Vol. 64, No. 1 January 13, 2012Managed by Sandia Corporation for the National Nuclear Security Administration

In 2008, Karen Evans, administrator of the Officeof Government and Information Technology atthe White House’s Office of Management andBudget (OMB), wrote a memo to all governmentchief information officers that read, in part:

“The Government’s reliance on the Internet to dissemi-nate and provide access to information has increased sig-nificantly over the years, as have the risks associated withpotential unauthorized use, compromise, and loss of the.gov domain space.”

Consequently, the OMB soon issued a mandate toall federal information systems, including those atSandia and others with a .gov domain name, todeploy a new security feature, Domain Name SystemSecurity (DNSSEC). That new policy required that “thetop level .gov domain will be DNSSEC-signed, andprocesses to enable secure delegated sub-domains willbe developed.”

The mandate made perfect sense, says Sandiacomputer scientist Casey Deccio (8966), but there

Bruce Walker joinsexecutive leadershipranks as Div. 2000 VP

Sandia has a new chief weapons engineer. BruceWalker, a 34-year veteran of the Labs, has been namedVP of Weapons Engineering and Product Realization Div.2000 and chief engineer for nuclear weapons. Bruce suc-ceeds Carolyne Hart, who retired at the end of last year.

During the course of a distinguished Sandia career,Bruce has held numerous increasingly responsible posi-tions, most recently serving (since December 2010) asdirector of Nuclear Weapons Planning Operations andIntegration Center 200. In this position, he also servedas the chief operating officer for the nuclear weaponsprogram at Sandia.

From 2008 to 2010, Bruce was director ofMonitoring Systems and Technology Center 5700,where he was responsible for the Remote Sensing andVerification (RSV) Program, which encompassesSandia’s work in Nonproliferation R&D, the USNuclear Detonation Detection System (USNDS), and

Replaces Carolyne Hart,who retired in December;CFO Matt O’Brien also retires

Anthrax-killing foam proves effective in meth lab cleanup

Sandia cyber project looks to help IT professionalswith complex Domain Name System vulnerabilities

• Sandia/California hosts industry day to boost innovative cooling technology •See story, photos on page 4

By Mike Janes soon emerged a problem when .gov organizationsactually began deploying DNSSEC.

“It (DNSSEC) is hard to configure correctly andhas to undergo regular maintenance,” says Casey. “Itadds a great deal of complexity to IT systems, and ifconfigured improperly or deployed onto servers thataren’t fully compatible with it, it keeps users fromaccessing .gov sites. They just get error responses.”

Taking matters into his own handsWhen Sandia started to experience such problems

due to other sites’ DNSSEC misconfigurations, Caseydecided to take matters into his own hands. Usinginternal funding, he began to develop a visualizationtool, now known as DNSViz, to help network admin-istrators in the federal government and global com-munity better understand DNSSEC and to help themtroubleshoot problems.

The still-new DNSSEC security feature, in anideal world, will allow user applications like webbrowsers to ensure that the IP addresses they have

(Continued on page 3)

By Stephanie Holinka

RESEARCHER Mark Tucker (6632) demonstrates application ofSandia-developed decontamination foam. The foam, used 10years ago in the cleanup effort following the deadly 2001anthrax attacks, is now being used to decontaminate environ-mentally devastating meth labs. (Photo by Randy Montoya)

Sandia’s decontamination foam, developed morethan a decade ago for remediation of chemicaland biological agents and used to decontaminatefederal office buildings and mailrooms during theanthrax attacks in 2001, is now being used to deconta-minate illegal methamphetamine labs.

Mark Tucker (6632), a chemical engineer in Sandia’sChemical & Biological Systems Dept. and co-creator ofthe original decontamination formulas, DF100 andDF200, says the decontamination formulation rendersall types of typical chemical and biological agentsharmless.

“For structures contaminated with meth, ownershave two choices: demolish it or reclaim it,” says KevinIrvine, vice president and general manager at EFTHoldings, which licenses the Sandia formulation andsells it under two names, EasyDecon® DF200, certifiedagainst chemical and biological agents, and CrystalClean, intended for meth cleanup.

The meth cleanup problem is a big one. The USDrug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Clandestine

(Continued on page 5)

Sandia’s chem/bio decontamination foam is now also being deployed as a meth eraser

Sandians recall timeless legacyof Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

(Continued on page 2)

Sandians Patrice Gregory, Sean Har-ris, Lydia Coleman, and Melvin Ben-nett were not even born when Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. was assassi-nated in 1968. The civil rightsleader’s legacy, though, continuesto touch them in their daily lives.Says Patrice: “I know every day thathe is why I’m here right now.” Readtheir stories on page 8.

A Sandia-developed power-over-fiber communicationscable offers total electricalisolation. See page 3.

Sandia, Vermont officials haveannounced plans to launch aCenter for Energy Transforma-tion & Innovation. See page 8.

