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ORNL Review v19n1

Vol. 19, No. 1, ( 1986)

 Departments
  • Editorial. The nuclear power option must be kept alive
  • Awards and Appointments
  • Take a Number
  • News Notes. Six ORNL-UT Distinguished Scientists appointed; Voyager space probe (which is carrying an ORNL-made alloy) has close encounter with Uranus; ORNL officials tell congressional committees of budget impacts
  • Books. The Nuclear Connection: A reassessment of Nuclear Power and Nuclear Proliferation_ (edited by Alvin Weinberg et al.) is reviewed
ORNL Review v18n4

Vol. 18, No. 4, ( 1985)
  • Parallel Computing at ORNL. Computer scientists are learning how to use new parallel processing machines to meet ORNL's research needs. New parallel algorithms for solving large systems of equations have been developed at ORNL.
  • Protecting Human Health: The Chemical Challenge. Scientists at ORNL have developed several methods of detecting human responses to hazardous energy-related chemicals. They are using interferon as a bioeffects marker and are developing the "fluoroimmunosensor," which detects minute amounts of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in body fluids and tissues.
  • The Technology Transfer Fund: A Status Report on the ORNL Projects. ORNL, DOE, and the Office of Technology Applications of Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., have committed funds to stimulate innovation and bring ORNL technologies to the stage where their commercial potential can be judged. The status of five technology-transfer projects is described.
  • Pion Emission from Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions. A theorist said it couldn't be done, but nuclear physicists at ORNL's Holifield Heavy Ion Research Facility accelerator have detected the emission of pions, short-lived particles that serve as the "glue" in the nucleus, from low-energy nuclear reactions. Current theory is being revised to explain how pions can be produced at unexpectedly low energies.
  • Managing Hazardous Waste: ORNL Examines the Options. ORNL is playing an important role in managing the nation's defense-chemical wastes and in devising better ways of dealing with its own hazardous materials.
Departments
  • Books. Chancing It: Why We Take Risks is reviewed by W. S. Lyon.
  • Take a Number
  • Technical Capsules. Device to measure metal deformation wins IR 100 award; technology transfer and cell freezing.
  • Lab Anecdote. The story of the radiation-danger symbol.
  • News Notes. ORNL Director Herman Postma talks to President Reagan; Radio Frequency Test Facility completed; Associate Director Fred Mynatt testifies on advanced reactors for space; fusion magnet facility begins 6-coil tests; Athens power-distribution experiment under way; Life Sciences Complex plans told; Cummins Engine licensing breaks new ground.
  • Awards and Appointments
ORNL Review v18n3

Vol. 18, No. 3, ( 1985)

 Departments
  • Books. Freeman Dyson's Weapons and Hope is reviewed by Jack Barkenbus
  • Take a Number
  • News Notes. New parallel-processing computer at ORNL; uranium wastes solidified at Laboratory; ORNL agents tested in European patients; High-Temperature Materials Laboratory inaugurated; Technology Transfer briefs
  • Awards and Appointments
ORNL Review v18n2

Vol. 18, No. 2, ( 1985)
  • State of the Laboratory- 1984: Exploring New Areas. In this updated report based on his February 5, 1985, address to the staff. Postma notes that the Laboratory's return on some investments has been remarkable. Seed money projects have brought about $4 in research funds to ORNL for every $1 invested by the internal Exploratory Studies Program. ORNL research also has helped others save money. For example, Laboratory recommendations on energy options have helped Liberia save up to $20 million annually. ORNL studies of the potential thermal shock problem of commercial nuclear reactors saved electric utilities millions of dollars.
  • Crickets and Coal Liquefaction Research. Several years ago cricket eggs exposed to a chemical under study in the synthetic fuels program hatched crickets with assorted abnormalities such as an extra eye, antenna, or head. The author tells how ORNL toxicologists and analytical chemists determined that certain trace substances cause these teratogenic effects and how they eventually identified a teratogenic compound in these substances.
  • Shedding Light on Molecules and Atoms: Photoelectron Spectroscopy Using Synchrotron Radiation. ORNL researchers using the magic source of synchrotron radiation have helped to usher in a new era of photoelectron spectroscopy called photoelectron dynamics. Recently, use of this method has provided fresh answers to a number of fundamental questions on the electronic structure of small molecules and metal vapors.
  • Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development. Technical innovators and entrepreneurs are receiving new respectability as a result of a growing need for technical solutions to revitalize the economy. The time has come for East Tennessee to experience new economic development because both the need and capability for innovation and entrepreneurship are present.
Departments
  • Awards and Appointments
  • Take a Number
  • News Notes. Electron microscope for fusion studies arrives; Alvin Weinberg honored; 12,000th neutron- facility experiment performed; ORNL Hydrofracture Facility at crossroads; fish and birds studied in Antarctica; ORNL helps steel industry; Technology Transfer Briefs.
  • Books. A book on nuclear facilities and earthquakes is reviewed.
  • Technical Capsules. DOE to use ORNL earthquake recommendations in nuclear plant seismic standards; ORNL collaborates with Spanish team on design offusion stellarator.
ORNL Review v18n1

