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Next major decision anticipated for second target station at SNS

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SNS-Second-Target-Station
More than 200 scientists from around the world met from Oct. 27 to 29, 2015, at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to provide input on the scientific instruments that would be installed at a proposed Second Target Station, or STS, pictured above at center right at the Spallation Neutron Source. (File aerial photo and overlay by ORNL)

The next decision about the second target station at the Spallation Neutron Source could be made later this year or in the first quarter of next year, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told a House subcommittee on Thursday. The next decision would include an alternative selection and a cost range.

The $1.4 billion SNS is located on Chestnut Ridge at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It provides neutrons for research.

The second target station has been part of SNS plans for many years. It’s one of two upgrades being pursued at SNS. The other is a proton power upgrade, which is expected to double the power of SNS’s proton beam from 1.4 megawatts to 2.8 megawatts.

The second target station has a current estimated cost range of $800 million to $1.5 billion. The U.S. Department of Energy said the second target is needed more than a decade ago, in January 2009. The second target station would use a narrow proton beam and a compact, rotating, water-cooled tungsten target. It is expected to fill gaps in materials research that require the combined use of intense, cold (longer wavelength) neutrons and instruments that can help analyze complex materials. It could have up to 22 experimental beamlines.

[Read more…]

Updated: TerraPower, Isotek extracting cancer treatment materials from U-233 at ORNL

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DOE EM ORNL Pumping Uranyl Nitrate Solution into Resin Columns
TerraPower, a company that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped launch in 2006, is working with Isotek Systems LLC, a federal cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, to extract rare isotopes from nuclear materials for cancer treatment and research. Pictured above is a uranyl nitrate solution being pumped into resin columns. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)

Note: This story was last updated at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 25.

A company that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped launch in 2006 is working with a federal cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge to extract rare isotopes from nuclear materials for cancer treatment research.

The project will significantly increase the number of cancer treatment doses available each year, federal officials and company executives said Friday. It will help remove highly enriched fissile nuclear material from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and save taxpayers an estimated $90 million, the officials and executives said. And it will recycle an isotope that would otherwise be “irretrievably lost” as the nuclear material, uranium-233, is converted into a disposal-ready form.

The U.S. Department of Energy, Isotek Systems LLC, and TerraPower celebrated with an announcement of the project in Oak Ridge on Friday morning.

TerraPower, which is based in Bellevue, Washington, where Gates is chairman, is particularly interested in actinium-225. That isotope can be extracted from thorium-229. The thorium will be removed from the fissile material, the uranium-233 stored at ORNL, by the federal cleanup contractor, Isotek.

The unique agreement, a public-private partnership, is expected to allow TerraPower the ability to make 100 times more actinium-225-based cancer treatment doses per year than the 4,000 doses that are currently available worldwide. TerraPower could first offer actinium-225 in late 2020, company executives said.

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For members: Companies have agreement to make nuclear fuel

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The carbonization and heat treatment furnace used to produce TRISO fuel, a high-assay, low-enriched uranium fuel, at a pilot production facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo courtesy X-energy)

 

A company that has a trial fuel fabrication facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is collaborating with a joint venture led by GE with Hitachi to produce nuclear fuel for the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA.

The company, X-energy of Rockville, Maryland, announced the collaboration with Global Nuclear Fuel on November 6.

The two companies have an agreement to develop high-assay, low-enriched uranium TRISO fuel. The fuel could be used in defense micro-reactors and by NASA for nuclear thermal propulsion, a press release said.

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ORNL: New research facility will serve expanding missions in computing, materials R&D

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A conceptual drawing is shown above for the new Translational Research Capability at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Image courtesy ORNL)

Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Congressman Chuck Fleischmann, and lab officials broke ground Tuesday morning on a multipurpose research facility that will provide laboratory space for expanding scientific activities at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The new Translational Research Capability, or TRC, will be built for world-leading research in computing and materials science, and it will serve to advance the science and engineering of quantum information, a press release said.

“Through today’s groundbreaking, we’re writing a new chapter in research at the Translational Research Capability Facility,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said in the press release. “This building will be the home for advances in quantum information science, battery and energy storage, materials science, and many more. It will also be a place for our scientists, researchers, engineers, and innovators to take on big challenges and deliver transformative solutions.”

