Some of this week's stories

Former Bear Brian Baschnagel
to help kick off combined appeal

Laboratory Director Dean Eastman will open the kickoff event with a few remarks, followed by Baschnagel who will talk about his football career.

Baschnagel played with Bears for nine seasons, including the 1985 Super Bowl Championship season. As a college player for Ohio State University, he played in four consecutive Rose Bowls. After his talk, Baschnagel will be available to sign autographs in the cafeteria lobby.

All employees whose work schedules permit are invited to attend.

Continuous shuttle service to the cafeteria will begin at 10:15 a.m.

The Argonne Combined Appeal gives Argonne-East employees the opportunity to contribute to United Way/Crusade of Mercy, United Way Will County and 18 other charities.

United Way organizations provide support to a network of about 500 human-care service agencies in Chicago and 170 suburban communities in Cook, DuPage, Will, Kane and Lake counties.

The 18 other agencies supported by the Combined Appeal range from the American Cancer Society to Fish, Inc., a food pantry in Downers Grove. All participating agencies are reviewed by the Argonne Combined Appeal Steering Committee and must meet stringent qualifications to be included.

Employees will receive information packets and pledge cards from division and department coordinators. All pledges are voluntary and strictly confidential.

Computer modeling helps
engineers determine health risks

Using the residual radioactive (RESRAD) material computer code, engineers were able to estimate maximum radiation doses and health risks that could result from residual materials left in place.

In April 1996, the south-middle and south-east vaults in the 317 Area were partially decontaminated and demolished before being backfilled with clean soil. Components of the vaults, such as contaminated walls, concrete fines, shield blocks, floors, and soil, that contained measurable radioactivity remained inside and beneath the vaults. A study was performed to help determine what effect this remaining radioactivity would have on the environment.

According to the Environmental Assessment Division's Kou-John Hong (EA), RESRAD uses an analytical method that numerically shows the relationship between radionuclide concentrations in residual radioactive materials and the doses to a member of a critical population group.

Two hypothetical scenarios were considered:

* A worker for an industrial company that uses the land currently and for an indefinite period.

* A person residing at the site after 100 years of institutional control has ended.

"Results indicated that the maximum annual dose that could be received by the industrial worker is 0.04 and 0.1 millirem for the person living on-site," Hong said.

This means that the likelihood of an industrial worker contracting a fatal cancer is less than one in one million after 50 years of working on the site. The likelihood of a person residing at the site contracting a fatal cancer is less than 1 in 250,000 after 70 years of living on the site.

For more information, call Hong at ext. 2-3207.

Community support is vital
to Argonne's future: Eastman

I would like to take just a few moments to thank you for joining us today, and to offer you a brief "situation report" on Argonne.

As you know, I've only been here at Argonne for a couple of months. But from what I've seen and learned about the lab so far, I'm cautiously optimistic -- with respect both to our present situation and to our future prospects.

This year, fiscal 1996 -- for the first time in a long time -- we experienced a slight decline in budget and a consequent decline in employment, due largely to the budget-cutting climate in Washington.

Our outlook for fiscal 1997 is more promising -- namely, an essentially flat budget and without any significant reduction in staffing. So no formal reductions- in- force are planned.

But beyond '97 is uncertainty, because government is looking at curtailing or reducing spending to help balance the national budget. And that is happening just as industry in general, and its research and development budgets in particular, are increasingly pressed by economic globalization and many other factors.

As a result, the competition for government, university, and industry research and development dollars continues to intensify. And so we must continuously improve if we are to be stable or grow.

To improve and to grow, Argonne is pursuing a performance- based vision that we intend to achieve both in fact and in reputation. It is a vision of Argonne as a world- class provider of science, technology and service products, with excellent customer and stakeholder satisfaction.

We intend to focus on customers and stakeholders -- including you. We intend to be a trusted resource, supplier, and neighbor. And we intend to be a leader in time- to- market/cycle- time.

We will achieve this by creating a human resources capability and work environment optimized for maximum creativity and productivity, by stressing cost- effective performance through continuous improvement and through management by objective performance measures.

Achieving such an ambitious vision is increasingly vital for success in the research and development community of which Argonne is a part.

In the past, when "storms" threatened key Argonne programs, your support has always been there to help Argonne weather such storms -- and all of us here at the lab appreciate that very much.

In the future, we will continue to need your support, perhaps more than ever -- not only support when storms threaten, but continuing support as Argonne's partners in achieving our vision.

What's at stake here is more than cutting-edge research and America's ability to compete in the world economy. What's at stake here also includes the well-being of more than 4,000 people and their families. We call these folks "employees." You call them "constituents." They bring more than a quarter- billion dollars in payroll into DuPage, Cook, Kane and Kendall counties in Illinois, and Bonneville, Bingham, Butte, Bannock and Jefferson counties in Idaho, and their towns and villages, every year.

Added to that is the "economic multiplier," which tells us that every Argonne job and every Argonne dollar that flows directly to this area's communities as payroll creates about three additional jobs and three additional paychecks in those communities.

Argonne employees also contribute a wide range of science and technology education programs and activities to your schools, teachers, and children, they offer a wide range of technology transfer and support to your businesses, and they play valuable civic roles in your communities and local organizations.

