 | |
 Aerial view of ORNL's main campus in 2014 | |
| Motto | "Solving Big Problems"[1] |
|---|---|
| Established | 1943; 82 years ago (1943) |
| Research type | Multidisciplinary |
| Budget | US$2.4 billion |
Field of research | |
| Director | Stephen Streiffer |
| Staff | 5,700 |
| Location | Oak Ridge,Tennessee, United States 35°56′N84°19′W / 35.93°N 84.31°W /35.93; -84.31 |
| Campus | ORNL occupies about 10,000 acres (40 km2) of the approximately 35,000 acres (140 km2) Oak Ridge Reservation |
| Affiliations | United States Department of Energy (DOE) |
Operating agency | UT–Battelle |
| Website | ornl.gov |
| Map | |
  Location in Tennessee | |
| [2] | |
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is afederally funded research and development center inOak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is sponsored by theUnited States Department of Energy and administered byUT–Battelle, LLC.[3]
Established in 1943, ORNL is the largest science and energy national laboratory in the Department of Energy system by size[4] and third largest by annual budget.[5] It is located in theRoane County section of Oak Ridge.[6][7] Its scientific programs focus onmaterials,nuclear science,neutron science, energy,high-performance computing,environmental science,systems biology andnational security, sometimes in partnership with the state ofTennessee, universities and other industries.
ORNL has several of the world's topsupercomputers, includingFrontier, ranked by theTOP500 as the world's second most powerful. The lab is a neutron and nuclear power research facility that includes theSpallation Neutron Source, theHigh Flux Isotope Reactor, and theCenter for Nanophase Materials Sciences.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed byUT–Battelle,[8] alimited liability partnership between theUniversity of Tennessee and theBattelle Memorial Institute, formed in 2000 for that purpose.[9] The annual budget is US$2.4 billion. As of 2021 there is a staff of 5,700 working at ORNL, around 2,000 of whom are scientists and engineers,[10] and an additional 3,200 guest researchers annually.[11]
There are five campuses on the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge reservation: the National Laboratory, theY-12 National Security Complex, the East Tennessee Technology Park (formerly theOak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant), theOak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, and the developing Oak Ridge Science and Technology Park, although the four other facilities are unrelated to the National Laboratory.[12][13] The total area of the reservation is 150 square kilometres (58 sq mi) of which the lab takes up 18 square kilometres (7 sq mi).[14][15]
In 1934 theFreel Farm Mound Site, an archaeological site and burial mound of theLate Woodland period was excavated.[16] The site is currently inundated byMelton Hill Lake.[17]
The city ofOak Ridge was established by theArmy Corps of Engineers as part of theClinton Engineer Works in 1942 on isolated farm land as part of theManhattan Project.[18] During World War II, advanced research for the government was managed at the site by theUniversity of Chicago'sMetallurgical Laboratory.[19] In 1943, construction of the Clinton Laboratories, what would later be known as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was completed.[18][20] The site was chosen for theX-10 Graphite Reactor, used to produceplutonium from naturaluranium.Enrico Fermi and his colleagues developed the world's second self-sustainingnuclear reactor after Fermi's previous experiment, theChicago Pile-1. The X-10 was the first reactor designed for continuous operation.[21]
After the end of World War II, management of the lab was contracted by the US government toMonsanto; however, they withdrew in 1947.[22] TheUniversity of Chicago temporarily re-assumed responsibility, with the site receiving the prestigious "National" laboratory designation, until in December 1947, whenUnion Carbide and Carbon Co., which already operated two other facilities at Oak Ridge, took control of the laboratory and renamed the site Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).[20][22][23]
Post-war, the demand formilitary science had fallen dramatically, and the future of the lab was uncertain. The X-10 reactor and the laboratory's 1,000 employees were no longer involved in nuclear weapons.[18][22] Instead, it was used for scientific research.[21] In 1946 the firstmedical isotopes were produced in the X-10 reactor, and by 1950 almost 20,000 samples had been shipped to various hospitals.[21][22] The quantity and variety ofradionuclides produced by X-10 for medicine grew steadily in the 1950s. ORNL was the only Western source ofcalifornium-252.[22] ORNL scientists also performed the world's first successfulbone marrow transplant in mice by suppressing theirimmune systems.[22]