RESEARCHER Casey Deccio (8966) has developed a visualization tool, now known as DNSViz, to help network administrators betterunderstand Domain Name System Security (DNSSEC) and to help them troubleshoot problems. (Photo by Dino Vournas)

That’s thatDo you feel energized at the beginning of a new year, waking up on Jan. 1

rarin’ to go? I’d like to say I do, but I must admit to a bit of ambivalencethis year. What with the end-of-the year retirement of my longtime colleagueIris Aboytes, putting out the Lab News is going to be a distinctly morechallenging prospect for our team in 2012 than it has been in years past. And alot less fun, too.

In the six years I’ve been editing this newspaper, I have relied on —almost to the point of taking for granted — Iris’s contributions. Was there astory that needed to be told? A hole in the newspaper filled? A vital piece ofinformation tracked down yesterday? Call Iris. This isn’t to suggest that I everhad to ask her to do anything; she was always totally self-motivated, burstingwith ideas and totally preoccupied with thinking about new ways to tell familiarstories.

But after a difficult — I would almost say agonizing — process for her,Iris decided a few months ago that 2011 would be her last year at the Labs. Whenshe told me she was leaving, I took the news well. In fact, to paraphrase one-time presidential candidate Bob Dole, the night after Iris told me she wasretiring, I slept like a baby: I woke up every two hours and cried.

Seriously, though, Iris will be missed, and missed in ways that we haven’teven considered yet. In all of this, there is a piece of good news: Incharacteristic Iris fashion, she couldn’t just hang it up and walk out the door.An old colleague of hers, Doug Drumheller, himself a retired Sandia engineer,called Iris a few days before the Christmas break and asked her if she wasinterested in a feature story idea. Iris could have said, sorry, Doug but I’mout of here. Instead, she said sure. And so it was that on her last day atSandia, Iris was finishing up a story about Doug hand-crafting a replica of theworld’s first sea clock, developed in the late 18th century as an accuratedevice for determining longitude. Iris knew the story wouldn’t be publisheduntil after she was gone, but she didn’t want to say no to Doug and, too, Ithink maybe she wasn’t quite ready to let go. In any case she left me — us — onelast gift, a story we plan to publish in an upcoming issue. Thanks again, Iris.

And oh, I’ll bet good money that on Jan. 1, Iris did wake up rarin’ to go.That, too, is an Iris characteristic.

* * *Iris wasn’t the only Sandian to leave late last year, of course. All of us

said goodbye to colleagues and friends. Lots of familiar faces are gone, VPs,directors, and managers among them. I was particularly sorry to see that long-time ombud Don Noack decided to retire in December. I thought of Don, only half-jokingly, as Sandia’s “pastor.” Spend five minutes with him and you were struckby his innate decency, a quality that served him — and the Labs — very wellduring his many years as a corporate ombud. With Don, you “got it” very quickly:Here was a guy who wanted to do the right thing and wanted to see that the rightthing was done in the Labs’ person-to-person relationships.

I had the chance to interview Don a few times over the years, and ourtalks always turned into conversations that led to — I think — a mutual respectand — I hope — a level of friendship. Sandia’s Ombuds Office was established in1993 to (as the charter put it) “confidentially voice and/or resolve concerns,issues, and barriers that could impede progress toward achieving our desiredcorporate culture. To complement and supplement existing resources and generallyimprove the hospitality of Sandia for employees.” I can’t imagine anyone moresuited to ensuring the Ombuds fulfilled the terms of its charter than Don Noack.Although he has left the scene, the Ombuds Office remains and the team is, I’msure, every bit as committed as was Don to providing a safe, caring, confidentialplace to work out the sometimes thorny issues that can arise in any workplace.

See you next time.— Bill Murphy (505-845-0845, MS0165, wtmurph@sandia.gov)

The Sandia Lab News is distributed in-house to allSandia employees and on-site contractors andmailed to all Sandia retirees. It is also mailed toindividuals in industry, government, academia,nonprofit organizations, media, and private lifewho request it.

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To notify of changes in address, contact BenefitsDept. 3332, Customer Service, at 505-844-4237, orMail Stop 1021, Sandia National Laboratories,Albuquerque, NM 87185-1021.

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overall satellite technology R&D. In an email message to all employees announcing

Bruce’s new position, Labs Director Paul Hommertnoted that earlier in hiscareer, Bruce managed theSynthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) Department and wasinstrumental in establishingSAR work at Sandia — fromits genesis through thedevelopment of several dif-ferentiating capabilities.Over the years, Paul noted,Bruce was responsible fornumerous nuclear weaponsand DoD radar programs.

“Please join me,” Paulwrote, “in congratulating Bruce for his promotion toexecutive leadership, a role that I am confident Brucewill fulfill with the same passion and hard work that hehas put into his dedicated service at Sandia for morethan three decades.”

In his message, Paul also thanked Carolyne for herservice, noting that she had “an illustrious career at theLaboratories, serving with distinction for more than 33years in positions of increasing responsibility. . . I knowthat the leadership Carolyne brought over the past sev-eral years to the weapons program will leave a lastinglegacy for which we are all grateful. . . . Carolyne hasbeen an integral part in the fabric of the Laboratories,and we will miss her leadership and contributions.”

Bruce is a Fellow Member of the Microwave SensingSymposia. He holds one patent in synthetic apertureradar. He received a bachelor of science degree in elec-trical engineering from Oklahoma State University in1976 and a master of science degree in electrical engi-neering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977.

