Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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l 1 \ ( Volume 12 Number 2 Spring 1979

1 State of the Laboratory By HERMAN POSTMA

THE COVER: Laboratory Director Herman Postma summarizes the Year of the Visit in his annual State of the Laboratory Address, delivered on 24 Communications Between Hard & Soft Sciences: January 23 at the Museum of Science and Challenges and Avenues Energy in Oak Ridge. There was standing By TOM WILBANKS room only, the conflict with the State of the Union Message notwithstanding. Postma's message begins on the opposite page. 33 Doughnut Hotter than the Sun Editor Reaching Fusion Temperatures with ORNL Neutral Beams BARBARA LYON By CAROLYN KRAUSE

Staff Writer CAROLYN KRAUSE Consulting Editor 45 The Oak Ridge Science Semester ALEX ZUCKER By KAREN CROMER Art Director BILL CLARK

DEPARTMENTS Publication Staff: Technical Editing/ LaRue Foster; Typography/ Linda Jeffers; Books 22 Makeup/ Shirley Boatman; ORNL Pho­ Information Meeting Highlights 30 tography and Reproduction Departments. Lab Anecdote 32 Take A Number 44 The Review is published quarterly and Awards and Appointments 52 distributed to employees and others asso­ ciated with the Oak Ridge National Lab­ oratory. The editorial office is in Building 4500-North, Oak Ridge National Labora­ tory. P.O. Box X, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830. Telephone: Internal 4-7183; com­ OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY mercial (615) 574-7183; FTS 624-7183. OPERATED BY UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION · FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY By HERMAN POSTMA

ach year, in summarizing and people in supporting roles, for dent Carter's visit on May 22. In E the work of the Oak Ridge which funding totals almost a retrospect, it was an exciting time, National Laboratory or any insti­ third of a billion dollars. one that brought the science and tution, there is a great tempta­ Before covering those selected technology of the Laboratory to tion to designate "The Break­ examples, I would like to give the personal attention of the first through," or to attempt to find some quantitative indicators of President to visit us, as well as to that truly important and revolu­ changes and events that have the attention of many national tionary event that might change happened at the Laboratory. politicians, the national press, the the course of mankind. But sci­ Then I will turn to some of the scientific advisor to the President, ence really doesn't work that way. past year's findings. Finally, I most of the new Department of What I will emphasize here are will try to predict some future Energy (DOE) officials, and, in­ many of the ways in which events and to provide some ideas evitably, to the public. Our initial science and technology really do of the directions toward which it objective was to make sure that work- a quiet evolution of change is important for the Laboratory to the President saw not just what rather than the drama of a move. we are doing but also how science revolution. and technology help to maintain In reality, science builds­ The Event the national strength of the usually slowly and always care­ Having expressed disclaimers United States-and how impor­ fully-on prior events. To illus­ about really big happenings, I tantly that strength depends trate that, I had to make difficult must renege slightly to discuss upon facts and a rationale, in choices in selecting appropriate one very large and important which science and technology examples from among the more event in 1978. It was not a sci­ have an important role. I wish to than 700 separate projects carried entific event- but perhaps it thank all of you who worked very out by some 5000 professionals was an engineered one-Presi- hard to make that visit a sue-

