Brookhaven National Laboratory and Luxfer Magtech will both be restructuring and downsizing within the next few months.
Tag: Brookhaven National Laboratory
The amount of federal funding Brookhaven National Laboratory receives could be in jeopardy based on the U.S. Department of Energy’s full budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2018, which was released last Tuesday.
Gordon Danby, a noted physicist who helped pioneer the use of Maglev transportation technology while working at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and a devoted member of the Wading River community, died Tuesday. He was 86. READ
Mel Morris (center) works with students, educating them about the local environment. (Credit: Courtesy)
He started the Open Space Stewardship Program and the Day in the Life program at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton.
He devotes his time to working with local teachers and students to educate about the outside world surrounding them.
He’s Melvyn “Mel” Morris, North Fork Environmental Council’s Richard Noncarrow Environmentalist of the Year. (more…)
COURTESY PHOTO | Drew Kinsey and mentor Omar Gould in front of a replica print of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s linear accelerator.
Walking up to receive his Mattituck High School diploma last weekend, 18-year-old Drew Kinsey knew exactly what he wanted to do with his future.
He wants to become a scientist.
And if you ask him today, he’ll say he already is.
Knowledge has always been a strength for Drew. Communicating with others has been his challenge.
“My parents would probably say I can do rocket science, no problem, but coming up with a dinner conversation would be the biggest challenge I’d take on,” he said.
As he says, everyone has something they need to work at.
Drew has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism that makes it difficult to communicate and interact with others. But Asperger’s also gave him what researchers who know him call a “mathematical mind,” a gift he said he plans to take full advantage of.
“Maybe you have to work a little on your social skills, but you can work through it and take advantage of your asset,” Drew said while sitting in his family home about two weeks before graduation. “It is not a disability in my opinion. It’s just a trade-off.”
Growing up, Drew didn’t always have this positive attitude. He said he often felt like “the odd one out.”
It wasn’t until he got the opportunity to meet others who enjoyed science and research that he began to feel like he fit in, and began focusing his knowledge.
For the past two years, Drew was part of a select group of high school students chosen to do research at Brookhaven National Laboratory, an experience he called “instrumental.”
About 150 students apply each year for a spot in the lab’s summer research program, and about 40 are accepted, said Scott Bronson, manager of K-12 programs at the lab.
“Just because you did well on a test doesn’t mean you know the subject. The real problem came to applying what I learned,” Drew said. “It was very inspirational to find a group of people who I could communicate with.”
Working with a mentor, Drew studied the lab’s linear accelerator, which produces protons used in a number of research areas, including particle physics, energy and medical applications, like cancer treatment.
Putting it simply, his job was to “troubleshoot” the accelerator, looking at the number of protons the accelerator was producing.
Drew combed through about two years’ worth of data, measuring the number of protons produced at any given time, said his mentor, Omar Gould, a scientist at the lab.
He analyzed the data, which ranged from 6 million points to over 150 million points (depending on data set), and looked at how the number of protons changed, or strayed from the average. He was looking for any patterns that may have developed. He also had to come up with an efficient way of combing through that data in the six weeks the program lasts.
“I learned a lot about how my interest could actually translate into a career,” Drew said. “It taught me that research isn’t just about finding. It’s also about finding the quickest and most effective way to collect that data, finding faster and better ways to get the job done.”
He said it also taught him the importance of communication and working as a team.
“Everyone has to work together to get the job done. My work wasn’t some single project. The reason the work matters so much is because the accelerator is used by everyone else. The lab is a cooperative.”
The scientists he worked with were impressed with Drew’s work.
“Drew has a very mathematical mind, and I would say those things are very rare,” Mr. Bronson said. “He was very focused on solving those problems that maybe somebody else didn’t have that natural gift for. Showing him how to focus that and how to contribute to the group is the good thing that has come out of it.”
Mr. Gould, who has mentored Drew the past two summers, said he made an effort to work with Drew on his communication skills and was impressed with his work ethic.
