Oak Ridge Today

ORNL: World’s smallest neutrino detector finds big physics fingerprint

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From left, Professor Yuri Efremenko of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Jason Newby of Oak Ridge National Laboratory are among 80 participants in COHERENT, a large, collaborative, particle physics experiment to record neutrinos at the Spallation Neutron Source. Photomultiplier tubes look like giant light bulbs and are used to detect light from neutrino interactions in detectors. COHERENT’s cesium iodide detector, the first to espy neutrinos at the SNS, employs a 5-inch (13-centimeter) wide photomultiplier tube. An 8-inch (20-centimeter) wide photomultiplier (shown here) is deployed in COHERENT’s nearby liquid-argon detector. Measurements from different types of detectors are necessary for comprehensive studies of neutrinos at SNS. The scientists are standing in front of the cesium-iodide-detector shielding. (Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy; photographer Genevieve Martin)

From left, Professor Yuri Efremenko of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Jason Newby of Oak Ridge National Laboratory are among 80 participants in COHERENT, a large, collaborative, particle physics experiment to record neutrinos at the Spallation Neutron Source. Photomultiplier tubes look like giant light bulbs and are used to detect light from neutrino interactions in detectors. COHERENT’s cesium iodide detector, the first to espy neutrinos at the SNS, employs a five-inch (13-centimeter) wide photomultiplier tube. An eight-inch (20-centimeter) wide photomultiplier (shown here) is deployed in COHERENT’s nearby liquid-argon detector. Measurements from different types of detectors are necessary for comprehensive studies of neutrinos at SNS. The scientists are standing in front of the cesium-iodide-detector shielding. (Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy; photographer Genevieve Martin)

 

By Dawn Levy/ORNL

After more than a year of operation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the COHERENT experiment, using the world’s smallest neutrino detector, has found a big fingerprint of the elusive, electrically neutral particles that interact only weakly with matter.

The research, performed at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source and published in the journal Science, provides compelling evidence for a neutrino interaction process predicted by theorists 43 years ago but never seen.

“The one-of-a-kind particle physics experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was the first to measure coherent scattering of low-energy neutrinos off nuclei,” said ORNL physicist Jason Newby, technical coordinator and one of 11 ORNL participants in COHERENT, a collaboration of 80 researchers from 19 institutions and four nations.

The SNS produces neutrons for scientific research and also generates a high flux of neutrinos as a byproduct. Placing the detector at SNS a mere 65 feet (20 meters) from the neutrino source vastly improved the chances of interactions and allowed the researchers to decrease the detector’s weight to just 32 pounds (14.5 kilograms). In comparison, most neutrino detectors weigh thousands of tons: although they are continuously exposed to solar, terrestrial, and atmospheric neutrinos, they need to be massive because the interaction odds are more than 100 times lower than at SNS.

The scientists are the first to detect and characterize coherent elastic scattering of neutrinos off nuclei. This long-sought confirmation, predicted in the particle physics Standard Model, measures the process with enough precision to establish constraints on alternative theoretical models. [Read more…]

Y-12‘s Biology Complex would be top priority if excess cleanup funding available

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Y-12 Biology Complex aerial

An aerial view of the Biology Complex at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Plans call for eventually demolishing the complex. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy)

 

If excess funding is available, the federal cleanup program in Oak Ridge has a top priority: the Biology Complex at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The budget request submitted to Congress by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, May 23, included $225 million for high-risk excess contaminated facilities at Y-12 and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

It’s not clear how much of that money might be used in Oak Ridge, if the president’s budget request were approved. Officials said the allocations would be determined by U.S. Department of Energy headquarters.

But the Oak Ridge cleanup program, known as environmental management, has taken steps to ensure that some projects here, such as the planned demolition of Y-12’s Biology Complex, are “in a good position” if money becomes available.

On Friday, Jay Mullis, acting manager for the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or EM, said the Biology Complex would be a primary priority if Y-12 gets some portion of the $225 million proposed by the Trump administration.

“Provided there is excess funding, that would be the building we would go after,” the Oak Ridge EM program said. [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…]

Climate study finds human ‘fingerprint’ in Northern Hemisphere greening

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North Hemisphere Greening

Earth system models simulate Northern Hemisphere greening. The figure shows the spatial distribution of leaf area index trends (m2/m2/30yr) in the growing season (April–October) during the period of 1982–2011 in the mean of satellite observations (top), Earth system model (ESM) simulations with natural forcings alone (lower left), and ESM simulations with combined anthropogenic and natural forcings (lower right). (Image by ORNL)

 

A multinational team led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory Climate Change Science Institute has found the first positive correlation between human activity and enhanced vegetation growth.

