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Monday, Jan. 25, 1999
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Lab researcher receives Army Distinguished Service Award
Robert Karl, a researcher in Advanced Chemical Diagnostics and Instrumentation (CST-1), received a U.S. Army Distinguished Service Award in a ceremony at the Laboratory last Tuesday.
Karl was honored for his efforts in developing a laser system for remotely detecting and characterizing clouds of biological agents.
Major General John Doesburg, commander of the Army's Soldier and Biological Chemical Command at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, presented Karl with the award. Doesburg said in his remarks that he was here to "honor a distinguished American," and went on to acknowledge the great accomplishments of Karl and his team.
Karl has been working since the early 1990s on a light detection and ranging, or LIDAR, system that mounts in a helicopter and provides rapid detection of airborne biological agents at distances up to 18 miles. In all, Los Alamos has built three deployed production units and delivered them to the Army's 310th Chemical Detachment in Fort McClellan, Alabama. The units also have been "type classified," meaning they are listed as a standard U.S. Army Defensive Inventory item available to protect troops or civilians.
Called Biological Standoff Detection Systems, the units are maintained in a high state of readiness for deployment anywhere in the world. The units are mounted on skids for easy insertion and removal from Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters; they can search about a million acres per hour.
As the helicopter travels across the field of interest, the BSDS fires pulses rapidly from a laser. When the laser light hits aerosols, some of the light is reflected back toward the helicopter. A telescope picks up this reflected energy and focuses it on a sensitive light detector. An onboard computer processes the signals and displays the results on a monitor.
After only a short period of training, soldiers have demonstrated their ability to effectively operate this first-ever capability for standoff detection of biological aerosols.
In a variety of tests, the BSDS successfully detected and tracked biosimulants (benign microbes used to stand in for agents such as anthrax, cholera, botulism or other harmful agents) and distinguished between the biosimulant cloud and a cloud of dust. The system also tracked biosimulant clouds of very low density and was able to map features of the clouds, such as size, shape, relative concentration and speed of movement.
Karl designed the BSDS units so a single soldier can operate one. The units have been put though hundreds of hours of training and testing runs.
The current version of the BSDS is safe to the human eye beyond about a mile and a half. Karl is currently involved in developing a version of the BSDS that shifts the laser output to a wavelength that is completely eye safe. He also is studying a version of the system that would use an ultraviolet laser beam, which would create a signature operators could use to further characterize the clouds.
--John R. Gustafson
Dial-in passwords to replace ICN passwords for modem users
Editor's note: A story titled"Dial-in passwords to replace ICN passwords for modem users" appeared in the Jan. 25 Daily Newsbulletin. The story has been pulled while the Computing, Information and Communications Division (CIC) re-evaluates the decision.
Lab report recommends demolishing old penitentiary
The 43-year-old former New Mexico state prison south of Santa Fe should be demolished, recommended a team of facilities experts and engineers from the Laboratory in a report to state government.
The demolition should be done in phases but only after a site characterization study is completed to determine, among other things, if there are toxic or regulated chemicals or building material that require specialized handling and disposal.
The recommendation was presented to the Capitol Buildings Commission, which in turn presented a report to the Legislative Finance Committee Jan. 17 in Santa Fe.
The State Penitentiary is a shell of what at one time housed more than 1,200 prisoners on a 60-acre site off NM 14 in southern Santa Fe County.
Gov. Gary Johnson and officials from the state General Services Department asked the Laboratory to provide technical expertise to the state, according to Rick Ulibarri of the Government Relations (GRO) Office, in the form of a report on the best use of the building.
The state commission thinks there may be some use for the building, if not by the state Corrections Department by another state agency or governmental entity.
Earlier this month, Ulibarri and other Laboratory employees and technical contract personnel met with John Alejandro of the Property Control Division of the state General Services Department in Santa Fe to discuss the facility. Afterward, Lab employees received a guided tour of the facility by Manuel Pacheco of the state Corrections Department.
The former prison is mostly vacant these days; a wing is still used as an infirmary to treat inmates at the prison's north and south facilities located less than a mile from the building. Pacheco said about 30 Corrections Department employees still work in the building, which was closed permanently in October 1997. He said the department intends to vacate the building entirely by the end of the month.
The State Penitentiary was the site of the Feb. 2-3, 1980 riot that left 33 inmates dead and numerous other inmates and guards injured. The administration of former Gov. Bruce King spent upwards of $50 million to renovate and rebuild portions of the facility that were destroyed in the riot.
After the riot and the subsequent reconstruction, about 400 prisoners were housed in the facility.
Ulibarri said State Rep. Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, co-chairs the Capitol Buildings Commission that was created by the 1998 Legislature. General Services Department Secretary Steve Beffort co-chairs the commission with Lujan.
Gov. Johnson and the state General Services Department want a state appropriation in this year's legislative session to demolish the building. The 1999 Legislature opened its 60-day session Tuesday in Santa Fe.
