Some of this week's stories

Environmental projects
to receive $9.5 million

Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary announced the grants Aug. 20. DOE awarded 135 grants totaling $48 million to universities and national laboratories across the country under the Energy Department's Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) Initiative. EMSP is charged with developing a long-term basic research agenda for environmental problems and serving as a stimulus for focusing the nation's science infrastructure on critical national environmental management problems.

Argonne research projects receiving funding, principal investigators and approximate funding over the next three years are:

* "Sensors Using Molecular Recognition in Luminescent, Conductive Polymers." This project involves basic research in analytical chemistry, studying new techniques for sensing toxic substances during cleanup of contaminated sites. Principal investigator is Michael Wasielewski. $1.5 million.

* "In-Situ Spectro-Electrochemical Studies of Radionclide Contaminated Surface Films on Metals and the Mechanism of their Formation and Dissolution." This research will focus on cleaning equipment contaminated with radioactive metals. Principal investigator is C.A. Melendres. $1 million.

* "Use of Sonication for In-Well Softening of Semivolatile Organic Compounds." This geoscience project will evaluate a new technique for treating and removing underground contaminants. Principal investigator is Robert Peters. $1.4 million.

* "The NOx System in Nuclear Waste," will analze the behavior of substances involved in the cleanup of radioactive wastes in storage tanks. Principal investigator is Dan Meisel. $1.2 million.

* "Superconducting Open-Gradient Magnetic Separation for the Pretreatment of Radioactive or Mixed Waste Virification Feeds" is a new technique for removing hazardous substances from wastes at DOE facilities. Principal investigator is Richard Doctor. $1.2 million.

* "Determination of Transmutation Effects in Crystalline Waste Forms." Resarch will center on factors that could influence the long-term behavior of materials proposed for the safe storage of radioactive wastes. Principal investigator is Denis Strachan. $900,000.

* "Stable Isotopic Investigations of In-Situ Bioremediation of Chlorinated Organic Solvents," will focus on the mechanisms by which living organisms can decontaminate hazardous wastes, also known as bioremediation. Principal investigator is Neil Sturchio. $800,000.

* "Investigation of Microscopic Radiation Damage in Waste Forms Using ODNMR and REM Techniques." Principal investigator Guokui Liu will conduct basic research in the physical sciences, studying the durability of materials intended to be used for the safe storage of radioactive wastes. $700,000.

ANL-W kicks off
United Way drive
with barbecue

The steering committee uses this event to inspire employees to think about the needs of area communities and the ways the United Way meets those needs. The United Way provides funding for up to 31 agencies in southeast Idaho.

Entertainment was be provided by employees and their families, including noted musician Skip Wallace (RPS-ESH) who sang some of John Denver's hit songs, and a magic show by Engineering Division Director Leon Walters, who was assisted by Maxine Klossner, executive secretary for the Engineering Division.

Other fund raising activities are planned during the month-long campaign, including:

* Silent Auction of employee-donated crafts -- Aug. 19 - Sept. 13. Winners will be announced Sept. 16

* Car Wash -- Aug. 23

* Poker Run/Walk -- Aug. 28

* Baked Food Sale -- Sept. 5

* Raffle for a print by artist Gene Sherman (ENG-DRA) -- Sept. 12.

A special drawing will be held Sept. 13 for those who sign up for payroll deduction to United Way or increase payroll deduction to United Way.

HEP's Goodman
looking forward
to convention

Goodman will be at the convention sitting as an alternate delegate with the Illinois delegation. "It's fun to be the host state. We get to sit up front," he said.

A resident of Warrenville, Goodman was elected in the March primary as an alternate delegate in Illinois' 14th Congressional District. The size of a state's delegation is determined by the number of Democratic votes cast in the previous election. Goodman is one of about 150 Illinois delegates.

Goodman has had a keen interest in politics since he was a teenager. At 17 he attended the infamous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago as a volunteer for Hubert Humphrey's campaign. "Every day there was more and more tear gas," he remembered. "Certainly a high fraction of media coverage of this year's convention will be a comparison to the 1968 convention," he said.

