Applications are now being accepted by the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) Program, which provides New Mexico small businesses facing technical challenges access to the unique expertise and capabilities of Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories. At no cost to the business, small businesses can seek assistance from lab scientists and engineers to solve challenges and overcome barriers to company success.
NMSBA individual project applications are accepted all year. Applications for leveraged projects are accepted just twice a year: in January and August.
Leveraged projects allow multiple small businesses that share technical challenges to request assistance collectively for a larger project.
In 2020, Lithified Technologies received a leveraged award to test its “LithTec U-Capping System” on behalf of the company, the Navajo Nation, investors, and other stakeholders who would benefit if the technology proved sound. The LithTec U-Capping System aims to permanently cap abandoned uranium mines and provide a uranium filtration system to prevent uranium from leaching into water sources. It’s an enormous problem. According to Bob Sherwin, CEO of Lithified Technologies, the Navajo Nation has identified 523 uranium mines that were abandoned after World War II and the Cold War.
Testing performed at Los Alamos National Laboratory proved positive results, and the companies hope the technology could be used in the remediation of other Superfund sites nationwide.