News
News Releases Senator Bingaman applauds LANL and Sandia for helping address the Gulf oil well leak
DOE Web site provides updates on the Deepwater Horizon response
NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of the Gulf of Mexico on April 25 using its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. The silvery swirling oil slick from the explosion and subsequent sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform is highly visible on the lower right.
May 27, 2010—Senator Jeff Bingaman, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, recently visited the Gulf Coast to learn more about BP's plans to plug the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico and to clean up the resulting oil spill. The spill stems from a sea floor oil gusher that started with an oil well blowout on April 20, which caused an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform, roughly 50 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast.
During his stay, Bingaman joined Cabinet secretaries Janet Napolitano and Ken Salazar and several fellow senators for briefings by industry and government officials. In a subsequent news release, Bingaman acknowledged the role that the national laboratories are playing in addressing the leaking well and related issues.
"After spending time in the Gulf, it's clear to me that there is an aggressive effort underway to solve this problem. I have hopes that the attempt later this week to stop the leak will be successful," said Bingaman. "I am also glad to know that both Sandia and Los Alamos [have] some of their best and brightest people working with BP and the federal government." LANL has about 75 people working on this initiative.
On a related note, the Department of Energy "is working with leaders across government and the greater scientific community to address the oil spill in the Gulf by developing an approach for securing the damaged well head, stopping the leak, and minimizing impact from the spill," according to its Web site. And as a part of this effort, President Obama earlier this month tapped Secretary Chu to lead a team of top administration officials and government scientists in an extensive dialogue regarding potential solutions with BP officials in Houston." See the news release.
For updates on DOE's efforts related to the oil spill, see DOE's Deepwater Horizon Response Web site.
For the latest information on the overall response to the oil spill, see the Deepwater Horizon Response Unified Command Web site.
Image credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response Team
Fast Facts
People
11,127 total employees
Los Alamos National Security, LLC 8,683
SOC Los Alamos (Guard Force) 419
Contractors 606
Students 1,101
Place
Located 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 36 square miles of DOE-owned property.
More than 2,000 individual facilities, including 47 technical areas with 8 million square feet under roof.
Replacement value of $5.9 billion
Budget FY 2012: Approx. $2.2 billion
57% Weapons programs
9% Nonproliferation programs
7% Safeguards and Security
8% Environmental Management
4% DOE Office of Science
4% Energy and other programs
11% Work for Others
Workforce Demographics (LANS and students only)
34% of employees live in Los Alamos, the remainder commute from Santa Fe,
Española, Taos, and Albuquerque.
Average Age: 46
70% male, 30% female
43% minorities
63% university degrees
· 23% hold undergraduate degrees
· 16% hold graduate degrees
· 24% have earned a Ph.D.
Major Awards
121 R&D100 awards since 1978
31 E.O. Lawrence Awards
The Seaborg Medal
The Edward Teller Medal
The Nobel Prize in Physics, Frederick Reines