Vol. 59, No. 17 August 17, 2007Managed by Lockheed Martin for the National Nuclear Security Administration

Paul Hommert talks about stability, consistency,strategic vision for Sandia’s California site

Inside . . . The great state of California — commentaryby Jim Simmons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2

New website makes leaving Labs easier . . . . . Page 2

New ePMF forms to be launched Sept. 1 . . . . Page 3

Radiation detection on the high seas . . . . . . . Page 4

Sandia studies safety properties of hydrogenstorage materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 8

Labs’ training program aims to provideresearchers with ‘sales’ tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 11

Sandia role in New York Container Terminal’sAdvanced Spectral Portals campaign . . . . . . Page 12

The remarkable story of Maria Matos . . . . . . Page 16

Sandia Lab News California team membersMike Janes and Patti Koning (both 8528) sat downrecently with Div. 8000 VP Paul Hommert to discussthe state of the California site, the challenges it faces,and the opportunities it has to evolve its competenciesto meet a broad range of emerging national securityimperatives. The interview took place in Paul’s office.

* * *Lab News: Let’s begin with your vision for the

California site. Can you describe how you’re goingabout developing that vision?

Paul Hommert: Since being in California,I’ve encountered a lot of uncertainty on behalf ofthe staff. There are many turbulent issues, such asthe change in Lawrence Livermore National Labo-ratory’s contract, RRW [Reliable ReplacementWarhead], the future of the weapons’ program,and others. In light of that, I felt it was particu-larly important to point to a time that bridges afair amount of turbulence in the next five years

By the mid-1950s Sandia’s missionresponsibilities required a critical pres-ence in Livermore, Calif., to work closelywith the new Lawrence Livermore lab.Over more than 50 years, Sandia/Califor-nia has evolved into a facility with abroad suite of capabilities that touch onvirtually every aspect of Sandia’s nationalsecurity mission. This special edition ofthe Lab News is dedicated almost entirelyto the work being done today at Sandia/California. The issue’s guest editors, MikeJanes and Patti Koning (pictured at left),have spent the past several weeks craft-ing the stories and arranging the photosthat offer this in-depth portrait ofSandia’s California laboratory.

and articulate to our staff, “Here’s what we see thissite working on, looking like, and emphasizingduring that time,” and that we [leadership] will

work to achieve that. Will things change betweennow and then? Of course, and we’ll reevaluatewhen the time comes. But I felt a need for consis-tency as to what that picture will look like.

We’re taking an approach that is rooted in ourcompetencies — what is our organization good at?How should it evolve to meet what we think arethe logical, national security imperatives we face?It’s a combination of looking inwardly and out-wardly, through the lens of our SMU structure,and saying, “Here are the things we think we’ll beworking on, and here’s how our competency basehas to evolve.”

Another important aspect is what I might call“quality of work life” — our infrastructure, hiringpractices, and tackling the always challengingbureaucracy in our daily work environment. We’retrying to bring together these components thissummer and communicate the vision site-wide in

FEMA, Sandia announce new integratedpublic alert and warning capabilityNext-gen system to help ensure effective communication to citizensin the event of hurricanes, other potentially catastrophic events

In partnership with the Federal EmergencyManagement Agency (FEMA), Sandia is designingand deploying a pilot alert and warning systemthat will provide a means to ensure effective pub-lic communications during a federal, state, orlocal emergency.

Known as the Integrated Public Alert andWarning System (IPAWS), the program, whichbegan piloting on August 1 in the midst of the2007 hurricane season, is administered by FEMAfor the Department of Homeland Security and isinitially supporting several states and local juris-dictions in the US Gulf Coast region. IPAWSaddresses the mandate and vision of ExecutiveOrder 13407 to ensure that the president canrapidly and effectively address and warn the pub-lic over a broad range of communications devicesand under any conditions.

Transforming emergency alertsIPAWS is designed to transform national

emergency alerts from audio-only messages deliv-ered over radios and televisions into a sophisti-cated, comprehensive system that can reliably andefficiently send alerts by voice, text, and video toall Americans, including those with disabilities or

who cannot understand English. FEMA’s aim is todeliver targeted alerts and warnings over morecommunications devices to more people, any-where, and at any time a disaster strikes.

System to offer broad connectivityFEMA’s current Emergency Alert System (EAS)

has been in place since 1994, replacing the Emer-gency Broadcast System (EBS) that launched in1963. The EAS allows the president to transmit anational alert within 10 minutes to citizens, andit allows state and local government officials tosend messages during nonfederal emergencies.

The IPAWS system will include an enhancedWeb Alert and Relay Network (WARN) that pro-vides emergency operations staff with collabora-

As the first new weapons program in morethan 20 years, the Reliable Replacement War-head (RRW) program has generated a lot ofinterest and controversy.

The controversy centers on what role nuclearweapons should play in today’s world and what thenation’s strategy regarding nuclear weapons andthe nuclear stockpile should be. Many expect thenational debate to last through the 2008 election.

RRW work is currently in Phase 2/2A, whichincludes program feasibility, design definition,and cost study. Congressional approval isrequired to move to Phase 3, development engi-neering. Despite the delay, the debate is some-thing that Div. 8000 VP Paul Hommert describesas necessary and healthy for the country.

“Winning the [RRW] bid was pretty exciting,especially because of the intense effort in puttingforward the design in a short period of time,” saysCorey Knapp (8200), director of National SecurityEngineering. “The opportunity to work with theNavy is fantastic. They are an engaged, demand-ing, and knowledgeable customer.”

By Mike Janes

Computational modelingof RRWBy Patti Koning

(Continued on page 7) (Continued on page 5)

(Continued on page 6)

If Sandia computer scientist and software engi-neer Donna Djordjevich has her way, perhapstoday’s video game-loving youth will becomethe next generation’s terrorist-fighting scien-tists, thanks in part to game development skillshe or she will have learned at Sandia. Find outmore in the story by Mike Janes on page 9.

This game’s for real . . . almost

DIV. 8000 VP PAUL HOMMERT

America truly is a land of many greats: great people, greatnational parks, great achievements, and great industries. One can wanderall over North America and be dazzled daily by great sights, great soundsand great eats. And great states. Like California.

Despite the decades-old onslaught of drivel and diatribe directedat the Golden State, mostly proffered by those too envious, too innocent,or too devious to be taken seriously, the planet’s eighth-largest economythrives, prospers, and continues to generate greatness just abouteverywhere.

It’s great that we now have a post-partisanship era of stategovernance. It’s great that the venture capital community is pouring moneyunrestrained into solar projects over in Sunnycon, néeSilicon, Valley. It’s great that we just opened our 110thcommunity college.

We are producing great mayors, great actors, greattechnologists, great farmers, great nurses, even greatrobber barons and great eccentrics. We have great townnames like Edison, Cool, Dunmovin, Monolith, Weed, andPumpkin Center. We possess the greatest potential forgreatness in geothermal, wind, wave, biomass, andnuclear energy. And with all due respect to the greatNew Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, we are the home tothe great new private commercial space industry.

We also pretty much seem to have a great time.So, with all of this greatness, why is it that our truly great six

national laboratories in the state don’t seem to make everyone’s A listof great things on the Left Coast?

Is it the same syndrome that affects other properties, plants, andinstallations? After all, who knows we have 63 military bases and 13 oilrefineries, some very great, or 77 fairs, some even with the word “great”in their names?

We could just have fine national laboratories. Or dandy ones. Orserviceable. But check the record. They’re great.

And even if we’ve been greatly modest, or great at keeping a lowprofile, the things we’re great at turn out to be of some interest. Tosay the least.

America, its people and places, its friends and neighbors, itsinterests and values, all have been well served by these great places. Tosay the least.

Sometimes there comes a time when it would be great for all of ournational laboratories to get a little more general acknowledgement,especially those who provide exceptionally great service in the nationalinterest. To say the least.

And maybe, we hear tell, that the great state of California, isgetting ready to do just that. To brag a little bit about “its” nationallabs. To say . . . well, maybe a little bit more than just the least.

Now that would be great!

— Jim Simmons (925-294-2912, MS 9114, jamsimm@sandia.gov)Jim is the Community Relations and Advocacy Officer at Sandia/California.

What’s what

Sandia National Laboratorieshttp://www.sandia.gov/LabNews

Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-0165Livermore, California 94550-0969Tonopah, Nevada • Nevada Test Site • Amarillo, Texas •Carlsbad, New Mexico • Washington, D.C.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated bySandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the US Departmentof Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Bill Murphy, Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505/845-0845Chris Burroughs, Writer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505/844-0948Randy Montoya, Photographer . . . . . . . . 505/844-5605Mike Janes, California site contact. . . . . . . 925/294-2447Michael Lanigan, Production. . . . . . . . . . 505/844-2297

Contributors: John German (844-5199), Neal Singer 845-7078), Stephanie Holinka (284-9227), Howard Kercheval(columnist, 844-7842), Iris Aboytes (844-2282), Michael Padilla(284-5325), Julie Hall (284-7761), Rod Geer (844-6601),Patti Koning (925-294-4911), Michelle Fleming (Ads, Milepostphotos, 844-4902), Darrick Hurst (intern, 844-8009), JacquelineCieslak (intern, 284-8432), Dept. 3651 Manager: Chris Miller(844-0587).Lab News fax ................................................505/844-0645Classified ads ................................................505/844-4902

Published on alternate Fridays by Media Relationsand Employee Communications Dept. 3651, MS 0165

The Sandia Lab News is distributed in-house to all Sandia employees and onsitecontractors and mailed to all Sandia retirees.It is also mailed to individuals in industry,government, academia, nonprofit organiza-tions, media, and private life who request it.

Retirees (only):

To notify of changes in address, contactBenefits Dept. 3332, Customer Service, at505-844-4237, or Mail Stop 1021, SandiaNational Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM87185-1021.

Others:

To receive the Lab News or to changethe address (except retirees), contactMichelle Fleming, Media Relations andCommunications Dept. 3651, 505-844-4902, email meflemi@sandia.gov, orMail Stop 0165, Sandia National Laboratories,Albuquerque, NM 87185-0165.

Employees:

To change the number of copies of theLab News your mail stop is receiving pleasecall Honario Anaya, Mail Services Team10268-4, at 844-3796. At Sandia/Californiacontact the Mail Room at 294-2427.

Web users:

The Lab News is on the Web atwww.sandia.gov/LabNews.

Lab News Reader Service

JIM SIMMONS

Saying goodbyeis hard to do . . . but a new websitemakes it simpler

So you’ve opted for that career change, oryou’re taking a personal leave of absence, oryou’ve lined up a great new job . . . watching yourgrandkids.

Whatever your reason for leaving, rememberthis: Before you’ve achieved a clean break withSandia, you are required to attend to dozens ofdetails, from a hazardous chemicals assessment toa records retention review, and the list differsdepending on your situation, says BJ Jones(3500), director of Human Resources.

In the past the complexity of the process hasleft some departing employees and contractors,and their managers, befuddled, she says.

Now a new separations procedure and exitwebsite — http://exit.sandia.gov/ — clarifies thesteps a person needs to take to check out.Together, the consolidated process and site areexpected to reduce by 20 percent the timerequired to complete a termination.