Vol. 18, No. 1, ( 1985)
  • Shooting for Fusion Energy Breakeven: Pellet Fueling Research at ORNL. ORNL scientists have developed a gun and a centrifuge accelerator to "shoot" frozen pellets of hydrogen fuel into tokamak fusion plasmas. One ORNL injector helped MIT exceed the Lawson criterion, another achieved steady-state plasma fueling, and an improved version of ORNL technology should help a Princeton tokamak's energy output equal the energy input.
  • Sleuthing with Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry. ORNL analytical chemists helped a scientist from DOE's Savannah River Plant determine how the impurities in plutonium fuel degrade the properties of an ORNL-developed cladding alloy used for heat sources aboard spacecraft.
  • The Organic Matter Base of Reservoir Food Webs: ORNL Studies the Ecology of Man-Made Lakes. What determines the biological productivity of man-made lakes? ORNL ecologists are using a variety of research approaches to address a fundamental question about large reservoirs as aquatic ecosystems.
  • Disease-Causing Microbes: The Energy Connection. Heated waters and cooling towers associated with energy production can be a source of disease-causing microbes, including the Legionella bacteria responsible for the potentially fatal Legionnaires' disease. ORNL and UT researchers have discovered two new species of Legionella in artificially heated water.
  • Transportation Energy Conservation: What ORNL Models and Analyses Show The demand for and price of motor fuel have fluctuated considerably in recent years. David L. Greene and ORNL's Transportation Group have followed these fluctuations closely and analyzed consumer responses to fuel price changes and more efficient cars on the market. The group also has studied how to drive to save fuel.
Departments
  • Books. Technostress: The Human Cost of the Computer Revolution is reviewed.
  • News Notes. New Fusion Magnet Arrives; Tritium Light Update; X-ray Beam Line at Brookhaven; Construction Begins on New Materials Lab; Technology Transfer Briefs: New Innovation Center and Patent Policy
  • Take a Number
  • Technical Capsules. Carbonaceous Particulate Matter; Shape Changes in Nuclei; Diesel-Related Research
  • Awards and Appointments
ORNL Review v17n4

Vol. 17, No. 4, ( 1984)

 Departments
ORNL Review v17n3

Vol. 17, No. 3, ( 1984)
  • New Agents To Detect Heart Disease. ORNL's Nuclear Medicine Group has designed and developed radioactive agents for safely and more clearly evaluating heart disease and the effectiveness of therapy. These agents include iodine-123-labeled methyl-branched fatty acids. The group has also developed an improved iridium-191m generator to diagnose heart problems in children. The methyl-branched fatty acids will be tested this year in human patients in Boston and Vienna, and the generator has just entered clinical trials in Europe.
  • The Advanced Toroidal Facility: Improving Fusion's Chances . Because further improvements in doughnut-shaped, or toroidal, fusion devices are desirable, ORNL has designed an Advanced Toroidol Facility (ATF). An optimized version of a stellarator (which differs from a tokamak in that it lacks a plasma current to magnetically confine the fusion fuel), the ATF will be built in Oak Ridge and is scheduled to begin operation in late 1986.
  • SPECIAL SECTION: Technology for Efficient Power Systems. ORNL is managing the Department of Energy program for developing and testing technologies designed to make electric power systems safer, more reliable, and more efficient. ORNL's interdisciplinary staff of experts has taken on a variety of projects, including planning an automated distribution experiment for Athens, Tennessee, and developing a fiber optics measurement device, low-loss steel alloy, and new insulating materials for use in transformers.
  • The Oak Ridge Environment: A Resource To Be Managed. A five-year plan for managing the resources of the Oak Ridge Reservation of the Department of Energy has been developed at ORNL The plan, which is described in the third in a series of articles on ORNL and the environment, deals with both natural and technical resources and provides the means for resolving resource issues such as endangered plant species, contaminated sewage sludge, and the fast-growing deer population.
Departments
ORNL Review v17n2

