Oak Ridge Today

DOE Environmental Management has public meeting to discuss cleanup funding, strategy

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Mark Whitney

Mark Whitney

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or EM, is holding a public meeting to discuss the program’s fiscal year 2015 budget and cleanup priorities. The workshop, featuring Oak Ridge’s senior EM leadership, is scheduled from 4-6 p.m. April 23 at Pollard Auditorium.

“As taxpayer stewards, I think these public meetings are a responsible practice that increase transparency and explain our decision process,” said Mark Whitney, Oak Ridge’s Environmental Management manager. “These meetings also provide a forum for residents and stakeholders to voice their opinions, suggestions, and concerns about our vision.” [Read more…]

ORNL researchers elected American Physical Society fellows

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Xiaoguang Zhang and Eliot Specht

Xiaoguang Zhang and Eliot Specht have been named American Physical Society fellows. (Submitted photo)

Two researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected to fellowship in the American Physical Society.

Xiaoguang Zhang and Eliot Specht were named APS fellows in recognition of their outstanding contributions to physics.

APS fellowship is limited to no more than 0.5 percent per year of the society’s more than 50,000 members. [Read more…]

ORNL leading study focused on afterlife of electric vehicle batteries

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Once they’ve finished powering electric vehicles for hundreds of thousands of miles, it may not be the end of the road for automotive batteries, which researchers believe can provide continued benefits for consumers, automakers, and the environment.

Five used Chevrolet Volt batteries are at the heart of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s effort to determine the feasibility of a community energy storage system that would put electricity onto the grid. During the next year, researchers from ORNL, General Motors, and the ABB Group will conduct studies and compile data using a first-of-its-kind test platform officially commissioned Tuesday. [Read more…]

ORNL’s Richard Haire receives American Chemical Society’s Seaborg Award

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Retired Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher and UT-Battelle Corporate Fellow Richard Haire has received the 2013 Glenn T. Seaborg Award by the American Chemical Society. The Seaborg Award is one of the top recognitions in the field of nuclear chemistry.

Known for his forefront, fundamental studies of the actinide family of elements, Haire, while at ORNL, concentrated on the transplutonium elements produced in the U.S. Department of Energy research reactor, the High Flux Isotope Reactor, or HFIR. He developed novel experimental techniques and emphasized the use of systematic comparisons, which focused on the role of electron configurations in the chemistry and physics of these elements. [Read more…]

Guest column: It’s not the property tax rate

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There is a persistent plaint that workers at Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory don’t live in Oak Ridge because the property tax rate is so high. Farragut is pointed to as having no city tax at all and therefore highly attractive. Farragut, no less than Oak Ridge, is indeed an attractive area in which to live. It is not because of the property tax rate.

Let’s look at a few of the numbers related to the Oak Ridge city tax rate of $2.39. That rate is applied per $100 of value on 25 percent of the assessed value of residential property. In other words, if one’s home has been appraised at $150,000, the epitome of an “affordable” home, the city property tax is $2.39 per hundred dollars on $37,500, or $896.25. That means that this homeowner is paying just at $75 per month for city services.

Among the services covered by this $75 are police, fire fighters, parks and recreational services, library, street lights, sidewalks, code oversight, street maintenance, and the city’s contribution to the schools. That is $75 per household, not for each person. [Read more…]

Mayor to testify to Congress: Manhattan Project park would honor most significant event of last century

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Tom Beehan

Tom Beehan

A new national historical park that could include Oak Ridge would honor the history of the Manhattan Project, the most significant event of the 20th Century, Mayor Tom Beehan will tell a U.S. House subcommittee in testimony this morning.

The Manhattan Project was a top-secret U.S. program to build the world’s first atomic weapons. The three Manhattan Project sites that could be included in the new park are Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, N.M., and Hanford, Wash.

Despite what some detractors might say, the proposed park is not about weapons, Beehan wrote in prepared testimony.

