Inside

•	 Argonne Director: America needs to ‘reignite innovation ecology’ - Page 2

•	 Stay current with Argonne’s research via online resources, e-mail - Page 3

•	 Open house attracts 22,000 - Page 3

Fall 2009

argonne national laboratory is managed by uchicago argonne,

llc for the u.s. department of energy

Stimulus funding boosts Argonne’s 

R&D work, legacy cleanup

Update

The Community Newsletter of Argonne National Laboratory

The U.S. Department of Energy’s 

Argonne National Laboratory seeks 

solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology.

The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leadingedge basic and applied scientific 

research in virtually every scientific 

discipline. Argonne researchers work 

closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and 

federal, state and municipal agencies 

to help them solve specific problems, advance America’s scientific 

leadership and prepare the nation 

for a better future. With employees 

from more than 60 nations, Argonne 

is managed by UChicago Argonne, 

LLC for the U.S. Department of 

Energy’s Office of Science.

For more information on the 

laboratory, its people and its research, visit Argonne’s home page at 

www.anl.gov.

What is Argonne?

Research roundup

Here are just a few examples of Argonne’s innovative science and technology research. For details and the latest research news, visit the laboratory’s 

Web site at www.anl.gov.

Advanced Photon Source lit the way to Nobel Prize

All three recipients of the 2009 

Nobel Prize in Chemistry published papers on their awardwinning work based on data 

collected at Argonne.

Between them, biochemists 

Thomas Steitz of Yale University, 

Ada Yonath of Israel’s Weizmann 

Institute and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan 

of Cambridge, England’s Medical Research 

Center have published more than 60 papers that describe research performed at 

Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS), 

which is supported by the U.S. Department 

of Energy’s Office of Science. The three 

shared the award for their study of the structure and function of the ribosome.

Legacy waste removal on the fast track

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has enabled 

Argonne to initially hire several 

new employees to assist in the safe 

removal of transuranic (TRU) radioactive waste materials from several 

scientific research facilities. 

These waste removal activities are being conducted under two 

projects: the Next Phase Transuranic 

Disposition Campaign and a project 

that addresses the packaging and 

shipment of materials to the Idaho 

National Laboratory. The deadline to 

complete the two activities is Sept. 

30, 2011. Argonne plans to create 

three to four dozen new jobs to assist directly or indirectly in the two 

projects. 

In May, the U.S. Department of 

Energy’s Office of Environmental 

Management (EM) provided approximately $38 million in funding. 

Of that total, $10 million will be 

used to pay for the demolition of two 

buildings no longer in use.

The remaining funds will be 

split between two waste clean-up 

projects. The first project is called 

Argonne scientists (from left) Bob Scott, Rick Vondrasek and Gary 

Zinkann inspect part of the CARIBU device. Photo by George Joch.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) will 

provide funding for upgrades of 

several of Argonne’s major scientific 

facilities, including the Advanced 

Photon Source (APS), Center for 

Nanoscale Materials (CNM) and the 

Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator 

System (ATLAS).

The Advanced Photon Source 

has been awarded $7.9 million in 

funding by the U.S. Department of 

Energy’s Office of Science as part 

of ARRA. The APS is a national 

synchrotron X-ray research facility 

funded by the U.S. Department of 

Energy, Office of Science, Office 

of Basic Energy Sciences. The APS 

provides the brightest X-ray beams 

in the Western Hemisphere to more 

than 5,000 scientists worldwide.

The one-time supplemental grant 

was obtained after APS management 

submitted a detailed proposal as part of 

a competitive exercise among all four 

of the Energy Department light source 

facilities at national laboratories. The 

APS funds will be used for upgrades 

to technical components and to acquire 

new detectors. While the funds will be 

used mostly for equipment, they will 

support some jobs needed to provide 

the technical developments.

Grand challenges

Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale 

Materials (CNM) will receive more 

than $3.8 million in ARRA funding, 

which will be put to use expanding CNM’s capabilities to address 

fundamental questions related to the 

Top: Yonath. Bottom: Ramakrishnan (left) and Steitz.

(See ‘Legacy’ on page 2) (See ‘Research roundup’ on page 3)

(See ‘ARRA’ on page 2)

To build a national economy based on sustainable energy, the nation must 

first “reignite its innovation ecology,” Argonne Director Eric Isaacs told members of the National Press 

Club Sept. 15 in Washington, D.C.

The innovation ecology is the network of collaborative partnerships among researchers at universities, national laboratories and industrial labs that 

produced past inventions, such as the transistor, laser 

and Internet. These inventions created millions of 

high-quality jobs, fired national economies and raised 

quality of life around the world.

