By Ron Kolb
An innovative Berkeley Lab accelerator design has been accepted by the Department of Energy for development as part of a Los Alamos-based facility that will contribute to the nation's effort to eliminate the need for nuclear weapons testing.
DARHT--the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test facility being built at Los Alamos National Laboratory--consists of a pair of giant x-ray machines strong enough to see through metals. It will analyze the effects of implosions during non-nuclear mock-up experiments--simulations that will render actual weapons stockpile testing unnecessary.
Berkeley Lab's Accelerator and Fusion Research Division will build one of the two linear induction electron accelerators for DARHT, an effort that Laboratory Director Charles Shank says is consistent with the Laboratory's legacy of accelerator production excellence. He notes that the work is unclassified and non-nuclear, and that no full-scale beams will be produced here.
The City of Berkeley has questioned the project as a possible violation of its "Nuclear Free Berkeley Act." Berkeley Lab's work on DARHT is actually compatible with this act and with the national nuclear agenda, according to Shank.
In a letter to Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean and City Manager James Keene, Shank emphasized that the Laboratory's work for DARHT has nothing to do with the design or development of new nuclear weapons, and thus adheres to the tenets of the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act.
"I believe our work is consistent with the purpose and intent of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act," he wrote.
"The DARHT project is a key technical component supporting the CTBT. DARHT will allow President Clinton and Congress, as well as future national leadership, to feel confident that the stockpile of nuclear weapons is safe and reliable. This may ultimately lead to stockpile reduction. Thus, I believe our technical efforts support the process of reducing and eventually eliminating the nuclear threat, consistent with the letter and spirit of the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act."
Shank stated his commitment to the objective "that there should be no more nuclear explosions on Earth," and he vowed that Berkeley Lab "has not been and will not be a part of a project created for the purpose of designing new nuclear weapons."
He noted that this work at Berkeley is consistent with the fundamental science and technology development carried out at universities like Berkeley, Stanford and Caltech. The accelerator work here will be unclassified, subjected to rigorous reviews and to publication of results.
"In designing and building a linear induction accelerator for the DARHT project, Berkeley Lab will develop components similar to those previously built for the fusion energy science program," he said.
Final assembly of the accelerator will be done at Los Alamos.
Within an estimated project budget of $256 million, Berkeley Lab's portion is about $40 million. Congress has yet to accept the total project plan from the Department of Energy, although the FY98 budget includes funding for the second axis of DARHT, and Berkeley's initial design work has been authorized. DARHT is expected to be operational with its first x-ray machine during the summer of 1999 and with the second machine during calendar year 2002.
The DARHT x-ray machines are based on linear induction electron accelerators. Because of Berkeley Lab's many decades of expertise in building accelerators of this type, it was asked by Los Alamos to examine various approaches for DARHT's second axis. Berkeley Lab's design includes the linear accelerator as well as the electron injector and pulse power drivers.
"We have a long and successful record not only in building advanced accelerators, but also in synergistic collaboration with other institutions," Shank said, pointing to examples such as the Superconducting Super Collider, the Spallation Neutron Source, accelerators and detectors at Fermilab, and the B-factory project at Stanford.
The City of Berkeley's letter of inquiry suggested that the research conducted by DARHT, if it serves to "modernize the nuclear stockpile," could conflict with the purpose and intent of the CTBT, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act. At its meeting on Oct. 28, the City Council asked the City Attorney to investigate whether Berkeley Lab's contribution represented a violation of the act.
Shank was adamant that it does not.
"The relationship (with the act) is compatible, the goals consistent," he said in answering the City's central question about the project. And he called upon the City to "resolve jointly with the Laboratory to support the international struggle for stockpile reduction, permanent cessation of nuclear weapons testing, and elimination of all weapons of mass destruction."
The City of Berkeley Chamber of Commerce has forwarded a letter to the Mayor and City Council expressing its strong support of the Berkeley-based DARHT work.
The Nuclear Free Berkeley Act, passed in 1986, has among its central purposes "to oppose the arms race by prohibiting work for nuclear weapons," as well as "prohibit nuclear reactors...food irradiation plants...(and) to oppose the nuclear fuel cycle as a whole." It expresses its prohibition for any person, corporation, university, laboratory, institution or other entity in Berkeley to "knowingly engage in work for nuclear weapons." Among its exclusions are "any unclassified research, study, evaluation or teaching."
As a federal facility managed by the University of California, Berkeley Lab is not subject to local regulation, absent any waiver of its sovereign immunity.
Photo: The DARHT facility being constructed at Los Alamos will consist of two giant x-ray machines that will permit evaluation of nuclear weapons through non-nuclear means, thereby eliminating the need for underground testing.
The Advanced Light Source, subject of a recent federal study that cited shortcomings in its scientific program, has been elevated from program to division status as part of a reorganization designed to reinvigorate science activity at the ALS.
As announced by Berkeley Lab Director Charles Shank on Oct. 29, the ALS has become the Laboratory's 14th official division, to be headed by Brian Kincaid, formerly program director. Neville Smith will direct the scientific program, and Howard Padmore will be his deputy. Ben Feinberg will continue to direct ALS operations.
The ALS had operated within the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division. Under the new alignment, many ALS staff members will be matrixed from AFRD to the ALS.
"The ALS has come of age," Shank told an "all-hands" meeting in the Bldg. 50 auditorium. "And now it must be incorporated as part of our scientific program at the Lab. We have much to be proud of, but there is much work to be done."