In net, you clearly have as direct an interest in Argonne's future as we do. To paraphrase John Kennedy, all boats rise -- or fall -- with the tide.

For the sake of all our futures, let's do continue this dialog in the weeks and months ahead.

To help with that, Argonne and the U.S. Department of Energy are now in the process of forming a Community Leaders' Roundtable, consisting of local government and community leaders with whom we hope to meet periodically to discuss issues and exchange information of interest to you.

Topics open for discussion by the Roundtable span the full gamut of issues -- from Department of Energy issues and environmental issues, to economic, education and other issues that impact us all.

In summary, my primary objective for Argonne is continuous improvement in our science and technology programs, in providing benefits to you and others and in communicating and working together. I ask you to join us in fulfilling these objectives over the weeks, months, and years ahead.

Savings Bond Drive
to be held Oct. 7-11

Bond drive representatives will be available to answer questions and enroll employees in payroll deduction plans from 7:30 a.m. -3:30 p.m. in the Building 213 Cafeteria.

Bonds offer competitive interest rates, tax savings and can be replaced if lost, stolen or destroyed. The interest may be completely tax deductible if used for college tuition. Bonds can be cashed without penalty six months after they are issued.

Argonne Club to host
Candlelight Bowl

The $10 ticket price includes three games of bowling and a buffet meal. Space is limited to 120 participants.

For tickets, call Marge Brockman (OCF) at ext. 2-9962 or Stan Reinke at ext. 2-6957.

Karate Club offers
beginner's lessons

The $65 cost covers three months of classes and includes membership in Shotokan Karate of America, a student guide, a bi-monthly newsletter and kyu (rank) testing.

Classes will be held at Building 951 in Argonne Park Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon. There is no charge for the first two beginner classes.

For more information, call Rich Lell (RA) at ext. 2-6373 or Paul Betten (ITD) at ext. 2-4962.

Chess Club plans
lunchtime tournament

Games will be timed at 5 to 7 minutes each, depending on the number of players. Entry fee is $1. All entry fees will be returned as prizes. The chess club will provide all needed equipment.

Games will start at noon in Argonne-East's Building 362, room E-188.

For more information, call Steve Decman at ext. 2-3607 or Dave Baurac at ext. 2-5584.

Most VRC functions
to move to Building 302

Some of those functions include security briefings, personnel security and clearances and processing foreign visits and assignments.

VRC employees will continue to process visitors and issue gate passes. Photo badges will be issued at the VRC until that activity can be moved to Building 302.

Employee who require services currently provided at the VRC, other than gate passes and badging, should call ext. 2-5755 for more information.

Computer users to meet

The agenda includes announcements, an update on microfiche services by Gary Schlesselman and a discussion of ECT Windows NT Services by Mike Thommes.

The CUG usually meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 3 p.m. in Building 221, Conference Room A216.

Meetings are open to all interested Argonne and DOE employees. To subscribe to the CUG mailing list, send "subscribe cuglist e_address" in the body of an e-mail message to Majordomo@ra.anl.gov. (Replace "e_address" with a valid email address.).

Monday, Sept. 30

Materials Science Division Seminar: "A Novel and Cost Effective Deposition Process for Coatings and Films" by Kwang-Leong Choy, Imperial College, London, UK. 9:30 a.m., Bldg. 212, Conference Room A106.

Chemistry Division Monday Morning Seminar Series: "Metal-Ion-Specific and Cluster Forming Coordination Chemistry" by Ken Raymond, Dept. of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley. 11 a.m., Bldg. 200 Auditorium.

Physics Division Seminar: "How Strange is the Proton?" by Bryon Mueller, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. 3:30 p.m., Bldg. 203, Conference Room R150.

Tuesday, Oct. 1

Joint Chemistry and Materials Science Divisions Seminar: "Photodetached Spin-Polarized Quasi-Free Electrons in Rubidium-Tetrahydrofuran" by Haim Levanon, Department of Physical Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. 11 a.m., Bldg. 200, Conference Room J183.

Materials Science Division Seminar: "In-Situ TEM Observations of Single Ion Impacts on Metals" by Stephen Donnelly, University of Salford, UK & ANL. 2 p.m., Bldg. 212, Conference Room A157.

Fall 1996 ACCA Chemistry Seminar Series: "Peptides: Food or Neurohormones?" by Bruce Currie & Jeffrey Christoff, Chicago College of Pharmacy. 7 p.m., Bldg. 223 Auditorium.

Fall 1996 ACCA Biology Seminar Series: "Classification: Making Sense of Diversity" by Tom Lammers, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. 7 p.m., Bldg. 203 Auditorium.

-- 30 --

Story ideas, comments and suggestions are welcome. The Argonne News office is in Building 201, room 2Q-02 (OPA-201). The fax number is ext. 2-5274. Send E-mail to Argonne News editor Dave Jacque.

Seminar listings: Send by inter-office mail to Evie Fagan, Building 201, room 2U-09 (OPA-201). Fax to ext. 2-5274, or send by E-mail.

Classified ads: Please limit ads to 25 words. Send by inter-office mail to Evelyn Fagan, Building 201, room 2U-09 (OPA-201). A drop box is located at the Argonne News office.

Classified Ads sent by electronic mail cannot be accepted!

This page has been accessed * times since Sept. 25, 1996.