SPRING 1979 1 Because an increasing amount of work is done by subcontractors, ORNL operating budgets have grown more rapidly than ~ EMPLOYMENT 300 employment. IE] BUDGET cess-those who prepared and 6 FULL- TIME 200 5 OPERATING presented and all of you who were EQUIVALENT BUDGET EMPLOYMENT 4 being represented by those who (in millions) did the presentations. President (in 1000's) 3 Carter made the sta.tement that 100 he was "coming to Mecca." That 2 is flattering-and a high tribute to those whose hard work 0 and contributions throughout the 1974 75 76 77 78 1979• many years of ORNL's existence FISCAL YEAR have given it the worldwide •EXPECTED reputation that I believe the President expressed so well. lished, representing productivity Energy, the international energy per person for the institution, has agencies, the State Department, Some Indicators remained nearly constant over and particular programmatic The drama and flurry of the the last ten years. It is, of course, areas. President's visit stand in sharp much harder to measure directly Another trend this year which contrast to the many other events the quality of this work. There are involves ORNL is DOE's inclina­ and changes that constitute an indicators-awards, honors, peo­ tion to designate lead laboratories evolution which occurs quietly at ple nominated for the best papers in certain areas. These are areas the Laboratory daily, not only at meetings, IR-100 Awards-and in which DOE says it will rely visible in science but also evi­ they have all been increasing in upon a particular laboratory as its denced through other indicators. the last few years. Other mea­ chief agent of technological com­ Last year, I attempted to outline sures of the Laboratory seen by petence, programmatic direction, some of those changes; this year, I others concern our ability to set and development of a technologi­ will describe different ones. and to meet difficult goals and cal base. The chief products of the Labo­ milestones and to make our Many years ago, growth in the ratory are the ideas it has, the commitments come true. When we Laboratory's employment could data it generates, the papers that promise to measure, particularly be linked to growth in money. Re­ are written, the analyses result­ in the technologies, some impor­ cently (and intentionally), mon­ ing from the data, and the tant phenomenon, by such-and­ etary growth has not been synthesis that comes from com­ such a time and at such-and-such attended by a commensurate pilations and evaluations. These a cost, and reach conclusions growth in people. This is so papers, reviews, and assessments from such data, we do it! Those because more and more of the cogently represent the Labora­ goals and milestones have been work at the Laboratory uses, tory's ideas, innovations, creativ­ achieved at a faster rate and at a through subcontracting, the ex­ ity, and inventions- the focus of higher percentage of completion pertise available elsewhere in the "The State of the Laboratory." In every year. I am increasingly country-at other laboratories, in spite of the always-impending impressed with the degree to industry, and at universities. As I crunch of paperwork and red tape, which we accomplish what some­ emphasized last year, that is an and in spite of the incomprehen­ times seems nearly impossible area which has grown increas­ sible amount of information that within very stringent time sched­ ingly and for which we project needs to be handled and synthe­ ules and in very difficult tech­ close to $40 million for the present sized, and in spite of the changes nological areas. fiscal year, a factor of 10 greater that have taken place at the We have also seen a noticeable than that four years ago. Laboratory as we have moved increase in Laboratory members A continuing consolidation is into new areas, some of which we and staff with particular exper­ taking place at the Laboratory are very new at, we fmd that, in tise who are being called for around fewer themes and in fact, the number of papers pub- consultation to the Department of greater depth, particularly in the

2 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review • PROGRAM MANAGEMENT established a limit of 5150 full­ time-equivalent staff for FY 1979, 3000 fm :~s~~~~~~!!.~i~~~~~RYICES iZL3 R & D PROGRAMS The level of effort in paper studies, beyond which we cannot go assessments, and program management without special permission, re­ is increasing. gardless of the amount of money 2000 RESEARCH that might come to the Labora­ DIVISION PERSONNEl tory. This, of course, requires the personnel (although a lot of some innovative management by money) at the Laboratory. Fur­ 1000 all of us as we attempt even more thermore, because of the change difficult missions under these in the nature of the government constraints. funding of R&D and its estab­ This year also saw ORNL, and lishment of priorities, much more 1974 1979 national laboratories in general, FISCAl YEAR effort has been going into studies continue to be much-studied enti­ and evaluations than in the new areas of coal and conserva­ ties. A General Accounting Office past. tion. In keeping with that trend, report urged that the laboratories the shift in the sciences continues be more utilized by DOE. The from nuclear to nonnuclear in Other Impacts Buchsbaum report to the Presi­ support of those technologies, Other events in 1978 of con­ dent's science advisor, Frank particularly in areas where we siderable importance were not so Press, said that the missions of have been given lead responsibili­ readily distinguished by data and the national laboratories need to ties or into which we wish to move quantitative information. For ex­ be restored and better focused. ill the future. ample, in 1977, DOE was a Congressional hearings were held Finally, there are other changes promise; in 1978, it became a by the House Science and Tech­ that must be viewed in a larger reality. It is already old enough­ nology Committee. At present, we time span than those that have at least for a government agen­ find that the Office ofTechnology taken place in the last year. cy- to have changes, reorgani­ Assessment is looking at national Recently, we compared the mix of zation, and the movement of laboratories, and there is yet things we have done in the last people who are leaving or being another in-house DOE study in five years at the Laboratory from reassigned. This year has again progress. the time of the low point during been spent in acquainting new There were other events of the year 1974 to 1978, when we people in DOE with national considerable importance to the reached our maximum diversifi­ laboratories-with what we do, future of ORNL last year. Deci­ cation, and which marked the end with how we do it, and with the sions were made with respect to of the period of our most rapid roles we want to play in DOE some of the areas in which DOE growth and the beginning of missions. It is true that so far would count most heavily upon consolidation. This comparison DOE has a different view of ORNL as its chief laboratory. reveals the number of people national laboratories than did its Bob Thorne, then Assistant Sec­ involved in research and de­ predecessors. DOE feels that the retary for Energy Technology, velopment, either experimental or .national laboratories have grown wrote this summer, in reply to our analytical; those who were in­ too strongly and too fast, and that 1978 Institutional Plan, that he volved in assessing and studying it is desirable to accomplish more would designate ORNL as DOE's the results of R&D in order to of its missions through working lead laboratory in the areas of make evaluations either for as­ directly with industry rather than coal technology and nuclear-fuel sessing environmental impact or through working with the na­ reprocessing. We have followed for choosing processes; and the tionallaboratories. That attitude up with visits to coal-research degree to which we have been set the stage for our increased use centers and with plans for re­ involved in subcontracting in of subcontracting, program man­ search in materials and other those years. We found that the aging, and using industrial capa­ areas. Similar overtures were largest percentage of growth has bilities, and for DOE's decision to made by Tennessee Valley Au­ taken place in program manage­ impose absolute personnel re­ thority Chairman Dave Freeman, ment, but this (50 people) still strictions upon the national labo­ who urged that the mutual com­ represents only a small fraction of ratories, including ORNL. DOE plementarity of the two institu-

