(Tennessee Alumnus) [Need to scroll] Faculty members and researchers also are pursuing real-world solutions using such world-class resources as UT’s supercomputer, Kraken. Kraken was declared the world’s fastest university-managed supercomputer and sixth-fastest overall in the most recent Top 500 list, the global standard for ranking supercomputers. Kraken resulted from UT’s winning a $65 million National Science Foundation grant in 2007—then the largest research grant to UT in history. The supercomputer represents the fruit of a vision shared by Bredesen and the leadership of both the university and ORNL...9/24
(Knoxville News Sentinel) As part of its new five-year, $215 million climate research agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be acquiring yet another supercomputer. The procurement process for the new machine is in the works, and, by this time next year, ORNL should have three computers capable of at least one petaflops (1,000 trillion calculations per second), according to Jeff Nichols, ORNL's interim computing chief...9/24
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(Tennessee Alumnus) [Need to scroll] ...UT and ORNL are capitalizing on their partnership at a time when world events have turned the collective attention toward science and energy—an agenda the UT–Oak Ridge partnership is ideally suited to pursue. Bredesen indicated his backing by proposing the $31.5-million Tennessee Solar Institute be housed at UT’s new Cherokee Farm campus...9/24
(Knoxville News Sentinel) As noted in an earlier post, several stimulus-funded cleanup projects at ORNL are stalled while contract protests (related to whether they should be small-biz set asides or open bids) are resolved, but work is moving forward on a number of other projects. J.T. Howell, the DOE manager overseeing the Recovery Act work, said Bechtel Jacobs currently is evaluating bids on the Tank W-1A/Corehole 8 project. That work will involve excavation of the underground tank and radioactively contaminated soils south of Building 3019. The long-standing problem has contributed to contamination of the groundwater and migration of rad pollutants...9/23
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State & Regional
(Chattanooga Times Free Press) The head of the Tennessee Valley Authority said Thursday that electricity users will have to pay nearly $3 billion to clean up and revamp the way coal ash is handled after the Kingston spill, the nation's worst ash spill ever...9/24
(Knoxville News Sentinel) Hundreds of blight-resistant chestnut trees planted on three Southern national forests have survived their first growing season in the wild. Planted in 2008, the trees are the first generation of crossbred chestnuts to be field tested anywhere in the U.S...9/24
East Tennessee
(Oak Ridger)
WSI-Oak Ridge has contributed $150,000 toward the expansion of Roane State Community College's Oak Ridge campus...9/23
(Oak Ridger) Located on 250 acres south of our city and nestled on the wooded hillside of Chestnut Ridge is a peaceful setting that beckons to the weary soul and relaxes the tired mind. It is within minutes of all Oak Ridgers and is open to all from sunrise to sunset. Walking trails are plentiful, shade is abundant and quiet solitude is a mainstay. Once experienced, you will return often...9/22
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National
(NY Times) President Obama, in his first visit to the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, made progress Wednesday on two key issues, wringing a concession from Russia to consider tough new sanctions against Iran and securing support from Moscow and Beijing for a Security Council resolution to curb nuclear weapons...9/24
DOE
(Knoxville News Sentinel) The Department of Energy's long-stated plan to shut down its Oak Ridge incinerator at the end of September has been put on hold -- at least for another month and a half. According to Dennis Hill, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs Co., efforts to burn the remaining inventory of hazardous waste got delayed, in part, because some of the last liquid-waste shipments contained higher-than-expected quantities of mercury. That meant the waste had to be burned at a slower rate to meet the incinerator's emissions requirements, Hill said...9/23
(DOE Press Release) On Monday, October 26, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science will host a Symposium on Accelerators for America's Future in Washington, DC...9/23
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