Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory director Charlie McMillan reportedly sent a letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in July warning of dire consequences for the plutonium mission if sufficient funding is not secured.

According to a letter obtained by the Nuclear Weapons and Materials Monitor, McMillan cited the lack of action on a $120 million reprogramming request from the NNSA to begin work on an alternative plutonium strategy and the funding cuts included in both versions of the FY 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations bills.

Congress has not signed off on the reprogramming request, which came about when the decision was made to defer the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility.

There have been reports the lab is considering an alternative strategy based on a modular approach to maintain the nation’s plutonium capabilities.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Tajikistan’s Nuclear and Radiation Safety Agency signed a memorandum of understanding April 29, that will strengthen efforts to deter, detect and interdict the illicit smuggling of special nuclear and other radiological materials.

“This agreement represents the shared commitment of both the United States and Tajikistan to combat nuclear smuggling,” said NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Anne Harrington. “The deployment of advanced radiation detection technologies, which will be provided to Tajikistan under the agreement, will enhance our mutual security efforts.”

Employees and the public can see and drive a variety of different robots at Robotics Night from 5 to 8 p.m., Friday, at the Bradbury Science Museum.
Robots from the Laboratory’s Hazardous Devices Team, the FIRST Robotics Leagues, UNM-Los Alamos, the Los Alamos Police Department and other local enthusiasts will be at the museum.
Demonstrations will include the laboratory’s robots each weighing in at more than 500 pounds and the Los Alamos Police Department’s Bomb Squad robot. UNM-LA’s robotics program also will have many of their student-built bots on display with information on their degree program offerings.
In addition, attendees can operate the robotic arm on display at the museum acting out possible real-life scenarios. The arm is similar to the kind used in hot cells and glove boxes at the laboratory.
Also featured will be Sumo Bot battles. The Sumo robots are autonomous, battery powered and controlled by an Arduino or a similar processor.
Competitors will battle to push each other out of the ring with only their sensors and programming to guide them.
A number of other Arduinos also will be on display for the evening in an Arduino Zoo.

Alex Kinyua, 22, who attended a Los Alamos National Laboratory symposium in the summer of 2011, entered a guilty plea Monday in a Baltimore courtroom to first-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie last year.
The former Morgan State University student spoke softly as he responded to questions from the judge, saying he had agreed to the plea and medications he had been taking were helping him. He declined an opportunity to address the court.
Judge Stephen Waldron said he had concerns about agreeing to the plea, but had to accept determinations by psychiatrists for the defense and prosecution that Kinyua could not be held criminally responsible. He expressed condolences to family and friends of the Agyei-Kodie.
“My heart breaks for you,” Waldron said. “I am very, very sorry.”
Kinyua has been held at the state’s maximum-security psychiatric hospital and returned there after the hearing.
Kinyua, a U.S. citizen originally from Kenya, admitted using a knife to kill Agyei-Kodi, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office said when Kinyua was arrested last year. Agyei-Kodie, a native of Ghana, had been staying with the Kinyua family for about six weeks at their townhouse in a Baltimore suburb when he disappeared in May 2012. His body was found four days later.