SPRING 1979 3 tions be more fully exploited in materials laboratory, part of the have to resolve in creative ways 1979. We now have a number of Solid State Division, has devel­ are nuclear related. There's been joint projects and much more oped a promising long-term pri­ much interest in the past few activity under way than we did mary-storage form for high-level years in greatly reducing the previously. I believe that this will waste. That development, a spin­ proliferation aspects of nuclear be truly an important undertak­ off of our target fabrication pro­ fuel cycles, and a concurrent need ing with TVA as we supply gram, is a unique cermet, a to minimize radiation exposure of some of the research rna terial, combination of a ceramic and a personnel during any part of a and as they supply the demon­ metal. It is prepared by dissolving fuel cycle. Members of the Chemi­ stration arena for ideas in a the waste material and precipitat­ cal Technology and Metals and practical sense. ing out all the elements as a Ceramics divisions have been homogeneous mixture of oxides, responsible for development of a Tee i al Acco titanates, and aluminosilicates. fuel fabrication process called the This mixture is then calcined, Gel-Sphere-Pac-microspheres of The true purpose ofthis annual compacted, and heated. The final fuel which are made from a gel summary is to provide a perspec­ product, an intimate dispersion of and then packed in appropriate tive on scientific events and ceramic particles in a metal-alloy geometry. Besides being easy to technical accomplishments. The matrix, has some important attri­ fabricate remotely, this fuel has Laboratory is an important na­ butes, among which is a very high important performance advan­ tional institution with many thermal conductivity, about the tages. This year, spheres were unique strengths and capabili­ same as that of titanium, or about created in three different sizes, ties. One does not have to go very two orders of magnitude greater thus allowing them to be densely far into a discussion of its work than other candidate waste packed. The process is well suited to be enormously impressed by forms. This alone permits much for all candidate fuel cycles con­ its significance in many diverse greater fission-product loading sidered for their proliferation fields of basic science and tech­ without raising the temperature resistance. Especially notable nology. The ability of the people in the compacted mass because of this year has been progress in here to think in creative, even the heat-transfer properties. The making uniform spheres, par­ revolutionary, ways about scien­ cermets also have a very high ticularly with thorium. The great tific and technological problems density, which means that vol­ advantage is that the simplified produces ideas and innovations ume reductions of approximately process is easier to handle in a that have the potential for far­ 70 to 1 can be achieved. Studies remotely operated plant. It has reaching impacts. This process now being completed indicate none of the milling, pressing, or stimulates scientific advances that the rate of leaching of these grinding required in conventional that lead to dramatic changes. cermets is even less than for glass cylindrical fuel pellets, and the There are many outstanding ac­ or supercalcine, the forms most feed streams consist of spherical complishments that will inspire discussed now. These tailor-made particles that are easily moved us all to continue to direct our cermets are also highly resistant around and accounted for. Initial efforts toward workthatwillhave to corrosion by brine and should tests reveal less chemical and the most significant long-term perform well at high tempera­ mechanical interaction between impact on the problems we are tures and high pressures. Actual the fuel and the cladding and called on to solve. Although the nuclear wastes from Savannah better heat transfer. This means number of examples I cite here River and Nuclear Fuel Services that reactor-operating time is can be multiplied many times have recently been processed by increased because of greater reli­ over, I hope these important and the ORNL method. The ratio of ability, and our resource utiliza­ worthy achievements will speak waste to matrix was 28% by tion is improved. Industry and for all the others. weight. This promising develop­ utility interest in the Gel-Sphere­ Cermets for Wastes. In the field ment is certainly timely, since a Pac process is growing and has of nuclear energy, doubtless the very recent National Academy of resulted in several cooperative most important issue is the public Sciences study urges research in programs with potential users. acceptability ofradioactive-waste this area. Meta·ls from Fly Ash. A recent management. In one year of Microspheres of Fuel. Some of law, the Resource Conservation research, the isotopes research the most important problems we and Recovery Act, placed addi-