2,200 separations a yearWhat many people don’t realize, says BJ, is

although Sandia’s attrition rate is about 400 FTEsannually, in practice some 2,200 people adminis-tratively separate from the lab each year, includ-ing summer students and other temporary hires,contractors, and employees taking leaves ofabsence.

“People were justleaving, and in somecases checkoutwasn’t happening,”says BJ. “This meantwe weren’t gettingpaperwork done, orwe weren’t gettingpeople’s badges back,and we were investing a lot of time and energytracking people down.”

The new exit website begins with a set of fivequestions to assess the type of separation anddirect the user to the appropriate checklist. HRhas simplified the termination process as well,and for the typical separation of a regular, full-time employee, many steps have been consoli-dated down to a four-phased departure.

There still are some 50 actions on the check-out checklist, but the process is now more clearand linear, says BJ. If a separating employeebegins the process (as is recommended) threeweeks before the last day of work, most checkoutsshould go smoothly and with little follow-up.

Development of the consolidated process andwebsite was coordinated with line customers andrepresentatives of Sandia’s various locations, theSecurity organization, the HR systems group, andSandia’s division human resources consultants(HRCs), says BJ. A team led by Ramona Cordova(3515) developed the new separations process,and Tara Camacho-Lopez (3654) designed thenew site.

Why people leaveThe simplified process is helpful both to

departing employees and the Labs, says BJ.Because Sandia is a national security facility, it isimportant to demonstrate that badges are turnedin when people leave and that access authoriza-tions are turned off in a timely manner.

It also is important that departing employeeswith clearances get their required security brief-ings so they know what their continuing nationalsecurity responsibilities are after they leave.

Finally, the site includes an improved exitsurvey that allows management to better under-stand and track why people leave and what theirfeelings are when they do.

“This is important stuff from an HR per-spective,” says BJ.

New separations processstreamlines departures

By John German

“This is importantstuff from an HRperspective.”

Human ResourcesDirector BJ Jones

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 3

e + PMF = less paper, less time spent on process

The performance management process for reg-ular nonrepresented employees may involve a lit-tle less paper and a little less time next fiscal year.

Not only will the Performance ManagementForm (PMF) go elec-tronic next year, butso will the entirereview process fromplanning to finalevaluation. However,it does not replacethe required one-on-one employee-man-ager meetings.

The new ePMFwill be launchedSept. 1 and willreplace the paperform. New featuresinclude automated reminders for employees andmanagers throughout the process and a new“electronic signature,” eliminating the need toprint, copy, sign, and file paper copies of PMFs,saving time for employees and managers, saysYvette Plasencia (3511), team lead for the ePMFproject. Under the old PMF process, managersand employees were spending about two hoursper employee in preparing and processing paper-work, the team estimated.

Now, once employees submit their PMFs elec-tronically, managers will approve and “sign”them by clicking an “approve” button, generat-ing an electronic copy to be retained in HumanResources’ database.

“Electronic archiving eliminates the risk of aPMF being misplaced when a person changes jobs,”says Melissa Eakes (3511). Under the old process, anemployee’s current PMF was retained by his or herCenter office. If the employee changed jobs, theCenter was responsible for archiving the PMF in theemployee’s personnel file, then forwarding a copyto the hiring organization.

The new electronic form and process cameabout to address feedback from line organizations

and a Labs-wide effort toward improved efficien-cies and operational excellence, Melissa says.Compensation and HRIS staff have been workingwith the Process Efficiency Transformation Pro-ject team — which focuses on increasing efficien-cies in corporate policies and processes — on theePMF process.

The ePMF application itself was developedby Jessie Black and Lori West of HR InformationSystems (HRIS) Dept. 9544 and has undergonethorough user testing.

How it will workEmployees will receive emails notifying them

of the start of each phase of the review process,which are as follows:

• Planning phase: Sept. 1 – Nov. 30, 2007• Interim phase (mid-year): Dec. 1, 2007 –

May 30, 2008 • Final phase: June 1 – Oct. 31, 2008

During the planning phase, employees fillout their PMFs and review them with their man-agers. The ePMF allows up to nine objectives withcorresponding results and contains a field forcareer development plans.

Employees can work on their ePMFs overtime, saving them for future additions and edit-ing. However, once an employee submits thePMF to his or her manager, the employee canview but cannot change it until the managerreviews it. Managers receive an email notificationthat action is required. If a manager wants addi-tional information or revisions, the ePMF can besent back and forth between employee and man-ager as needed. A manager-employee meeting is

to take place during the planning phase and eachsubsequent phase.

At the start of the interim phase, managerswill again receive an email reminder to meet withtheir staff to review progress toward employees’annual goals. (Employees can add results corre-sponding to their goals at any time after their ini-tial ePMF is approved.) The manager will berequired to enter interim feedback before beingable to approve the ePMF. The process is the samefor the final review phase, with the addition ofcustomer feedback, value of contribution, and afinal evaluation.

A feature of the new system is that managerscan easily determine who has or has not com-pleted their ePMF. For privacy purposes, man-agers can only view the PMFs of their staff, seniormanagers can view PMFs of their direct reports,and so on.

Help availableA Job Aid and training video are available to

help guide both employees and managers inusing the new ePMF:

Employees:http://ln.sandia.gov/pmf-empManagers:http://ln.sandia.gov/pmf-mgrCCHD personnel (845-2243) and the Com-

pensation team can also provide assistance. “Wewant to ensure that everyone using this newapplication has adequate support,” Yvette says.“The performance management process plays anintegral role in employees’ professional develop-ment and career advancement at Sandia and wewant to encourage employees and managers touse it to its fullest.”

New electronic performance management process to launch Sept. 1

By Julie Hall

Discovery Channel sings its way through filmingof Stirling solar-dish engine units at Sandia

Singing. That’s what Chris Burroughs,Sandia media relations specialist, will remem-ber most about the media visit by a crewfrom the new Discovery Channel show ReallyBig Things.

“It was remarkable,” Chris says. “As thecrew were setting up their cameras or justbefore shooting, the host and one of thecrew members would break out in song.”

Both had good singing voices. In fact,the host, Matt Rogers, was one of the top 10finalists on Season 3 of American Idol. Whenshe met Rogers, Chris asked him to sing her asong. He turned on the car radio and sere-naded her on the spot.

The 6-foot-5-inch, 290-pound Rogerswas also an offensive lineman for the Univer-sity of Washington Huskies when the teamwon the Rose Bowl in 2001.

The crew filmed the six Stirling EnergySystems Inc. (SES) solar-dish engine units atSandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility— the same dishes that President George W.Bush visited two years ago when he signed theEnergy Policy Act of 2005.

During an interview with Rogers, BruceOsborn, Stirling’s CEO, said that while the individ-ual dishes may not be big, what is planned forthem fits the “really big” category. Over the nextyear four more dishes will be added at the Albu-querque site. Eventually these same types of collec-tor dishes will be part of a 20,000-dish array in theMojave Desert near Victorville, Calif. SES hasalready signed agreements with San Diego Gas and

Electric and Southern California Edison to sellthem power once the dish farm is constructed.

The video crew, which consisted of Rogers, afield director, field coordinator, two cameramen,audio coordinator, and assistant, were all big men,not quite as huge as the former football player —but nearly. When the crew was first introduced toOsborn, the CEO joked with Rogers, asking him ifhe “brought his whole football team with him.”

On average Sandia hosts two to three mediavisits each week and receives 75 media calls a

month. Most are the “big guys” like ABC,NBC, or CNN. Less frequent are visits by localmedia, but they are always more than wel-come, Chris says. Usually crews visiting Sandiaare small, maybe just one reporter or a reporterand a cameraman. A seven-person crew, likethe one from Really Big Things, is unusual.

Also unusual about the visit was Rogers’desire to be “hands on.” He wanted to befilmed washing the mirrors, inspecting thetop of the mirrors in a man lift, and touchingan engine, Chris says.

While Rogers wore a pair of shorts and anSES shirt for the filming, the rest of the crewwas dressed even more casually in order to becomfortable in the 100-degree sun. Pro-ducer/director Eric Weingrad, described byChris as “brilliant and spontaneous,” woreoversize plaid shorts, a white and blue T-shirt,and unmatching green flowered bandana.The SES secretary on hand, who took care ofeverything from ordering lunch to makingsure everyone had water on the hot day,

noted that “Eric sure doesn’t believe in dressingup, does he?”

But that didn’t stop him from running a tightship and making the filming look easy, says Chris.

The crew unanimously agreed that one ofthe best parts of the visit was climbing to the topof the solar tower where they filmed Rogersintroducing the story with the six dishes in thebackground.

The show is expected to air on the DiscoveryChannel Aug. 22.

“Electronicarchiving elimi-nates the riskof a PMF beingmisplacedwhen a personchanges jobs.”

REALLY BIG THINGS Discovery Channel host Matt Rogers, right, washes aStirling solar-dish engine mirror during a recent taping of the show atthe National Solar Thermal Test Facility. With him is Gerry Rodriguez,Stirling Energy Systems Inc. (SES) engineer. The show is scheduled to airon the Discovery Channel Aug. 22. (Photo by Chris Burroughs)

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 4

transmission through cargo at a range of ener-gies spanning the natural radiation spectrum.

Radiation detection at sea is, in a sense,uncharted territory. While much research hasbeen done detecting radiation on land, the seapresents an entirely different environment —one with significantly less background noise.

Detection at sea is also unique because con-straints on size and weight may not apply. Land-based detection systems are typically embeddedinto some physical aspect of a port, such as adrive-through portal or crane. A detector

enclosed in a container could weigh up to40,000 pounds.

Time is another factor. While land-baseddetection usually happens within a few seconds,ship-based detection has days in which to seekout a source. The project uses the longest domes-tic route available, from Oakland to Honolulu,which takes four days.

“The ability to detect and interdict nuclearmaterial on ships could keep such threats fromever reaching our shores,” says Bill Ballard

About two years ago the high bay in Build-ing 942 at the California site, in the group ofbuildings known as the Micro and Nano Tech-nologies Laboratories (MANTL), faced an uncer-tain future.

The building’s interior was demolished inpreparation to become a facility for LIGA (alithography, electroplating, and moldingtechnique). When the LIGA project was can-celed abruptly, the space lay empty for quitesome time.

Early last year, John Didlake (8229) beganlooking at the space for Work for Others projectssuch as SNIFFER and the Explosives DetectionSystem. Then in June 2006, George Lasche(6418) won funding from the Defense NuclearDetection Office for an in-transit radiationdetection project that would require a lot ofspace.

A perfect fitGeorge needed to load and unload up to

eight 40-foot shipping containers for a total ofeight round-trip journeys from Oakland, Calif.,to Honolulu. Originally, he considered rentingspace close to the Port of Oakland, which iswhat is done in Hawaii.

John saw a perfect fit between the emptybuilding and George’s containers. The space isunique in that it is a large indoor space in anunclassified area and close to a major port.

“This would be a difficult project to dooutside in someone else’s parking lot,” saysJohn. “We have the space to accommodate thecontainers and are located 30 minutes fromOakland.”

