News Briefs: December 5, 2008
Memorial for Duane Sewell set for Dec. 11
A special memorial for Duane Sewell will be held at the Robert Livermore Community Center, beginning at 6 p.m., Dec. 11. Friends and former colleagues of Sewell are invited to attend. Former Laboratory directors, senior managers and other colleagues are scheduled to speak.
Sewell, an influential Laboratory leader for more than four decades, died Oct. 22, at the age of 90.
Sewell began his Livermore career in 1952 as director of scientific operations and went on to hold a number of senior management positions, retiring in 1993 as a director-at-large. He also served as a consultant to the Department of Energy and private industry in the fields of nuclear energy and weapons.
As the first assistant secretary for DOE Defense Programs from 1978 to 1981, Sewell was credited with improving nuclear safeguards and security throughout the weapons complex.
Sewell began his professional career as a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley in 1941. He worked on the Manhattan Project developing a process to separate Uranium-235 from its other isotopes.
"Throughout Duane's career, he helped shape the Laboratory and worked continuously to ensure its place as one of the nation's premier research and development institutions," Lab Director George Miller has said. "Duane's legacy will continue and he will be remembered as a man of action and integrity, with a true love for Lawrence Livermore."
The Robert Livermore Community center is located at 4444 East Ave., Livermore.
To see Sewell's obituary, go to the news article.
Bikini Island documentary on Discovery
A documentary by Context TV on the atomic tests conducted on Bikini Island will air on the Discovery Channel's Discovery Science program at 9 p.m. this Sunday, Dec. 7.
After several years of research, several trips to the Marshall Islands and the United States, the company in collaboration with VULCAN productions will aire the show that features scientists, historians and divers at the storied Bikini Atoll to see the effects of 23 atmospheric atomic test blasts up close. With the help of a high-tech submersible, the Pagoo, they especially explore Bikini's underwater ship graveyard resulting from one of the most spectacular scientific and nuclear experiments ever conducted.
Livermore has held a key position in the radioactive monitoring at and around the Marshall Islands. The key directives of the Marshall Islands Dose Assessment and Radioecology Program conducted at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are (1) to provide technical support services and oversight in establishing radiological surveillance monitoring programs for resettled and resettling populations in the northern Marshall Islands; (2) to develop comprehensive assessments of current (and potential changing) radiological conditions on the islands; and (3) provide recommendations for remediation of contaminated sites and verify the effects of any actions taken.
Context TV is a Berlin-based independent television production company that produces non-fictional TV content, especially documentaries for the German and international market.
For more information on the program, go to Context TV.
Online exhibit features NTS airline service
For many years, the Lab operated an airline service between Livermore and the Nevada Test Site (NTS) for employees involved in testing. The plane, a Fairchild F-27F, was popularly called AMI for Aviation Methods Inc., the company that operated the service after 1979.
The Laboratory Archives Website features an online exhibit about AMI, which invites Lab employees to share their memories of the flight. Jeff Wagoner, a frequent traveler on AMI, has contributed a slide show showing the landscape and geology that passengers were treated to during the flight.
For information, call Maxine Trost, Laboratory archivist, at 422-6539.