More information is online, including a video of 

Isaac’s address.

www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2009/NationalPressClub090915.html

Argonne Director: America needs to

‘reignite innovation ecology’

Argonne Director 

Eric Isaacs
the Next Phase Transuranic Waste 

Disposition Campaign. Under this 

campaign, TRU waste material is being removed from the Alpha Gamma 

Hot Cell facility in Building 212 and 

from other facilities in four other 

buildings. 

Under the second project, 

Argonne will continue shipments 

of other materials from the Alpha 

Gamma Hot Cell facility, which was 

closed in 2007, to the Idaho National 

Laboratory in accordance with a 

long-standing agreement between 

the two labs.

“Without the support of ARRA 

funds, these projects would have 

been halted and the cleanup of these 

facilities delayed,” said Dan Pancake, a newly hired environmental 

project manager. “The removal of 

the radioactive waste materials will 

pave the way for more research 

space and future construction projects at the lab.”

The two waste removal projects 

are a part of a larger EM investment 

to clean up legacy materials and facilities at Argonne. In April, EM announced that it would dedicate $99 

million in ARRA funds toward the 

clean-up of former nuclear research 

facilities at the lab. 

More information on Argonne’s 

role in the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act can be found on 

Argonne’s ARRA page.

www.anl.gov/recovery/

Illinois State Troopers thoroughly inspect the truck used to ship 

remote-handled transuranic waste from the Argonne site to the Waste 

Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. These shipments must meet 

all U.S. Department of Transportation requirements. Drivers must 

pass stringent training requirements prior to transporting TRU waste 

and shipments are also monitored by satellite at all times. Photo by 

George Joch.

A shipment of remote-handled transuranic waste leaves the Argonne 

site, escorted by the Illinois State Police. American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act funding has been helping Argonne reach one of its 

most important goals — reducing its nuclear footprint. The waste, 

a byproduct of the nation’s nuclear program, consists of tools, rags, 

protective clothing, sludge, soil and other materials contaminated 

with radioactive elements. The shipments are made in lead-lined 

casks certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Photo by 

George Joch.

(Continued from page 1)

(Continued from page 1)

grand energy challenges, including 

solar energy, catalysis, data storage 

and other areas.

The CNM provides expertise, 

instruments, and infrastructure for 

interdisciplinary nanoscience and 

nanotechnology research. Academic, 

industrial, and international researchers can access the center through its 

user program for both nonproprietary 

and proprietary research.

ARRA funding is currently allocated for:

• An expansion of the CNM 

high-performance computing cluster 

• A plasma-enhanced chemical vapor 

deposition system

• A near-infrared two-color 

transient absorption and emission 

spectrometer with 60 femtosecond 

time resolution

• A new temperature and sampling-handling stage for the Hard 

X-ray Nanoprobe

Another $614,000 may be in the 

offing for additional high scientific 

impact capital equipment beyond 

this initial allocation.

ATLAS upgrades

Plans to prepare Argonne’s 

venerable ATLAS accelerator for its 

next decade of research have received a major boost thanks to nearly 

$8.9 million in ARRA funds.

ATLAS was already in the midst 

of significant upgrades, and now 

ARRA funding will buy new infrastructure and equipment that will 

double the intensity of radioactive 

beams and raise stable-beam intensities by at least one order of magnitude, said Physics Division Director 

Robert Janssens.

ATLAS is the world’s first superconducting linear accelerator for 

heavy ions at energies in the energy 

domain best suited to study the properties of the atomic nucleus. ATLAS 

is the nation’s only user facility for 

beams of stable (non-radioactive) 

ions at these energies. About 20 percent of the time, it’s also accelerating 

beams of unstable isotopes. ATLAS 

hosts 300 to 500 scientists per year, 

just one-third to one-half of the number who apply for beam time.

Ongoing improvements to the 

accelerator include Californium 

Rare Ion Breeder Upgrade, a project that will extend ATLAS’s reach 

to include potentially hundreds 

of previously unstudied, unstable 

isotopes. The Physics Division has 

also installed a new cryostat and 

resonators that will allow for higher 

energies. In addition, about $500,000 

will be spent on revamping the liquid 

helium system to accommodate the 

new equipment.

“All this puts ATLAS in a 

unique position for the time being,” 

Janssens said. “By the beginning 

of next year, we’ll be doing experiments nobody else can do.” 

Argonne’s Laboratory Management 

System has been awarded ISO 9000 

and 14000 certification.

ISO sets internationally accepted 

standards on how organizations 

manage themselves. ISO certification was granted after a team of 

independent auditors determined that 

Argonne’s Laboratory Management 

System is in full compliance with 

ISO 9000 for business systems, and 

that the laboratory’s environmental 

systems comply with ISO 14000.

