Events and Happeningsin the SLAC Community

SLAC WINS B-FACTORY COMPETITION

B factory leader Jonathan Dorfan next to a mockup of the proposed B factory.

by Sarah Morisseau

ON OCTOBER 4, 1993, PresidentClinton said what all of us at SLAChad been waiting for months tohear: SLAC had won the battle forthe B factory.

"It has been said that you can'tcreate genius; all you can do isnurture it. There is a lot of thatgenius in California. If nurtured, itwill help to bring about not only

an economic turnaround for Cali-fornia but for the entire nation,"the President said.

On that note, Clinton formallyannounced the decision of Depart-ment of Energy Secretary HazelO'Leary and his Science Advisor,Jack Gibbons, to award the B facto-ry to SLAC.

Their decision was based on areview led by Stanley Kowalski,Director of the Bates Linear Accel-

erator Center at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology. The"Kowalski Panel," as it was called,visited the two final candidates forthe project (SLAC and Cornell Uni-versity, Ithaca, New York) in Juneand made its recommendation tothe DOE at the end of July.

Although the Cornell proposalwas less expensive, the panel's rec-ommendation favored SLACbecause it involved fewer risks.The panel suggested, and SecretaryO'Leary agreed, that SLAC wasmore likely to keep to its proposedschedule and to stay within bud-get. The fact that SLAC is a DOE lab-oratory was also a factor in thedecision.

"I have selected Stanfordbecause the Department of Energyhas a much higher margin of confi-dence in the ability of the Stanfordproposal to meet the project'sextremely high performancerequirements, as well as to meet itsproposed cost and schedule,"O'Leary stated.

"The government has done thewise thing," B factory leaderJonathan Dorfan said with a smile."SLAC is the premier electron labin the world; a continued invest-ment in this lab makes real sense."

In a conference committeemeeting between the House andSenate on October 21, $36 millionwas included for a B factory startin fiscal year 1994. This bill went tothe floors of Congress for finalapproval during the last week ofOctober.

Continued on page 6

.Eu In 9 rn rvI r I dI I

1

On-site Childcare Task Force Formedcare; and an over-view of possiblesources of financingfor the various alter-natives."

The formation ofa childcare taskforce is the culmina-tion of several yearsof effort. SLAC em-ployees have beenworking for an on-site childcare centersince 1969, when achildcare committeewas first formed.Last October, theWomen's Inter-change at SLAC(W1ATT ' scl-ko fhco Por-

SLAC DIRECTOR Burton Richterrecently formed a task force toexamine the feasibility of a child-care facility for children of SLACemployees. The task force is madeup of volunteer representativesfrom each division of SLAC andthe user community. It is chairedby Bernie Lighthouse of Personneland will report to the director byDecember 31.

In his charge to the task force,Richter asked its members "to con-duct a feasibility study of childcareat SLAC which includes a reviewof needs analysis data gatheredthrough the survey (in January); areview of possible childcare alter-natives including on-site, off-site,and shared with other nearbyemployers; a projection of costs toSLAC of these various alternatives;the benefits of the various alterna-tives; a review of possible manage-ment arrangements for the variousalternatives; a review of liabilityand insurance issues; a projectionof costs (for each alternative) toemployees who use childcare; rec-ommendations on the age levelsand types of services that shouldbe provided by the proposed child-

2

\ V V 1 r) )rStX-7U L ci L JI t-:

sonnel departmentto take a site-wide survey ofemployees' childcare needs andtheir opinions on the subject. Person-nel and WIS developed the ques-tionnaire together; it wasdistributed in January. The resultsof that survey are described in theadjoining article.

WIS also sponsored two paneldiscussions on childcare in theworkplace, one each in March andApril, with representatives fromseveral employer-sponsored child-care facilities. Out of these presen-tations grew the SLAC Parents'Group, which took on the issue ofchildcare as its focal point.Although the Parents' Group hassince expanded its interests, sever-al of its members have alreadyresearched some of the options fora SLAC childcare center.

The efforts of these various or-ganizations and individuals cer-tainly helped to speed up theprocess, but the establishment ofBrookhaven National Laboratory'sChildcare Development Center hadthe largest effect on the situation.