“In general he just had, fundamentally, a desire to learn and to grow,” Mr. Gould said. “His drive does stand out among other students,”
Mr. Gould also trained Drew to present his scientific findings, helping him to create a poster presentation describing his work to other scientists at the lab. Later, he used those skills to present his findings at a Mattituck-Cutchogue school board meeting in January.
Next year, Drew will attend the University of Illinois, majoring in bioengineering. He hopes to make a career out of chemistry and engineering. “Anything related to science will make me happy, but that will make me happiest,” he said.
His advice for other students with Asperger’s?
“Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something,” he said. “Figure out for yourself what you can and can’t do. A person is what they choose to be, rather than what they are labeled in a medical document.”
PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | Life flourishes in what’s now charred forest in Manorville, where the Wildfire of 2012 destroyed homes and property.
The charred and soot-covered Kawasaki motorcycle sat propped against piles of other burned debris next to a driveway on Oakwood Drive in Manorville. It was a classic, a 1985 454 Limited bike, one of George Moretti’s prized possessions.
The motorcycle is useless now, damaged beyond repair nearly a year ago in the massive wildfire that swept through this neighborhood. The house where he and his family had lived for 25 years — and everything inside it — were destroyed by the flames and smoke that jumped out from the Pine Barrens behind his property.
“The whole house was a loss except for the framework,” he said, sitting outside his trailer this week, watching as contractors worked on the shell of his house. He can’t get what happened out of his mind.
“I know it’s been a year,” Mr. Moretti said. “I think about it every day.”
The Wildfire of 2012 burned more than 1,100 acres of the Pine Barrens in Manorville and Calverton last April 9. The seventh largest wildfire in state history started on Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Upton property and, fueled by strong winds and dry tinder on the forest floor, quickly spread south and east into the Riverhead Town section of Manorville.
The blaze raged for more than 24 hours, destroying homes, injuring local firefighters and forcing the evacuation of nearby residents as the flames drew ever closer to residential neighborhoods. Dozens of fire departments helped bring the inferno under control.
Related: Controlled fires a vital tool to prevent more wildfires
Since then, fire departments across Suffolk County have been reviewing their procedures, and environmental experts and officials say plans are in the works to create new procedures for fighting wildfires and adding additional resources like water wells to the area.
A Suffolk County task force found that “communications was the major issue” in the local response to the fire, said County Executive Steve Bellone.
“That’s what you get from having a decentralized system,” he said. “It is difficult to communicate from department to department.”
PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | A 1985 Kawasaki 454 Limited bike that burned in last year’s wildfire.
But neighboring fire departments, which often work together, all said they have taken steps to smooth out how they manage their resources.
The Manorville Fire Department, which took the lead, was most affected by the blaze. It lost a brush truck — an off-road vehicle designed to fight forest fires — when flames surrounded it in the Pine Barrens and volunteers had to ditch it. Some were hurt and one suffered severe burns.
A new brush truck is being built for the department, fire officials said, and the injured firefighters have recovered.
With wildfires more likely this time of year, the Manorville department has also purchased a six-wheel ATV equipped with a hose to fight “spot” brush fires, fire officials said.
Riverhead Fire Department officials have been reviewing their plans for helping other departments, said second assistant chief Kevin Brooks. A few weeks ago, Riverhead chiefs met with chiefs from Manorville, Ridge, Wading River, Yaphank and Rocky Point departments to go over “mutual aid” procedures.
“We all work together really well,” Mr. Brooks said. “The most important thing in a wildfire like that is getting resources out as fast as possible.”
Last year, the Riverhead department raced to three different locations to fight the fire, one at the Brookhaven National Lab property, one in Manorville and another on Grumman Boulevard in Calverton. The spread-out locations made it even more challenging for firefighters to coordinate their efforts, Mr. Brooks said.
“It was a difficult one from a command standpoint because it was in three different jurisdictions,” he said.
The Riverhead department’s volunteers are trained on brush truck safety and how to drive the vehicles, Mr. Brooks said, adding that some departments were considering covering trucks to prevent injuries from falling branches.
