Lab Lines

ORNL Director Al Trivelpiece said quite a bit about the Spallation Neutron Source in this year's State of the Lab speech on May 12, and that in itself is a pretty good sign of the state of the Lab. The project to build the $1.33 billion state-of-the-art neutron source for the science community is currently on track, although, in terms of securing the $157 million for the startup phase, the director cautioned, "It is also important to remember that just because the President requests something doesn't mean that the Congress is going to approve his request."

Trivelpiece noted that Lab officials had less than one day to decide, in 1995, whether to ask a third time for funding for the twice-rejected Advanced Neutron Source reactor project—and face almost certain disappointment—or shift to the SNS.

Comparing the Lab's plight to that of a worker on a burning off-shore oil rig, he said ORNL "jumped." Faced with the odds against getting the project under way in a short time and with significant opposition, "the SNS people might well have given up. They didn't." He credited Associate Director Bill Appleton for his tenacity and "solid, hard work."

Other Lab highlights Trivelpiece mentioned were Vice President Gore's January visit to announce support for the SNS; the 11-lab report; Technology Opportunities to Reduce U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions, coordinated by ORNL and NREL; ORNL's nine R&D 100 awards; the dedication of the Marilyn Lloyd Environmental and Life Science Complex; the functional genomics conference; and DOE's support of the soon-to-be-built National Center for Transportation Research. The full text is on the Web at www.ornl.gov/news/sol_98.htm.

The director again urged the research staff to write more and better proposals, remarking that waiting for a share when the money goes out "doesn't seem to work too well today."

Trivelpiece borrowed from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to drive home the point that the fate of ORNL and its programs is largely in the hands of those who do the solid, hard work:

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings."

BBQ, Elvis show nets $3200 for trust The May 22 benefit for the daughter of Don Thompson, a Plant and Equipment Division employee who died in February, was both a success and a good time, say organizers and supporters. P&E Division employee Joy Thompson, Thompson's sister-in-law, expressed her thanks to those who attended the benefit and to its organizers, particularly Don Thompson's co-workers on the ORNL Steam Plant's B-shift. Organizers also thanked the ATLC for use of the union hall and area merchants for their support. "We only had to buy the tablecloths," said the Steam Plant's Butch Banks. The event, which featured a barbeque, door prizes and a "Tribute to Elvis" performance by Steam Plant employee Greg Johnson, netted close to $3,200, which will be put into a trust fund for Thompson's nine-year-old daughter, Jill. Ridgelines featured Johnson and a promo for the benefit in its "Readers" item in the April 23 issue.

Please don't slam the paddles on the table

Al Trivelpiece described the "wonderful new opportunity" in State of the Lab. The initiative would create a program to establish computing capability at the 30 to 100 teraflop level to study, using modeling, subjects ranging from climate change to engine emissions.

DOE's Under Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz would like to have the initiative in DOE's year 2000 budget, which means it needs to be in the budget request this summer. Oliver is in Washington helping to make it happen.

Oliver's most recent brush with fame was for bringing ping-pong to the Robotics and Process Systems Division. Citing an overall absence of recreational facilities at the Lab, he dipped into his own pocket to provide a table-tennis setup for the R&PS Division, which has its digs in the backcountryish former Fuel Recycle Facility. A local reporter, acting on a "tip," interviewed the A.D. on the subject and wrote about it.

Now, with his Washington assignment, Oliver frets that he won't ever get a game in.

Long may you run

ORNL Today, the Lab's on-line news, asked readers to send in their odometer readings if they "commute to the Lab in a heap" to see whose car had the most miles. About 50 people responded. It turns out that there are a number of enduring autos in the ORNL parking lots.

Mark Downing of the Energy Division and his 1975 Volvo, which just turned 400,000 miles. He works on it himself, and he admits it's "been through the wringer," although the orange paint job is fairly new. So what's the secret to long life for an automobile? "Change the oil," says Downing. Photo by Jim Richmond

Most jalopy jockeys were into their second hundred thousand miles, but vehicles with more than 200,000 miles are not uncommon. The winner appears to be a Volvo topping 400,000 miles. Farther down the original sticker-price range are a '75 Duster with 329,200 miles and a '74 Opel with 211,000 miles that was once mistaken for an abandoned car by Y-12 security.

"The general trend is that people tend to keep their vehicles longer than in the past," says Pat Hu, who studies transportation trends in the Center for Transportation Research. "The average age for all personal vehicles was 7.7 years in 1990 and 8.3 in 1995."

Hu says that it's hard to say whether the tendency to keep cars longer has adverse effects, like increasing air pollution, citing a federal study showing that vehicle emissions have decreased significantly since 1970 because of tighter standards. Other pollution sources have decreased only slightly.

One thing for certain is that car owners are proud to tell about their ageless wonders. Only one driver expressed a desire to get rid of his clunker. But another, more representative respondent indignantly stated in her report: "My car is not a heap."