ARCHIVE - EES Division Highlights/Accomplishments 2003

Archive

June 25, 2003

IGPP Los Alamos Orson Anderson Scholar's Book a Must for Seismologists
A review by Thorne Lay in EOS, Volume 84, Number 21, May 27, of the new Paul Richards book, "Quantitative Seismology", Second Edition, is described as "The definitive compendium and reference for elastodynamic theory and is a must-have for all seismologists."

Dr. Richards was an Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) Orson Anderson Scholar at Los Alamos from March 1997 - September and spent some of that time working on the book. He is currently the Mellon Professor of the Natural Sciences in the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University. His research interests include Seismology; detection of underground nuclear explosions and their implications in both science and politics; and the dynamics of the Earth's inner core. From Richards' scientific work scientists can learn details of the Earth's internal structure and of fault motion in earthquakes, as rock spontaneously fractures and moves to reduce stress.

Los Alamos' Edwards, Hawkins, and Wohletz Attend Nonproliferation and Arms Control Technology Working Group
Geophysicists from the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, C. L. Edwards, Ward Hawkins, and Kenneth Wohletz, attended the Nonproliferation and Arms Control Technology Working Group (NPAC TWG) meeting at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on June 13. The meeting focused on issues of near-field monitoring in nuclear explosion detection. Hawkins and Wohletz presented a review of the nuclear testing limitations program of the DOE/NNSA Office of Nonproliferation Policy; they presented a description of the staged approach for monitoring technology evaluation, a multi-laboratory effort led by Wohletz and Hawkins that provides technology essentials in support of policy decisions.

Nuclear Energy Institute and Women in Nuclear Tour Yucca Mountain
Tours during the week of June 16-19 for the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) were conducted by Dick Kovach and Bruce Reinert, Los Alamos' Earth and Environmental Sciences Division's YMP group. Organizations and attendees included: Approximately 200 Nuclear representatives from across the world who were attending a conference in Las Vegas for the Nuclear Energy Institute/ Women in Nuclear. One of the attendees (and speaker at the conference) was Greta J. Dicus, a Commissioner with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A group of individuals from NNSA (Nevada Test Site) were toured on June 19 and included Bill Potter, Chief Liaison; Ronald Cstagno, Chief of Applied Engineering; Jim Bieda, Senior Technical Director; Mark Brooks, Head of Computer Applications; James Milward, Head of Engineering Development; Tony Parr, Chief of Research and Development; Steve Smidt, Chief of Special Technology Applications; Tony DiClementi, Chief of Engineering Research; and Brian Donovan, Senior Scientist.

June 18, 2003

Los Alamos Geologist Discovers Earliest Human Species
Giday WoldeGabriel, a geologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is the co-leader of a team led by scientific indigenous Africans studying their ancient African ancestors. The latest discovery of Herto crania is the world's earliest Homo sapiens and was unveiled on June 11 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. According to Tim White, a researcher and leader of the anthropologists at the University of California Berkeley, the unveiling will øcoincide with the publication of companion papers in Nature under a cover illustration featuring the exceptional reconstructions of Jay Matternes. Media interest has been high, and Herto will be featured prominently around the world.

The Ethiopian-born WoldeGabriel dedicated much of his own time during the last decade helping to rewrite the history of human evolution. WoldeGabriel has been a key player in some of anthropology's most significant discoveries; he provided geological and paleoenvironmental contexts for the remains of some of human kind's oldest ancestors. He is the lead geologist and co-principal investigator with University of California, Berkeley, professor Tim White, on the Middle Awash Project.

For more information:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/hominid/
http://teles.berkeley.edu:8080/ramgen/2002/special_events/publicaffairs/fossil.rm

June 10, 2003

Los Alamos' Pearson and Industry Colleagues Publish Results for Discriminating Man-Made Events from Nuclear Explosions
Experimental results of regional propagation of seismic energy from large mining explosions in a Northern Arizona coal mine was recently published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. These observations are important to help discriminate industrial seismic events from naturally occurring earthquakes and other man-made seismic events such as nuclear explosions or collapse of deep mines. Dr. D. Craig Pearson is the Acting Deputy Division Leader of Los Alamos' Earth and Environmental Sciences Division and is respected for his seismic-field experiments associated with acquiring ground-based measurements that are associated with mining blasts within the US and overseas. The publication is available in: Bonner, J. L., D. C. Pearson, and W. S. Blomberg, Azimuthal Variation of Short-Period Rayleigh Waves from Cast Blasts in Northern Arizona, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 93 724-736, 2003.

