Field Trip! Australia-- Completion of Well
ESD Staffers returned from their field trip (in early October 2007) to Otway, Australia and have these photos to share.
Here's what Barry Freifeld (Hydrogeology) had to say about their experience.
"We have successfully landed the assembly in the borehole. The most amazing thing was lifting the entire 120 ft-long bottomhole assembly and dropping it in using a 70-to crane and a 15-ton crane to perform a two-crane-lift over the borehole (see the truss assembly photo).
It was a Herculean effort to get everything down in three days but the workover crews were great.
Every few hours a new weather front would come through and dump buckets of water down on us."
{image details: Tom Daley in blue/red jacket with colleagues at Otway.}
Find out more about the project in Otway by reviewing to the GEO-SEQ Project located in the Geologic Carbon Sequestration Program website.
The Four "Ds" of New Leadership
ESD's new Division Director, Don DePaolo quietly stepped into the ESD office on October 1 (2007). In his first Town Hall meeting with the ESD staff on November 1, Don commented that so far it has "been fun". Drs. Steven Chu and Graham Fleming commended Ernie Majer for his great leadership as the Acting ES Division Director during the past year and "officially" handed the reigns over to Don. Read more about our new Division Director here.
And...Thanks Ernie!
{image details: You can still find Ernie's feet on the desk when he's on the phone.}
ESD's New Geologic Carbon Sequestration Program
ESD decided to review its program areas to determine if the right programs/research themes were being represented within its organization. Within the past few months, what emerged was the Geologic Carbon Sequestration Program (GCS). The GCS was formed from three projects originally in the Climate Change and Carbon Management Program (GEO SEQ, WestCarb, and ZERT). Other projects, including one sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency, will also be managed under this new program. Led by Larry Myer and Curt Oldenburg, the GCS is in a position to respond to an increasing research need by DOE and the Western region of injecting carbon underground, and more. For more information contact Curt Oldenburg and look for a reorganized and updated GCS Program website soon. ESD anticipates the logistical details associated with the formation of the Geologic Carbon Sequestration Program to be finalized by October 1, 2007.
BUD, UXO, ESD, R&D 100 What Does this All Mean?
ESD is proud to announce yet another successful R&D 100 submission for 2007. The Berkeley Unexploded Ordnance Detector, otherwise known as BUD, is a system built by Berkeley Lab staff to detect buried unexploded ordnances (explosives) in sites such as closed military bases. Congratulations to the scientific team involving the expertise and hard work of ESD scientists Alex Becker, Erika Gasperikova, Frank Morrison, and J. Torquil Smith; and the Engineering Division's Jean-Francois Beche, Larry Doolittle, Jim Greer, Robin Lafever, Alessandro Ratti, and Harold Yaver. As announced on July 5, 2007, BUD was one of three award-winning Berkeley Lab technologies for 2007. More about this story.
{image details: Cover of LBNL's R&D 100 submission. Clockwise from the top: BUD performing in field test in Yuma, AZ; map depicting UXO-contaminated land in the U.S.; examples of types of unexploded ordnances from 20 mm to 155 mm projectile.}