Since this year's convention is practically in his own backyard, Goodman won't be staying downtown but will commute from home each day. The day will start with a caucus each morning where issues will be discussed. The day will be rounded out with various other meetings, parties and receptions for Democratic candidates. The evening is reserved for the high-profile speakers.

Of course, Goodman said, the delegates' biggest job is to nominate the presidential candidate, and they do so through the roll call of states.

Aside from official party business, however, the convention is a time for delegates from around the country to meet and mingle and gear up for the campaign season. Goodman puts in much simpler terms: "We get to wear silly hats."

Goodman partially attributes his lifelong interest in politics to growing up in Washington D.C., an interest he now shares with his own family. His 15-year-old daughter, Leah, and his wife, Sharon, will also be at the convention working as volunteers greeting media workers and delegations from other states. His 12-year-old daughter Emma also wanted to volunteer but is too young. She will have to wait for the next convention in 2000.

Goodman will check in with Argonne News after the convention. Watch for a follow-up story in a future issue.

Time grows short
for preparing
'Photo Fest' entries

Entries must be be delivered to Room 148, Argonne-East's Building 201, on Monday, Sept. 9, between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Selected entries will be on display in the Building 201 lobby from Sept. 17 through Oct. 11 -- including the Sept. 21 open house, where the best art will be seen by thousands of visitors.

All categories of photography are welcome, and Photo Fest is open to all Argonne, DOE-Chicago, and University of Chicago employees and their immediate families. Images selected in the special "Arts in Science" category will be displayed on Argonne's pages on the World Wide Web.

For more information, call the Photo Fest Hotline at ext. 2-4969.

Materials divisions to gather
for 50th anniversary reunion

The meeting is open to all past and present members of the Metallurgy, Materials Science, Solid State Science, Materials and Components Technology and Energy Technology divisions of Argonne, including secretaries, technicians, research employees and administrators, their spouses and friends.

Former and current directors of the materials divisions have agreed to speak on the history (and perhaps politics) of their divisions and the laboratory from 10 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at an informal seminar in the Building 212, Conference Room A157. Members of the audience will be invited to contribute.

Memorabilia and artifacts -- for example, letters, photos and samples -- are welcome and can be displayed near the seminar.

A social hour will begin at 6 p.m. at Carriage Greens in Darien (cash bar); a family-style dinner will be served at 7 p.m. The price is $22 per person; send a check made out to Brian Frost (ITD) to his attention at Building 900. Reservations must be made by Sept. 15 (on a form available from Frost or by e-mail or telephone). Spouses are welcome.

For more information, contact Frost by e-mail at frostb@smtplink.eid.anl.gov, or by phone at (630) 252-4929.

Argonne to host execs
from business, industry

The Business and Industry Day program, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., will include tours and demonstrations of Argonne's facilities and research projects, as well as the collection of items for a time capsule. The time capsule will be reopened during Argonne's 100th Anniversary in 2046.

Tours and demonstrations being planned include the Advanced Photon Source, the nation's brightest source of X-rays for research; non-destructive testing and evaluation of materials; Argonne's electron microscopy center; a facility for growing ultra-pure diamond films; the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) that lets researchers interact with data in three dimensions; and an Argonne-designed database of Illinois manufacturing firms.

Other topics include biology and medicine; advanced manufacturing and product design; innovative industrial processes; modeling and simulation using supercomputers; environmental restoration and reclamation; sustainable urban development; and energy-efficient housing and rehabilitation.

Materials for the time capsule will be collected and displayed during a $25-per-person luncheon program in honor of Argonne's 50th anniversary.

Companies are invited to contribute items that represent their products or services. Submissions, which must fit the palm of a hand, might include a letter, a piece of material, a product, a component or a replica.

Companies and organizations can become sponsors of the event for $250. Sponsors receive 10 luncheon tickets and a listing in the program, and their organizations will be highlighted at the luncheon.

Current sponsors include ACCU-FAB Inc.; Amoco Petroleum Products; the Chicagoland Construction Safety Council; the Chicago Manufacturing Center; the East-West Corporate Corridor Association; the Employer's Association of Illinois; IBM; the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs; the Illinois Institute of Technology; Lake County, Ill., Economic Development; Medichem Research Inc.; the North Business & Industrial Council; Southern Illinois University; the Tooling and Manufacturing Association; the U.S. Department of Energy; the University of Chicago; the Valley Industrial Association; the Village of Lemont and Work Right Occupational Health.