In about July 2006, discussions began aboutchanging the purpose of the MANTL high bayinto Sandia/California Container Terminal(SCCT). At that point the building had no elec-tricity and mothballed cranes with a 6-ton

capacity, which is only adequate to lift emptycontainers.

John describes the process of transformingthe SCCT into a port of call as a “just-in-time”endeavor. The electricity was restored on a Sat-urday, the retrofitted 10-ton cranes were certi-fied on Monday, and container assembliesbegan on Tuesday.

With a lot of coordination and teamworkled by Scott Keith (85141), Lynn McClellan(8523), Terry Spraggins (8523), Grace Miranda(8523), and the receiving staff, George was ableto hit his Oct. 6, 2006, deadline for the firstshipment. The project has been extended to at

least two more shipments beyond the originaleight.

Nicholas Mascarenhas (8132) has a neutronscatter project funded by the Department ofHomeland Security (DHS) that will be on latershipments. John is hopeful DHS will continueusing the SCCT for container research projects.

The irony of a facility filled with 40-footshipping containers in a site known for micro-and nano-scale work is not lost on John.

“Actually, we are 1.8 x 10-6 the size ofthe Port of Singapore,” he says. “So we reallyare a micro terminal in comparison with areal port.”

Sandia’s ‘micro’ terminal processes shipping containers for tests

George Lasche (6418) never imagined hiscareer as a physicist would take him into theshipping business. On Oct. 6, 2006, he stood onthe Golden Gate Bridge and watched proudly asthe SS Lurline of Matson Lines passed under-neath. On the ship were four containers promi-nently marked with the Sandia thunderbird logo.

“The captain and crew waved when they sawme on the bridge and saluted with a long blast ofthe horn,” George recalls. “I saluted back. It wasgorgeous, a wonderful moment.”

This departure was the first of eight plannedround-trip voyages for a project testing theExperimental Limits for In-Transit Detection ofRadiological Materials, funded by the DomesticNuclear Detection Office within the Depart-ment of Homeland Security.

The goal of the project is to determine if itwould be feasible to deploy on-ship systemsthat can reliably detect radiological/nuclearmaterials while at sea with an extremely lowprobability of a false alarm.

“These two goals require that we learn asmuch as possible about the environment inwhich these systems are being designed anddeployed,” says George.

The approach is to ship a selected variety ofadvanced radiation detection equipmentamongst a large sampling of actual cargo incontainer ships while at sea. These includehigh-purity germanium (HPGe) gamma-raydetectors, bonner-spheres neutron spectrome-ters, a fission meter multiplicity detector,muon-neutron correlation detection suites, andenvironmental detection suites.

In some shipments, selected radiationsources also are shipped to characterize radiation (Continued on next page)

Project for Domestic Nuclear Detection Office tests deployment of rad detection equipment on ships

Radiation detection on the high seas

By Patti Koning

LOAD ‘EM UP — At the Sandia/California Container Terminal, a shipping container is loaded onto a truckchassis for transport to the Port of Oakland. (Photo by Randy Wong)

By Patti Koning

THE SS LURLINE of Matson Lines passes Alcatraz on its way out of the Port of Oakland enroute to Hawaii. The ship iscarrying several containers filled with radiation detection equipment and radiation sources for the in-transit radiationdetection project. Look very closely for the Sandia thunderbird on one of the containers. (Photo by John Didlake)

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 5

methodologies for message security and distribu-tion of alerts and warnings. Sandia is also devel-oping the certification program for companies toqualify for access to the IPAWS communicationsframework. The architecture and messaging stan-dards developed through this program will be fedback to standards-setting organizations, such asOASIS (Organization for the Advancement ofStructured Information Standards).

Pilot activities this summer The lab will be demonstrating and evaluating

IPAWS components during pilot activities thissummer. WARN, the first IPAWS component,integrates existing vendor-supplied technologiesto provide a warning capability that could beused during this year’s hurricane season. The ini-tial rollout, led by Jeff Jortner (8962), becameoperational August 1.

“Because Sandia doesn’t have a technologydog in this fight, we’re seen by FEMA as an hon-est broker,” says Jeff. “We understand the tech-nology that we’re integrating, but at the sametime we have no product or service we’re tryingto sell. That gives us unique credibility in the eyesof our sponsors.” Sandia has selected several sub-contractors to assist in technology deploymentfor the IPAWS WARN system, includingMyStateUSA, NuParadigm Foundation, WarningSystems Inc., and others.

Lab analysts at Sandia are also working withemergency management staff in Alabama,Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Mexico tounderstand specific message targeting capabili-ties and needs, and various public alert and

warning communication options for multiplecommunities of interest across federal, state,local, and tribal organizations.

“Our discussions with the New Mexico-basedcommunities of interest, which have includedemergency operations managers from BernalilloCounty, the city of Albuquerque, and the state ofNew Mexico, have been particularly valuable,”says Heidi Ammerlahn (8962).

Those jurisdictions have raised several issuesthat researchers otherwise may not have beenaware of, she says. Some local officials, forinstance, may not think so much about technol-ogy itself but rather about whether individualswithout technology training will be able to takeadvantage of IPAWS features and actually use thesystem properly.

Sandia enjoys a long history in the designand development of command, communication,and control systems. Its federal customers includethe US Northern Command, the Defense ThreatReduction Agency, and the Department ofDefense.

Jill Hruby (8100), who directs the Labs’ Cen-ter for Homeland Security and Defense Systems,says Sandia’s work on IPAWS may be a harbingerof things to come.

“Though this the first major project on com-munications architecture and information suretyfor DHS, it likely won’t be the last,” says Jill. “Ifwe continue to be successful with this project, Ithink there are other opportunities to use thissame architecture for other complex communica-tion systems that require a high degree of interop-erability and a high degree of data validation.”

(8100), Radiological/Nuclear CountermeasuresProgram manager. “We don’t know if this is thefinal answer — this project is examining the fea-sibility of such detection on a large scale.”

This project is a collaboration on manylevels. Though Sandia leads the project, thedetectors come from Sandia, LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory (LLNL), PacificNorthwest National Laboratory (PNNL), LosAlamos National Laboratory (LANL), and theEnvironmental Measurements Laboratory.

The equipment, George says, is far morecostly than anyone could afford to deploy in reg-ular commerce. But using such sophisticated,highly sensitive equipment will enable theresearchers to characterize the radiation environ-ment at sea and properly design less expensivedetectors.

At the same time, LLNL and PNNL are usingdata collected by Sandia to develop and test com-puter models for radiation detection at sea.

“Few people believe computer models untilthey have been proven. If we get similar answersusing two different approaches, it will build con-fidence,” says George.

He recently launched the seventh round-tripvoyage of his special containers. Each voyagebegins at the high bay at Sandia/California’sMicro and Nano Technologies Laboratories(MANTL), which last year was retrofitted toaccommodate up to six 40-foot shipping con-tainers and everything being loaded into them.Once loaded, the containers are trucked 30 min-utes west to the Port of Oakland.

So far the project has run extremely smoothlywith very intriguing results, George says. Heattributes a good part of that success to the strongpartnership with the shipping company.

“Matson Shipping Lines responded with awholehearted commitment all the way from thevice presidents to ship electricians in the spirit ofhelping us solve our problems, instead of just fig-uring out how to deal with them,” he says.

Every ship’s captain volunteered to carry GPSequipment in the bridge, allowing theresearchers to coordinate where the ships were atevery moment in time. Those locations couldthen be correlated with any phenomena shownin experiments.

George recallsthat one captainwas so concernedthe GPS equipmenthad failed that hehad his first matewrite down byhand every posi-tion recorded dur-ing the voyage.

This data onlocation provedinvaluable when allof the detectorsregistered a gaindrift. On the voy-age west to Hawaii,the line of potas-sium movedslightly up andthen fell slightly onthe return trip.

According toGeorge, his teamdetermined thegain drift was dri-ven by tempera-ture. As a result,any instrumentdeployed wouldhave to be cali-brated enroute. Ifdone computationally, this is feasible becausemeasurements were taken every 15 minutes andthe gain drift showed itself over a longer periodof time.

The significance of this project lies in the factthat all experiments are conducted in a real ship-ping environment.

“We’re testing among what people actuallyship, which is not always what one would expectto see,” says George. “A lot of manifests simplyread FAK, for Freight of All Kinds.”

For example, a huge signature of potassium40 was detected on one of the more recent ship-ments. With the help of Matson, the Sandiaresearchers discovered that the detector pickingup the signature was nestled between two con-tainers filled with fertilizer composed of potas-sium nitrite.

Another surprise was the detection of a weaksignature of uranium in all of the first shipments.George says the uranium signal was so pure itappeared to be inside Sandia’s own containers. Itturns out the background environment at sea is

so quiet compared with that of land that thedetectors were sensing the minute amount ofnatural uranium found in most aluminum.

“We’ve gotten rid of the aluminum in ourcontainers, so now I expect we’ll see all the ura-nium in beer cans traveling from Oakland toHawaii,” says George. “Any instrument in a realdeployment must be able to discriminate inno-cent uranium from threatening uranium.”

Originally eight round-trips were planned,but the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) has added several more trips so that aneutron scatter camera can be included withthe experiments. This is a testament to thesuccess of the project and the value of the neu-tron scatter camera, which was developed atSandia/California.

“It’s so good to be out with the public doingsomething for the national defense — workingwith real instruments in real environments is arefreshing change from office work,” Georgesays. “This is one of the most rewarding projectsof my life.”

tion tools, public access websites and alert andwarning notification facilities. WARN also fea-tures an “opt-in” capability that allows citizensto sign up to receive alert messages via pagers,cell phones, email, and other communicationsdevices. The WARN system includes an Emer-gency Telephone Notification component thatprovides automated calling of all residents in aselected geographic area, and a Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Notification System that providesinformation to the hearing impaired usingAmerican Sign Language videos on the Internetand on personal communication devices. Eachof the pilot program technologies will beinstalled and tested through December 2007,while FEMA will seek additional funding for fur-ther piloting in 2008.

Develop and deploy“At Sandia, IPAWS is a clear New Mexico/

California collaboration,” says Ron Glaser (6464),who is serving as the Labs’ program manager forIPAWS. Technical teams, led by Ron’s SystemsEngineering group, with expertise from 5610,6320, 6450, 6460, 8110, 8520, 8960, and 9510,are working together to develop and deploy theinitial IPAWS capability.

Specifically, says Ron, Sandia is creating thesecure architecture, standards, protocols, and

IPAWS(Continued from page 1)

T-BIRD GOES TO SEA — One of Sandia’s containers is moved in preparation for loadingat the Port of Oakland. (Photo by Randy Wong)

Rad detection(Continued from preceding page)

the fall. Right now I am engaging our first level ofmanagement in recognition of the need to reflecttheir views and the views of staff about important

issues that should be embedded in this vision.It’s a five-year time frame. Obviously, we need

to think longer term as well, but my long-termview is tied to the transformation of all of thenational laboratories into true, broad nationalsecurity laboratories. That’s a much larger issue andnot the direct focus for us between now and 2012.

