ALSNews Vol. 230, September 17, 2003
ALSNews is a biweekly electronic newsletter to keep users and other interested parties informed about developments at the Advanced Light Source, a national user facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California. To be placed on the mailing list, send your name and complete internet address to ALSNews@lbl.gov. We welcome suggestions for topics and content.
Previous Issues are available.
Table of Contents
- New Study Extends Analysis of 9/11 Air Quality
- Livermore Joins CALIPSO Program for High-Pressure Science
- UEC Corner: Notes from the Users' Executive Committee
- Recommendations for UEC Nominees Due Monday
- Berkeley Lab Cafeteria Begins Trial Dinner Service
- Who's in Town: A Sampling of ALS Users
- Operations Update
1. NEW STUDY EXTENDS ANALYSIS OF 9/11 AIR QUALITY
(Contact: sscliff@ucdavis.edu)
A new study of World Trade Center air samples analyzed in large part at the ALS puts forth a model for how the debris pile acted like a chemical factory, cooking together the components of the buildings and their contents to give off gases of toxic metals, acids, and organics. The study also confirms preliminary reports on the size, composition, and origin of the pollutants ejected after the towers' collapse. ALS Beamline 10.3.1 user Tom Cahill (Univ. of California, Davis) was invited to present his research team's latest findings in a special symposium on the World Trade Center held on September 10 as part of the 226th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in New York City. Cahill leads the DELTA Group (Detection and Evaluation of Long-Range Transport of Aerosols), a collaboration of aerosol scientists that has made detailed studies of aerosols from volcanic eruptions and global dust storms as well as from the 1991 Gulf War oil fires.
At Ground Zero in New York City, UC Davis Professor Emeritus Thomas Cahill describes his air-quality findings to reporters on Feb. 23, 2002, just before testifying at an EPA investigative hearing in Manhattan. (Sylvia Wright/UC Davis News Service file photo)
Between October 2 and December 20, 2001, the DELTA Group collected air samples from a site about a mile north of Ground Zero. Preliminary results were released in February 2002 (see ALSNews Vol. 193), and the peer-reviewed findings have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Aerosol Science and Technology. Additional samples were collected from a rooftop adjacent to the site in May 2002 (in collaboration with the American Lung Association of New York), and analysis of both sets of data continued through late summer 2002. The samples were examined using a variety of techniques, including electron microscopy at UC Davis and scanning transmission ion microscopy at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The brightness and energy range of ALS Beamline 10.3.1 is ideally suited to soft x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy of extremely fine metal particles adhering to the sampling system's mylar substrate.
The results show unprecedented levels of aerosols--extremely fine particles (between 90 and 340 nm in diameter)--of sulfur and silicon and of metals such as iron, titanium, vanadium, nickel, copper, and zinc. The researchers argue that this unique compositional "signature," along with back-trajectory modeling, points convincingly to the debris pile as the source of the pollution, as opposed to possible regional or local sources such as upwind power plants or the diesel trucks used to haul away debris. They also theorize that the burning of items containing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) such as pipes, wiring, blinds, and upholstery produced chlorinated compounds, which supress the boiling point of metals and facilitate their release into the atmosphere in the form of aerosols. "Now that we have a model of how the debris pile worked," said Cahill, "it gives us a much better idea of what the people working on and near the pile were actually breathing." A copy of Cahill's ACS presenation is available online at http://delta.ucdavis.edu/WTC.htm.
2. LIVERMORE JOINS CALIPSO PROGRAM FOR HIGH-PRESSURE
SCIENCE
(Contact: SMClark@lbl.gov)
With the payment of a $150K contribution, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently became the seventh member of a consortium of institutions that constitute the California High-Pressure Science Observatory (CALIPSO) program, centered around a number of beamlines at the ALS. The field of high-pressure science has been revolutionized by the development of diamond-anvil pressure cells and laser heating techniques. With these devices, materials can be subjected to pressures of over eight million atmospheres (800 GPa) and temperatures of over 6000 K, far in excess of the pressures and temperatures at the center of the Earth. Materials that normally may be quite mundane can, under such extreme conditions, display new chemical and physical properties, leading to the discovery of a totally "new" periodic table as well as a better understanding of the structures of planets and small stars.
To reach these temperatures and pressures, samples have to be small; usually only a few nanoliters. Thus, high-brightness synchrotron radiation is absolutely essential to probing the state of the small quantities of matter contained in high-pressure cells. The CALIPSO program is currently focused on developing a new beamline at the ALS (Beamline 12.2.2) designed for studying materials held in diamond-anvil cells and heated with lasers. The beamline will make use of the hard x rays from a superbend magnet to enable x-ray diffraction and x-ray spectroscopic measurements. The partners in this project are Berkeley Lab; the Univ. of California (UC) Berkeley Departments of Chemistry and Earth and Planetary Sciences; the UC Santa Cruz Department of Earth Sciences; the UC Los Angeles Department of Chemistry; the Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Science (COMPRES); and LLNL.
On August 19, LLNL representatives Joe Zaug, Lou Terminello, and Patrick Allen presented a symbolic check for $150K to ALS representatives Neville Smith, Ben Feinberg, and Howard Padmore, while CALIPSO program manager Simon Clark (ALS) and other project members looked on.
3. UEC CORNER: NOTES FROM THE USERS' EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE
by Jennifer Doudna
(Contact: doudna@uclink.berkeley.edu)
This has been a busy month for the UEC. In addition to putting the final touches on plans for the upcoming Users' Meeting to be held October 6 - 8 (see http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/usermtg/), the UEC has been involved in ongoing discussions about how to streamline ALS access for foreign users. The goal is to comply with security guidelines while minimizing the difficulties encountered by foreign scientists working at the ALS. Users who have concerns in this regard are encouraged to contact a UEC member (http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/uec/UECcontacts.html).