In another change at the executive leadership level,Sandia Chief Finance Officer and Business OperationsDiv. 10000 VP Matt O’Brien also retired at the end of2011. In announcing the news to Sandia staff, DeputyLabs Director and Executive VP for Mission SupportKim Sawyer thanked Matt for his service, noting that“throughout his career, Matt has made many contribu-tions. Among his many contributions, Matt led changewith the consolidation of the business operations team,championed the Business Leadership Program and ledimprovements across the organization. Matt is leaving alasting legacy for which we are all grateful.”

Kim announced that Finance and Accounting Direc-tor Jeff Kallio will serve as acting chief financial officer.

BRUCE WALKER

The Employee Recognition Awards program honorsindividuals and teams whose work or contributions insupport of Sandia’s mission and values have beenexceptional. Nominations for the award will beaccepted from Jan. 10-31.

The ERA program recognizes excellence in five cate-gories, four for individual nominees and one for teams.

The individual categories are: technical excellence;exceptional service; leadership (which is also the cate-gory to acknowledge an individual for demonstratingexceptional people skills, etc.); and, new this year,Ethics and Integrity, which recognizes employees whohave demonstrated the highest standards of integrityand ethical business conduct.

The team category recognizes teams whose excep-tional achievements are critically enabled by teamworkand model the value of people working together towarda common goal, proactively looking for and actingupon opportunities to improve, while being fullyaccountable for their performance.

Nomination forms with detailed instructions areavailable from Sandia’s internal web homepage or athttp://info.sandia.gov/era. Each division has an ERAcoordinator, also listed via the link above.

Any current, regular Sandia employee may nominateindividuals or teams.

A separate nomination form must be submittedfor each individual and team nomination. A combinedtotal of 122 individuals and teams will receive corporate Employee Recognition Awards.

Employee Recognition Awardnominations sought

Bruce Walker isnew Div. 2000 VP

(Continued from page 1)

SANDIA LAB NEWS • January 13, 2012 • Page 3

received from the DNS have not been “spoofed” by anyone with ill intent. Assuch, Internet-connected systems within the government can verify that theresponses are authoritative and have not been altered. Still, the hiccups withimplementing DNSSEC have been enough for Casey to develop DNSViz.

The trouble with DNSWhen you type in a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into a web browser on

your workstation, magic seems to happen.Essentially, you might notice a few commands that appear at the bottom of

your screen, then just sit back momentarily while the Internet gremlins do theirthing and miraculously find and display the web page you’re seeking.

But in reality, for every URL your browser accesses — including web pages,embedded images, and other content — your computer has to first translate thehostname of the URL into an Internet Protocol (IP) address. The entity doingmuch of that work is known as a Domain Name System (DNS) server. A DNS“lookup” — whereby the server is asked for the IP address that corresponds to thehostname of the URL you’ve typed — is a prerequisite for doing almost anythingon the Internet, including web browsing, emailing, or videoconferencing.

The DNS functions in many ways like a telephone book, translating hostnames(like www.sandia.gov) into numerical addresses that your computer can subse-quently identify and “dial up” to access the remote servers.

There is a natural hierarchy within the DNS, each domain name identifying itsown ancestry. For example, sandia.gov is a “child” of .gov, which is a child of theDNS root. Each parent refers clients to other servers that can give answers for their“children.” This ancestral line is the backbone for building a chain of trust thatmust exist for authenticating a DNS lookup with DNSSEC. Each link in the chainvouches for the link below it.

In this way the DNS might be described as a sort of referral-based system analogousto meeting someone through a mutual friend. A user trusts a DNS answer because heor she trusts the source it came from, trust gained first through another referral source.This process continues for each “link” in the chain up to the DNS root.

DNSViz — helping the IT professional ‘see’ the problemsWithout DNSSEC, the “trust” of referrals and answers is superficial, and tamper-

ing by third-party attackers could go undetected, thus redirecting online commu-nications to unwanted destinations. This represents a particularly troublesome vul-nerability for .gov addresses owned by government organizations guardingnational security information and other vital data. But DNSSEC is of little use ifnetwork administrators don’t know how to configure or use it.

Casey describes DNSViz as a “tool for visualizing the status of a DNS zone.” Itprovides a visual analysis of the DNSSEC authentication chain for a domainname and its resolution path in theDNS namespace, made available viaa web browser to any Internet user(http://dnsviz.net/). It visually high-lights and describes configurationerrors detected by the tool to assistadministrators in identifying andfixing DNSSEC-related configura-tion problems.

The primary contribution provided by DNSViz is the ability to bring togetherall the components that work together for DNSSEC to function properly into a sin-gle graphical representation. The resulting visualization is a collection of configu-ration data and relationships that are otherwise difficult to assemble, assess, andunderstand.

Tool functions in two primary waysTo help network administrators in their DNSSEC deployment, Casey’s DNSViz

tool functions in two primary ways: it actively analyzes a domain name by per-forming pertinent DNS lookups, and it makes the analysis available via the webinterface. The active analysis occurs periodically to build a history of DNSSECdeployment over time and provide a historical reference for DNS administrators.

