ROSE GOTTEMOELLER'S REMARKS ON NUCLEAR REMEMBRANCE DAY

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Republic of Marshall Islands Nuclear Remembrance Day
Remarks
Rose Gottemoeller
Acting Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security 
Majuro, Marshall Islands
March 1, 2014

As Delivered


I am so honored to be in the Marshall Islands, a nation that the United States sees as our strategic partner, our ally and our friend. Mr. President, I am honored to be here with such a distinguished group of government, community and faith leaders, members of the diplomatic corps, and honored guests.

Today, here in this beautiful place, we gather to remember and honor the past, but we also gather in the spirit of community and hope. I would like to second Ambassador Armbruster’s message of bromich (condolences); it is the right word for today. The American people remember what took place here and honor the historical and current contributions that the Marshallese people make to help promote peace and stability around the world. For many of you, that means remembering lost family members and loved ones – they are in our thoughts and prayers, as well. Today we honor their memory and I know that words can only go so far in healing wounds, but this nation has played an outsized role in the fight for a safer world and for that the United States, and the world, thanks you.

Our commitment to you, solidified by the 1986 Compact and the 2003 Amended Compact, is borne out by our obligation to defend the Marshall Islands and its people, as the United States and its citizens are defended. Of course, the mutual security of our nations is an underlying element of the special relationship between our nations. Marshallese citizens serve with distinction in our armed forces, sharing our commitment to democracy and freedom. I know that the Marshallese rate of enlistment is higher than in most U.S. states. For the Marshallese citizens that have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world, we are so grateful.

On this day – the 60th anniversary of Castle Bravo – and on each and every day, the United States recognizes the effects of its nuclear explosive testing and has accepted and acted on its responsibility. The Department of Energy continues to provide critical medical and environmental programs in the RMI, in addition to improving the provision of such services. In particular, we will continue to work with the local leadership of the four nuclear-affected atolls to assist them in realizing their environmental goals. In this regard, the Department of Energy will be employing the world’s best technologies to aid in this endeavor. This, I can assure you, is a promise from the people of the United States.

Since 2004, the United States has provided over $600 million to the Marshall Islands, in the form of direct assistance and subsidies, as well as financial support for rehabilitation of affected atolls, site monitoring, and ongoing health care programs. This year, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiated a remarkable sponsorship program to increase the science capacity in the Marshall Islands. Two Marshallese students will live and study in the San Francisco Bay Area, including at Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL) itself. The sponsorship pays tuition, room and board, travel and a living stipend. It also includes a summer internship with LLNL.

As I said at the outset, we are here to remember and honor the past today, but I also want to look to the future with purpose and with hope. In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis opened the eyes of the world to the terror of nuclear war, but there were people across the globe who were already all too familiar with nuclear dangers. People in Japan and the Marshall Islands, those downwind from the nuclear test site in Nevada, the mothers who found radioactive material in their children’s milk: all understood in first person the health effects of nuclear explosions in the atmosphere. In 1963, about a decade after Castle Bravo, President John F. Kennedy called for a complete ban on nuclear explosive testing.

“The conclusion of such a treaty,” he said, “so near and yet so far -- would check the spiraling arms race in one of its most dangerous areas. It would place the nuclear powers in a position to deal more effectively with one of the greatest hazards which man faces in 1963 -- the further spread of nuclear arms. It would increase our security -- it would decrease the prospects of war.”

We are still so near and yet so far from this goal. We were able to achieve part of this objective through the Limited Test Ban Treaty – banning tests in the water, in space and in the atmosphere. However, 51 years later, the hazard of the further spread of nuclear weapons remains and we still lack a total ban on nuclear explosive testing. Here again, we should heed President Kennedy’s words. “Surely this goal,” he said, “is sufficiently important to require our steady pursuit, yielding neither to the temptation to give up the whole effort nor the temptation to give up our insistence on vital and responsible safeguards.”

In 2009, President Obama took up the mantle of the Presidents who came before him, and laid out his own long-term vision of the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. While the United States will and must maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent for as long as nuclear weapons exist, we have properly refocused our nuclear policy for the 21st century. As outlined in the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), we are now on a path that confronts the threats we face today and those on the near horizon. This allows us to work with allies and partners to pursue arms control and disarmament measures that can lead us down the path towards a nuclear-free world.