4 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review Helmut Ringel, guest scientist from Germany last year, observes the forma· tion of uniform beads of nuclear fuel produced by the Gel-Sphere·Pac process developed here.

provements are indeed possible in gaseous and liquid dielectrics for underground transmission lines, high-voltage switchyards, and substations. A comprehensive program now under way ranges from basic physics, including electron-molecule interactions, to applied testing of simulated prac­ tical systems, as well as the environmental impact of short­ and long-term uses of these par­ ticular mixtures of dielectric gases. The dielectric strength of gaseous insulators can be in­ creased substantially by effective control of the number densities and kinetic energies of free elec­ tional emphasis on the problems cement. Analysis of fly ash re­ trons in the basic gas. This results of disposal of materials in the veals that this material is un­ from our basic knowledge that ground. The residues from coal expectedly complex. It consists of certain molecules capture free burning, such as fly ash, present glassy spherical structures. Pre­ electrons more efficiently and problems because these immense liminary analysis of one recovery that others slow down electron piles are subject to leaching of process, the salt-soda-sinter pro­ movements through inelastic col­ toxic materials. They also contain cess, has demonstrated an im­ lisions. The combination of elec­ valuable minerals. Coal-burning pressive economic advantage as tron scavenging and thermaliz­ facilities in the United States well as resource-utilization bene­ ing effects suggests that the most annually produce more than 47 fits from the exploitation of that practical and efficient gaseous million tons of fly ash, which is technology. (See ORNL Review, insulators will be multicompo­ commonly thought of as being Winter 1979, p. 18 ff.) This can nent systems tailored to fit par­ hazardous to health. Researchers have an important impact on the ticular needs. Several of those in the Chemical Technology Divi­ way we handle waste as well as gases and mixtures have been sion have discovered ways to upon our achieving a dramatic demonstrated, by a factor of up to recover valuable resources and reduction in the volume of haz­ 2.4, to be superior to the most low-grade ore from fly ash. Two ardous material. commonly used gas, sulfur hexa­ promising processes devised for High-Voltage Insulators. An­ fluoride. These gases are reason­ efficient recovery of aluminum other important example, this one ably cheap and are being tested and iron appear to be economic at in atomic physics with applica­ under realistic conditions. current product prices and can tions in electrical-energy conser­ Affinity Labeling and En­ extract enough aluminum to meet vation, pertains to the desirability zymes. Another example of the half the current U.S. demand. The of reducing the 5 to 10% of power problems ORNL is solving comes processes can recover useful generated that is now wasted from the biological sciences. Es­ quantities of other metals, includ­ through corona losses in high­ sentially, all oflife's processes are ing titanium, and can eliminate voltage transmission lines. The dependent upon enzymes that act many of the leachable hazardous high-voltage research program in to catalyze the thousands of pollutants from solid wastes. One the Health and Safety Research chemical reactions which sustain of the processes also produces Division has shown that im- living organisms. The enzyme

SPRING 1979 5 Two sintering processes have been in­ vented at ORNL to recover valuable mospheric carbon dioxide into aroused great enthusiasm among metals such as aluminum from a familiar oxygen and carbohydrates. In­ pharmacologists because many of coal residue, fly ash. terestingly, the biologists found the naturally occurring anti­ that oxygen interferes with a biotics and synthetic drugs act by plant's ability to utilize carbon modifying the active sites of key chemistry dealing with these dioxide by inhibiting carboxyl­ enzymes. The precise mechanism exceedingly complex molecules is ase. If that adverse effect could be can now be followed in the actions a significant basic research area eliminated, the yield offood crops of such drugs as aspirin, penicil­ in the Biology Division. The could be increased dramatically. lin, and antitumor agents. M­ enzymes themselves contain 20 The technique developed to char­ finity labeling provides a sys­ different amino acids and 100 to acterize the active sites is equally tematic approach to the design of 1000 individual amino acid units, important. Called "affinity label­ new therapeutic agents. This of which only a small fraction ing," it involves the synthesis of a development served as the basis play a critical role in the catalytic reactive analog of the enzyme's for the selection of Fred Hartman process. Innovations and devel­ natural substrate. The reactivity as recipient of this year's Pfizer opments have resulted from iden­ of this analog modifies the amino Award of the American Chemical tification of the active ones, acid groups at that site and Society, an honor he shares with particularly of an enzyme called permits their chemical charac­ several members of the National carboxylase which is required for terization. The design and use Academy of Sciences and at least photosynthetic conversion of at- of that labeling technique has one Nobel laureate.

