LabNews 09/02/2005 — PDF (650KB)
Over
the
next
several
months
a
team
of
Sandia
researchers
led
by
Malcolm
Siegel
(6118)
will
be
studying
different
methods
of
arsenic
removal
at
the
Desert
Sands
Mutual
Domestic
Water
Consumers
Association
(MDWCA)
in
Anthony
in
southern
New
Mexico.
A ceremony marking the start of the project was held Aug. 26 at the utility’s main well site. On hand were representatives from Sandia, Sen. Pete Domenici’s office, the New Mexico state legislature, and the water utility.
The arsenic research is sponsored by the Arsenic Water Technology Partnership. The partnership is a consortium of Sandia, the Awwa Research Foundation (AwwaRF), and WERC, a consortium for environmental education and technology development. Domenici secured the funding for the project through DOE as chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee.
MOU signing
At
the
Aug.
26
ceremony
Sandia
and
the
MDWCA
signed
a
memorandum
of
understanding
(MOU)
to
begin
the
research.
Signing
for
Sandia
was
John
Merson,
deputy
director
for
Geoscience
&
Environment
Center
6100.
The
utility
representative
was
Rosaura
Pargas,
president.
“The Desert Sands project will supplement a full-scale demonstration by the US EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] for evaluation of a removal technology that uses granular iron oxide to filter arsenic from water,” Malcolm says. “As water is pumped through the system, arsenic sticks to the iron oxide. The Desert Sands MDWCA wants Sandia to compare the performance of the [iron oxide] material they are currently using to other adsorptive media. We should be able to give them some practical advice based on what we learn.”
Best absorptive material
The Sandia field team includes lead engineer Malynda Aragon and field technicians Randy Everett and William Holub (all 6118). Malynda anticipates they will test between eight and 12 different arsenic removal systems at the Anthony site. “We’ll be looking at which material best adsorbs arsenic to compare how often the adsorptive media needs to be changed,” she says.
The treatment system, including plastic columns filled with adsorptive material and monitoring equipment, was built at Sandia and was recently relocated to the Desert Sands utility.
Desert
Sands
serves
a
population
of
1,535
from
two
wells
in
a
rural
community
along
the
New
Mexico-Texas
state
line,
north
of
El
Paso.
It
has
a
new
water
treatment
plant
built
by
Severn
Trent
Corp.
that
uses
the
iron
oxide
treatment
method.
The
Anthony
research
is
a
follow-up
to
work
in
Socorro,
N.M.,
where
the
Sandia
team
tested
five
arsenic
removal
technologies
at
a
geothermal
spring.
The
pilot
test
in
Socorro
compared
five
innovative
technologies.
These
treatment
processes
were
chosen
from
more
than
20
candidate
technologies
that
were
reviewed
by
teams
of
technical
experts
at
Arsenic
Treatment
Technology
Vendor
Forums
organized
by
Sandia
and
held
at
the
2003
and
2004
New
Mexico
Environmental
Health
Conferences.
Congressional support and design of the Arsenic Water Technology Partnership was developed under Domenici’s leadership to help small communities comply with the new EPA drinking water standard for arsenic. The new regulation, which goes into effect in January 2006, reduces the maximum contaminant level (MCL) from 50 micrograms per liter (µg/L) to 10 µg/L and is intended to reduce the incidence of bladder and lung cancers caused by exposure to arsenic.
Arsenic levels high in west
Levels of naturally occurring arsenic in the southwestern US often exceed the new MCL. The new compliance requirements will affect small communities that lack the appropriate treatment infrastructure and funding to reduce arsenic to newly required levels.
Malcolm says the goals of the program are to “develop, demonstrate, and disseminate information about cost-effective water treatment technologies in order to help Native Americans and small communities in the Southwest and other parts of the country comply with the new EPA standard.”
Besides the Socorro and Desert Sands experiments, additional demonstrations, based on technologies reviewed at vendor forums and developed by DOE labs or in laboratory studies managed by AwwaRF, are also being considered in consultation with the New Mexico Environment Department, the EPA, the Indian Health Service, the Navajo Nation EPA, and the Interstate Technology Regulatory Council.
WERC, a consortium of research institutions in New Mexico, will evaluate the economic feasibility of the technologies, work on technology transfer activities, and conduct educational outreach.
Whether a current proposal to phase in stricter arsenic requirements over years takes hold or not, there will still be a need to help communities modify systems to perform better, Malcolm says. Scientists are also beginning to look at other contaminants that may be regulated in the future.
“We need to stay ahead of the curve so communities can invest in proven systems that will address multiple contaminants,” he says. -- Chris Burroughs
By Neal Singer
The
object
—
a
little
less
than
10
meters
across
—
entered
Earth’s
atmosphere
on
Sept.
3,
2004,
traveling
at
13
kilometers
per
second.
The
space-based
infrared
sensors
of
the
US
Department
of
Defense
detected
it
at
an
altitude
of
75
kilometers,
descending
off
the
coast
of
Antarctica.