Yucca Mountain Conducts Tours for Bechtel SAIC, British Parliament, Nuclear Fuels, and Taipei
On June 3 and 4, Bruce Reinert, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division's Yucca Mountain Project conducted tours for the following: Bechtel SAIC Corporation Board of Managers, Joseph Craver, Pail Divjak, and Eman Salama; members of the British Parliament, John Cunningham, MP and Stephen Lanyman, MP; and representatives of British Nuclear Fuels, Ltd. were also in attendance.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office toured on June 4 and included Dr. Kuan-Hsiu Hsiao, Director of Science Division, Tseng Hsiung, Coordinator of Science Division, and Hsuen-Hsiang Lu.

June 4, 2003

Los Alamos' Carney Named to Mining Review Board
Robert Swift and Theodore Carney of Los Alamos' Earth and Environmental Sciences Division attended the Mining Review Board meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 28. Theodore Carney was introduced as the new Los Alamos board member, replacing Robert Swift on the Mining Review Board. The board reviewed a mining plan proposed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in their section of the U1A complex. The U1A complex is a test facility at the Nevada Test Site used for sub-critical hydro-test experiments that may be used for the evaluation of site-specific monitoring of nuclear tests. Recommendations were made to the board on the LLNL proposal and the new mining proposal was accepted.

Los Alamos Participates in Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) Meeting
Robert Swift and Theodore Carney, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, and David Steedman, Decision Applications Division, represented Los Alamos at a modeling verification and validation meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico on May 21. The ACTD is associated with ground shock and facility response, experimentation, and modeling. The customer for this effort is STRATCOM. Planning and issues associated with modeling, sub-scale tests, intermediate scale tests, and full-scale demonstration tests were the focus of the ACTD meeting.

Los Alamos and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Team on Seismic Scattering
Dr. Michael Fehler, Los Alamos' Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, is teaming with Professor Haruo Sato from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan for five weeks at the Earth Resources Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Fehler and Sato presented a one-day seminar on seismic scattering on May 29.

The seminar team of Fehler and Sato presented findings that show heterogeneities in the earth's crust and lithosphere scatter seismic waves, which propagate over distances of tens to hundreds of kilometers producing a complex seismic envelope called seismic coda. The seminar discussed a general overview of observations of the coda of earthquake seismograms and discussed simple observations and measurements that can be made from them. Fehler and Sato briefly introduced the various modeling approaches that have been used to investigate coda formation and the influences of scattering on seismograms. They presented a mathematical methodology for synthesizing the envelopes of local and regional waveforms in random media that are realistic models for the heterogeneous earth's crust. Finally, they presented a formulation of the radiative transfer theory for the spherical earth that can be used to model long period surface wave observations from large earthquakes. The f-k analysis of coda up to 20 hours from the origin time of earthquakes for periods from 90 to 180 sec. allows the determination of the intrinsic Q of higher modes of spherodial oscillation.

Additional topics covered in the seminar included: a general introduction to seismic coda; Numerical synthesis of seismogram envelopes in 2D Random Media; Hybrid Synthesis of Scalar Wave-Envelopes in 2-D Random Media Having Rich Short-Wavelength Spectra; and Constituents of Long-Period Vertical-component seismograms and Modeling of Their Envelopes.

Bayesian Approach to Tomographic Problems Published by Los Alamos Scientists
Research by Los Alamos scientists in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division was recently published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. The research describes a Bayesian approach to tomographic problems and the use of data augmentation to handle data censored by poor signal-to-noise; the approach also reduces the bias in the final attenuation models. The publication is available in: Taylor, S.R., X. Yang, and W. S. Phillips, Bayesian Lg attenuation tomography applied to eastern Asia, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 93 795-803, 2003.

May 29, 2003

Natural Analogue Studies at PeÀa Blanca, Mexico Support Yucca Mountain
Natural analogues provide a line of evidence that supports the understanding of how natural and engineered processes could occur over long time frames and large spatial scales at the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada nuclear waste repository.

Ardyth Simmons and Ron Oliver, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, and Mike Murrell and Steve Goldstein, Chemistry Division, at Los Alamos National Laboratory, reported that studies of uranium-series disequilibria within and around uranium deposits can provide valuable information on the timing of actinide mobility and hence the stability of a potential repository over geologic time scales.

The Nopal I uranium deposit at PeÀa Blanca, Mexico, is situated in unsaturated tuff that is similar in composition to the Topopah Spring Tuff of Yucca Mountain and closely matches other evaluation for suitable natural analogues.

