Brett Lavoy keeps the pressure on alternative fuel

Mechanic and CNG cylinder inspector Brett Lavoy examines the mass air flow sensor inside one of the laboratory's CNG vehicles.

Brett Lavoy has a high-pressure job - 3,600 pounds per square inch to be precise. Few mechanics in Illinois can say that.

Only about a dozen mechanics in Illinois, including Lavoy, hold certifications to inspect gas cylinders in alternative fuel vehicles that run on compressed natural gas.

That knowledge comes in handy because Fermilab has about 35 CNG-powered vehicles. Lavoy services all of them as well as helping Argonne National Laboratory with its CNG fleet.

The two U.S. Department of Energy laboratories are among at least 80 businesses in the state to use the alternative fuel vehicles. Environment-friendly vehicles release fewer smog-producing gases, like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, and less carbon dioxide.

Although compressed natural gas can be flammable, Lavoy said, it is less dangerous to work with than gasoline. Gasoline can leak and form puddles of liquid, but CNG escapes into the air and dissipates.

Lavoy loves a challenge so when head of Transportation Services George Davidson asked for a volunteer to complete training and become a certified CNG inspector, Lavoy embraced the opportunity. He completed his training last May.

Lavoy says that most inspections and repairs of CNG and non-CNG vehicles are routine and safe but recalls one alarming incident two winters ago. He reached inside an engine to find a faulty wire, and instead touched fur. It was a raccoon, huddled inside to stay warm.

"That's probably the closest I've ever been to danger," Lavoy said, thinking back on all of his years of working with CNG vehicles.

Over time, the laboratory plans to phase out CNG in favor of more efficient alternative-fuel vehicles.

As new alternative fuel options become available, Lavoy will take on the next clean energy challenge--and maybe even the next raccoon.

-- Haley Bridger

To the Editor:

Sacha Kopp

I write in response to the recent Director's Corner by Barry Barish, "Fermilab and Project X," reprinted in the September 20 edition of Fermilab Today. I would like to thank Barish for his words of support for Project X, and particularly for his recognition of Fermilab's need to plan for a future that balances commitment to building the ILC and the responsibility for a strong U.S. accelerator-based physics program in the interval between the end of Tevatron operations and the start of the ILC.

Like Barish, many of us in the U.S. particle physics user community have noted with appreciation the efforts of Director Pier Oddone and the Steering Group to plan for Fermilab's future. Students in particular observe that there is a need for science to "come home to" after their time at the LHC. Many faculty would redirect their research efforts toward a strong Fermilab program. Physics is Fermilab's most precious asset, as attested by last year's impressive 115 PhD theses awarded using data from Fermilab experiments.

--Sacha Kopp

Sacha Kopp is an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, a collaborator on the Fermilab MINOS experiment and the past chair of the Fermilab UEC.

Shedding light on a cosmic mystery

From SLAC, Oct. 4, 2007

A SLAC astrophysicist and his collaborators may have finally solved the long-standing conundrum about the origin of cosmic rays. These streams of subatomic particles-mostly protons-continuously careen through our galaxy, bombarding Earth's atmosphere with tremendous energies. Since their discovery in 1912, researchers have marveled at how ordinary particles could attain such extraordinary energies, but despite intense experimental and theoretical efforts, these questions have eluded definitive answers.

The predominant theory has posited that cosmic rays are accelerated in the supersonic shocks surrounding supernova remnants. According to this hypothesis, turbulent magnetic fields force the particles to ricochet wildly across the shockfront, gaining energy with every crossing until eventually releasing into the cosmos at relativistic speeds. Until now, however, most evidence for this conjecture was circumstantial, relying on theory and logic rather than direct observation.

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