Certification is validation from a 

third party, independent source that 

the Laboratory Management System 

is built and implemented based on 

world-wide best practices. 

Argonne achieves ISO certification

“By the beginning of

next year, we’ll be doing

experiments nobody else

can do.”

Argonne offers many ways for the community to stay current with the laboratory’s research and activities.

n “What’s New at Argonne” is a free monthly community newsletter 

that contains links to articles about the people, the discoveries, and the new 

technologies emerging from the laboratory. Find out more and subscribe 

online: www.anl.gov/Media_Center/subscribe.html

n What is Argonne doing right now? Find out by subscribing to the 

laboratory’s Twitter feed for breaking news: twitter.com/argonne

n Hundreds of photos of Argonne, its people and its research are posted 

on the laboratory’s Flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/argonne/

n Stay connected to Argonne by visiting our Facebook page:

www.facebook.com/argonne

n Dozens of videos on Argonne’s YouTube channel show employees 

explaining and demonstrating their research:

www.youtube.com/user/ArgonneNationalLab

Follow lab via online newsletter, Flickr,

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn

“Without the support 

of ARRA funds, these 

projects would have been 

halted and the cleanup of 

these facilities delayed.”

2 Argonne Update/Fall 2009

ARRA

Legacy
Midwest Center for 

Structural Genomics 

determines 1,000th 

protein structure

For nearly a decade, researchers at the Midwest 

Center for Structural 

Genomics, an international 

consortium led by Argonne 

Distinguished Fellow 

Andrzej Joachimiak, have 

been patiently cracking 

the genetic code of important proteins. Using X-ray 

crystallography, researchers sketch an image of a 

protein’s atomic structure, 

laying the basis for further studies and treatments by scientists all around 

the world. On July 17, they deposited their 1,000th protein structure into the 

Protein Data Bank. Researchers using Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source 

have deposited more structures into the Protein Data Bank than any other 

light source in the world. 

Roadsides, contaminated fields could be solutions to 

fuel shortages, water pollution

The lonely, weed-choked roadsides along 

America’s highways may turn out to be an 

unexpected solution to two of the biggest 

issues facing the U.S. today — potential 

fuel shortages and water pollution. In a new 

study, Argonne environmental scientists 

Cristina Negri and Gayathri Gopalakrishnan 

considered a new idea: using contaminated 

and unused land to grow crops for biofuel. 

Using Nebraska as a test case,

 Gopalakrishnan and Negri estimated that approximately 8 million acres could be planted 

with biofuel crops like switchgrass or poplar 

trees, and the harvest could supply 22 percent 

of the state’s annual energy demand — even 

more if the state irrigated the land. Irrigation 

for biofuel plants could come from agricultural runoff and municipal wastewater; the crops 

soak them up happily.

Nanomaterial-antibody combination targets cancer

Scientists from Argonne and the University of Chicago’s Brain Tumor Center have developed a way to target brain cancer cells using inorganic titanium 

dioxide nanoparticles bonded to soft biological material. This nano-bio technology may eventually provide an alternative form of therapy that targets 

only cancer cells and does not affect normal living tissue.

“It is a real example of how nano and biological interfacing can be used 

for biomedical application,” said scientist Elena Rozhkova with Argonne’s 

Center for Nanoscale Materials. 

Collaboration tackles nuclear fuel recycling science

New research at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Argonne will use an 

innovative approach to learn how to get more energy from nuclear fuel. 

INL has won a competitive research grant that could help nuclear fuel 

be recycled or used for longer periods of time to produce more energy. The 

INL team in Idaho will collaborate with scientists at the Argonne Tandem 

Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) facility at Argonne. Pure samples of 

neptunium, americium and curium will be subjected to concentrated neutron 

irradiation in INL’s Advanced Test Reactor. The samples will be sent to the 

ATLAS facility for analysis.

These are just a few of the science and technology stories recently 

featured on Argonne’s Web site, www.anl.gov, which is updated weekly. 

Subscribe to the “What’s New at Argonne” e-mail newsletter to have science 

news delivered to your inbox every month:

www.anl.gov/Media_Center/subscribe.html.

Andrzej Joachimiak and colleagues (from 

right to left: Rg. Zhang, M. Cuff, Yc. Kim, 

B. Nocek, Y. Fan, K. Tan, J. Osipiuk, Cs. 

Chang, R. Wu) submit the Midwest Center 

for Structural Genomics’ 1,000th structured protein to the Protein Data Bank.

Environmental engineer 

Gayathri Gopalakrishnan 

studies potential biofuel 

crops.