He stressed the need to become more "customer-focused" and to listen to the ALS users more carefully as part of an effort to build a stronger research community. He also announced a workshop to be held at Berkeley Lab in February or March, at which "the very best people in the synchrotron soft x-ray area throughout the world" will be invited to help develop the scientific vision for the ALS of the future. Pat Dehmer of the Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) will help organize the event, as will the ALS user group.
The Birgeneau Report commissioned by BES was unflinching in its support for DOE light sources. However, while it praised the ALS for its technical performance and its aggressive and innovative industrial research programs, the advisory panel questioned what it called "underdeveloped" science programs, user discontent, and levels of support from Lab management and the university. It placed the ALS fourth of four machines in funding priority.
"We need to take this report in a positive sense," Shank told the ALS staff. "This is really an opportunity for us to focus our attention on the best scientific activity for our future, which will lead us into a new epoch. We need to ensure that the ALS has a long life and will make its mark. We now must move forward and grow the program."
The challenge, he said, will be to embark on new directions even as the ALS budget might fall by as much as $3 million next year. Nonetheless, he cited strong DOE support for the workshop and subsequent ALS actions.
Division Director Brian Kincaid offered his commitment to make the new structure work and to find ways to "expand the user base and access without a growth in resources." Neville Smith echoed his acceptance of the challenge. "We are now structured in a way to assist the user community to deliver the goods. Users now need to deliver the home runs."
"The spaceship is in orbit," Kincaid added. "We're now there. This is a sign of success. The workshop will allow us to re-baseline the scientific program. It's an unprecedented opportunity to raise our credibility and reinvent the facility."
Earth has a lower proportion of the element xenon than any other rocky planet--a lower proportion than the solar system as a whole. Two teams of scientists--one at Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division (MSD) and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), and the other at UC Berkeley's Department of Geology and Geophysics--recently cooperated in an attempt to track the missing xenon to the Earth's core. One group used a computer to simulate the behavior of xenon under extremes of pressure and heat. The other used a diamond-anvil cell and a laser beam to apply real pressure and heat in the laboratory.
"Several lines of evidence led people to suspect the Earth might be missing xenon," says Sander Caldwell, a member of the team led by Berkeley geophysics professor Raymond Jeanloz. "If you look at the sun and adjust for the fact that it is mostly helium and hydrogen, the elements that are left--oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, and so on--are in roughly the same proportion as on Earth. It's a crude model, but most of the terrestrial planets follow it. The exception is, there's practically no xenon on Earth."
Most of the miscellany that makes up our solar system condensed from a primitive nebula of dust and gas. Estimates of xenon abundance from telescope studies of Mars, Venus and Mercury, which roughly match counts of the elements in primitive meteorites thought to have formed before the planets condensed, confirm that the Earth has "an order of magnitude less xenon than the other terrestrial planets," according to Caldwell.
There is no easy explanation. Xenon does not react readily with other elements, and it is not locked up in chemical compounds in the Earth's crust. With an atomic mass of 131, many times that of hydrogen, helium and most atmospheric gases, xenon is too heavy to reach escape velocity in a low gravitational field or blow off in solar flares.
Steven Louie of the UC Berkeley Department of Physics and the Lab's MSD calculated that xenon can become a metal when subjected to pressures of around 150 gigapascals (GPa), almost a million and a half times atmospheric pressure at sea level. A metallic form of xenon was observed in the late 1980s. Louie says one hypothesis, discussed in the geophysical community for over a decade, was "that during the formation of the Earth, metallic xenon could have reacted with iron in the Earth's core--that the core is a reservoir of primordial xenon."
Raymond Jeanloz has often used diamond-anvil cells to recreate conditions in the Earth's mantle and core. Diamond-anvil cells squeeze two diamonds together in a vise-like mechanism; between them, test samples contained in a metal gasket are subjected to enormous pressures. By shining a laser through the transparent diamond, the trapped sample can be heated to high temperatures. Jeanloz's group set out to determine if metallic xenon could react with iron under such extremes.
The first challenge was to contain xenon gas inside the gasket. "We cooled the diamond-anvil cell with liquid nitrogen," Sander Caldwell explains, "and with a small hose let some xenon flow onto the diamonds. Just as water frosts the lawn on a cold night, the xenon frosted the cold diamonds."
Along with iron powder, the frozen xenon was squeezed to 50 GPa. Then the samples were heated to 3,000 degrees Kelvin. X-ray diffraction patterns taken before and after showed unfamiliar changes in crystal phases. Had the xenon reacted with the iron?
"I could not attribute the change to any known crystal structure. Science is supposed to be objective, but I was hoping to see evidence of an iron compound," Caldwell admits. "It would have been really big news if a noble gas could form a metal alloy."
The truth proved to be less revolutionary. "We knew that xenon alone--at room temperature--shifts from the face-centered cubic crystal phase to hexagonal close-packed with increasing pressure. In our work, heat was facilitating this phase change. What we were seeing in the diffraction patterns was not a compound but a mixture of the two xenon phases, plus unreacted iron," Caldwell says.
Steven Louie has long used computers to model the behavior of novel materials ab initio--that is, from quantum-mechanical first principles; he has been particularly interested in understanding the phase changes of materials under increasing pressure. Louie's student Bernd Pfrommer tackled the xenon question. He was able to run the smaller calculations using Silicon Graphics machines at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications in Illinois, but to complete the main calculations within a reasonable time, he needed NERSC's highly parallel supercomputer, the Cray T3E.