The childcare center at Brook-haven opened its doors two yearsago, in September 1991. It is the

first childcare facility built withDOE funding. Fermi NationalAccelerator Laboratory andLawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory (LLNL) also have child-care centers, but theirs operate inpreviously-existing facilities. TheLLNL center, for example, is in arenovated elementary school oneand a half miles away from thelab.

"It wasn't until the Brook-haven one came to our attentionthat we realized the Department ofEnergy would allow us to subsi-dize a childcare center," Light-house said. "In earlier years, therewas no indication of support fromthe DOE."

Although nothing has yet beenofficially decided, Lighthouse saysthat SLAC would most likely payfor construction (or rent, if anexisting facility were to be used)and for maintenance. Salaries forthe center's staff would be paid bythe SLAC employees who use thecenter. Many of the childcare facil-ities that were represented at theWIS presentations have a similar-if not identical-financial struc-ture. At the LLNL center, forexample, staff salaries and benefitsmake up as much as 94 percent ofits $610,000 yearly budget.

Members of the task force are:Lighthouse, Karen McClenahan,Mary Ross, Kathy O'Shaughnessy,Julie Greer, Rachel Howard, TeriChurch, Mike Sullenberger, DeniseLarsen, Achim Weidemann,Clifton Rogers, Chuck Boeheim,Mary Litynski, and Kathleen Sulli-van, director of Stanford's Childand Family Services.

Sarah Morisseau

This newsletter is printed with soy-basedink and is recyclable.

Energy Forms and Transformations WorkshopLOCAL middle school teachersgathered at SLAC for a workshopon energy forms and transfor-mations, lead by SLAC theoreticalphysicist Helen Quinn and teacherBeth Napier from Oakland UnifiedSchool District. As part of the activi-ties, teachers were asked to analyzewhat type of energy was involvedin making toast, then eating thetoast. Participating in this activityare (1. to r.) Sherri Blatt, Beth Napi-er, Jose Argulo, Jane Scott Jones,and with her back to us, KimberlyCallan. All the teachers agreed thatthis is a great activity to use in theclassroom with 30 hungry students!

-P.A. Moore

3

The Interaction Point © 1993, is published by Information Services of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Editor: Evelyn Eldridge-Diaz. Staff

Writer: Sarah Morisseau. Photographer: Tom Nakashima. Deadline for articles is the first of every month. Items are published on a space-

available basis and are subject to edit. Submissions may be sent electronically to TIP@SLACVM or by SLAC mail to TIP, MS 68. Phone 926-4128.

DOE's Lab Programs for Women:

CAN WE DO MORE? CAN WE DO BETTER?

THE AUGUST WIS presentationwas primarily a report on the thirdannual DOE review of lab programsfor women. The conference tookplace May 11-13 in Oak Ridge,Tennessee. Katherine Cantwell ofSSRL and P.A. Moore, SLAC educa-tion coordinator, attended the con-ference.

"It was very much a workingconference," Moore said. The par-ticipants were divided into six"working groups," that looked atdifferent problems for women-

specifically women in DOE labs-and developed a plan to combatthose problems. On the third dayof the conference, one representa-tive from each lab gathered to talkabout specific women's programsin their lab.

"We need to assess ourselves atSLAC and to give ourselves a chal-lenge: Can we do more? Can wedo better?" said Moore, who wasSLAC's delegate to the Point ofContact meeting on the third day.

By the end of the conference,the participants had developed amission for 1993: to implement"aggressive outreach programs toimprove women's access to careersin science, engineering, and math-ematics" and to make the DOE andits labs "an exemplary work envi-ronment for women to work andgrow professionally."

"I have no idea what, if any,impact this conference has on theDOE," Cantwell said. "It seems tohave some influence within thelaboratories by inspiring people togo home and implement programsthey have heard about, but therewas no high-ranking DOE personat the meeting."

Katherine Cantwell

SLAC does not have a formalprocess or forum for addressingwomen's issues at the laboratory;therefore, it will be difficult toimplement any of the conference'srecommendations. Since WIS is avolunteer organization, it isalways looking to the SLAC com-munity for suggestions and assis-tance in its efforts. If you areinterested in helping with any WISprojects, please contact JanetDixon at ext. 3688.

