Assuring the safety, reliability and continuity of telecommunications, energy supply systems and transportation networks is the focus of the new Infrastructure Assurance Center at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. Argonne created the center in response to a presidential directive calling for “a national effort to assure the security of increasingly vulnerable and interconnected infrastructures.” Critical infrastructures are those systems essential to the minimum operations of the economy and government. A breakdown in any one system has the potential to significantly disrupt the economy and national security. “Argonne’s expertise in the disciplines required for understanding infrastructure assurance makes the lab well-equipped to address this increasingly important national issue,” said Paula Scalingi, director of the center.
 

Big Bang with Strings Attached?  

Supercomputers at DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) have enabled astrophysicist Julian Borrill to model the universe only a hundred billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Striking 3-D computer movies show “semilocal strings” condensing out of interacting quantum fields to form writhing tubes of energy. Strings could answer fundamental questions such as why the universe, which began smoothly, is now so clumpy, and why it contains more matter than antimatter.The fascinating pictures can be viewed on the Web at http://cfpa.berkeley.edu/~borrill/defects/semilocal.html.

Closing in on CP Violation in B Decays

An asymmetry in the behavior of matter and antimatter that accounts for the – fortunate! – existence of a universe made of matter has so far been observed only in the decays of the K meson, or kaon. At a June 30 seminar at DOE’s Fermilab, physicists from the CDF collaboration presented results demonstrating their ability to detect this crucial asymmetry, called CP violation, – if it occurs– in the decays of B mesons created in particle collisions at the Tevatron. The results raise the exciting prospect of observing CP violation in the B system in the high-luminosity environment of Tevatron Collider Run II, starting in the year 2000.
 

Controlling Emissions “Intelligently”

New “intelligent controller” software to help control emissions from coal-burning power plants has been developed by DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory and Energy Systems Associates (ESA) of Pittsburgh. Argonne and ESA have developed software that makes it more cost-effective for a power plant to burn natural gas along with coal. The natural gas reburns the nitrogen oxide gases, converting them to nitrogen, an element that makes up about 80 percent of the earth’s atmosphere. The team’s approach is to develop an “intelligent controller” that “learns” about the plant by using artificial intelligence methods to analyze plant behavior.The project was funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Research, under the Small Business Technology Transfer Program.
 

Diesel to the Rescue

It’s not your father’s smelly diesel, and it may actually hold the key to a cleaner tomorrow, say researchers at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Not only is the modern diesel quiet, it is efficient and no longer fouls the air, according to Engineering Technology Division researchers, who are helping develop traffic models to learn more about emissions in big cities. They’re also using high-tech tools and techniques to measure particulates and to characterize chemicals in modern diesel emissions. All of this could help reduce our fuel consumption dramatically over the next few decades.
 

New Center Focuses on International Security 

As concerns about global nuclear proliferation and terrorism escalate, DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory has opened a unique center where scientists will work together to solve technical problems related to international security issues. The center builds upon BNL’s existing strengths in the technical aspects of international security, especially nuclear nonproliferation. DOE currently funds $25 million in nonproliferation and national security research at BNL. The center plans to organize workshops for college teachers, summer institutes for students planning to enter the security field, an internship program for academic researchers already involved in the field, and a visitors program for security experts.
 

A unique attempt to alter the tiny particles of a magnetic material is underway at DOE’s Ames Laboratory in order to make magnets that retain their power at higher operating temperatures.  If successful, the new magnets could become an efficient power source for deep-space probes, cars, electronics, computers and power tools.  Bill McCallum and Alan Russell want to alter the structure of neodymium-iron-boron particles to gradually blend two different compositions  one at the outer edge to resist demagnetization and another at the core to retain magnetic properties at higher temperatures. NASA hopes to use the magnets as a power source for deep-space probes.  More at http://www.external.ameslab.gov/news/release/magnets.html.
 

Promising Brain Tumor Therapy To Get Even Better  

A promising brain tumor therapy now in clinical trials at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory will have added cancer-treatment potential, thanks to a $1.4 million upgrade to the small reactor used to deliver the therapy. Already, BNL has treated 38 patients using the enhanced-radiation approach known as boron neutron capture therapy, or BNCT. Results show that BNCT gives brain tumor patients a comparable or somewhat longer life expectancy, and a better quality of life, than they would have had with conventional treatments. Now, the upgrade will help the BNL team improve BNCT and expand its use to other types of cancer.
 

Superconducting Power Partnership  

Imagine a single electrical cable capable of carrying enough energy to power a small city.  Researchers at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have joined forces with the Southwire Company and three other electric utility companies to build the prototype for such a superconducting cable.  Lots of questions need to be answered in building the 30-meter pilot cable, including how to make it flexible, how to splice superconducting cable, and how to insulate such a cable to maintain the super-low temperatures (minus-321 degrees F) and high pressure it needs to operate.  The cable will be built on-site at Southwire’s Carrollton, Ga., headquarters.