Oak Ridge Today

Report: Medical isotope company plans to build manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge

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A building at the entrance of Heritage Center is pictured above. (Photo by CROET)

Note: This story was updated at 8:45 a.m. Oct. 10.

A Florida newspaper reported on Wednesday that a medical isotope company will build a manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, rather than relocating to a city in north Florida.

Coquí RadioPharmaceutical had planned to build a $250 million manufacturing facility in Alachua, which is near Gainesville, with 164 jobs paying an average of $75,000, the Gainesville Sun reported.

But the company announced Wednesday that it will instead build its facility in Oak Ridge, lured by a gift of 170 acres from the U.S. Department of Energy and the opportunity to work with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a DOE lab, the newspaper said.

On Saturday, Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said he is aware of the company, and it is working with the state of Tennessee. [Read more…]

ORNL United Way campaign tops $900,000, an increase from 2015

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s United Way campaign’s $900,000 “big check” with, from left, Ann Weaver, whose Facilities Management Division was the top special fundraiser; 2016 chair Sharon Kohler; co-chair Ken Tobin; Facilities and Operations Director Jimmy Stone, directorate challenge winner for large directorates; and David Keim, representing the Office of the Laboratory Director, the challenge winner for smaller directorates. (ORNL photo by Genevieve Martin)

 

The 2016 United Way campaign at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory raised $900,000—an increase of $30,000 over the 2015 campaign.

“This is a fantastic and generous offer of support from our employees, management, volunteers, and everyone who has been associated in one way or another with this year’s United Way effort,” said campaign chair Sharon Kohler.

The $900,000 total included a corporate contribution from UT-Battelle. Kohler credited the lab’s Leadership Givers, who contribute a certain percentage of their salary per pay period, for providing 65 percent of the total designated by staff through payroll deduction. There were 22 new Leadership Givers joining this year. [Read more…]

ORNL launches new business accelerator for energy tech entrepreneurs

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Pictured above during an Innovations Crossroads business accelerator announcement on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, at the National Transportation Research Center in Hardin Valley are, from left, Mark Johnson, Johanna Wolfson, Moe Khaleel, Thomas McDonald, Charlie Brock. (Photo by ORNL)

Pictured above during an Innovation Crossroads business accelerator announcement on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, at the National Transportation Research Center in Hardin Valley are, from left, Mark Johnson, Johanna Wolfson, Moe Khaleel, Thomas McDonald, and Charlie Brock. (Photo by ORNL)

 

The nation’s top innovators will soon have the opportunity to advance their promising energy technology ideas at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in a new program called Innovation Crossroads. Up to five entrepreneurs will receive a fellowship that covers living costs, benefits, and a travel stipend for up to two years, plus up to $350,000 to use on collaborative research and development at ORNL. The first cohort is expected to start the program in early 2017, a press release said.

A growing global population and increased industrialization require new approaches to energy that are reliable, affordable, and carbon neutral. While important progress has been made in cost reduction and deployment of clean energy technologies, a new program at DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or EERE, will invest in the next generation of first-time clean energy entrepreneurs to accelerate the pace of innovation, the press release said.

Innovation Crossroads is the most recent clean energy accelerator to launch at a DOE national laboratory and the first located in the Southeast. ORNL is the nation’s largest science and energy laboratory, with expertise and resources in clean energy, computing, neutron science, advanced materials, and nuclear science. [Read more…]

Centrus, ORNL agree on $25 million contract for work on gas centrifuge uranium enrichment technology

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American Centrifuge Technology Manufacturing Center

The American Centrifuge Technology Manufacturing Center in south Oak Ridge is pictured above. (Photo courtesy USEC/Centrus Energy Corp.)

 

Six months after signing one contract, Centrus Energy Corporation and UT-Battelle LLC have agreed on a new contract for engineering and testing work on technology that uses gas centrifuges to enrich uranium.

Enriched uranium can be used in nuclear power plants and in nuclear weapons, as fuel for nuclear naval vessels, and to ensure a tritium supply, which is needed to maintain the effectiveness of America’s nuclear deterrent, a press release said.

The new Centrus Energy-UT-Battelle contract is valued at about $25 million, and it runs through September 30, 2017. Under this new contract, Centrus scientists, engineers, and operators will “use the company’s unique facilities in Oak Ridge to develop and test technology improvements to reduce costs, improve manufacturability, and enhance the long-term reliability of U.S. uranium enrichment technology,” the press release said.

