VOL. 6, NO. 1 • WINTER/SPRING 2002

PPPL Develops Detection System

to Boost Anti-terror Efforts

Anti-terrorism efforts

may get a boost from

PPPL. A team led by Lab engineer Charlie Gentile is developing a miniature nuclear

detection system to scan objects such as cars, luggage,

and vessels for specific

nuclear signatures associated

with materials employed in

nuclear weapons. This system could be installed at tollbooths and airports, as well as

mental conditions,” said

Gentile, who was involved

in developing technology

that used a PIN diode as a

tritium detector for surface

contamination in PPPL’s

Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor vacuum vessel.

The PPPL-configured

system includes a hand-held

computer that stores databases of radionuclides for

comparison, as well as three

From left are PPPL’s Steve Langish, Charlie Gentile, and Andy Carpe

with the miniature nuclear detection system.

in police cruisers to detect unauthorized nuclear materials

being transported.

The PPPL team of Gentile, Steve Langish, and Andy

Carpe configured off-the-shelf components — a solidstate detector, multi-channel analyzer, hand-held computer, pre-amp, and amplifier — into a unique system that

can determine various radiation energies, thus identifying

radionuclides. It will be tuned to flag suspect signatures

only; normal nuclear signatures from medical isotopes

and radiography equipment would not give false positives.

This capability to differentiate radionuclides with a

high degree of spatial resolution in a device that is light,

small, robust, and portable makes the PPPL application

unique. “We made it quite small,” said Gentile, Head of

PPPL’s Tritium Systems Group.

Its robustness makes it suitable for a tollbooth or

bridge entrance. A similar system using a positive intrinsic negative (PIN) diode as a detector was sent to Mars to

look at radionuclides in Martian soil. “That system, like

ours, is physically rugged and can take swings in environradiation detectors or heads to cover the whole gamut of

nuclear signatures. The heads can include, for example, a

boron trifluoride gas tube to detect neutrons; a PIN diode

with a beryllium window to detect X-rays, including lowenergy gamma rays; and sodium iodide crystals to detect

higher energy gamma rays.

Radionuclides can be recognized and differentiated

from one another since each has a distinctive energy

signature or fingerprint. “Our detector looks at a fingerprint and reveals the nuclear material present,” Gentile

said, adding that there are a lot of electronics that can be

configured to look at a nuclear spectrum.

The unit would typically be able to detect radiation

(dependent on source quantity) up to about 10 feet away

and would identify the type of radiation, but not the

quantity. “We can’t tell you how much source material

there is, just that a particular kind of radionuclide, perhaps

a transuranic or some unauthorized nuclear material, may

be present. We can’t say if it’s 1,000 curies or 200 curies;

our goal is to identify the radionuclide,” said Gentile.

Continued on page 2
PPPL NEWS • Winter/Spring 2002 Page 2

The PPPL NEWS is issued by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a research facility supported by

the United States Department of Energy and managed by Princeton University. Correspondence and

requests to reprint material should be directed to: Information Services, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, P.O. Box 451, Princeton, NJ 08543; telephone 609-243-2750; fax 609-243-2751; e-mail pppl_info@pppl.gov

.

PPPL NEWS

Information Services Head: Anthony R. DeMeo

Editor/Writer: Patti Wieser

Photographer: Elle Starkman

Layout and Graphics: Gregory J. Czechowicz

and Patti Wieser

The system could be configured with one, two, or

three heads to suit the needs of law enforcement officials.

For instance, airport officials might be interested in detecting materials such as cobalt or cesium that would be

used in a “dirty” bomb. “Law enforcement officials

would tell us what materials they might be looking for and

we would tailor the configuration to detect those materials,” said Gentile.

Continued from page 1

Detection

Miniature Nuclear Detection System

Conceptual Configuration

At tollbooths or

in police cruisers on

the turnpike, the

system would be

tuned to recognize,

but not sound an

alarm on radioactive material from

legal uses such as

medical radioisotopes. “We are only

interested in material found in weapons of mass destruction. The system would differentiate between approved and unapproved nuclear materials in the environment,” said Gentile.

