December 11, 2014 VOLU M E 1 0 | I S SUE 28
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GIFTS TO GO
NREL leads in newly funded Lab-Corps Bridging the gap between national labs and venture capitalists
Arvada Fire Protection District Chili Cook-Off volunteers, Holli Arnett, left, and Kelsie LeFebbre stir homemade chili during Lagniappe. Photos by Crystal Anderson
Arvada resident Jeri Hixenbaugh gazes at the Christmas tree as the sun sets on the Lagniappe event.
Lagniappe has been celebrated in Olde Town Arvada since 1992. A lagniappe (lan-yahp) is a small gift that a merchant gives to customers with their purchase to thank them for their business throughout the year. The event Thursday, Dec. 2, featured the Christmas tree lighting, free carriage rides and carolers.
Activists speak out against Flats burn By Amy Woodward
awoodward@colorado communitymedia.com A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan to burn part of Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge to conserve rare plant species has stirred up opposition from residents worried about the possible release of plutonium particles. “It’s not just a bad idea—it’s reckless,” said Paula ElofsonGardine, Rocky Flats activist and longtime researcher of Rocky Flats history. She reported an increase in radiation levels in the Denver area with a hand-held Geiger counter, a device that monitors radioactivity, after the Department of Energy burned around 50 acres in the buffer zone in April 2000. The concern has generated petitions to cancel the burn, which as of Sunday, Dec. 7, collectively had more than 1,500 signatures. But David Lucas, refuge manager at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is confident the burn will not be harmful to the public and said the real message is about wildfire safety. “Fire is a natural process that cannot be excluded from the landscape,” he said. “We are burning to enhance habitat, but also to reduce the risk of wildfire. It will be the first prescribed burn for the refuge — scheduled in the spring of 2015 — by the wildlife service which manages about 4,750 acres of the refuge out of the approximate 6,550-acre federal prop-
erty. The burn is mapped for about 701 acres, Lucas said. “It is believed we will start on the southern boundary near the southwestern corner of the refuge.” The purpose of the burn is part of the refuge’s Comprehensive Conservation Plan to improve growth of rare plant species in the area as well as reduce the spread of invasive weeds. The refuge was once the original security buffer of Rocky Flats during its days of operation between 1952 and 1989, where workers used plutonium to build nuclear weapon triggers. A nearly $7 billion cleanup of the federal property with the approval by the Environmental Protection Agency, were undertaken prior to the land’s transfer to USFWS in 2007, according to the wildlife service website. Speculation lingers over whether the cleanup was completely successful. And for many area residents, activity on Rocky Flats — including the refuge — is enough to generate concern. Adding to the worry is the fact that the Rocky Flats Stewardship Council Board of Directors, which oversees of Rocky Flats, opposed the burn proposal on Oct. 27. “Our opposition rests primarily on two factors,” the council’s motion read. “A burn will cause widespread community concern that will not be sufficiently alleviated through any public education process.” The council also said the wildlife service has other
An aerial view of the wildlife refuge at Rocky Flats. Courtesy photo management options other than the burn. Arvada City Manager, Mark Deven, received a memo from Rocky Flats Stewardship Council member David Abelson detailing the board’s actions. Weeks later, the Arvada City Council directed Deven to draft a letter in support of Rocky Flats Stewardship Council’s decision. Deven also notified developers of the burn for the growing Candelas neighborhood that sits adjacent to the refuge. Petitions to cancel the burn due to the possible release of plutonium particles were authored by LeRoy Moore, former professor and co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center, a multi-issue advocacy organization that has focused on Rocky Flats for 31 years. Moore argues the burn will stir up plutonium particles that went beyond the original operational sites at Rocky Flats
based on eye witness accounts from former Rocky Flats workers. He added the Department of Energy has not performed enough sampling and fails to realize small amounts of radiation can be harmful. “It’s a dangerous situation and they are dealing with uncertainty,” Moore said. Superior resident Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish, and Alesya Casse, whose father helped in the clean-up of Rocky Flats, are helping to raise awareness about the petition, as well as about other concerns over developments near Rocky Flats, through their Facebook page and website; Candelas Glows. “We know that the site is contaminated, we just don’t know what will be released,” Gabrieloff-Parish said. The wildlife service “is the wrong government agency to handle an ex nuclear Superfund site.” Flats continues on Page 2
By Amy Woodward
awoodward@colorado communitymedia.com The National Renewal Energy Lab will play a major role in the federal Department of Energy’s efforts to move clean energy technologies from national laboratories to the marketplace. The lab, better known as NREL, is implimenting a new program that fosters entrepreneurship and industry partnerships. The program, called Lab-Corps, will operate through a five-lab partnership with other national labs, including the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “Over the past year or two, the Department of Energy, particularly, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), which is who NREL does most of its work for, has been really looking at ways to encourage entrepreneurship in a laboratory,” said Matt Ringer, commercialization program manager at NREL. “It’s all part of broader initiative through EERE, and that initiative is how do we improve the commercialization of the lab technology.” According to David Danielson, assistant secretary for energy-efficient and renewable energy, the global clean-energy market is valued at $250 billion in 2014 and will likely expand to a multi-trilliondollar market in the next 10 years. But in order for the U.S. to lead the way, focus on innovation and entrepreneurship is key. With support from the Department of Energy through Lab-Corps, building upon business models and forming partnerships between venture capitalists and national labs may prove to be successful. “Due to pervasive market barriers, private-sector financing is typically limited or unavailable to bring new energy innovations from early-stage laboratory research to proof of concept prototype and on to full commercial scale,” said Richard Adams, director or NREL’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center in a press release. “This leads to market `gaps’ that prove too difficult for many early-stage companies to overcome, which often ultimately results in promising technologies falling to the wayside. We are hoping to addressing these barriers to benefit small companies, our communities, and the economy.” Ringer said challenges with the program will include working with fewer lab researchers, unlike university labs that see large number of students who are interested in entrepreneurship. Differing dispositions and those used to focusing on particular areas of development also will play a role in some of the hurdles Lab-Corps will face. “There is no one type of national lab researcher; they are all different,” Ringer said. “You look across the 17 national labs, and each one has a unique mission, he said. “There are challenges to making this work — we think we are in the best position to make it work, if it will.”