UT-Battelle operates Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy.

The uranium enrichment technology is known as the American Centrifuge technology. It’s expected to support future national security and energy security needs, the press release said. [Read more…]

UT-Battelle provides scholarships for Roane State Middle College students from Roane County high schools

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Roane State President Chris Whaley is joined by Middle College students and Roane State faculty to accept a scholarship check from Leigha Humphries, protocol and community relations manager with UT-Battelle. (Photo courtesy Roane State)

 

Ten Roane County students participating in Roane State Community College’s Middle College have received $3,400 annual scholarships thanks to UT-Battelle.

Roane State’s Middle College program allows high school students to take college classes in their junior and senior years and then graduate with their associate degrees and their diplomas. Middle College graduates are then able to complete their bachelor’s degrees just two years after finishing high school.

Middle College students pay for tuition through a combination of out-of-pocket funds, use of the Tennessee dual enrollment grant (funded by the state lottery), and private scholarships. The UT-Battelle Scholarship was established in fall 2015 and is awarded to one Middle College student from each high school in Roane County. [Read more…]

Council wants to roughly triple proposed water rate at ORNL, Y-12

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The Oak Ridge Water Treatment Plant is pictured on Pine Ridge above the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge)

 

Note: This story was updated at 6:50 p.m.

Some Oak Ridge City Council members have questioned whether the federal government is paying enough for municipal water at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex, and on Monday, four of them proposed roughly tripling a potential new high-volume water rate at the two federal sites in 2017.

The new water rate would apply to water consumption over 20 million gallons per month, which would limit it to ORNL and Y-12. The two sites use a total of more than 100 million gallons of water per month.

The new rate is expected to go into effect in April 2017 only if Oak Ridge and the U.S. Department of Energy aren’t able to agree on a contract for water at ORNL and Y-12 by the end of March. Those two federal sites now pay a flat annual rate but could default to what is known as a retail rate if the contract lapses.

The city staff had proposed a new default rate of $1.08 per thousand gallons for consumption over 20 million gallons starting January 1, 2017. The following year, in 2018, the staff had proposed a $1.35 rate.

But four City Council members—Rick Chinn, Charlie Hensley, Trina Baughn, and Chuck Hope—voted to raise the $1.08 rate in 2017 to $3 per 1,000 gallons. Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch, Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Smith, and Council member Kelly Callison voted against the increase. [Read more…]

ORNL collaborates with six small businesses on clean energy tech

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By Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Six small companies will tap the expertise of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to move their manufacturing, fuel cell, geothermal, and vehicle technologies closer to the marketplace.

The businesses are among 43 selected to participate in the second round of DOE’s Small Business Vouchers, or SBV, pilot. With vouchers in hand, these businesses can better leverage the world-class capabilities of the department’s national laboratory system and bring their next-generation clean energy technologies to the marketplace faster.

“We need to accelerate the pace of clean energy innovation to build stronger economy and a brighter, cleaner future for our nation,” said David Friedman, acting assistant secretary for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or EERE. “The Small Business Vouchers pilot breaks down barriers for some of our greatest entrepreneurial minds, allowing them to work with our national laboratories across sectors and industries to accelerate a clean energy revolution that’s been under way since 2008.”

The Department opened the first round of SBV, a technology-to-market lab impact pilot project, in September 2015. In SBV’s first round, 33 small businesses received vouchers totaling $6.7 million. The 43 awards announced in August total more than $8 million. [Read more…]

ORNL receives DOE funding for applications for more powerful supercomputers

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

Photo by ORNL

 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has received funding from a federal project to develop applications for more powerful supercomputers, systems that could be 50 to 100 times more powerful than today’s fastest supercomputers.

The project is the U.S. Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project, or ECP. It’s to develop applications for future exascale systems. Exascale refers to high-performance computing systems capable of at least a billion billion calculations per second, which is up to 100 times faster than the nation’s most powerful supercomputers in use today, a press release said.

The work on applications will help guide DOE’s development of a U.S. exascale ecosystem as part of President Barack Obama’s National Strategic Computing Initiative, or NSCI, the press release said.

The first round of ECP funding totals $39.8 million for 22 proposals representing teams from 45 research and academic organizations. ORNL researchers and technical staff will participate in 12 of the 22 projects.

