Friday, Aug. 1, 1997
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Director's Colloquium scheduled for Wednesday
Argonne National Laboratory Director and Chief Executive Officer Dean Eastman will present a colloquium titled "A View of Argonne: Now and the Future." The colloquium begins at 8:10 a.m. Wednesday in the Physics Building Auditorium and is open to the public.
Argonne, one of the largest engineering research laboratories, has four major mission areas: basic scientific research; national scientific facilities such as the Advanced Photon Source; research into energy sources, distribution, utilization, and efficiency; and research and development on nuclear and nonnuclear environmental stewardship.
In his colloquium, Eastman will offer a view from Argonne, discussing Argonne's current situation and future, as well as an overview of worldwide research and development trends and their implications for all the national laboratories.
Vegetables tested for uranium levels
It's only August and the first official day of autumn is still weeks away. But the vegetable harvest has started in Nambé.
However, these heads of lettuce, tomatoes, radishes and squash that Phil Fresquez, Audrey Hayes and David Honaberger, all of Ecology (ESH-20), have collected won't end up on a dinner table. They're being ground into a powder as part of a human-health-risk assessment study ESH-20 is doing in collaboration with the state Environment Department.
The study is attempting to determine the risk, if any, caused by the ingestion of vegetables irrigated with water containing high levels of naturally occurring uranium from wells in the Nambé area, said Hayes, a graduate research assistant from Colorado State University.
What the Lab wants to find out, Hayes explained, is "If a person were to eat a tomato with a 1,000 parts-per-billion level [of naturally occurring uranium], what would the radiological or the toxicological risk be?"
The pot study -- vegetables are being grown in pots rather than in the ground -- also involves New Mexico State University researcchers who are testing the vegetables for uranium levels for the Lab.
The project began in March 1996 when the state contacted the Lab, Fresquez explained. The state has known through its own studies that there are elevated levels of naturally occurring uranium in wells in the Nambe region, he said.
The state tested numerous wells in Nambé, Tesuque, Pojoaque,
and El Rancho, which are all in the same general area, Fresquez said. In
more than 50 percent of the wells, the levels of naturally occurring uranium
exceeded federal safe drinking water standards, he said.
The federal drinking-water standard is 20 parts-per-billion (ppb) of naturally occurring uranium. But researchers found as much as 1,000 parts-per-billion of naturally occurring uranium in some wells, he said.
The higher levels or uranium in well waters in the Nambé area is attributed to geographical features in the area, he said.
After the state contacted the Lab, property owners in the Nambe area gave the Lab permission to conduct additional tests using the samples previously collected by the state. Specifically, Fresquez said, the Lab selected water "treatments" that measured more than 100 parts-per-billion of naturally occurring uranium.
The vegetables were planted in late May; Hayes takes water from select wells in the Nambé area to irrigate the vegetables, which are housed in a roughly 10-foot-by-25-foot field greenhouse plot in Nambe. A chain link fence protects the vegetables from animals, she said.
To determine the uptake of uranium by the different plants, said Hayes, the vegetables were irrigated with water containing one part-per-billion, 153 parts-per-billion, 517 parts-per-billion and 1,153-parts-per-billion of naturally occurring uranium.
The different levels were used to develop comparison data on the uptake of naturally occurring uranium; by applying the appropriate risk assessment models, the researchers will to try to determine the radiological and or toxicological risks, if any, associated with the consumption of those vegetables, Fresquez explained.
The vegetables harvested were washed thoroughly to remove all soil particles. They then were put in a drying oven before being ground up, Hayes explained. The resulting powder has been sent to New Mexico State for analysis, she said.
"The Lab wants to study and understand uranium cycling in the food chain in the Los Alamos area," said Fresquez. "This is not only helping the community, it's helping the Lab gain knowledge in this field. And this is going to help increase overall knowledge of uranium transport and uptake, and subsequently, the human health risk."
Added Hayes, "We want to get these results back to the people [in Nambé] and put the levels of uranium in water and plant uptake into perspective."
--Steve Sandoval
UC panel visits Lab to review ES&H issues
Some Laboratory organizations take safety in the workplace more seriously than others. And Lab employees working on tight deadlines to complete projects sometimes disregard safety in a rush to finish assignments.
These were just two of the comments Lab employees made Thursday to a University of California panel, here to review environment, safety and health issues.
The meeting of the Environment, Safety and Health Panel of the UC President's Council on the National Laboratories attracted about two dozen employees to the Physics Building Auditorium. The panel held a meeting for the public, Los Alamos county officials and antinuclear activists Thursday night at the Los Alamos High School Civic Auditorium.