Biggest challenges for siteLN: What’s the biggest challenge facing the

California site?PH: It’s hard to capture in a single word, but I

would say it’s a sense of stability. This site hasalready had to face underpinning questions like,do we really need a California site?What’s going to happen to us? So it’s aquestion of stability, but stability basedon evolving and changing in a way thatwe intentionally influence and direct.The question of stability is applicable notjust around the site, but also around ourmission projects. This means workingwith our customers to try and increasethe fraction of our work that brings withit the possibility of stable, multiyearfunding.

A uniquely ‘national’ labLN: Where do you see this site in 50

years?PH: What happens to Sandia/California is a

piece of the larger question of what to do withnational laboratories that are really Cold War enti-ties. They have demonstrated their ability toimpact national security in the post-Cold War erabut have not really transformed themselves intopost-Cold War institutions.

Our future is tied up with how the nationchooses to make that transformation. That said, Ithink we in California offer an intriguing modelfor how one of those labs — Sandia — can workacross sites.

The Joint BioEnergy Institute (Lab News, July6, 2007) is a good example of the value of the win-dow to the dynamic environment of Californiathat we provide to the broader lab. This state hasoutstanding institutions and is poised on the lead-ing edge of carbon tax, global warming, trans-portation problems, energy efficiencies, etc.Roughly one-third of JBEI work will happen inNew Mexico. That never would have happenedwithout a presence in California. We simplywouldn’t have even been able to compete. Ourstrong presence in this state makes Sandiauniquely national in its character.

Current projects and programsLN: What are some of the current projects and

program activities that this division is currentlyengaged in?

PH: RRW [Reliable Replace Warhead], ofcourse, despite the present turbulence surround-ing it. We’re very excited about our bioenergyefforts such as JBEI. This innovative and uniqueprogram plays to the strengths and core qualitiesof this organization.

Related to, but broader than, the weaponsprogram, this organization is the heart and soul ofthe Labs’ efforts in weapons surety, not just

strictly with nuclear weapons but also theweapons complex as a whole.

As part of the Homeland Security & DefenseStrategic Management Unit [SMU], we areimmersed in a very broad range of activities [seenext two questions]. We’ve also taken on newwork in physical security of weapons systems.

Terry Michalske [director of Biological &Energy Sciences Center 8300] is engaged broadly

throughout the organiza-tion to develop bold initia-tives for how we take theCRF [Combustion ResearchFacility] forward. Some tra-ditional areas in whichwe’ve worked, like materialsscience, engineering sci-ence, and hydrogen, con-tinue to have new, excitingdirections, rooted in our tra-ditional strengths.

LN: Do you think Sandiahas responded to the nationalneed for homeland security,

and how do you think our role might evolve?PH: Unquestionably, I think we’ve responded.

Our diverse set of programs touch many aspects ofhomeland security, from core science and technol-ogy in the chem/bio and rad/nuc areas to the factthat we’re broadly engaged with various parts ofthe Department of Homeland Security (DHS),such as FEMA (Federal Emergency ManagementAgency), Customs and Border Protection, and theDomestic Nuclear Detection Office. These pro-grams reflect the importance of Sandia’s science-to-engineering ability in this arena.

Having said that, this area remains very chal-lenging for Sandia and the country. Each day

brings new threats. The challenging immediacymakes it difficult to apply sustained, game-chang-ing science and technology. The mentality is“solve this problem”— a shoe-bomber today, a liq-uid explosive or a hurricane tomorrow. We’vebeen nimble in responding to some of thoseneeds, while working to ensure we bring long-term, fundamental technology changes to bear.We need to get the balance right, which is relatedto the question of the stability discussed earlier.I’m confident we’ll have a sustained, long-termcontribution to the nation’s homeland securitywith even greater future involvement.

Challenges in Homeland Security SMULN: How about our own Homeland Security &

Defense SMU? What would you identify as its biggestchallenge?

PH: The SMU is stillnew, with less than twoyears in its current con-struct. We need to give thebroader lab staff a sensethat the HS&D SMU is agreat place to work and anoutlet for their creativityand skills. Another chal-lenge is to continue adapt-ing internally to the exter-nal volatility of DHS, whichdemands a different struc-ture and different leader-ship assignments. We[HS&D SMU leadership]expect this fall to revisit our strategy and structureapproach from a discretionary investments stand-point. My hope is that in three to five years, thelaboratory will view the SMU with a sense ofmaturity and understand the key ways in which

this lab interfaces with the demands of homelandsecurity. We’re not at that sense of maturity yet;that’s a journey we’re still taking.

LN: How do you balance the several leadershiphats you wear at Sandia: Div. 8000 VP, HS&D SMUlead, and a role within the weapons program?

PH: Every job has its own natural scope, andI’m still discovering the scope of this job. When Ilook at my three primary roles, I recognize a nat-ural interplay. Homeland security and theweapons program comprise a major part, perhapsup to 75 percent, of what this division does. Tomove the site and organization forward andappropriately contribute to the corporation, I needto be working all three of those areas. There’s agreat team of people working with me on each —otherwise it wouldn’t be possible.

Future impact of RRWLN: With RRW, there was a lot of excitement ini-

tially, followed quickly by some uncertainty due to thepolitical landscape. What do you see as the futureimpact of RRW?

PH: The excitement surrounding RRW is justi-fied. We need to learn to be both excited anduncertain at the same time. Our technical role isimportant, but we shouldn’t lose sight of theother purpose the program is serving. RRW hascatalyzed what will now be, for the first time sincethe end of the Cold War, a national debate on therole of nuclear deterrence.

Obviously with that debate comes someuncertainty. I’m confident that as the debate pro-gresses and more of our national leadership stud-ies the issues, they’ll find that RRW is the rightpath forward. And, important for us, they’ll findthat the key component of RRW — strengtheningthe safety and security of our weapons systems —

involves technologies strongly rooted inwhat Sandia and Division 8000 bring tothe table.

Broad weapons lab experienceLN: You’ve worked at three of the four

English-speaking nuclear weapons labs[Sandia, Los Alamos, and the UK’s AtomicWeapons Establishment]. Does that broadexperience give you some added insight?

PH: Each of those institutions isvery different, yet very similar. They’resimilar in the high quality of the peopleand their passion for national security,but unique in either their mission spaceor business approaches. I think the

breadth of perspective — seeing how you cancome at problems from different angles — proba-bly helps me provide a fresh outlook to approach-ing situations and challenges. I personally foundthese experiences very enriching and hope thatI’m a better leader for having had them.

Public perceptionsLN: What do you think is the public perception of

this site in the local community?PH: We’re often combined with our sister lab

across the street [LLNL] and viewed as one labentity. That’s okay because we’re both importantcontributors to national security. Yet at an appro-priate level it’s important that the communityunderstands the nuanced difference we represent atSandia/California as an engineering laboratory andas a window to a larger laboratory in New Mexico.

I don’t feel the difference is well understood.You have to be realistic — we’re a small organiza-tion when you look at the totality of the Bay Areafrom an employment standpoint. We are making

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 6

Paul Hommert(Continued from page 1)

(Continued on next page)

“. . . my long-term view is tied tothe transformation of all of thenational laboratories into true,broad national security labora-tories. That’s a much largerissue and not the direct focus forus between now and 2012.”

“Each day brings new threats. Thechallenging immediacy makes it dif-ficult to apply sustained, game-changing science and technology. Thementality is ‘solve this problem’— ashoe-bomber today, a liquid explosiveor a hurricane tomorrow.”

“My hope is that in three to fiveyears, the laboratory will view the[Homeland Security] SMU with asense of maturity . . . We’re not atthat sense of maturity yet; that’s ajourney we’re still taking.”

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 7

concerted efforts to address this — Jim Simmons(8528) is working on outreach and Karen Scott(12122) works with our local legislative people atthe state and national level.We need to illustrate to thosekey constituents the role,strengths, and difference webring. But we shouldn’t everlose sight of the broader con-nectivity we have with LLNLas we work together.

We also have a great workforce that is very engaged withthis community, particularlyin the area of education. I’m continuallyimpressed with the individual efforts of commu-nity involvement, and commitment and givingthat come from our staff.

Strategic partnershipsLN: What customers, constituents, or programs

might help us in the future in terms of strategic part-nerships?

PH: Within DOE, the Office of Science hasbeen a long-term, sustaining customer with animportant role to play going forward — as indi-cated by the recent JBEI exercises and in ourefforts toward the CRF’s future. We want to con-tinue cultivating that relationship.

Within the weapons program our core NNSAcustomer remains critical to our organization andmission. This organization has done an outstand-ing job of developing and evolving entrepreneur-ial, innovative relationships with industry, mostrecently with the automotive industry. My hope isfor more relationships rooted in homeland secu-rity business because industry will play a signifi-cant role as a technology provider to first respon-ders and other end users.

LN: How do you think our relationship with LLNLwill change with their management change?

PH: Obviously, there is a bit of uncertainty.They have uncertainty themselves as they transi-tion to new leadership. In the programmaticspace — weapons, homeland security — the char-acter of our partnership and mission roles willremain very much the same. Some homelandsecurity leadership will change, but their leader-ship in weapons will make the transition acrossthe new contract.

In other areas it is only logical that with theirnew contract we explore ways to be as efficient aspossible in our partnership across East Avenue. Wewill look at shared services such as security andemergency response. We look forward to engagingwith the new leadership once they’ve gone acrosstheir contract change and are stable.

Sandia/California’s unique cultureLN: What are your impressions of Sandia/

California staff and researchers and the Californiasite’s culture, particularly in light of your previousexperience in New Mexico?

PH: When I get out and talk to staff I find theinnovation, teamwork, dedication, and enthusi-asm to be really exceptional. This is very energiz-ing — the most enjoyable thing I can do is to sitback and be amazed by the work and talent here.

All of the national laboratories are character-ized by talented and dedicated people, but this sitehas a different and unique feel. The interconnec-tivity allows the organization to respond quicklyand innovatively.

This is a function of the size, physical layout,and the fact that we manage our infrastructureand mission pretty much sitting around the sametable. The sense of community is unique com-pared with anywhere else I’ve been. We need tomaintain that special character.

Hiring foreign nationalsLN: What is your position on hiring foreign

nationals and what are your plans to address thisissue?

PH: Taking a broad view, we must ensure weare bringing the best of science to bear on ournational security problems and that we are chal-lenging our staff to be competitive on an interna-

tional level. That said, although we have hired for-eign nationals in the past and do so now as lim-ited term and postdocs, I recognize that this is acomplicated employment issue.

I’m pleased that Sandia is considering thiswith an effort led by Pat Smith (3000), who willreport to LLT later in the summer. We must con-tinually examine this and look to leverage the for-eign national community to the benefit of our siteand laboratory. My view is this should encompasspermanent hires, but we will take that decision asa laboratory.

Dealing with difficult issuesLN: From a leadership and management stand-

point how would you like to deal with the difficultissue of staff layoffs?

PH: Despite all the uncertainty, I remain con-fident that the broad base of our mission providesa stable basis for moving the organization for-ward. Could I be wrong? Clearly we see one possi-bility with the initial House appropriation for theweapons program, which would have an impact,if it were to go through unchanged.

We must continually examine how efficientlywe deliver our product to our customer base.Those efforts can, in limited situations, result intransforming part of the organization. I envisionthis happening occasionally in the future, but abroad-based impact is extremely unlikely. In anydifficult employment situation, I would hope wealways approach it in a way that reflects our cor-porate values.