"With our calculations it is much easier to simulate high pressures than it is to produce them experimentally," says Pfrommer. Diamond-anvil cells have achieved pressures of about 360 GPa--approximating the pressure at the surface of the Earth's inner core--but Pfrommer subjected a set of xenon and iron compounds to simulated pressures of up to 500 GPa.
The calculations showed no sign of chemical bonds between xenon and iron. They indicated that such bonds were virtually impossible, even at pressures greater than those at the center of the Earth.
Where is Earth's missing xenon? Not in the iron core. "It's very significant work," Steven Louie comments, "because for a long while people thought this was a real possibility."
Yet a minor mystery has been solved--that of elusive "xenon II," a novel form of xenon proposed by earlier researchers. Computer calculations show that xenon can start to change from the face-centered cubic structure to the hexagonal close-packed structure at as low as five GPa; experiments show the transition is complete only over 70 GPa. This sluggish phase transition produced data that had been interpreted as a third structural form, but Pfrommer's NERSC calculations, together with Caldwell's experiments, showed that the confusion was due to the very small energy difference between the two phases.
"Over a wide range of pressures, xenon can't decide which phase it should be in," Caldwell notes. "But there is no such thing as xenon II. It's a mix."
Through a collaboration of calculation and experiment, one false trail has been eliminated. The search for the missing xenon goes on.
Photos: Two-pronged investigation of xenon's properties: Sander Caldwell holds a diamond-anvil cell used in bench-top experiments. Meanwhile, at Berkeley Lab, "first-principles" calculations ran on NERSC's Cray T3E. (XBD9711-04145 & T3-E)
-- Lynn Yarris
His morning in the Bay Area will be devoted to discussions and tours with educators in the Oakland Unified School District. He is scheduled to meet with teachers and children at the Technology Learning Center in Oakland and to participate in the distribution of education awards at the school district superintendent's office.
Following a community leaders' luncheon at Berkeley Lab, Peña is expected to tour the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, the Advanced Light Source, Energy Efficient Technologies, and the human genome program. A brief dedication ceremony at the new genome research building is also being planned for later in the afternoon.
Specific details of the Secretary's visit will appear in forthcoming issues of the Headlines electronic bulletin.
Carolyn Bertozzi of the Materials Sciences Division (MSD) won the 1997 Horace B. Isbell Award presented by the Carbohydrate Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS), granted to a researcher under the age of 41 "for demonstrated excellence in and promise of continued quality contributions to research in carbohydrate chemistry." Bertozzi's recent work has been on engineering chemical reactivity on cell surfaces.
Just to make sure nobody misses the event, the ACS's Division of Chemical Physics has already announced that Alexander Pines, also with MSD, is the winner of the 1998 Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics to be presented next March. The General Electric Foundation sponsors the award, which carries a cash prize, "for outstanding contributions to chemical physics or physical chemistry." Pines's research has focused on ways of increasing the sensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging.
But the prize for the most offbeat prize -- the envelope please! -- goes to David Hoffman, who holds an appointment at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. Hoffman uses computer visualization to study minimal surfaces, e.g. soap bubbles, work for which he won the Vinci of Excellence [sic] in the 10th annual "Science pour l'art" competition sponsored by Moët Hennessy and Louis Vuitton. His prizes include a brass dodecahedron trophy modeled after a notebook sketch by Leonardo da Vinci and a double magnum of 250th-anniversary Moët champagne.
-- Paul Preuss
As is often the case, it all started with a modest idea. Frustrated by the limited modes of communication among postdoctoral fellows, Sophie Lelièvre and Brian Rowning, postdocs in the Life Sciences Division, decided to form a small organization--initially, they thought, for postdocs in their department. Their efforts culminated two weeks ago in the successful kick-off of the Berkeley Lab Postdoctoral Society (LBNL-PS), attended by almost 100 people and warmly embraced by the Laboratory's management and scientific community.
Lab Director Charles Shank addressed the large group gathered on Oct. 30 in the Bldg. 66 auditorium, emphasizing the contributions made by postdoctoral students and the need for them to forge strong networking relationships early in their careers.
"Don't underestimate the value of the friendships you're building during your experience here at the Laboratory," Shank said. "You are the people who are going to lead the fields of science going into the next century. ...You're very important to our ability to carry out our vision and have the influence we'd like to have in science."
Also in attendance were deputy directors Pier Oddone and Klaus Berkner, and division directors Mina Bissell and Sally Benson, who addressed the meeting.
The main goals of the Postdoctoral Society are to facilitate social and scientific networking and collaborations, promote career development, and strengthen mentoring relationships. According to Lelièvre, these are all issues that are becoming more important in today's multidisciplinary scientific environment. "Now more than ever we need the support of our peers as we prepare for our futures," she said. "That's why postdoc societies are now flourishing everywhere."
Brian Rowning, co-founder of LBNL-PS and its current treasurer, emphasized the need to recognize the efforts of scientific mentors. "People are getting awards as graduate students and postdocs for things they do for their science," he said. "But there's rarely any feedback to the people who are our mentors, who put an enormous amount of time guiding us. It is time to give something back to these people."