Charlie Thorn of Operational Integration (ESH-OIO) said that the Lab's recent Safety Days exercise may have increased awareness in some employees of safety in the workplace. But that feeling wasn't universal Labwide. "It seems like the technical divisions are taking [these exercises] much more seriously," he said, citing an Employee Advisory Council straw poll conducted after the July 16 through 18 Safety Days exercise.
Thorn also said safety will increase at the Laboratory when employees are held personally accountable for ensuring their safety.
"I think the real key is changing behaviors, not posters
or flyers on a wall, not $25 rewards," Thorn said in response to a
question from a panel member on what incentives are needed to improve safety.
In response to another panel member's question about what the Lab is doing to improve safety, Thorn cited the Safety Days exercise. He also said employees in his group are encouraged to brainstorm for new ideas or programs to improve safety. He also said his group has established safety patrols where a designated employee from the group walks through workplaces and points out potential safety hazards.
George Chandler of Hydrodynamic Applications (DX-3) echoed Thorn's comments. "Safety comes from the people doing the work and understanding why they make mistakes and why accidents happen," he said.
He added that Lab management sometimes takes actions to improve safety only after an accident occurs. "Management is always in a panic mode to fulfill whatever the latest gimmick is from the Department of Energy," said Chandler.
Joe Gutierrez of Internal Assessments (AA-2) reminded the panel that the recent major accidents at the Lab stretching back to late 1994 aren't the only incidents the panel should review. He said many more accidents have occurred.
Peter O'Rourke of Fluid Dynamics (T-3) said the Lab and UC should encourage pedestrian and bicycle safety. He suggested construction of a pedestrian walkway over Los Alamos Canyon for employees to cycle or walk to work. He's made his concerns known, he said, to a Lab pedestrian/cycling committee and to the DOE, but has been told that there isn't funding available to build such a walkway.
The panel on Thursday also met with officials from nearby Indian pueblos. Panel members also viewed displays on Lab environmental surveillance activities and on successful National Environmental Policy Act programs at Department of Energy sites set up in the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study.
The UC President's Council advises the UC Board of Regents and UC President Richard Atkinson on matters related to the management and operation of the three UC-managed national labs. The Environment, Safety and Health panel is one of four panels of the UC President's Council.
Patricia Buffler, dean of the School of Public Health at UC, Berkeley, is chairperson of the 25-member panel.
The panel ends its visit today by briefing Laboratory Director Sig Hecker on its findings.
--Steve Sandoval
Delay in arrival of DOE standard badge stock
The Badge Office has been notified that the shipment of Department of Energy standard badge stock, expected today, has been delayed with a probable delivery day of Monday or Tuesday.
The shipment was at a Federal Express distribution center at Newark Airport when a Federal Express plane crashed at the airport. Federal Express has temporarily shut down operations at the airport, resulting in a delay in getting the shipment to Los Alamos. The actual arrival at the Badge Office will be announced through the Daily Newsbulletin upon receipt.
Meanwhile, the manufacturer did supply the Badge Office with a shipment of 500 badge pouches that had not been through final processing. For individuals willing to accept these in lieu of a second temporary badge (see July 29, Newsbulletin, regarding who can obtain a DOE standard badge until the shipment arrives), be advised that the material will hold up only slighly less well than the finished product. In addition, subcontractors whose standard badges have a one-year expiration date are encouraged to accept new ones made of this slighly less durable stock.
Effectively immediately, subcontractors working for TAD and ICF Kaiser will no longer have an expiration date on their badges.
Policy changes made to tax-deffered 403(b) loans
The University of California has changed some policies and procedures governing loans from UC employees' tax-deferred 403(b) plan.
Beginning Sept. 1, active UC employees can borrow from their plan in $50 increments; previously borrowing had to be made in $100 increments, according to Rosella Atencio-Gerst of Compensation and Benefits (HR-1).
And a $50 loan processing fee will be deducted directly from the employees' plan. Previously, there was a $35 application fee that could be paid separately.
Also, the loan servicing fee charged to employees will increase to six-tenths of one percent (0.60) from the present 0.35 percent fee, she said. The fee increase should enable UC's Benefits Administrative Loan Office to operate self sufficiently and with little or no impact to employees in the plan.
Active UC employees with at least $1,000 in their tax-deferred 403(b) plan are eligible to borrow without incurring any income tax liability.
For more information call 7-1806 or write to benefits@lanl.gov by electronic mail.
--Steve Sandoval
Park-and-ride
pilot program begins Monday
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