By modeling the observed radioactive isotope disequilibria at Nopal I, it is possible to estimate the rates of sorption-de-sorption and dissolution-precipitation of the radionuclides over time. Such information is vital to the testing of and confidence building in performance assessment models for geologic nuclear waste disposal.

Since 1999, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (under the auspices of the Yucca Mountain Project), in cooperation with the Autonomous University of Chihuahua and the University of Southern California, have been engaged in a study of radionuclide transport at PeÀa Blanca.

Results of this study to date are reported in Los Alamos publication, LA-UR-03-3250 or Geology Capability.

May 21, 2003

Los Alamos Seismologist Contributes to Memphis, Tennessee Earthquake-Resistant Construction Decisions
The federal government is now urging parts of the Midwest to adopt a new building code that would make buildings as earthquake resistant as those in southern California. A new study by seismologist Seth Stein of Northwestern, Joseph Tomasello, structural engineer at the Reaves Firm in Memphis, Tennessee, and Andrew Newman, a seismologist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, appeared in the May 13 issue of Eos, which is published by the American Geophysical Union. The researchers' work shows that the prescribed measures for the Midwest's New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) would cost far more than the damage prevented. The New Madrid seismic zone includes parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, and Mississippi. "We need to learn more about earthquakes in the Midwest, but we already know that New Madrid and California are very different earthquake problems," said Stein, whose measurements in the NMSZ using the Global Positioning System indicate that the ground is moving very slowly, if at all. "The hazard for New Madrid is significantly less than for California."

Should Memphis Build for California's Earthquakes," appears in Eos, Volume 84, number 19 (13 May 2003), page 177. Reporters and public information officers of educational and scientific institutions may obtain a pdf copy of the Stein et al. article from Emily Crum: ecrum@agu.org.

For results of Northwestern's study of the New Madrid seismic zone, go to http://www.earth.northwestern.edu/people/seth/research/nmsz.html
Go to full article

Underground Test Area's Technical Working Group Selects Vice Chair from Los Alamos
Ward Hawkins, a geophysicist at Los Alamos' Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, was recently selected as vice-chairman of the Underground Test Area (UGTA) Environmental Restoration project's Technical Working Group (TWG) for fiscal year 2004. The TWG provides technical advice and recommendations to the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, Nevada Support Office UGTA Project Manager. The TWG evaluates and recommends scientific and technical studies that promote the effective closure of Corrective Actions Units on the Nevada Test Site. These recommendations assist the DOE in strategic long-term planning of data collection and analysis activities.

Imaging Hydraulic Fracture Using Micro-Earthquakes Published by Los Alamos Seismologists Jim Rutledge and Scott Phillips of Los Alamos' Earth and Environmental Sciences Division recently published a paper issued in Geophysics: Rutledge, J.T., and Phillips, W.S., 2003, Hydraulic stimulation of natural fractures as revealed by induced micro-earthquakes, Carthage Cotton Valley gas field, east Texas, Geophysics, 68, 441-452.
Go to pdf version of article

In the paper they present an improvement in imaging a hydraulic fracture using micro-earthquakes induced in an east-Texas, tight-gas sand reservoir. The improved image along with focal mechanism solutions indicates that the reservoir's known natural fracture system plays a significant role in controlling the treatment geometry.

Carlsbad, New Mexico to Host Radiochemistry Conference
The 2003 Radiochemistry Conference, sponsored by the Radiochemistry Society, will be held July 13-16, 2003, in Carlsbad, New Mexico (home of DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant). The conference will include a one day Technical Workshop during Monday, July 14, on the subject of "Education in radiochemistry: an academic and a public problem", followed by technical sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 15 & 16. Participants are encouraged to give oral or poster presentations. The abstract deadline is June 20, 2003. Details on the conference and workshop are posted at http://www.radiochemistry.org/rc_2003conference.html

Yucca Mountain Tours Energy Reps, KCTS TV, Japanese Reps, and Sandia National Laboratory Reps

Bruce Reinert and Richard Kovach of the Earth & Environmental Sciences Division's Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) continue to provide tours that consist of a general briefing of the tunnel layout and experiments (both completed and ongoing) at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The tours occur underground in a side drift from the main tunnel called an øalcoveÓ that has been customized for public tours (including maps/displays and is about 200 yards underground). The following tours were conducted during May 5-17, 2003:

Representatives and the Director and Plant Manager, Tom Moulia, from Pacific Gas and Electric Citizens, Co.;

Representatives from Humboldt County, Nevada, California Energy Commission, and Home Power, Inc.;

Bill Nye the øScience Guy, " and his Executive Producer, Douglas Wilson, of KCTS, Public Television Seattle, Washington, and 40 individuals from State Maritime College, New York; Members of Sandia National Laboratories, Japan Nuclear Cycle Institute, several Japanese Universities, representatives from the Center for Korean-American Peace, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, University of British Columbia, Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission, Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, and Kaye Hart, Counselor, Embassy of Australia; and

The DOE Facility Information Management System sent 70 representatives from DOE Sites across the country, Naval Air Special Weapons Facility Group, the Naval contingent on delivery systems during atmospheric testing at the Nevada Test Site; tours were also conducted for about 250 guests during the YMP Open House on May 17.