For more information, call Denise Voss at ext. 2-6230.

Argonne at 50:

Argonne builds a tradition of
superconducting magnets

The magnet, designed and built by Argonne, generated a magnetic field of 6 tesla -- some 180,000 times stronger than the earth's magnetic field, and the strongest field yet generated by a magnet of its type.

The magnet looked like an immense stainless-steel can tilted on its side, with a hole bored through the middle large enough for a small child to walk through. It was about 22 feet long, 13.5 feet wide, 16 feet tall and weighed 200 tons.

Successful testing of the huge magnet was a milestone in the development of U. S. magnet technology and a major accomplishment in Argonne's long and continuing history of developing record-setting superconducting magnets.

Superconductors lose all resistance to electricity when cooled to near absolute zero -- about 459 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. They make compact, energy-efficient electromagnets that use far less energy and create more powerful magnetic fields than larger, heavier magnets that use conventional materials.

As far back as 1965, Argonne had been the world's first laboratory to use a superconducting magnet in a full-scale high-energy physics experiment. At the time, Argonne operated the Zero Gradient Synchrotron (ZGS), a 12.5 billion-electron-volt particle accelerator. The superconducting magnet was used in an instrument that detected basic particles of matter produced during high-energy-physics experiments.

In the late 1960s, Argonne built what was then the world's largest superconducting magnet -- it weighed 107 tons -- and installed it around a 12-foot bubble chamber, another high-energy-physics particle detector. In 1970, this instrument was the first to record the creation of a neutrino in a liquid hydrogen chamber.

The 200-ton dipole magnet that set the world's record 15 years ago was built for research on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), a clean-coal-burning technology that produces electricity without the turbines that conventional power plants use.

Instead, it passes a gas of charged particles at high speed through a magnetic field. The field generates an electrical current in the gases, which is drawn off by electrodes.

The U.S. MHD technology development program was recently canceled. The program succeed in proving that the basic concept works, but the rate of progress was judged to be faster for other, equally promising energy technologies.

Still, Argonne's expertise in building superconducting magnets made important contributions to understanding this area of applied energy research, as well as to basic research on the fundamental nature of matter and the universe.

Today, Argonne remains a world leader in developing superconducting magnets -- but of a new type based on a new generation of "high-temperature" superconductors.

These new materials, discovered only 10 years ago, lose all resistance to electrical current when cooled by liquid nitrogen, a material that costs much less and is much easier to handle than the liquid helium needed to cool earlier "low-temperature" superconductors.

High-temperature superconductors promise such technological advances as more efficient electric motors and generators, magnetic energy-storage devices, smaller and faster computers, and power lines that could carry electricity hundreds of miles with little or no energy loss.

But first, ways must be found to turn these brittle ceramics into long lengths of flexible wire that can carry useful amounts of current and can be wound into coils for magnets and generators.

This year, Argonne has combined with Intermagnetics General Corp. (IGC) of Latham, N.Y., to build a magnet that set two U.S. records for the highest magnetic fields ever generated by a coil made of high-temperature superconductors: 4.2 tesla when cooled by liquid helium, and 0.49 tesla when cooled by liquid nitrogen.

These fields are smaller than those produced by the earlier generation of low-temperature superconducting magnet. But high-temperature superconductors are a new technology, and Argonne continues as a world leader in helping turn them into practical devices, all the while building on its long tradition of making state-of-the-art superconducting magnets.

Call & Caper Club
offers dance lessons

Cost for lessons is $3 per person. No previous experience is required.

Round dance lessons will begin Thursday, Sept. 12 at Building 951 from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. The cost is $6 per couple. No previous experience is required.

For more information, call or e-mail Thomas K. Mackey at tkmackey@anl.gov, ext. 2-9736; or Elsie Mackey at emackey@anl.gov or ext. 2-8928.

HR schedules
software classes

* Microsoft Tools Integration (HR172) Aug. 28, 8:30 - 11:30 a.m.

