Los Alamos National Laboratory

A team of researchers has found a way to ensure that your evening glass of wine will continue to be available, despite the potential attack of Xylella fastidiosa (Xf), a bacterium that causes Pierce’s Disease and poses a significant threat to the California wine industry’s valuable grapevines.

Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), University of California at Davis (UCD), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service have created specially engineered grapevines that produce a hybrid antimicrobial protein that can block Xf infection.

Depending on how one looks at it, the activists can take credit and/or the blame for the decision that will defer construction of the Chemistry Metallurgy Research Replacement.

On Monday, the President’s FY 13 budget zeroed out funding for the project.

Throughout the process critics showed up in force at the various public comment meetings throughout the state.

With the exception of the Los Alamos meeting, at least 40 to 50 people spoke out against the project.

And a lot of those same people headed to Washington to lobby Congress.

Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group has been to Washington three times and also New York once this year.

The National Nuclear Security Administration further clarified its position on deferring the Chemistry Metallurgy Research Replacement facility for at least five years.

NNSA spokesperson Josh McConaha issued the following statement: “NNSA has taken steps to ensure the nation has a capabilities-based nuclear security enterprise focused on needs and solutions. We view this constrained budget environment as an additional incentive to ask ourselves how we can re-think the way we’re operating, how we can innovate, and how we can get better.

In the past three weeks, LANL employees have submitted more than 200 cost-saving ideas to the Laboratory Integrated Stewardship Council (LISC) through a direct email address and a blog on the lab’s internal website.
Submitted ideas went through a screening and scoring process aimed at finding everything from “low-hanging fruit” (easy to implement, high potential savings) to longer term, more complicated projects. And some of those ideas were submitted anonymously.
Other criteria included the ability to measure the savings, the impact of implementation, and whether the idea presents any compliance issues with safety, environmental, labor, or other regulations.