Oak Ridge Today

Langan returning to ORNL as associate lab director

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Paul Langan will oversee Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s research directorate focused on biological and environmental systems science. (Photo credit: ORNL, U.S. Department of Energy)

Paul Langan will return to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the spring as associate laboratory director for the Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate.

Langan is a former associate lab director for neutron sciences.

In his new role, he will lead the directorate’s convergence research in biology, ecology, engineering, data discovery, physical sciences, and computing that “advances U.S. competitiveness in the global bioeconomy and Earth system sustainability,” a press release said. “This diverse research portfolio encompasses efforts to develop renewable energy solutions, improve Earth system models, and push the frontiers of systems and synthetic biology.”

Langan will succeed Stan Wullschleger, who will retire in 2023 after 33 years at ORNL.

[Read more…]

Neutron production at ORNL’s SNS reaches design power level

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The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has reached its operational power design level by running a neutron production cycle at 1.4 megawatts, the lab said Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has reached its operational power design level by running a neutron production cycle at 1.4 megawatts, the lab said Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has broken a new record by ending its first neutron production cycle in fiscal year 2019 at its design power level of 1.4 megawatts.

Higher power provides more neutrons for researchers who use the facility to study a wide range of materials, an ORNL press release said. The achievement marks a new operational milestone for neutron scattering in the United States and opens the door to studying significantly smaller materials with greater complexity, the press release said.

“The operation of SNS at 1.4 megawatts this cycle has been an outstanding achievement,” said Paul Langan, associate laboratory director for neutron sciences. “It reflects on the maturity of our facility and the high level of technical excellence of our engineering, operational, and scientific staff.”

The power increase was enabled by the combination of extensive improvements to the linear accelerator, including the recent replacement of the radio frequency quadrupole—the first accelerating structure of the accelerator’s frontend assembly, as well as improvements to the liquid mercury target. [Read more…]

Paul Langan to lead ORNL’s Neutron Sciences Directorate

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Paul Langan

Paul Langan

Paul Langan, a senior scientist and distinguished research staff member at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named ORNL’s associate laboratory director for neutron sciences.

Langan will lead the laboratory’s neutron science activities, which include two leading DOE Office of Science user facilities for neutron scattering analysis: the Spallation Neutron Source, or SNS, and the High Flux Isotope Reactor, or HFIR.

“As associate laboratory director, Paul will further broaden our role in neutron sciences globally, expand our instrument capabilities, and prepare for a second target station at the SNS,” ORNL Director Thom Mason said in a press release. [Read more…]

Record-breaker: SNS operates at full power—1.4 megawatts—for users for first time

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ORNL SNS Full Power

The accelerator-based pulse neutron source at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source operated steadily for users at the maximum design power of 1.4 megawatts on June 26. (Photo credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL)

 

The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory operated steadily at its full design power of 1.4 megawatts for researchers for the first time on June 26.

“We’re producing neutrons now at this intensity for user experiments,” spokesman Bill Cabage said in a telephone interview last week.

The $1.4 billion SNS is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility built on a ridge top at ORNL. It uses a linear proton accelerator and mercury target to provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. The proton beam hits the mercury target, knocking off neutrons from liquid mercury atoms. The neutrons, which are used to study materials from superconductors to biological systems, are then channeled down 16 instrument beam lines, where neutron spectrometers produce data revealing the structures and dynamics of molecules and atoms.

The SNS has been used for experiments since it started producing neutrons in April 2006, but at lower power. Researchers wanted to eventually get to full power, even if that had to be done gradually during the past eight years.

“They didn’t want to have a lot of disruption playing with it,” Cabage said. “They wanted to keep it reliable for users.” [Read more…]

ORNL uses neutron scattering, supercomputing to study biofuel production

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Lignocellulosic Biomass

This graphical representation of lignocellulosic biomass based on supercomputer models illustrates a new Oak Ridge National Laboratory study about the inner workings of plant cell walls during bioenergy production. (Image credit: Thomas Splettstoesser; http://www.scistyle.com)

Researchers studying more effective ways to convert woody plant matter into biofuels at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have identified fundamental forces that change plant structures during pretreatment processes used in the production of bioenergy.

The research team, which published its results in Green Chemistry, set out to decipher the inner workings of plant cell walls during pretreatment, the most expensive stage of biofuel production. Pretreatment subjects plant material to extremely high temperature and pressure to break apart the protective gel of lignin and hemicellulose that surrounds sugary cellulose fibers. [Read more…]