basis for estimating the service life of these critical weapons components.

The study’s results, announced in late 2006, showed that the slow degradation of plutonium in U.S. nuclear weapons would not affect warhead reliability for decades.

Independent research teams at the two laboratories performed extensive mechanical testing and laboratory-based experiments on aged samples of a plutonium-239 allo y—plutonium mixed with a small amount of gallium to stabilize the material in its delta phase at room temperature.