Mindful of the devastating human consequences of nuclear war, the United States has also clearly stated that it is in our interest, and that of all other nations, that the nearly 70-year record of non-use of nuclear weapons be extended forever. We also concluded that the time for a complete and total ban on nuclear explosive testing is long overdue. U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a pivotal part of this effort.

Ratification of the CTBT is central to leading other nuclear weapons states toward a world of diminished reliance on nuclear weapons, reduced nuclear competition, and eventual nuclear disarmament. The United States now maintains a safe, secure and effective nuclear arsenal through our science-based Stockpile Stewardship program without nuclear explosive testing, which the United States halted in 1992.

The United States will be patient in our pursuit of ratification, but we will also be persistent. It has been a long time since the CTBT was on the front pages of newspapers, so we will need time to make the case for this Treaty. Together, we can work through questions and concerns about the Treaty and explosive nuclear testing. Our answers to those questions continue to grow stronger with the proven and increasing capabilities of the Stockpile Stewardship program and the verification system of the Treaty, including the International Monitoring System.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that it is precisely our deep understanding of the consequences of nuclear weapons – including the dangerous health effects of nuclear explosive testing – that has guided and motivated our efforts to reduce and ultimately eliminate these most dangerous and awe-inspiring weapons. Entry into force of the CTBT is one such essential part of our pragmatic, step by step approach to eliminating nuclear dangers. The Treaty will make the world a safer place for the Marshall Islands, the United States, for every nation around the globe.

This is not just a security issue; this is an issue of humanity, of health, of morality. We are the stewards of this Earth and we owe it to those who have fallen – to those who suffer still – to work together, one step at a time, until nuclear explosive testing is banned worldwide, getting us one step closer to our goal of the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. In closing, I want to reiterate that the United States and the world owe the Marshallese a debt of gratitude. The RMI has been a leader in countering climate change, a contributor to international security, and our partner on global issues. Together, we can and should continue to work for what President Kennedy called “a genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living.”

Finally, I can only say kommol tata! Thank you!

DEVELOPING VERY SENSITIVE METHANE-SENSING TECHNOLOGY

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Technologies to Characterize Natural Gas Emissions Tested in Field Experiments

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., October 28, 2013—A new collaborative science program is pioneering the development of ultra-sensitive methane-sensing technology.

“Given the importance of methane to global climate change, this study is essential,” said Manvendra Dubey of Los Alamos National Laboratory “This work aids both commercial and government sectors in an effort to better understand and mitigate fugitive methane emissions.”

“A significant part of understanding Man’s role in global climate change is the accurate measurement of the components that have a profound effect on climate. This project takes four of the top organizations in the discipline and sets their expertise to the test, that of measuring methane in the field and then making the results available to the larger scientific community,” he said.

The program is a joint effort on the part of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Department of Energy (DOE), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Chevron Corporation. The program was launched following a field experiment at DOE’s Rocky Mountain Oil Testing Center (RMOTC) some 35 miles north of Casper, Wyoming.

Why Measure Methane?

Methane, the principal component of natural gas, is one of many gases whose presence in the atmosphere contributes to global climate change. It is a goal of industry and scientists alike to better constrain the source flux of fugitive methane emissions from man-made activities. A key tool in the measurement of methane is to understand the capabilities of currently available airborne and ground-based sensors.

Los Alamos and Chevron have worked collaboratively on sensor technology development since 2001, while the more nascent collaborative agreement between Chevron and NASA has been effective since July 2011.

The organizations have worked hard to develop a range of technologies targeting effective and responsible exploration and production of petroleum and natural gas that will ultimately provide benefit to the environment. The majority of these research projects have been focused on upstream applications in the oil and gas sector. The recent methane controlled release airborne/in situ project marks the first time that JPL and Los Alamos have worked collaboratively on an experiment this significant, the researchers said.

The Work in the Field

The summer science campaign at RMOTC (held June 20-26, 2013) was designed to measure methane abundances released at different rates using three airborne instruments on separate aircraft, a small, unmanned aerial system (sUAS), and an array of in situ sensors. The goal is to understand the sensitivity and accuracy at measuring methane for airborne sensors.

