The U.S. Department of Energy has approved a five-year extension of UT-Battelle’s contract to manage and operate Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The five-year extension took effect Wednesday, April 1, ORNL said in a response to questions.
The value of the extension wasn’t immediately available.
[Read more…]
More than 60 percent of the 5,200 staff members at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working remotely.
No staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, a contagious respiratory disease that has spread around the world and can be deadly. But ORNL does have employees that have been put in self-quarantine by the lab’s medical director. That includes staff members who believe they, or a member of their household, may have come in contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 or a person who has recently traveled to an area where widespread community spread of COVID-19 has been confirmed. No staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, ORNL said.
The remote work at ORNL is being done by staff members in a wide variety of jobs that include support functions like accounting, auditing, legal, technical editing, project management, and other activities, as well as researchers who can monitor data remotely or who are using the time to write or edit research publications and similar work, ORNL said in a response to questions on Wednesday.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 staff members continue to work on site, largely in facility operations positions that require hands-on tasks or monitoring, the lab said. These include technicians, front-line supervisors, electricians, firefighters, security personnel, and other types of workers.
“Some tasks have been shuffled to accommodate the need to work from home, but we are continuing to fulfill our mission commitments to the U.S. Department of Energy and the nation,” ORNL said.
[Read more…]Oak Ridge National Laboratory is directing staff members who can to work from home, and for now, the lab is not allowing travelers from foreign countries, regardless of nationality.
ORNL cafeterias will be open for carryout only.
In response to questions Tuesday, ORNL said it has not been notified that any staff member is presumed or confirmed to be COVID-19 positive. COVID-19 is the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. The lab said it is taking proactive measures to reduce the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak and to best protect themselves, their families, and their communities.
“Stopping the spread of the virus will prevent hospitals and other medical facilities from becoming overwhelmed by a spike in patients sickened by COVID-19,” ORNL said. “This is quite literally a life or death matter, and early action is key.”
[Read more…]
The U.S. Department of Energy plans to demolish the oldest operating nuclear facility in the world.
The cleanup and demolition of Building 3019 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could start sometime around 2030.
But the work won’t start until more than 500 canisters of uranium-233 stored in the building have been processed and removed, possibly by 2025.
More than 70 years old, Building 3019 was built during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. That was a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic bombs.
From 1943-1976, the building was used as a pilot plant to test radiochemical processes before they were used on a large scale at other nuclear facilities.
Now Building 3019 stores the nation’s inventory of uranium-233. Processing and removing that uranium is the top cleanup priority at ORNL because, among other things, storing the highly enriched fissile nuclear material increases security costs and creates nuclear safety issues. The cleanup work is being done by DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and its contractor Isotek.
[Read more…]The U.S. Department of Energy has proposed an isotope production and research center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that could be important for medical, national security, and research projects.
In a budget request released in February, DOE said its supply of certain key enriched stable isotopes has been depleted, making the United States more dependent upon foreign imports for enriched stable isotopes. Isotopes are forms of an element that have the same number of protons but different number of neutrons in their nuclei.
DOE said the demand for enriched stable isotopes continues to grow substantially, including for the medical, national security, and fundamental research projects.
The new center at ORNL, the U.S. Stable Isotope Production and Research Center, would reduce the nation’s dependence upon foreign countries for those isotopes, DOE said.
DOE approved the mission need for the facility in January 2019. Although the cost range could change, the current project estimate is between $175 million and $298 million.
[Read more…]
Note: This story was last updated at 10:55 a.m.
The Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been used to identify drug compounds, including medications and natural compounds, that could help fight coronavirus, although more study is needed.
“The researchers used Summit, the world’s most powerful and smartest supercomputer, to identify 77 small-molecule drug compounds that might warrant further study in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which is responsible for the COVID-19 disease outbreak,” ORNL said in a response to questions Wednesday.
The researchers performed simulations on Summit of more than 8,000 compounds to screen for those that are most likely to bind to the main “spike” protein of the coronavirus, rendering it unable to infect host cells. They ranked compounds of interest that could have value in experimental studies of the virus. They published their results on “ChemRxiv.”
[Read more…]
Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been chosen as the site of an experimental facility to test materials that would withstand the harsh conditions of the plasmas created in fusion devices, which, researchers hope, could eventually provide carbon-free energy to people around the world.
