Oak Ridge Today

ORISE launches new app, redesigned website

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Part of the ORAU campus in central Oak Ridge is pictured above on May 29, 2017. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education has unveiled its redesigned ORISE website and new ORISE GO app, providing a wide range of resources on the go, a press release said.

The all-new ORISE GO mobile app offers college students, recent graduates, and postdoctoral students a mobile tool to search and apply for hundreds of science, technology, engineering, and math internships, fellowships, and research opportunities at national laboratories and facilities across the United States, the press release said.

The ORISE GO app also provides a platform to remain engaged, connected, and informed during the ORISE experience—from application, to offer, through the appointment, and even as an ORISE alumni, the press release said. [Read more…]

ORNL: Neutrons find ‘missing’ magnetism of plutonium

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Doug Abernathy and Marc Janoschek

Doug Abernathy, left, ARCS instrument scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Marc Janoschek, Los Alamos National Laboratory, prepare their sample for experiments at the Spallation Neutron Source. (Photo by ORNL)

 

Groundbreaking work at two U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories has confirmed plutonium’s magnetism, which scientists have long theorized but have never been able to experimentally observe. The advances that enabled the discovery hold great promise for materials, energy, and computing applications.

Plutonium was first produced in 1940, and its unstable nucleus allows it to undergo fission, making it useful for nuclear fuels as well as for nuclear weapons. Much less known, however, is that the electronic cloud surrounding the plutonium nucleus is equally unstable and makes plutonium the most electronically complex element in the periodic table, with intriguingly intricate properties for a simple elemental metal.

While conventional theories have successfully explained plutonium’s complex structural properties, they also predict that plutonium should order magnetically. This is in stark contrast with experiments, which had found no evidence for magnetic order in plutonium. [Read more…]

Explore ORNL event postponed to Sept. 23-24

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Explore ORNL conference has been rescheduled until September 23-24 to coincide with a larger industrial outreach event at ORNL this fall. Explore ORNL was originally scheduled for July 14-15.

The September event will feature capabilities in building technologies, vehicle technologies, and advanced manufacturing, and will highlight new opportunities for small businesses to gain access to national laboratories, including ORNL.

Information about the September industry event will be released in the coming weeks.

Energy Secretary Moniz showcases national labs on the Hill

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Ernest Moniz

Ernest Moniz

Lab Day demonstrations highlight labs’ contribution to U.S. competitiveness and innovation

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WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz last week joined Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and Senator Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican, for National Lab Day on the Hill. The event highlighted several notable research projects from across the national laboratory system.

Senators Durbin and Risch also formally launched the Senate National Laboratory Caucus, which aims to increase awareness of the reach of the national labs as leaders in developing new breakthrough technologies and discoveries to address some of our nation’s most pressing challenges.

“The national labs continue to advance science, clean energy, and nuclear security in this country, as they have for decades,” Moniz said. “The labs also provide essential capabilities for university and industrial researchers—nearly 30,000 per year—and advance technology frontiers, such as high performance computing and advanced manufacturing.” [Read more…]

Retired Air Force general sworn in as NNSA administrator

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Frank Klotz, Nancy Klotz, and Ernest Moniz at NNSA Swearing-in Ceremony

NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz, his wife Nancy Klotz, and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz at a swearing-in ceremony on Thursday. (Photos courtesy NNSANews)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz swore in Frank G. Klotz as the U.S. Department of Energy’s undersecretary for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration in a private ceremony on Thursday afternoon. Klotz was joined by his wife Nancy and Acting Administrator Bruce Held.

“I am very pleased that Gen. Klotz has now been sworn in as the fourth undersecretary of nuclear security and administrator for the National Nuclear Security Admiration,” Moniz said. “With his years of service to our country, his vision for NNSA’s nuclear security programs, and his dedication to supporting the men and women of the organization, I am confident Gen. Klotz will bring strong leadership and management to this critical Department of Energy mission. I look forward to working closely with Frank in support of the President’s nuclear security priorities.”

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is an NNSA site. The NNSA is a separate agency within DOE.

Klotz is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general. He is the former commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, a position he held from 2009 to 2011. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 8. [Read more…]

Postdocs wanted for energy efficiency, renewable energy research awards

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Applications being accepted through the end of April

Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy are taking applications for the EERE Postdoctoral Research Awards, an opportunity for recent Ph.D. recipients to conduct applied research at universities, national laboratories, and other research facilities. Applications are being accepted here until April 30.

The EERE Postdoctoral Research Awards aim to support scientific leaders in energy efficiency and renewable energy by attracting the best scientists and engineers to pursue breakthrough technologies in a postdoctoral research program. EERE research participants will have access to unique education and training opportunities, top scientists in their field, and state-of-the-art projects and equipment. [Read more…]

Spending cuts could lead to Y-12 furloughs, ORNL reactor shutdown

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Y-12 National Security Complex

Y-12 National Security Complex (Submitted photo)

A report released Wednesday said the automatic federal spending cuts set for March 1 would require furloughs at the Y-12 National Security Complex and a shutdown of the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The report was issued by Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee.

It said Y-12 would have to furlough 700-1,000 of its 4,500 employees for up to six months, and there would be hundreds of layoffs at national laboratories, universities, research facilities, and private sector companies that rely on grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science for energy research, the report said.

[Read more…]