Oak Ridge Today

ORNL welcomes first Liane Russell fellows

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Liane Russell Reception at ORNL

Lab Director Thom Mason and award-winning scientist Liane Russell welcomed Celia Shiau, Huiyuan Zhu, and Huina Mao at a Thursday reception. Shiau, Mao, and Zhu are the first early-career researchers coming to Oak Ridge National Laboratory under a fellowship named for Russell. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

Renowned mammalian geneticist Liane Russell returned Thursday to Oak Ridge National Laboratory to congratulate the first recipients of a new fellowship named in her honor.

ORNL created the Liane Russell Distinguished Early Career Fellowship to attract a diverse and promising work force of early career scientists and engineers whose interests align with DOE missions.

“It is gratifying to see these opportunities being made available to a diverse group of talented young people because, sadly, in the scientific fields this has not always been the case,” Russell said. “For this reason I am particularly honored to have my name attached to the fellowships.”

The competitive, three-year fellowship is aimed toward establishing long-term research careers at ORNL. It is available to outstanding scientists and engineers who have received their doctorate degrees within the past seven years, with emphasis given to attracting women and minority candidates.

The first three Russell fellows, recognized at Thursday’s reception, are: [Read more…]

September events in Anderson County

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Here is a list of September events in Anderson County submitted by the Anderson County Tourism Council.

 

Wicked Wildcat Weekend – September 5-7 at Windrock Park

Presented by Wildcatforums.net, this event includes guided trail rides, vendors, and more for off-road riders with an Arctic Cat Wildcat machine.  If you have a Wildcat Side by Side or want to participate,  call 423-647-2721 or visit www.wildcatforums.net.

[Read more…]

Grandfather dies, granddaughter injured in ATV crash on Windrock Mountain

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A Georgia grandfather died and his granddaughter was injured when an all-terrain vehicle went over a 60-foot embankment on Windrock Mountain on Saturday afternoon, authorities said.

Lindon Joald Lightsey, 68, of Baxley, Georgia, was fatally injured in the ATV crash north of Oliver Springs, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department said. His 12-year-old granddaughter was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Mark Lucas said deputies and emergency personnel were called to the crash at about 2 p.m. Saturday. [Read more…]

Video: Oak Ridge Boys share water safety message

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The Oak Ridge Boys and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Nashville have created a short video on water safety.

The public service announcement encourages people to be safe on the water this Labor Day weekend, including on Corps of Engineers lakes.

“The Oak Ridge Boys want their fans to know that life jackets are life savers,” the USACE said. “They have great advice for everyone headed out to Corps lakes! And be safe this Labor Day weekend!”

See the video here: [Read more…]

Guest column: Explosive interest in ‘Manhattan’

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Cynthia C. Kelly

Cynthia C. Kelly

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The WGN America television show “Manhattan” has galvanized the interest of millions of viewers. Shown on Sunday nights, national audiences are riveted by the dramatic tension between rival groups of scientists and the omnipresent security police in Los Alamos in 1943. “Manhattan” follows the scientists as they confront the challenges of making a workable atomic bomb while dealing with an intrusive military force, intense rivalries, and strained marital relations where couples can no longer confide in each other.

The show is a blend of fact and fiction. The primary characters are entirely fictional including the main scientist, Frank Winter; Chinese-American physicist, Sidney Liao; and wunderkind Charlie Isaacs and his most attractive wife, Abby. But “Manhattan” has preserved at least two real persona, J. Robert Oppenheimer as the director of Los Alamos, and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr who visits the laboratory to offer his advice.

The central tension is the race to develop two different approaches to a plutonium-based bomb. Winter believes an implosion bomb offers the best option but most of the scientists—including Oppenheimer—are more confident in a gun-type plutonium bomb similar to the design used for the uranium-based bomb. While the enmity between the two groups is exaggerated for television, “Manhattan” does a good job showing the challenges the scientists and engineers faced knowing little about the newly discovered and quite bizarre element plutonium.

In a 1965 interview with journalist Stephane Groueff, J. Robert Oppenheimer recalled: “I think the set of problems connected with implosion was the most difficult, and it required very new experimental techniques. It was not a branch of physics anyone was very familiar with. It was, from a theoretical, an observational, and a practical point of view, quite an adventure. Plutonium was a terrible test from beginning to end and never stayed quiet: it gets hot, it is radioactive, you cannot touch it, you have to coat it, and the coating always peels. It is just a terrible substance.” [Read more…]

Tech 2020 president resigns

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John Morris

John Morris

Technology 2020 President and Chief Executive Officer John Morris has announced his resignation effective September 30. He has worked at Tech 2020 since December 2008, and has served as president since 2011.