The awards, announced Wedneday, target advanced modeling and simulation solutions to specific challenges supporting key DOE missions in science, clean energy, and national security, as well as collaborations such as the Precision Medicine Initiative with the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute, the press release said. [Read more…]

Opinion: Alexander discusses ETTP demolition, development; Oak Ridge cleanup work

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Lamar Alexander

Lamar Alexander

By Lamar Alexander

This week marked the end of an era. The last of the five uranium enrichment buildings in Oak Ridge has been cleaned up, making land available for new companies and new jobs coming to East Tennessee.

Tennessee should be extremely proud of the men and women who have worked for more than a decade to complete the demolition and cleanup at the East Tennessee Technology Park.

The story of how these buildings first came to be built is by now a familiar one. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Senator Kenneth McKellar, the Tennessean who chaired the Appropriations Committee, to hide $2 billion for a secret project to win World War II. McKellar replied, “Mr. President, I have just one question: Where in Tennessee do you want me to hide it?”

They hid it in Oak Ridge, on 2,200 acres along the Clinch River, where they quietly built K-25, the largest building in the world, to enrich uranium through gaseous diffusion—a complicated and now mostly obsolete process. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge supports ORNL, LeMond Composites carbon fiber partnership

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Jones LeMond Watson and Creswell Aug 31 2016

Pictured above at a meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, on a new carbon fiber partnership between Oak Ridge-based company LeMond Composites and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are, from left, Steve Jones (Oak Ridge economic development consultant), Greg LeMond (LeMond Composites), Mark Watson (Oak Ridge city manager), and Wade Creswell (president of The Roane Alliance). (Photo by City of Oak Ridge)

 

By City of Oak Ridge

The City of Oak Ridge is proud to support the recent announcement that LeMond Composites, a new company in Oak Ridge offering solutions for high-volume and low-cost carbon fiber, has secured a licensing agreement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The news was made public on August 29 in a release from LeMond Composites. The company, founded earlier this year by three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, focuses on making carbon fiber composites with global applications. The agreement with ORNL will make LeMond Composites the first company to offer these newly developed products to the transportation, renewable energy, and infrastructure markets.

LeMond Composites plans to build their first carbon fiber production line at their recently purchased facility on Palladium Way at Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge. Their first commercially available product is expected to be ready in early 2018.

“I am ecstatic about this unique technological application for carbon fiber in our community,” Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch said. “We look forward to working with LeMond Composites to create jobs and further investment in Oak Ridge.” [Read more…]

Photos: ORNL, Boeing set Guinness World Record with largest solid 3D printed item

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ORNL-Boeing-Empric-and-Peter-Aug-29-2016-3-Web

Guinness World Records Judge Michael Empric, left, is pictured above with Bill Peter, director of ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility in Hardin Valley, after Empric had confirmed that a trim-and-drill tool made at the MDF for Boeing (it’s partially pictured in the foreground) had set the world record for largest solid printed 3D item on Monday, Aug. 29, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

A tool made by Oak Ridge National Laboratory has set a world record for largest solid item manufactured on a 3D printer. Guinness World Records confirmed the tool’s measurements during a visit to ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility in Hardin Valley on Monday.

Here are pictures from the Monday morning award ceremony by John Huotari of Oak Ridge Today and ORNL/U.S. Department of Energy.

The trim-and-drill tool measures 17.5 feet long, 5.5 feet wide, and 1.5 feet tall. It’s comparable in length to a large sport utility vehicle and weighs approximately 1,650 pounds.

It will be used to help make a wing part on the Boeing 777X airplane, a passenger jet. After ORNL completes some testing, Boeing will evaluate the tool in the company’s new production facility in St. Louis and then provide information to ORNL about its performance. [Read more…]

Khaleel to lead ORNL’s Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate

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Mohammad A. Khaleel

Mohammad A. Khaleel

 

Mohammad A. “Moe” Khaleel has been named associate laboratory director for energy and environmental sciences at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The work that Khaleel will oversee for the Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate, or EESD, includes biological and environmental research for DOE’s Office of Science and an extensive set of research and development programs supported by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery, and Energy Reliability and Office of Fossil Energy.

EESD also engages with a broad external community that includes a growing list of industrial partners through the ORNL-managed BioEnergy Science Center, the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, and the National Transportation Research Center, a press release said.

“Moe brings a rich background as both a researcher and scientific leader,” ORNL Director Thom Mason said. “In his new position, he will oversee activities that translate basic science into applied research and development (R&D), with direct benefits for energy production, transmission, and conservation. ORNL will benefit from his experience and his vision.” [Read more…]