Sally Benson, director of Earth Sciences Division, talked about the crucial ingredients that make for a successful mentoring relationship, emphasizing the two-way nature of the exchange. In recognition of this fact, Masoud Nikravesh, co-president of of LBNL-PS, kicked off the nomination process for an Outstanding Mentor Award, which will be presented by the society at its Jan. 30 meeting.
The same theme was echoed repeatedly by Director Shank during his talk. "I look at my relationship with my postdocs, my friends," he said. "I believe the postdocs I worked with had an extraordinary influence on the science I was able to do here at the Lab.
"I look at you as a resource," he continued. "And I look at my obligation to my postdocs to help them achieve an opportunity in their careers."
Mina Bissell, director of the Life Science Division and an early supporter of the society's efforts, offered some inspirational words to the audience of young people, many of whom, she said, tend to be very concerned about the availability of career opportunities in science.
"I was sad to see so much despair, so much anger, so much anxiety among the younger generation," she said. "I see people are worrying so much about the job situation. I want to put back some of the excitement that science is all about. Just do passionately what you do well, because sooner or later you're going to succeed."
The success of the first event has inspired Lelièvre and Rowning to become involved with the formation of a national postdoctoral society. "We've been rewarded ten times over for the work we put in so far," Lelièvre said.
Berkeley Lab's Postdoctoral Society is in its early planning stages for a series of activities, ranging from career and science workshops to social get-togethers. These events are open to everyone at the Lab. The next event will be a holiday potluck on Dec. 12, to be followed by the Jan. 30 meeting. For more information, contact co-presidents Sophie Lelièvre (Sophie_Lelievre@lbl.gov) or Masoud Nikravesh (Mnikravesh@lbl.gov).
Photo: Brian Rowning and Sophie Lelièvre spearheaded the effort to organize LBNL-PS.
Photo: Almost 100 people, from postdocs to Director Shank, crowded the auditorium in Bldg. 66 for the inaugural meeting of the Berkeley Lab Postdoctoral Society. Photos by Sybille Galosy
Photo: The STAR Time Projection Chamber, built at Berkeley Lab, was loaded unto a cavernous C5A jet at Travis Air Force Base last week for shipment to Brookhaven National Laboratory, where it will become part of the STAR collider experiment. (XBD9711-04308-01) Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt
Open Enrollment Period
When it comes to saving for retirement, "The best time to start saving was when you earned your first dollar--but the next best time is today," says Kent Ryden of the Lab's Benefits Unit.
"The UC pension plan is very good," Ryden says, "with a benefit based on years of service times highest average salary times the age factor at retirement. But it's always comforting to have more stashed away to fund some of the fun things in retirement; and it's important to have extra money on hand should health issues surface or inflation rear its ugly head."
By contributing pre-tax dollars to the UC tax-deferred 403(b) plan, employees not only reduce their current tax liability, they capitalize on the power of compound interest. For example, in 30 years a deposit of $300 a month at just 6.25 percent interest will grow to about $306,000. No taxes are due on either contributions or interest until the money is withdrawn. Ryden adds that employees who terminate and have balances of at least $2,000 in the plan can leave the money on deposit until age 70, or roll it over into an IRA.
For those with shorter service and no retirement income other than UC, the need to save is even more important. "It's tragic to see retired folks with few savings trying to keep up with inflation," says Ryden. He says most people who come to see him about savings options--even those who are entitled to a high percentage of their salary in retirement--wish they had started saving when they first had the opportunity.
Within the 403(b) plan, employees can contribute to any of six UC-managed funds or the Fidelity Investments or Calvert Social Investments Funds. Ryden suggests a visit to http://www.ucop.edu/bencom/ for information on these and other retirement options.
For employees who want to increase their savings beyond what's possible in a 403(b) plan, the university offers a Defined Contribution after-tax plan. Interest on earnings and dividends are deferred until withdrawal, normally after age 59 1/2. Ryden urges employees to consider these plans as well as the new Roth IRAs available in 1998, which also defer taxes on earnings.
"Since most people are never taught the basics of financial planning," says Ryden, "it's up to each person to research what should be done." He recommends two books--The Wealthy Barber, by David Chilton (Prima Publishing), and It's Never Too Late to Get Rich, by Jim Jorgensen (Simon and Schuster). Employees may also want to contact a certified financial planner, he says, but should first get basic information from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (http://www.cfp-board.org/).
"However you do it, pay yourself first," says Ryden. "If you're in your 20s, you should be putting away at least 10 percent of your gross salary--more if you're older. If you can't get started at that level, just get started. Once you see how your account grows, you'll be actively working on ways to increase your contributions. Remember, it's not how much you earn, it's how much you keep."
The goal is to retire with more than enough to live comfortably. UC provides several tools to help employees achieve that goal.
-- Paul Preuss
The facelift recently undergone by Building 65--complete with repainting and reconfiguration of its interior--involves far more than just than just a cosmetic change. Starting last month, the two-story building located next to the bus stop became home to new occupants from three different departments: Human Resources, Site Access, and Administrative Services.
Until recently, the building served as a generalized reception, or visitors' center, for Lab employees. In an effort to streamline the process of welcoming new employees, Bldg. 65 has taken on a new role, which integrates various closely-linked functions. This consolidation was the vision of Cheryl McFate, acting head of the Human Resources Department.