The means for making the data available to users is currently the web inter-face, though Casey intends to expand DNSViz functionality to allow access viaother means. For example, alert mechanisms might be used to inform affectedparties, and application programming interfaces (API) can be designed to allowadministrators to programmatically access the information instead of manuallybrowsing to the DNSViz web site.

Currently, Casey has the tool running in the background on Sandia/California’sservers, monitoring a list of some 100,000 DNS names. It performs an analysis acouple of times each day and offers a situational awareness of what the DNS config-uration for each name looks like from top to bottom. He has demonstrated thechallenges of DNSSEC deployment, as measured by his tool, in international DNSforums and workshops. He hopes to use these results to identify practices contribut-ing to DNSSEC mishaps and suggest changes to improve DNSSEC deployment inpractice.

Though the functionality provided by DNSViz could potentially be includedin a marketable software product that’s sold by a for-profit company, Casey sayshe envisions it as an open-source tool available to anyone who needs it. With fur-ther funding, he hopes to expand the tool so that it can analyze DNS health andsecurity on a continuous basis, essentially creating a full-blown monitoring sys-tem that is scalable, versatile, and more informational.

encapsulates circular stacked circuit boards with LEDscoupled to plastic optical fibers for communications,and a laser diode and miniaturized photovoltaic-typecell coupled to the ends of a single glass fiber for opticalpower delivery. The backshell is then filled with ther-mally conductive material to keep the laser diode coolduring peak demands for power.

Working on Gen-2 versionIn the next version, the team plans to use only glass

fibers. “Although plastic fiber requires less preparationtime than glass, it takes up more room,” Steve says. Theteam also is working with next-generation microcon-trollers, new packaging layouts, and new optical devicesto reduce the size.

The team recently tested a PoF low-energy detonator firing cable with firesetelectronics built into the backshell. Theoptically powered fireset embeds a micro-controller that reports such things as det-onator resistance, temperature, and charg-ing voltages, and receives commandmessages to fire the detonator. When it’sidle or powered down, the circuitry isdesigned to short the detonator inputleads to prevent unwanted electricalenergy from reaching it.

Steve came up with the concept aboutthree years ago after being given the chal-lenge by a project needing total electricalisolation between communication devicesto meet safety requirements.

The effort currently is being funded todevelop a rugged PoF cable 3 to 4 meterslong and production ready.

“Our customer requested this lengthand a data rate greater than 20 kbit persecond, but you could go much greaterdistances at lower data rates withoutincreasing power levels,” Steve says. “Or,by increasing the power levels, data ratescould be the same or higher.”

The team built a prototype, fine-tunedthe packaging, and began figuring out theprocess for mass production.

Now, they’re working to reduce the backshell’slength from 4 inches to 2.5 inches, as well as decreasethe weight and lower costs.

“One of our ongoing objectives is to reduce thephysical size so that it’s more widely used,” says Steve,who has seen technology packaging shrink dramati-cally in the 35 years he’s been with Sandia.

“The PoF cable has power limitations,” Steve says.“It’s not to be construed as a means to power yourhouse, for example, or handle the high speeds of acomputer network.

“But because there are growing needs of low-powersensor/control applications related to safety, havingconvenient optically generated power available is atremendous benefit.”

Addressing DNS security concerns(Continued from page 1)

Developing power-over-fiber communications cable:

When total isolation is a good thing

Sometimes total electrical isolationis a good thing — and that’s theidea behind a power-over-fiber(PoF) communications cable beingdeveloped by Sandia engineers.

“It’s common to isolate communica-tions between systems or devices byusing fiber optic cables, but if power isrequired, then sending power down acopper wire can at times be a safety-crit-ical issue, and substituting it with bat-tery power may not be suitable or prac-tical,” says Steve Sanderson (6623).

He, Titus Appel (6623), and WalterWrye, a former intern, are co-inventorsof a patent-pending hybrid cable designthat uses fiber to send and regulate opti-cal power to the communications elec-tronics integral to the cable.

The cable ends resemble a typicalcopper electrical cable with pin andsocket connectors. However, opticalinterface circuits integrated into theconnector housing, or backshell, pro-vide fiber optic transmission of bothdata communications and opticalpower. To conserve energy, opticalpower is delivered only on demand,Steve says.

“The key issue here is to maintain total electrical iso-lation from any stray electrical energy and high-voltageelectrical surges caused by such things as lightningstrikes,” he says.

The developers envision the PoF cable replacingexisting copper cables in areas related to safety, such assecurity, explosives, explosion-proof environments,aviation, and medical devices.

“The first-generation PoF cable just delivers opticalpower to the cable’s internal electronics for data com-munication between devices. We are now adding thecapability to deliver electrical power externally to aconnected low-power device,” Steve says.

In the PoF cable’s current version, the backshell

CABLE GUYS — Titus Appel and Steve Sanderson (both 6623) with a first-generation power-over-fiber cable that converts a signal from electrical-to-optical-to-electrical, thus emulating anelectrical cable with total isolation.