On the whole though, Mr. Brooks says the Riverhead Fire Department can handle another wildfire.
“I think we’re ready for it,” he said. “We’ve got some of the best guys around and we have a lot of experience dealing with brush fires … I think with every large fire you get better with experience.”
Fire departments from farther east also learned from the wildfire.
Jamesport firefighters spent 29 hours working in shifts to combat the flames. First assistant chief Sean McCabe said the department has since “beefed up [its] response to these types of incidents.
“When they call for tankers we send a support pumper [truck] with it,” he said. “It’s a safety thing for us now to just assign a pumper. It gives us the ability to bring more manpower with us.”
Since the wildfire, Suffolk County officials have been working on installing fire suppression wells in the Manorville area.
Bill Faulk, a former county legislative aide who now works for Brookhaven Town, said the county’s well-drilling unit has put the equipment needed for the project out to bid and will have the first well drilled in early May.
PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | Volunteer firemen fighting the wildfires in Manorville last year.
“They’re ready to go,” he said of the drillers. “They’re all set.”
The wells will give firefighters access to water in neighborhoods that don’t have fire hydrants.
“[The wells] are all located along the roadway,” Mr. Faulk said. “This plan is to deal with some of the more remote areas. Even on the main roads, that’s more water than you have there now.”
The county will ultimately drill four or five wells this year, with another four or five planned between Brookhaven and Riverhead Towns, he said.
Richard Amper, executive director of the Pine Barrens Society environmental group, said the wells pose no threat to the area’s ecosystem. But he said the best way to prevent future fires is to use controlled burns to clear out smaller sections of the forest, something the county and state are looking into.
“The Pine Barrens are a fire-dependent ecosystem,” Mr. Amper said. “That means they must burn periodically and have been burning for thousands of years. The burning process clears the underbrush and opens pine cones and drops their seeds on the newly cleared forest floors.”
But because the Pine Barrens are near suburban communities, fires have been “suppressed regularly in the interest of protecting public health and safety,” he said.
This leads to incidents like last year, when a wealth of tinder sparked and grew into an out-of-control wildfire in moments.
Mr. Amper said the area of the Pine Barrens that burned, now littered with the skeletons of charred trees and small patches of brush, is recovering as expected.
He said officials are planning to selectively burn 1,500 to 2,000 acres of the Pine Barrens’ 105,000 acres each year to limit the chance of large wildfires in the future. Unlike last year’s wildfire, these burns would not occur all at once but would be conducted only under the best conditions in small, 20-acre increments, Mr. Amper said.
New York State Central Pine Barrens Commission executive director John Pavacic said the commission is “taking a fresh look” at updating its fire management plan. The group is also working to educate residents on how to limit wildfire damage by protecting their homes.
The commission will meet with the Flanders Riverside Northampton Community Association next week to teach good fire habits, like keeping firewood away from the side of the house.
“That’s our first foray into getting out into the community,” Mr. Pavacic said.
The commission will also host its first springtime fire academy for firefighters at the Brookhaven National Lab property next week geared toward prescribed fires and prescribed fire management, he said.
“We are getting interest not just from within our region but outside our region as well,” he said. “We have people coming from all over the country.”
Ultimately, the Manorville wildfire served as a wake-up call to local fire departments and government officials.
“The biggest lesson is that one can never become complacent,” Mr. Pavacic said. “Even though it had been a significant amount of time since the last wildfire in 1995 you can never let your guard down.”
The Suffolk County Arson Squad and the state Department of Environmental Conservation have labeled the wildfire as “intentionally set,” though officials couldn’t be reached to give an update on the investigation. Suffolk County police have offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Some residents who lost their property to the flames have recovered. But most others, like Mr. Moretti and his family, are still feeling the effects.
Paul Dill lost a pool house at his Wading River Manor Road residence, as firefighters used water from his pool to put out the fire and beat back the flames. His driveway still bears scorch marks and a nearby fence is burned to a crisp.