The methane was released at metered, controlled rates and observed downwind by a 45-foot tower at each release site to examine the spatiotemporal variability of methane and local winds, while the four aircraft flew overhead to allow for sensor performance appraisal under controlled conditions.

Who’s Who on the Team

The RMOTC’s primary mission is to provide facilities for advancing technologies applicable to the energy sector to promote enhanced safety and efficient energy production. As such, it provided the testing grounds for the recent Chevron/JPL/LANL methane controlled-release experiment. JPL was responsible for deployment of remote sensing airborne instruments and Los Alamos provided ground-based sensor and modeling capabilities.

Los Alamos was responsible for the in situ science including quantifying methane using tower-mounted ground based sensors and a Picarro Global Surveyor vehicle for real-time assessment of methane concentrations and its isotopic composition while conducting driving surveys.

“We have assembled a world-class dream team that harnesses national assets at NASA's JPL and DOE's LANL, each contributing their expertise to methane detection and attribution, with JPL providing airborne remote sensing expertise and LANL focusing on modeling and in situ measurements,” said Dubey, LANL’s principal investigator.

“The project is pioneering the development of ultra-sensitive methane sensing technology to fill current gaps in quantifying fugitive leaks from petroleum extraction. With US energy independence a priority to the nation, understanding the effects of varied extraction techniques is important and calls for high-quality data.”

JPL deployed three different airborne sensors: the Next Generation Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-ng), the Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES), and the CARVE instrument suite. All of the airborne sensors have capability to detect enhanced concentrations of methane from ground sources.

“We’ve organized deployment of a suite of state-of-the art instruments available for methane detection whose performance in controlled release testing will demonstrate their efficacy for methane remote sensing – preliminary results from our data analysis reveal detection of robust plume signatures from these controlled experiments,” said Andrew Aubrey, project manager at JPL.

“This study demonstrates tools that can be utilized for investigations of natural and anthropogenic methane emissions while also informing us to the performance expected from the next generation remote sensing instruments currently being designed at JPL.”

Over the coming months the team plans to publish and disseminate the results of their combined aerial and ground experiments. This study is particularly relevant given the importance of methane to global climate change and the co-aligned goals of commercial and government sectors to better understand and mitigate fugitive emissions. The tools tested at RMOTC include those technologies that can help to allow safe and responsible production of gas in future operations.

DOE SECRETARY VISITS LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY 
DOE secretary stresses energy security during Los Alamos visit

Tours biology laboratory created in partnership with county, universities, LANL

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Sept. 3, 2013—U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz today during a visit to Los Alamos National Laboratory and the new biological laboratory built by the New Mexico Consortium (NMC) to explore alternative fuel sources from algae and other plants said that Los Alamos and all the DOE labs have a major role in addressing two key initiatives of the President.

“In view of the President's emphasis on nuclear security and climate change, the work at Los Alamos has never been more important," Secretary Moniz said.

Moniz also addressed Los Alamos employees and received briefings on the Laboratory’s nuclear weapons and intelligence work. It was the first visit by an Energy secretary to Los Alamos since 2009.

Moniz was accompanied by Rep. Ben Ray Luján and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology President Daniel Lopez.

The NMC is a non-profit formed by the three New Mexico research universities to engage universities and industry in scientific research in the nation's interest and to increase the role of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in science, education and economic development in the state.

The Biological Laboratory was built by the NMC in partnership with the County of Los Alamos, Los Alamos National Bank and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The County of Los Alamos played a critical role in the project, providing a $2.6 million toward construction of the building.

The NMC Biological Laboratory supports the LANL/NMC initiative in sustainable global energy and food security. This initiative pursues joint research on higher yielding biofuel production systems and more nutritious and higher yielding crops.

“Los Alamos National Laboratory has been forward thinking and innovative in pursuing new mechanisms to engage with universities and industry through the NMC. I am very excited about the future of this partnership. ” said NMC Executive Director Katharine Chartrand.

