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.
- Books. Chancing It: Why We Take Risks is reviewed by W. S. Lyon.
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- 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
Vol. 18, No. 3, ( 1985)
- Fractals: Realm of Monster Curves and Irregular Solids A solid-state physicist has turned to fractals to understand the strange electrical properties of the interface between an electrode and various electrolytes. He suggests that fractals—a mathematical concept that describes a large class of irregular natural objects—could be useful in other areas of ORNL research.
- Conservation as an Energy Resource: Electricity Savings from a Utility Program What are the energy and economic impacts of a utility program in the Pacific Northwest that offered homeowners incentives to reduce electricity use? An ORNL team has completed a study of the benefits and costs of such a program.
- SPECIAL SECTION: Biotechnology at ORNL
- A Question of Impurities: ORNL Examines a Persistent Fusion Problem Bob Clausing and others at ORNL have conducted studies to determine which cleaning techniques work best to remove the most obnoxious impurities from fusion vessel walls to prevent plasma energy losses.
- Transuranium-Element Production and Research For almost two decades ORNL's High Flux lsotope Reactor (HFIR) and Transuranium Processing Plant (TRU) have produced most of the transuranium elements used by researchers in the Western world. ORNL's Transuranium Research Laboratory, where research is carried out on the HFIR-TRU products, has become an international center for collaborative research. ORNL collaboration with the University of Tennessee has been particularly strong in inorganic chemistry and solid-state physics.
- Books. Freeman Dyson's Weapons and Hope is reviewed by Jack Barkenbus
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- 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
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.
- Awards and Appointments
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- 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.
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.
- 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
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- Technical Capsules. Carbonaceous Particulate Matter; Shape Changes in Nuclei; Diesel-Related Research
- Awards and Appointments