The proposed facility, the Materials Plasma Exposure Experiment facility, or MPEX, has an estimated cost range between $87 million and $175 million. It would be in an existing facility in an area at ORNL known as the Energy Systems Test Complex.
Fusion devices would use the same reactions that power the sun. Temperatures inside a fusion reactor could reach millions of degrees.
Scientists are studying materials that could withstand the conditions inside fusion reactors by exposing them to prototypical plasma conditions. Plasma, the heated matter created in a fusion device, has high-energy neutrons, electrons, and ions. MPEX would study materials that face the plasma. Finding materials capable of withstanding the harsh environment remains a major hurdle to using fusion to produce energy.
A critical decision for the MPEX facility was completed in early February by the U.S. Department of Energy. ORNL is a DOE Office of Science lab. The critical decision, CD-1, is the second step in the five-step process that DOE uses to manage projects. The CD-1 decision included an alternative selection and a cost range.
[Read more…]
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is involved in early research and using the Summit supercomputer to better understand components of the new coronavirus, which was first reported in China but is now being reported in a growing number of countries across the world, including the United States.
The early research at ORNL uses computational modeling and data analysis techniques on Summit, the world’s most powerful supercomputer. Results are not published yet, ORNL said Friday afternoon.
Oak Ridge Today has requested more information about the lab’s research, including who the work is for and what parts of the virus are being researched, but that information wasn’t immediately available.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is closely monitoring the outbreak of respiratory illnesses caused by the new coronavirus, and there are ongoing investigations to learn more.
[Read more…]
Submitted
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education will host a virtual career fair on Thursday, February 20, from noon to 3 p.m. Eastern time to highlight the paid internships, fellowships, and research associate programs available to college students and recent graduates at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
During this time, attendees can interact with ORNL scientists, researchers, recruiters, and staff, as well as ORISE program representatives. They also can learn more about the different directorates, or major focus areas, that make up ORNL, such as Computing and Computational Sciences, Energy and Environmental Sciences, Neutron Sciences, Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Physical Sciences.
“The ORISE Virtual Career Fair provides a unique and exciting opportunity for university-level students and postgraduates to investigate internships, fellowships, and research associate programs available at Oak Ridge National Laboratory,” said ORISE Workforce Development Director Craig Layman. “Representatives from ORNL and ORISE will be on hand to chat with the virtual attendees.” [Read more…]
By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer
A recent Roane State Community College graduate is researching climate change and the microorganisms that contribute to it.
Rachel Andrews, a Morgan County resident who graduated from the community college in May 2019, is an intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She’s doing research with Christopher Schadt in the Biosciences Division at the lab.
They are investigating methane production in peat, which is formed by the partial decomposition of plants in wet, acidic conditions of bogs. Scientists say methane gas is one of the major contributors to a warming planet.
“We study the methanogens that live in peatland soil,” Andrews said in an emailed response to questions about her research. She said these microorganisms produce quite a bit of methane and carbon dioxide, also identified as a culprit in climate change.
[Read more…]
A materials science professor in the University of Tennessee’s Tickle College of Engineering has received a five-year $1.7 million award from a leading scientific foundation for research in the emerging field of quantum materials.
David Mandrus, the Jerry and Kay Henry Endowed Professor, has a joint appointment at UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Mandrus’s work has been cited thousands of times, and he has earned several notable accolades for his part in advancing materials science, a press release said. In recognition of his work, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has named him an Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems (EPiQS) Materials Synthesis Investigator.
“I’m honored to have again been selected by the Moore Foundation as someone whose work they have chosen to recognize,” Mandrus said. “Their support will help me further explore ideas and concepts related to quantum materials and the opportunities they make possible.”
[Read more…]
Volkswagen Group of America, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of Tennessee on Friday announced a collaboration to create Volkswagen’s first innovation hub in North America at the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm.
“Working with the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a great opportunity to continue growing Volkswagen’s engineering footprint in the North American region,” said Wolfgang Demmelbauer-Ebner, executive vice president and chief engineering officer for Volkswagen’s North American region. “This hub, along with other research institutions here, is an integral part of Volkswagen’s global research and development efforts and can also directly contribute to vehicles in North America.”
The collaboration involves research opportunities for doctoral students and space in the Innovation North building at the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm in Knoxville, a press release said. Initial work will focus on developing lighter vehicle components made from composite materials and the electrification of vehicles.
[Read more…]