FTC APPROVES NEW ENERGYGUIDE LABELS FOR APPLIANCES

FROM:  FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 
FTC Approves Changes to EnergyGuide Labels for Appliances to Reflect New Tests for Measuring Energy Costs


The Federal Trade Commission has approved new EnergyGuide labels for refrigerators and clothes washers, and updated comparative energy consumption information on labels for other appliances, to help consumers compare products in light of new Department of Energy (DOE) tests for measuring energy costs.

Under the Energy Labeling Rule, manufacturers must attach yellow EnergyGuide labels to certain products, stating an annual operating cost and an energy consumption rating, and a range for comparing the highest and lowest energy consumption for all similar models.  EnergyGuide labels appear on clothes washers, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, water heaters, room air conditioners, central air conditioners, furnaces, boilers, heat pumps, pool heaters, and  televisions.  The new EnergyGuide labels for refrigerators and clothes washers will help consumers identify which models have been tested under significantly revised DOE test procedures that manufacturers will begin using next year and make proper comparisons about energy costs.

For more information about EnergyGuide labels, read Shopping  for Home Appliances? Use the EnergyGuide Label.

The Commission vote approving the Federal Register Notice was 4-0.  It is available on the FTC’s website and as a link to this press release and will be published in the Federal Register soon.  The amendments to the Rule will become effective on November 15, 2013.

U.S. LABORATORIES WORK TO FIGHT OFF CYBER ATTACKS

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATOY
Cyber Security Exercise Puts Laboratories to the Test
LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO, April 12, 2012- Intense pressure creates diamonds from coal, they say, and for Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory cyber security programs, it’s an apt comparison. Fending off thousands of computer attacks from around the world, controlling vast libraries of sensitive information, yet keeping the scientific flow of knowledge moving, cyber teams such as those at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and elsewhere in the government complex feel the squeeze.
Sharing insights and ideas from the teams’ experiences, however, can create a boon in cyber defense and incident management, and potentially provide useful input for other government agencies such as the new federal Joint Cyber Coordination Center, or JC3. The JC3 is focused on improving the national response to threats, leveraging complex resources, and sharing information to meet information security commitments to the nation.

Recently, Los Alamos National Laboratory hosted an information security exercise dubbed “Eventide” that put more than 100 participants from around the complex into a virtual maelstrom of bad news and worse events, as the simulation spewed sensitive data and cracked network security out into the wilderness of the internet. They had to assess what was happening and how to respond, as their systems were progressively compromised, sensitive data appeared on hostile web sites, and invisible “bad guys” revealed their nefarious plans.

“That was pretty scary … but most E-ticket rides are,” said one participant.
Coordinated by Dale Leschnitzer, LANL's “master of disaster,” Eventide brought together cyber and IT leaders from 20 sites, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DOE, its Cyber Forensics Laboratory and National Nuclear Security Administration, and the DOE’s national laboratories, to develop recommendations on resources they need from JC3. Not only did Eventide set the stage for the complex to ask the hard (and realistic) questions, it also acted as an excellent incubator to assist the JC3 in developing a practical path forward.

Tom Harper, LANL’s chief information officer, said: “Cyber threats target our information and data, and our productivity through vulnerabilities in our IT infrastructure. They pose great risks to our organization’s security and the nation's competitiveness.”
Harper said: “We’ve had a trial by fire and it’s toughened our teams. Now we can strengthen and optimize our joint defenses to ensure we’re a national resource ready to develop responses and templates to assist government and industry.”

Harper characterized the driving factors of the exercise: “The CIO community understands through recent events that cyber threats continue to increase. And a positive feature for us is our ability to surge resources across the complex to make our response faster, bolder, and more robust.”

A player describing himself only as “a DOE detailee” pointed out that “we’re all under attack, and now we can help each other. We’ve got a lot of smart people here, and when it comes to cyber, the government’s light years ahead of much of the industry, for good reasons. Asking the tough questions makes you think. This is why you train on real attacks and valid scenarios. It’s our chance fill the voids.”
Harper noted that the past years’ work has been to improve the Laboratory’s posture and, to a degree, misperceptions about LANL’s capabilities on these issues. Harper is chairing the National Laboratory CIO Council for 2012, in which chief information officers from across the complex are working with the federal employees to ensure that defense and response are agile and proactive, and that the focus is on agility, leveraged resources, and information sharing.

“Eventide was the way to maximize input to plans by cyber and IT leaders from DOE’s national laboratories and plants,” Harper said.