In 1950 theOak Ridge School of Reactor Technology was established with two courses in reactor operation and safety; almost 1,000 students graduated.[22] Much of the research performed at ORNL in the 1950s was related to nuclear reactors as a form of energy production, both for propulsion and electricity. More reactors were built in the 1950s than in the rest of the ORNL's history combined.[22] One of their most influential projects was thelight-water reactor, a precursor to many modern nuclear power stations. TheUS Military funded much of its development, fornuclear-powered submarines and ships of theUS Navy.[22] TheUS Army also contracted the design of portable nuclear reactors in 1953 for heat and electricity generation in remote military bases.[24] The reactors were produced by theAmerican Locomotive Company and used inGreenland, thePanama Canal Zone, andAntarctica.[22] TheUS Air Force also contributed funding to three reactors, the lab's first computers, and its first particle accelerators.[22] ORNL built itsfirst molten salt reactor in 1954 as a proof-of-concept for a proposed fleet oflong-range bombers, but it was never used.[22][24]
Alvin M. Weinberg was named Director of Research, ORNL, and in 1955 Director of the Laboratory.[22][23] In the early 1960s there was a large push at ORNL to develop nuclear-powereddesalination plants, where deserts met the sea, to provide water. The project, called Water for Peace, was backed byJohn F. Kennedy andLyndon B. Johnson and was presented at a 1964 United Nations conference, but increases in the cost of construction and falling public confidence in nuclear power caused the plan to be shuttered.[22][24] The Health Physics Research Reactor built in 1962 was used forradiation exposure experiments leading to more accuratedosage limits anddosimeters, and improvedradiation shielding.[22]
In 1964 theMolten-Salt Reactor Experiment began with the construction of the reactor. It operated from 1966 until 1969 (with six months down time to move fromU-235 toU-233 fuel) and proved the viability ofmolten salt reactors, while also producing fuel for other reactors as a byproduct of its own reaction.[22] TheHigh Flux Isotope Reactor built in 1965 had the highestneutron flux of any reactor at the time.[22] It improved upon the work of the X-10 reactor, producing more medical isotopes as well as allowing higher fidelity of materials research.[22] Researchers in the biology division studied the effects of chemicals on mice, includingpetrol fumes,pesticides, andtobacco.[22]
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In the late 1960s, cuts in funding led to the cancellation of plans for another particle accelerator, and theUnited States Atomic Energy Commission cut the breeder reactor program by two-thirds, leading to a downsizing in staff from 5,000 to 3,800.[22] In the 1970s, the prospect offusion power was strongly considered, sparking research at ORNL. Atokamak called ORMAK, made operational in 1971, was the first tokamak to achieve a plasma temperature of 20 million Kelvin.[25] After the success of the fusion experiments, it was enlarged and renamed ORMAK II in 1973; however, the experiments ultimately failed to lead to fusion power plants.[22]
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TheUS Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) required improved safety standards in the early 1970s for nuclear reactors, so ORNL staff wrote almost 100 requirements covering many factors including fuel transport and earthquake resistance. In 1972 the AEC held a series of public hearings where emergency cooling requirements were highlighted and the safety requirements became more stringent.[22] Also in 1972,Peter Mazur, a biologist at ORNL, froze withliquid nitrogen, thawed and implanted mouseembryos in asurrogate mother. The mouse pups were born healthy.[22] The technique is popular in the livestock industry, as it allows the embryos of valuable cattle to be transported easily and a prize cow can have multiple eggs extracted and thus, throughin vitro fertilisation, have many more offspring than would naturally be possible.[22]