The PPPL team is developing a library of specific

spectra that would be associated with nuclear weapons.

“Right now, up and down the New Jersey Turnpike, there

are probably dozens of vehicles legally approved to

transport nuclear materials such as medical isotopes.

While a Geiger counter would detect nuclear materials in

the environment, our system would detect and differentiate the materials, triggering an alarm only on those

considered a risk,” said Gentile.

Added PPPL’s Steve Langish, “The system could be

programmed to look only for specific nuclear fingerprints

or spectra used for bomb making materials.”

It also would be able to detect some shielded materials

since shielding often results in the generation of certain

energy X-rays. “Our software would be tuned to look for

X-ray spectra associated with specific shielding configurations,” said Gentile.

He added that transuranics put out several different

energies or what he

termed “very interesting spectra.” A material with several specific energy peaks

that the detector is

scanning for may be

noteworthy. “In addition, any neutron

signal in the environment would be of considerable interest,”

said Gentile.

Once a unit is in

place, it would be up

to law enforcement

officials to devise an

alerting system. “For

instance, it could be

set up at a tollbooth so that when a vehicle is flagged, a

picture is taken of it and an e-mail alert goes to authorities.

The vehicle would then be stopped a short distance

beyond the tollbooth,” said Gentile.

The start-up cost for the whole system would be

approximately $80,000, with a $17,000 price tag for each

unit, not including installation charges. “This is relatively

inexpensive,” Gentile said. ●
Page 3 PPPL NEWS • Winter/Spring 2002

Harold Furth, the Passing of a Legend

Giant of the fusion science program, he initiated the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor project at

PPPL that went on to produce world record-setting results; Colleagues gather to remember him

Former PPPL Director

Harold P. Furth, a pioneer

in the U.S. fusion program and

the originator of the Tokamak

Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR)

project, died February 21 in

Philadelphia at the age of 72.

Furth made a career of research on controlled fusion,

making countless contributions

to the science of fusion plasmas and the fundamentals of Harold Furth at TFTR

PPPL Director Rob Goldston (left) and Tina Ludescher Furth

unveiled the nameplate for the Harold P. Furth Library during the

dedication ceremony.

She noted how Furth inspired a generation of scientists younger and older than himself, both at home and

abroad, and had an “absolute commitment” to the fusion

program. “He left us too soon. He was a giant of fusion

and I will miss him,” said Davies.

Professor Chuan S. Liu, of the University of Maryland, said Furth was an experimentalist who also did great

theory and a scientist who wrote great poetry, while

Marshall Rosenbluth, of General Atomics, described him

as a brilliant, complex, fascinating person, friend, and

scientist. “The best word to describe Harold is scintillating,” said Rosenbluth.

John Willis, of the DOE’s Offfice of Fusion Energy

Sciences, read from a Langston Hughes poem about

dreams, later saying, “Harold was a master at keeping our

dreams alive.”

Nathaniel Fisch, PPPL Associate Director for Academic Affairs, talked about his early encounters with

Furth, noting how Furth was always able to solve problems. More than 20 years ago, they were both attending

a Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee meeting

in San Diego when they discovered a hotel mix-up that

had them both booked in just one room. “Harold solved

the problem. I went to another hotel,” Fisch said.

The service concluded with personal remembrances

touchingly delivered by Tina Ludescher Furth, followed

by a dedication of the PPPL Library in Furth’s name and

a reception. ●

plasma physics. He provided scientific and managerial

leadership to the world fusion program throughout his

career. In the early 1970s, he conceived the TFTR project,

the most advanced and highest performance fusion device ever constructed in the U.S. Furth served as Director

of PPPL from 1981 to 1990, during which time TFTR was

launched. The machine produced world record-setting

and major scientific results before closing down in 1997.