Kirt Anderson of Site Planning and Campus Architecture (PM-1) headed the Lab's evaluation team that prepared the report. Other members of the team included Henry Nunes of Decontamination and Decommissioning (EM-D&D); Cris Sanchez and Michael Ragsdale of Engineering (PM-2); Sandy Whyte of Terradigm Inc., a Lab contract company; David O'Flynn of Bechtel National Inc., also a contract company; Noel Fletcher of Communication Arts and Services (CIC-1); and Ulibarri of GRO.
The Laboratory report noted that due to structural and environmental hazards, no other alternative uses for the former prison can be offered. The Lab team recommended demolishing the entire facility except for a few modular facilities that can be moved and temporarily retaining other facilities such as a well, pump house, water-distribution lines and a water tower.
"Architecturally, the current facilities at the prison site offer no viable prospects for any significant remodeling efforts," the Laboratory report noted. "The major obstacle to remodeling the main prison facility is the structural integration of the cellblocks with the building structure. To remove the interior features (cellblocks) and leave the external structure intact would be prohibitively expensive and potentially damaging to the external structure," the report said.
The Lab report noted that the former State Penitentiary and supporting buildings fail to meet current building codes, including seismic requirements and federal regulations specifying cell size. "The facilities at the main prison site are all past their useful lives and deteriorating; further modifications, as compared with investment in new facilities, are not cost effective," the report states.
The Lab team recommends that demolition proceed in phases, with the first phase being a site characterization study. Such a study would determine the types of and quantities of waste and applicable federal and state environmental regulations for disposal of the waste created by the demolition.
Phase two would include among other things the demolition of the main prison building, underground utilities and steam plant and the removal and disposal of any hazardous components.
Phase three would include demolition and removal of the former Prison Industries buildings nearby, where inmates made furniture and New Mexico vehicle license plates, and demolition of a garage, women's barracks, pump house, warehouse and former guard and staff living quarters.
The Lab team also recommended that efforts should be made to recycle as much material as possible.
--Steve Sandoval
Editor's note: The following article was submitted by Network Engineering (CIC-5).
Coming soon to a network near you
On Oct. 28, 1998, Director John Browne sent a master management memo calling for an "aggressive effort to increase Laboratory unclassified computer and network security." One of the expected outcomes from this effort is the placement of a restrictive firewall between the Internet and the Laboratory network. Using the Information Architecture definitions for the creation of an Unclassified Protected Network, CIC-5 is leading the effort to implement such a firewall.
The target date for having all 128.165 machines in the Protected (blue) Network, and behind the firewall is March 15. These networks will be protected from the Internet and Open Network, but will not be firewalled from other 128.165 networks.
At this time, we would like to suggest that you review your network and determine if any of your machines will need to remain unprotected, or in the green. If you want any of your machines to remain unprotected, you will need to submit an Open Network Server request form. This form is available online at http://www.nic.lanl.gov/security/firewall/GreenForm.html.
If you are planning to request a server in a green zone and you need continued public access (i.e. your green servers must be in place by March 15), the request form must be at the Security and Safeguards (S) Division office no later than Jan. 29. After this date, forms will continue to be accepted but CIC-5 makes no guarantees about green network access or green connectivity to your area by March 15.
If you would like to find out more about the Laboratory's firewall, visit the web site at http://www.nic.lanl.gov/security/firewall/. If you have any further questions concerning your network or would like to meet with a representative of the Network Services Team of CIC-5 to discuss your network, please contact firewall-help@lanl.gov.
Three researchers to receive Fellows' Prize and give talks Tuesday
The Laboratory Fellows have recognized the achievements of three staff members by awarding them the annual Fellows' Prize, the highest technical honor bestowed by the Lab for research in science and engineering.
The awards, which recognize outstanding research that has had a significant impact in a researchers' discipline or program, will be presented Tuesday to Shiyi Chen of the Center for Nonlinear Studies, Paul Kwiat of Neutron Science and Technology (P-23) and Dave Vieira of Nuclear and Radiochemistry (CST-11).
During the ceremony at the Physics Building Auditorium, the researchers will receive checks for $3,000 each and present brief lectures about the work that is being recognized. The ceremony begins at 9 a.m. For more information, see the Jan. 20 Daily Newsbulletin.
New Laboratory deputy director to speak Tuesday
William H. Press, newly appointed deputy Laboratory director, will speak Tuesday at a public colloquium.
Press, who recently joined the Laboratory from Harvard University, will speak beginning at 1:10 p.m. in the Administration Building Auditorium. The venue, part of the Laboratory Director's Colloquium series, will be open to the public.
Press, formerly a professor of astronomy and physics at Harvard, is the Lab's deputy Laboratory director for science, technology and programs, and Director John Browne's principal deputy director.
Press will speak on "The Curious Cosmological Cabinet of Dr. Bayes." The Bayes Theorem, named after 18th century mathematican Thomas Bayes, is an approach to understanding probabilities.
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