In 1974 Alvin Weinberg, director of the lab for 19 years, was replaced byHerman Postma, a fusion scientist.[22] In 1977 construction began for 6 metre (20 foot)superconductingelectromagnets, intended to controlfusion reactions. The project was an international effort: three electromagnets were produced in the US, one in Japan, one inSwitzerland and the final by remaining European states.[22] ORNL was involved in analyzing the damage to the core of theThree Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station after theaccident in 1979.[22]
The 1980s brought more changes to ORNL: a focus on efficiency became paramount. An accelerated climate simulation chamber was built that applied varying weather conditions to insulation to test its efficacy and durability faster than real time.[22] Materials research into heat resistantceramics for use in truck and high-tech car engines was performed, building upon the materials research that began in the nuclear reactors of the 1950s.[22] In 1987 the High Temperature Materials Laboratory was established, where ORNL and industry researchers cooperated on ceramic and alloy projects. The materials research budget at ORNL doubled after initial uncertainty regardingReagan's economic policy of less government expenditure.[22] In 1981, the Holifield Heavy Ion Research Facility, a 25 MVparticle accelerator, was opened at ORNL. At the time, Holifield had the widest range of ion species and was twice as powerful as other accelerators, attracting hundreds of guest researchers each year.[22]
The Department of Energy was concerned with the pollution surrounding ORNL, and it began clean-up efforts. Burial trenches and leaking pipes hadcontaminated the groundwater beneath the lab, and radiation tanks were sitting idle, full ofwaste. Estimates of the total cost of clean-up were into the hundreds of millions of US dollars.[22] The five older reactors were subjected to safety reviews in 1987, ordered to be deactivated until the reviews were complete. By 1989 when the High Flux Isotope Reactor was restarted, the US supply of certain medical isotopes was depleted.[22] In 1989 the former executive officer of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science,Alvin Trivelpiece, became director of ORNL; he remained in the role until 2000.[22]
In 1992whistleblower Charles Varnadore filed complaints against ORNL, alleging safety violations and retaliation by his superiors. While an administrative law judge ruled in Varnadore's favor, Secretary of LaborRobert Reich overturned that ruling. However, Varnadore's case saw prime contractorMartin Marietta cited for safety violations and ultimately led to additional whistleblower protection within DOE.[26]
In January 2019 ORNL announced a major breakthrough in its capacity to automatePu-238 production which helped push annual production from 50 grams to 400 grams, moving closer toNASA's goal of 1.5 kilograms per year by 2025 in order to sustain its space exploration programs.[27]
ORNL conductsresearch and development activities that span a wide range of scientific disciplines. Many research areas have a significant overlap with each other; researchers often work in two or more of the fields listed here. The laboratory's major research areas are described briefly below.
The laboratory has a long history of energy research; nuclear reactor experiments have been conducted since the end of World War II in 1945. Because of the availability of reactors and high-performance computing resources, an emphasis on improving the efficiency of nuclear reactors is present.[31][32] The programs develop more efficient materials, more accurate simulations of aging reactor cores, sensors and controls as well as safety procedures for regulatory authorities.[32]
The Energy Efficiency and Electricity Technologies Program aims to improveair quality in the US and reduce dependence on foreign oil supplies.[33] There are three key areas of research: electricity, manufacturing and mobility. The electricity division focuses on reducing electricity consumption and finding alternative sources for production. Buildings, which account for 39% of US electricity consumption as of 2012, are a key area of research as the program aims to create affordable,carbon-neutral homes.[34] Research also takes place into higher efficiencysolar panels,geothermal electricity andheating, lower costwind generators, and the economic and environmental feasibility of potentialhydro power plants.[35][36][37]