May 14, 2003

Los Alamos Geophysicist, Peter Roberts, Recognized for Work on Enhanced Oil Recovery
An article titled, "Elastic Wave Stimulation of Oil Reservoirs: Promising EOR Technology?" that was authored by Peter Roberts, a geophysicist in the Earth and Environmental Science Division, along with Igor Esipov of Gubkin State University in Moscow, Russia and Ernest Majer of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBNL), was published in the May 2003 issue of øThe Leading EdgeÓ, which is the monthly magazine of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. The article describes the current state of seismic stimulation research, knowledge and technology development related to enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Examples of research results from Los Alamos, Russia and LBNL are included, as well as a brief description of an international conference on the subject held last year in Moscow. The article, which was invited by the Leading Edge Editorial Board, represents a milestone in that the exploration geophysics community is gaining interest in this controversial subject. Roberts helped initiate this work at Los Alamos eleven years ago and Los Alamos was the first US research organization to work in this exciting and innovative area of science. Roberts was the co-organizer of the conference and the expanded abstracts can be downloaded at http://www.ees.lanl.gov/Resources/dssl.shtml.

Los Alamos Earth and Environmental Sciences Division Participates in Annual Seismological Society Meeting in Puerto Rico
The annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico April 28 - May 2, 2003. Attendees from the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division's Geophysics group were Monica Maceira, Marie Renwald, Steven R. Taylor, David Yang, and Michael Fehler.

Technical Talks coauthored by Los Alamos staff included: Maceira, M. and S. R. Taylor, Short-period Surface-wave Tomography in Central Asia and Its Application to Seismic Discrimination; Renwald, M. S. R. Taylor, and T. C. Wallace, Calibrating the MKAR ARray Using Transfer Functions; Rowe, C.A., R. A. White, and C. H. Thurber, Precise, Correlation-based Seismic Event Locations at Soufriere Hills Volcano: Insights into Magma Extrusion Behavior through Detailed Mapping of Seismic Energy Release; Wiemer, S., and C. Rowe, Monitoring Temporal and Spatial Variations in the Frequency-magnitude Distributions of Microearthquakes: An Emerging Capability in Volcanoseismology?; and Yang, X., H.J. Patton, and S.R. Taylor, 20-sec Rayleigh-wave Attenuation Tomography for Central Asia.

Editor-in-Chief of Bulletin of the Seismological Society Reports Activities
Michael Fehler of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division attended the meeting of the Society Publication Committee and discussed issues related to the Society's Journal, the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA); he also attended the Society Board meeting and reported on his activities as Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin. Fehler was also responsible for managing a meeting of the BSSA Board of Editors. Fehler is completing his eighth year as Editor of the Bulletin. At the meeting he announced his plans to step down as Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin.

In addition, Fehler co authored a paper with the citation below that was published in the February, 2003 issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America: Saito, T., H. Sato, M. Fehler, and M. Ohtake, øSimulating the envelope of scalar waves in 2-D random media having power-law spectra of velocity fluctuationÓ, Bull. Seismol Soc. Am. 93, 240-252, 2003.

Fehler's coauthors are all from Tohoku University in Sendai Japan. The paper describes numerical and theoretical modeling of wave propagation in heterogeneous random media that are appropriate representations of the Earth. The theoretical modeling combines the use of a modification of the Radiative Transfer Theory to model strong isotropic multiple scattering along with a Markov approach to incorporate strong forward scattering. The theoretical model is the first ever presented that can explain both the formation of seismic coda and the complexity of the initial arrival packet of seismic energy from earthquakes. The model helps us better understand seismic wave propagation in realistic earth models, which is important for estimation of damaging ground motion from large earthquakes and estimating sizes of explosions and earthquakes.