In 1999, Furth became Professor Emeritus of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. He was active

in research at PPPL until shortly before his death. He is

survived by his wife, Christiane A. Ludescher, of

Princeton; son, John Furth, of New York City; and sister,

Inge Steer, of Conn. (A complete obituary is on the web at

http://www.pppl.gov/news/pages/furth.html.)

Memorial Service

More than 200 friends, family members, and colleagues of Furth’s gathered at PPPL on April 25 to pay

tribute to the man they remembered as a powerful leader

of the fusion community, the father of TFTR, a brilliant

scientist, and a wonderful friend. Those close to Furth

recalled, in particular, his eloquence, brilliance, and humor.

“The nicest thing about dealing with Harold is he

made you smile,” said Kenneth Fowler, who was among

more than a dozen people offering eulogies.

“Harold led us on an amazing and wonderful adventure, and we owe him a personal debt of gratitude for this

— a debt which we can only really repay to those who

come after us,” said PPPL Director Rob Goldston.

N. Anne Davies, of the DOE’s Office of Fusion

Energy Sciences, said, “Harold was a very special person

at a very special place during a very special time.”
PPPL NEWS • Winter/Spring 2002 Page 4

Steve Davis (at right) received a 2001 Information

Technology Quality Award for Management and

Administrative Excellence from the Department of Energy (DOE) in March. Davis is Systems Development

Head for PPPL’s Computer Systems Division.

The award recognizes Davis for his “outstanding

achievement in the design, implementation, and deployment of state-of-the-art communication and remote collaboration technologies at PPPL and throughout the DOE

community.” DOE Chief Information Officer Karen Evans

presented the award to Davis at the U.S. DOE Annual

Information Technology Conference in Denver. ●

Davis Awarded for Information Technology

I

n November, the Kaul Foundation Prize for Excellence

in Plasma Physics and Technology and the PPPL

Distinguished Research and Engineering Fellows citations were given.

PPPL physicist Larry Grisham received the Kaul

Prize in recognition of his research contributions regarding the use of neutral beams for fusion applications. The

award honors Grisham “for his distinguished contributions to the understanding and improvement of the first

generation of high-power negative-ion-based neutral

Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman and PPPL Director

Rob Goldston presented the PPPL Distinguished Research and

Engineering Fellow Awards and the Kaul Foundation Prize for

Excellence in Plasma Physics and Technology Development. From

left are Tilghman, Engineering Fellow recipient Douglas McCune,

Kaul Prize recipient Larry Grisham, Research Fellow recipient Allan

Reiman, and Goldston.

Accolades Abound for PPPL Staff

PPPL Researchers Grisham, McCune, and Reiman Receive Honors

beams for fusion applications.” In experimental fusion

devices, a beam of neutral atoms is fired into plasma to

increase the temperature for the production of fusion

power. Princeton University awards the Kaul Prize to

recognize a recent outstanding technical achievement in

plasma physics or technology development by a fulltime, regular employee of PPPL.

PPPL researchers Allan Reiman and Douglas McCune

were named the PPPL Distinguished Research and Engineering Fellows, respectively.

Reiman, a physicist, was cited for his numerous

contributions in diverse topics in plasma physics, including the theory of three-dimensional plasmas found in

fusion devices called stellarators, and for his leadership in

developing innovative approaches to the stabilization of

plasmas in the design of the National Compact Stellarator

Experiment (NCSX).

McCune, Co-head of the Laboratory’s Computational Plasma Physics Group, was honored for seminal

contributions to computational plasma physics, particularly in the area of high-level data analysis in fusion

experiments, and for his more recent work in establishing

and leading the PPPL Computational Plasma Physics

Group, which has been vital to the development of modern computational physics and collaborative data analysis

capability for both PPPL and the fusion energy science

community.

The Distinguished Research and Engineering Fellow

Program, funded by the DOE, was created to recognize

members of the Laboratory’s research, and engineering

and scientific staff for their accomplishments. ●
Page 5 PPPL NEWS • Winter/Spring 2002

PPPL Staffers Receive Engineering Award

for Developing Diamond Wire Cutting

I

n February, PPPL received an award for “Project of the

Year 2002” from the Professional Engineers’ Society

of Mercer County. The Laboratory was cited for its

“Process for Use of Diamond Wire Cutting of Complex

Metal Vessels,” which was used in the disassembly of the

Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) vacuum vessel.