By Sue Major Holmes

SANDIA LAB NEWS • January 13, 2012 • Page 4

Sandia/California hosts Industry Day to acceleratecommercialization of ‘Sandia Cooler’ technology

The “Sandia Cooler,” invented by Jeff Koplow(8366), could dramatically alter the air-coolinglandscape in computing and microelectronics,LEDs/solid-state lighting, HVAC, and other applica-tions, resulting in huge economic and energy savings(see July 15, 2011, Sandia Lab News). To accelerate thispotentially game-changing technology’s path to com-mercialization, Sandia/California recently held anIndustry Day that brought together manufacturers,end-users, entrepreneurs, and local government andbusiness representatives.

“Our primary interest is in getting this technologyinto the marketplace and making an impact on energyefficiency,” says Art Pontau (8360). “We do this becausewe are a national security lab, which includes energyand economic security. We want to ensure that thistechnology is successful and making a difference asquickly as possible.”

The Sandia Cooler, also known as the “Air BearingHeat Exchanger,” solves the key heat transfer bottle-neck — the boundary layer of dead air that clings tocooling fins in conventional cooling schemes. Thevalue proposition for the Sandia Cooler, says NealFornaciari (8366), is a dramatic increase in cooling per-

formance without resorting to methods such as liquidcooling. It generates a several-fold improvement incooling performance in a device that is 10 times smallerthan the current state-of-the-art alternatives, is excep-tionally quiet, immune to dust fouling, and relativelysimple to manufacture.

Attending Industry Day were Russell Hall ofCooliance; Jason Huang of TaiSol Electronics andCalvin Tsang of AVC America, representing establishedcooling system manufacturers; Gerry Baranano ofRevLanch; and William Sanchez and Steven Stoddardof CoolChip, representing entrepreneurs; Jeff Kmetec ofPhilips, representing potential end users; Rob White,economic development director with the City of Liver-more; and Paula Groves of the Alameda County SmallBusiness Center.

The event began with introductions to Sandia, theCombustion Research Facility, and the LivermoreValley Open Campus, where Industry Day was held.Jeff then gave a presentation of the Cooler technology,followed by a visit to his lab for prototype systemdemonstrations and technical questions and answers.The entire group then came back together for a discus-sion on potential applications for the technology, aswell as ideas on enabling a successful commercializa-tion process. The day ended with informal networking

By Patti Koning

THE INDUSTRY DAY EVENT FOR THE SANDIA COOLER brought together cooling system manufacturers, entrepreneurs, potentialend-users, and local business representatives to learn about the new technology and brainstorm potential applications and thecommercialization process. Calvin Tsang of AVC America (far left), a cooling system manufacturer, offers an idea during a discus-sion of the commercialization process. Looking on are, left to right, Russell Hall of Cooliance, Jason Huang of TaiSol electronics, andWilliam Sanchez and Steven Stoddard of CoolChip. (Photo by Dino Vournas)

at a local venue where industry attendees and Sandianscontinued to explore opportunities surrounding thisbreakthrough innovation.

Industry Day was very successful, says Ed Noma(8529), who leads business development for the SandiaCooler. “Bringing this diverse group together, withtheir different perspectives and relationships to thetechnology, was very important,” he says. “We need acritical mass of potential industry partners to getexcited about this technology, who will in turn catalyzea broader ecosystem of stakeholders to accelerate thecommercialization process.”

Industry Day had several, overlapping purposes. Onewas to share the Cooler technology and its potentialwith industry; another was to glean insight from indus-try about commercialization of this and future tech-nologies; and a third was to create connections andexplore synergies among a diverse group of stakehold-ers who collectively could take ownership of commer-cializing the technology.

And it’s no accident that Industry Day took place atthe Livermore Valley Open Campus.

“Industry Day embodies what LVOC can do for thelabs, bringing us together in new ways with the exter-nal partners who are critical to ensuring that Sandia’swork has maximum real-world impact,” Ed says.

INDUSTRY DAY PARTICIPANTS toured Jeff Koplow’s lab and saw demonstrations of different ver-sions of the Cooler and experienced the technology’s special features, like the force of the air flowgenerated by the rotating heat-sink-impeller. High-speed rotation of the heat exchanger fins greatlyimproves heat transfer and minimizes the problem of fouling. A further advantage of this devicearchitecture is the freedom to tailor fin shape for very low noise operation. (Photo by Dino Vournas)

JEFF KOPLOW (8366), inventor of the Sandia Cooler, explains the science behind the device.(Photo by Dino Vournas)

SANDIA LAB NEWS • January 13, 2012 • Page 5

Foam(Continued from page 1)

Meth Lab registry liststhousands of locations inthe US where law enforce-ment agencies havereportedly found chemi-cals or paraphernalia indi-cating the presence ofeither clandestine druglaboratories or dumpsites.

In 2007, EFT releasedCrystal Clean, a chemi-cally identical formula toEasyDecon® DF200, butpackaged and marketedspecifically for methcleanup. Sites contami-nated with meth are con-sidered crime scenes, butthe contamination ischemical rather than bio-logical, so the approxi-mately 700 remediationcompanies that clean upmeth lab contaminationalso do other types ofcrime scene cleanupbecause they are accus-tomed to the samplingand documentationprocess.

