Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences taking shape (Atomic City Underground (6/26)
The Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences is taking shape at the foot of the Spallation Neutron Source in Oak Ridge and, according to ORNL spokesman Billy Stair, construction should be completed in April 2010. Rouse Construction Co. of Knoxville is handling the project. The $7.6 million for JINS was provided by the state of Tennessee. "The original idea for JINS goes back to before SNS was started actually," ORNL Director Thom Mason said this week. "It was part of the original commitment the state made as part of the effort to make sure that the SNS was built in Tennessee. We held off during the construction phase (of SNS) because you don't really need it. But now that the science program is up and running, we really do need it. So it'll be great to have that building occupied and humming with activity."

From Heifers to HFIR: Nuclear Energy Research Safe in the Hands of Alumnus (Texas Tech Today (6/1)
Growing up on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, Kelly Beierschmitt would sit on the tractor and stare at the sky in Claude, Texas. An avid Trekkie, he watched the Enterprise crew explore the final frontier on television, and followed along with Apollo crews as they did the real exploring in space, while he dreamed of the day he'd end up a scientist and leave the tractor behind for good. Kelly's fascination with science fact and science fiction steered him on a career path to and from Texas Tech and back again, ultimately landing him in the midst of some of the world's most important research in nuclear energy. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the nation's largest multi-program science lab, Kelly is director of Nuclear Operations, as well as executive director of the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), the world's most powerful research reactor.

ORNL reactor is back in business (Atomic City Underground (5/13)
The High Flux Isotope Reactor was restarted today following a two-month shutdown for maintenance, repairs and refueling, and it achieved full power (85 megawatts) at about 11 a.m. That's the word from Ron Crone, the research reactors chief at ORNL, who said the outage was extremely productive. "It was pretty amazing," he said. Crone said the reactor startup involved some training for a couple of operators, then went to 10 percent power and held it there while some radiation measurements were taken at Cold Guide No. 1. The cold guide was one of the places where work was done during the lengthy outage, installing a shield box and instrument shutter, the ORNL official said. That work will allow workers now to install a developmental beam line in the area and continue the work while the reactor is running, he said.

GE announces delivery for SNS detector system (Atomic City Underground (5/4)
GE Energy, which last year signed a tech-transfer agreement with ORNL to commercialize and markets a lab-developed neutron detection system, has made the first delivery of electronics for a research instrument at the Spallation Neutron Source in Oak Ridge. In today's announcement, GE said it had completed delivery of 30 of its Reuter Stokes Position Sensitive electronic systems. They will be part of the Nanoscale-Ordered Materials Diffractometer (NOMAD) research isntrument at SNS. In a statement posted on GE's Website, ORNL director of partnerships Tom Ballard said, "We are happy to see the commercialization of one of our premier technologies, the SNS 8Pack. The 8Pack is able to be applied to instruments far and wide and has broad global impact, which is one of our goals here at Oak Ridge National Laboratory."

Casting a Spall (Business TN 5/2009)
As ORNL director Thom Mason explains, research space is already getting scarce. "We've been allocating beam lines and will have filled up the first target station by 2014 or 2015," Mason says. "It takes a long time to build this, so if you're going to have the capability to continue to grow the use of SNS, you need to get started on it now."SNS's visiting scientists are interested in neutrons because they are interested in the materials that things are made out of--like polymers for use in plastics or proteins--and how they work in the body for the development of drugs. In all such cases, the materials behave the way they do because of their atomic structure. Neutron scattering provides not snapshots but movies of a structure, revealing how the atoms are arranged and how they move around. That information can be used to make materials cheaper, stronger, lighter or more energy efficient in products common to most every household and experience--cars, computers, etc. Neutron scattering is also helpful in the pursuit of energy solutions. "With most energy problems, when you peel away the layers, you find there are materials problems underneath," Mason says. "That should position us well."

ORNL's 'first installment' of stimulus funding (Atomic City Underground 3/23)
ORNL will receive $71.2 million in science-related funding from the government's economic stimulus package, the Dept. of Energy announced today. A fact sheet distributed by DOE indicates that the "lion's share" of the ORNL money will be used for lab modernization, including a new Chemical and Materials Science Laboratory. Construction of the new $95 million lab is expected to begin by late spring, according to earlier reports from ORNL. DOE also said some money would be used for improvements at the Spallation Neutron Source, including work on a new beamline known as the Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline. There also will be some upgrades to the lab's nanoscience research facility, which is known as the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences.

Energy Secretary Announces $1.2B in Science Funding (HPC Wire 3/23)
Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $1.2 billion in new science funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for major construction, laboratory infrastructure, and research efforts sponsored across the nation by the DOE Office of Science. Secretary Chu made the announcement during a visit to the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Included among the approved projects are, among others: $330 million for operations and equipment at Office of Science major scientific user facilities, used annually by over 20,000 researchers. Facilities supported by Recovery Act funding include, among others, the Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL, the world's most intense pulsed accelerator-based neutron source, used in advanced materials science, chemistry, and biology research.

UT-Battelle receives $10 million (Knoxville News Sentinel 2/5)
The Department of Energy gave UT-Battelle high marks and more than $10 million for its management of Oak Ridge National Laboratory last year. In its annual report card, the ORNL contractor - a partnership of the University of Tennessee and Battelle Memorial Institute - received seven grades of A- and one B+ for fiscal 2008, which ended Sept. 30. As a result, UT-Battelle earned $10,058,000 out of a maximum available fee of $10.7 million..."In summary, UT-Battelle achieved a high level of performance with numerous accomplishments," DOE Manager Gerald Boyd said in a Feb. 3 letter to ORNL Director Thom Mason...Boyd praised the contractor's work done in high-performance computing, noting that Oak Ridge was responsible for some of the year's top scientific breakthroughs with supercomputers...The DOE official said high-level work continued at the Spallation Neutron Source and the High Flux Isotope Reactor, which "maintained a perfect record of on-time startups with 99 percent reliability."

ORAU dedicates $20M center (Knoxville News Sentinel 1/31)
If science drives the U.S. economy, as many studies suggest, then the future may rest with science education. That seemed to be an underlying theme Friday as Oak Ridge Associated Universities dedicated its new $20 million Center for Science Education, which will tutor teachers with advanced technology, provide scientific outreach for students of all ages and perhaps better prepare the work force for challenges ahead. The four-story, 73,000-square-foot building includes a prototype classroom of the future, with plasma display wall, smart board and Web-and-videoconferencing capabilities to link with scientists a few miles away - at Oak Ridge National Laboratory - or experts at institutions across the country. One of the first classes to be taught in the center will be a professional workshop for high school physics teachers, who will learn how to bring the science from ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source to their classrooms.

Tennessee: Stimulus measure could aid ORNL (Chattanooga Times Free Pressl 1/29)
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory could get up to $300 million in extra federal funds from the economic stimulus proposal approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, the lab director said today. Director Thom Mason said the stimulus plans under consideration in the Senate and approved Tuesday in the House could help expedite construction of new labs and housing facilities and upgrade aging infrastructure at the Department of Energy lab in Oak Ridge...Dr. Mason said extra money also could be available for housing next to the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source facility, and utility improvements could be made across the Department of Energy facility.