Vol. 17, No. 2, ( 1984)
  • State of the Laboratory—1983 In the following updated report based on his January 31, 1984, address to staff, Herman Postma discusses technical achievements related to global environmental concerns, an improved alloy for artificial hip joints, human problems of abandoned mine lands, magnets for fusion, the Breeder Reprocessing Engineering Test, altering an enzyme to improve crop yields, radiation effects on matter, diagnosing heart disease in children, measuring indoor air pollution, protecting high-voltage lines, measuring fission product release from reactor fuel, new applications of lasers, and fusion plasma fueling.
  • Making R&D Pay Off: How ORNL Interacts with Industry. Recently the federal government has removed impediments to the transfer of government-sponsored technology to industry. As a result, ORNL has new staff consulting and patent policies and has established a fund to promote technology transfer. Efforts also have been made by the federal government, Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., and ORNL to stimulate and support the creation of small businesses to help the economy.
  • Communicating Health Risks to the Public. The public is worried about low-level effects of environmental agents on health. Its perception of the health risks involved, however, is often different from the actual risks. The scientific establishment, the new media, and culturally ingrained fears and expectations may well be responsible for this discrepancy. That was the consensus of a recent workshop on communicating risks.
  • ORNL and the Environment: Views of State and Federal Regulations. In 1983 the State of Tennessee sought for the first time to acquire the right to regulate ORNL's discharges to the environment. Recently the state conducted a compliance evaluation inspection and recommended that ORNL take action to solve its environmental problems. In this second part of a series, the authors discuss steps that ORNL is taking to respond to the inspection report and the legal issues pertaining to environmental management at the Laboratory.
Departments
ORNL Review v17n1

Vol. 17, No. 1, ( 1984)
  • How Does ORNL Affect the Environment? ORNL's day-to-day operations for the most part have a beneficial effect on the human environment, although the impacts of its primary product—new scientific and technological information—are speculative. Slightly adverse impacts arise from releases of toxic materials from research activities; however, none of these releases is a threat to human health.
  • Building a Better Ion Trap: Atomic Physicists Study Recoil Ions. A new technique developed at ORNL under the leadership of two university professors traps ions of very low energies. This "recoil ion storage" technique permits studies of the transfer of electrons from atoms during collisions with multicharged, low-energy ions and opens the way to future precision spectroscopy experiments on ions.
  • The Mathematics of Artificial Intelligence. Mathematicians at ORNL are applying the principles of artificial intelligence to energy-related problems. Their goals include designing an economical, energy-efficient solar house and programming a robot to avoid obstacles so that it can operate in a hazardous environment, such as a nuclear reprocessing plant.
  • Predicting Metal-Ion Toxicity: A Collaboration of ORNL Physicists and Biologists. ORNL physicists and biologists are collaborating in a search for fundamental explanations of the toxic effects of metal ions in biological systems. Their goal is to predict the degree of toxicity of metal ions and other chemical pollutants
  • Sol-Gel and Gel-Sphere Technology: Powders for Power. Sol-gel technology, developed over a 25-year period at ORNL, has been used to make spherical, beadlike particles for nuclear reactor fuels. Today industry is showing interest in the technology for making ceramics of uniform composition for electronic and other nonnuclear applications. A researcher involved in the development of the prizewinning technology tells its history.
Departments
ORNL Review v16n4

Vol. 16, No. 4, ( 1983)

 Articles Departments