6 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY R eview ENZYME ACTIVE SITE

The affinity label chemically modifies the active site of an enzyme, permitting tagging and identification.

Lucile Norton and Fred Hartman prepare to isolate ribulosebisphosphate carboxyl· ase by ion-exchange chromatography. This plant enzyme is essential to the photosynthetic fixation of atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is hoped that basic studies on the enzyme's structure and mechanism will ultimately provide infor· mation useful in attempts to improve crop yields.

Division has continued to be at the forefront of an immense international research effort which is rapidly following ORNL's lead in the areas of laser annealing and laser-induced dif­ fusion in semiconductors. Solar cells of 15% efficiency have been Basic Energy Sciences mixture component. The device is fabricated from ion-implanted, the first of its type and enables laser-annealed silicon, and cells Continuous Annular Chro­ products to be continuously fed, of nearly comparable efficiencies matograph. One of the ORNL separated, and withdrawn from have been obtained from a far less developments honored in 1978 the column. Among the applica­ costly method in which the dop­ with an IR-100 Award, bestowed tions for which it is being con­ ant material, such as boron, is by Industrial Research upon the sidered are food and drug prep­ merely deposited on the surface year's 100 most important indus­ aration, nuclear-waste-manage­ and then blasted into the bulk trial developments, was a unique ment separations, and resource material by the laser-induced new tool for separating very recovery from liquid-waste diffusion. This latter method by­ complex mixtures. This device, a streams. passes the expensive ion-implan­ continuous annular chromato­ Lasers and Solar Cells. Last tation step and is easily adapted graph, was developed in the year, there were two important to highly automated cell process­ Chemical Technology Division.lt ORNL developments related to ing; it has excited considerable uses a slowly rotating annulus the efficiency and fabrication of interest in the photovoltaic com­ containing a separation medium solar cells: neutron-transmuta­ munity. On a less applied level, in the form of an ion-exchange tion doping of silicon and the fundamental studies have opened resin in conjunction with station­ development of a laser technique avenues in understanding pre­ ary feed and extraction points. to anneal damage created by ion cisely what happens when one The result is a series of helical implantation in semiconducting uses lasers to anneal surfaces. bands, each of which is a separate devices. This year, the Solid State They have confirmed and refined

SPRING 1979 7 Warren Sisson, left, and Ron Canon attend to the operation of the continuous annular chromatograph, a unique tool they helped develop for separating com­ plex mixtures. An IR-100 Award winner in 1978, this development may have applica­ tions in food and drug preparation, nuclear-waste separations, and resource recovery from liquid-waste streams. most of the results that were first reported in the recent Russian literature, and have established a number of new results. Applica­ tions of this technique to the modification of the near-surface properties of a variety of metallic, insulating, and semiconducting materials are already under way or planned. It is my hope that the appropriate applications will be rapidly taken over by industry, ly, the particles have a strongly become a valuable new tool for in­ leading to reduced costs and more reduced rate of energy loss and vestigating materials properties, efficient silicon solar cells. are much less likely to undergo for determining atom-lattice sites Ion Channeling in Solids. The nuclear reactions. It has been and radiation-damage defect continuing story of discovery in shown that with heavy ions from structures, for measuring nuclear­ ion channeling in solids at ORNL accelerators fission fragments reaction lifetimes, or for charac­ that began in the early 1960s has themselves do relatively little terizing electronic properties of had substantial impact on science radiation damage when going semiconductors. Members of the and technology. This year it along such channels. The investi­ Solid State, Chemistry, Health again provides an outstanding gations have expanded rapidly and Safety Research, and Physics example of the dynamic relation­ along two courses. The con­ divisions all have been involved ship between basic research and straints imposed on channeled in these studies. The range of its application. Wehavelongbeen ions provide basic researchers the applications seems to be opening concerned with understanding opportunity to study ion-solid ever wider areas which will con­ the origin of radiation damage in interactions under unique, well­ tinue to develop, expand, and reactor materials. It was pre­ defined conditions. These inves­ create vast new opportunities. dicted and later verified that the tigations give new insights into Radiation Damage Studies. distance an implanted ion travels such phenomena as ion -€nergy Evolving now is a story of similar in a crystalline solid can be loss, ranges of ions in solids, potential impact related to work greatly increased if it is directed sputtering (knocking off ions in the Metals and Ceramics along a major crystallographic from materials), capture of elec­ Division on ion simulation of axis. This discovery, called chan­ trons and their subsequent loss, radiation damage in structural neling, initiated a sharp increase screening of electrons, and mul­ materials. It involves a combina­ in studies of ion interactions in tiple scattering. Probably this tion of Van de Graaff accelerator solids, the essential feature of work constitutes the most signifi­ experiments, electron micros­ which is that those particles that cant advance in the understand­ copy, and theoretical modeling of are channeled interact only ing of ion-solid interactions since such effects. Three years ago, the weakly with the individual, the early work of Niels Bohr. The development through this pro­ bound-lattice atoms. Consequent- channeling effect itself has gram of a low-swelling alloy of

