Oak Ridge Today

U.S. Rep. Fattah of Pennsylvania tours ORNL

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U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, a Pennsylvania Democrat, with Oak Ridge National Laboratory Associate Lab Director Jeff Nichols in front of the Titan supercomputer, ranked the world’s fastest in November. (Photos courtesy of ORNL)

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, a Pennsylvania Democrat, visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory today.

While at the lab, Fattah visited the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, BioEnergy Science Center, Spallation Neutron Source, Center for Nanophase Materials Science, and Manufacturing Demonstration Facility.

He spoke with lab leadership about ORNL’s research in areas that include advanced manufacturing, materials research, supercomputing and biofuels; the transfer of ORNL technology to the private sector; science, technology, engineering and math education; and other topics.

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UT-Battelle Angel Tree delivers clothing, gifts for children in need

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Heather Terry and Angel Tree Gifts

Team UT-Battelle volunteer Heather Terry sorts Angel Tree gifts donated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory employees. (Submitted photos)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Team UT-Battelle Angel Tree effort delivered clothing and gifts to area community agencies and schools this week. The items will brighten the holiday season for 240 needy children.

The gifts range from bikes to toys to clothes. Employees can also make monetary donations. In fact, members of the Atomic Labor and Trades Council, the laboratory bargaining unit, contributed $500.

The laboratory’s Angel Tree is electronic: Lab staff members can access a web page that offers anonymous selections of children from surrounding counties including Anderson, Roane, Loudon, Morgan, Union, Blount, Campbell and Knox. The donor can then donate a gift based on the child’s age, gender, size and interests provided by the website. As in past years, all 240 of the tree’s virtual “ornaments” were selected.

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ORNL develops lignin-based thermoplastic conversion process

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Turning lignin, a plant’s structural “glue” and a byproduct of the paper and pulp industry, into something considerably more valuable is driving a research effort headed by Amit Naskar of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

In a cover article published in Green Chemistry, the research team describes a process that ultimately transforms the lignin byproduct into a thermoplastic—a polymer that becomes pliable above a specific temperature. Researchers accomplished this by reconstructing larger lignin molecules either through a chemical reaction with formaldehyde or by washing with methanol. Through these simple chemical processes, they created a crosslinked rubber-like material that can also be processed like plastics.

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After two target failures, user research resumes at SNS this morning

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Spallation Neutron Source Target Bay

A mercury target at the Spallation Neutron Source is pictured in the target bay area during a 2009 changeout. A Oak Ridge National Laboratory spokesman said the sloped part of two SNS targets failed in September and October. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

Its mercury targets have failed twice in the past two months, but the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is available for user research again.

The program resumed at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

The $1.4 billion research facility is used to help scientists study material structures and properties.

The failures of its targets 6 and 7 in September and October have been attributed to an apparent failure in a weld joint.

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DOE receives reimbursable work totaling $442 million

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The U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office said last week it had received funding for reimbursable work totaling $442 million during the last fiscal year, which ended in September.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory performed about $232 million of the work, a press release said. The remaining $210 million of the work was conducted at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.

Under its Work for Others program, DOE said, outside entities can use national laboratories to solve problems when the work is related to DOE missions and the entities cannot do the work elsewhere.

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ORNL recipe for oxide interface perfection opens path to novel materials

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By tweaking the formula for growing oxide thin films, researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory achieved virtual perfection at the interface of two insulator materials.

This finding, published in the journal Advanced Materials, could have significant ramifications for creation of novel materials with applications in energy and information technologies, leading to more efficient solar cells, batteries, solid oxide fuel cells, faster transistors, and more powerful capacitors.

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‘Strain tuning’ reveals promise in nanoscale manufacturing

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Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have reported progress in fabricating advanced materials at the nanoscale. The spontaneous self-assembly of nanostructures composed of multiple elements paves the way toward materials that could improve a range of energy-efficient technologies and data storage devices.

ORNL Materials Science and Technology Division researcher Amit Goyal led the effort, combining theoretical and experimental studies to understand and control the self-assembly of insulating barium zirconium oxide nanodots and nanorods within barium-copper-oxide superconducting films.