Life in the Bay AreaLN: What kinds of things have you been enjoying

in the Bay Area?PH: I’m making a deliberate attempt to enjoy

the area as much as possible. I’ve been to the SanFrancisco Opera, Monterey Bay Aquarium, NapaValley, and Oakland A’s ballgames (you can’t see amajor league baseball game in New Mexico). Thismonth my wife and I are spending a long week-end in Mendocino and, time permitting, in Sep-tember we’ll attend the Shakespeare Festival inAshland, Oregon.

“The goal is to have some impact up front,instead of assessing the design after it has beenbuilt,” says Artie. “We are already seeing this inthe mechanical area, where decisions are beingmade based on the computational data providedby Jay’s team.”

A critical role in qualificationModeling and simulation will also play a

critical role in qualification, supplementing thebody of evidence for qualification, which hashistorically been based on testing and engi-

Paul Hommert(Continued from preceding page)

Sandia is applying many new tools andtechnologies to the Reliable ReplacementWarhead (RRW) program, the first newweapons program in more than 20 years. Anew paradigm for leadership — a shared rolebetween Sandia/California and Sandia/NewMexico — is an important aspect that willenable success.

Although the bid for RRW officially wasawarded to the Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory (LLNL)-Sandia/California team,Sandia/New Mexico will share in the responsi-bility. Sandia/California will continue to part-ner with LLNL on the warhead design, whichincludes systems qualification, surety, and gastransfer while New Mexico works on arming,fuzing, and firing.

The directors of Sandia’s two weapons sys-tems organizations — in California, CoreyKnapp (8200), director of National SecurityEngineering, and in New Mexico, BruceWalker (2100), director of Nuclear WeaponsSystems Engineering — agreed early on thatthey would ensure a system leadership role forthe other organization regardless of who won

the competition. “Sharing the leadership of RRW ensures

that we leverage the strengths of both sites —providing the best value to the nation — andthat we continue to strengthen the systemengineering capabilities at both the Californiaand New Mexico sites,” says Bruce.

One reason is simple logistics. RRW isabout the size of the W76-1 and W80-3 com-bined. The project is simply too big for Cali-fornia or New Mexico to execute alone.

“I expect that this will hold true for futurephases of RRW, a significant LEP [life-exten-sion program], or other future weapons pro-gram,” says Corey. “We’ll work hard to ensurethat there is a leadership role on one site anda meaningful role on the other site.”

He also thinks the shared leadership iswhat is right for the country.

“It’s not good for anyone — the nation,Sandia, or the individual sites — to be com-pletely excluded from a system leadership rolefor a number of years,” he says. “We areapplying Sandia’s resources in the best possi-ble way to this program.” — Patti Koning

Another reason to get excited about RRW isthe opportunity to fully embed computer model-ing and simulation into the weapon lifecycle engi-neering process, says modeling and simulationlead Artie Ortega (8244). For RRW, computer mod-eling is an integral part of the design and develop-ment phases.

“There is a lot of opportunity to make use ofnew modeling tools and drive tool development,”says mechanical analysis lead Jay Dike (8774). “Onthe mechanical side, we’ve been able to leverageongoing work and computing resources funded bythe Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC)program.”

Faster meshing, multiple codesAmong the advances are faster model mesh-

ing and new capabilities for using one analysismodel in multiple codes. The work of Sandia’sDesign through Analysis Realization Team (DART)has resulted in improved quality assurance andmodel management.

“The use of computer modeling and simula-tion will have a transformational effect on RRW,”says Artie. “In FY07 and FY08 the emphasis isscoping and design trade-off studies as well asspecification of component environmentalrequirements with uncertainty quantification.

The ability to rapidly develop and executemodels for design studies is critical and QMU hasbeen implemented at the very start.”

QMU (Quantified Margins and Uncertainties)is the application of science-based testing,together with modeling and simulation, to quan-tify design margins with consideration of knownvariabilities and uncertainties in the underlyingsystems, models, and databases. In other words,QMU tells you how close or far away you are frommeeting the requirements.

RRW(Continued from page 1)

neering judgment.Models will be used to make quantified state-

ments of margins and uncertainties across a broadenvironment space — performance, survivability,and surety.

“For certain environments, most notablyhostile environments where there is no adequatehigh-fidelity test capability, we anticipate thatmodeling will provide qualification evidence.Modeling will complement physical testing,resulting in a stronger qualification statement,”says Jay.

RRW brings about a new paradigm for leadership

Peanut butter and jelly. Wine and cheese. Din-ner and a movie. Some things just naturally go

together.But national security and video games? At first

glance, those two aren’t exactly a soft brie and aglass of merlot in terms of compatibility. If Sandiacomputer scientist and software engineer DonnaDjordjevich (8116) has her way, however, perhapstoday’s video game-loving youth will become ournext generation’s terrorist-fighting scientist, largelydue to the gamedevelopment skills heor she will havelearned at Sandia.

Donna is princi-pal investigator of aLaboratory DirectedResearch and Devel-opment project titled“Game Technology-Enhanced Simulationfor Homeland Secu-rity,” more com-monly known as“Ground Truth,”which immerses its users in an interactive gamingenvironment specifically designed as a trainingtool for first responders. The program was fundedand started in October 2006.

Tapping into video gaming cultureModeling, simulation, and, yes, gaming,

have been around Sandia for years. But Donna, aself-described “obsessive-compulsive gamer,” is atrue believer who suggests Sandia could do evenmore to take advantage of the video game cul-ture, perhaps even integrating gaming in a for-mal way into the Labs’ homeland security pro-

gram activities and elsewhere.“Video games are progressive, intuitive, acces-

sible, and immersive,” says Donna, making theman ideal framework for training and learning.Firemen, police officers, and other first respon-ders, she asserts, are used to being “on the scene”of an incident, so gaming mechanisms that thrustusers into a “real” environment are a great fit fortraining purposes.

Donna started playing her first video game —Super Mario Brothers on the original Nintendo —at age six, on a system purchased by her parents

but intended for her brother. She says the “inter-active simulation-based” interface offered byvideo games is more effective than the “pressplay, then walk away” style of video training.

Ground Truth is part of the “real-time strat-egy” genre of video games and an example of the“serious games” movement. A 2006 article in theNew York Times titled “Saving the World, OneVideo Game at a Time” asserts that this new gen-eration of video games “can be more than justmindless fun, they can be a medium for change. . . [The movement] is a partnership betweenadvocates and nonprofit groups that are search-ing for new ways to reach young people, andtech-savvy academics keen to explore videogames’ educational potential.”

Visually similar to SimCityVisually, Ground Truth looks somewhat like

the popular “SimCity” city-building simulationgame, with a nameless urban environment at thecenter of the action.

The current scenario involves a chlorine spill;users are required to move pieces around — muchlike a chess game — in order to best mitigate theconsequences of the incident. They can choosefrom various functional “pieces,” including fire-fighters, police officers, hazmat teams, or they canactivate staging and medical staging areas. If anaccident scene requires a roadblock to divert traffic,for example, a user might choose to send the policeto the area. Medical staging might be engaged totreat victims, though users need to keep an eye on

any toxic fogs that could impact the success of theoperation. A “progress thermometer” in the upperright-hand corner of the computer screen helpsthem gauge the success of their moves. The gametakes roughly 20 minutes to play.

Designed for incident commandersIn its current form, says Donna, Ground Truth

is designed for high-level incident commanderswho need to understand how to best allocate theirresources (hence the “big-picture” aerial view onthe screen). The game also educates users on the

dangers faced by on-scene emergencyresponders. Thoseplaying the game, forinstance, quicklylearn that only cer-tain responders areable to wear personalprotective gear, so“you don’t want tobe sending yourpolice officers into anarea where theymight face a cloud oftoxic gas.” Future

scenarios, Donna hopes, will aim to engage per-sonnel who actually respond to scenes, as well asinvolving decision-makers at higher levels andjurisdictions.

Donna plans to incorporate feedback fromauthentic emergency response personnel intoGround Truth. Although details were unavailablewhen Lab News went to press, an August 8 visit toSandia/California by members of the AlamedaCounty Public Health Department was scheduled,during which a Ground Truth demonstration wasplanned.

Roughly 10 Sandia staff members, saysDonna, are working on Ground Truth, withadditional programming, graphics, and anima-tion work being conducted by the University ofSouthern California’s GamePipe Laboratory(which is hosted by the university’s ViterbiSchool of Engineering). The project is in its firstyear of a three-year LDRD commitment.

Though she’s focusing on the work at hand,Donna can’t help but imagine bigger and betterthings with Ground Truth and the video gamingarena at Sandia.

While Ground Truth may one day become alicensable product that comes on DVD, she envi-sions DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff being wonover by a demonstration and demanding that theprogram be endorsed, paid for, and delivered byDHS to first responders all over the country.“Then maybe we’ll be ready to launch Sandia’sCenter for Interactive Gaming Applications,” shesays with a laugh.

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 9

SCREEN SHOTS from Ground Truth, a video game that immerses first responders in a realistic emergency scenario.

DURING A DEMONSTRATION to members of theAlameda County Public Health Department, researcherDonna Djordjevich makes a point about the GroundTruth simulation program. (Photo by Dino Vournas)

By Mike Janes

PROJECTED ON A LARGE SCREEN, Ground Truth allows emergency responders to see an emergency event as it unfolds across a city. (Photo by Dino Vournas)

40 years ago . . . Frozen Peas Used in ‘SquirtGun’ — Frozen peas — without butter sauce —are being used by Livermore Laboratory engineersto measure water velocity created by Sandia’sWater Pressure Velocity Generator (“squirt gun”).The peas, mixedwith the waterin the gun, pro-vide a means forhigh–speedcameras torecord the speedof the waterduring tests on adata-recordingcapsule.

Macaroni,popcorn, andplastic foamwere tried before peas. But they did not travelwith the water or show up in the pictures. Onlypeas, with a density near that of water, remainedsuspended and could be photographed properly.

“Firing” the test capsule diagonally across astream of pressurized water in the barrel of thesquirt gun simulates the conditions the capsulewould encounter while traveling 30 miles perhour in water.

Designed [in 1964] by Ralph A. Thompson,(8147), the gun is being used to determine the cap-sule’s performance and the specifications to whichits thrust mechanism must be manufactured.

30 years ago . . . Industry Co-SponsorsSandia Research — As part of the Energy Researchand Development Administration’s Combustionand Fuels Technology Branch Program, Sandia hasresponsibility for conducting research on com-bustion problems for current and future engines.

Now, as the result of a recent agreement, aportion of the research is being co-sponsored byindustry through the Motor Vehicle Manu-facturer’s Association (MVMA). Funded by contri-butions from most US automobile, trucking, andfarming equipment manufacturers, MVMA sup-ports research of common interest to participat-ing members.

The Sandia work, supported by industryunder the joint effort, is development of diagnos-tics for engine research. It encompasses four spe-cific areas — engine velocity and turbulence mea-surements using laser Doppler velocimetry;concentration and temperature measurements inengines using laser Raman spectroscopy; stratifiedcharge combustion experiments in a combustionbomb; and pulsed laser development.