The research team, led by Jiafu Mao of the Ecosystem Simulation Science group in the Environmental Sciences Division, used new environmental data and strict statistical methods to discover a significant human-vegetation interaction in the northern extratropical latitudes, the section of the planet spanning 30 to 75 degrees north, roughly between the Tropic of Cancer and the North Frigid Zone above the Arctic Circle.

“This is the first clear evidence of a discernible human fingerprint on physiological vegetation changes at the continental scale,” Mao said. [Read more…]

Cedar Springs Homeschool wins DOE Tennessee Science Bowl

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Cedar-Springs-Homeschool-Tennessee-Science-Bowl-Feb-27-2016

Winning first place in the 2016 Tennessee Science Bowl is Cedar Springs Homeschool of Knoxville. Pictured left to right with their trophy are Lily Turaski, Josiah Boyle, Tara Conway, Tyler Fulghum, Wesleigh Wright, and Coach Dee Dee Turaski. (DOE photo courtesy Lynn Freeny)

 

Cedar Springs Homeschool advances to National Science Bowl 

Countless hours studying math and science paid off for some exceptionally bright students from Cedar Springs Homeschool. They were first-place winners in the U.S. Department of Energy’s annual Tennessee Science Bowl this past weekend.

Cedar Springs Homeschool competed against 58 other high school teams on Saturday, February 27, to place first in the annual competition. The schools edged out its competition by successfully answering challenging questions in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, earth and space science, and energy.

Held at Pellissippi State Community College’s Blount County Campus, the Tennessee Science Bowl is the nation’s third largest regional competition. The regional bowl prepares students to compete nationally with other exceptional students from schools across the country. As the first-place team, Cedar Springs Homeschool receives an all-expenses-paid trip to the DOE National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C., April 28-May 2, as well as a $1,000 cash prize and a first-place trophy. [Read more…]

ORNL cell-free protein synthesis is potential lifesaver

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Nanoporous-Membrane-December-2015-ORNL

This section of a serpentine channel reactor shows the parallel reactor and feeder channels separated by a nanoporous membrane. At left is a single nanopore viewed from the side; at right is a diagram of metabolite exchange across the membrane. (Image by ORNL)

 

Lives of soldiers and others injured in remote locations could be saved with a cell-free protein synthesis system developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The device, a creation of a team led by Andrea Timm and Scott Retterer of the lab’s Biosciences Division, uses microfabricated bioreactors to help the on-demand production of therapeutic proteins for medicines and biopharmaceuticals. Making these miniature factories cell-free, which eliminates the maintenance of a living system, simplifies the process and lowers cost.

“With this approach, we can produce more protein faster, making our technology ideal for point-of-care use,” Retterer said. “The fact it’s cell-free reduces the infrastructure needed to produce the protein and opens the possibility of creating proteins when and where you need them, bypassing the challenge of keeping the proteins cold during shipment and storage.” [Read more…]

Plutonium-238 produced at ORNL helps restores ability to power NASA space missions

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ORNL-Plutonium-238

By producing 50 grams of plutonium-238, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have demonstrated the nation’s ability to provide a valuable energy source for deep space missions. (Photo by ORNL)

 

With the production of 50 grams of plutonium-238, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have restored a U.S. capability dormant for nearly 30 years and set the course to provide power for NASA and other missions.

Plutonium-238 produces heat as it decays, and it can be used in systems that power spacecraft instruments. The new sample, which is in the same oxide powder form used to manufacture heat sources for power systems, represents the first end-to-end demonstration of a plutonium-238 production capability in the United States since the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina ceased production of the material in the late 1980s.

Researchers will analyze the sample for chemical purity and plutonium-238 content, then verify production efficiency models and determine whether adjustments need to be made before scaling up the process.

“Once we automate and scale up the process, the nation will have a long-range capability to produce radioisotope power systems such as those used by NASA for deep space exploration,” said Bob Wham, who leads the project for the lab’s Nuclear Security and Isotope Technology Division. [Read more…]

ORNL technique could set new course for extracting uranium from seawater

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ORNL-TOC-Graphic

Using high-energy X-rays, researchers discovered uranium is bound by adsorbent fibers in an unanticipated fashion. (Image by ORNL)

 

An ultra-high-resolution technique used for the first time to study polymer fibers that trap uranium in seawater may cause researchers to rethink the best methods to harvest this potential fuel for nuclear reactors.

The work of a team led by Carter Abney, a Wigner Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, shows that the polymeric adsorbent materials that bind uranium behave nothing like scientists had believed. The results, gained through collaboration with the University of Chicago and detailed in a paper published in Energy and Environmental Science, highlight data made possible with X-ray Absorption Fine Structure spectroscopy performed at the Advanced Photon Source. The APS is a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Argonne National Laboratory.

“Despite the low concentration of uranium and the presence of many other metals extracted from seawater, we were able to investigate the local atomic environment around uranium and better understand how it is bound by the polymer fibers,” Abney said. [Read more…]