DOE
visible-light
sensors
built
by
Sandia
noticed
the
intruder
when
it
became
a
fireball
—
thus
identifying
itself
as
an
asteroid
—
at
approximately
56
kilometers
above
Earth,
Five
infrasound
stations,
built
to
detect
nuclear
explosions
anywhere
in
the
world,
registered
its
acoustic
waves;
these
were
analyzed
by
researchers
at
Los
Alamos
National
Laboratory.
NASA’s
multispectral
polar
orbiting
sensor
imaged
the
debris
cloud
formed
by
the
disintegrating
space
rock.
It
was
one
of
the
largest
meteoroids
to
have
entered
the
Earth’s
atmosphere
in
the
past
decade.
(Later
analysis
showed
that
its
original
solar
orbit
is
similar
to
that
of
near-Earth
asteroids
of
a
particular
family,
the
Aten
group.)
Some 7.5 hours after the initial observation, a cloud of anomalous material was detected in the upper stratosphere over Davis Station in Antarctica by ground-based lidar.
These were the first direct measurements ever made of such meteoritic “smoke.”
Something unusual about the cloud
“We noticed something unusual in the data,” says Andrew Klekociuk, a research scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division. “We’d never seen anything like this before, [a cloud that] sits vertically and things blow through it. It had a wispy nature, with thin layers separated by a few kilometers. Clouds are more consistent and last longer. This one blew through in about an hour.”
There was certainly something unusual about the cloud. It was too high for ordinary water-bearing clouds (32 kilometers instead of 20 km) and too warm to consist of known manmade pollutants (55 degrees warmer than the highest expected frost point of human-released solid cloud constituents). The cloud could, of course, have been made of dust from a solid rocket launch, but the asteroid’s descent and the progress of its resultant cloud had been too well observed and charted; the pedigree, so to speak, of the cloud was clear.
What was really unusual about the cloud was the size of its particles. Computer simulations agreed with sensor data that the particles’ mass, shape, and behavior identified them as asteroid constituents roughly 10 to 20 microns in size.
Micron-sized
particles
are
big
enough
to
reflect
sunlight,
cause
local
cooling,
and
play
a
major
role
in
cloud
formation.
Scientists
formerly
had
paid
little
attention
to
dust
from
meteoroids,
assuming
that
the
burnt
matter
disintegrated
into
nanometer-sized
particles
that
did
not
affect
Earth’s
environment.
Some
researchers
(and
science
fiction
writers)
were
more
interested
in
the
damage
that
could
be
caused
by
the
intact
portion
of
a
large
asteroid
striking
Earth.
“Our observations suggest that [meteoroids exploding] in Earth’s atmosphere could play a more important role in climate than previously recognized,” write Klekociuk and other researchers, including Sandia’s Dick Spalding (5740), in a paper published last week in the journal Nature (Aug. 25 issue).
Klekociuk, along with researchers from the University of Western Ontario, the Aerospace Corp., LANL, and Sandia had found evidence that dust from the asteroid burning up as it descended through Earth’s atmosphere formed a cloud of micron-sized particles significant enough to influence local weather in Antarctica.
Volcanic eruptions from the sky
Says Dee Pack of Aerospace, “This asteroid deposited 1,000 metric tons in the stratosphere in a few seconds, a sizable perturbation.” Every year, he says, 50 to 60 meter-sized asteroids hit Earth.
Micron-sized meteoroid dust could be a factor in climate simulations because meteroids entering Earth’s atmosphere are extremely reduced by the fireball caused by the friction of their passage. The solid mass reduced to dust may be as much as 90 to 99 percent of the original asteroid.
Peter
Brown
at
the
University
of
Western
Ontario,
initially
contacted
by
Klekociuk,
helped
analyze
data
and
did
theoretical
modeling.
He
points
out
that
climate
modelers
might
have
to
extrapolate
from
this
one
event
to
its
larger
implications.
“[Meteoroid
dust
could
be
modeled
as]
the
equivalent
of
volcanic
eruptions
of
dust,
with
atmospheric
deposition
from
above
rather
than
below,”
he
says.
The
new
data
on
micron-sized
particles
“has
much
greater
implications
for
[extraterrestrial
visitors]
like
Tunguska.”
He
was
referring
to
an
asteroid
or
comet
that
exploded
8
kilometers
above
the
Stony
Tunguska
River
in
Siberia
in
1908.
About
2,150
square
kilometers
were
devastated,
but
little
formal
analysis
was
done
on
the
atmospheric
effect
of
the
dust
that
must
have
been
deposited
in
the
atmosphere.
Preventing nuclear war
The capabilities of defense-related sensors to distinguish between the explosion of a nuclear bomb and an asteroid fireball that releases similar amounts of energy — in this case, about 13 kilotons — could provide an additional margin of world safety. Without that information, a country that experienced a high-energy asteroid burst that penetrated the atmosphere more deeply might lead a hair-trigger military response unit to believe either that its country has been attacked or that a nearby country is testing a nuclear weapon.
The
Sandia
sensors’
primary
function
is
to
observe
nuclear
explosions
anywhere
on
Earth.
