April 6, 1998 -- Some of this week's stories
`Deformed' nuclei finding confirms theory
Researchers at Argonne have discovered the first evidence for
highly deformed nuclei -- squeezed by nuclear and electromagnetic
forces into oblong shapes -- beyond the "proton drip-line," a condition
where nuclei have too many protons to be stable.
Working with the Fragment Mass Analyzer at the Argonne
Tandem Linear Accelerator System (ATLAS), Cary Davids (PHY) and an
international group of researchers studied nuclei of holmium-141 and
europium-131 formed by smashing a beam of lighter nuclei into a target.
Nuclei are composed of neutrons and protons, collectively
called nucleons, and are generally confined to the nucleus by a barrier
of electromagnetic and nuclear forces.
A proton that can't find a stable arrangement in the newly
created nucleus finds itself trapped behind a wall of nuclear and
electromagnetic force. Like any prisoner, the proton wants to escape, and
beats itself against the barrier millions of times per second.
Of the millions of nuclei created in the experiments, a few were
created in which a single proton had enough energy to flee the
nuclear Alcatraz by "tunneling" its way out.
Quantum mechanics, the rules that govern the behavior of
subatomic particles, gives them a small but finite chance of
disappearing from one location and reappearing in another.
The proton eventually reappears on the outside of the nucleus,
as though it had "tunneled" through the force barrier. This
phenomenon is known as proton radioactivity.
Measuring the angular momentum and energy of these
escapees can tell physicists about the structure of the nuclei they came
from -- including their shapes.
In the late 1980s, Russian scientists explained some baffling
behavior of protons emitted from radioactive iodine and cesium
isotopes by suggesting they were moderately deformed. The
Argonne research confirms the Bugrov-Kadmenskii model for the
heavier and more strongly deformed nuclei of holmium-141 and europium-131.
With Gammasphere, the new gamma-ray detector now
installed at ATLAS, Davids hopes to study the radiation given off by
proton-rich nuclei as they form.
Matching the gamma-ray signal to the proton radiation detected
at the Fragment Mass Analyzer, another ATLAS instrument, will
yield independent confirmation of the Bugrov-Kadmenskii model and
give exact measurements of the amount of deformation.
Davids will also search for more proton-emitting nuclei, and
hopes to find a nucleus that emits two protons.
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Nominations accepted for
outstanding service award
Nominations are being accepted for the 1998
University of Chicago Outstanding Service Awards.
The awards were established in 1983 by the Board of
Governors to complement the Distinguished Performance
Awards. The Outstanding Service Award recognizes employees in
support positions whose exemplary service over an extended
period has furthered the goals and missions of the laboratory.
An employee may be nominated for a consistent history
of innovative ideas, suggestions or inventions; for
sustained leadership, reliability and dependability; or for other
particularly valuable on-going contributions to the work of
the laboratory.
The award consists of an engraved plaque plus $3,000.
It may be given to any full-time Argonne employee in a
support position who is not eligible to receive the University of
Chicago Distinguished Performance Award, has not
received the Outstanding Service Award in the past, and is not a
current member of the award committee.
Anyone may make a nomination using the one-page
nominating statement available through Human Resources.
The format of the nominating form is different from last year.
Employees should use the current version.
All nominations should be placed in a sealed
envelope marked "Confidential" and sent to: Outstanding Service
Award Committee, Attention: Leslie Osborne, Human
Resources, Building 201, Argonne-East, with an information copy
sent to the nominee's division director or department head.
Deadline for nominations is Friday, April 17. For more
information, call Human Resources at ext. 2-2939.
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Spring brings start of severe weather season
The Chicago area may have had a relatively mild winter (the
recent snowstorm notwithstanding), but even in an El
Niño year, spring brings the likelihood of
severe weather.
Argonne-East employees should review tornado shelter
information posted on all bulletin boards and be prepared to take cover if a
warning is sounded.
A tornado watch means conditions are right for tornadoes to
form. An alert tone is sounded on the site-wide address system, followed
by an announcement.
A tornado warning means a twister has been sighted in the
area or detected by radar. Outdoor sirens will sound, and a
sitewide announcement will direct employees to head immediately for
designated tornado shelter areas. Warnings can occur even if a
tornado watch hasn't been issued.
When the warning tone sounds from the public-address system
at either Argonne site, employees can increase their odds of surviving
a strike by following these guidelines:
*Stay away from windows. A tornado can transform a
window into jagged shrapnel moving at more than 100 miles per hour.
Windows do not need to be opened to prevent a building from "exploding."
*Know the closest tornado shelter area -- and when a
warning sounds, go there immediately. Wait for the all-clear.
*Those who work in trailers should seek shelter in a
stronger structure. Check with an area emergency supervisor for details.
*Employees using hazardous materials may be required to
secure those substances for the duration of a tornado watch.
Those working with sensitive or classified materials should secure them.
Studies of tornado damage have shown that the southwest corner
is actually the least protected area of an above-ground structure.
Basements are always the best bet. If there is no basement, head for
an interior hallway -- away from windows -- and stay low. Getting
under a stairwell, heavy table or workbench will add protection.
If caught outside, try to move away from the tornado at a
right angle -- for example, if the twister appears to be heading east,
move south. If this doesn't work, try to find a ditch, culvert or other
low area and cover your head.
Drivers should not try to outrun a twister -- the storms can move
at 60 miles per hour or faster and don't have to follow the road or
slow for traffic. Leave the car and try to find shelter.