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(For members) New lithium building a priority as ceiling materials fall in old one

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Building 9204-2 (Beta 2) is pictured above at center at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Part of Building 9204-2E (Beta 2E) is pictured in the top left. (Photo courtesy Consolidated Nuclear Security)

 

A new lithium processing facility that could be built in Oak Ridge is a priority for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which has cited worker safety and materials that have fallen from the ceiling at the old building now used at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

As a priority, the new lithium processing facility is right behind the number one priorities: the production of plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and uranium processing at the Uranium Processing Facility, which is now under construction at Y-12, said Charles Verdon, NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs.

NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty cited the materials that have fallen from the ceiling at the old Y-12 building used for lithium processing, 9204-2, or Beta 2, in her response to questions during a budget hearing with the U.S. House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee on Tuesday.

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For first time since 2012, US has top supercomputer in world

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Summit supercomputer was named number one on the TOP500 List, a semiannual ranking of the world’s fastest computing systems on Monday, June 25, 2018. (Photo credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Summit supercomputer was named number one on the TOP500 List, a semiannual ranking of the world’s fastest computing systems on Monday, June 25, 2018. (Photo credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy)

 

For the first time since 2012, the United States has the most powerful supercomputer in the world, and it’s again located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The new supercomputer, called Summit, is capable of 200 petaflops, or 200,000 trillion calculations per second. Equipment delivery for Summit was completed in March, and officials celebrated the launch of the supercomputer in a ceremony attended by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on June 8.

The last time the United States had the top supercomputer was in November 2012. That machine, which is still in use, is named Titan, and it’s also at ORNL. It’s now number seven on the semiannual TOP500 list, which was released Monday.

China had held the top spot since June 2013, and the country had held the top two spots since June 2016. That ended with Monday’s TOP500 announcement. Previously at number one and number two, the top two Chinese supercomputers have fallen to number two and number four.

ORNL, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory, now has two of the top seven systems on the list. They are Summit at number one and Titan at number seven. The United States now has six of the top 10 machines, according to the TOP500 list. [Read more…]

ORNL again has world’s most powerful supercomputer

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Pictured above being interviewed by a CNBC television crew before a ceremony on Friday afternoon, June 8, 2018, for the new Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are Ginni Rometty, left, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of IBM; Rick Perry, second from right, U.S. Department of Energy secretary; and Jensen Huang, right, founder, president, and CEO of NVIDIA. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Pictured above being interviewed by a CNBC television crew before a ceremony on Friday afternoon, June 8, 2018, for the new Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are Ginni Rometty, left, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of IBM; Rick Perry, second from right, U.S. Department of Energy secretary; and Jensen Huang, right, founder, president, and CEO of NVIDIA. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 6 p.m. June 9.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory again has the world’s most powerful supercomputer. It’s also the world’s smartest supercomputer, a machine that can learn—and run software that will write software.

The supercomputer, called Summit, is capable of 200 petaflops, or 200,000 trillion calculations per second. During a Friday afternoon ceremony, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Summit can save 30 years worth of desktop data in one hour. It is millions times faster than a really good high-end desktop, said Ginni Rometty, IBM chair, president, and chief executive officer.

A water-cooled IBM system, Summit is presumed to have bumped China from the top spot, at least among open-science systems or supercomputers that aren’t classified. It has successfully run the world’s first exascale scientific calculation.

“We know we’re in competition, and it matters who gets there first,” Perry told several hundred people at the Friday afternoon ceremony at ORNL, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory. “We reached a pinnacle today.”

Researchers at ORNL could find the cure for Alzheimer’s disease or cancer, Perry said. Winning the global supercomputing race could have benefits for all of humanity, said Jensen Huang, NVIDIA founder, president, and CEO. [Read more…]

Registration for Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit extended through today

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Registration for the Tennessee Valley Corridor National Summit in Oak Ridge this month has been extended through today (Friday, May 18).

The TVC Summit is scheduled from Tuesday, May 29, to Thursday, May 31, at the New Hope Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

Organizers said the Summit will include five main sessions focused on clean energy, cyber and national security, advanced manufacturing, and education. The Summit will also celebrate the 75th anniversary of the City of Oak Ridge, the 85th anniversary of Tennessee Valley Authority, and 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 8 Mission.

There will be more than 50 speakers, panelists, and presenters, ranging from university and community college presidents to entrepreneurs to top leaders of the region’s federal contractors. More than 400 community, academic, and government leaders from the five-state region are expected to participate, organizers said. [Read more…]

Registration deadline is today for Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit

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On May 29-31, more than 400 community, academic, and government leaders from the five-state region will gather at CNS Y-12’s New Hope Center for the 23rd Annual Tennessee Valley Corridor (TVC) Summit.