"As my colleagues and I in Administrative Services and Site Access talked about the services our units provide," McFate said, "we realized that in many instances there were overlaps and confusing procedures that could spell frustration for our customers, not to mention lack of efficiency for us. We thought that co-locating in Bldg. 65 would be a great opportunity to rethink our processes so that we could provide truly seamless, efficient services."
Most new employees now start with a one-on-one orientation with a human resource assistant in Bldg. 65. That person gives the employee information on issues such Lab safety and benefits, and answers other related questions. These sessions are scheduled ahead of time after the new employee has already received an introductory packet of materials.
The next step is the badging office on the lower floor, where employees receive parking permits and are issued the new proximity card, which serves both as a regular ID and as a site/building access key. More information on these cards and the Lab's revamped security/site access system will be published in an upcoming issue of Currents.
For badging and proximity card questions, please contact the Badge Office at X4551 or Sue Bowen at X6395. For HR and ASD general questions, contact MaryAnn McFarland at X6366.
Photo: Heather Bliss of the Badge Office (right) helps employees with proximity cards and parking permits. Sue Bowen, head of Site Access, is pictured on the left. (XBD9710-04929-01) Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt
The Laboratory welcomed the following new career employees during the month of October:
The Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamics Test (DARHT) facility--pronounced "dart"--is a state-of-the-art x-ray machine that will give researchers the capability of imaging implosions in three dimensions. The facility consists of a pair of giant x-ray machines strong enough to see through metals. These machines take "flash pictures" fast enough to see what is going on--step by step--during the detonation of conventional explosives in a non-nuclear mock-up of a weapon. The project is being funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and will be built at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Berkeley Lab is designing and will build the second axis.
DARHT will be part of one of the most important missions of the DOE, science-based stockpile stewardship. This means making sure, without field testing, that the nuclear weapons that form part of our nation's defenses remain reliable and safe as their internal components get older. Confidence in the stability and predictability of these components is also important for the large effort currently under way to remove weapons from the stockpile.
In a previous era, this might have been done simply by exploding a nuclear weapon underground at the Nevada Test Site. But progress in international relations led to a moratorium on nuclear testing in 1992. Instead, scientists remove the nuclear materials in a weapon, replace them with dummy substitutes of comparable shape and properties, and set off the conventional explosives. A facility like DARHT can gather crucial data on hydrodynamics (so-called because the same laws that describe fluid motion apply under these circumstances) in the brief and hard-to-study few microseconds of an implosion. Such data is vital to assure the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons in a future without underground nuclear testing.
DARHT has been proposed to include two high-intensity x-ray machines whose beams cross at right angles. Each machine has been designed to generate radiographs of far higher resolution than anything previously obtainable--the resolution required for stockpile stewardship without underground nuclear testing. For the first time ever in this country, the dual-axis nature of the facility will allow researchers to obtain three-dimensional as well as time-resolved information.
The facility is being completed in two phases. The first phase includes construction of the full DARHT building and the first of the two x-ray machines. The second phase will provide a second x-ray system that will have the capacity to generate four high-quality radiographs during a single hydrodynamic experiment.
The DARHT x-ray machines are based on linear induction accelerators, a technology derived from that of the Fusion Energy Research Program here at Berkeley Lab. An intense pulsed electron beam (4 kiloamperes at 20 million electron volts) strikes a tungsten target, creating x-rays in kilorad quantities. The first machine, planned for operation in 1999, will provide a pulse 60 nanoseconds long.
The second more powerful and sophisticated machine is the one Berkeley Lab is designing, having been chosen by Los Alamos after a competitive Technology Options Study. In this machine, a "macropulse" two microseconds long will be chopped into four 60-nanosecond pulses, providing four snapshots in quick succession. One of the pulses from the second axis can be synchronized with that of the first axis so that three-dimensional information can be reconstructed. This axis is expected to be operational in 2002.
Photo: Berkeley Lab is building DAHRT's second axis, shown in the cad model above, which includes the linear accelerator and the electron injector.
The City of Berkeley Mayor's Office has scheduled a public meeting to discuss Berkeley Lab's participation in the DARHT accelerator project. The event will be held on Monday, Dec. 8, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center on Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
Laboratory Director Charles Shank has accepted the Mayor's invitation to speak about the project. Statements are also expected from city officials and from community interest groups, such as the Peace and Justice Commission, the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste, and Physicians for Social Responsibility. These talks will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
All Berkeley Lab employees are invited to attend the meeting.
All employees are invited to attend the Annual Holiday Reception, to be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 11, in the cafeteria. The Laboratory Music Club chamber orchestra will provide entertainment; refreshments will be served.
Photo: In solidarity with their Berkeley counterparts, the staff of the LBNL Washington D.C. office participated in the fourth East Coast version of the Berkeley Lab Runaround. Twenty-five people, including five from UC's Washington office, braved the blazing sun on an Indian summer afternoon to run the 3 km circumference of the Tidal Basin in the nation's capital, across from the Jefferson Memorial. Left to right are (kneeling): Frank Johnson, Ned Raynolds and Satish Kumar; standing are: Matt Peterson, Cheryl Drozda, Rob Johnson, Alison Watkins ten Cate, Phil Coleman, Kate Bannan, Chris Payne, Jeff Harris, Vestal Tutterow, Brad Gustafson, and Moira Howard-Jeweler.