Holding the bag“Property owners are

often liable for expensivecleanup costs since most insurance companies won’tpay for cleanup related to methamphetamine, viewingdamage resulting from meth labs as arising from a crim-inal act,” Irvine says. That means that property ownersand landlords are often left holding the bag for the costof remediating a residence or business contaminated asa result of meth cooking.”

According to the Department of Justice, the chemi-cals used to cook meth, and the toxic compounds andbyproducts resulting from its manufacture, producetoxic fumes, vapors, and residues. The report says any-one, but especially children, spending time in or near ameth lab could be exposed to toxic substances, whichcould produce short- and long-term problems. Chronicexposure to substances typically used in meth manu-facture may cause cancer; damage the brain, liver, kid-ney, spleen, and immunologic system; and result inbirth defects.

Mark says many cleaning methods don’t removemethamphetamine and the chemicals used to produceit. Incompletely or improperly cleaned surfaces, suchas floors, countertops, and drywall, can remain conta-minated, even after being cleaned many times.Methamphetamine can remain in a structure formonths to years.

Mild, nontoxic, noncorrosiveThe decontamination formulation includes a collec-

tion of mild, nontoxic, and noncorrosive chemicalsfound in common household products, such as hairconditioner and toothpaste. It contains both surfac-tants, which lift agents off a surface, and mild oxidizers,

which break down the agent’s molecules into nontoxicpieces that can be washed down a household drain likedetergent or dish soap.

Formulation left meth nondetectableIn experiments from a few years ago, John Martyny,

associate professor and industrial hygienist at theNational Jewish Medical and Research Center’s Divisionof Environmental and Occupational Health Sciencesand a national expert on the effects of meth exposureon children, compared the effectiveness of commoncleaners, such as detergent and bleach, on methamphet-amine cleanup. Martyny included Sandia’s decontami-nation formula in the testing. His experiments showedthat, after cleaning with EasyDecon, the methampheta-mine present on tested surfaces was likely oxidized toanother compound and was nondetectable.

Irvine says even if a meth site is known, it doesn’talways mean it gets cleaned up, due to the expense.Some states don’t have cleanup guidelines and don’trequire homeowners to disclose if a structure is conta-minated with meth. There have been instances wherefamilies have discovered they were living in a housecontaminated with meth only after family memberswere hospitalized for respiratory problems characteristicof chronic meth exposure.

In the 22 states that have guidelines, structures con-taminated with meth are seized by police, and thestructure is quarantined by a local or state agency(depending on the state) until it can be demonstratedthat the structure is cleared of methamphetamine to acertain level.

During structure remediation with Crystal Clean, aremediation crew removes everything from the struc-ture, including carpets and drapes, until the house isstripped bare except for the fixtures.

The crew mixes the Crystal Clean solution on siteand sprays the foam on walls, ceilings, and floors. Thefoam expands to about 15 times its liquid volumethrough a special nozzle that draws air into the spray,allowing it to reach contamination in crevices and inthe air. In an hour, it collapses back to a liquid. Usingonly fresh water, rags, and sponges, the crew thenremoves the benign residue from all surfaces.

After the site is cleaned, an independent industrialhygienist tapes off a sample area in the cleaned struc-ture and takes a number of swipe samples appropriatefor the location size. The samples are treated as evi-

dence, so a formal chainof custody is establishedfor the samples, and theyare taken to an indepen-dent lab. The lab runsthe samples through amass spectrometer todetermine the level ofcontamination.

Foam deployedas a preventivemeasure

In most instances,Crystal Clean reduces thelevels from a pre-teststate, to .02 µg/100 squarecm (microgram/sq. cm) orless, which is considerednondetectable.

Irvine says theCrystal Clean formula ismore expensive thanother cleaners, but thatthe product saves greatlyon labor costs and labcosts because other clean-ing solutions usuallyrequire more than onecleaning, with a largercrew doing the cleaning,and with costly samplingtaking place in betweencleanings.

Another advantage ofthis cleanup method,Irvine says, is that someother methods aredestructive or use more

corrosive substances, and the resulting chemicalresidues are themselves toxic. Crystal Clean is renderednonhazardous and nontoxic, requiring only a surfacewipe when finished.

Sandia’s decontamination formula was developedthrough funding provided by the DOE and NNSA Chem-ical and Biological National Security Program (CBNP).

Sandia has also licensed the DF200 formula to otherfirms, which have developed it for use in a wide-rang-ing variety of applications, such as commercial and resi-dential mold remediation, disinfection of hospitals andschools, pesticide removal for farm equipment, andmilitary applications, including counterterrorism pre-paredness. The foam has also been deployed as a pre-ventive measure at presidential debates and a politicalconvention.

In 2010, substance abuse treatment admissionsfor amphetamine-related addictions surpassedother drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.

According to the New Mexico Department ofPublic Health, the state remains among the top USstates for drug-induced death, largely due to thehigh rates of unintentional drug poisoning oroverdose.

Additionally, New Mexico serves as a majortrans-shipment area for drugs, including metham-phetamine, from Mexico. Though the US DrugEnforcement Administration says trafficking ofmeth is a larger problem than abuse, there are 179New Mexico locations on the DEA’s current list oflocations involved in meth-related activities.