Sarah Morisseau

22nd Annual SLAC Run/WalkTHE WIZARD RETURNS! Come join us and be greeted by the Wiz-ard at SLAC's 22nd Annual Run/Walk on Thursday, November 11, atHigh Noon at Sector 30. Be a runner, walker, watcher, or cheering sup-porter, all are welcome! Visit with The Wizard! Participants should beearly or prompt to register as the Run/Walk will begin very shortlyafter noon. Free drinks will be provided for all participants and avail-able for a small fee for others. Surprise t-shirts featuring the Wizard willbe sold for $7.00. Be sure to wear your SLAC dosimeter-it's mandatory!Questions? Call Pat Wurster at ext. 3507 or Karen Fant at ext. 4466. Wehope to see you there!

Pat Wurster

4

Announcements of Future SCS Equipment Outages

SCS NOW USES a more streamlined method to present informationabout outages on equipment for which it is responsible (for instance, VM,network, central Unix, and VAX systems).

Starting September 1, the mailing list comp-out@slacvm.slac.stanford.eduand the NetNews group slac.computing.outages was used in conjunctionwith all existing methods for notifying you of upcoming outages. StartingOctober 1, only the mailing list and the NetNews group will be used.

To subscribe to the mailing list, send e-mail to:listserv@slacvm.stanford.edu. In the body of the message, include the line:sub comp-out Your Name Here. Type your own full name in upper andlower case on that line. -Tim Streater

SLAC Computer Advisory Committee Report Available

THE SLAC COMPUTER Advisory Committee (SCAC) visited SLAC onDecember 16 and 17, 1992, to advise SLAC on its effort to revise and revamp itscomputing systems. Among the materials the Committee was given aboutcomputing at SLAC was the April 1991 report from the Future Computing atSLAC, which was made available to, and discussed by, SLAC staff last year.

You can pick up a copy of the SCAC report at the Help Desk in theComputer Building Lobby or access it as an online ASCII file on UNIX, VM,VMS, and the Mac Public Disk 1:

UNIX: /usr/local/doc/futures/SCAC-report93VM: scac.listing * and scac.memo *VMS: slacvx::doc$:[futures]$scac$-report93Mac Public Disk 1: scac report in the folder Policies and ReportsYou can also view the report online via the World Wide Web (WWW)

on SLACVM, the SLD and SLVX VAXes, and machines connected to the cen-tral Unix cluster. Access WWW with the Web command, select the topic"General SLAC Computing," and then select SCAC.

Feel free to contribute your thoughts and comments on the report tothe newsgroup slac.scac.aug93. This newsgroup is linked to the Listservdistribution list scac-l. That is, people who subscribe to scac-l will receiveitems posted in slac.scac.aug93, and, conversely, items they send via thedistribution list will be posted to the newsgroup. So, if you prefer to readand issue your comments via mail rather than the newsgroup, here is howyou can subscribe to scac-l:

Give the VM command: tell listserv subscribe scac-l FirstName Last-name where FirstName and LastName are, in upper and lower case, thename by which you want to be known. If you misspell your FirstName orLastName, repeat the process, using the correct spelling.

If you are on other platforms, send e-mail to listserv@slacvm.stanford.eduwith no subject line, and with the body of the mail containing only theline: subscribe scac-l FirstName LastName.

To unsubscribe, give the samecommands as above except substi-tute signoff for subscribe and leaveoff FirstName and LastName.

Ilse Vinson

No Tampering withTelephone, NetworkingCables, or Equipment

WITHIN THE LAST MONTHthree instances of users tamperingwith network cabling and equip-ment occurred. In one instance50-60 users were affected and thenetwork in that area was shutdown for several hours. In anothercase, someone improperly in-stalled, against SLAC policy, a Mactransceiver.

As a result, we wish to remindyou of sections of a memo, entitled"Tampering with Telephone andNetworking Cables and Equip-ment," that was issued by SteveWilliams and the late Hugh Steck-ol in July 1991.

The memo states:"Tampering with phone or data

network cables or the wiring ofindividual phone lines or worksta-tions or other network equipmentis strictly prohibited without priorapproval from Telecommunica-tions or Network Operations. Thisincludes re-routing, splicing,bridging, cutting or convertingexisting cables with other types ofcables and/or phone jacks or net-work connections.

