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Argonne's environmental cleanup work was named the best in a six-state region by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5. The award cites Argonne and the U.S. Department of Energy's Chicago Operations Office for outstanding progress and innovation.
The Facility Progress Award rewards innovation and cooperation in a complex clean-up process. Argonne and DOE-CH demonstrated environmental results, speed in performing corrective actions, and the use of new and innovative technology.
The cleanup program at Argonne-East began in the late 1980s and is headed for completion in 2003. Completed cleanup work includes capping old landfills, installing groundwater monitoring and remediation systems, and removal or in-place treatment of contaminated soil.
Argonne has also used innovative treatment technologies to remove contamination from soil and groundwater. These include soil mixing with steam stripping and iron addition, and phytoremediation -- using plants to break down and remove contaminants. Soil mixing with iron addition was first used at Argonne and was successful at removing substantial amounts of contamination from the soil.
Argonne worked with the Illinois EPA during the development of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Part B Permit and reduced the number of individual cleanup projects, called solid waste management units (SWMUs), to be addressed from 432 to 54. The 11 members of Argonne East's Remedial Actions Project (ERAP) team worked closely with the IEPA and the U.S. Department of Energy, which provides funding for the cleanup work.
"During fiscal year 2000, we really had an outstanding year for remedial actions accomplishments," said Greg Borland (ESH), who heads the ERAP team. "The team working on these projects deserves a lot of credit."
At total of 35 SWMUs were worked on during the year, and 23 of the units were completed. Fourteen SWMUs are left to complete before the end of fiscal year 2003.
All Argonne-East employees are required to take a newly developed pollution prevention training course to increase their awareness of pollution prevention issues, strategies and tools.
This training is available via a 20-minute Web-based training program or in a classroom setting.
For classroom training, employees can enroll in class ESH212 through the Training Management System. Sessions have been scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 22, and Thursday, March 8. Both sessions will be held from 1-1:45 p.m. in Building 212, Room A157.
The training will help employees incorporate the principles of pollution prevention and waste minimization into all research, development, and operations activities. These principles form the cornerstone of Argonne's environmental program.
Tickets go on sale Monday, Feb. 19, for a concert at Argonne-East by the Vienna Piano Trio Saturday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m. in the Advanced Photon Source Conference Center Auditorium.
The concert will include works by Haydn, Webern, Beethoven and Brahms.
Admission is $20. Tickets will be sold in the lobby of Argonne-East's Building 213 Cafeteria the week of Feb. 19 from noon to 1 p.m. Remaining tickets will be sold at the Auditorium Box Office, which opens at 7:30 p.m. the evening of the performance. The concert is open to the public.
The program is sponsored by Arts at Argonne and partially supported by the University of Chicago and the Illinois Arts Council.
Pre-concert dinner
A special pre-concert dinner will be offered at the Guest House restaurant from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Cost is $22.95 per person. For reservations, call (630) 739-6000.
Five new members have been named to the Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory, which provides guidance, oversight, direction and advice to the laboratory's management.
The board's 21 members are drawn from University of Chicago trustees, officials and faculty, representatives from other universities and industry leaders.
Charles B.
Curtis is the president and chief operating officer of the Nuclear Threat
Initiative, a charitable organization devoted to activities and programs
intended to reduce the risk of use, and prevent the spread, of weapons of mass
destruction.
Previously, Curtis was executive vice president and chief operating officer of the United Nations Foundation and a partner in Hogan & Hartson L.L.P., and director of that firm's energy group.
Curtis served as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy from August 1995 to May 1997. He was the department's chief operating officer and chaired the department's Laboratory Operations Board. He led bilateral delegations to Japan, China, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia and South Africa, and represented the department at minister's meetings in Mexico and at the Asia Pacific Economic Council. Curtis has also served as DOE under secretary.
Nobel laureate
Johann Deisenhofer is regental professor and professor in biochemistry at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, where he holds the
Virginia and Edward Linthicum Distinguished Chair in Biomolecular Science. He
is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Deisenhofer shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering the structure of a molecule vital to photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into chemical energy. A native of Bavaria, Germany, Deisenhofer is an expert in X-ray crystallography of proteins, the process by which protein molecules are crystallized so that their structure can be determined using X-rays. By doing this, researchers can learn how these molecules function and how they interact with other molecules to perform various biological reactions.
Cherry A.
Murray is senior vice president for physical sciences research for Bell Labs,
Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, N.J. She manages about 250 researchers and
builds partnerships with Lucent's business units. She manages and initiates
research programs in fundamental physics, materials science, chemistry,
biological computation, microelectromechan-ics, nanoelectronics, high-speed
electronics, novel optical devices, hardware reliability and packaging, as well
as other technologies for telecommunications applications and future products.