The science camp meeting originally scheduled for Oct. 23 has been rescheduled for Monday, Nov. 17, from noon to 1 p.m. The directors of the Science Exploration Camp would like to invite parents whose children were enrolled in last summer's camp to attend the meeting to provide feedback and help plan for next summer's camp. The meeting will be held in Perseverance Hall in the cafeteria annex. For more information send e-mail to sec@lbl.gov, or leave voice mail at X6566.
Computing Infrastructure Support, the newest department within the Computing Sciences organization, invites all Lab employees to its Open House on Dec. 2 from 2 to 4 p.m. in first floor lobby of Bldg. 50B. Come by to meet the people behind 486-HELP and http://www.lbl.gov/help/ and find out about available services. For more information, contact Kati Markowitz at X5211, k_markowitz@lbl.gov.
The African American Employees Association is holding its sixth annual canned food drive now through Wednesday, Dec. 10, in the cafeteria foyer. The effort helps support the needy through several organizations in the East Bay. Your contributions of canned or other non-perishable foods will be distributed through the services of Cora Green of Oakland, who works closely with the school system, fire fighters, police, and local churches. She can be reached at 261-7724.
All employees are invited to attend a series of noon-time video presentations of the "Open House Lectures 1997," to be offered on successive Wednesdays, Dec. 3, 10 and 17, in the Bldg. 50 auditorium. Bring your brown-bag lunches next month and recapture the excitement of these stimulating talks on some of the most prominent research projects being conducted at the Lab. Speakers featured in the video series are Saul Perlmutter ("The Fate of the Universe"), C. William McCurdy ("The Future of Computing") and Mina J. Bissell ("Breast Cancer: Can Tumor Cells Be Rehabilitated?"). The video presentations will also include footage from Open House '97.
Applications are being accepted for DOE's 1998 Alexander Hollaender Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The fellowships provide a stipend of $37,500 for the first year and $40,500 for the second year for research that supports the mission of the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER).
The fellowship was established in 1986 in memory of the late Dr. Alexander Hollaender, the 1983 recipient of DOE's prestigious Enrico Fermi Award for his work in biomedical research.
Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and have received a doctoral degree after April 30, 1996. The prospective sponsoring research advisor must be funded by OHER in the amount of at least $150,000 per year. Completed applications must be received before Jan. 15, 1998. For more information, contact David Gilbert at X6096 or degilbert@lbl.gov. Online information can be found at http://www.orau.gov/ober/hollaend.htm.
Clerical employees at the University of California have elected the Coalition of University Employee (CUE) as their union representative in an election held this month via mail-in ballots. Berkeley Lab employees participated in the election. CUE was founded two years ago and includes 18,000 members from all UC campuses. Voters chose CUE over AFSCME, the union that has represented UC clericals since 1983, and over the "no representation" option. For more information regarding Lab representation in CUE, contact Susan Lauer at 845-3447.
The Facilities Department would like to thank all Laboratory employees who did their best to turn off lights, computers, printers, and other equipment during Energy Awareness Month. As a result of these efforts, the Laboratory successfully reduced energy consumption during the month of October by 3 percent compared to projected consumption. This translated in approximately $15,000 in cost savings and a reduction of 143 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Starting Nov. 17 all package deliveries to the Laboratory will be received at and delivered out of the new distribution hub in Bldg. 69. Material arriving in the morning will be slated for afternoon delivery. Procurement personnel and field buyers are asked to give vendors the Lab address (1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720) for Federal Express, UPS or other premium carriers. All large equipment and furniture orders requiring dedicated trucks for delivery should continue using the downtown Berkeley address (2700 7th Street, Berkeley, CA 94710). For questions regarding receiving, call Don Prestella at X5378 or Gabriel Ruiz at X4935.
The full text of each edition of Currents is published on the Lab's home page on the World Wide Web. View it at http://www.lbl.gov/ under "Research News and Publications." To set up your computer to access the World Wide Web, call the Mac and PC Support Group at X6858.
The Berkeley Lab Calendar is published biweekly here on the World Wide Web and in Currents by the Public Information Department. Employees can list a meeting, class, or event in the Calendar by using this submission form. The deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. on Monday in the week that Currents is published.In addition to the events listed below, Berkeley Lab's Washington, D.C. Projects office is hosting a Science and Technology Seminars series.
Scientific Conferences
Tripmobile
Berkeley TRIP commute store, noon to 12:45 p.m., cafeteria
parking lot. Employees may purchase AC Transit, BART, and other commute tickets.
Computing Infrastructure Support Open House
Meet the people behind
486-HELP and http://www.lbl.gov/help/
Find out about services offered, 2-4 p.m., Bldg.
50B 1st floor lobby.
Bodyworks
Noon to 1 p.m., Bldg. 90-4133
Tripmobile
Berkeley TRIP commute store, noon to 12:45 p.m., cafeteria
parking lot. Employees may purchase AC Transit, BART, and other commute
tickets.
Surface Science and Catalysis Science Seminar
"Kinetics and
Mechanisms of Heterocycle Reactions on Pd(111): Furan, Thiophene and Pyrrole"
will be presented by Donald P. Land of UCD at 1:30 p.m. in the Bldg. 66
auditorium.
Physics Department Colloquium
"How Plants and Photosynthetic Bacteria
Collect Sunlight: Femtosecond Laser Studies" will be presented by Graham
Fleming of the Physical Biosciences Division/UCB at 4:30 p.m. in 1 LeConte;
refreshments, 4 p.m., 375 LeConte.