All of the activities involve new techniquesfor measuring what happens inside a combustionengine — such things as how air and fuel enter,mixing processes inside the engine, and factorsaffecting efficient burn and pollutant formation.

Gas Generator Emissions Proved Safe toAircraft — A warm gas generator developed atSandia Livermore is used to control the orienta-tion of the B77 after release from an aircraft. Inuse, the generator’s propellant decomposes to(among other substances)hydrogen chloride andhydrogen sulfide. Thesegases corrode most met-als. The Air Force wasnaturally concerned thatthese corrosive gasesmight damage aircraftstructural members andelectronics components,for in some instances thegenerator is ignited verysoon after release fromboth B-52s and F-111s. Inthe case of the F-111, thegases might even enterthe crew’s air supply.Without proof that thegases weren’t contaminating either aircraft or airsupply, the Air Force was reluctant to utilize theweapon’s full range of capabilities. Karen Pash-man and Carl Schoenfelder (both 8315) devisedexperiments that convinced the Air Force therewas no problem.

20 years ago . . . New Penetrator ProvesSuccessful — Sandia engineers have come upwith a new design for a water and ice penetratorthat offers greatly improved performance atreduced cost.

The use of apointed penetrator forwater entry is some-thing of a departurefrom the more tradi-tional blunt body.Existing water entrybodies have bluntnose shapes that cre-ate a “cavity” whenthe missile enters thewater. The newpointed nose, on theother hand, becomesfully wetted over mostof its surface uponentering.

“The pointednose means we can goin at much higherspeeds — more thanthree times as fast, in

many cases — with no increase in the load thepenetrator experiences on impact,” says JackSwearengen, supervisor of Advanced SystemsDivision 8152. “A capacity for high-speed waterentry will allow us to eliminate a retardation sys-tem usually needed for blunt water re-entry bod-ies, and thusreduce their costand complexity.

“In addition,our penetratordesign shouldalso allow us touse a single bodyshape for bothwater and thickice penetration,”Jack explains.“And the shorter time-to-target provided by fasterentry may be an important capability for reachingmobile targets.

“This whole program began by bringing

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 10

WATER BURSTS from the muzzle ofthe “squirt gun” as the steel dooris released.

MOTOR VEHICLE MANUFACTURER’S ASSOCIATIONad hoc committee on combustion research convenedat Sandia in 1977. The committee included represen-tatives from Sandia, MVMA, General Motors, and theEnergy Research and Development Administration.

together the Sandia earth penetrator work andearlier work involving conical shapes at the NavalSurface Weapon Center [White Oak, Md.] — stud-ies that resulted in a new configuration for stablewater entry,” Jack continues. The new pointed

nose reduces the initial impact loadbut still allows the penetrator toremain stable.”

10 years ago . . . AltitudeRecord Set in ARM-UAV Program— The Altus 2 unmanned aero-space vehicle, built for the Atmos-pheric Radiation Measurement –Unmanned Aerospace Vehicle(ARM-UAV) program, has reachedan all-time record altitude of43,500 feet during flight demon-strations at Edwards Air Force Basein California.

Carrying a simulated payloadof more than 300 pounds, thisflight surpassed records of 41,600feet set a week earlier. This mile-

stone is just another in a series of successes for theAltus program.

Altus is being developed as a high-altitude,remotely piloted aircraft for climate research.Controlled from the ground, Altus offers theadvantage of long endurance (up to 36 hours)and high altitude (up to 65,000 feet).

The ARM-UAV program is conducting amonth-long series of flights at the Cloud andRadiation Testbed Site in September to takeadvantage of the increased altitude capability ofthe Altus 2. These flights will continue researchon the effect of atmospheric aerosols, watervapor, and clouds on global climate change.Scientists License a ‘Simple, Elegant’ Approachto Processing Silicon Wafers — Silicon wafersare heated to 500 and 1,200 degrees Celsius dur-ing manufacturing to anneal implants, drive inchemical treatments, oxidize surface layers, anddeposit chemical films.

Processing many wafers at once has theadvantage of high wafer throughput and goodtemperature uniformity, but it requires long pro-cessing times and very low slow heating of thewafer stack to avoid excessive thermal stresses.

Now two mechanical engineers developingmathematical models of high-temperature ther-mal processes have devised a novel means ofrapidly heating the silicon wafers used to fabri-cate microelectronic components. The newdevice offers the best features of traditional batchand single-wafer processors.

Rather than following a path toward increas-ing complexity, Stewart Griffiths and Bob Nilsonof Mechanics and Simulation of ManufacturingProcesses Dept. 8345 devised another approachcombining the temperature uniformity and sim-ple resistance heating of the batch furnace withthe speed of a single-wafer processor.

B-52s LIKE THIS, and F-111s as well, werethe subject of in-flight corrosion contamina-tion experiments by Carl Schoenfelder andKaren Pashman. Results indicated no dam-age to either aircraft or crew air supply.

BELL 212 HELICOPTER wasone of the aircraft used tocarry penetrator units aloft.They were dropped fromvarious altitudes into theArctic ice pack.

DAY CAMP, on the frozen sur-face of the Arctic Ocean 38miles outside Prudhoe Bay,served as a base for penetratordrop tests.

This Month in the Past, a popular featurein the Lab News for several years, pro-

vides a look back at some of the Labs’notable accomplishments spanning aperiod of almost 60 years. This month, theaccomplishments summarized here repre-sent work done primarily at the Sandia/California site. The entries were compiledand edited by Mike Lanigan (3651).

CALCULATING — Bob Nilson, left, and Stewart Grif-fiths modeled stresses experienced by silicon wafersduring heat treatment and invented a betterapproach to thermal processing, which was licensedto industry.

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 11

Let’s face it: Sales and mar-keting are, traditionally, unsa-vory concepts at Sandia. “We’rescientists, engineers, and tech-nical researchers,” the argu-ment goes. “We don’t ‘sell’ or‘market’ things.”

So what is a program calledAdvanced Sales Training (AST)doing at Sandia?

In short, it’s all about creat-ing and maintaining a pool ofskilled business developers atthe Labs who are trained to winand retain significant new busi-ness for Sandia.

Says Partnerships Develop-ment Manager Mary Monson(10114), who helped start theprogram back in 2001 in NewMexico, “Part of Sandia’sbroader mission is to ensurethat the nation is fully benefit-ing from the vast array of capa-bilities the Labs possesses, andAST speaks directly to thatundertaking. The program isalso an acknowledgement thatgenerating new business is anactual skill, something thateven the best and the brightestneed to learn.”

The AST curriculum consists of trainingclasses, seminars, application clinics, workshops,and individual or team coaching. Classes aredesigned to teach concepts and build a commonlanguage, while seminars, clinics, and workshopsexpose students to broader issues, decision-mak-ing processes, and generate business-specificapplication discussions. Coaching is available tohelp participants apply skills and concepts to spe-cific business development situations.

AST’s genesis, Mary says, started with KathleenSchulz (225) as far back as the 1990s. Kathleen,who had come to Sandia from Hewlett-Packard,saw the need for the Labs to modify and expandits mission space and slowly began to puttogether training classes in collaboration with theEducation and Training department. Once AlRomig (00004) and Jim Tegnelia (12190) agreedto champion the concept, AST was off and run-ning. Maria Weddige-Gurney (10114) nowadministers the program for Sandia/New Mexico.

The AST program, says Mary, has seen clearimpacts. A 2006 report by Perspectives (a consult-ing company that works with Sandia), MeasuredImpacts of Advanced Sales Training, asserted that “astrong base of evidence from interviewees showsthat their training led to numerous behaviorchanges that favorably affected business develop-ment results.”

California adds its own AST “twist”Denise Koker (8529) serves as manager of the

business development support group atSandia/California. Site leadership, she says, hasbeen thinking earnestly about “division develop-ment” for Div. 8000 over the past couple of years,and watching from afar the success Mary and hercolleagues have had with AST. Building on thatsuccess while adding a few unique wrinkles —noting that only four Div. 8000-based staff mem-bers out of a total of 130 AST participants hadgone through AST training in the past — Denisebegan working with California site managementlast year to deploy AST to small, targeted teamsconsisting of six staff members each. The teamsare each led by a manager.

“One of our main priorities was to puttogether small teams that represented a good mixof technical and business expertise,” says Denise.While technical savvy was a given, she says, indi-viduals with business experience were placed oneach team to ensure balance.

Denise says Sandia/California’s managementteam carefully selected the teams based on spe-cific site initiatives. The teams include Bio-FuelsStrategic Partnership; Decision Analysis & Sup-port; Rad/Nuc Countermeasures; Physical Protec-tion; Information Operations & Data Analysis;and Fiber Laser-based Subsytems.

“Business intelligence” drives AST“At the heart of AST is the gaining of ‘busi-

ness intelligence,’ which involves strong listen-ing skills and a better understanding of what apotential customer really needs,” says Denise. “Inthe past we may have gone to a customer with abag full of ideas and capabilities that we hopedmight match their needs. Today, AST shows ushow to discover the customer’s needs by askingthe right questions, listening carefully, and craft-ing solutions that are specific to the problemsfaced by that customer.”

Nathan Spencer (8774), a mechanical engi-neer whose department works on structuraldynamics and multi-physics modeling and simu-lations, has been a part of the Rad/Nuc Counter-measures AST class since last September. He saysthe program has been especially helpful inunderstanding the “discovery” process thatDenise describes.

“Sometimes there’s a temptation to do ‘tech-nology push’ with customers where we encour-age them to look at those capabilities that we’ve

Sandia’s Advanced Sales Training programaims to equip researchers with key ‘sales’ tools

historically been good at,” saysNathan. “That’s our usual ‘com-fort zone,’ since those capabilitiesand technologies are what we doand what we feel most at easewith. But that’s not necessarilywhat the customer needs.Instead, AST has helped me tounderstand the customer’s ownpressures and goals, which inturn can help to better applyour technologies to suit theirobjectives.”

Nathan also indicated thatpresentations from Sandia/NewMexico AST programs instructorshave been valuable, particularly aclass led by senior managerMichael Daily (12340). “The mod-els of program developmentMichael focused on paralleledwith the overall business andresearch structure of Sandia,”says Nathan. “Those processesare logically appealing, and theexamples he shared of their suc-cessful implementationprovided a certain level ofcredibility.”

Nathan pointed out thatbecause instructors like Michaelshare an appreciation for Sandia’sunique culture and business models,

they’ve been able to impart some telling experi-ences with newer students such as himself.

More curriculum options exploredDiv. 8000 has chosen to conduct fewer tradi-

tional training classes, instead focusing on morein-depth consulting to meet specific needs ofeach team. Other curriculum options are beingexplored as well; Krystal Kelley (8522), UniversityPrograms Administrator & Course Manager, isengaged with the University of California,Berkeley, Haas School of Business to develop aneven more integrated and comprehensive ASTinitiative.

“As the business development climate con-tinues to evolve, so will the AST program,” saysMaria Weddige-Gurney (10114), alluding to boththe Albuquerque and California sites. “The pro-gram tailors the course offerings based on listen-ing to the participants. We try to practice whatwe preach by giving the participants course offer-ings they’re interested in and by trying to presentsimilar information to them in different ways inorder to reach different people in ways they canbest understand.”