Members of Los Alamos' Ground-Based Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Team Publish China Earthquake Findings
Members of the Los Alamos Earth and Environmental Science Division's Ground-Based Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Team (GNEM), Aaron Velasco (formerly of Los Alamos and now at University of Texas ¨ El Paso), Hans Hartse, and George Randall recently had the paper, "Propagation or source? Analysis of a moderate magnitude seismic event in the Quinghai province, China," accepted for publication in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

The paper focuses on an earthquake that occurred in December 1997, which had some attributes of an explosive event on some short-period, body-wave discrimination plots. Through modeling of long-period surface waves, the authors confirm that the event is indeed an earthquake. They found that path effects through the Tibetan region, focal mechanism, and possibly rupture directivity contributed to the "explosion-like" characteristics of the short-period body waves.

May 7, 2003

2003 Pollution Prevention Awards Go to Los Alamos' Stone and McLin
The Prevention Program of the Risk Reduction Environmental Stewardship Division (RRES-PP) at Los Alamos National Laboratory awarded an outstanding nomination award for the 2003 Pollution Prevention (P2) to a team from RRES and the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division (EES). William Stone, EES, and Stephen McLin, RRES, were presented certificates for their work, øAquifer Testing at Municipal Supply Well PM-2,Ó on May 7, 2003. The award recognized water conservation measures that were developed and implemented during the aquifer test at municipal water supply well, PM-2, where more than 45 million gallons of water were successfully salvaged.

To conduct this test, normal water production at most municipal supply wells was terminated beginning in early December 2002. In addition, the combined 40 million gallon storage capacity of Los Alamos County and the Laboratory was slowly depleted and in February 2003, and a constant-rate pumping test at well PM-2 was started. The PM-2 well yielded about 1,250 gallons per minutes for 25 continuous days. Typically, production waters must be discharged to the environment under applicable federal / state permits during an aquifer test because of insufficient storage capacity. In this case, production waters were directed into numerous storage tanks located throughout Los Alamos County and Laboratory facilities where it could be eventually used. During the test period, no interruptions in water services were reported and no water discharges in the environment occurred. The operations required extensive planning and close coordination with Stone and McLin and the Los Alamos County Utilities Department for equipment operations and access to the Los Alamos wells.

Los Alamos' Staff Member Named to New Mexico State Board
Paul Rich, of Los Alamos' Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, was recently asked by the Board of Advisors at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico to serve on the Board of Advisors for the Institute of Natural Resource Analysis and Management (INRAM). INRAM is funded by a three-year, five million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation and the state universities of New Mexico. The Board just completed its first year of work and has many exciting prospects for the future. The INRAM is currently preparing a response to a review from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Los Alamos Scientists to Submit New Seismic Migration and Imaging Work Abstracts for the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Meeting
Seismologists from the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Doug Alde, Mike Fehler, Cory Hoelting, Leigh House, Lianjie Huang, and Hongchuan Sun submitted a total of six expanded abstracts to the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG). The SEG annual meeting is the largest professional meeting devoted to exploration geophysics. Each of the Los Alamos abstracts describe a new and slightly different approach for carrying out seismic migration, or "imaging," to obtain a better view of the subsurface. The new methods contribute to significantly improving the accuracy and reliability of seismic imaging, particularly from areas that are difficult to image using existing methods. Some of the new imaging methods are being developed in collaboration with oil industry researchers and are already being used by the industry collaborators.

Los Alamos Leads the Science in Micro-Hole Drilling Technology
Over 50 technical experts from the oil and gas industry, oil field technical services, and various university and DOE subcontractors, along with DOE and Los Alamos personnel, met in Albuquerque on April 29-30 to prepare a "Roadmap" for a National Initiative in micro-hole technology slated to begin in fiscal year 04. Micro hole technology is a miniaturized version of conventional drilling technology developed for the purpose of obtaining subsurface data. Very substantial cost savings and improved data quality is expected using micro boreholes for deep access and interrogation of the subsurface. Central to the discussions was a review of Los Alamos' progress in micro-hole technology and a list of critical requirements prepared by Los Alamos for advancing the technology. Los Alamos, the originator and lead organization for the project, also exhibited its coiled-tubing micro hole drilling system and miniaturized borehole instrumentation that were adapted and miniaturized under Los Alamos' leadership. Los Alamos employees and contractors who contributed to the review and meeting were David Anderson, Don Dreesen, Jim Thomson, Tom Fairbanks, and Jim Albright all of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division.

Yucca Mountain, Nevada Tours Nevada Officials and Nez Perce Tribe
Dick Kovach of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division's Yucca Mountain Project continues to host tours for interested public officials and media. On April 28, Bruce Reinert toured David Bert, Radio Talk Show Host of KNPR (Las Vegas Public Radio Station) and the following Churchill County, Nevada Officials: Ronald Flores, Superintendent, Churchill Co. School District; Tom Stockard, Chief Deputy, District Attorney; Valerie Serpa, Director, Churchill Arts Council; Mark Feest, Deputy District Attorney; Eleanor Lockwood, Planning Director, Terri Pereira, Assistant Planning Director; and John Tewell, Councilman, City of Fallon, Nevada.

