Number 274

SPEAR springs to life

Aerial view of SSRL.

The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource at DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has geared up for a new season of science. After weeks of downtime, the lightsource now boasts a set of upgrades that improve both safety and efficiency, taking it one step closer to its full design potential. SPEAR3, commissioned in 2004, is designed to operate at 500 milliamperes (mA) of current, but a series of required technical upgrades has required that the accelerator be run at 100 mA. Until now, the vacuum systems of SPEAR and the transport line connecting the booster ring and the main storage ring were separate, requiring electron pulses to pass through a series of thin steel windows. That worked fine at 100 mA, but a unified vacuum system is required to achieve 500 mA. After months of hard work, the two vacuum systems are now connected, promising much more efficient operation of the beam. SSRL will take the next steps this spring when a number of beamlines will be provisionally operated with the accelerator at 500 mA.

[Brad Plummer , 650.926.2282,
brad.plummer@slac.stanford.edu]

Jaguar upgrade reaches petaflops

Cray XT Jaguar supercomputer

The latest upgrade to the Cray XT Jaguar super-computer at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has increased the system's computing power to a peak 1.64 petaflops, or quadrillion mathematical calculations per second, making Jaguar the world's first petaflop system dedicated to open research. Jaguar has already completed an unprecedented superconductivity calculation that achieved a sustained performance of more than 1.3 petaflops with the upgrade. The upgrade at DOE's Leadership Computing Facility represents a major milestone in a four-year project, begun in 2004 when DOE's Office of Science launched a sustained effort to upgrade supercomputing capabilities for unclassified research in the DOE national lab complex.

[Mike Bradley, 865.576.9553,
bradleymk@ornl.gov]

Aiding the search for life on Mars

INL scientist Jill Scott operates a laser instrument that can detect minuscule traces of cells in mineral samples.

An instrument at DOE's Idaho National Laboratory could boost scientists' chances of finding traces of cells in Martian rock. While other methods require extensive sample preparation, INL's "point-and-shoot" laser analysis preserves more of the evidence and reduces contamination risk. The team recently tested its technique on thenardite, a mineral likely present on Mars, and was able to detect biomolecules at concentrations as low as 3 parts per trillion. The study, performed in collaboration with University of Montana-Missoula researchers, could help mission scientists choose Martian surface samples with the most promise for yielding signs of life.

[Roberta Kwok, 208.526.2941,
roberta.kwok@inl.gov]

Sandia aids cleanup of Iraqi nuclear facilities, rad waste

Iraqi cleanup

Scientists at DOE's Sandia National Laboratories are helping train Iraqi scientists and technicians to clean up radioactively contaminated sites and safely dispose of the radioactive wastes as part of the Iraqi Nuclear Facility Dismantlement and Disposal Program. Initiated by the U.S. Department of State, the program focuses on the Al Tuwaitha nuclear complex near Baghdad, which contains major facilities from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. Sandia provides consultation and hands-on demonstrations to Iraqi professionals from the Iraqi the Ministry of Science and Technology —  the owner of the Al Tuwaitha complex  — and the Ministry of Environment. Another goal of the program is to help engage Iraqi scientists who were isolated from their counterparts for more than a decade by United Nations sanctions.

[Michael Padilla, 505.284.5325,
mjpadil@sandia.gov]

Peter Takacs: A Brookhaven
builder and fixer

Peter Takacs of Brookhaven Lab’s Instrumentation Division with his re-creation of Tennis for Two, one of the world’s first video games.

On October 24, reporters, community members, and employees gathered at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory to play a re-creation of “Tennis for Two,” one of the world’s first video games, invented 50 years ago in Brookhaven’s Instrumentation Division to entertain Lab visitors. At the anniversary event, people played the re-created game for several hours until suddenly something sparked and the tennis court disappeared from the oscilloscope screen. Peter Takacs, the Brookhaven Instrumentation Division physicist who re-created Tennis for Two, consulted the game’s schematic and removed a circuit board from the apparatus. Within 25 minutes, he and his team replaced a burned-out operational amplifier and reinserted the repaired circuit. The tennis court and ball reappeared on screen — much to the delight of the crowd.

Though Takacs has become the expert on the electronics behind Tennis for Two, his true expertise is in optical metrology, using light to measure the surface of x-ray mirrors with nanometer precision. Takacs played a leading role in developing the Long Trace Profiler, an instrument now used worldwide to measure the shape of cylindrical mirrors in synchrotron light sources. The profiler was patented in 1989, and customized versions are used by approximately 15 light sources around the world.

Now, Takacs is eager to develop a new Long Trace Profiler as Brookhaven prepares for the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II). Takacs and the Instrumentation Division will collaborate with Lawrence Berkeley Lab to update calibration standards and instruments for the new facility, which will produce light 10,000 times brighter than Brookhaven’s current NSLS.

“Tennis for Two shows how innovative Brookhaven’s Instrumentation Division was fifty years ago,” Takacs explained. “Today, the division develops unique instrumentation and large detectors for scientists at Brookhaven and around the world. We know the equipment inside and out — we build it and we fix it too.”

Submitted by DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory

 

Connecting scientific generations

PPPL's Jessica Baumgaertel with 2007 Nobel Laureate Peter Gruenberg at the Lindau meeting.

Along a multi-year path paved by DOE programs, DOE's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) grad student Jessica Baumgaertel recently found herself connecting with other scientific generations at the Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students in Lindau, Germany. http://www.lindau-nobel.de/ The third-year Princeton University graduate student in plasma physics was among 542 students from 67 countries sharing meals with and listening to lectures presented by 24 Nobel laureates. Baumgaertel spent one summer at General Atomics as a National Undergraduate Fellowship (NUF) student and two summers at PPPL as a Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) student. Both NUF and SULI are DOE-supported programs for undergraduate students. This summer she completed the practicum associated with the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Fellowship at the University of Maryland. As an undergraduate, Baumgaertel planned to concentrate on math, but made a discovery through the NUF program: "Physics is cool."

Submitted by DOE's Princeton Plasma
Physics Laboratory (PPPL)

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