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

Posted at 11:23 am April 9, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

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…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Slider, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Argonne National Laboratory, Aurora, Chuck Fleischmann, Collaboration of Oak Ridge Argonne and Livermore, CORAL, DOE, DOE national laboratories, DOE Office of Science, exascale computer, exascale computing, Exascale Computing Project, exascale supercomputer, Frontier, House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA, nuclear weapons, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, request for proposals, RFP, Rick Perry, summit, supercomputer, supercomputing, supercomputing supremacy, Titan, Top500, U.S. Department of Energy, UT-Battelle LLC

ORNL wins nine R&D 100 Awards        

Posted at 1:58 pm December 21, 2017
By Oak Ridge National Laboratory Leave a Comment

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…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: 3D printing, ACE: The Ageless Aluminum Revolution, ACMZ aluminum alloys, ACMZ Cast Aluminum Alloys, additive manufacturing, Additively Printed High Performance Magnets, Adrian Sabau, Advanced Manufacturing Office, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, Ahmed Hassen, Alex Roschli, aluminum alloys, Ames Laboratory, Ames Laboratory Critical Materials Institute, Amit Shyam, Amy Elliot, BASF, Beth Armstrong, Big Area Additive Manufacturing, Bill Peter, Brian Milligan, Brian Post, Brian Sales, Bruce Moyer, Chad Duty, Charles Hawkins, Coating Solutions for Large-Format Additive Manufacturing, Craig Blue, Dana McClurg, David Nuttall, Development and Engineering Center, dfnWorks, Dfnworks: A Computational Suite for Flow and Transport in Subsurface Fracture Networks, DOE, Dongwon Shin, dropletProbe Surface Sampling System for Mass Spectrometry, Eck Industries, Edgar Lara-Curzio, EERE Advanced Manufacturing Office, EERE Office of Vehicle Technologie EERE Office of Fuel Cell Technologies, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office, Eric Stromme, Fiat Chrysler Automobile U.S., Filler Materials for Welding and 3D Printing, Gabriel Veit, Gary Van Berkel, Hsin Wang, Hunter Henderson, J. Allen Haynes, James Morris, John Lindahl, Large-scale 3Dprinting, Lawrence Allard, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, lightweight superalloys, Ling Li, Lonnie Love, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Magnet Applications Incorporated, mass spectrometry, Michael Kesler, Michael McGuire, Momentum Technologies, Nadya Ally, Nancy Dudney, Nemak U.S.A., Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Science, Office of Vehicle Technologies, Open Port Sampling Interfaces for Mass Spectrometry, Orlando Rios, ORNL, Oscars of Invention, Parans Paranthaman, Patrick Shower, Philip Maziasz, plastic carbon fiber compounds, plug-in electric vehicle batteries, Polynt Composites, R&D 100 Awards, R&D 100 Conference, R&D Magazine, rare earth bonded magnets, Safe Impact Resistant Electrolyte, SAFIRE), Scott Painter, SepQuant, Sergiy Kalnaus, Shibayan Roy, software suite, Stan David, TEAMM, Techmer engineered additive manufacturing materials, Techmer PM, Thomas Watkins, Tru-Design, U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Rochester, Vilmos Kertesz, Vlastimil Kunc, Wallace Porter, welding, Xinghua Yu, Yanli Wang, Yukinori Yamamoto, Zach Simms, Zhili Feng

China passes U.S. in number of top supercomputers; ORNL’s Titan drops to 5th

Posted at 9:49 am November 13, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is pictured above. (Photo by ORNL/U.S. Department of Energy)

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is pictured above. (Photo by ORNL/U.S. Department of Energy)

 

China has passed the United States in the total number of top ranked supercomputers, and Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has dropped from fourth to fifth on the TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers.

The TOP500 list is released twice a year, once in June and once in November. It is based on a benchmark test known as Linpack.

Titan at ORNL dropped from third to fourth in June, bumped from the number three spot by the upgraded Piz Daint, a Cray XC50 system installed at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre. Titan is capable of 17.59 petaflops. A petaflop is one quadrillion calculations per second. That’s 1,000 trillion calculations per second. Piz Daint is capable of 19.59 petaflops.

That power is useful in scientific research. At ORNL, Titan is used for research in areas such as materials science, nuclear energy, combustion, and climate science. ORNL is a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory.