Costs for fixing a problem thatresults from user tampering withcables and connections will bebilled to the user's group. Tele-communications, or NetworkOperations, as appropriate, willcharge back all labor and othercosts incurred for the repair."

If you need a network modifica-tion, please place a service call tothe SCS Help Desk at ext. 4357. Fortelephone relocation or installa-tion, contact your ATOM.

-Tim Streater

5

Continued from page 1"I'll celebrate when we have the check in hand.

This (Clinton's announcement) is a tremendous step,but we must be patient," Dorfan said. "When we getapproval from the Senate and the House, then I'lldrink my champagne. But for now, it's on ice."

The B factory is exactly what its name suggests-afactory designed to produce over 100 million pairs ofneutral B meson particles per year. The B meson andits anti-particle, the anti-B meson, are created by col-liding an electron with its anti-particle, the positron.The production of these B particles will help physiciststo understand the nature of the universe.

According to the current theory, the universe con-tained equal amounts of matter and anti-matter at themoment of the Big Bang. But if that were true, thematter and anti-matter would have destroyed eachother. Everything in our world-the earth, the chairyou are sitting in, this newsletter-is made up of mat-ter, and so we know that something was not trulyequal at that moment the universe was born. As Dor-fan puts it, there must have been "some small prefer-ence for matter."

That preference is explained by the theory of CPviolation, which is best tested by studying the decay of

$237 million upgrade

| A Upgrade of the existing PEP ring toI store a beam of high-energy electrons.

| Addition of a new beam storage ring,L.. which will house a beam of positrons,

above the upgraded PEP ring. Both ringsare to be housed in the existingPEP tunnel.

r Addition of a new detector designedI I specifically to detect CP violation.

SLAC B-Upgrade 1

Positron ScPositrons aiwhen electrinto a meta.

PositronReturn Line

DampingRingsI

6

I_ _b ___ _ I l w _ __ _ o k _ _ _ _ ! !Pes!

the B meson-or rather, the decay of 100 million Bmesons. This is where the B factory comes in.

The B factory will not be a separate entity at SLAC;it is an upgrade of our existing facilities. The $237 mil-lion project will require adding a new beam storagering above the existing PEP storage ring, renovatingthe existing PEP storage ring, and adding a new detec-tor specifically designed to study CP violation. Theconstruction should be done by the end of 1998, andexperiments could begin as early as 1999.

The B factory project, and the new detector inparticular, will be "very much an international

collaboration," Dorfan said. It will bring about300 physicists from around the world to SLAC.Half of the money to finance the detector willcome from Canada, Europe, and Russia.

"It is heartwarming to see how the staff of this labhas pulled together for the B factory. They have beentremendously supportive, and I am very thankful,"Dorfan said. "It has been a long haul-we couldn'thave made it without everyone's support."

Particle Detector

it~r~y III^^^^ TThe electrons and positronsare directed around the rings

3jS~al. ̂̂ ^Lo^w-E^nergy^I and are brought into collision(new) in the particle detector.

::....:..._.

iSylviaMliaciriid

7

- -- - ---·· -- ---- - -· - ---

California Professor of the YearLYNN COMINSKY, a visitingprofessor in SLAC's experimentalgroup K (Particle Astrophysics),has been named the California Pro-fessor of the Year by the Councilfor Advancement and Support ofEducation (CASE). The CASE award,which is presented annually, isregarded as one of the most presti-gious awards given to universityprofessors. Lynn is on sabbaticalfrom Sonoma State University(SSU), where she is a professor ofphysics and astronomy.

"Dr. Cominsky exemplifies thequalities of the mind and spirit thatare the mark of truly outstandingeducators," says SSU PresidentRuben Arminana. "She has partici-pated diligently in improving thecurriculum in her departmentthrough the development of newcourses and the revamping of sev-eral courses to emphasize student-centered learning."

Before taking a position at SSUin 1986, Lynn was a member of thestaff at the Space Sciences Labora-tory at the the University of Cali-fornia at Berkeley. Through herguidance, SSU has been recognizedas the only undergraduate institu-tion in the country to build its ownradio telescope. In addition tobeing a gifted lecturer and facultymember, Lynn has demonstratedher expertise in research. She hassecured more than $250,000 ingrants for the University. Eight ofher students have won researchawards. Beyond her contributionsto the campus community, she hasearned an international reputationfor her work in X-ray astronomy.