Cafeteria shelters
If a tornado warning is issued during lunch hours, a public
address system will inform those in Argonne-East's Building 213
Cafeteria. Marriott employees will direct cafeteria patrons to
shelter areas.
The cafeteria's tornado shelter areas are:
*Basement locker rooms
*Dock area stairwell
*Kitchen area (not the serving area)
*Supply and storage rooms on the southeast corner of the
building
*Bathrooms near the entrance.
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Alternative fuel vehicles get a test drive
Take that taxi for a spin! Or, maybe that delivery truck is
more your style. Take it for a ride.
Visiting fleet managers and Argonne employees had
those choices and more at the March 25 "Ride and Drive" in
Argonne-East's 360 area.
At lunchtime, participants in the day-long Clean Cities
Alternative Fuel Forum got a firsthand look under the hoods
of cars, trucks, minivans and even a taxi powered by such
alternative fuels as ethanol, methanol, propane and compressed
natural gas, and a chance to test drive them around Argonne.
Argonne employees stopped by as well.
The vehicles _ ranging from a Dodge Intrepid to a Ford
delivery truck _ belong to corporate fleets and are in use daily.
Co-sponsors of the forum _ Argonne, the U.S. Department
of Energy, NiCor Gas and the Peoples Gas Light and Coke
Company _ provided many of the vehicles and shared
their experiences.
Fleet managers, operators and environmental administrators
attended the forum to learn about state regulations that go into
effect in model year 1999. The regulations require
Chicago-area fleets of 10 or more vehicles to acquire vehicles that meet
the Environmental Protection Agency's low-emission
certification when replacing fleet vehicles.
"Chicago does not meet the EPA's air quality standards,"
said Regional Clean Cities program manager Melinda Latimer.
Clean Cities is a DOE program that organizes cities,
states, fuel providers and fleets to get alternative fuel fleets on the
road and to build the infrastructure to support them.
"Driving these low-emission, alternative-fuel vehicles
reduces air pollution," Latimer said.
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Symposium aimed at cooperation
between U.S., Korea
The 1998 Korea-U.S. Science and Technology Symposium will
be held April 23-25 in Chicago. Computing and Telecommunications
will be the focus of the conference. More than 250 corporate, university
and federal researchers are expected to participate.
"The Korean-American Scientists and Engineers
Association (KSEA) is organizing the conference to promote the sharing of
common interests, the exchange of information, and the
identification of opportunities for potential research and business
cooperation," said KSEA president Kyong Chul Chun (EAD).
For more information on the symposium, contact Chun at
ext. 2-5385.
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Employees can access lab photos, posters on the web
Laboratory employees can now access a collection of posters,
photographs, viewgraphs and fact sheets covering many areas of
Argonne research via the World Wide Web.
Available for employee use only, this "Partners in Innovation"
Web site indexes and displays approximately 200 communications
products that have been used by Argonne scientists at conferences and
technical meetings.
The research areas currently represented are
environmental remediation, transportation technology, alternative fuels,
energy systems, industrial processes and materials science.
All materials now in the collection are available and could
be adapted for other communication needs. The collection resides
at http://www.ipd.anl.gov/partners and can also be accessed
from Argonne's Web site (click on "Doing Business with Argonne"; from
the Industrial Technology Development Center homepage, click on
"Internal Information").
This searchable collection--designed and maintained by the
Information and Publishing Division (IPD)--was developed with the
Industrial Partnerships Committee.
For more information, call Renee Nault (IPD) at ext. 2-6064.
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FBI to train at ANL-East
The FBI will conduct a large scale exercise at the
Argonne-East site during the week of April 6. While some activity will be
apparent, there will be little or no disruption of laboratory operations.
Most activities will be conducted in the 800 area on the west side
of the laboratory and Building 320 on the south side of the lab. The
command center for the exercise will be in the gallery of Building 402.
Employees are asked not to enter the exercise areas, which will
be clearly marked.
For more information, call Ed Mickulas (SEC) at ext. 2-5754.
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CUG announces monthly agenda
The Argonne Computer Users Group (CUG) will meet
Tuesday, April 7, at 3 p.m. in Argonne-East's Building 221, Room A216.
This month's agenda includes:
*"Preliminary Results of OSE Review," by Paul Krystosek (ECT)
*"Administrative Computing Overview," by Bob Hischier (ECT)
*"Network Based MS-Office Experiences," by Robert
Raffenetti (ECT)
*"Consulting/Customer Service Integration," by Mike Vonder
Heide (ECT)
*"Status of laboratory 1-800 Service," by R. McMahon
The CUG usually meets on the first Tuesday of each month at
3 p.m. in Argonne-East's Building 221, Room A216. Meetings are
open to all interested Argonne and DOE employees.
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Lab appears on silver screen again
The movie "Mercury Rising," which had a small scene shot at
the Argonne-East site, opens at theaters Friday, April 3.
Crews spent two days last summer filming at the East Gate
and the Advanced Photon Source access tunnel. These sites
"played" the entrance to the National
Security Agency.
The movie stars Bruce Willis as an FBI agent protecting an
autistic child who has inadvertently deciphered a top-secret military
code. The film also stars Alec Baldwin as National Security Agency
official Lt. Nicholas Kudrow.
"Mercury Rising" was directed by Harold Becker whose other films
include "The Onion Field," "Taps,"
"Sea of Love," "Malice" and "City Hall."
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