Research roundup

(Continued from page 1)

Argonne Update/Fall 2009 3

Argonne Update is published by Argonne National Laboratory Communications and

Public Affairs. E-mail: editor@anl.gov.

Argonne hosted an estimated 

22,000 visitors at an open house 

Aug. 29.

People from all over the Chicago area enjoyed more than 100 

displays and demonstrations across 

the laboratory.

“The open house was a tremendous opportunity to greet our neighbors and answer their questions,” 

said Argonne Director Eric Isaacs. 

“Visitors learned about the great 

research we do here at Argonne, how 

our work affects their daily lives and 

how we use science and engineering 

to address some of the nation’s most 

pressing challenges.”

Open houses are held every two 

or three years. Information will be 

posted on the laboratory’s Web page 

(www.anl.gov) when the next event 

is scheduled.

Open house attracts 22,000

Mike Zach ignites a hydrogen balloon during Argonne’s open house. 

All photos on this page were taken by George Joch.

Above, Rafael Sanchez, son Christian and wife Elizabeth learn about 

the Gammasphere from Libby McCutchan. Below, Brooke Riemer 

works with a pipette. Additional images and video have been posted 

to Argonne’s Flickr photostream and YouTube channel.
The Community Newsletter of Argonne National Laboroatories

You are receiving Community Update because you are a neighbor of Argonne National Laboratory, one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest research centers. Inside are some of the laboratory’s recent science and technology highlights and other activities of interest to the community. Much more information on the laboratory and its research is online at www.anl.gov. The Web site is updated several times a week with research highlights and feature stories. At left is one of the “white deer” found at Argonne. The fallow deer (dama dama) escaped from a small zoo kept by the previous owner of part of the Argonne site. The naturally whitecolored animals are native to Asia and parts of Europe. For details, visit the Argonne home page and search for “white deer.”

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LEMONT , IL

PERMIT #87

9700 South Cass AvenueArgonne, IL 60439

argonne national laboratory is managed byuchicago argonne, llc for the

u.s. department

of energy

4 Argonne Update/Fall 2009

The Community Newsletter of Argonne National Laboratory

The grass is greener on the other side 

of the exhaust pipe.

A newly proposed collaboration 

between Argonne and the City of 

Naperville would convert “landscape 

waste” — essentially, grass and leaf 

trimmings — into one of several 

different environmentally friendly 

fuels, including ethanol, bioelectricity and hydrogen. 

This new partnership, known as 

the “Green Fuels Depot,” provides “a 

golden opportunity for Argonne to be 

associated with one of our neighboring communities in promoting new 

technologies that we have pioneered 

here at the laboratory,” said Glenn 

Keller, manager of vehicle systems in 

Argonne’s Center for Transportation 

Research. Packer Engineering and the 

College of DuPage have also taken 

part in the initiative.

Argonne will use its expertise 

and resources in biofuels processing 

and advanced vehicle technologies 

to characterize and evaluate the three 

green fuel choices before they are 

deployed by the city. The laboratory 

will also aid in the development of 

advanced vehicles that can use these 

renewable energy sources, including 

plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) and 

hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

“There is unique, refreshing 

twist to this proposal,” Keller said. 

“It’s a utopian vision to have this 

closed loop circuit, where a city can 

turn its own yard waste into fuels 

Argonne joins Naperville project to turn landscape waste into vehicle fuel

The city of Naperville produces 48,000 cubic yards of yard waste 

each year. Converted into fuel, those clippings could potentially fuel 

all 300 trucks in Naperville’s waste vehicle fleet.

that will benefit their community.”

The depot will use a gasifier 

from Packer Engineering to convert 

grass, leaves, branches and other 

biomass into syngas, a gas mixture 

that contains carbon monoxide and 

hydrogen. The syngas can then be 

used to create cellulosic ethanol, bioelectricity or hydrogen. Although the 

proposal calls for trying all three fuel 

types, Keller said it would be more 

practical to concentrate on producing 

just one fuel when the depot is built.

Because Naperville’s official 

vehicle fleet currently includes 

flex-fuel vehicles that run on both 

gasoline and ethanol, any cellulosic 

ethanol produced by the depot could 

be quickly put to use. The project 

will also focus on using syngas to 

produce green electricity for charging PHEVs and a hydrogen separation and storage process that could 

be used to fill up fuel-cell-powered 

vehicles.

Although the pilot project will 

use only 3 percent of the annual 

landscape waste collected by the 

city, if all 48,000 cubic yards of Naperville’s landscape waste were used 

in a full-scale Green Fuels Depot, 

it would be enough to fuel all 300 

vehicles in the city fleet.

U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-13th) 

has requested $4 million in federal 

funding to get the project started. It 

will require another $3.8 million in 

the second year.