“I value the time I have spent around Tech 2020, first as an entrepreneurial client company, then as the director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth director and later as CEO,” Morris said in a press release Thursday. “This was not an easy decision, but I am an entrepreneur at heart, and I want to return to direct involvement with startups.”

Tech 2020 is the region’s venture development organization, working to help new technology-based companies start up and flourish. The organization supports the technology commercialization efforts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, and is currently working with more than 30 client businesses at various stages of growth. Tech 2020 also manages a large federally-funded advanced manufacturing project, serves as the headquarters for Meritus Ventures and the newly established Lighthouse Angel Fund, and leads the state’s FIRST Robotics Program and the Regional Advanced Manufacturing Partnership. [Read more…]

Beer Board revokes Lincoln’s beer permit

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Lincoln's Sports Grille

Lincoln’s Sports Grille on South Illinois Avenue is pictured above. (File photo)

Note: This story was last updated at 9:30 a.m. August 29.

The Oak Ridge Beer Permit Board has revoked the beer permit of Lincoln’s Sports Grille.

The revocation was approved in a 4-2 vote during a special meeting on Thursday, the fifth show cause hearing for Lincoln’s.

It wasn’t immediately clear what effect the revocation, which took effect immediately, would have.

But during the hearing, a Lincoln’s consultant testified that a beer permit suspension coupled with a possible temporary state suspension of the restaurant’s liquor license for its second sale of beer to a minor could effectively shut down the business.

“The economic impact would be great,” consultant Roy McKinnon said. “It would finish Lincoln’s.” [Read more…]

DOE appoints new member to advisory board

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Wanfang Zhou

Wanfang Zhou

The U.S. Department of Energy has appointed Wanfang Zhou to the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board. Zhou was appointed to a two-year term on the federally chartered citizens’ panel that provides independent advice and recommendations to DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for the cleanup of the Oak Ridge Reservation.

Zhou, a Knoxville resident, is a hydrogeologist with ERT Inc., a company that provides information technology, cybersecurity, program support, and engineering and environmental services to federal and state government agencies.

He received his doctorate in water resources and environmental engineering from the University of London’s Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine. He is a certified professional geologist by the American Institute of Professional Geologists and a registered professional geologist in five southern states. [Read more…]

DOE responds to advisory board recommendation
 on groundwater studies

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management has responded to a recommendation made earlier this year by the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board.

In May, the federally appointed citizens’ panel recommended that DOE conduct additional groundwater studies to address any potential offsite migration of chemicals or radioisotopes from DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation. The recommendation focuses on developing information that fosters a better understanding of potential impacts of groundwater contamination related to risk mitigation, groundwater remediation, and long-term stewardship.

In 2013, DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation held a series of workshops to prioritize groundwater pathways on the ORR. Together the agencies created a groundwater strategy document that described the potential for releases from waste disposal sites and storage areas. The document also prioritized known groundwater plumes, concentration of contaminants, contaminants of concern, and potential health risks. [Read more…]

Rubber meets the road with new ORNL carbon, battery technologies

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Recycled Tire Battery Schematics

ORNL researchers’ goal is to scale up the recovery process and demonstrate applications as anodes for lithium-ion batteries in large-format pouch cells. (Image courtesy ORNL)

 

Recycled tires could see new life in lithium-ion batteries that provide power to plug-in electric vehicles and store energy produced by wind and solar, say researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

By modifying the microstructural characteristics of carbon black, a substance recovered from discarded tires, a team led by Parans Paranthaman and Amit Naskar is developing a better anode for lithium-ion batteries. An anode is a negatively charged electrode used as a host for storing lithium during charging.

The method, outlined in a paper published in the journal RSC Advances, has numerous advantages over conventional approaches to making anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

“Using waste tires for products such as energy storage is very attractive not only from the carbon materials recovery perspective but also for controlling environmental hazards caused by waste tire stock piles,” Paranthaman said.

The ORNL technique uses a proprietary pretreatment to recover pyrolytic carbon black material, which is similar to graphite but man-made. When used in anodes of lithium-ion batteries, researchers produced a small, laboratory-scale battery with a reversible capacity that is higher than what is possible with commercial graphite materials. [Read more…]

What’s happening in Oak Ridge from Aug. 28-Sept. 3

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Here is a summary of events happening in Oak Ridge from Thursday, August 28, and continuing through September 3.

This weekly listing of events is compiled by the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau: [Read more…]

Local DAR chapter has Constitution Celebration on Sept. 13

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The Clinch Bend Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution will have its annual Constitution Celebration during a fall meeting on Saturday, September 13, in Oak Ridge.

The guest speaker will be Anderson County General Sessions Judge Don Layton. He will our constitutional rights since 9/11, a press release said. Refreshments will be served.

The meeting starts at 1 p.m. September 13 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Oak Ridge. For more information, call (865) 945-5605 or visit http://www.tndar.org/~clinchbend/.