8 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review {a) A STRONGLY DEFLECTED {UNCHANNELED) TRAJECTORY ,# \ / \ // \ \ / "'/ ROW OF LATTICE ATOMS ,_ ' /

(b) A CHANNELED ATOM TRAJECTORY

Channeled ions interact only weakly with Rosa Young tests the efficiency of a laser­ lattice atoms. Channeling-the movement annealed silicon solar cell. of ions through open regions in crystals­ was discovered at ORNL and is being investigated increasingly.

stainless steel for fast-breeder sibly retarding their growth, as improved wear and corrosion applications was mentioned in which may have contributed to resistance, which might be neces­ the State of the Laboratory ad­ the reduced swelling of the alloy. sary in some of the more exotic dress (see ORNL Review, Winter An even more recent development energy environments. 1976, p. 16). As a quick screening in the ion-bombardmen tfacility is Nuclea1 Physics device for candidate alloys, 4- the conversion to a unique triple­ Me V nickel ions were used beam unit that simultaneously Monopole Resonance. Nuclei, to simulate radiation damage. implants both helium and deute­ like nuclear physicists, move in The simulation was improved rium concurrently with the heavy­ strange ways, but one predictable when the transmutation-pro­ ion damage. The deuterons come way has been that in which duced gases, helium and hydro­ to rest at the same depth as the neutrons and protons move col­ gen, were flowed into the dam­ helium, re-creating all the essen­ lectively against each other so aged region. A dual-beam facility tial ingredients for void formation that their charge mass-separation to accelerate nickel ions and to under controlled conditions. The forms an electric dipole. This is produce the transmutation gases ratios of gas atoms to displace­ the "giant dipole resonance" first in damage sites has provided a ments per atom can be readily observed in the 1940s. At ORNL basis for cooperation between adjusted to cover either those that in 1971, the first direct evidence ORNL and Westinghouse on can be expected in breeder reac­ for a nondipole giant resonance Liquid-Metal Fast-Breeder Reac­ tors or in fusion reactors. This is came when a quadrupole reso­ tor (LMFBR) materials. Now the an especially opportune develop­ nance was observed. Since then, M&C Radiation Effects Group ment for studies of swelling and properties of that resonance have has applied a newly acquired, radiation damage in fusion reac­ been established in a great many sophisticated, analytical tech­ tors because the very high genera­ nuclei. In 1977, our collaboration nique using the x-ray emission tion rates expected cannot be fully with the laboratory atGroningen, from electron microscopy to look duplicated in existing reactors or the Netherlands, using inelastic at those ion-damaged microstruc­ accelerators. The potential exists scattering of 120-Me V alpha par­ tures. By using this method, also for manufacturing otherwise ticles on Pb-208, provided the first researchers found silicon con­ unattainable alloys, especially for direct evidence of a giant mono­ gregating near faults and pos- surface-related applications such pole resonance. An analysis of60-

SPRING 1979 9 Ray Carpenter observes ion-damaged microstructures through an analytical electron microscope which induces and detects x-ray emission from the object under study. Use of this new technique permits identification and quantifica­ tion of chemical constituents in radiation­ damaged alloys.

