DU PHYSICS PROFESSOR BOB AMME FINDS HIS BLISS IN SOLVING PERPLEXING PROBLEMS of major import. His focus has ranged from aiding NASA in deep space, to more Earth-bound concerns such as how to blend lead and rubber to form flexible barriers to nuclear radiation.
“I wanted to learn about the nature of the basic laws that govern everything,” he says. “Physics is something claimed to be hard but I guess it depends on whether you like mathematics and whether you have an urge to learn things that are rather difficult.” For Amme, the answer to both questions, even at 10 years old, was a resounding yes!
After working for the Iowa Department of Transportation as a materials engineer, he earned a PhD in atomic and molecular physics from Iowa State University. “This was in the 1950s and the Cold War was absorbing a lot of graduates in physics – but I really didn’t want to get a defense-type job. I took a job for a company called Humble Oil and Refining (now Exxon) and worked in Houston for a couple years investigating ways to get more oil out of the ground through secondary recovery.”
But when escalating allergy symptoms forced him to look elsewhere for employment, Amme landed a position with the University of Denver’s Denver Research Institute (DRI), a now defunct institution about which he is currently writing a book. “It was created after World War II and there were about five divisions and something close to 500 employees scattered around the Earth. They were doing research to see if they could tell whether an atomic blast that went off in the atmosphere was natural or man-made. There was a long struggle before we finally had an atmospheric test ban treaty, and DRI played a major role in it. I worked first in the electronics division and then moved into physics, seeking my own research support to do the kind of work I really wanted to.”
In the early 1960s Amme became a part-time professor while continuing his research projects, and was later named dean of DU’s College of Arts and Sciences. “I was responsible for 22 departments. I didn’t like it – and I didn’t keep it. So I went on to become dean of the graduate school of arts and sciences and director of academic research. That was really to my liking.”
Over the years his research included working with NASA’s Air Force Office of Scientific Research to explore why the space shuttle was glowing in the dark. “It shouldn’t be doing that at 400 miles straight up, and they couldn’t figure out what was causing it. We built an atomic oxygen beam machine and studied the interaction between those atoms and surfaces so we could replicate what was going on in space, in the laboratory.”
Another NASA-related project focused on finding a solution for the lack of communications experienced by space capsules during re-entry. “NASA wanted to know what was causing all that ionization that was preventing communications, so we were challenged to study that in the laboratory, using atomic and molecular beams. The real answer never was found – but they did move to different frequencies, which did help.”
When a small company approached him in the late 1980s for help with developing a technology with possible application to cleaning up the environmental waste at Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production facility (which operated northwest of Denver from 1952-92), Amme’s interest and commitment were piqued. “We got a grant from the Department of Energy to study a way to stabilize soils contaminated with heavy metals (including plutonium, uranium, cadmium, and lead). We were a little disappointed because we were told by contractors that there would be quite a bit of contaminated soil and not necessarily enough money to move it all away. It was our expectation that if we were successful, our technology would be adopted. However, the federal government stepped in and said: we’ve decided we’ll pay for moving all that toxic soil out.”
Amme’s research has also explored the sustainability of nuclear energy. “A lot of people object to coal, which provides us with half of our energy; 20 percent comes from nuclear power. Commercial nuclear power in this country has never killed anybody. The radiation levels are miniscule. The inescapable fact is that coal is 90 percent carbon and when you burn it, you produce CO2 in large quantities which go into the atmosphere. So capturing it through carbon capture sequestration is a big deal, but it’s not economical. The only thing that I can see to replace coal as an answer to our base-load energy is nuclear.”
Nuclear power, Amme believes, offers unlimited future potential. “The nuclear power reactors we’ve developed are good for thousands of years. Beyond that we also have thermal nuclear fusion. There’s a pilot fusion plant being built in France right now and the United States has invested a small amount annually. I can’t imagine we’ll go another hundred or thousand years without developing that technology. So long as the Earth doesn’t get beaten up by an asteroid we’ll be able to continue to make electricity by nuclear processes and that’s why I’m enthusiastic about it.”
Most recently, he’s been researching recycling and reusing scrap tires for a variety of purposes. “We wear out one tire per person, per year on average, across the nation,” he says. “What do you do with all the carcasses? The State Department of Local Affairs continues to pay to collect those tires but how do you dispose of them? Rubber happens to be a lower density than soil, so you bury them and sooner or later they resurface again. When you cut up a tire, you can see there is steel wire in this thing.” He holds up a slice to illustrate. “If you can get the steel out of this rubber, you can recycle it.”
Shredded tires provide useful material for creating other practical, durable products. “That’s what’s occupied my time for the last 10 years, investigating different uses and evaluating their safety and whether or not they can be used economically. One of the ways is to make tire mulch, dyed shredded tire material that resembles the wood chips used on playgrounds. Tire mulch doesn’t blow away or float away in a flood and it’s safer for children who fall off swings or other equipment. I help companies that are making this stuff test it to meet head injury criteria.”
Companies are also using shredded tire rubber combined with lead to form blocks capable of providing radiation protection, and also creating pavement material for bicycle and walking trails. “We’re testing the strength and elasticity of various uses. There are so many possibilities. Ground tire mixes well with asphalt and blends with stone to make asphalt paving. It’s quieter and a lot cheaper. There’s a company I’m working with that is looking at using this kind of material along the highways for drainage purposes, and I’ve been studying the properties of those materials in the lab.”
Through DU’s University College, Professor Amme is teaching a course in the fundamentals of energy, and in his spare time continues to work on his book about the DRI. And the possibilities of learning more about the nature of everything while solving practical problems that first sparked his imagination as a child continue. “I love my job,” he says. “I do what I want. If I come up with another good idea, all I have to do is find somebody to support it."
