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Tuesday, March 26
- Breakfast: All-American breakfast
- Hungarian pork goulash soup
- Twin chili cheese dogs
- Cuban steak with black-bean salsa
- Smart cuisine: Mediterranean baked tilapia
- Rachel melt panini
- Personal pizza
- Chicken BLT ranch salad
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu
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Wednesday, March 27
Lunch
- Rouladen
- Spaetzle
- Glazed carrots
- Black forest cake
Friday, March 29
Dinner
Closed
Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.
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April wellness offerings, fitness classes and discounts
Wellness offerings include fitness classes, Employee Club & Athletic League Fair, wellness classes, employee discount information, employee club and athletic league information for April.
Fitness classes:
FREE Zumba class Tuesday, April 2
If you like it, sign up for the next 7 sessions:
Tuesdays, April 9 - May 21, noon to 12:45 p.m.
Fitness Center
$45/person
FREE Zumba class Thursday, April 4
If you like it, sign up for the next 7 sessions:
Thursdays, April 11 to May 23, noon to 12:45 p.m.
Fitness Center
$45/person
Kyuki-do
Mondays and Wednesdays, April 1 to May 8, 5 to 6 p.m.
Fitness Center
$60/person
Employee Club and Athletic League Fair
Thursday, April 11, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Wilson Hall atrium
Wellness:
Lunch and Learn about Medicare
Tuesday, April 16, noon to 1 p.m.
Curia II
General information as to how it works, when to apply and what your options are. Presented by Senior Health Insurance Program, a free statewide health insurance counseling service for Medicare beneficiaries and caregivers.
Lunch and Learn: 10 Quick Steps to Fitness Goals
Thursday, April 18, noon to 1 p.m.
Curia II
Presented by Delnor Health & Wellness Center
Monday Golf League
Openings in this individual-competition league based upon handicap. Contact Ron Evans rone@fnal.gov or Gary Davis gdavis@fnal.gov. Season: April 29 to Aug. 26.
Spring Garden Club meeting
Wednesday, April 3, noon to 1 p.m.
WH7X Racetrack
Employee discount:
USA Athletic Club and Spa
For other discount information, visit the WDRS Employee Discounts Web page.
For more information, contact Jeanne Ecker in the Wellness Office at x2548 or at jecker@fnal.gov.
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Reminder: FSA debit card changes
If you participate in the Healthcare FSA and use the PayFlex Card®, please know there will be changes in how you use the card beginning April 1.
Using a personal identification number (PIN) with your debit card
Today when you use your card, you must use it as a credit card. Beginning April 1, the PayFlex cards may be used as a debit or credit card. In fact, a merchant may require you to choose "debit" and not let you use "credit." If you use "debit," then you will need a PIN, which is required to complete a debit transaction. This is true for any location that accepts your PayFlex card—pharmacies, doctors' offices and other health care locations.
This change is part of a new law (the Durbin Amendment to the 2010 Consumer Protection Act). This new law will reduce the amount that merchants have to pay for credit card fees.
To obtain a PIN for your card, please call card services on or after April 1; the number is 1-888-999-0121. If you call the number before April 1, you will hear a message asking you to call back on or after April 1. Once you have your PIN, you can begin using it right away.
If you pay with your card and choose "debit," you will have to enter your PIN when prompted. If your spouse or dependent also has a card for your account, they will use the same PIN that you use.
Debit card activation - May 1
When you received your PayFlex card, it was pre-activated. That means that you did not have to activate your card before using it. Beginning May 1, this will change. New debit cards will not be pre-activated. If you receive a replacement card on or after May 1, you will have to activate the card before you can use it. You will get a replacement card when your current card expires or if you report your card as lost or stolen. Each card will have an activation label with instructions. It will also have the toll-free number to call to activate your card: 1-877-261-9951.
For further details please review the PayFlex card PIN Frequently Asked Questions or visit the employee benefits website. If you have additional questions about these changes, please call PayFlex Member Services (the number is located on the back of your PayFlex card).