Dick Kovach hosted a tour on April 29 for members of the Nez Perce Tribe located in north-central Idaho; the tribe officials represented Nez Perce's Environmental Waste Management and Restoration Program. Interested officials from the tribe included: Patrick Sobotta, Director; Dan Landeen, Environmental Specialist; John Stanfill, Environmental Health Specialist; Sandra Lilligren, Environmental; Kristie Baptiste-Eke, Environmental Policy Analyst; and Gabe Bohnee, Environmental Specialist. Also attending the tour was a reporter from 60 Minutes (no cameras) and eight individuals from the DOE-Wide Scientific and Technical Information Program.

May 5, 2003

2003 Pollution Prevention Awards Ceremony
The Prevention Program of the Risk Reduction Environmental Stewardship Division (RRES-PP) has received outstanding nominations for the 2003 Pollution Prevention (P2) Awards. The EES-6 team has been selected as one of the year 2003 award winners for their work on Aquifer Testing at Municipal Supply Well PM-2 (William Stone, EES-6).

The P2 awards will be presented in the Physics Auditorium on Wednesday May 7th, 2003. The ceremony will begin at 10:00 a.m. and conclude at noon.

April 23, 2003

Where's the Water? Sponsored by Los Alamos and NMGIC
Los Alamos National Laboratory will co-sponsor the spring New Mexico Geographic Information Council (NMGIC) meeting on April 24 and 25 in the Los Alamos Research Park. The meeting will examine water resource issues in New Mexico from a Geographic Information Technology perspective. Attendees include speakers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, the New Mexico State Engineer's Office, US Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and the US Geological Survey.

Yucca Mountain Tours for DOE, DARPA, LLNL, and GAO Visitors
Bruce Reinert, of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division's Yucca Mountain Project, conducted a tour on April 15 for the Department of Energy (DOE) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DOE attendees include: J. Russell Dyer, Office of Repository Development, Senior Project Advisor; Mark Frei, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Site Closure; and Richard Spence. DARPA representatives from Arlington, Virginia included: Dr. Leo Christodoulou, Program Manager, Defense Sciences Office; Dr. Steven Wax, Deputy Director, Defense Sciences Office; and Dr. Adrian Smith, Associate Director Program Managers and Tactical Technology Office. Also attending the tour was Dr. Joseph Farmer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

A tour was conducted on April 16 by Richard Kovach, of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division's Yucca Mountain Project, for the General Accounting Office (GAO) and attendees included: Tom Kingham, Supervisory Analyst; Dan Feehan, Assistant Director and Natural Resources Environment Issues; Charlane Lecuhga, Senior Analyst, and Lee Carroll, Senior Analyst.

On April 17 Alan Mitchell, of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division's Yucca Mountain Project, conducted a tour for Miriam Crawford, DOE; and Loraine Hanwell, Air Quality Inspector for the State of Nevada.

April 16, 2003

Yucca Mountain, Nevada Tours Continue
On April 7, Bruce Reinert of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division's Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) conducted a tour for the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the Nuclear Fuel Transportation (NFT), and other interested attendees. Representatives from NEI included Melanie White, Manager, Media Relations, and Julie Offner. Attendees from NFT, Dominion Resources were Lee Hill, Manager, Michael Lico, Manager, and Brian Wakeman, Senior Engineer. Robert Hill, Executive Director, American Association of Blacks in Energy, Kenneth Kerns, Associate Director, Environmental Health and Safety, Iowa State University, Gilbert Brown, Professor, University of Massachusetts, Lowell James Tulenko, Professor, University of Florida, and Gary Sandquist, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah also attended the tour.

The California Broadcasters Association (CBA) also toured YMP on April 7, and was hosted by Richard Kovach. The representatives from CBA included Joe Berry, Vice President, and Kevin Coe, Director of Media Relations.

On April 10, Kovach toured a group representing Westinghouse Materials Subcommittee and Chemistry Working Group; on April 12, Kovach and Reinert conducted underground briefings and held an Open House for about 250 guests from Las Vegas, Nevada and the surrounding area.