Previously, Murray was director of Bell Lab's Physical Research Laboratory and also headed semiconductor physics research.
Her research has focused on the physics of solid and liquid matter in a number of cross-disciplinary fields, including optical phenomena at surfaces and in semiconductors, complex fluids, disordered and small-scale systems, phase transitions and clusters and nanostructures.
Harvey B.
Plotnick is president and chief executive officer of Molecular Electronics
Corp., headquartered in Chicago. The company is using nanotechnology to develop
molecular-sized computer components.
Previously, he was president and chief executive officer of Paradigm Holdings, Inc., and president and chief executive officer of Contemporary Books, Inc., one of the two largest publishers of adult basic education instructional materials. He has been a trustee of the University of Chicago since 1993 and is a trustee of the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
Irving
Wladawsky-Berger is responsible for IBM's next -generation Internet
initiatives, for advanced architectures and technologies in IBM's server group,
and for strategy and development of the company's Linux initiative.
Wladawsky-Berger leads IBM's participation in the growing trend toward open standards for interoperability in Internet business. He is working to make the Linux operating system and the open source movement part of IBM's commitment to e-business and the next generation of the Internet. He is also leading the server group's evolution toward leading-edge technologies and architectures.
Wladawsky-Berger is co-chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee, and a member of the Information Technology Advisory Board of the New School University. He is a former member of the Computer Sciences and Technology Board of the National Research Council and of the Fermilab Board.
Starting March 1, the Argonne Credit Union will assume complete responsibility for the administration of all payroll deductions for loans, and for deposits to savings and checking accounts not conducted by electronic fund transfer.
The credit union will transmit payroll deductions to payroll electronically each pay period. This change will eliminate the lead-time needed by the Payroll Department to input deductions into the payroll system and give the credit union more control over the deductions taken.
In most cases, the administration change will be invisible to employees. However, the Payroll Department will no longer be responsible for missed deductions and will take only the deductions listed on the transmitted file. Payroll will provide the credit union with a list of deductions not taken for reasons like termination, unpaid leaves and status transfers, which the credit union will use to follow up with employees.
Employees who receive manual paychecks may be affected. The Payroll Department will no longer take credit union deductions on manual checks. Employees will be responsible for making loan payments directly to the credit union in those instances. This will assure that the payment is prompt and that no additional interest accrues due to delayed transmission of the funds by the Payroll Department.
Additional information on this change will be mailed to Argonne Credit Union Members.
Employees can fill out an online survey to help the Argonne Club Board of Directors gauge interest in several proposed activities.
The anonymous survey takes about one minute to complete.
The Argonne Child Development Center currently has openings for infants 12 weeks through 15 months old.
The infant program provides one teacher for every four infants with a maximum group size of eight infants in each of the two classrooms.
For more information, call the Child Development Center at ext. 2-9601.
Argonne's retirement vendors will send representatives to Argonne-East to meet with employees to answer their questions about retirement plans and retirement plan assets. To schedule an appointment, call the number listed below. Appointments are for one-half hour each. Note: TIAA-CREF dates have changed.
| Vendor | Day | For Appointments, call: |
| Fidelity | Tuesday, March 6, and Tuesday, March 20 |
Appointment Desk (800) 642-7131 |
| TIAA-CREF | Friday, March 16 and Monday, March 19 |
Appointment Desk (800) 842-2005 |
| Prudential | Wednesday, March 7, 14 and 21 (1/2 day sessions) |
Appointment Desk-Cheryl (847) 619-3519 |
The Argonne Amateur Radio Club will host a severe weather spotter training program Tuesday, Feb. 27, from 7-9 p.m. at the Recreation Building (Building 951) in Argonne Park.
Meteorologist Jim Alsopp of the National Weather Service Office in Romeoville will present the latest on severe weather and tornado spotting. All employees and their guests are welcome.
For more information contact Dick Konecny (HEP) at ext. 2-6597 or rsk@hep.anl.gov.
A Safety Shoe Expo will be held Tuesday, Feb. 20, in Argonne-East's Bldg. 213 Cafeteria, Private Dining Room A, from 11 a.m.- 2 p.m.
The laboratory's safety shoe contractor, Iron Age Corporation (IAC), will showcase its new lines of shoes, "Timberland" and "New Balance." IAC will poll employees at the expo to help determine what will be offered in its Shoemobile.
An IAC representative will be present to answer questions about shoes or service, and every employee who attends the expo can enter a raffle drawing for prizes.
