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ELK USING MILITARYTECHNOLOGY

COLLARS ACCESS GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM

TO PINPOINT LOCATION

S t. Nick’s yearly sleigh ride might be easier if his reindeer wore the same collars as some Los Alamos

elk. The Rocky Mountain elk are using the globalpositioning system satellites to communicate theirlocations with Laboratory wildlife biologists.

Originally deployed for military use, the GPS satellites orbit Earthproviding accurate map coordinates to users on the ground. LosAlamos researchers are using this technology to develop a masterland-use plan that includes tracking movements of the elk herdsaround the Laboratory.

The first goal of the research is to test the GPS technology to trackwildlife, the second goal is to determine the impact of the growingherd on Laboratory resources. Los Alamos researchers trapped six elklast winter to study the movements and resource use habits and howthese habits may affect Laboratory property and future land-use plans.

Because Los Alamos is a weapons laboratory, its land is used for diversemissions and research. For example, in one of the canyons, researchers

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EDITORKathy DeLucas

MANAGING EDITORMeredith Coonley

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Send comments/questions todateline@lanl.gov

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routinely set off high explosives to determine theeffects of aging on weapons components. Wildlifebiologists research how the elk are impacted byLaboratory activities such as these that may causethe animals to alter their movement and habits.

Before GPS, wildlife biologists primarilytracked animals using very high-frequencyradio telemetry collars. Researchers hiked inthe back country armed with a radio receiver,antenna and headphones to listen for the low-frequency signals emitted from the collaredcritter. The estimated location of a signal waswritten on a map.

But tracking the elk on Laboratory land with conventional methods isnot practical and is cost prohibitive. Laboratory property encompassesmore than 43 square miles with steep, 600-foot deep canyons. Theconventional method requires at least two people on foot trying to find acollared animal. On a good day, a researcher may find all the animals.On a bad day, researchers could hike all day with no contact.

Using GPS, researchers receive location data from all the animalswithout any of the legwork.

ÕLaboratory

researchersba it a large pen

with a l fa l fa orother tasty e lk

treats . Oncethe e lk steps

into the pen, i ttr iggers atrap door.

Researchersthen col lar the

animal with thespecia l GPS

device.

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“If we had to do this using regular telemetry, we’d break the bank,”Laboratory biologist Kathy Bennett said.

Researchers estimate that the elk herd in the Jemez Mountains nearLaboratory property numbers between 8,000 to 10,000, although theLos Alamos herd is much less, probably between 100 to 200 animals.Two large, recent forest fires created more grassland and better elkhabitat. No hunting is allowed on Laboratory property and adjacentNational Park Service land, allowing the elk population to grow.

“There are estimates by area biologists that theherd is doubling every three to five years,”Laboratory biologist James Biggs said. “They’reincreasing almost exponentially.”

However, researchers are unsure if the populationis actually increasing or if there is a shift ofanimals from the Jemez Mountains to thePajarito Plateau, where the Laboratory is located.

The GPS collar turns itself on every 23 hours. Onceit obtains a signal from a GPS satellite, the locationis stored in a small memory unit located on thecollar, which then shuts off. On the third day, thecollar transmits the collected data to a telecommunications satellite. The datathen is downloaded and sent to the researchers via an e-mail message.

Laboratory researchers are currently tracking four elk and hope to trapsix to 10 more this winter. When the animal is trapped, biologists placethe collar around the neck, take a blood sample and check the teeth. Theblood samples provide information on any diseases that have the poten-tial of infecting livestock and researchers can estimate the animal’s agefrom its teeth.

The research team has found that the collared elk migrate very little offLaboratory property.

“There are many issues that affect the elk herd and how the herd mayaffect current and future operations on Laboratory property,” Biggs said.“We’re only scratching at the surface. We’re just beginning to evaluatethe elk population at Los Alamos.”

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ÕResearchersrope the feetof the trappedelk to br ing h imor her down.They p lace ahood over thehead to ca lm i tand examinethe teeth anddraw bloodsamples. Bylooking at theteeth, thebio logists canest imate theage and genera lhea lth of theanimal .

A COATOF MANY COLORS

LAB TECHNOLOGY HELPS LOCAL ARTISTS

A penny for their thoughts and nickel for the sculpture, that’s an accomplishment of a recent nuclear weapons

technology transfer activity. Metallurgists using their nuclear weapons know-how are sharing theirtechnology with a Santa Fe sculptor and all are receiving rave reviews.