Los Alamos Attends International Geologic Assessment Team Meeting
Geophysicists from the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Ward Hawkins and Wendee Brunish, attended the meeting of the International Geologic Assessment Team (IGAT) in Alexandria, Virginia On April 10 and 11. IGAT supports the US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). Dr Brunish presented a briefing describing current Los Alamos activities on the Geologic Assessment Methodology for underground targets. This research is currently supported by funding from STRATCOM and is part of the DTRA Advanced Concept Technology Development initiative that is currently being implemented at DTRA, with funding going to the three weapons laboratories and two DTRA contractors.

April 8, 2003

Los Alamos Participates in Test Readiness Review
Members of the Geophysics Group, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, attended a test readiness meeting hosted by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at the Defense Nuclear Weapons School on Kirtland Air Force Base on March 31 and April 1, 2003. Christopher Bradley, Wendee Brunish, and Tom Kunkle, participated in discussions regarding DTRA readiness status, the priorities for weapons effects testing, how to make the best use of DOE and DoD resources, and how to leverage DOE and DoD needs for stockpile stewardship tests and weapons effects tests.

Wendee Brunish provided a progress report briefing to Kerry Kelley and Lt. Col. Horton at United States Stratcom Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, on March 27. The report included recent progress producing geologic models with 3-D Computer-Assisted-Design (CAD) format files, and Los Alamos' ongoing work interfacing with DTRA contractor, Advanced Research Applications (ARA). ARA has primary responsibility for developing DTRA's Munitions Effectiveness Assessment (MEA) tool. Also discussed were plans for a Tri-Laboratory coordination meeting in the near future.

On March 26, a meeting was held regarding Nuclear Weapons Archiving at the Nevada Operations Office in North Las Vegas for the three weapons laboratories and Bechtel Nevada. The Laboratories' Progress Reports on FY03 work, discussions on proposed work for next year, and proposed FY04 work were presented. Current work in this area includes compiling data for inventory emplacement holes at the Nevada Test Site, and developing new interfaces for the containment databases.

The Enhanced Test Readiness (ETR) meeting at the Nevada Operations Office in North Las Vegas was also attended by Wendee Brunish on March 26. The meeting included discussions on resource loading for ETR, tasks in Major Task Element 5 (MTE-5), and Operations, which includes containment activities. The containment budget for Los Alamos for MTE-5 is approximately $6M over the next five years. Critical tasks include training and certifying new containment personnel, identifying and testing new stemming materials, and validating new 3-D stress wave and gas flow modeling capabilities.

Yucca Mountain Tours Office of Inspector General and Others
During the week of March 31 - April 3, Richard Kovach and Bruce Reinert, members of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, conducted tours for 15 students from Deep Springs College, California (physics students), 15 members of the Clark County Leadership Forum (Las Vegas Nevada), 30 members of the Southern Nevada Retired Teachers Association, and presented a summary of testing activities to members of the Finnish Waste Management Program.

Tours of the site were also conducted for representatives of Bechtel Science Application International Corporation (the prime Doe contractor for Yucca Mountain), transportation experts from the Washington DC Office, representatives of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Office of Inspector General, and 104 attendees for the International High-Level Radioactive Waste Conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The "tours" consist of a general briefing of the tunnel layout and experiments (both completed and ongoing). This occurs underground in an alcove, a side drift from the main tunnel that was customized specifically for tours (including maps/displays and is about 200 yards underground). The group then boards a train and travels 1.5 miles further underground to observe one of the project's long-term tests and then returns to the surface.

High Tech New Mexico Features Los Alamos Scientists
Douglas ReVelle and Thomas Sandoval, of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, were recently interviewed on an Albuquerque, NM radio station (KOB) program, High Tech New Mexico, for an hour on Infrasound technology and on bolides. The scientists will discuss the Laboratory's modern digital measurement systems that are operated by Los Alamos. ReVelle, a meteor physicist, recently was featured in Nature magazine for his integrated spectral, photographic and acoustic data representing more than a dozen large meteoric events. Los Alamos' data is playing a key role in helping scientists to more accurately determine how often the Earth is hammered by giant meteors.

Los Alamos' DOE Fellow Receives AGU Award for Supercomputing Paper
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) for the "Outstanding Student Paperî award selected Glenn Hammond, a DOE Fellow in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division. Hammond's paper, "Numerical modeling of NAPL Source Zone Treatment," presents very innovative work both in the field of reactive transport and in parallel computing. This was the first time ASCI Q (Los Alamos' supercomputer) was used for "peaceful" purposes and was among a group of 14 projects selected to use the machine for purposes other than weapons development. The calculation presented was the first of its kind in terms of the size of the problem (over 20 million degrees of freedom), the techniques used in parallel computing involving innovative physics based preconditioning developed in Los Alamos' Theoretical Division, the complexity of the chemical system involved with no assumptions of redox equilibria, and the number of processors used (512 on ASCI Q and using 90 GB of memory). Glenn has an extensive background in computing including FORTRAN90, C, C++, and Java. His areas of expertise are parallel computing and reactive transport. He is a student in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Glenn's thesis, "Innovative Methods for Solving Multi-Component Biogeochemical Groundwater Transport on Supercomputers," is the result of collaborative efforts with his thesis advisor, Al Valocchi (UIUC), and Earth and Environmental Sciences researcher, Peter Lichtner.