The Decommissioning Project developed this process for use in the safe disassembly of TFTR. The experimental fusion machine, which operated from 1983 to

1997, used deuterium and tritium to fuel experiments

beginning in 1993. As a result, the vacuum vessel was left

radioactive and contaminated with tritium. In addition to

the diamond wire cutting, PPPL staff developed lightweight concrete filling technologies to help complete the

disassembly task safely, on time, and within budget. ●

From left are Bob Parsells, Erik Perry, Geoff Gettelfinger, and Keith

Rule, the team that has filed for a provisional patent for the process

for using the diamond wire cutting for complex metal vessels.

Energy Department Recognizes Anderson

J

ack Anderson, Head of PPPL’s Environment, Safety &

Health and Infrastructure Support Department, recently

received the DOE Distinguished Associate Award. He

was recognized for his “significant contributions to the

DOE’s Safeguards and Security Directives Implementation Review Conference.”

Anderson was part of a six-member team that organized an assessment of the impacts of existing security

and counterintelligence orders on the scientific and security environment at all of the DOE’s facilities. The team

was established to address complaints about how recent

overwhelming security changes in the national laboratories were adversely affecting researchers’ ability to do

science. Members concentrated on how to balance the

need for new security and counterintelligence requirements issues with scientific freedom and progress. ●

Jerry Faul (left), Manager of the DOE Princeton Area Office,

presents PPPL’s Jack Anderson with the DOE Distinguished Associate Award.

PPPL physicists Edmund Synakowski and Randy

Wilson recently received honors from the American

Physical Society (APS). The APS gave Synakowski the

2001 Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research

and named Wilson a Fellow during the Division of

Plasma Physics meeting last fall in Long Beach, Calif.

Synakowski was cited for his contributions to experiments that demonstrated a novel means of suppressing

turbulence and the loss of heat from plasmas.

He led research on this subject at PPPL on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR). These efforts led to

joint research on this topic with physicists at General

American Physical Society Honors Two PPPL Scientists

Ed Synakowski Randy Wilson

Atomics in San

Diego.

Wilson was

named an APS

Fellow in recognition of his major pioneering

contributions to

understanding

the use of radiofrequency waves to heat and drive an electric current in

fusion plasmas. ●
PPPL NEWS • Winter/Spring 2002 Page 6

At top left, PPPL physicist Ed Synakowski talks to Patrick Charles

Callan about the youngster’s Science Fair project, “Catapult.” At

top right, a group discovers a plasma ball during Pollution Prevention Awareness Day. At bottom left, two girls enjoy a presentation

during Take Our Daugthers to Work Day. Above, Princeton University grad student Jill Foley (left) operates the Van de Graaff

generator, one of the science toys featured among the exhibits at

the girls’ conference in March. The machine generates static

electricity for “hair raising” experiences.

I

n March and April, about 500 students had a chance to discover that science can be fun when they participated in

one of four events at PPPL — Expand Your Horizons Mini-conference for Young Women in Science, Mathematics,

and Technology; Pollution Prevention Awareness Day; Science Fair; and Take Our Daughters to Work Day. For the

girls’ conference, female students from middle and senior high schools across the state came to PPPL to see science

exhibits and hear talks by various women in the sciences. The Pollution Prevention Awareness Day featured an awards

program for pollution prevention poster contest winners, as well as hands-on science demonstrations, guest speakers,

and pollution prevention displays. For Take Our Daughters to Work Day, about two dozen children came to PPPL to

see what their dads and moms do at work , as well as to listen to a fusion talk by PPPL Director Rob Goldston. During

PPPL’s annual Science Fair Day, about 17 students exhibited their science projects, which included cosmic ray

detectors, silent propulsion, magnetic aqua drives, the heart and video games, and fiber-reinforced concrete. ●

Show Them Science and They Will Come
Page 7 PPPL NEWS • Winter/Spring 2002

“Walking in the Shoes”of an Engineer

Agroup of PPPL engineers recently celebrated National Engineers Week by passing their skills onto

the next generation of engineers. This “next generation”

included five students from Trenton Central High School

and Mercer County Technical School, who came to the

Lab February 20 to “shadow” the engineers. The day,

organized by PPPL’s Alex Ilic and sponsored by the

Professional Engineers’ Society of Mercer County, also

included a presentation, a tour, and lunch.

