Oak Ridge Today

ORNL wins nine R&D 100 Awards        

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A close-up look at the Open Port Sampling Interfaces for Mass Spectrometry, one of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s seven 2016 R&D 100 Award winners. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

A close-up look at the Open Port Sampling Interfaces for Mass Spectrometry, one of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s seven 2016 R&D 100 Award winners. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received nine R&D 100 Awards in recognition of their significant advancements in science and technology, a press release said. The honorees were recognized in November at the 55th annual R&D 100 Conference, sponsored by R&D Magazine.

The awards, known as the “Oscars of Invention,” honor innovative breakthroughs in materials science, biomedicine, consumer products, and more from academia, industry, and government-sponsored research agencies. This year’s nine honors bring ORNL’s total of R&D 100 awards to 210 since their inception in 1963, the press release said.

ORNL researchers were recognized for the following innovations:

ACMZ Cast Aluminum Alloys were developed by a team of researchers from ORNL with Fiat Chrysler Automobile U.S. and Nemak U.S.A.

ACMZ aluminum alloys are a new class of affordable, lightweight superalloys capable of withstanding temperatures of almost 100-degree Celsius more than current commercial alloys while providing exceptional thermomechanical performance and hot tear resistance.

Common commercial alloys soften rapidly at high temperatures, limiting their use in next-generation vehicles, while other alloys that can withstand elevated temperatures are cost prohibitive and difficult to cast. ACMZ alloys were developed using a suite of atomic-level characterization and computation tools, resulting in a strong, stable, and versatile material capable of withstanding the stressful conditions of next-generation high-efficiency combustion engines, the press release said. [Read more…]

Senate bill also rejects Trump’s science cut, increases funding instead

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Energy Secretary Rick Perry, left, talks to reporters after touring Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility on Hardin Valley Road on Monday, May 22, 2017. Also pictured is U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, center, a Tennessee Republican, and ORNL Director Thom Mason. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, center, a Tennessee Republican, is pictured above with Energy Secretary Rick Perry, left, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility in Hardin Valley on Monday, May 22, 2017. Also pictured is former ORNL Director Thom Mason. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

An appropriations bill approved by a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday rejects the Trump administration’s proposal to cut $919 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science in the fiscal year that starts October 1.

Instead of cutting, the Senate bill would actually increase funding for the Office of Science, boosting it to $5.55 billion in fiscal year 2018. That would be again a record funding level in a regular appropriations bill, according to U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican who often advocates for the federal sites in Oak Ridge and chairs the Senate subcommittee.

Like the Senate this week, the House Appropriations Committee last week also rejected President Donald Trump’s request to cut DOE’s Office of Science.

Unlike the Senate bill, though, the House bill would keep funding flat at $5.39 billion, the same as in the current fiscal year. That level of funding was also a record in a regular appropriations bill, Alexander said in May.

The Office of Science is the nation’s largest supporter of research in the physical sciences.

The president’s budget request, submitted to Congress on May 23, would cut Office of Science funding by about 17 percent, dropping it to $4.47 billion.

Keeping Office of Science funding flat, or even increasing it, could be important to several of the federal sites in Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is an Office of Science lab, and the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, or OSTI, is an Office of Science unit. [Read more…]

House bill keeps DOE Office of Science spending flat, increases NNSA funding

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

Photo by ORNL

 

Chuck Fleischmann

Chuck Fleischmann

A House bill approved Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s proposed funding cut of about $900 million for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.

Instead of cutting, the House Appropriations Committee bill would keep spending flat for the Office of Science, holding it at $5.39 billion in the next fiscal year, the same as in the current fiscal year.

That could be good news for DOE Office of Science laboratories and offices here, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, or OSTI.

Separately, the House bill recommends a funding increase for the National Nuclear Security Administration. That’s something that the Trump administration had also proposed. The NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within DOE, and its activities include nuclear weapons work, nuclear nonproliferation efforts, and naval reactors. The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is an NNSA site.

“Issues of national and economic security are continually on the forefront of the minds of all Americans,” said U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican whose district includes Oak Ridge. “Last week, the House Appropriations Committee, on which I serve, approved the Fiscal Year 2018 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill. I was proud to help direct additional funding towards the national security programs at Y-12.

“Additionally, funding levels included in this legislation will allow for cleanup of high risk excess facilities at Y-12. This is the first step in a long process, and I want to assure my constituents that I will continue fighting to ensure that Y-12, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and environmental management activities get the funding needed to continue their critical missions.” [Read more…]

Feinstein: President’s budget request could lead to 1,600 layoffs at ORNL

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

Photo by ORNL

 

Note: This story was updated at 12:20 p.m. June 28.

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday said the president’s budget request for the next fiscal year could lead to a 33 percent workforce reduction at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. About 1,600 of the lab’s roughly 4,800 employees could be laid off, the senator’s office said.

Feinstein, a Democrat from California, and other members of the Senate Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, including Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a Republican who is chair of the subcommittee, had a budget hearing with new Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday afternoon, June 21.

Across the U.S. Department of Energy, a workforce of 29,000 employees could be reduced by 23 percent at labs such as ORNL that are managed for DOE and not for the National Nuclear Security Administration, Feinstein said. (The NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within DOE.) That would be a reduction of 6,700 employees at the non-NNSA, non-weapons labs, the senator said.

“Every non-NNSA lab would see drastic employment cuts under this proposed budget,” said Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. “We must change this budget.”

