News

Teledyne Brown and Partners Create System to Detect Nuclear Weapons Testing

Brought together by a shared mission to eliminate the testing of nuclear weapons worldwide, several federal agencies, government contractors, and private industry established a unique partnership to develop and commercialize a radioxenon monitoring system to detect nuclear weapons testing. The effort included the Department of State (DOS), Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Energy (DOE), and Teledyne Brown Engineering (TBE). The Xenon International system is a fully automated unattended system designed to collect, separate, purify, quantify, and perform nuclear counting on radioxenon isotopes, as well as to transmit data using two-way communications.
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Centrus Should Complete Oak Ridge Decommissioning Contract This Fall

Centrus Energy should wrap up $15 million worth of decontamination and decommissioning at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee by Sept. 30, according to a financial filing Monday.Last September, DOE issued the contract to the Maryland-based company to prepare the K-1600 building for demolition. Centrus leased space in K-1600 to further test its American Centrifuge uranium enrichment technology in recent years. The company’s government contract for the centrifuge work expired in September 2018.
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John Hopkins Supports Collaborative Advanced Composites Manufacturing Leadership during U.S. House of Representatives Hearing

The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Subcommittee on Research and Technology held a joint hearing on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, to review the impact of and continued support for Revitalizing American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing, which supports several Manufacturing USA institutes. IACMI ­­– The Composites Institute CEO, John Hopkins, testified during the hearing and emphasized IACMI’s significant and continual contributions to drive innovation to support the nation’s economic growth, workforce development, and national security through U.S. advanced manufacturing collaboration, as one of the Manufacturing USA institutes supported by the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE).
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When Should You Collaborate and When Should You Compete?

Boeing and Airbus are arch rivals, competing vigorously over decades for supremacy in the global aviation market, much like DowDupont and BASF do in chemicals. Yet all of these companies, along with many others, collaborate at places like the Composites Institute (IACMI). They do this not out of any altruism, of course, but self-interest.It is at places like the Composites Institute that profit-driven companies can explore the future with top notch scientists from places like Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Michigan State University and Purdue as well as dozens of smaller companies active in the space. To not participate would be to risk being cut out of important developments.
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Kaptur Goes After NNSA Weapons Programs in 2020 Budget Hearing

The head of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) moved to protect weapons life-extension programs and plutonium infrastructure from the budget ax wielded here Tuesday by the House’s top nuclear-security appropriator.Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), chair of the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee, told NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty that the agency requested too much money in fiscal 2020 for its nuclear weapons operations. The request came at the expense of nonproliferation programs aimed at preventing the spread of fissile materials other nations or terrorists could use to build nuclear or radiological weapons.
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ORAU’s White Paper: Building on-ramps to a STEM-capable U.S. workforce

The need for a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-capable workforce has increased dramatically in recent years. Building the on-ramps to STEM careers is integral to ORAU’s mission and has been since our founding 72 years ago.ORAU has provided robust workforce development solutions for national laboratories and federal agencies that take a cradle-to-grave approach to developing well-educated and experienced STEM workers.Our STEM expertise, leveraged through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), a Department of Energy Asset managed by ORAU, aligns well with the priorities and objectives of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on STEM Education, or Co-STEM.Learn more about how our expertise and experience aligned with federal STEM workforce development priorities by downloading ORAU Perspective: a white paper on STEM workforce development.
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Biology in a Box Brings Bones, Fun to K–12 Students

Boxes of bones, seeds, chunks of wood, seashells, measuring tape, and even turtle poop have been showing up at schools across Tennessee for more than 25 years, courtesy of a UT biology professor.In that time, the boxes have provided hands-on science lessons in nearly 1,200 schools across the state.UT’s Biology in a Box program, which serves students across all grade levels, is the brainchild of Susan Riechert, a Distinguished Service Professor and Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
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FY20 Budget Request: DOE Office of Science

The president’s fiscal year 2020 budget request calls for a $1 billion, 16 percent cut to the Department of Energy Office of Science, which would erase much of the budget increase Congress has provided it over the last two budget cycles. Beneath its toplines, the request also proposes small amounts to begin planning on a variety of new experiments and facilities.
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‘Valued citizen,’ famed Manhattan Project Photogrpaher Westcott Dies at 97

James Edward “Ed” Westcott, Oak Ridge’s official photographer during the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, died on Friday, March 29, 2019, at the age of 97. Westcott reportedly died peacefully at the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Emily and Don Hunnicutt. Martin Oak Ridge Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. The family will receive friends from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday, April 4, with the funeral service to follow. Burial will be at 11 a.m. Friday, April 5, in Oak Ridge Memorial Park.The famed photographer’s death came on the day an exhibit of his photos titled “HerStory: A Photography Exhibition of Women in the Secret City” opened at the new Oak Ridge History Museum in the building formerly known as the Wildcat Den or Midtown Community Center to many Oak Ridgers.
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ORNL’s Manufacturing Research Facility Helps Companies Adopt 3D Printing Technology

MDF at ORNL is well-known for some high-profile 3D printing projects, like the Shelby Cobra sports car; the house for the Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy project; and a replica of a 1952 Willys Jeep, which took only three weeks to print and assemble.What about lower-profile projects? Can small to medium-sized fabrication shops benefit from the additive manufacturing research efforts at the Knoxville, Tenn., facility?“About half of the collaborative research agreements that we put on are with small to medium enterprises,” said Craig Blue, director of energy efficiency and renewable energy programs for the Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate at ORNL.
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