Surface Science and Catalysis Science Seminar
"Resonant-Coherent
Excitation of Ions in Solids" will be presented by Francisco J. Garcia de Abajo
of MSD/University of San Sebastian, Spain, at 1:30 p.m. in the Bldg. 66
auditorium.
Items for the calendars may be sent via e-mail to currents_calendar@ lbl.gov, faxed to X6641 or mailed to Bldg. 65B. The deadline for the Dec 5 issue is 5 p.m. Monday, Dec 1.
Lab computer scientists will show how computational science and high performance networking are helping solve some of today's most pressing scientific problems in a series of displays and demonstrations at SC97, the annual high performance computing and networking conference, to be held Saturday, Nov. 15 through Friday, Nov. 21, in San Jose.
Entitled "Rock Solid Science: Scaling New Heights in Computational Science," the event will showcase results from DOE Grand Challenges research using the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), the high-speed data transmission capabilities of the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), and the Computing Sciences' Visualization Lab.
Joint computer programs between the Lab and UC Berkeley will also be highlighted, as will WALDO, a research program designed to enable access to large databases over wide-area networks.
The Lab is also participating in a Department of Energy display of "DOE2000" technologies, a set of collaborative tools that include desktop videoconferencing, remote control of experimental facilities, and electronic notebooks for recording and sharing information from research.
SC97 will be held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. One-day passes are available at the door. For more information on the conference, visit the website at http://www.supercomp.org/sc97/.
Photo: The Computing Sciences display at the SC97 conference in San Jose will emphasize the scalability of NERSC's CRAY T3E supercomputer.
'82 BMW 320I, gd cond., 5-spd stick, tape deck, $2900. Jon, 658-8784
`82 HONDA DIRT BIKES (3): XR100 ($500), XL185 ($600) & XR200 ($600), used for trail riding, in good condition w/current green stickers, protective riding gear avail. & trailer if sell all bikes, Chris, X5130, 938-1451
'84 FORD Bronco 4X4, 302 c.i. V-8, under warranty, clean, exc. cond., recent tires, brakes, flowmasters,
precision tune, $5500/b.o. Wayne, X7685, 837-2409
'85 MAZDA RX7, 150K mi., needs some work, has been extremely reliable for last 8 yr., $950/b.o. Pat, X6714
'89 HYUNDAI Excel GL, 4-dr sedan, 5-spd, a/c, 75K mi., new exhaust & clutch, all paperwork, $1600/b.o. Sanjeev, X4663, 558-0452
'89 FORD F-150 pickup, a/t, dual tanks, bedliner, camper shell, $7900/b.o. Tom, 547-5445
'92 HONDA Accord DX, 4-dr, a/c, a/t, AM/FM cass., low mi., gd cond., $8950. X4061, 528-7747
'93 PLYMOUTH Grand Voyager LE, 3.3L V6, all options, gd tires, very gd cond., 100K mi. X4248
MOTORCYCLE, '86 Kawasaki KX80, new fenders, well maint., low hr., include. leather riding pants, pads & helmet, $650/b.o. Wayne, X7685, 837-2409
MOTORCYCLE, '97 Harley Sportster 883 Hugger, dk red, brand new, must sell, extras incl. sportster blk leather bags, rear rider pegs, front peg rests, 1.5K mi., $7900. Pat, X6714
BIKE RACK, trunk-mounted, like new, $40. Barbara, X4694 (Mon. & Tues.), 527-5940
CAR SPEAKERS, Infinity 7", exc. cond., $30. Vicki, 215-5708
OPERA, Nov. 14, Peleas et Melisande, Cent. Balc. Circle, $140/pair, Diana Duhnke, X6444
SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING Water Show, Albany Pool (indoor), Sat., 11/22 & Sun., 11/23, 7-8:30 p.m., adults, $4, under 18, $3. Tennessee, X5013
HOUSE/APT TO SIT, avail. 1 or 2 wk., Dec. 19 thru Jan 3, needs 2 bedrooms, loves dogs, Ann, X4797
IMAGEWRITER w/cable, stand, extra ribbon & 1500 sheet, [feeder?], will pay $80, if manuals are included will pay $100, Bjorn x7045
ONE-BEDROOM, furnished, close to lab/campus for single visiting Swiss researcher, non-smoker, 12/97 to 12/98, contact Kathy Ellington x4931, klellington@lbl.gov or Michael Wetter mwetter@ztl.ch
TO SHARE, Music practice space in downtown Oakland, beginner drummer and guitarist looking for musicians to evenly split rent and/or make noise together, rent is $250/month, Cyndy @ x4120, 530-8443.