The potential layoffs at DOE labs would be the result of a budget request submitted by President Donald Trump to Congress on Tuesday, May 23. But the president’s budget request has not yet been approved by Congress, and it has run into bipartisan opposition. Some legislators have declared the budget request “dead on arrival,” and others have said they won’t even review some proposed cuts such as a 30 percent funding reduction for the State Department. [Read more…]

ORNL awarded $3.36 million for automated, connected vehicle research

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connected-vehicle-arpa-e

Connected, automated vehicles will be part of an integrated control technologies-based system that could increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Image by ORNL)

 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been awarded $3.36 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, to develop novel control technologies for connected and automated vehicles with the goal of achieving a 20 percent improvement in vehicle energy efficiency, a press release said.

The project will focus on developing and implementing control technologies in a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, or PHEV, to achieve the following: compute optimal routing to bypass bottlenecks, accidents, special events, and other conditions that affect traffic flow; accelerate and decelerate optimally based on traffic conditions and the state of the surrounding roads; and optimize onboard powertrain efficiency.

“This approach changes the mathematical framework of how the vehicle is controlled and optimized today,” said ORNL’s Andreas Malikopoulos, the project’s principal investigator. “With our proposed concept, the vehicle will no longer operate in isolation but will be considered as part of an integrated system, which ultimately could help increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” [Read more…]

Alexander: Bill raises Office of Science funding to highest-ever, includes UPF, supercomputing, cleanup funding

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U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander

Lamar Alexander

A bill approved by a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday would give $5.144 billion to the federal agency that oversees work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It’s the highest level of funding ever for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which oversees 10 national labs, including ORNL, federal officials said.

The bill would also provide $430 million for the proposed Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex, which will “continue to keep this project on time and on budget,” according to a press release from the office of U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican.

Alexander’s office also said the legislation would provide funding for:

  • a new mercury treatment plant in Oak Ridge,
  • cleanup of nuclear facilities that are no longer in service,
  • nuclear infrastructure at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and
  • advanced computing, which supports the new Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The bill was unanimously approved on a voice vote by the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development on Tuesday afternoon. Alexander is chair of that subcommittee, and he said the approval shows that there is bipartisan support for energy research, waterways, and national security. [Read more…]

UT engineers helping ORNL with key sustainable energy riddle

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Alexander Papandrew and Gerd Duscher

Gerd Duscher, left, of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Alexander Papandrew, of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. (Photo courtesy University of Tennessee)

KNOXVILLE—One of the key holdups in the march toward more efficient sustainable energy could soon be answered, thanks in part to researchers at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

The College of Engineering’s Alexander Papandrew and Gerd Duscher are part of a broader Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led team that recently received a $2.75 million U.S. Department of Energy grant for work on improving fuel cells, $1.4 million of which went to their project.

The basic premise of their work is to find a far more efficient way to turn chemical energy—in this case natural gas—into electrical energy. [Read more…]

Top BP scientist, university professor confirmed as director of DOE research agency

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Ellen Williams

Ellen Williams (Photo courtesy Caltech Alumni Association)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Ellen Williams was confirmed by the United States Senate on Monday, December 8, as the director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E.

As director of ARPA-E, Williams will oversee a novel program that funds high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment, a DOE press release said. She will ensure that the technologies assisted through ARPA-E will help change the energy landscape and better meet the nation’s changing energy needs, the release said.

“ARPA-E is central to the Department’s advancement of energy technology innovation, and Ellen Williams will provide outstanding leadership based upon her combination of world class research in condensed matter physics and insight into how technology impacts the energy marketplace,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said. “I’m excited to work with Ellen on expanding the scope and impact of ARPA-E. I also want to thank Cheryl Martin for her leadership in ARPA-E for the past two years.” [Read more…]

House Appropriations’ energy, water bill fully funds UPF

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U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann

Chuck Fleischmann

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday passed an appropriations bill that fully funds the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said.

Fleischmann released this statement after passage of the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill:

“First and foremost, I am pleased to announce that this bill will effectively appropriate taxpayer dollars as well as provide strong oversight. The Energy and Water bill will strengthen our national defense and fund essential infrastructure projects while also setting federal spending levels. It fully funds the Uranium Processing Facility, a crucial component of our country’s nuclear security that will be built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

ORNL awarded $2.75 million for fuel cell research

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

DOE’s ARPA-E announces 13 new projects at New York Energy Week

New York, N.Y.—ARPA-E Acting Director Cheryl Martin has announced $33 million in funding for 13 new projects aimed at developing transformational fuel cell technologies for low-cost distributed power generation.

The funding was announced Thursday at New York Energy Week. ARPA-E is Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy in the U.S. Department of Energy.

The projects, which are funded through ARPA-E’s new Reliable Electricity Based on Electrochemical Systems, or REBELS, program, are focused on improving grid stability, balancing intermittent renewable technologies, and reducing CO2 emissions using electrochemical distributed power generation systems, a press release said.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory received $2.75 million for a project titled “Nanocomposite Electrodes for a Solid Acid Fuel Cell Stack.” [Read more…]

Obama announces more key DOE nominations

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President Barack Obama

Barack Obama

WASHINGTON, D.C.—On Thursday, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate two people to key administration posts in the U.S. Department of Energy.

The two nominees are Madelyn Creedon for principal deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a separate DOE agency, and Ellen D. Williams for director of DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.

“I am grateful these accomplished individuals have agreed to join this administration, and I’m confident they will serve ably in these important roles,” Obama said. “I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.” [Read more…]

ORNL awarded $1 million for battery research

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory is expected to receive about $1 million for battery research as part of a national project to improve the storage of energy.

The grants were announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of Energy, which announced a total of $43 million for 19 projects across the country.

[Read more…]