“The lab is trying to incorporate best prac-tices from industry and other labs,” Maria says,“so that we can start to step outside the mindsetof ‘Sandia is different and what everyone elsedoes doesn’t apply.’”

Denise says, too, that her intent is for contin-ued development of the AST program at the Cali-fornia site, and that she hopes AST helps increasethe discipline and “intentionality” by which Divi-sion 8000 — and all of Sandia — conducts itsbusiness development activities. “Whether it’sthe federal sector or industry, we need to be moreeffective, more efficient, and more deliberate inour approach. AST can help us to become thebroad national security laboratory that ourleadership envisions.”

LYNN PHILLIPS, president of Reinventures, delivers a presentation to Sandia staff titled “DeliveringWinning Value Propositions.” Reinventures, a consulting company that works with Sandia’sAdvanced Sales Training program, regularly conducts workshops with organizations to traincross-functional teams in how to conduct “day-in-the-life” sessions with current and potentialcustomers. ( Photo by Dino Vournas)

By Mike Janes

“Part of Sandia’s broader missionis to ensure that the nation is fullybenefiting from the vast array ofcapabilities the Labs possesses,and AST speaks directly to thatundertaking. The program is alsoan acknowledgement that generat-ing new business is an actual skill,something that even the best andthe brightest need to learn.”

— Partnerships Development ManagerMary Monson

“As the business developmentclimate continues to evolve, sowill the AST program. Theprogram tailors the courseofferings based on listeningto the participants.”

— Maria Weddige-Gurney (10114)

Kitty litter has gotten a bad rap.In any discussion of radiation detection

technologies, the popular commercial productfor feline pet owners — typically made ofsodium bentonite, an absorbent clay —inevitably comes up as a menace to detectors.Like other naturally occurring radioactive mater-ial (NORM), kitty litter can be mistaken bydetectors as a more sinister material, one thatmight be used to make a dirty bomb, forinstance.

Enter the Department of Homeland Secu-rity’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office(DNDO) and its focus on Advanced Spectro-scopic Portals (ASPs), considered to be a signifi-cant advancement in radiation detection andidentification. DNDO is proceeding with devel-opment of ASP technology, and Sandiaresearchers are proud of the quiet yet pivotalrole they played during the recently completedASP data-collection and field-operation cam-paign at the New York Container Terminal(NYCT).

Portal data collectionSandia led the multilaboratory team that

operated and collected data from the portals; thatinformation is now being used by both DNDOand the commercial vendors who designed theASP engineering development models. DNDOwill consider the results when determining whatASP equipment to purchase and deploy.

“We collected the data necessary for DNDO’sanalysts to do their jobs,” says Sandia’s LindaGroves (8134), who led the team of some 40 to 50lab personnel who served during the four-monthoperational period. “We considered ourselves the‘behind-the-scenes’ people, without whom theproject could not have succeeded.”

“The data collection effort required morethan two years of preparation and planning,” saysGene Kallenbach (5935), who served as projectmanager and lead systems engineer. Gene pointsout that a wide range of organizations wereinvolved in the process, including the PortAuthority of New York and New Jersey, the siteowner (New York Economic Development Cor-poration), Pacific Northwest National Labora-tory, the Environmental Measurements Labora-tory, HNTB (an architectural and engineeringfirm), and various construction companies.

ASPs are panel-like devices, roughly 12 to14feet high, that contain radiation detectors. Using

a sophisticated technologyknown as isotope identifica-tion, the portals screen cargo,trucks, and containers for illicitradioactive materials. At a pressconference last year, DNDODirector Vayl Oxford said theASP program “gives us a signifi-cant improvement in capabilityby allowing us to distinguishbetween threat and non-threatmaterials,” and that ASPdevices are expected to reducethe number of “nuisance”alarms that exist with somecurrent systems.

The increased accuracy ofthe detectors, Oxford said, willreduce the number of vehiclesbeing sent to secondary inspec-tion stations, leading toimproved commerce flow and adecreased burden on Customsand Border Protection (CBP)agents.

During the NYCT campaign, Sandia person-nel operated nine ASP systems developed byRaytheon, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Can-berra. Sandia’s objective, says Linda, was togather information on each of the ASP units —under real-world conditions — necessary forDNDO to make sound procurement and deploy-ment decisions. The ASP systems had previouslybeen tested at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), but

the NYCT effort was com-plementary in thatstream-of-commerce datawere gathered to supple-ment the performancetests conducted at NTS.

Isotope identificationLinda says that iso-

tope identification, a fea-ture of the new ASP por-tals, is much better atdifferentiating NORM —such as kitty litter, gran-ite, and various powdersand teas — from the dan-gerous materials of inter-est to port officials. Butthe commercial need forASP technology, due tothe emerging threat ofnuclear materials, hasonly surfaced in the pastfew years. DNDOresponded to that threatby putting out a call tothe private sector todevelop viable detectionsystems that use isotopeidentification.

Though its role during the NYCT campaignfocused on data collection, Sandia has provenequally adept at developing its own radiationdetection technologies. Its SMART Cart andSMART Jeep (Lab News, May 13, 2005), or Sensorfor Measurement and Analysis of RadiationTransients (SMART), were deployed to the NYCT(previously known as the Howland Hook Con-tainer Terminal) more than two years ago intestbed mode and remain there as part of thefacility’s secondary screening process.

NYCT construction workIn addition to the data collection role, Sandia

spearheaded the construction work at NYCT thatwas necessary for the ASP portals to work. TheLabs’ previous work at the terminal, which gavethe Sandia team an understanding of the site’sinfrastructure and concepts of operation, allowedresearchers to effectively position and map outlocations for the ASP equipment in context with

existing portals, barriers, and buildings. “Ourgoal,” says Linda, “was to create a situationwhereby the vendors’ technology could bethoroughly and realistically tested, therebygiving DNDO the best opportunity to assessthe equipment.”

Andy Vaughn (8134) was one of the Sandiaresearchers tasked with the somewhat gruelingjob of monitoring the data that appeared on com-puter screens every time a vehicle proceededthrough an ASP portal. Andy says that althoughsome days were slow and others were action-packed, he and his colleagues had to be disci-plined and attentive. “The (rad) signals, depend-ing on the level of activity, would occasionallycome at a very brisk pace,” he recalls. For exam-ple, a seemingly innocuous delivery of HomeDepot ceramic tiles, which contain higher levelsof radioactive material, would keep things jump-ing when they arrived in succession, one after theother. “Since we were responsible for collectingthe data, logging it, and notifying CBP whenthere was an alarm, things occasionally got veryhectic,” Andy says.

An enduring DNDO relationshipSandia’s effective working relationships with

NYCT officials, Linda and Gene agree, played abig role in the campaign’s success.

“Our knowledge of the site and our familiar-ity with CBP’s operators was key,” Linda says.Gene adds that “the effort was a vote of confi-dence in Sandia’s ability to succeed in what they(DNDO) knew would be a difficult task. Testingnew equipment is always a major undertaking,and the level of trust CBP had in us allowed us tohit the ground running.”

Linda says the working dynamic with thethree commercial vendors was also good. “Wewere there to help them succeed, which theyunderstood and appreciated,” she says.

The ASP truck portals, says Gene, are only thefirst such ASP systems planned by DNDO. Theagency is eager to develop a mobile version of theASP portal technology, one that could, for exam-ple, travel with law enforcement officers. Largelydue to Sandia’s success with SMART and therecently concluded NYCT campaign, DNDO hasasked Gene to serve in a consulting role with theagency’s newest development program.

Sandia is enthusiastic about establishing along-term association with DNDO, says Gene.Adds Linda, “By contributing in a meaningfulway to successful projects such as these, we canbuild a larger role for ourselves in the future.We’ve cultivated a reputation for taking our sys-tems studies work and applying it to real-worldsituations, and doing it in a practical and efficientway. There’s every reason to believe we’llcontinue to do that.”

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 12

Sandia data collection capability showcased during New YorkContainer Terminal’s Advanced Spectral Portals campaignContributions expected to lead to enduring partnership with Domestic Nuclear Detection Office

By Mike Janes

A VEHICLE at the New York Container Terminal has departed the main facility andapproaches a primary station for inspection.

THE NEW YORK CONTAINER TERMINAL site configuration included severalAdvanced Spectral Portal primary stations, one of which is shown here.

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 13

Livin’ in Livermore

Summer at Sandia/California isn’t the onlyseason during which the area is packed with

activities, but there definitely is a lot more goingon this time of year. The consistent Livermoresunshine draws people outdoors during lunchand after work to enjoy the sun, fun, exerciseand fellowship with colleagues and friends.

Sandia/California is located less than an

hour away from San Francisco, tucked quietlyin the Livermore Valley. The area is home tomore than 40 wineries, a number of golfcourses, and hiking and biking trails. Thediverse landscape lends itself to many differentactivities, all just a short distance from the lab.Here are just a handful of the activities thatCalifornia Sandians are into this summer.

EACH SUMMER, California Sandians attend various Chamber of Commerce events in order to build better relation-ships with important audiences in the community. The recent “State of the County” was addressed by SupervisorScott Haggerty, president of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Sandians Karen Scott (Government Rela-tions, 12122), Jim Simmons (Community and Civic Relations, 8528), Sean Haggerty, Supervisor Scott Haggerty, JeffManchester (Public Relations & Strategic Communications, 8528), Jane Ann Lamph [hidden] (Engineering Design,8948), and Mike Janes (Public and Media Relations, 8528) took a moment before the luncheon meeting to talkabout local issues with Haggerty.

SWISH! — Dave Hansen (8517) takes a jump shot over anopponent from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory inone of the first games of the 4th Annual 3-on-3 Summer Bas-ketball Tournament. The tournament, which is held at noonon Tuesdays and Thursdays, is sponsored by the Health, Ben-efits & Employee Services and Life Design Center, with eightteams participating, including two from LLNL.

BATTER UP! — Patty Hough (8962), a member of aSandia/LLNL softball team called the Stockpilers,steps to the plate. The team is part of the LivermoreArea Recreation & Park District Coed Business Soft-ball League and has gone to the playoffs two yearsrunning.

LUNCHTIME RUNNERS — Dan Dedrick (8757), Alex Lindblad (8774), Kevin Nibur (8758), and Jeremy Temple-ton (8757) have been running together at lunch for several years. “Our main motivation for running is exerciseand camaraderie,” says Alex, “however we are all going to run a half marathon this fall.” Each of the runnersalso has plans to either run the US Half Marathon in San Francisco or the Big Sur Half Marathon on MontereyBay, both in November.

Photos by Randy Wong

David Stout30 5997

Carol Jones Adkins20 1210

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 14

New Mexico photos by Michelle Fleming

Allen Camp30 310

Ronald Halbgewachs40 5633

Martin Stevenson35 2625

David Palmer30 12800

C. David Turner25 1652

Darrell Filkins19 6453

Christopher Flores30 2541

Daniel Sanchez35 2553

Melanie Florez20 4221

Samuel Miller20 5917

Linda Cleland-Ortiz15 1011

Tammy Eldred15 5055

Lee Cunningham25 3655

Lavender Fernandez15 12850

Tammie Muniz15 9543

Charles Potter15 4121

Donald Rogers15 9343

Janet Carpenter24 3651

Bruce Walker30 2100

Q: When is Sandia going to give a cost-of-livingincrease to its retirees? It has been so long since we’vereceived one, we can’t even recall it. The huge increasein gasoline prices and the resultant increase in foodand other products are really starting to pinch.