New Mexico regulates meth cleanup, andrequires that sites be cleaned to 1.0 g/1sq. ft. (1microgram/sq. ft.). It also requires the industrialhygienist that takes site samples be from a separateentity from the remediator doing the cleanup.

Meth in New Mexico

A REMEDIATOR sprays Crystal Clean on surfaces of a house contaminated with methamphetamine. In an hour, the foam is rinsedclean with water, and the remaining liquids are harmless enough to be put down a kitchen drain. (Photo courtesy of EFT Holdings)

MARK TUCKER (6632) prepares to demonstrate Sandia-devel-oped decontamination foam. (Photo by Randy Montoya)

Chronic exposure to substances typicallyused in meth manufacture may cause can-cer; damage the brain, liver, kidney, spleen,and immunologic system; and result inbirth defects.

Paul C. McKey38 5773

Debra Cazzola36 9512

Basil Steele36 6500

Richard Cernosek35 5719

Ron Stolz35 8110

Joseph Fernandez32 231

Christine Yang32 8958

Christopher Cameron34 6112

Don Noack34 30

Louis Hernandez Jr.33 9514

Ron Olsberg33 5629

Ernest S. Salas33 10265

Mike Knoll31 5300

Kwok Kee Ma31 1752

Mike Mundt31 413

Elizabeth Richards31 6926

Barbara Roberts30 3333

Rachel Lucero30 1800

Robert Mattison30 2541

Sheila Akins29 8944

Cathy Reder29 5765

Bruce Criel28 10520

Joseph Damico27 6832

Lydia Perez-Romo26 4234

Ed Baynes30 10265

Guy Northcutt35 2995

Mark Biggs22 10520

Marsha Strauch22 10011

Jim Cates21 411

Patti Sanchez20 233

Barry Goldstein18 6224

Lillian Snyder17 6920

Laura Lang16 857

William Stubblefield16 1461

Larry Andrews35 1733

Jeff Jortner30 8953

Ed Hathaway25 8511

Cynthia Huber25 9538

Bill Peters25 10221

Sandra Begay-Campbell20 6124

Curtis Fox20 4842

Daniel Stump20 4241

David Seabrook20 4237

Herman Armijo15 8517

SANDIA LAB NEWS • January 13, 2012 • Page 6

New Mexico photosby Michelle Fleming

California photosby Randy Wong

New Mexico photos by Michelle FlemingCalifornia photos by Randy Wong

SANDIA LAB NEWS • January 13, 2012 • Page 8

an interdisciplinary community to foster education,workforce development, and technological innovation inVermont’s electric power sector. The partnership spon-sored faculty/student fellowships on modernizing electricpower, short courses and seminars at UVM on such topicsas smart grid technology and cybersecurity, and otherevents, leading up to the creation of the Center.

“I am very proud to announce that we are bringing avery significant national lab presence to New Englandby establishing the Center for Energy Transformationand Innovation right here in Vermont,” Sanders said.

In addition to UVM, participating schools includeVermont Tech, Vermont State Colleges, Norwich Uni-versity, and Vermont Law School.

Funding for the center comes from the DOE’sAdvanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E),Sandia, and the state of Vermont.

Vermont-Sandia PartnershipCenter for Energy Transformation and Innovation

Young Sandians say Martin Luther King paved their way

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Gov. Peter Shumlin, andDiv. 8000 VP Rick Stulen have announced a $15 mil-lion, three-year partnership to establish a joint Center forEnergy Transformation and Innovation to be housed atthe University of Vermont (UVM).

Researchers at the Center will collaborate on researchin areas such as energy efficiency, complex systems,consumer response and acceptance, and energy policyand governance.

The Center’s members include Sandia, the state ofVermont, University of Vermont, Efficiency Vermont,and a number of Vermont educational institutions,businesses, and nonprofits. The partnership alsoincludes eEnergy Vermont, a consortium of Vermont’s20 utility companies.

“This partnership will serve as a trusted nationalresource to support the development and dissemina-tion of smart grid best practices that will accelerate thenation toward a 21st century energy infrastructure,”says Rick, VP of Sandia’s California Laboratory as wellas its Energy, Climate, and Infrastructure Securityprograms.

The idea for the collaboration was sparked in 2008,when Sanders attended a field hearing on concentrat-ing solar power at Sandia in Albuquerque. The hearingled to a unique agreement to tackle major, complexchallenges that face the country’s energy future.

The Vermont-Sandia partnership began to takeshape in 2011, with a grant from the DOE’s Power Sys-tems Fellowship Program that supported the creation of

By Stephanie Holinka

Patrice Gregory was born in 1980, 12 years after theassassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Last year,she earned a doctorate in mechanical engineeringfrom the University Maryland and was hired at Sandia.

The Pine Bluff, Ark., native says that throughout hercareer journey, she felt King at her side. “His impact onmy life is too enormous to verbalize,” Patrice (422) says.“I know every day that he is why I’m here right now.”

King is an iconic figure in the African-American civilrights movement. He was a clergyman, activist, andleader who used nonviolent methods to bring aboutsocial change. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boy-cott and helped found the Southern Christian Leader-ship Conference. He led the 1963 March on Washing-ton, where he deliveredhis legendary I Have aDream speech envisioninga color-blind society. Hereceived the Nobel PeacePrize for his efforts to endracial segregation andracial discrimination. Hefought poverty and pro-moted education. Kingwas shot and killed byJames Earl Ray on April 4,1968, in Memphis, Tenn.He was 39.