The Summit’s theme is: “TVC: Connecting People, Ideas, Opportunities,” and will be hosted by Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch in cooperation with Congressman Chuck Fleischmann. Registration is available at www.TennValleyCorridor.org until May 15.

The Summit will include five main sessions focused on clean energy, cyber and national security, advanced manufacturing, and education. The Summit will also celebrate the 75th anniversary of the City of Oak Ridge, the 85th anniversary of Tennessee Valley Authority, and 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 8 Mission.

There will be more than 50 speakers, panelists, and presenters, ranging from university and community college presidents to entrepreneurs to top leaders of the region’s federal contractors, a press release said. Speakers for the event include: [Read more…]

Small businesses invited to learn how to work with NASA

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Small businesses have many opportunities to support NASA’s space flight mission—such as the Space Launch System that will be used for deep space exploration and new missions to the moon—and additional NASA projects. Learn more at the June 19 NASA networking conference “Think Big: Learn How To Do Business with NASA” at Roane State’s W.H. Swain Scott County Center in Huntsville, Tenn. (Artist’s concept courtesy of NASA).

Small businesses have many opportunities to support NASA’s space flight mission—such as the Space Launch System that will be used for deep space exploration and new missions to the moon—and additional NASA projects. Learn more at the June 19 NASA networking conference “Think Big: Learn How To Do Business with NASA” at Roane State’s W.H. Swain Scott County Center in Huntsville, Tenn. (Artist’s concept courtesy of NASA).

 

Small businesses are invited to a conference in June that will offer information on how to do business with NASA.

It’s an all-day networking conference titled “Think Big: Learn How To Do Business with NASA.” It’s scheduled for Tuesday, June 19, at Roane State’s W.H. Swain Scott County Center, which is at 410 W.H. Swain Boulevard in Huntsville. It was organized by U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican, and Congressman Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican.

At the conference, small businesses can meet with NASA officials and representatives from NASA prime contractors, a press release said. Conference participants will learn about various small business opportunities provided by NASA.

“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is just four hours from Huntsville, Tennessee,” Roane State President Chris Whaley said in the press release. “Opportunities with NASA are abundant for businesses of all shapes and sizes in this region. We want to raise awareness that big agencies such as NASA want and need services from small businesses. A business from a small community in a rural county can think big because NASA may be interested in your products.” [Read more…]

Veteran challenging Fleischmann in Republican primary

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Bill Spurlock

Bill Spurlock

 

William E. “Bill” Spurlock, a Chattanooga native and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is challenging U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann in the Republican primary in Tennessee’s Third District on August 2. The Third District includes Oak Ridge and its U.S. Department of Energy facilities.

Spurlock, 60, officially announced his candidacy in Chattanooga on Tuesday, April 3.

He has served in the Army, Marine Corps, and the National Guard, completing five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, the press release said. He is the recipient of the Legion of Merit, two Bronze Stars, and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal with a total of more than 50 ribbons and medals earned before recently retiring, as a major, after 34 years of service.

A press release said Spurlock was raised on Lookout Mountain by a single mother, and he attended The Baylor School. After graduation, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps. After three years on active duty in the Marines, he came home to attend the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, earning a bachelor’s degree in business management. [Read more…]

DOE announces $1.8 billion program for new supercomputers, with one at ORNL

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Rick Perry

Rick Perry

Note: This story was last updated at 12 p.m.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced a new supercomputing program on Monday that could be worth up to $1.8 billion and deploy two systems, with one at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, that would be 50 to 100 times more powerful than today’s computers.

The new systems are called exascale computers. DOE said the new supercomputers will solidify United States leadership in exascale computing.

The initiative was announced by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Perry announced a request for proposals, or RFP, for the development of at least two new exascale supercomputers to be deployed at DOE national laboratories sometime around 2021-2023.

“The new supercomputers funded through this RFP will be follow-on systems to the first U.S. exascale system authorized by Secretary Perry this past June, named Aurora, which is currently under development at Argonne National Laboratory and scheduled to come online in 2021,” a press release said. The RFP announced Monday envisions the possibility of upgrades to Aurora or even a follow-on system in 2022-2023, “depending on an assessment of needs and opportunities at that time.” [Read more…]

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