Brent Park
President Donald J. Trump on Thursday nominated a national security leader at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to a nuclear nonproliferation job in the U.S. Department of Energy.
Brent K. Park is currently an associate laboratory director at ORNL, where he is responsible for national security programs.
Trump nominated him to be deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation in the Department of Energy. [Read more…]
This summer, Oak Ridge Schools will host the first Discovery Energy Camp for rising seventh- and eighth-grade students. This camp is open to students from Oak Ridge Schools or any other school as long as they meet the grade level requirement.
“Registration availability is limited, so please register soon!” a press release said.
During this camp, students will investigate how energy works and how small bursts of creativity can unlock huge potential for the future. This camp combines hands-on labs, engineering challenges, digital investigations, and more, the release said. It will be taught by Chris Layton, social studies teacher and STEM coach, and Chris Jaeger, Diversified Technology teacher, both from Jefferson Middle School. It will take place from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. from June 8-12 at Jefferson Middle School.
Registration is being accepted until May 1. The cost is $120 for the week. Applications are available on the Jefferson Middle School website at http://jefferson.ortn.edu/?PageName=LatestNews&Section=LatestNews&ItemID=395661&ISrc=School&Ity pe=News.
Lamar Alexander
U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander has been elected chair of a Senate subcommittee that oversees funding for federal sites in Oak Ridge, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Nuclear Security Complex.
Alexander, who is a Tennessee Republican, was elected chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development by Senate Republicans on Tuesday, his office said in a press release.
“If we’re going to power our 21st-century economy, we need to pursue policies that don’t pick winners and losers in the marketplace, and that instead enable innovation in our free enterprise system,†Alexander said. “That means unleashing nuclear power and other sources of the cheap, clean, reliable energy we need. It also means using our taxpayer dollars wisely: by supporting government-sponsored research that leads to innovation and jobs, and by controlling the costs of big construction projects in Tennessee and across the country.†[Read more…]
The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is pictured above. (File photo/B&W Y-12)
The National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded six 2014 Sustainability Awards for innovation and excellence to the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security Complex, both operated and managed by Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, or CNS, a press release said.
“The awards recognize exemplary individual and team performance in advancing sustainability objectives through innovative and effective programs and projects that increase energy, water and fleet efficiency, and reduce greenhouse gases, pollution, and waste,” the release said. [Read more…]
Amit Goyal
The National Academy of Inventors has elected Amit Goyal as a fellow. Goyal is a researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The organization recognized Goyal for “having demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.â€
The National Academy of Inventors was founded in 2010 with goals that include celebrating and encouraging inventors, enhancing awareness of technology and innovation, and communicating the work of its members to benefit society.
Goyal, a member of ORNL’s Materials Science and Technology Division, is an international leader in the field of energy and electronic materials, particularly high-temperature superconducting materials. He has more than 80 issued patents. [Read more…]
Franklin M. “Lynn” Orr Jr. (Photo courtesy Stanford University/Franklin Orr)
WASHINGTON, D.C.—More than a year after his nomination was announced, Franklin “Lynn” Orr has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the under secretary for science and energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. Orr was confirmed Thursday.
As under secretary for science and energy, Orr will oversee all of DOE’s science research programs, including a majority of the national laboratories.
This position is part of the department’s s recent reorganization, which expanded the under secretary for science role to encompass both science and energy, a DOE press release said. Orr’s role will include oversight of research in the Offices of Science, Fossil Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Nuclear Energy, Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Indian Energy, and the Technology Transfer Coordinator.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is an Office of Science lab. [Read more…]
Charles McMillan
Charles F. McMillan, nuclear physicist and director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, will give the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy’s annual Distinguished Global Security Lecture on October 1 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
McMillan will speak on “The Timeline of Technology” at 5:30 p.m. in the Toyota Auditorium at the Baker Center, 1640 Cumberland Avenue. The event is free and open to the public.
McMillan’s lecture will look at how innovations from the previous century are being used to solve today’s national and global security, energy, and environmental issues. Then he’ll pose a question to policy makers: “Are we prepared for the policy needed in the 22nd century with the scientific and technical expertise we have today?” [Read more…]
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…]
Michael L. Simpson, Lance L. Snead, and Gerald A. Tuskan have been named corporate fellows of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo courtesy ORNL)
Michael L. Simpson, Lance L. Snead, and Gerald A. Tuskan have been named corporate fellows of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Among the lab’s highest honors, the corporate fellow designation recognizes the researchers’ significant accomplishments and continuing leadership in their scientific, engineering, and technological fields. With their addition, the number of active corporate fellows at ORNL is now 29 researchers, a press release said.
“Our new corporate fellows—Mike, Lance, and Jerry—are recognized leaders in the fields of nanotechnology, materials research, and bioscience, respectively,” ORNL Director Thom Mason said. “Their careers represent the span of ORNL research from fundamental science to real-world technologies for the nation’s critical needs in energy and the environment.” [Read more…]
Marilyn Brown
The 17th Annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series opens on Thursday, June 26, featuring Professor Marilyn Brown, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Lab in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The title of her June 26 lecture is “Technologies and Policies for a Sustainable Energy Future.” It’s sponsored by Friends of ORNL. The event is free of charge and will be held at the American Museum of Science and Energy at 300 S. Tulane Ave. in Oak Ridge.
Before moving to Georgia Tech in 2006, Brown managed the Efficiency, Renewables, and Electric Grid Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She is also a board member of the Tennessee Valley Authority. [Read more…]
Cross-sectional electron beam-induced current maps show the difference in cadmium telluride solar cells before (pictured above) and after (below) cadmium chloride treatment. The increased brightness after treatment indicates higher current collection at the grain boundaries. (Submitted photo)
Treating cadmium-telluride (CdTe) solar cell materials with cadmium-chloride improves their efficiency, but researchers have not fully understood why. Now, an atomic-scale examination of the thin-film solar cells led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory has answered this decades-long debate about the materials’ photovoltaic efficiency increase after treatment.
A research team from ORNL, the University of Toledo, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory used electron microscopy and computational simulations to explore the physical origins of the unexplained treatment process. The results are published in Physical Review Letters, or PRL.
Thin-film CdTe solar cells are considered a potential rival to silicon-based photovoltaic systems because of their theoretically low cost per power output and ease of fabrication. Their comparatively low historical efficiency in converting sunlight into energy, however, has limited the technology’s widespread use, especially for home systems. [Read more…]
Ernest Moniz
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will give a lecture on energy and the environment at the University of Tennessee on Friday. It’s free and open to the public, a press release said.
Moniz will also talk about the U.S. Department of Energy and its activities in Tennessee, a press release said.
It’s the Baker Distinguished Lecture on Energy and the Environment, and it’s scheduled from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday at the UT College of Law, Room 132. Overflow seating will be available in Room 135, and the event will be streamed live here.
The College of Law is at at 1505 W. Cumberland Ave. in Knoxville. Paid public parking will be available in the Volunteer Hall Garage. A map of campus is available at utk.edu/maps. [Read more…]