MeV inelastic-proton-scattering data taken at the Oak Ridge Isochronous Cyclotron has pro­ vided evidence for a monopole resonance in several nuclei of lighter mass. This is especially significant, for the location of the resonance yields a direct measure of the compressibility of nuclear matter, which is very important for understanding heavy-ion col­ lisions. It may lead to an answer as to whether shock waves can actually be excited in nuclei as they are in other matter. If they are, it is possible that such new label ammo acids for visual that success story, steroids la­ phenomena as "super-dense" enhancement of images of the beled with tellurium have now forms of nuclear matter may be pancreas and for tumor localiza­ been studied in detail for use as revealed. The monopole results tion. These labeled amino acids imaging agents for adrenal dis­ support the possibility that we are being tested in patients at the orders. The adrenal glands of might actually discover such ex­ ORAU Medical and Health Sci­ rats, rabbits, and dogs have been otic phenomena in the future. ences Division, using a tomog­ very well imaged with these steroids, and preparations are Biomedical and raphic scanning instrument de­ Environmental Sciences veloped at ORTEC. High-quality under way with two medical images of both normal and dis­ institutions for clinical testing of Imaging Diseased Organs. Im­ eased organs have been obtained these new agents in humans. One portant spinoffs from nuclear in these studies, which have development with exciting poten­ technology have come in con­ shown that positron tomography tial is the study of agents that can tributions to health care and in can be useful as a clinical diag­ provide a damage assessment aids to biomedical and environ­ nostic tool. That same technology after heart attacks in particular mental research. With ORAU, has been used to label a widely cases. Potassium-43 is a clinical ORNL has long been involved in used antitumor drug, cis-DDP, imaging agent originally devel­ the application of radiopharma­ and other drugs, with platinum- oped in our program; new agents ceuticals to the early detection, 195. These agents have sufficient now under investigation include diagnosis, and therapy of dis­ sensitivity to enable us to look at fatty-acid analogs that have been eases. This year in the Health and their actual distribution in the labeled with tellurium-123 and Safety Research Division, new body, and even to monitor with tin-117m. It is envisioned that and potentially very useful radio­ cis-DDP such specific problems as these new agents can be used to pharmaceuticals have been de­ kidney toxicity. A cooperative monitor the metabolic activity in veloped and tested for diagnostic program established with UCLA a heart muscle, thereby assessing and therapeutic applications. In School of Medicine monitors damage following a heart attack. our facility, carbon-11, a positron body-fluid levels in patients re­ Coal Contaminant Detectors. emitter produced by the 86-in. ceiving platinum therapy for can­ Almost everyone remembers the cyclotron at Y-12,has been used to cer of the ovaries. To continue "cutie pie," the hand-held porta-

10 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review QUADRUPOLE OSCILLATION

ORNL studies have provided experimen­ MONOPOLE OSCILLAnON tal confirmation of giant resonances associated with two fundamental modes of nuclear oscillation.

ble monitor that was one of the tic-oil tar now only takes 5 to tion of mutations and cancer. The earliest and most widely used 10 min, and five major com­ aim of these studies is to identify instruments developed for detect­ pounds can be identified. It is a the number and kinds of genes ing radioactive contamination. simple, rapid, and low-cost meth­ required for that repair and to Now in an early stage of develop­ od that can be used for quantita­ assign those genes to specific ment is a very sensitive instru­ tive and semiquantitative esti­ chromosomes. Other related tasks ment to detect contamination mates at a precision which is an are the mapping of the gene cells from hazardous aromatic com­ order of magnitude better than required for tumor virus infection pounds in experimental coal­ EPA's criterion of acceptability. and reproducibility and the estab­ conversion facilities. Developed Gene Mapping. Many studies in lishment of a genetic basis for in the Chemical Technology Divi­ the Biology Division focus on the extrapolating animal data to sion, a new monitor based upon a carcinogenic, mutagenic, and man. fluorescence detector is sensitive other effects of coal-derived chem­ Cells for Cancer Studies. Cur­ to very small quantities of poly­ icals as well as those of radiation rently, our bioassay techniques nuclear aromatic (PNA) com­ and other agents. Two develop­ for identifying chemical carcino­ pounds. We expect field testing of ments of fundamental impor­ gens can detect whether a sub­ prototype monitors this year. tance to understanding and pre­ stance is potentially hazardous, Organic compounds such as the dicting carcinogenic effects have but they reveal very little about PNAs usually phosphoresce only occurred this year. The first is which tissues might be suscepti­ in a rigid matrix at low tempera­ application of a technique called ble following exposure. In the tures. Therefore, because conven­ "gene mapping" to investigate Biology Division, a model has tional low-temperature phospho­ the basis for susceptibility to been developed to determine that rescence is not practical for field mutagens and carcinogens. The specificity. Standard techniques, monitoring, a new spectrochemi­ technique, which involves the use such as the Ames test which uses cal method has been invented to of human-cell or rodent-cell hy­ a bacterial strain to detect those perform routine analysis both in brids, permits the identification of changes, rely on the addition of the laboratory and in industrial individual genes and their as­ liver extracts that activate the hygiene applications. A new ap­ signments to specific chromo­ test chemicals. The ORNL test proach which significantly im­ somes. Among its applications in uses mammalian cells as target proves the analysis of these cancer research is the genetic organisms and intact cells from complex samples uses an ex­ dissection of DNA repair mecha­ the lungs, the liver, or other ternal, heavy-atom technique nisms. We know that cancer has organs to activate the carcino­ that makes it possible to pick up the patential of occurring in many gens. This is an improvement these special compounds by selec­ ways, but that repair systems over the previous techniques be­ tively enhancing room-tempera­ exist to prevent its occurrence. cause the intact cells can metabo­ ture phosphorescent emission. When those repair systems mal­ lize carcinogens, which means For example, analyzing synthe- function, the result is the indue- that we have learned that liver