* Word 6.0, Advanced Format/Editing (HR180) Aug. 28, 1:30 - 4:30 p.m.

The following classes will be held in September with dates to be determined:

* Word 6.0: Wizards, Styles, Templates and Forms (HR178)

* Word 6.0: Mail Merge (HR179)

All classes are in Bldg. 362, E188. Register with a Training Management System representative. For more information, call Betty Iwan (HR) at ext. 2-3410.

Human Resources is determining interest in computer classes for Macintosh computers. Mac users interested in Excel 5.0 or Word 6.0 classes should call Betty Iwan at ext. 2-3410.

Holiday moves deadline up

Service awards for August include:

40 Years

Paul J. Pausche (ECT-CS) and Bert J. Toppel (RA).

35 Years

Donald A. LeBuis (CMB), Edward A. Ryan (MSD), Terry L. Scott (IPNS), Robert R. Whitman (APO).

30 Years

Hal K. McUne (OD), Joseph W. Pratl (ECT-ELT), Arthur E. Ruthenberg (PHY), Ronald E. Van Buskirk (CHM).

25 Years

Newell K. Bingham (OD) and Kent A. Wilcox (RPS).

20 Years

Robert L. Battleson (ED), Noreen G. Czyz (ASD), Gary R. Dyrkacz (CHM), David A. Ehst (TD), Donald F. Geesaman (PHY), Terry W. Grund (PFS-BM), Marie Heinig (OPS), Terry E. Howe (OD), Leandro A. Jaramillo (RPS), Jim L. Ketcher (TD), Richard C. Raffenetti (ECT-CTT), James J. Sienicki (RE).

15 Years

Eliezer Huberman (CMB), Robert V.F. Janssens (PHY), Robert J. Klingler (CMT), Karl E. Rehm (PHY), Cynthia E. Wesolowski (ITD).

10 Years

Lori A. Anderson (RPS), Stella D. Blickhahn (PFS-BM), Jacques X. Bouillard (ES), Steven L. Gain (PFS-IN), William J. Munyon (ESH-HP), Mary H. Picel (EA), Judith J. Robson (IPD-MED), Michael J. Tilton (PFS-BM), Heidi L. Vece (IPD).

5 Years

Laura C. Bihler (RPS), Michael Bosek (ASD), Francisco Carrera (ASD), John Crissup (ASD), Angela M. Dellutri (HR), Carol Dixon (OCF-ACT), Michael J. Eisenberg (ASD), Marianne Ferguson (ASD), Richard Frederick (EMO-WMO), Sharon Gunter (HR), James A. Heine (PFS-US), Stephen G. Johnson (ED), Craig Loehle (ER), Janice Meola (HR), Joseph Morrison (XFD), John Noonan (ASD), John Oboikovitz (PFS-FPE), Pauline Ordanez (PFS-LF), Madonna M. Pence (ESH), Eric Peterson (PFS-CU), Mark C. Petri (ED), Branch Geoffrey Pierce (EMO), Earl J. Powell (PFS-VM), Thomas Roberts Jr. (PFS-CU), Ruthanne Sortor (RPS), Robert E. Swale (EMO), Marcia Torres (ESH-HP).

Wednesday, Aug. 28

Energy Systems Division Seminar: "Linking Basic and Applied Research: A Role for National Labs" by Jim Frank, (ES). Noon, Bldg. 362, Conference Room E356.

Thursday, Aug. 29

"Progress at Yucca Mountain for High Level Waste Disposal" by Howard Kittel, (STA). Noon, Bldg. 213 Cafeteria, Dining Room B.

Thursday, Sept. 5

Materials Science Division Seminar: "Superconductivity in the RE Ni2B2C Intermetallic Compounds" by Ruggero Vaglio, University of Naples, Italy. 11 a.m., Bldg. 223, Conference Room S105.

Thursday, Sept. 19

Materials Science Division Special Colloquium: "Computation and Recognition with DNA" by Albert Libchaber, Center for Studies in Physics & Biology, Rockefeller University, New York. 1:30 p.m., Bldg. 212, Conference Room A157.

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