Colleagues and students alikeshare a high regard for Lynn.Monika Ivancic, one of her formerstudents and a former SLAC sum-mer student and employee who isnow pursuing a master's degree inbiophysics at Oregon State Univer-sity, says "Lynn has given me theimpulse to develop a love affairwith science. Her enthusiasm inthe subject lends to her students'enthusiasm. Not only has sheinspired me in the classroom, butoutside of class she has been aclose confidante and I have alwaysfelt comfortable discussing anyproblem with her."

In 1991 Lynn received the Excel-lence in Education Award given bythe Santa Rosa Chamber of Com-merce, and in 1992, she was namedSSU's Outstanding Professor.

Linda Lee Evans

8

THE WAY WE WERE-NOVEMBER 1974Burton Richter announced the discovery of a particle three times heavier than the protonand with a lifetime 10,000 times longer than could be predicted by prior discoveries. Henamed the particle psi because, he said, "it's the only unassigned Greek letter in physics."At the same time, Samuel Ting discovered the same particle in a completely different experi-ment. He called it J. These discoveries caused such excitement in the international physicscommunity that the period was named "The November Revolution." The J/psi particle, as itis known today, is created by an electron-positron collision. -Sarah Morisseau

Summer ScienceInstituteTWO HUNDRED and twelvephysicists from around the worlddescended upon SLAC this sum-mer for the twenty-first annualSLAC Summer Science Institute(SSI), a combination summerschool and topical conference forgraduate students and postdoctor-ates in physics.

"There is a big gap betweenwhat students can learn in theircoursework and what they reallyneed to know to do research at thefrontier of the field. One of theroles of the Summer Institute is tofill that gap," says Lance Dixon,who directs the program withDavid Burke and David Leith.

The first week of the Institute isa series of lectures centered on anoverall theme for the entire confer-ence-this year, the subject wasSpin Structure in High-EnergyProcesses. Dixon explains that"most particles carry spin, orangular momentum," and so theobject of this year's theme was toexamine "the ways in which youcan use spin-or polarization-tolearn something about the basicnature of particles."

"For the participants of theInstitute, this is the opportunity tostudy in depth a specific subject inphysics," says Lilian Vassilian,who coordinates the yearly event.

The second week of the SSI, thetopical conference, is a time whereexperimenters and theorists pre-sent their latest results. Severalrecent SLAC projects examiningspin structure through polariza-tion-such as the E142 experimentin End Station A, and the creationof Z bosons in the SLC-were high-lighted during the topical confer-ence this year. A polarized electronbeam is used in the E142 ex-periment to help determine which

Continued on page 10

9

Don't getTHE GOLDEN BROWN HILLSsurrounding SLAC are gorgeousthis time of year. Yet they serve asan ominous reminder that thegrass and vegetation are parchedand that the risk of fire is high.Soon, fall winds will kick up andincrease the risk even further.

Although SLAC has an extensiveformal Fire Protection Program,designed to protect personnel andproperty from fire hazards, to iden-tify special fire hazards for specificwork sites, and to educate SLACpersonnel in fire prevention andfire response, the most importantplayer in this program is you.

You can help by becominginformed about potential fire haz-ards in your work area, and bypracticing common-sense fire safe-ty. Many jobs performed at SLACinvolve combustible, solid materi-als or flammable liquids and gases.Proper handling and storage ofthese potential fire hazards is criti-cal to fire prevention. Spontaneouscombustion can ignite a fire sim-ply from the chemical reactionbetween certain materials. Sponta-neous combustion occurs most fre-quently when fuel-soaked rags areleft in a pile. The chemical reactionbetween the fuel and the rag fibersproduces heat, causing the rags toburst into flames. Storing usedrags in closed, metal containerscan prevent fires. Knowing thespecific fire hazards in your workarea is an important step towardsfire prevention.

Managers and supervisors canhelp by ensuring that personnelare trained in the use of portable

10

fired up!fire extinguishers; they should alsoensure that portable fire extin-guishers are selected, purchased,properly located, and replaced asneeded. All managers and super-visors should encourage a reason-able number of personnel in theirarea to take the onsite fire-extinguisher training. (See theES&H Training Calendar or callext. 2688 for more details aboutregistering for the training.) Inaddition, all managers and super-visors should continuously moni-tor the activities in their area toassess the fire hazard.