Their
evolution
to
include
meteor
fireball
observations
came
when
Dick
Spalding
recognized
that
ground-based
processing
of
data
might
be
modified
to
record
the
relatively
slower
flashes
due
to
asteroids
and
meteoroids.
Sandia
computer
programmer
Joe
Chavez
(5724)
wrote
the
program
that
filtered
out
signal
noise
caused
by
variations
in
sunlight,
satellite
rotation,
and
changes
in
cloud
cover
to
realize
the
additional
capability.
The
Sandia
data
constituted
a
basis
for
the
energy
and
mass
estimate
of
the
asteroid,
says
Dick.
Longer
research
papers
being
prepared
from
the
same
data
for
other
journals
are
expected
to
discuss
possible
negative
effects
on
the
planet’s
ozone
layer,
says
Pack.
--
Neal
Singer
By Neal Singer
A
two-story-high,
450-foot-long
wall
surfaced
with
flat-chipped
rock
evocative
of
Chaco
Canyon
has
been
erected
north
of
the
Kirtland
Eubank
Gate
and
west
of
Eubank
Blvd.
The curved, two-foot-thick wall cuts across the three laboratory wings of the new core facility of the Center for Integrated Nano-technologies. The wall’s function is not structural but to serve as an advertisement rooted in New Mexico’s history.
“We’re
trying
to
create
a
working
environment
that
is
attractive
to
the
brightest
scientists
[from
everywhere],”
says
Sandia
project
manager
Bill
Hendrick
(10824)
of
the
architectural
enhancement,
as
well
as
other
features
in
the
new
structure,
funded
by
the
DOE
Office
of
Science.
An
imitation
of
the
walls
of
Chaco
Canyon
structures
built
nearly
a
thousand
years
ago,
the
curved
wall
(for
reasons
of
cost,
built
internally
of
steel)
gives
the
core
building
a
distinctly
different
look
from
other
buildings
in
the
technology
park
to
the
south.
“We
wanted
to
juxtapose
high-tech
with
what
we
understood
of
New
Mexico’s
history:
today’s
cutting
edge
with
yesteryear’s,”
says
Bill
Wells,
senior
architectural
project
manager
of
Arizona-based
HDR,
the
building’s
design
firm.
That
thoughtfulness
includes
the
creation
of
casual
meeting
spaces
between
the
three
major
lab
divisions
for
“scientists,
who
may
not
be
the
most
extroverted,
to
mingle
and
chat,”
says
Paul
O’Donnell,
project
manager
for
general
contractor
Hensel
Phelps.
The design, which radiates the three labs west from the curved stone wall façade like spokes from a wheel, includes sophisticated characterization capabilities in the northernmost wing; physical, chemical, and biological synthesis facilities in the middle wing; and clean rooms for nano/micro integration to the south.
The
design,
says
CINT
user
program
manager
Neal
Shinn
(1131),
was
arrived
at
through
meetings
among
Los
Alamos
and
Sandia
engineers
and
scientists,
who
discarded
the
idea
of
a
more
common
rectilinear
building
for
the
current
structure.
CINT
is
a
joint
venture
of
Sandia
and
Los
Alamos,
with
the
96,000-square-foot
core
facility
expected
to
act
as
headwaters
from
which
work
will
flow
as
appropriate
to
LANL’s
35,000-square-foot
gateway
facility,
or
to
Sandia’s
gateway
facility,
housed
in
Bldg.
897
at
the
southeast
corner
of
Area
1.
Construction is on schedule at both labs, with the core facility expected to be physically completed by late November and the LANL gateway by mid-January. The latter is a feat in itself, considering that construction proceeded through LANL’s administratively ordered shut- down and 38 days of bad weather, says LANL Gateway project manager Ross Garcia.
“We changed strategy to start [raising] steel on footings in parallel with [laying] the slab,” rather than laying all the slab and then proceeding to raise steel, he says. “The rain was puddling up.”
“It’s important the buildings are ready at [roughly] the same time,” says Jerry Hands (10800), general technical manager of the proj- ect. “Equipment would have to be purchased separately or stored if all buildings weren’t ready for them. Buying two or three items [at a time] gets [CINT] quantity discounts.”
All equipment should be installed, and all DOE qualifications met, by March, says Jerry.
Sandia and LANL researchers have worked together before and often, but CINT is the first jointly built project. Jerry, who has headed the construction of National Ignition Facility buildings (not the laser itself) at Lawrence Livermore, and other projects at Sandia and LANL, doesn’t take the new challenge lightly. He divides his time between the two labs to spot problems early. “If one construction project succeeds and the other fails,” he says, “I’ve failed.”
Teams of engineers and scientists from both labs decide jointly on equipment that will populate each facility. Researchers from both labs will work at all CINT Facilities.
CINT is one of five nanotechnology centers funded by DOE’s Office of Science. More than 60 nanotechnology research projects are already ongoing at LANL and Sandia, funded by “jumpstart” funds from the Office of Science and scattered through the two giant labs. -- Neal Singer
©1997-2012 Sandia Corporation | Questions and Comments | Privacy and Security | 
News release RSS feed