Friday, Jan. 8, 1999
Panel discussion on HEERA slated for Wednesday
A panel discussion on the implementation of a Laboratory policy similar to the California Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, or HEERA, at Los Alamos, will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Physics Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3.
The meeting is sponsored by a HEERA committee at the Lab that includes representatives from the Employee Advisory Council, Citizens for LANL Employee Rights and other Lab employees. It is open to all employees.
The Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act is the California state law defining the relationship between the University of California, its employees and their organizations. The university operates the Laboratory for the Department of Energy.
The act outlines the procedures by which employees may choose to form organizations, including those for exclusive representation and collective bargaining, and regulates the interactions between employee organizations and UC. The act currently excludes employees outside of the state of California, but the California Legislature intends to remove this exclusion from HEERA at some future date.
The Laboratory plans to issue a HEERA-like draft policy for employees to review. The Human Resources (HR) Division also plans to post online a series of questions and answers about HEERA.
The panel discussion will consist of presentations by representatives from the UC Office of the President, Citizens for LANL Employee Rights, University Professional and Technical Employees, Society of Professional Scientists and Engineers, and Lawrence Livemore National Laboratory covering the basics of HEERA, types of employee organizations operating under HEERA and the impact of HEERA upon management/employee relations at Livermore lab, said Mary Barr of Advanced Technology (NMT-6) and vice-chairperson of the Employee Advisory Council.
At the panel discussion, employees will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss issues, said Barr. "Employees will gain many rights and responsibilities under the HEERA-like policy, and we hope that by providing employees access to information from a variety of perspectives we will facilitate their ability to make informed decisions," said Barr.
"The committee's strength lies in the diversity of opinions expessed by participants and in their individual experiences," she said. "The panelists for this forum reflect this diversity in that they were selected to provide a balanced set of views on the impact of HEERA as well as to present firm, factual information about the nuts and bolts of implementation."
For more information about the panel discussion, call Barr at 7-7991.
--Steve Sandoval
Medical technologies on display Saturday
Three unique medical-imaging technologies developed by scientists at the Laboratory will be on display Saturday at a special ceremony for the National Foundation for Functional Brain Imaging in Albuquerque.
The technologies are
Saturday's ceremony will feature Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), who will present $10 million in DOE funding to the National Foundation for Functional Brain Imaging. The ceremony will take place at 9:30 a.m. at the UNM Science and Technology Park, 801 University Blvd.
Graphic above: This color contour map of the magnetic fields measured near the surface of a person's head is shown with a pattern of SQUID sensors around the head. The contours are real data measured for a visual experiment. The sensors show the pattern of the Laboratory's whole-head system, but not all the sensors are shown.
Deputy director for operations names environmental assistant
Dick Burick , deputy Laboratory director for operations has named Tom Gunderson as environmental assistant. In the position, Guderson will be responsible for assisting Burick with institutional environmental matters, such as compliance assurance, identifying and tracking compliance commitments, strategic planning, budgets, prioritization, policies and standards, and regulatory interactions. Gunderson also will lead the Lab's effort in preparing for the Department of Energy's verification of the Integrated Safety Management Program at the Laboratory.
Laboratory records to be reviewed by CDC
A year-long project by the federal Centers for Disease Control to review records of Laboratory operations is scheduled to begin this month.
The Atlanta-based CDC has hired ChemRisk to review Laboratory records dating back to the Manhattan Era to determine if there were any radiological and/or chemical releases that potentially could have had dangerous off-site consequences, said Tony Andrade of Radiation Protection Services (ESH-12).
ChemRisk of Alameda, Calif., has conducted similar document retrieval studies at other Department of Energy facilities. "The proposal to carry out this study stems from a continuation of similar efforts at other DOE facilities," said Andrade, who is working with Joe Graf of the Radiation Protection Program Office (ESH-RPO). Graf is the Lab's point of contact for the project.
The DOE-funded document review study could take more than one year to complete, given the large volume of records that ChemRisk personnel will review, said Andrade. He said some 22,000 cubic feet of archived records and 16 million pieces of film or microfiche will be reviewed at centralized storage facilities and individual organizations around the Lab.
Andrade added that ChemRisk personnel also may want to talk to Lab employees to determine if records relating to Laboratory operations exist elsewhere.
The Laboratory will provide office space and equipment for ChemRisk to perform the work.
Andrade emphasized that individual employee health records won't be reviewed, although records reviewers may come across personal health records when going through boxes. "This review is focusing on historical and present operations, not employees, at the Lab," said Andrade.
ChemRisk plans to keep the public apprised of the status of the project through periodic meetings open to the public. And CDC's Radiation Studies Branch will review ChemRisk's work on a periodic basis and participate in site visits to perform quality-assurance reviews of ChemRisk's work.
Once ChemRisk completes its work, a report detailing the company's findings will be submitted to the public, the CDC and DOE. Should records be found that indicate any releases that may be associated with increased risks to surrounding communities, the DOE would then consider that a dose reconstruction project phase be undertaken, said Andrade.
The reconstruction project, he said, would be based on realistic [computer] modeling of the transport of toxicants, such as through water or the air. Actual weather pattern and hydrological data would be used to model the transport methods, he added.
Andrade noted that similar document retrieval projects have been completed at the DOE's Savannah River and Oak Ridge facilities and the now-closed Mound facility in Ohio. The Lab, however, has never been a large production facility like these three, he said.
Officials from the CDC, DOE's Los Alamos and Albuquerque operations offices and ChemRisk were at the Lab last month to acquaint themselves with the Lab's records systems.
For more information, contact Andrade or Graf at 7-5296.
--Steve Sandoval
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