Titan slipped one more spot in this month’s list, from fourth to fifth. It was displaced by the upgraded Gyoukou supercomputer. That is a ZettaScaler-2.2 system capable of 19.14 petaflops and deployed at Japan’s Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, the home of the Earth Simulator. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Slider, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, China, Cori, Cray XC40, Cray XC50, Gyoukou, IBM BlueGene/Q, Japan, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Milky Way-2, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology, National Supercomputing Center, National University of Defense Technology, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Piz Daint, Sandia National Laboratories, Sequoia, summit, Sunway TaihuLight, supercomputers, Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, Tianhe-2, Titan, Titan supercomputer, Top500, Top500 List, TOP500 ranking, Trinity, U.S. Department of Energy, United States, ZettaScaler-2.2

DOE, NNSA computing project names new director, to be based at ORNL

Posted at 5:23 pm September 20, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Doug Kothe

Doug Kothe

A collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration has named a new director of the project to build computing systems that are at least 50 times faster than the nation’s most powerful supercomputers in use today—and the new director will be based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The collaborative project is the Exascale Computing Project. It’s a collaboration between DOE’s Office of Science and the NNSA, which is a semi-autonomous agency within DOE.

The new director is Doug Kothe, a 32-year veteran of DOE’s national laboratory system who most recently served in ORNL’s Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate and as the applications development lead for the Exascale Computing Project, or ECP. For the preceding five years, he led the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors, DOE’s first Energy Innovation Hub, which uses supercomputers to improve nuclear reactor performance.

Kothe will be ECP director effective October 1. He will replace Paul Messina, who is stepping down after two years to return to Argonne National Laboratory, a press release said. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, National Nuclear Security Administration, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Argonne National Laboratory, Bill Goldstein, Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate, Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors, DOE, Doug Kothe, ECP, Exascale Computing Project, high-performance computing, Lawrence Livermore National Laborator, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Science, ORNL, Paul Messina, supercomputers, Thomas Zacharia, U.S. Department of Energy

ORNL: Neutrons peer into a running engine

Posted at 3:25 pm September 3, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Researchers used neutrons to probe a running engine at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source, giving them the opportunity to test an aluminum-cerium alloy under operating conditions. From left, researchers Orlando Rios, Ke An, and Eric Stromme show off a cylinder head made from the new alloy. (Photo by ORNL/U.S. Department of Energy)

Researchers used neutrons to probe a running engine at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source, giving them the opportunity to test an aluminum-cerium alloy under operating conditions. From left, researchers Orlando Rios, Ke An, and Lt. Eric Stromme show off a cylinder head made from the new alloy. (Photo by ORNL/U.S. Department of Energy)

 

By Ashley C. Huff, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

In a first-of-a-kind experiment, researchers used neutrons to investigate the performance of a new aluminum alloy in a gasoline-powered engine—while the engine was running.

A team from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory worked with industry partners to perform the test, which looked at whether a high-performance alloy that is promising for automotive applications held up under the heat and stress of an internal combustion engine.

Researchers used neutrons to probe a running engine at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source, giving them the opportunity to test an aluminum-cerium alloy under operating conditions.

The feat was a first for the Spallation Neutron Source, said Ke An, lead instrument scientist for the facility’s VULCAN instrument.

“This was the first time an internal combustion engine has been run on our diffractometer, and, as far as we know, on any other,” he said. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Advanced Manufacturing Office, Al-Ce cylinder head, aluminum alloy, aluminum-cerium alloy, Ames National Laboratory, Critical Materials Institute, DOE, DOE Office of Science, Eck Industries, Eric Stromme, Idaho National Laboratory, Ke An, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, Michael Kesler, National Transportation Research Center, neutrons, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Science, Orlando Rios, ORNL, Spallation Neutron Source, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Tennessee Bredesen Center, Vehicle Technologies Office, VULCAN instrument, Zachary Sims

ORNL building world’s smartest supercomputer

Posted at 11:31 am August 3, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

This a graphical representation of the Summit computer cabinets. It is not a photograph of the final design. (Image courtesy ORNL/Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility)

This a graphical representation of the Summit computer cabinets. It is not a photograph of the final design. (Image courtesy ORNL/Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 10 a.m. Aug. 8.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Wednesday said it is building the world’s smartest supercomputer.