Photo caption: Dale Leschnitzer, Los Alamos National Laboratory, works through a cyber-security disaster scenario with computer specialists from across the country. Photo Los Alamos National Laboratory.

CyberSecurity.jpg
About Los Alamos National Laboratory (www.lanl.gov)
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and URS for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.

U.S. OFFICIAL SPEAKS ABOUT UNCONVENTIONAL GAS

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks Robert F. Cekuta
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs University of Warsaw Library
Warsaw, Poland
March 7, 2012
Thank you Mr. Deputy Prime Minister and please let me first of all warmly thank Poland’s Ministry of the Economy, Mexico’s Ministry of Energy, and the International Energy Agency for developing and hosting today’s event.
Today’s is exactly the sort of meeting which can be extremely useful in advancing both global energy security and global economic well being.

The United States has greatly benefitted from this development of shale gas and other unconventional gas resources. As President Obama said in his State of the Union address this past January, we now estimate that the United States has a supply of natural gas which can last America for 100 years. In 2009, the United States became the world’s leading producers of natural gas, to a significant degree because of the judicious use of new technologies that made once inaccessible deposits of natural gas able to be opened, tapped, and developed.

As a result of the development of unconventional natural gas, the United States may well begin exporting natural gas – LNG – by 2014 or 2015. Experts now speak of the United States being self sufficient in natural gas by 2035. Development of unconventional gas resources, resources which amount to over half the U.S. natural gas resources, will support over 600,000 jobs in the United States by the end of this decade.
I should join other speakers in pointing to the benefits in natural gas, a fuel that can back out others that are higher in GHG emissions and other pollutants when burned. Along these lines, there is a considerable amount of attention focused on the further development of natural gas as a fuel for transportation. There is also already a sense that the development of unconventional natural gas has rejuvenated the chemical industry in the United States with experts suggesting we could see a repeat of the 1920’s when the discoveries of oil and natural gas in the United States produced all sorts of breakthroughs and innovations in the chemical sector.

However, we also need to bear in mind the important reality that the development of unconventional natural gas, like the development or realization of other industrial or extractive processes, needs to be done carefully with due attention to potential downsides.

In the United States, this has meant the government, civil society, and private sector enterprises paying attention to the environmental factors associated with the development of natural gas. It has meant particular attention being given to all the aspects of water usage associated with the development of unconventional gas. It has meant study of reports that certain seismic events may be associated with the tapping of shale gas. It has meant too attention and study of the impacts that development of shale or other unconventional natural gas can have on communities and a society. These impacts include the influx of people to areas that had previously been less populated or had been losing population.

It means realizing and taking into account the fact technologies for developing shale or other unconventional gas are not static, but rather are changing and we need to be thinking about how to take into account these technologies and engineering innovations. Awareness of these factors highlights that we need to be attentive to the various technical, environmental, and social aspects that accompany development of unconventional natural gas deposits.

In the United States we have been continuing to work to understand these aspects of the development of unconventional gas and to act upon what we have learned. With the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board Subcommittee on Shale Gas Production, the U.S. has sought to develop – and to share – best practices from government, private, and public sectors. My colleague from Department of Energy, DAS Chris Smith, will be discussing the work of this group later on today.

Furthermore, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conducting an on- going study on hydraulic fracturing and its possible impacts on drinking water. Again, the United States is pursuing science-based studies to inform policy making as well as the discussions taking place among the public on unconventional gas.

We are engaging with others countries which may have significant shale or other unconventional gas. In doing so, we make a conscious effort to acquaint them with a much variety of views. Our sense is that there needs to be informed dialogue if we are to get out ahead of potential problems in unconventional gas development.

If are all talking about rules here today, I would like to urge that we look at the experience in the United States, including the need for the involvement, the engagement, of the various stake-holders. I would argue as well that just as the work will continue on the technical and engineering aspects of developing unconventional gas deposits, work will need to continue on the rules applying to how these deposits are developed. I would strongly urge that development of any regulations take into account sound science as a basis.

Our conviction is that if developed in a responsible, environmentally sound manner, unconventional gas can have a beneficial impact on the global energy outlook just as it has had in the United States.
Thank you.