Technology Transfer and Economic Development

User facilities give industry and universities access to expensive, unique, sophisticated facilities and equipment at ORNL. he facilities are used by scientists from ORNL, industry, academia and other national laboratories. The Department of Energy (DOE) has designated such facilities "user facilities." User facilities work may be conducted on a nonproprietary or proprietary basis. For specific information, contact the facility of interest.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the home of 18 highly sophisticated experimental user facilities. These research laboratories are designed to serve not only our staff scientists and engineers, but also researchers from universities, industry, foreign institutions, and other government laboratories. (See List of User Agreements). They simultaneously advance national research and development and fulfill the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) missions by minimizing unnecessary duplication of effort, promoting beneficial scientific interactions, and making the most effective use of costly and, in many cases, unique equipment.

The diverse and sophisticated research conducted by our staff scientists, coupled with the availability of unique resource equipment, is attracting a growing number of guest researchers. In FY 2001, there were over 4,000 experimenters from over 380 organizations that utilized the user facilities.

Access to the Oak Ridge user facilities is a twofold process: (1) the review and approval of the user's proposal and (2) an executed agreement between the user institution and UT-Battelle. Prospective users are invited to submit a proposal directly to the user facility of interest. Acceptance of proposals depends on scientific merit, suitability of Oak Ridge facilities for the proposed project, selection of an Oak Ridge collaborator, and appropriateness of the work to DOE objectives. Once a proposal is approved, the specific operating procedures, time allotted for work, user fees (if any), and collaborative arrangements will be determined.

Concurrent with the proposal procedure, the Technology Transfer and Economic Development Office begins the process to execute a user agreement with the user institution. This User Facility Agreement, which can be either proprietary or nonproprietary, stipulates the terms and conditions (including disposition of intellectual property) for the interaction.

Bioprocessing Research Facility is a combination of laboratories for the investigation of advanced bioprocessing concepts using stirred-tank and columnar bioreactors and a fermentation pilot plant for large-scale batch and columnar experiments. Research and development activities include (but are not limited to) feedstock pretreatment and fractionation, microbial culture selection and improvement, genetic manipulation; microbial and enzyme immobilization, advanced bioreactor concepts; biotreatment of wastes, process feasibility and scaleup, advanced analytical concepts, bioprocessing monitoring and control, and biochemical separations. Back to top

Buildings Technology Center is identifying, developing, and deploying sustainable and energy-efficient building technologies and systems. The Center offers a unique collection of testing and analysis capabilities expertise to U.S. building industry on building envelopes, heating and cooling, and equipment. Other areas of research are the monitoring and systems analysis of existing buildings performance.Back to top

Californium User Facility for Neutron Science is a unique neutron irradiation facility that uses compact (finger-sized) californium-252 neutron source capsules. These sources are stored at the CUF for the U.S. Department of Energy 252Cf distribution program. Two uncontaminated hot cells are available for entry and experimental setup by researchers, after which 252Cf sources capable of emitting >1011 neutrons/s can be used for irradiations. The fast neutron spectrum (average energy ~2.1 MeV) can be moderated to a thermal spectrum, and small sample volumes can be irradiated by thermal and/or fast neutron fluxes >108 cm-2 s-1. Corresponding gamma dose is significantly less than the neutron dose. Experimenters using the CUF avoid the regulatory and radiological concerns of neutron source custody and handling. Back to top

Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences is a highly collaborative user research facility for the synthesis, characterization, theory/ modeling/ simulation, and design of nanoscale materials and structures and the understanding of nanoscale phenomena. The CNMS Scientific Program—originally defined collaboratively through Planning Workshops with the national scientific community—focuses on fundamental challenges of nanoscale science as well as nanotechnology opportunities and needs. Among these are the integration of “hard” and “soft” materials in functional structures, through the development of new synthesis and assembly methods; the understanding and control of nanoscale interfaces; and the use of neutron scattering's unique capabilities (complementary to other techniques) to probe both soft and magnetic materials at the nanoscale, particularly in connection with complex, self-organizing behavior.

Computational Center for Industrial Innovation Thanks to our computational capabilities, CCII users are solving challenging, industrially relevant problems--problems that have previously eluded solution because of insufficient computational power or inadequate software availability. Back to top

Cooling, Heating and Power Integration Laboratory is a facility that will enable researchers from industries, universities and other institutions to conduct tests on distributed energy products and systems for building applications. It will enable developers to do both performance and reliability testing. Back to top

Fuels, Engines, and Emissions Research Center is specialized in the detailed characterization of internal combustion engine emissions and efficiency. The facility's comprehensive capabilities include bench-top engine exhaust simulators, a wide range of dynamometers, and full vehicles. The FEERC boasts several special diagnostic and measurement tools-including many rarely found at other facilities around the country-that aid in development and evaluation of engine and emission control technologies. Back to top