The federal MartinLuther King Jr. Day holi-day was signed into law in 1983. It is celebrated yearlyon the third Monday of January to mark King’s Jan. 15birthday. While some states at first resisted acknowledg-ing the holiday, it was officially observed in all 50 statesfor the first time in 2000.

Patrice’s family went to the newly opened MartinLuther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., atThanksgiving. “It was kind of surreal,” she says. “Mygrandmother who just turned 90 was there, and so wasmy youngest cousin who’s 17. Everyone understoodwhat Dr. King meant. Age isn’t a factor in the impact hehad on your life. I can’t imagine what my life wouldhave been like had he not sacrificed.”

Patrice’s sentiments are shared by other youngSandians born after King’s passing.

Sean Harris (9533), a graduate of La Cueva HighSchool and the University of New Mexico, has workedas a Sandia software engineer for seven-and-a-half years.Harris, 29, received two Martin Luther King Jr. scholar-

ships at UNM and wenton to earn a master’sdegree in managementinformation systems fromthe University of Illinois.He was a member of thesame fraternity as King,Alpha Phi Alpha Frater-nity Inc., and went toWashington, D.C., inAugust for the opening ofthe King memorial.

“I’ve done a lot ofresearch on Dr. King,”Sean says. “He was soinvolved in education andmaking sure African-Americans had opportuni-ties to get an education.Even though he’s not stillaround, his dream isbeing moved forward bygiving people thoseopportunities.”

Sean says he connectedto King’s message and par-ticipated in MLK marchesand commemorativeevents. “When I thinkabout him, I think aboutthe sacrifices he made sothat we could have the opportunities we have today,” hesays. “If not for him, I wouldn’t be a Sandia employee, Iwouldn’t have graduated from La Cueva and UNM. Hepaved the way for the younger generation.”

Lydia Coleman (10694), a financial analyst with adegree in business administration from Prairie ViewA&M in Texas, says the King message she holds closestis that all people are created equal. “I think about the IHave a Dream speech. We won’t be judged by the colorof our skin,” she says. “The color of my skin doesn’tdefine who I am. I define it.”

Lydia, 23, a Kansas native, says she doesn’t think ofKing as a figure from the past. “To me, he’s not his-tory,” she says. “He’s a part of how I see the world daily.I see his dream still coming to pass.”

Melvin Bennett (10626), a finance graduate of PrairieView A&M, says he feels most impacted by King’sefforts to end segregation. “I was able to go to schoolwith students of different backgrounds and befriendthem because of the work he did,” says Melvin, 22, a

project administrator. “I was able to come to a placelike Sandia and not have to worry about not getting ajob because of my race.”

Melvin says the holiday in his hometown of Liv-ingston, Texas, that honors King is a multicultural festi-val celebrating Hispanics, African-Americans, NativeAmericans, and Anglos. “People come together andshare cultures,” he says. “I like that because it enablesme to associate with people of different backgrounds,and share and learn from each other. I am able to dothat now because of Dr. King’s work.”

Patrice, Sean, Lydia, and Melvin say they learnedabout King as children — in church, at school, at home— and will continue to keep King’s memory alive byspreading the message of nonviolent activism againstracial discrimination.

Patrice has watched the I Have a Dream speech manytimes. “It makes you wonder when his dream will reallycome true, when all men are equal,” she says. “It’s a lotbetter now. But there is still work to be done.”

By Nancy Salem

LIVING LEGACY— Sandians, left to right, Melvin Bennett (10626), Patrice Gregory (0422), andLydia Coleman (10694) recall the impact Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had on their lives and the livesof their families. (Photo by Randy Montoya)

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

‘From the mountain of despair,a stone of hope’

To enter the MartinLuther King Jr. Memor-ial in Washington,D.C., you first pass throughthe Mountain of Despair, ahuge rock sculpture signifyingthe seemingly insurmount-able obstacles in the strugglefor racial justice. Upon emerg-ing from the Mountain ofDespair, you come upon theStone of Hope, a massive

block of granite from which the heroic figure of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. emerges five times life size.Inscription walls flanking each side of the centerpiecesculpture highlight some of King’s most memorablequotations. The theme for the memorial is taken fromKing’s I Have a Dream speech, in which he said, “I have adream that one day every valley shall be exalted, everyhill and mountain shall be made low, the rough placeswill be made plains, and the crooked places will bemade straight, and the glory of the Lord shall berevealed, and all the flesh shall see it together. This isour hope. This is the faith that I go back to the Southwith. With this faith we will be able to hew out of themountain of despair a stone of hope.”

The memorial was dedicated in Washington lastsummer after more than 20 years of planning,fundraising, and development. It stands in a privilegedspot at the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin nearthe Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, on a sight-line linking the Lincoln Memorial to the northwestand the Jefferson Memorial to the southeast. The offi-cial address of the monument, 1964 IndependenceAvenue, SW, commemorates the year that the CivilRights Act of 1964 became law.

National Park Service photo