The new supercomputer is called Summit. It will be located in a new data center next to Titan, which is now the fourth most powerful supercomputer in the world.

Summit will be 5-10 times faster than Titan, ORNL said. It will move data five to 10 times faster, store eight times more data, and perform many more calculations simultaneously than Titan, the lab said in information provided by spokesperson Morgan McCorkle.

Summit will be the world’s smartest supercomputer because of its enormous memory and data handling capabilities as well as its unique machine learning processor design, McCorkle said.

“The first of Summit’s cabinets arrived Monday, and our team is in the process of uncrating and putting them in place,” McCorkle said in response to questions from Oak Ridge Today. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Science, Slider, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Argonne National Laboratory, Aurora, Center for Accelerated Application Readiness, central processing units, CPUs, Cray XK7, GPUs, graphics processing units, high-performance computing, IBM, IBM POWER9 CPUs, Jaguar, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Mellanox, Milky Way-2, Morgan McCorkle, NVIDIA, NVIDIA Volta GPUs, NVIDIA’s high-speed NVLink, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, petaflop, Piz Daint, powerful supercomputer, Sierra, smartest supercomputer, summit, Sunway TaihuLight, supercomputer, Tianhe-2, Titan, Top500 List, U.S. Department of Energy

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

Posted at 1:41 pm July 23, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

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…]

Filed Under: Federal, Front Page News, Government, National Nuclear Security Administration, Oak Ridge Office, Science, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12 National Security Complex Tagged With: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ARRA, Biology Complex, Chuck Fleischmann, Congress, DOE, DOE Office of Science, Donald Trump, EM, environmental management, Excess Contaminated Facilities Initiative, House Appropriations Committee, House Energy and Water Subcommittee, Jay Mullis, Lamar Alexander, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA, Oak Ridge cleanup, Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, Senate Appropriations Committee, Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, Trump administration, U.S. Department of Energy, UCOR, URS-CH2M, Y-12 National Security Complex

President’s budget: DOE cleanup funding could be up, with benefits for Oak Ridge

Posted at 2:05 pm July 6, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Jay Mullis, front center, acting manager of the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, talks about federal site cleanup work in Oak Ridge during a visit by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, left, on Monday, May 22, 2017. Pictured between Perry and Mullis are U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, both Tennessee Republicans. (Photo by DOE)

Jay Mullis, front center, acting manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, talks about federal site cleanup work in Oak Ridge during a visit by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, left, on Monday, May 22, 2017. Pictured between Perry and Mullis are U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, both Tennessee Republicans. (Photo by DOE)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 4:30 p.m.

Cleanup funding could be up for the U.S. Department of Energy under the budget request from the Trump administration for fiscal year 2018, and there could be benefits for Oak Ridge, according to budget documents.

President Donald Trump submitted his budget request to Congress on Tuesday, May 23. In that request, the DOE Office of Environmental Management, or EM, asked for $6.5 billion, the largest request in a decade. That would be $290 million above fiscal year 2016.

The funding request for Oak Ridge includes $390 million, or $78 million below fiscal year 2016, to continue deactivation and demolition of remaining facilities at East Tennessee Technology Park, continue preparing Building 2026 to support the processing of the remaining U-233 material at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and to support activities for the Mercury Treatment Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex.

It’s not clear whether that $390 million in the funding request includes part of the $225 million in funding requested for high-risk excess contaminated facilities at Y-12 and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. It’s also not clear whether the total funding for Oak Ridge cleanup programs would be up or down, compared to previous years. The DOE public affairs office in Washington, D.C., has not responded to about a dozen budget-related inquiries from Oak Ridge Today since May 23.

Among the highlights of the EM request for Oak Ridge, according to budget documents posted online by DOE and an EM press release: [Read more…]

Filed Under: East Tennessee Technology Park, Federal, Front Page News, Government, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Office, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12 National Security Complex Tagged With: cleanup funding, DOE, Donald Trump, East Tennessee Technology Park, EM, environmental cleanup, Heritage Center, House appropriations bill, Jay Mullis, K-25 site, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Mercury Treatment Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Environmental Management, Rick Perry, Sue Cange, transuranic waste, Trump administration, U-233, U.S. Department of Energy, Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Y-12 National Security Complex

NNSA: Y-12 funding would be up 25 percent under president’s budget request

Posted at 11:51 am July 6, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Y-12 Aerial Photo June 2012

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is pictured above in June 2012. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 4:20 p.m.