Los Alamos researchers are developingmetal spray technology to spraycorrosive-resistant coatings on nuclearweapons storage containers protectingthem for long-term storage. Now thistechnique is being used in the art commu-nity to coat sculptures and createcorrosion-resistant, highly polishedartistic surfaces.

Laboratory metallurgists Kendall Hollisand Richard Castro contacted Santa Fesculptor Tom Bollinger who wasmanaging a nearby art foundry. With thehelp of the Laboratory’s technologytransfer office, the three researchers, withvery different backgrounds, formed apartnership to develop metal spray tech-nology to address the needs of thesculpture art community

Using the metal spray technology, the team can coat nearly any surfaceto any thickness. Hollis and Castro used a wire-arc spray process to coatan aluminum casting of Bollinger’s sculpture called “New Life.” Thesculpture represents the bond between a pregnant woman and herunborn child. But it also represents a new way of achieving a highlypolished and corrosion-resistant surface.

The technique uses a commercially available device that produces a finemetal spray pattern. The device resembles an arc welder. Two wires,made of the metal that serves as the coating, receive opposite electrical

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ÈStockpi le

stewardshipmeets the art

wor ld. Atechnology

used to spraycorros ive-

res istantcoat ings on

nuclearweapons

storageconta iners was

used bySanta Fesculptor

Tom Bol l ingerto create

“New L i fe .”

charges. A small arc forms and melts the wires. A pressurized gas breaksthe melted wire tips into a fine metal spray that can coat the object fromthousandths of an inch to several inches thick.

The metal spray technique is more efficient than conventional castingprocesses because it requires less energy to melt the tips of the wiresthan to heat a large pot of casting material. This technique also improvesthe time it takes to finish the sculpture. It’s easier to achieve a final formof the sculpture when casting in a more workable material. A metalsprayed coating is then precisely applied over the final form, reducingthe time it takes for finishing the sculpture.

Another advantage of metal spraying is that it allows the artist to usedifferent metals on a single sculpture. On Bollinger’s sculpture, the baby’shand touching the mother’s hand is bronze while the surrounding materialis nickel. Conventional techniques would have made the combination ofnickel and bronze metals extremely difficult. The two metals would have tobe separately cast, precisely shaped to fit each other and welded into place.

Bollinger says the metal spray technology will enhance sculptors’ worksbecause fewer casting and metal working steps will be required toachieve the desired result.

“Metal sprayed coatings offer a new way of combining different metalsthat could never be done before,” Bollinger said.

The researchers at Los Alamos spray different metals on cast pieces andcan fill in flaws and smooth out the sculpture. Bollinger then usesconventional polishing techniques to buff and shine the finishedproduct. If a mistake occurs, it can be sprayed again and buffed away.

There is a trend in the art community for large-scale, outdoor, caststainless steel sculptures. To achieve these forms, artists and foundryworkers must cast the sculpture in small stainless steel sections andweld the pieces together.

Stainless steel welds cause distortion of the sculpture’s form requiringextensive finishing to regain the original shape. The spray technologyallows the use of larger cast sections of aluminum, which are subse-quently joined and coated with stainless steel. This process reduces thenumber of welds needed thereby reducing the distortion. Reduceddistortion improves the ability to reproduce the original and decreasesfinishing labor requirements.

Bollinger believes this technology could significantly impact thelarge-scale sculpture community.

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The art community may be slow to accept change, but the team believesonce artists see what the metal spray technology can do when expertlyapplied, it will have a better chance of acceptance.

Bollinger believes the process is a creative resource as well as atechnological resource.

Metal spraying is not new tothe sculpture art community. Theknowledge and expertise gained indeveloping this technology forweapons applications can be used tobring state-of-the-art metallurgytechniques to sculpture production.The application of an outer corrosion-resistant coating to an underlying,easily cast and worked material opensup many new possibilities in fine artproduction, the researchers said.

Hollis and Castro were interested inhow their technology could becommercialized and how it couldbenefit surrounding communities in

northern New Mexico. The three collaborators formed a small northernNew Mexico business called Scintilla Artworks to commercialize thesculpture spraying technique.

“This is a perfect example of how a technology that’s being developedfor stockpile stewardship applications can be applied to the local artcommunity,” Castro said.

Stockpile stewardship is a national program designed to maintain a highlevel of confidence in the safety, reliability and storage of the nuclearstockpile without testing.

“It’s well known that there’s some animosity between local artists andLos Alamos. Hopefully, we’re using this technology to narrow that gap,”Castro said.

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ÕLos A lamosresearcher

Richard Castrosprays a f ine

mist of n icke lon an a luminum

cast of thesculpture.

