Kirchstetter

Lab’s ‘06 Injury Data
Is Now Available

The Lab's 2006 Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Log Summary, which outlines the kind of injuries experienced by employees last year, has been posted in accordance with OSHA requirements and can be viewed here. An important statistic to note: 65 percent of all 2006 injuries were ergonomically related. Supervisors can help their employees avoid injury by asking staff to report ergonomics problems early, implementing ergonomics recommendations quickly, and by completing supervisor ergo training EH&S 22. Safe work practices also include planning ahead for spikes in workload, adjusting for shifts in people and resources, setting realistic work goals, and creating a supportive work atmosphere. Go here for a short presentation on these issues.

Monitoring Western
Electricity Markets

Goldman

Chuck Goldman, of Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, co-authored a study that examined how monitoring western electricity markets can help keep price manipulations under control. The study, which was co-funded by the DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability and the Western Interstate Energy Board, was aimed at preventing the failures in monitoring power markets that contributed to the 2000-01 western electricity crisis. In this study, Goldman and his co-authors demonstrated that econometric price prediction methods can provide a benchmark screen for identifying possible instances of uncompetitive pricing in western power markets. Read the press release here.

GRETINA'S First Module Undergoing Tests

GRETINA germanium crystals

GRETA is a proposed new gamma-ray detector whose initial stage, GRETINA, is about to begin construction at the 88-Inch Cyclotron. I-Yang Lee of the Nuclear Science Division leads the GRETINA consortium of laboratories and universities. The first $1.3 million module for the new detector, containing four segmented germanium crystals to track the gamma rays from nuclear decays, arrived at the Lab at the end of December and is undergoing physical and electronic tests. If all continues to go well, construction is scheduled to begin in August. Go here to learn more about testing GRETINA's first module.

In response to the Lab's wall-to-wall inventory, several divisions have scanned and captured more than 90 percent of their assets, with others making steady progress. Property Management applauds these efforts but cautions employees to be aware of the "Law of Diminishing Returns." There is a tendency for a continuing application of effort or skill toward a particular project or goal to decline in effectiveness after a certain level of result has been achieved. Though a large portion of assets has been found in just one month, it could take up to two months to find the more elusive items. The graph below shows the number and cost of assets counted as of Monday.