The greenhouse will accommodate other research being conducted in Sequim, such as bioremediation, myco- remediation and toxicity analysis.
Crush and color car parts
A Catch-22 is emerging in the automotive industry as manufacturers try to lighten the weight of cars by using more aluminum, yet they also must find better ways to recycle that aluminum. Pacific Northwest researchers have teamed with two companies to improve the separation process of aluminum from steel, plastics and other lightweight materials used in car design in an effort to maximize recycling of aluminum.
Pacific Northwest has teamed with the Albany Research Center in Albany, Ore., to develop a technique to separate aluminum casting alloys from sheet alloys or other lightweight materials based on their difference in melting temperature. A second project, which is being led by Alcoa Technical Center, of Alcoa, Penn., focuses on creating an automated process to sort up to five aluminum alloy families at once. This concept is based on a unique color that develops on the surface of the metals after a simple treatment.
Researchers provide "shock" treatment
Before losing access to Iraq last year, International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors called upon Pacific Northwest researchers to devise a method for removing uranium sludge from an underground tank. Pacific Northwest researchers had less than two weeks in which to compile, test and ship the technology.
If not removed, the uranium sludge could have been used in Iraq's nuclear weapons program. Pacific Northwest researchers relied on their expertise in retrieving nuclear waste from the DOE's network of underground radioactive waste tanks to devise a simple and inexpensive system for removing the sludge.
The Iraqi site had no electricity or water and the only access to the tank was
through one narrow pipe. DOE tanks have similar access problems. Pacific
Northwest researchers have so
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Contact: Media Relations
barbara.sorenson@pnl.gov
509-375-3776
DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
1-Jul-1999