Funding for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge would be up about 25 percent under the budget request submitted to Congress in May, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The total funding for Y-12 would be $1.64 billion, the NNSA said. That’s an increase of 25.4 percent over fiscal year 2016.

The budget request for fiscal year 2018, which starts October 1, was submitted by President Donald Trump to Congress on Tuesday, May 23. The NNSA request of $13.9 billion would increase funding by 7.8 percent compared to fiscal year 2017, Administrator Frank G. Klotz said during a teleconference with reporters on May 23.

Trump’s budget request has not yet been approved by Congress, where there has been bipartisan opposition, particularly to the proposed cuts. In Oak Ridge, sites and programs that could be cut include Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which would have a funding reduction of $206 million over two years, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or EERE.

But Y-12, a National Nuclear Security Administration site, could benefit if the president’s budget request were approved by Congress. A House spending bill introduced last week for federal energy and water departments appears to include proposed spending levels for the NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency within DOE, that are similar to what the Trump administration has proposed. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, National Nuclear Security Administration, Slider, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12, Y-12 National Security Complex Tagged With: Bob Raines, Congress, Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, Donald Trump, EERE, EM, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Frank G. Klotz, funding, funding for Y-12, House spending bill, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Main Process Building, Mercury Treatment Facility, National Nuclear Security Administration, naval reactors, NNSA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Environmental Management, Salvage and Accountability Building, U.S. Department of Energy, UPF, uranium processing facility, weapons activities, Y-12 National Security Complex

Haslam visits ORNL to highlight state’s role in discovering tennessine

Posted at 12:29 am January 28, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Bill Haslam at ORNL Tennessine Martin McDonald Thom Mason ORHS Students

Principal Martin McDonald, left, and students from Oak Ridge High School accepted the first new chart of the periodic table featuring element tennessine and signed by Governor Bill Haslam, right, and ORNL Director Thom Mason, second from left. To mark the discovery of tennessine, UT-Battelle is donating a new chart to all public middle and high schools in Tennessee. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam visited the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Friday to congratulate the ORNL team involved in the discovery of the element tennessine, named in recognition of the vital contributions of the state of Tennessee to the international search for new superheavy elements.

UT-Battelle, the managing contractor of ORNL, is marking the discovery by providing more than 1,000 public middle schools and high schools in Tennessee with new charts of the periodic table. Tennessine—the official name for element 117—completes the seventh row of the table and the column of elements classified as halogens.

The charts will include the signatures of Haslam and ORNL Director Thom Mason.

“We had two very significant announcements in Tennessee this fall as it relates to science,” Haslam said. “In October, the Nation’s Report Card announced that Tennessee students are the fastest improving in the nation in science, and in November, Tennessee became only the second state to be recognized in the periodic table of elements. Having an element named in our honor is further evidence of the scientific excellence that exists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University, and other institutions throughout our state, and by UT-Battelle donating new periodic tables to every middle and high school in Tennessee, students can feel proud of our state’s important role in the scientific community and inspired to play a role in its future.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Education, Front Page News, Government, K-12, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Slider, State, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: berkelium-249, Bill Haslam, Bk-249, DOE Isotope Program, element 115, element 117, element 118, Eugene P. Wigner Distinguished Lecture, halogens, High Flux Isotope Reactor, hot fusion, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, island of stability, IUPAC, Jim Roberto, Joe Hamilton, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Martin McDonald, Moscovium, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Science, Oganesson, ORNL, periodic table, Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, radioisotope, superheavy atoms, superheavy element, Tennessine, Thom Mason, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Tennessee, UT-Battelle, Vanderbilt University, Victor Matveev, Yuri Oganessian

Name of new element, tennessine, recognizes state’s contributions, including at ORNL

Posted at 2:53 pm November 30, 2016
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

tennessine-logo-final

The recently discovered element 117 has been officially named “tennessine” in recognition of Tennessee’s contributions to its discovery, including the efforts of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and its Tennessee collaborators at Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee.

“The presence of tennessine on the Periodic Table is an affirmation of our state’s standing in the international scientific community, including the facilities ORNL provides to that community as well as the knowledge and expertise of the laboratory’s scientists and technicians,” ORNL Director Thom Mason said in a press release.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, or IUPAC, gave its final approval to the name “tennessine” following a year-long process that began December 30, 2015, when IUPAC and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics announced verification of the existence of the superheavy element 117. That was more than five years after scientists first reported its discovery in April 2010.

