INEEL team identifies mystery munitions   

After rusty, World War II-era U.S. warheads were uncovered on the Solomon Islands, the Army called in experts from DOE’s Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Nuclear physicist Gus Caffrey and three colleagues assessed the 109 warheads this summer on Johnston Atoll, 800 miles southwest of Hawaii--without opening the munitions up. They identified the warhead contents with the Portable Isotopic Neutron Spectroscopy (PINS) system, which Caffrey developed. PINS emits neutrons that bounce into the elements of a chemical agent, producing a signature pattern of gamma rays. They discovered that the warheads contain mustard gas, and can be safely destroyed in the Johnston Atoll chemical weapons incinerator.  
 

Labs, university, chemical companies unite through Internet   

Researchers at Northwestern University and two DOE laboratories--Pacific Northwest and Argonne--will partner with scientists and engineers at five chemical companies in an Internet-facilitated collaboration to study the chemical process by which pollutants can be neutralized at their source or in the environment. The Institute for Environmental Catalysis will be established with a five-year, $7.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Researchers at the three institutions will be linked electronically to industrial scientists at Allied Signal, Dow Chemical, Engelhard Corp., Union Carbide, and UOP Research Center.  
 

DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories has signed a cooperative research and development agreement with California-based Numotech to develop inexpensive sensors and lightweight pumps to simplify operation of Numotech’s unique oxygen-bath technique for healing wounds, pressure sores, and pressure ulcers--quickly, and with reduced scarring. The Topical Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment is helpful to the elderly, paraplegics, diabetics, and victims of burns and severe abrasions. It involves surrounding the injured part with a plastic bag filled with a slightly higher percentage of oxygen than the atmosphere provides, and at a slightly higher pressure. It should be available for home use in approximately three years.  
 

SNS gets construction startup funding   

The FY99 Energy and Water Development Appropriation, signed into law October 7, contains $130 million for the construction startup of the Spallation Neutron Source, a state of the art neutron research facility that is a collaboration of DOE’s Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, Argonne, Berkeley and Brookhaven national laboratories. “We’ve got approval to get ready for construction, and that’s what we’re going to do,” said Bill Appleton, SNS associate director at ORNL. “We can now start putting together work packages between the participating laboratories to accomplish specific parts of the project, deciding what the milestones are and getting the architects and engineers on to start detailed drawings.” Completion of the SNS is expected in the year 2005.  
 

A recent experiment at the DOE’s Jefferson Lab has announced results that could prove among the decade’s most important in the field of nuclear physics: strange quarks are surprisingly scarce in ordinary nuclear matter. This finding, and expected follow-on results, should enlarge our understanding of proton structure, leading to a more complete understanding of the nuclear material that makes up most of the world around us. The research team partially credits the experiment’s success to the quality of the beam from Jefferson Lab’s accelerator, which has unprecedented resolution and extraordinary stability, eliminating effects that could destroy the interpretability of the experimental data.  
 

Vital source for high-purity metals   

When researchers need small amounts of high-purity metals or alloys to test their theories, they frequently turn to the Materials Preparation Center at Ames Laboratory. MPC can prepare, purify, fabricate and characterize more than half of the planet’s naturally occurring metals. The staff has the expertise to develop custom materials in a variety of ways—as single crystals, powders, metal sheets, wires or ingots. Since its inception in 1981, MPC has aided thousands of scientists throughout the world who were unable to get small quantities of research-grade materials through commercial producers. “We’re often a scientist’s last hope,” said MPC Director Larry Jones.