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SCIENTISTS PHOTOGRAPHSHOCK WAVE WITH PROTONS

NEW TECHNOLOGY HAS POTENTIAL

TO SUPPORT SCIENCE-BASED

STOCKPILE STEWARDSHIP

R esearchers have used protons from a linear accelerator to “photograph” the detonation wave from a

small-scale explosion — demonstrating for the first time apotentially important technology to support science-basedstockpile stewardship.The scientists detonated a small amount ofhigh explosives inside a chamber speciallydesigned to contain the explosion and let theproton beam at the Los Alamos Neutron ScienceCenter (LANSCE) enter and exit to produce aclear, high-resolution image of the explosion’sshock wave.

With the September 1996 Comprehensive TestBan Treaty heralding an end to nuclear weaponstests, the United States is refining ways to ensure that the nation’snuclear weapons stockpile remains safe and reliable in the absence ofweapons tests.

Understanding how weapons components age over time is an importantpart of the science-based stockpile stewardship program at Los Alamosand other national laboratories.

One way to study the behavior inside a weapon’s non-nuclear,high-explosive components is to detonate them (so-called dynamicexperiments) and look at the resultant shock waves using radiography.The radiography process is most often done with X-rays or neutrons,but in the recent Los Alamos experiment, researchers used protons —which have several potential advantages over X-rays — to take a pictureof what happened shortly after detonation.

The idea of proton radiography has been around for a while, butscientists have had to invent new techniques to make radiographs ofdynamic systems. For the recent experiments, researchers from many

ÈAn ear ly proton

radiographproduced by

Los Alamossc ient ists . The

crude imageshows the burnhemisphere of

a smal l p iece ofhigh explos ive

that wasdetonated in a

specia l lydes igned

conta inmentvesse l that

a l lowed theproton beam atLANSCE to pass

through andmake an image

of theexplos ion.

different divisions across the Laboratory assembled to figure out how touse Los Alamos’ half-mile-long accelerator with its high-intensity,800-million-electron-volt proton beam as a proton camera.

In principle, the idea of using protons to produce an image is somewhatsimilar to using X-rays — high-energy photons — to expose film. Butinstead of photons, protons are “shone” on the material to be studied.

As protons interact withthe material from whichan image is to beobtained, some of theprotons are absorbed orscattered. Protons thatexit the material strike arecording medium, suchas a special type of filmor electronic camera,and create an imagemuch like conventionalphotographic film or adigital camera.

However, becauseprotons are electricallycharged, they undergoa large number of small-angle scatterings as they pass through thematerial. If not corrected, these scatterings would cause unacceptableblurring of the image as they pass from the object to be photographed tothe recording medium.

To help overcome the proton scattering problem, Los Alamosresearchers developed a magnetic lens to refocus scattered protons. Thesystem uses a series of four quadrupoles — devices that producemagnetic fields — to focus the protons onto the image plane, a processsomewhat analogous to a camera lens focusing light onto film.

This new focusing system was the key to overcoming many of theproblems that researchers believed would limit the usefulness of protonsas radiographic probes.

The complex interaction of the proton beam with the materials to beradiographed was calculated using the Blue Mountain supercomputer atLos Alamos. The Blue Mountain machine, part of the Department of

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ÈResearchers

Nicholas K ing( left ) and

StevenJarami l lo stand

next to anapparatus thatcan make four

consecut iveproton

radiographsin rapid

success ion.Los A lamos

researchers th isyear made the

wor ld’s f i rstimages of an

explos ive shockwave us ing

protons at theLaboratory’s

ha lf-mi le- longpart ic le

accelerator .The technology

has appl icat ionsfor ensur ing

the safety andre l iab i l i ty ofthe nat ion’s

nuclearweapons

stockpi le .

Energy’s Accelerated Strategic ComputingInitiative and another key element of science-based stockpile stewardship, is scheduled to befully installed at Los Alamos in 1998, and will bethe world’s most powerful supercomputer —capable of performing more than three trillioncalculations a second.

“The ASCI Blue Mountain machine’s role was vitalto the project since two billion protons in a singleburst from the accelerator had to be trackedthrough the radiography system to model thesystem’s performance,” said John McClelland,leader of the proton radiography project.

“This traditionally would have taken weeks ofintense computing to model,” said McClelland.“With a small fraction of the eventual capability ofBlue Mountain, it can now be done in a couple ofdays. In this experiment, Blue Mountain alreadyhas demonstrated its usefulness in predictivemodeling calculations.”