BASS GUITAR & amp, Gibson, white lacquer, like new, w/Gallien Krueger 200MB bass amp., 100w, both exc. cond., incl. cords, covers, gig bag, $625/b.o. Wayne, X7685, 837-2409
BICYCLE, 26" Huffy, Super Ten Spd, yellow, $35, Vicki, 215-5708
CAR SPEAKERS, Infinity 7" in excellent condition $30, Vicki, 215-5708
CHINA,CHRISTMAS TREE by SPODE, 50% off retail and no sales tax, never used, 5 five-piece place settings plus 7 extra dinner plates, 8 cups/saucers, and 6 octagonal salad plates $370 Fred Bieser x6964, bieser@lbl.gov
COFFEE MAKER, 8 cup, percolator type, $10, Craig Peters, 687-3904
COLOR TV, 20" Zenith, programmable functions, remote control, $120. X6129
COMPUTERS, Pentium 133 Desktop, 64MB RAM, 2GB HD, PCI Video w/ 2MB VRAM, Dell Laptop 486, SVGA Active Matrix TFT display, 1GB HD. Best offer on each. X6821
CRIB / TODDLER BED, very good condition, solid natural wood with mattress, sheets, bumpers, $250, Eugene Veklerov, 741-7732
ELECTRIC HEATER,1500 watt quarts, $25, Craig Peters, 687-3904
EXERCISER, Fast Trac II, never used, (paid $300), $150, Diana Duhnke, X6444
JEWELERY, misc. 14K/18K, and fashion pieces, bargain prices, Diana Duhnke, X6444
LEATHER JACKET, men's dress, size 38, $100, Craig Peters, 687-3904
MACINTOSH PLUS, (1M) with internal and external floppy disk drives, B/O, Eugene Veklerov, 741-7732
LUGGAGE, 4pcs., Oscar de la Renta, blk/tan, $75, Diana Duhnke, X6444
NINTENDO, video game system w/3 games, cables, 2 controllers & gun incl., $25; addt'l game cartridges, $2-$5 ea. Steve, X4304, 631-0719
OFFICE REFRIGERATOR, GE, 2 ft. X 2 ft. X 2 ft., exc., $40. Al, X7757
POWER AMP, Carver professional PM 900, with SKB rack case, $300, 233-0734
PRINT, walnut/gold frame, triple matted, 43x33, "Berry Pickers", J. Brownscombe, Paid $250, $75, Diana Duhnke, X6444
RECLINER, Stratolounger,taupe, $50, Diana Duhnke, X6444
REFRIGERATOR, Whirlpool, 19 cu ft, frost free w/icemaker, white, works & looks gd, $100. Bob or Carol, 837-7396
ROCKER with pads, natural wood, $150, 741-7732
SANDBOX, 4' molded plastic with cover, $15, Craig Peters, 687-3904
SCROLL SAW, 18", $45, Craig Peters, 687-3904
TOWEL RACK, brass tubing, 7 ft. high, made to fit over toilet in bthrm, paid $60, asking $30/b.o. X6005
TV/VCR STAND, on wheels, blk, glass front, 32" wide, $20; twin trundle bed, Scandinavian, white, 1 foam & 1 spring mattress, headboard w/shelves & drwrs, $50; student desk (48" wide, 3-drwr) & chair (adj., on wheels), Scandinavian, white, $30. 525-2329
WEIGHT LIFTING BENCH, professional style, cost $250, will sell for $50. Joe, X6026, 558-1988 (eve.)
EL CERRITO, SHORT TERM: sunny furn. room in house available 22Dec-28Feb,walk to BART, shopping; $450/mo. incl utilities Dennis x4702
KENSINGTON, furn. 3-bdrm, 2-bth home, 2-bridge view, garden, 2-car garage, nr elementary school, avail. 12/16, $1600/mo., prefer 1 yr. lease. Monica, 525-7805
NORTH BERKELEY, large furnished garden room with TV, VCR and private entrance, near bus and shopping, share bath and kitchen, $600/month, one person only, avail. immediately for two months, X2902
ORINDA, rm in home, $750/mo., $300/wk, $50/night, utils. incl. Mrs. Johnston, 254-4763
EXCHANGE: visiting scientist & family from Paris hope to exchange housing w/LBNL family w/home in the Berkeley area who are wishing to stay in the Paris area for a 2 yr. period starting Aug. '98. Marcella, X6304
WANTED: furn. 3 or 4-bdrm house/apt for visiting researcher & family, Berkeley/Albany area, or a little farther away if no other choice, for 12 mo. from Jan. '98, rent up to $1500/mo. Peter R. Lyons, +61 (2) 6285 2713, +61 (2) 6285 3583 (fax), peter.lyons@eea.com.au
WANTED: starting 1/1/98 for one year, visiting LBNL as a post-doc w/Kannan Krishnan (X4614), interested in 2-bdrm house/apt in No. Berkeley/Albany. mohamed@fenix. ifisicacu.unam.mx
HAWAII, 20 mi. below Hilo on rainy side of Big Island, convenient to Univ. of Hawaii & orchid plantation, unfurn. 2-bdrm, 2-bth house, nr schools, shopping & rec. center, 1 mi. to ocean bluff, $450/mo., possible lease-option to buy for $58K. X6005
Please note also:
Published once a month by the Communications Department for the employees and retirees of Berkeley Lab.
Reid Edwards, Public Affairs Department head
Ron Kolb, Communications Department headEDITOR
Pamela Patterson, 486-4045, pjpatterson@lbl.gov
Associate editor
Lyn Hunter, 486-4698, lhunter@lbl.govSTAFF WRITERS
Dan Krotz, 486-4019
Paul Preuss, 486-6249
Lynn Yarris, 486-5375CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Ucilia Wang, 495-2402
Allan Chen, 486-4210
David Gilbert, (925) 296-5643DESIGN
Caitlin Youngquist, 486-4020
Creative Services OfficeBerkeley Lab
Communications Department
MS 65, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley CA 94720
(510) 486-5771
Fax: (510) 486-6641Berkeley Lab is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy.
Flea Market is now online at www.lbl.gov/fleamarket