The Fusion Energy Division pursues short-term goals to develop components such ashigh-temperature superconductors, high-speed hydrogen pellet injectors, and suitable materials for future fusion research.[38][39] Much research into the behaviour and maintenance of plasma takes place at the Fusion Energy Division to further the understanding ofplasma physics, a crucial area for developing a fusion power plant.[38][39] The USITER office is at ORNL with partners atPrinceton Plasma Physics Laboratory andSavannah River National Laboratory.[40] The US contribution to the ITER project is 9.1% which is expected to be in excess of US$1.6 billion throughout the contract.[41][42] ORNL researchers participated in developing of an extensive research plan for the US-ITER collaboration detailed in 2022.[43]
Biological research coversecology,forestry,[44]genomics,computational biology,structural biology andbioinformatics.[45] The BioEnergy Program aims to improve the efficiency of all stages of thebiofuel process to improve theenergy security of the United States.[46] The program aims to make genetic improvements to the potential biomass used,[47] formulate methods for refineries that can accept a diverse range of fuels, and to improve the efficiency of energy delivery both to power plants and end users.[48][49]
The Center for Molecular Biophysics conducts research into the behaviour of biological molecules in various conditions. The center hosts projects that examinecell walls for biofuel production,[50] use neutron scattering to analyzeprotein folding, and simulate the effect of catalysis on a conventional andquantum scale.[51][52] ORNL is home to a field site for theNational Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), which has a field office nearby. The Department of Energy works closely with theTennessee Wildlife Resources Agency out of ORNL to monitor forest ecology for the surrounding Appalachians & Cumberland Plateau Domain of NEON.[44]
There are two neutron sources at ORNL; theHigh Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and theSpallation Neutron Source (SNS). HFIR provides neutrons in a stable beam resulting from a constantnuclear reaction whereas SNS, a particle accelerator, produces pulses of neutrons.[53][54] HFIR wentcritical in 1965 and has been used for materials research and as a major source of medical radioisotopes since.[55] As of 2013, HFIR provides the world's highest constantneutron flux as a result of various upgrades.[56]Berkelium-249, used to synthesizetennessine for the first time, was produced in the HFIR as part of an international effort.[57] HFIR is likely to operate until approximately 2060 before thereactor pressure vessel is considered unsafe for continued use.[58]
The SNS has the highest intensity neutron pulses of any human-made neutron source.[59] SNS was made operational in 2006 and has since been upgraded to 1 megawatt with plans to continue up to 3 MW.[56] High-power neutron pulses permit clearer images of the targets, meaning smaller samples can be analyzed and accurate results require fewer pulses.[60]
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Between 2002 and 2008 ORNL partnered withCaterpillar Inc. to develop a new steel for their diesel engines that can withstand large temperature fluctuations.[61] The new material, named CF8C Plus, is based on conventional CF8C stainless steel with addedmanganese andnitrogen; the result has better high–temperature properties and is easier to cast at a similar cost.[61] In 2003 the partners received an R&D 100 award fromR&D magazine and in 2009 received an award for "excellence in technology transfer" from theFederal Laboratory Consortium for the commercialization of the steel.[61]
There is a high-temperature materials lab at ORNL that permits researchers from universities, private companies and other government initiatives to use their facilities. As is the case for all designated user facilities, the resources of the High Temperature Materials Laboratory are available for free if the results are published; private research is permitted but requires payment.[62]
The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) researches the behaviour and fabrication ofnanomaterials. The center emphasises discovery of new materials and the understanding of underlying physical and chemical interactions that enable creation of nanomaterials.[63] In 2012, CNMS produced a lithium-sulfide battery with a theoretical energy density three to five times greater than existinglithium ion batteries.[64]