Building Managers can help byensuring that fire extinguishers areinspected on a regular basis, andby ensuring that their buildingsare inspected for fire safety at leasttwice a year. The Palo Alto FireDepartment (PAFD)-which oper-ates the SLAC Fire Station-per-forms an annual safety inspectionof SLAC. Building Managers facili-tate any corrective actions necessi-tated by the findings of the FireDepartment.

The main elements of the for-mal Fire Protection Programinclude:

* Fire protection equipment* Fire safety inspections* Fire safety reviews of pro-

posed projects* An onsite fire station operat-

ed by the PAFD* Guidance on how to limit

fire hazards* Permits for specific types of

high fire-risk activities* The Fire Protection Safety

Committee

For more information about theSLAC Fire Protection Program,contact Jim Scott of the Occupa-tional Safety and Health (OSH)Department at ext. 4509.

If a fire does occur, dial 9-911 toreport the fire. After the fire hasbeen reported and, if the fire issmall, trained personnel may usefire extinguishers to try to extin-guish the blaze. SLAC policy statesthat only personnel who havecompleted fire-extinguisher train-ing may use fire extinguishers (seeES&H Bulletin No. 12A, "PortableFire Extinguishers at SLAC").

Enjoy the beauty of our groundsand please help keep the hills gold-en brown rather than all fired upand blackened.

-Jack LaVelle and Melinda Saltzberg

SSI Continued from page <None>

part of the neutron-the quarks orthe gluons-carries its spin, andthe use of the polarized electronbeam in the SLC allows physiciststo test the Standard Model of ele-mentary particle physics. Vassiliansays that this combination of a lec-ture series and a topical conferenceis "very appealing" to students."It's the perfect combination," shesays. "It doesn't exclude anything."

Eighty percent of the SSI partici-pants were from the United States,primarily the western region of thecountry. "About half" of the con-ferees were from SLAC, Vassiliansays. The forty-three foreign par-ticipants came from 11 differentcountries-Germany, with 12 dele-gates, and Switzerland, with nine,had the largest representations.Italy and Japan each sent six par-ticipants; Canada, Costa Rica, andFrance sent two, and England, Fin-land, Russia, and Taiwan sent one.

-Sarah Morisseau

SSRL COMPLETES PLUTONIUM EXPERIMENTSEVERAL MONTHS AGO,SLAC Director Burton Richter sentout an all-hands memo announc-ing a series of plutonium and nep-tunium experiments at theStanford Synchrotron RadiationLaboratory (SSRL). The first ofthese experiments is now com---1 - - -. - - -- - __.1- - 1 7_-_-- -1

piele, anc mne people involvewith the project are "reallypleased" with the results, saysSteve Conradson, a technicalstaff member of Los AlamosNational Laboratory's Electron-ics Research and ExploratoryDevelopment Group, which isconducting the experiments.

"We were told that wehad to get results, that theresults had to be useful, andthat there could be absolutely noincidents," Conradson said. Thatwas an extremely tall order-butas it turns out, not an impossibleone. The project was a success onall three counts.

,-r-t. " , .1

T he purpose of these experi-ments at SSRL was to study thechemical properties of plutonium,which is the major ingredient inmany nuclear weapons. By itself,plutonium is not very hazardousunless it is inhaled or injected intothe bloodstream. You could, infact, hold a chunk of it in yourhand without much danger-pro-vided you managed not to breathe.

The real problem with plutoni-um is that it decays into other ele-ments that are potentially muchmore dangerous. "Plutonium hasto be recycled," Conradson said.That is why scientists are study-ing the element-to find a way to"convert it to a (safer) mechanicalor chemical form." They are alsostudying it in order to developways of purifying plutonium-contaminated soil.

Scientists have long used galli-um to physically stabilize plutoni-um; however, they have not

understood how this works. Therecent experiments at SSRL showedthat the gallium-plutonium bondis stronger than the plutonium-plutonium bond. This informationwill help in the development oflong-range storage strategies forplutonium.