April 3, 2003

From the NETL The Carbon Sequestration Newsletter, April 2003
First U.S. geologic sequestration field test underway in depleted oil well. In early 2003 researchers injected 2,100 tons of CO2 into Strata's West Pearl Queen reservoir, New Mexico - about 40 tons per day. The plume migration will be tracked by 3-D seismic survey equipment for 3 years. NETL, SNL, LANL, and Strata Production Co are partnering in the reservoir injection and monitoring project. Kinder Morgan CO2 Company, LP supplied the CO2. Department of Energy's Fossil Energy, http://www.fossil.energy.gov/ and "DOE Tests Oil Fields To Store CO2 Emissions," AIR Daily, March 21, 2003.

New Version of FEHM Released

George Zyvoloski & Bruce Robinson, EES-6 gaz@lanl.gov, robinson@lanl.gov

LALP -03-044

More about FEHM on our Web site

Members of the Hydrology, Geochemistry, and Geology Group's (EES-6) Subsurface Flow and Transport Team recently released a major new version of the their computational Finite-Element and Heat-Mass (FEHM) transfer code. FEHM was originally developed at Los Alamos in the early 1980s to simulate geothermal and hot dry rock reservoirs. Today, the code is used at over 100 facilities to model a large variety of subsurface flow and contaminant transport problems. Version 2.20 is used on virtually all of the Laboratory's major programs involving hydrologic research; it builds on the long history of its innovative features that were developed over the last 15 years. New capabilities in this version include: new Generalized Double Porosity Model (GDPM) solver; enhanced linear equation solvers; more general boundary condition options; particle tracking model enhancements, including new dispersion coefficient tensor formulations, reverse particle tracking, and particle capture at well bores; a new dual permeability particle-tracking model for the unsaturated zone; and features that increase compatibility with MODFLOW models.

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April 2, 2003

Carlsbad's Cliff Stroud Named to State Environmental Improvement Board
Cliff Stroud, of Los Alamos National Laboratory's Industrial Business Development Division, was recently appointed to the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board. The Carlsbad Current-Argus, March 11, 2003, notes that: "Stroud has a background in engineering and public out-reach on environmental issues and a keen understanding of the issues surrounding the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and its impact on the community. House Majority Caucus Chairman John Heaton, D-Carlsbad, states: "Stroud will be a strong voice for protecting the environment in this state and he'll be an advocate for this south-eastern region. He knows the issues here and will make sure our concerns are addressed.î

Los Alamos and Berkeley Labs' Poster Wins First Place at IHLRWM Conference
The Tenth International High-Level Radiation Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM) awarded a First Place to the poster presentation, "Colloid Facilitated Transport in Fractured Rocks: Parameter Estimation and Comparison with Experimental Data." Authors of the poster are: Hari Viswanathan, Andrew Wolfsberg (Los Alamos Earth and Environmental Sciences Division (EES)), Paul Reimus, Doug Ware (Los Alamos Chemistry Division), and Guoping Lu, Lawrence Berkeley, Laboratory. The award was made during the Conference Luncheon on March 31 and Al Aziz Eddebbarh, Los Alamos, accepted the award for the team. One of the attributions of the presentation that deemed it the "Best Poster" is that the science combines modeling and experimental data.

Also presented at the conference was the paper, "Site / Subsite Scale Saturated Zone Flow-Transport Models for Yucca Mountain." Authors of the paper are: Sharad Kelkar, Peng Tseng, Terry Miller, Rajesh Pawar, Bruce Robinson, George Zyvoloski, Edward Kwicklis, Al Aziz Eddebbarh (all of EES), Arend Meijer (GCX, Inc.), and Bill Arnold (Sandia National Laboratory). The paper was presented during the Saturated Zone Flow and Transport session, chaired by Eddebbarh. Kelkar made the presentation in memory of Peng-Hsiang Tseng. Tseng was a technical staff member in the Hydrology, Geochemistry, and Geology Group who unexpectedly died of liver cancer in February. Tseng joined the Laboratory in 1998 and was a respected specialist in computational and experimental hydrology.

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