The failure to give its retirees regular COLAsshould be an embarrassment to Sandia. The lack ofsuch an increase is especially galling when you realizethat these retirees’ contributions funded the retirementprogram, and the amount in the fund is huge. Alsoupsetting is the fact that retirees had to reduce theirretirement in order to leave their spouses a 50 percentbenefit of the reduced retirement amount if the retireepredeceases them, while widows/widowers of presentemployees receive a full benefit without any reductionin retirement pay.

Management’s response to this question wouldbe greatly appreciated by the retirees and theirdependents.

A: Sandia’s Board of Directors has periodi-cally granted ad hoc pension increases to retireesin the past, with the most recent being a 15-per-cent increase in 2002, along with a reduction inthe cost of surviving spouse coverage. In conjunc-

tion with that last increase, Sandia announcedthat it had evaluated the feasibility of providingautomatic cost-of-living adjustments and deter-mined that such a provision was unaffordable.On an ongoing basis, Sandia periodically reviewsthe impact of inflation on retirees’ pensions. Iwould expect that any future decisions regardingad hoc adjustments will remain at the discretionof the Board of Directors, will be independent ofpast actions, and will reflect both environmentalfactors — such as the rate of inflation and theprevalence of similar increases by other privatesector plans — and cost considerations.

Regarding your statement about the cost ofsurvivor annuity coverage, current employeeswho retire or die while still employed have theirpensions reduced to provide a continuation ofpayments to a surviving spouse. While a 100-per-cent surviving spouse option has been availablesince 1999, the cost charged to the employee forchoosing that option is double the cost for a 50-percent surviving spouse annuity.

— Mark Biggs (10520)* * *

Q: Why are forgotten badges treated the same aslost/stolen badges in the new policy? If keeping abadge at home is considered perfectly safe and I knowfor a fact my badge is sitting at home where I left it,how is my neglect to pick up my badge when leavinghome any kind of security issue?

This is particularly onerous for employees withsignificant commute times, for which returning backhome to grab their badges is not an option. If suchemployees get replacement badges, they endure disci-plinary actions when they have caused no securityconcerns. The second, more appealing, option is tohead home for the day, wasting time, money, andenergy and needlessly producing greenhouse gases.

Another side effect of this policy, in practice, is toencourage employees to leave their badges in theircars, which Sandia should be discouraging.

The Badge Office could supply a replacement fora forgotten badge and simply require that the oldbadge be produced within a specified time period toavoid further escalation. Wouldn’t a process modifiedas such for forgotten badges be easy enough to imple-ment and alleviate the above concerns with absolutelyno effect on actual security issues?

A: The new policy is based on “multiple”lost/forgotten/stolen badges. Multiple lost/forgot-ten/stolen security badge claims for any individ-ual is both a security risk and a business concern.

The security concern is that lost/forgotten/stolen badges continue to be substantial issueacross the DOE complex. A person is entrusted tomaintain his/her DOE access authorization cre-dential with them whenever they enter Sandiasecurity areas, including Property ProtectionAreas. A level of trust is imposed upon all of uswho hold a security clearance by our govern-ment. If an individual has issues with badgeretention, including multiple forgotten badges,then it could potentially raise a concern ofconfidence by our customer, the Department ofEnergy. Once we reach a certain threshold wecould be required by DOE to rebadge all ouremployees.

The business concern is that Sandia will betransitioning to one standardized security badgein the near future. The cost of this new smartcard technology will significantly increase thereplacement costs for badges, so we are trying toaddress this concern earlier rather then later. Ourhistorical experience, upon which this procedurewas predicated, informed this concern.

— Sally Uebelacker (4230)

Will there be a cost-of-livingincrease for retirees; why areforgotten badges treated thesame as lost/stolen badgesin new policy?

Readers want to know . . .

SANDIA LAB NEWS • August 17, 2007 • Page 16

Maria Matos (8528) has, in a sense, lived theAmerican dream. She grew up on three con-

tinents, survived civil war and poverty, and immi-grated to the United States at the age of 18. Shehas a successful career at Sandia, a caring husbandand two grown children, and a rich personal life.

“When we first arrived in the United States,my dad had $50 in his pocket. There were 10 ofus — eight children plus my parents,” she recalls.“Now we all have our own families and own ourhomes. This is a wonderful country to live in.There is no need for children to go hungry or notgo to school.”

This year Maria was inducted into the SandiaWomen’s Wall of Fame in 2007 for her servicework, both in her community and abroad. Whatdrives her extraordinary commitment is a lifetimeof experiences that most of us have only readabout and a desire togive back.

Norm Zablocki(8944), a coworkerand personal friend,says she’s not sur-prised Maria waschosen for theWomen’s Wall ofFame.

“For as long asI’ve known her,Maria does what ittakes to get the jobdone. She’ll comeinto work on her Fri-day off or stay late ifthat is what it takes.She’s very service ori-ented,” says Norm. “She’s the same way with hercommunity service work.”

Maria has been a leader in Our Lady ofFatima, a Catholic organization started in Portu-gal. She served as secretary and vice presidentbefore becoming the first woman president of theorganization. She’s also led fundraising efforts tobuild a Catholic Church in Tracy, Calif., and sup-port a Catholic school.

She became active in the Tracy CommunityBand 13 years ago when her daughter played withthe band. She’s currently secretary and each yeartakes a week of vacation time to put on severalfundraisers for the band.

Maria was instrumental in setting up the sis-ter city program for her hometown of Tracy. Herdaughter was one of the first ambassadors to visitMemuro, Japan, Tracy’s sister city. While her twochildren were still living at home, Maria and herhusband hosted one or two exchange studentseach year.

In 2003 she took a group of teenagers fromTracy to visit her birthplace — the Azores, anarchipelago of nine islands located in the AtlanticOcean about 930 miles east of Portugal. Since thatinaugural trip, two more student groups have vis-ited the Azores, in 2005 and 2007.

“I wanted these kidsto see both the beauty ofthe Azores and the diffi-culty of life there,” shesays. The primary indus-try of the Azores istourism, so natural disas-ters and problems in thetravel industry hit hard,something Maria knowsfirsthand.

When she was sevenyears old, an earthquakedevastated the Azores,damaging her family’shome and the localeconomy. Her familymoved to Angola insouth-central Africa,which at the time was acolony of Portugal.

Maria recalls life in Angola as nice but lonely.There weren’t a lot of families around that spokePortuguese and she was the only Caucasian childat her school. Her family had a ranch and sold pro-duce to restaurants.

Then, in 1975, a military coup overthrew thePortuguese government, followed by civil war.Three different guerrilla groups were fighting forcontrol of the country, but they all wanted tooverthrow the colonists.

“A knife to my dad’s throat”“On May 25, 1975, three jeeps of heavily

armed men showed up at our house, looking forweapons and money. They separated my parentsfrom us and began questioning and then beatingus. I remember seeing my younger brothers andsisters lined up to be shot. At one point I saw aman holding a knife to my dad’s throat,” Mariarecalls. “My baby sister was asleep, but the menthought there might be money in her mattress,

so they tore it up and shewound up beneath themattress. She woke up cry-ing, but then stopped cry-ing. At this point mymother screamed becauseshe thought the baby hadbeen suffocated. I didn’tknow what had happened.I thought my father’sthroat had been cut. Butmy mother’s cries scaredthe armed men and theyleft our house.”

This began a slow andtreacherous journey out ofthe country. The familyfirst fled to a friend’shouse and later moved to

nearby caves when the area became too danger-ous. Friends would warn them when one of theguerrilla groups was approaching.

Finally, Maria’s father arranged transporta-tion to get the family to Caala City near Nova Lis-boa (now called Huambo). They left in the middleof the night.

“We had identification stickers for each ofthe guerrilla groups. At each checkpoint, we’dlook at what they were wearing and put the rightidentification on our shirts,” says Maria. “If youwere with the wrong group, they’d kill you.”

The family spent several months in Caala, liv-ing near one of the guerrilla groups. Mariaremembers spending most nights sleeping on thefloor because of gunfire and grenades. When thePortuguese government began evacuating its peo-ple, they moved to the airport and spent severalweeks waiting for a flight.

Returning to the Azores was not an option,because the islands were already flooded withrefugees. The family stayed in Lisbon, living atthe airport for a month and then in a hotel pro-vided by the government.

When their time in the hotel was up, thefamily moved to an olive farm. The housingthey’d been promised was a barn and there was

no food.“As the oldest, I was the lucky one,” says

Maria. “I worked at an inn and then as a live-innanny for the family that owned the farm. Myparents were living on no food. On the weekends,when I came home, we’d go dumpster diving forscraps. I remember falling asleep to the sounds ofgrowling stomachs.”

Maria’s father had family in the UnitedStates, but getting someone to sponsor the entirefamily was difficult. Finally she and her sisterwrote letters to one uncle, who happened to betheir godfather, promising they would never goon welfare once in the United States.

Back under one roofThat uncle and other relatives agreed, and at

the age of 18 Maria and her family arrived inAmerica. At first the family was spread out withrelatives in Northern California. As soon as herfather landed a job in Half Moon Bay, he broughtthe family back together under one roof.

Maria’s future husband was one of her neigh-bors in Half MoonBay. They lived inSacramento at first,where their twochildren wereborn. Eventuallythey moved backto Tracy, whichMaria says wasalways her home-town because itwas where she firstlived upon arrivingin the US.

In 2001 shebegan working inthe mail room atSandia, and even-tually moved to herpresent position

running Copy and Print Services for the Designand Publishing Center (8528).

Last year Maria, Norm, Lynda Hadley (8944),Dee Dee Dicker (8516), and Maria’s sister Lucy trav-eled together in Italy. On the trip, Maria was instru-mental in apprehending pickpockets on a train andlater scaring off another pair of pickpockets.

“She was the heroine of our trip,” says Lynda.“At one point someone had grabbed one of ourbackpacks and Maria chased them down.”

Norm describes Maria as an amazing lady. “Iwould trust my life to her,” she says. “With allshe’s been through, I believe that makes her atruly exceptional individual.”

Maria Matos: A story of survival and strength

By Patti Koning

CUDDLY CAT — Maria, holding her pet cat, and hersister Linda in front of their home in Angola. Herbrother Joe is in the left background. (circa 1970)

ROMAN HOLIDAY — Maria Matos, left, and Norm Zablocki on vacation in Italy,where in addition to sightseeing, Maria apprehended pickpockets.

(Photo by Lynda Hadley)

WEDDING DAY — Maria’s wedding picture. From left toright, Joe, Lucy, Maria’s husband Tony, Maria, hermother, Linda, and John. In the front row are Maria’syoungest siblings Fernando and Paula.

MARIA’S FAMILY in Angola, circa1970. Left to right: Maria, Emanuel,Joe, Linda, John, and Lucy. Her par-ents Arlindo and Maria are behindthe children.