The group also discovered thatthe neptunium present in theground water at Yucca Mountain,Nevada, a high-level radioactivewaste deposit site, is a neptunylspecies, not a simple carbonatecomplex. This means that its chem-ical makeup-and therefore, therate at which it is transportedthrough the soil-is radically dif-ferent than they had previouslythought.

"For us at SSRL, it's really excit-ing to be able to use synchrotronradiation to deal with one of thenation's biggest problems," saidKatherine Cantwell, manager ofUser Research Administration atSSRL.

SSRL is one of three places inthe country with an x-ray absorp-tion fine structure (XAFS) facility."The XAFS will find out the chem-ical state for any element in a sam-ple...and tell me if it has changed

from one chemical species toanother," Conradson said. Thatinformation is necessary to devel-op a plan for dealing with the plu-tonium.

"This project was funded notonly because it is interesting sci-ence, but because it is necessary

A; .... // Ra ... ..- >w l~":T'h.C.eIte, O1dllaUiOull sdiu. 11 t

al point of the project is to help)timize the safety of the peoplevolved and of the environment."Safety was, of course, a major

oncern for everyone. The pro-posal included a 700-page haz-ards analysis report, whichtook almost two years to write.It was approved by the associ-ate director at Los Alamos and

y Director Burton Richter atAC. The total amount of plutoni-n on site was only 130 mil-;rams-about two thirds theeight of an ibuprofen tablet. Theoject also included a similarperiment on six milligrams of

___ · _ ,fl___ IA _f

neptunium, one ot the elementsinto which plutonium decays.Each sample was kept in threecontainers nested within them-selves at all times and wereobserved around-the-clock byhealth physicists from Los Alamos.

"From a safety point of view,the experiment was extremely suc-cessful," Ian Evans, SSRL's Envi-ronment, Safety, and Healthcoordinator, said.

Conradson and the other exper-imenters are now back in LosAlamos, analyzing the data theycollected and making plans foranother set of experiments. "Ianticipate that there will be moreof these experiments," said SSRLDirector Arthur Bienenstock, whoexpects the Los Alamos group andpossibly others to perform similarexperiments at SSRL as soon asnext year.

Sarah Morisseau

11

Meet GERT (General Employee Radiological Training)

THE ES&H DIVISION is pleased to announce thatafter many years of exceptional service, the GeneralEmployee Training (GET) course and the traditionalGET video tape have both retired. They are rumored tobe catching a few Zs in the Bahamas.

Luckily, the DOE has helped SLAG find a suitablereplacement for this perennial training favorite. Gen-eral Employee Radiological Training, affectionatelyknown as GERT (GERTie to her really close friends),has been designed to comply with recent changes inDOE radiological training requirements and therecently published Radiological Control Manual. GERThas taken up the old banner: ES&H course No. 115.

Generally, you must receive radiological training ifyou expect to work at SLAC for more than 30 days.You must be retrained every two years. After success-fully completing radiological training, you will be

granted unescorted access to one or more specifictypes of radiological areas.

There are two types of radiological training atSLAC. The type of training that is required dependsupon your job duties.

Radiological Worker Training (RWT): This training isappropriate if you work in Radiation Areas, High Radi-ation Areas, or if you handle radioactive materials.

General Employee Radiological Training (GERT):This training should be taken by all other personnel,i.e., those who will not enter Radiation or High Radia-tion Areas, and who will not handle radioactive mate-rials. After you have completed GERT, you may enterControlled Areas, but you may not enter Radiation orHigh Radiation Areas, nor may you handle radioac-tive materials.

If your GET will expire before the end of January'94, please phone the ES&H training team soon toarrange a time to meet GERT. Although GERT classesare being offered frequently, GERT is so popular thatyou need to make your reservations soon. All atten-dees should pre-register for this course. Phoneext. 2688 to arrange to attend GERT.

All GET-trained personnel must be trained in thenew GERT program by the time their current GETexpires.

Classes for RWT are currently being revised to com-ply with recent changes in DOE radiological trainingrequirements and with the recently published Radio-logical Control Manual. The ES&H Training Teamexpects a full revision of this class to be completed byJanuary '94. At this time, RWT continues to be offeredthe first Thursday of each month. After the revisedcourse is available, additional class sessions will alsobe announced.

-Jim Allan and Melinda Saltzberg

12