With development of the magnetic lens, withcalculations from Blue Mountain, and with datafrom proton radiography experiments on staticobjects performed in July 1996 at BrookhavenNational Laboratory, the Los Alamos researchteam was ready to try proton radiography on asmall explosion at LANSCE.

Scientists prepared a 4-foot-diameter containmentvessel in which the explosion would occur. Thechamber was specially designed to have relativelythin windows through which the proton beamcould pass to minimize blurring effects while stillsafely containing the explosion.

The high-explosives system used in the dynamicexperiment was designed to match experimentalcapabilities available at LANSCE with the interestsof the science-based stockpile stewardship programat Los Alamos.

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This breakthrough researchrecently was awarded aLos Alamos DistinguishedPerformance Award. Thecitation for the Los AlamosProton Radiography teamreads in part:

“ … demonstrations atLANSCE and at Brookhaven’sAlternating GradientSynchroton facility havefundamentally changed howradiography is viewed withinthe weapons complex. …Additionally, the team’s workhas made proton radiography acontender for the next-generation advanced hydrotestfacility. … Throughout itsefforts, the team exemplifiedthe strength inherent in therange of talents found at LosAlamos. Team membersapplied nuclear and particlephysics skills and technologiesto a stockpile stewardshipproblem; developed new codesand modified existing ones toincorporate the unique physicsof protons; and introducednew capabilities at bothLANSCE and Brookhaven.Their successes illustrate theLaboratory’s ability to solvecomplex problems with acombination of computationaland experimental expertise.”

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On April 19, teams from Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory gathered at LANSCE for the first dynamic experiment. Aportion of the proton beam was diverted to an experiment area wherethe containment vessel loaded with 92 grams — a little more than3 ounces — of high explosive stood ready.

Three-and-one-quarter-millionths of a second after detonation, theproton beam snapped a picture of the explosion. The faint image on theplate shows the spherical burn edge — discernible because of densitychanges created by the explosive shock wave.

The dynamic experiment was a success on two levels. “First it succeededin demonstrating on the very first attempt a new technology that mayrevolutionize how we probe the interior of rapidly changing objects,”McClelland said. “Second, it showed that we can integrate people fromacross the Laboratory and even from other laboratories, to achievean objective.”

Optical analogy of magnetic lens system (vertical dimensions greatly expanded)

Four-foot diameter vessel

contains the small-scale explosive

Detectors

Object to be radiographed within containment vessel

Diffuser

Matching lens

Proton Beam pulses

from LANSCE

Imaging lens

Diffuser spreads "pencil" beam

to illuminate entire object

Matching lens prepares optics

to eliminate blurring effects

in imaging lens

Imaging lens focuses protons onto detector,

greatly reducing blurring effects

due to scattering in object

Detector takes multiple "snapshots"

during explosion

Radiography with Protons

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From idea to implementation, the entire project took less than twoyears. Researchers didn’t actually begin putting the experimental appa-ratus in place until December 1996, just five months before the firstsnapshot was made.

After the April experiment, researchers performed a series of small-scaleexplosive experiments. In the course of these experiments, another LosAlamos research team developed a new electronic camera systemcapable of taking up to six snapshots over the duration of the explosionto produce a “motion picture” of the explosion process.

Livermore researchers provided two of the cameras used in the newsystem and also are developing another system that can detect theamount of energy a proton loses as it passes through a material. Thiswill provide a new way of processing the data to better interpretradiographic images.

The researchers plan to continue using LANSCE for additionalexperiments to develop proton radiography, understand its potential,and obtain scientific data on the behavior inside dynamic materials.

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S U B A T O M I C P H Y S I C S

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D E C E M B E R I S S U E 1 9 9 7

BRIEFLY …

LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIST NICHOLAS METROPOLIS HAS HAD A COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICSAWARD NAMED IN HIS HONOR. The prestigious American Physical Society award, sponsored byAcademic Press, will recognize the best doctoral thesis research in the field. The winner will be awarded a$1,500 check and $500 for travel expenses to attend the annual meeting of the Division of ComputationalPhysics and present the winning research. Metropolis first arrived in Los Alamos from the University ofChicago in 1943 as a member of the original team of scientists for the war-effort Manhattan Project. He isfamous for his central role in the development of early electronic computers and for his advancement of astatistical sampling technique known as the Monte Carlo method.

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IN THIS ISSUE:

ELK USING MILITARY

TECHNOLOGYP A G E 1

A COAT

OF MANY COLORSP A G E 4

SCIENTISTS

PHOTOGRAPH

SHOCK WAVE

WITH PROTONSP A G E 7

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