IUPAC validates the existence of newly discovered elements and approves their official names.

ORNL had several roles in the discovery, the most prominent being production of the radioisotope berkelium-249 for the search. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: berkelium-249, calcium-48, DOE, element 117, halogen, High Flux Isotope Reactor, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, island of stability, Isotope Program, IUPAC, Jim Roberto, JINR, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, neutron scattering, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, periodic table, Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, radioisotopes, Russia, superheavy element, Tennessine, Thom Mason, Ts, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University, Yuri Oganessian

New 200-petaflop supercomputer to succeed Titan at ORNL

Posted at 1:11 am July 8, 2016
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Summit Supercomputer Cabinets Graphic

This a graphical representation of the Summit computer cabinets. It is not a photograph of the final design. (Image courtesy ORNL/November 2014)

 

A new 200-petaflop supercomputer will succeed Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and it could be available to scientists and researchers in 2018, a spokesperson said this week.

The new IBM supercomputer, named Summit, could about double the computing power of what is now the world’s fastest machine, a Chinese system named Sunway TaihuLight, according to a seminannual list of the world’s top supercomputers released in June.

Sunway TaihuLight is capable of 93 petaflops, according to the list, the TOP500 list. A petaflop is one quadrillion calculations per second. That’s 1,000 trillion calculations per second.

Summit, which is expected to start operating at ORNL early in 2018, is one of three supercomputers that the U.S. Department of Energy expects to exceed 100 petaflops at three U.S. Department of Energy laboratories in 2018. The three planned systems are:

  • the 200-petaflop Summit at ORNL, which is expected to be available to users in early 2018;
  • a 150-petaflop machine known as Sierra at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco in mid-2018; and
  • a 180-petaflop supercomputer called Aurora at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago in late 2018.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, Argonne National Laboratory, Aurora, central processing units, CPU, DOE, GPU, graphic processing units, high-performance computing, IBM, IBM POWER9 CPU, IBM supercomputer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lynn Orr, Mellanox, Morgan McCorkle, National Nuclear Security Administration, National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology, National Supercomputing Center, National University of Defense Technology, NRCPC, NVIDIA, NVIDIA Volta GPU, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Science, OLCF, ORNL, petaflop, Sierra, summit, Sunway TaihuLight, supercomputer, Titan, Top500, U.S. Department of Energy

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Availability of the draft environmental assessment for off-site depleted uranium manufacturing (DOE/EA-2252)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the … [Read More...]

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  • ORAU Annual Giving Campaign exceeds $100,000 goal+ORAU Annual Giving Campaign exceeds $100,000 goal More than $1 million raised in past 10 years benefits United Way and Community Shares Oak Ridge, Tenn. —ORAU exceeded its goal of raising $100,000 in donations as part of its internal annual giving campaign that benefits the United Way and Community Shares nonprofit organizations. ORAU has raised more than $1 million over the past 10 years through this campaign. A total of $126,839 was pledged during the 2024 ORAU Annual Giving Campaign. Employees donate via payroll deduction and could earmark their donation for United Way, Community Shares or both. “ORAU has remained a strong pillar in the community for more than 75 years, and we encourage our employees to consider participating in our annual giving campaign each year to help our less fortunate neighbors in need,” said ORAU President and CEO Andy Page. “Each one of our employees has the power to positively impact the lives of those who need help in the communities where we do business across the country and demonstrate the ORAU way – taking care of each other.” ORAU, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, provides science, health and workforce solutions that address national priorities and serve the public interest. Through our specialized teams of experts and access to a consortium of more than 150 major Ph.D.-granting institutions, ORAU works with federal, state, local and commercial customers to provide innovative scientific and technical solutions and help advance their missions. ORAU manages the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Learn more about ORAU at www.orau.org. Learn more about ORAU at www.orau.org. Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OakRidgeAssociatedUniversities Follow us on X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/orau Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/orau ###
  • Children’s Museum Gala Celebrates the Rainforest
  • Jim Sears joins ORAU as senior vice president
  • Oak Ridge Housing Authority Receives Funding Assistance of up to $51.8 Million For Renovating Public Housing and Building New Workforce Housing
  • Two fires reported early Friday

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