“I believe this historical park is about scientific and engineering accomplishments at a time when our country was defending itself, both during World War II and the Cold War,” he said. [Read more…]

ORNL’s awake imaging device moves diagnostics field forward

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A technology being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory promises to provide clear images of the brains of children, the elderly, and people with Parkinson’s and other diseases without the use of uncomfortable or intrusive restraints.

Awake imaging provides motion compensation reconstruction, which removes blur caused by motion, allowing physicians to get a transparent picture of the functioning brain without anesthetics that can mask conditions and alter test results. The use of anesthetics, patient restraints, or both is not ideal because they can trigger brain activities that may alter the normal brain functions being studied. [Read more…]

Titan repairs complete, ORNL preparing for second round of supercomputer testing

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Jeff Nichols and Titan at ORNL

Jeff Nichols, associate director for computing and computational sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in front of Titan, the world’s fastest supercomputer. (Photos courtesy of ORNL)

Connectors in the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been repaired, and workers are preparing the world’s fastest machine for a second round of acceptance testing, an official said Monday.

That testing could allow the $100 million machine to be put into full production mode by the end of this month or early May, said Jeff Nichols, ORNL associate lab director for computing and computational sciences.

Titan won’t be available to researchers for a short period while the lab re-runs acceptance tests. [Read more…]

ORNL names new deputy director for science, technology

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Ramamoorthy Ramesh

Ramamoorthy Ramesh

Note: This story was updated at 3:40 p.m.

A new deputy director has been named at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Ramamoorthy Ramesh of the University of California in Berkeley will start as the lab’s deputy director for science and technology on June 1, ORNL Director Thom Mason announced in an e-mail to staff on Thursday.

Ramesh will replace Thomas Zacharia, who left in August to take a science and education foundation based in Doha, Qatar. [Read more…]

ORNL researchers receive professional society honors

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Carol Wood

Carol Wood

A.C. Buchanan

A.C. Buchanan III

Three researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received appointments and honors from their respective professional societies.

ORNL’s Carol Wood has been elected to a four-year term on the board of directors of the American Board of Toxicology. She is a senior research staff member in the Environmental Sciences Division at ORNL.

Wood was elected from more than 40 nominees. Ernest McConnell, president of ToxPath Inc., a former board member who served as president of the ABT board from 1987 to 1988, nominated her for the award. [Read more…]

Local FIRST robotics teams dominate regionals, advance to national competition

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First Robotics Competition

From left, Oak Ridge High School’s Andreas Franco feeds discs into the team’s robot as Tag Groff, Oak Ridge National Laboratory mentor Mark Buckner, and Amelia DiAngelo manage the controls. (Photo by Jason Richards/ORNL)

Frisbee-flinging robots took over the Knoxville Convention Center last weekend, as thousands of high school students, mentors, and volunteers gathered for the third annual FIRST robotics Smoky Mountains regional competition.

Local teams Hardin Valley Academy, Oak Ridge High School, and Halls High School netted the championship title in a nail-biting finale at the regional event, qualifying them to compete in the national finals held April 24-27 in St. Louis. A team from Roane County High School, which won the Rookie All Star award, is also bound for nationals. The four high schools are among 14 teams sponsored by UT-Battelle, the managing contractor of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The FIRST robotics competition gives high school teams six weeks to design, build, and program a complex robot that can meet the intense demands of the year’s game. Throwing discs and climbing pyramids were among the challenges of the 2013 game, called Ultimate Ascent. [Read more…]

Guest column: Kudos to Kiernan and her book, ‘Girls of the Atomic City’

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This month, national author Denise Kiernan gave a wonderful talk at the American Museum of Science and Energy. Ms. Kiernan was in town to discuss her new book, “Girls of the Atomic City—The Untold Story of Women Who Helped Win World War II.”

The book made the New York Times best seller list.

Ms. Kiernan’s book chronicles the fascinating stories of the many women who came to Oak Ridge between 1943 and 1945 during the Manhattan Project. It’s great to see these pioneers recognized for their important contributions. [Read more…]