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Arc flash offers learning moment
From SLAC Today, March 21, 2013
Last week, while performing regularly scheduled maintenance on SLAC's linear accelerator, there was a mechanical equipment failure of a 12-kilovolt power supply, which resulted in an "arc flash" explosion. I am very thankful to say that no one was hurt during this serious event.
Those relatively new to SLAC may not know we had an arc flash in 2004, which resulted in serious burns to a worker and a major investigation by the Department of Energy (DOE). These events brought about major changes to how the laboratory performed work.
In last week's incident, we avoided injury because we followed our work planning and control process: define the work scope, identify and analyze hazards, develop and implement hazard controls, and perform work within controls.
Read more |
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An FY13 budget
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Fermilab Director
Pier Oddone |
Last Thursday Congress passed the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013, which funds the federal government for the rest of this fiscal year. For the Department of Energy's Office of Science, which funds Fermilab, the act essentially allocates the same budget as the 2012 fiscal year. Once sequestration is applied, the Office of Science will receive approximately 5 percent less than it did last year.
What does that mean for Fermilab? The Office of High Energy Physics has given us an estimate of our final budget for this fiscal year—approximately $368 million, 9 percent lower than last year. The reason we get a larger-than-average cut relative to the continuing resolution is that, under the President's budget request for FY13, we had already been cut to an expected $375 million. We have been spending at a lower level since the beginning of the year in anticipation of these cuts, proposed last February. However, sequestration has resulted in even greater cuts than anticipated, which has required some significant adjustments on our part.
To accommodate these additional cuts with minimum impact to our scientific mission and our staff, we have made a proposal to DOE to reallocate some funds from projects, which can take some delay. We expect no furloughs under this scenario and we plan to operate the accelerators beginning in June. These types of requests to DOE require high-level governmental approval, and sequestration has resulted in many requests of this kind. As a result, it may be a month or more before we know whether our request has been approved.
Until then, we will not know the final impact of this year’s budget on the lab. We hope that there will be a willingness in DOE, the Office of Management and Budget, and Congress to attenuate the damage that a rigid sequestration entails and that the re-programming requests that affect Fermilab will be approved.
I will discuss the latest on the lab's current and future budgets, projects and programs at an all-hands meeting scheduled for Thursday, April 25, at 9:30 a.m. in the auditorium. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with your questions at staffquestions@fnal.gov.
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Emerging from the woods
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Two deer welcome the warm sun near Eola Road. Photo: Marty Murphy, AD
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Electrical conduit and panel board installation at LArTF
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Electrical conduit and breaker panel board installation at ground level and on the MicroBooNE work platform level is nearing completion. Photo: Dixon Bogert, PPD
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Whittaker Construction Company, contracted to construct the Liquid-Argon Test Facility, and their electrical subcontractor, Frank Marshall Electric, have nearly completed the installation of electrical conduits and circuit breaker panel boards. In the upper portion of the above picture, one can see panels and conduits at an elevation of 746 feet, which is ground level. The platform in the bottom of the picture is at an elevation of 733 feet and will provide access to the top of the MicroBooNE liquid-argon cryostat. This level will be the location of some of the experiment's front-end electronics. Wiring in the conduits and termination at the breakers and receptacle boxes, lighting fixtures, and HVAC equipment will begin shortly. Once the wiring is complete, building systems commissioning can begin.
In the picture below, one can see the underside frame of the work platform (at elevation 733 feet) above the LArTF cylinder floor, which is at elevation 706 feet. This includes the lower "balconies" for access to the MicroBooNE cryostat electrical feed-through ports. At the pit floor level, the MicroBooNE experiment will install the refrigeration plant, which will cool the liquid argon. The large vertical pipe for the emergency exhaust of argon in the event of a leak is seen in the center back of the picture.
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Electrical conduit and breaker panel board installation at the pit floor level under the MicroBooNE work platform is also nearing completion. Photo: Dixon Bogert, PPD
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Chance of flurries