In an exciting step towards a coordinated lobbying effort, the ALS UEC is working with other UEC committees at synchrotron light sources around the country to alert our congressional reps about the importance of continued government funding. The UEC chairs will be sending a joint letter to Senate and House members involved in budgetary decisions, and we will also be asking individual users to get involved as they see fit. More information will be provided at the Users' Meeting, or you can contact one of the UEC members to request a sample letter.
Another ongoing topic of discussion is the plan to build LUX, a linac-based ultrafast x-ray source that could be used for a wide variety of pump-probe type experiments with hard and soft x rays. A meeting held on September 10 included participants representing various fields of physics, chemistry, and biology to brainstorm about the kinds of questions that could be addressed by LUX. Users are encouraged to think about the possibilities that this kind of facility will offer and to bring ideas to the Users' Meeting or to your UEC.
Last but certainly not least, a subgroup of UEC members met on September 11 for the very important task of selecting the best vintage beverages for the Users' Meeting. We hope to enjoy the fruits of these labors with you at the meeting in October. See you there!
4. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR UEC NOMINEES DUE MONDAY
(Contact: AMGreiner@lbl.gov)
The UEC is seeking user input in developing the slate of candidates for this year's UEC election. The deadline for submitting recommendations for nominees is Monday, September 22. To make a recommendation, go to the UEC election Web site at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/uec/vote/ and click on "Nominations." Note that these are not direct nominations; a UEC committee will consider these recommendations in drawing up a candidate list. Direct nominations may also be made by petition on an official nomination form. These require the signed endorsement of five Users' Association members and must be mailed or turned in at the upcoming Users' Meeting by October 8. The final slate of candidates will be announced on the election Web site on October 14. Voting will take place online from October 14 to November 14, and the results will be posted on November 18. To vote, ALS users must have a current email address on file with the User Services Office (contact alsuser@lbl.gov to update your information).
5. BERKELEY LAB CAFETERIA BEGINS TRIAL DINNER SERVICE
Based largely on an overwhelmingly positive response to a recent survey of employees, the Berkeley Lab cafeteria began a month-long trial dinner service this week. The menu will feature such items as steaks, fresh fish, and whole roasted chickens, available each weekday evening from 5 to 7 P.M. Patrons will have the option of either take-out or in-hall dining. After a month, the dinner service will be evaluated and a decision made on whether or not to continue. Weekly dinner menus will soon be posted online at http://www.lbl.gov/Workplace/cafeteria/.
6. WHO'S IN TOWN: A SAMPLING OF ALS USERS
Following are some of the experimenters who will be collecting data during the next two weeks at the ALS.
Beamline 1.4.3
Ted Raab (Carnegie Institution of Washington)
Hoi-Ying Holman (Berkeley Lab)
Beamline 4.0.2
Jo Stohr (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory)
Jeffrey Kortright (Berkeley Lab)
Beamline 5.3.2
Gary Mitchell (The Dow Chemical Company)
Adam Hitchcock (McMaster Univ., Canada)
Steven Urquhart (Univ. of Saskatchewan, Canada)
Harald Ade (North Carolina State Univ.)
Rainer Fink (Univ. Erlangen, Germany)
Beamline 7.0.1
Steve Kevan (Univ. of Oregon)
James Allen (Univ. of Michigan)
Stephen Cramer (Univ. of California, Davis)
Byron Freelon (Berkeley Lab)
Kai Starke (Freie Univ. Berlin, Germany)
Joseph Nordgren (Uppsala Univ., Sweden)
Changyoung Kim (Yonsei Univ., Korea)
Beamline 7.3.1.1
Jo Stohr (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory)
Sergiy Minko (Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Germany)
Z.Q. Qiu (Univ. of California, Berkeley)
Beamline 7.3.3
Ersan Ustundag (California Institute of Technology)
Beamline 9.0.1
Janos Kirz (Stony Brook Univ.)
Beamline 9.3.2
Frank Ogletree (Berkeley Lab)
Suntharampillai Thevuthasan (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Beamline 10.0.1
Ron Phaneuf (Univ. of Nevada, Reno)
Z.X. Shen (Stanford Univ.)
Alfred Mueller (Justus Liebig Univ., Germany)
Beamline 10.3.2
John Bargar (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory)
Yuji Arai (U.S. Geological Survey)
7. OPERATIONS UPDATE
(Contact: Lampo@lbl.gov)
For the user runs of September 3 - 7 and 10 - 15, the beam reliability (time delivered/time scheduled) was 95%. Of the scheduled beam, 80% was delivered to completion without interruption. There were no significant outages.
Long-term and weekly operations schedules are available on the Web (http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/schedules/index.html). Requests for special operations use of the "scrubbing" shift should be sent to Bruce Samuelson (ALS-CR@lbl.gov, x4738) by 1:00 p.m. Friday. The Accelerator Status Hotline at (510) 486-6766 (ext. 6766 from Lab phones) features a recorded message giving up-to-date information on the operational status of the accelerator. A Web page showing the ring status in real time can be found at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/status/.
ALSNews is a biweekly electronic newsletter to keep users informed about developments at the Advanced Light Source, a national user facility located at Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California. To be placed on the mailing list, send your email address to ALSNews@lbl.gov. We welcome suggestions for topics and content. Submissions are due the Friday before the issue date.
LBNL/PUB-875
Editors: lstamura@lbl.gov, alrobinson@lbl.gov, amgreiner@lbl.gov
This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.