ORNL provides resources to theUnited States Department of Homeland Security and other defense programs. The Global Security and Nonproliferation (GS&N) program develops and implements policies, both US based and international, to prevent theproliferation of nuclear material.[65] The program has developed safeguards for nuclear arsenals, guidelines for dismantling arsenals, plans of action should nuclear material fall into unauthorised hands, detection methods for stolen or missing nuclear material, and trade of nuclear material between the US and Russia.[65] The GS&N's work overlaps with that of the Homeland Security Programs Office, providing detection of nuclear material and nonproliferation guidelines. Other areas concerning the Department Homeland Security include nuclear and radiological forensics,chemical andbiological agent detection usingmass spectrometry, and simulations of potential national hazards.[66]
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ORNL has been the site of varioussupercomputers, home to the fastest on several occasions.[67] In 1953, ORNL partnered with theArgonne National Laboratory to buildORACLE (Oak Ridge Automatic Computer and Logical Engine), a computer to research nuclear physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering.[24][67][68] ORACLE had 2048 words (80 Kibit) ofmemory and took approximately 590 microseconds to perform addition or multiplication of integers.[68] In the 1960s ORNL was equipped with anIBM 360/91 and an IBM 360/65.[69] In 1995 ORNL bought anIntel Paragon based computer called theIntel Paragon XP/S 150 that performed at 154 gigaFLOPS and ranked third on theTOP500 list of supercomputers.[67][70] In 2005Jaguar was built, aCray XT3-based system that performed at 25 teraFLOPS and received incremental upgrades up to theXT5 platform that performed at 2.3 petaFLOPS in 2009. It was recognised as the world's fastest from November 2009 until November 2010.[71][72] Summit was built for Oak Ridge National Laboratory during 2018, which benchmarked at 122.3 petaFLOPS. As of June 2020, Summit was the world's second fastest [clocked] supercomputer with 202,752 CPU cores, 27,648Nvidia Tesla GPUs, and 250 Petabytes of storage, having lost the top position to the JapaneseFugaku supercomputer.[73] In May 2022, the ORNLFrontier system broke the exascale barrier,[74] achieving 1.102 exaflop/s using 8,730,112 cores.
Since 1992 theCenter for Computational Sciences has overseen high performance computing at ORNL. It manages theOak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility that contains the machines.[75] In 2012, Jaguar was upgraded to theXK7 platform, a fundamental change asGPUs are used for the majority of processing, and renamedTitan. Titan performed at 17.59 petaFLOPS and held the number 1 spot on the TOP500 list for November 2012.[76] Other computers include a 77 node cluster to visualise data that the larger machines output in theExploratory Visualization Environment for Research in Science and Technology (EVEREST), a visualisation room with a 10 by 3 metre (30 by 10 ft) wall that displays 35 megapixel projections.[77][78] Smoky is an 80 node Linux cluster used for application development. Research projects are refined and tested on Smoky before running on larger machines such as Titan.[79]
In 1989 programmers at the Oak Ridge National Lab wrote the first version ofParallel Virtual Machine (PVM), software that enablesdistributed computing on machines of differing specifications.[80] PVM isfree software and has become the de facto standard for distributed computing.[81][82]Jack Dongarra of ORNL and theUniversity of Tennessee wrote theLINPACK software library andLINPACK benchmarks, used to calculatelinear algebra and the standard method of measuring floating point performance of a supercomputer as used by the TOP500 organisation.[67][83]
The following persons served as director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory:[84]
| No. | Image | Director | Term start | Term end | Refs. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin D. Whitaker | 1943 | 1945 | ||
| 2 | James Lum | 1945 | 1947 | ||
| 3 | Prescott Sandidge | 1947 | 1948 | ||
| 4 | Nelson Rucker | 1948 | 1950 | ||
| 5 |  | Clarence Larson | 1950 | 1955 | |
| 6 |  | Alvin M. Weinberg | 1955 | 1973 | |
| 7 | Floyd Culler | 1973 | 1974 | ||
| 8 | Herman Postma | 1974 | 1988 | ||
| Interim | Alex Zucker | 1988 | 1989 | [85] | |
| 9 | Alvin Trivelpiece | January 1, 1989 | March 31, 2000 | [86][87] | |
| 10 |  | William Madia | April 1, 2000 | 2003 | [88][89] |
| 11 | Jeff Wadsworth | August 1, 2003 | June 30, 2007 | [90][91] | |
| 12 |  | Thomas Mason | July 1, 2007 | June 30, 2017 | [92][93] |
| 13 | .jpg) | Thomas Zacharia | July 1, 2017 | December 31, 2022 | [94][95] |
| 14 |  | Stephen Streiffer | October 16, 2023 | present | [96][97] |
| Deputy Secretary of Energy |  | |
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| Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy | ||
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