High Flux Isotope Reactor is a versatile 85-MW isotope production and reactor with the capability and facilities for performing a wide variety of irradiation experiments. It has a peak thermal neutron flux of 2.6×1015 neutrons per square centimeter per second, which is the highest in the western world. The HFIR is a beryllium-reflected, light water-cooled and moderated flux-trap type swimming pool reactor that uses highly enriched uranium-235 as the fuel. A fuel cycle normally consists of full-power operation for a period of 23 to 27 days at 85-MW, followed by an outage that lasts approximately 4 to 7 days. Back to top

High Temperature Materials Laboratory is offering state-of-the-art instruments and facilities for characterizing high-tech materials that determines composition and microstructure of surfaces and bulk materials down to the atomic level; measures the mechanical properties of materials under various environmental conditions, particularly life prediction studies, long-term creep and fatigue testing under simulated use environments, and micromechanical testing and analysis; used for high-temperature and room-temperature studies of a material's transformations, structure, stability, reactions, and expansion via in situ diffraction; measures residual stress and texture (pole figures) via diffraction methods; provides extensive, unique, high-temperature thermal transport and thermal analysis facilities for a wide range of specimens, such as coatings, thin films, composites, and bulk; researches optimum grinding parameters using a specialized suite of instrumented grinders and makes high-precision measurements of machined parts, and conducts research in friction and wear. Back to top

Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility is providing high quality beams of short-lived radioactive isotopes. These isotopes are produced when intense beams of light ions from the Oak Ridge Isochronous Cyclotron strike highly refractory targets. The radioactive isotopes diffuse out of the production target and are ionized, formed into a beam and mass selected. The radioactive ion beam is then injected in the 25-MV Tandem, the world's highest voltage electrostatic accelerator, and is provided for nuclear reaction, structure, and astrophysics research. Back to top

Metals-Processing Laboratory Users Facility are providing specialized equipment for studies of materials synthesis (melting, casting, and powder metallurgy); deformation processing (forging, rolling, extrusion and thermomechanical processing); materials characterization (mechanical properties, fracture mechanics, non-destructive examination, corrosion, computer-controlled dilatometer analyses [quenching, deformation, and cryogenic], and data base generation); joining (welding, brazing, bonding and solidification monitoring and control); and mathematical modeling (to predict thermal gradients, molten metal flow, phase equilibria, solidification rates, strain distributions, residual stresses, etc.) utilizing some of the world's largest massively parallel computers and specialized computing codes developed by ORNL staff. Extensive experience in the utilization of ceramics and composites also provides MPLUS with a major advantage in integrating metals processing skills with the more generic materials issues of interest to the development of end-use products. Back to top

Mouse Genetics Research Facility consists of a colony of approximately 800 standard or mutant strains of laboratory mice. Of these 800 strains, 350 are currently actively maintained, and 450 are banked only as cryopreserved embryos, sperm, and/or ovaries. For over 50 years, the MGRF has attracted a highly qualified staff of mouse geneticists and molecular biologists to use the resources for basic research in analyzing gene function and identifying mouse models of human genetic diseases. Back to top

National Transportation Research Center is established to develop and evaluate advanced transportation technologies and systems, by utilizing state-of-the-art hardware and computing technologies to address problems of national and international significance such as declining air quality, dependence on unstable oil supplies, traffic congestion, and highway safety. Back to top

Oak Ridge National Environmental Research Park is an outdoor laboratory. Its field research sites contain maintenance and support facilities that permit sophisticated and well-instrumented environmental experiments. Among these facilities are elaborate monitoring systems that enable users to precisely and accurately measure environmental factors for extended periods of time. Much of the research is long term, and a comprehensive data base of information is available. Various sites in the park offer opportunities for aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem analyses such as biogeochemical cycling of pollutants resulting from energy-producing facilities, landscape alterations, and forest and wildlife management. Back to top

Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator is used to produce intense, nanosecond pulses of neutrons with a broad energy spectrum (10-3 eV to 108 eV) for a wide range of experiments. By using time-of-flight techniques, many different types of neutron reactions can be studied with very high resolution and precision. The current ORELA program is centered around research in basic and applied nuclear physics. Simultaneous, yet virtually independent experiments can be run on the 10 evacuated flight paths at distances between 9 and 200 m from the neutron source. Back to top

Physical Properties Research Facility is dedicated to physiochemical properties measurements that can obtain unique data, modeling (macro- and micro-scale) to derive fundamental physical properties, and evaluating their impact on industrial process optimization. Back to top

Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Facility is recognized worldwide for their expertise in developing and prototyping advanced power converters, adjustable speed drives, and electric machines, power transmission and distribution research and development, and power quality, efficiency, and measurement. The Center provides unique expertise in power converter topologies, thermal management, packaging technologies for electromagnetic interference minimization and for space and weight reduction, digital signal processing-based control techniques for motor drives, system energy management, flywheel energy storage applications and ultra-high speed drive applications. Back to top

Shared Research Equipment Collaborative User Facility is offering state-of-the-art capabilities in the areas of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atom probe field ion microscopy, and mechanical properties microanalysis (MPM). Back to top

Surface Modification and Characterization Collaborative Research Center is a unique facility for the alteration and characterization of the near-surface properties of materials using ion beams. Back to top