Mr. Dill said he has since filled in the pool and demolished the pool house.
“All things being equal, because of taxes and everything, we didn’t rebuild,” he said. He said he and his wife were fortunate not to lose their home and have done their best to move on.
“We’re not trauma people,” he said. “If something happens you get by it.”
Next door, Mr. Dill’s neighbor Neal Coleman lost tens of thousands of dollars in equipment that wasn’t covered by his insurance. Thankfully, Mr. Coleman said, his house was spared when the wind shifted just before the fire reached it.
On Oakwood Drive, Ray and Jane Kreiger were also lucky. They lost the trees in their backyard but the house was untouched.
“Fortunately, we didn’t lose anything that was sentimental or valuable,” Mr. Kreiger said.
“I’m amazed it didn’t melt the gazebo,” Ms. Kreiger said. “It was such a raging fire when it came through … we didn’t think there’d be a house standing [when we came back].”
The couple credited firefighters for drawing the line on their street and saving many homes, including theirs.
“The fire departments did a good job,” Mr. Kreiger said. “They held on, considering the massive wall of flame coming right at us. It is just amazing.”
As for the aftermath, the stumps of the burned trees on their property were pulled out only recently, after Mr. Kreiger and his son rented a lift, he said.
“We’re still cleaning up,” he said, adding the family is still waiting for payment on some insurance claims.
But not everyone has recovered yet. Stanley Krupski, who lost his repair shop on Wading River Manor Road to the fire has been battling insurance companies to get his property repaired.
“That was my life savings in the tools and parts and everything,” he said.
A year later, and he’s no closer to rebuilding his shop.
“It was very heartbreaking,” Mr. Krupski said. “I just had to turn very thing over to the attorney. I couldn’t deal with it myself.”
He said he was “disappointed” by politicians who came to stand on his property after the wildfire and voice their support but have done little to help him in his struggle.
“It was really disappointing,” he said.
Like Mr. Krupski, the Morettis down the road have some waiting to do.
Their new house was supposed to be ready a few months ago, but Hurricane Sandy and this winter’s blizzards pushed back construction.
“Everything has been delayed,” Mr. Moretti said. “If the weather had been cooperating this would have been done.”
Problems with the insurance and service companies have also caused headaches for Mr. Moretti. He said he hopes the house will be finished by the end of April. It has to be, he said; the family isn’t allowed to stay in the trailer on their property past then.
“We’re making do,” he said. “You can get frustrated but it doesn’t do you any good. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
BNL COURTESY PHOTO | Some work was stopped at Brookhaven National Laboratory after a radioactive leak was detected.
A sealed device used to check whether radiation detectors are working properly at Brookhaven National Laboratory leaked a small amount of radioactivity last month, lab authorities said. There was no threat to public health or the environment, but the lab has halted some operations while it investigates.
The radioactivity was later found on two employees, in a parking lot and private vehicle, and in one of the facility’s buildings, the lab said. The lab is reviewing policies, procedures and training programs.
The Worker Health Protection Program of Queens College is offering no-cost medical screening to former Department of Energy Brookhaven National Laboratory workers. Former workers at BNL, who worked there for more than 30 days, may be at an increased risk for occupational illness due to working with or near radiation, toxic substances and physical hazards, according to a statement from program spokesman Jonathan Corbin.
Examinations will be conducted by expert independent occupational medicine physicians in Suffolk County, he said. They’ll be evaluated for potential exposures to ionizing radiation, asbestos, lead, cadmium, silica, lasers, noise, beryllium and various other chemical and physical hazards, he said.
Exposure to these elements could have put the former workers at risk for illnesses including chronic lung disease, certain cancers or hearing or vision loss, he said. There’s also a component of the exams dealing with general wellness to test for non-occupational related conditions.
Participants will given test results with recommended follow-up steps to be taken should any abnormalities be revealed, he said. The results could be used to support an Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act claim, Mr. Corbin said.
For information on the screenings, call 1-888-241-1199.