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ORNL supercomputer ranks No. 3 on the Green500

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Titan Supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Not only is Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Titan the world’s fastest supercomputer, it is also ranked third in energy efficiency. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

Not only is Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Titan the world’s most powerful supercomputer, it is also one of the most energy-efficient.

Titan came in at number three on the Green500 list. Organized by Virginia Tech’s Wu-chun Feng and Kirk Cameron, the list takes the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputers—as ranked by the Top500 list announced Monday—and reorders them according to how many calculations they can get per watt of electricity.

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World’s fastest supercomputer at ORNL more about research than rankings

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Titan Supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is now ranked as the world’s fastest. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

The No. 1 ranking for the new Titan supercomputer, designating it as the most powerful in the world, was clearly appreciated in East Tennessee on Monday.

But even as they celebrated a return to the top spot, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where the giant computer is based, said they are focused more on research than rankings.

“We love being No. 1,” said Bronson Messer, acting group leader for scientific computing at the National Center for Computational Science at ORNL. “It’s great recognition. But what really matters is what science will do with the machine.”

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Titan at ORNL now world’s fastest supercomputer

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Titan

Image courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and NVIDIA Corp.

The new Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is now the world’s fastest, according to a Top 500 list released this morning.

A Cray XK7 system, Titan achieved 17.59 petaflops on a benchmark test, equal to more than 17,000 trillion calculations each second, a press release said.

Titan knocked Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Sequoia from the No. 1 spot and into second place. Sequoia is an IBM BlueGene/Q system, and it was No. 1 in June with 16.32 petaflops.

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New Titan supercomputer debuts at ORNL

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The Oak Ridge National Laboratory launched a new era of scientific supercomputing today with Titan, a system capable of churning through more than 20,000 trillion calculations each second—or 20 petaflops—by employing a family of processors called graphic processing units first created for computer gaming. Titan will be 10 times more powerful than ORNL’s last world-leading system, Jaguar, while overcoming power and space limitations inherent in the previous generation of high-performance computers.

Titan, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, will provide unprecedented computing power for research in energy, climate change, efficient engines, materials, and other disciplines, and pave the way for a wide range of achievements in science and technology.

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Alexander: UPF, ORNL remain priorities even in tough economic times

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Senator Lamar Alexander at Hoskins Drug Store

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, center, a Tennessee Republican, visited Hoskins Drug Store in Clinton on Tuesday to show support for state Rep. John Ragan, an Oak Ridge Republican seeking re-election.

CLINTON—Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Uranium Processing Facility remain funding priorities even in tough economic times, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander said Tuesday.

A Tennessee Republican, Alexander said all federal government funding is under pressure and should be until the nation’s debt is under control. But the UPF at the Y-12 National Security Complex is the top priority of the U.S. Department of Energy, the senator said. And ORNL performs crucial missions, the senator said.

“In difficult times, they’ll still continue to receive a good funding stream,” he said.

Alexander said he would also like to see cleanup work continue in Oak Ridge, including mercury cleanup projects.

Alexander said the UPF project, which could cost up to $6.5 billion, is a costly 50-75 year decision that could affect the health and safety of hundreds of workers, and it should proceed as rapidly as possible, although a good design is needed.

Republicans Support Ragan

Top local, state, and federal Republicans and other residents turned out at Hoskins Drug Store on Tuesday to show support for Tennessee Rep. John Ragan, fourth from left, who is seeking re-election in the Nov. 6 election.

Asked about the July 28 security breach at Y-12, Alexander said it shouldn’t have happened, but he’s not ready to turn over security to another government department, as U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, has proposed.

Alexander said “some heads have rolled,” and investigations have been launched that will help determine the right next steps.

He said roughly $3 billion in federal money is spent in Oak Ridge each year for all DOE facilities. But there have been budget uncertainties caused by Congress’ inability to make decisions, Alexander said.

Alexander was at Hoskins Drug Store in Clinton on Tuesday with other top local, state, and federal Republicans to show support for Rep. John Ragan, an Oak Ridge Republican who is running against former Rep. Jim Hackworth, a Clinton Democrat, in one of the half-dozen key races in the Tennessee House of Representatives.