PPPL engineer Bob Ellis (left) shows Mercer County

Technical School student Nancy He the electron cyclotron heating launcher component Ellis is working on in

one of the PPPL shops. ●

PPPL Hosts Tenth

Science Bowl

For the tenth year, PPPL hosted the New Jersey Regional Competition of the National Science Bowl®.

On February 23, twenty-two teams from 17 high schools

in New Jersey and nearby Bucks County competed in the

annual event. East Brunswick High School (in photo

below, along with PPPL Science Bowl Coordinator James

Morgan at far right and Congressman Rush Holt third

from right) placed first, followed by Governor Livingston

High School and West Windsor Plainsboro High School

North in second and third, respectively. ●

PPPL represented the fusion community during the

Global 8 Energy Ministers’ Summit earlier this month

in Detroit. PPPL’s John DeLooper and James Morgan

staffed a community fusion poster exhibit. U.S. Energy

Secretary Spencer Abraham and Michigan Governor

John Engler, as well as about 75 others from across the

world, stopped by the exhibit to hear more about fusion.

Above, DeLooper (left) discusses fusion with Governor

Engler. ●

PPPL Represents

Fusion Community

at Energy Summit
PPPL NEWS • Winter/Spring 2002 Page 8

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Laboratories house world-class facilities

where more than 30,000 scientists and engineers

perform cutting-edge research spanning DOE’s

science, energy, national security, and environmental quality missions. Interested in the latest

achievements of the National Laboratories? Then

visit the DOE Pulse at: http://www.ornl.gov/news/

pulse/.

PPPL Director Rob Goldston delivers his State of the Lab address.

PPPL Director Rob Goldston offered the following

analogical summary of PPPL’s past fiscal year to

staff, “We are really on this boat sailing together. We have

picked up speed by everyone pulling together.”

Goldston delivered this message during his “State of

the Lab” talk in the MBG Auditorium on November 20.

The Director reviewed the Lab’s achievements and discussed the future, dividing his talk into three categories:

program, operations, and external relations. He concluded by thanking staff members for their hard work and

special efforts “to sail the boat together.” ●

Goldston Delivers

State of the Lab

PPPL Speakers

Go on the Road

The PPPL Scientific Speakers’ Program kicked off in

2001. During the first year, researchers from the Lab

delivered scientific talks at 11 sites, including colleges,

universities, and research institutions. Those who participated in the program are Raffi Nazikian, Janardhan

Manickam, Ed Synakowski, Cynthia Phillips, John

Schmidt, and Daren Stotler. Not pictured is Ned Sauthoff.

The talks were given at Clarkson University in New

York; the Eastern Regional Research Center of the Department of Agriculture in Pennsylvania; Florida Atlantic; Florida Tech; Moravian College in Pennsylvania;

North Dakota State University; Southern University in

Louisiana; SUNY-Albany; the University of Louisiana,

Lafayette; The University of Massachusetts, Amherst;

the University of New Hampshire; the University of

Southern California, and Youngstown State University in

Ohio.

Important Component of Outreach

As PPPL Director Rob Goldston noted during his

State of the Lab talk, “This is an important component of

outreach to the broader scientific community.” ●

The PPPL researchers who have participated in the Speakers’

Program since it was initiated are (from left) Raffi Nazikian,

Janardhan Manickam, Ed Synakowski, Cynthia Phillips, John

Schmidt, and Daren Stotler. Not pictured is Ned Sauthoff.