SPRING 1979 11

~------Positron-emitting, carbon-11-labeled ami­ no acids produce this image of a human pancreas. cells can activate liver carcino­ gens, and lung cells will activate lung carcinogens, and so on. Results can be extrapolated to humans when human cells are used, perhaps giving us that vital link. Air Pollution and Vegetation. In an important program in the Environmental Sciences Di­ vision, researchers are trying to determine what happens when air pollutants impact upon vegeta­ tion. Large acreages offorest and agricultural crops in the United States are exposed to polluted air at levels that may cause damage Studies of Stream Ecosystems. natural and manmade perturba­ or may inhibit plant growth. In The difficulty of assessing im­ tions of streams. fact, smog was first identified by pacts usually depends upon our its effect on spinach in the L>s ability to understand how mate­ Energy Conservation Angeles area. These air-pollution rials cycle and are transported in stresses result from sulfuric and an ecosystem. The principle ap­ Insulation Tests. One of the nitrogen oxides, ozone, and rain plied to streams is called "spiral­ newest roles we've had is program which is now 10 to 40 times as ing," one spiral being the down­ management. OurworkonDOE's acidic as normal over much of the stream distance associated with national program on insulating eastern United States. To mea­ one passage through an eco­ materials and the thermal prop­ sure those impacts, a controlled system cycle. Current ecosystem erties of buildings seeks to im­ simulator and chamber, both theory suggests that stream eco­ prove the understanding of the designed at ORNL, are used to systems are adapted to minimize effectiveness, safety, and accep­ reproduce the levels and chemical the spiraling length for limited tance of different types ofinsulat­ compositions of pollutants to nutrients, and streams with ing rnaterials currently in use and which plants are typically ex­ shorter spiraling lengths are more to establish overall standards for posed. Studies so far indicate that resistant to perturbation and their performance. Tests devel­ a significant but apparently tem­ recover more quickly. Experi­ oped by the physical properties porary reduction in photosynthe­ ments at our Walker Branch group in Metals and Ceramics sis may occur at concentrations watershed were designed to test have been designed to measure less than current EPA standards those two hypotheses. The release the resistance to heat flow, air for sulfur dioxide. In acid rain of a labeled sample of phosphorus infiltration, and other charac­ studies done in a greenhouse, the to the watershed permitted an teristics ofboth blanket and loose­ growth of kidney beans was experimental determination of fill insulations. This has required reduced as much as 10% when the spiraling length for this development of a number of new seedlings were subjected to rain element which is on the order of test devices and instrumentation. having acidity levels typical of 300 m. The significance of this Among them is a method for the Oak Ridge area. On the other result is not only to establish that determining the settled density of hand, in soils that have a defi­ there is a finite distance asso­ loose-fill cellulosic insulation, ciency of sulfur, such as those in ciated with the transport and which recently was chosen by certain areas of the Southwest, cycling of this key nutrient, but DOE and the Consumer Product growth may be enhanced by such also to provide a yardstick for Safety Commission as the rainfall. assessing the effects of both standard.

12 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review Elie Huberman is testing turrwr-causing) agents in cell culture. His assistant, Cathie McKeown, works at the hood.

~ · ~ 5 .~ > ·-; 4 1 ANTHRACENE ~ z 3 ©00 NAPOOLENE l ";;; l ©O PHENANANTHRENE x3 ~

300 350 400 450 500 WAVELENGTH (nm)

Five different aromatic compounds are identified in a synthetic-oil-tar sample with room-temperature phosphorimetry.

Energy-Efficient Appliances. While we do essential in-house research in our program man­ agement areas, most of the work is subcontracted. It is significant this year to see two important improvements appears to be very Fossil Energy subcontract developments in con­ favorable. servation which, because they Under the same consumer­ One of our main fossil-energy already have directly affected the appliance program in the Energy R&D efforts is the atmospheric manufacturing process, should Division, a subcontractor has fluidized-bed system for the clean soon lead to more energy-efficient developed an electric-heat-pump combustion of high-sulfur coal. consumer appliances. The first water heater that is expected to This technology also represents a is a high-efficiency refrigerator­ use only one-half to one-third the major thrust for the Laboratory freezer that affords major energy energy of conventional electric in new cooperative research ef­ savings without sacrificing any water heaters. Built in January forts- with TVA, with the of the convenience features im­ 1977, the first unit has been tested Energy Technology Centers at portant to users. The refrigerator­ now for more than a year. In a Morgantown and Pittsburgh, freezer operates with less than series of field tests to begin this Pennsylvania, and with potential half the energy allowed under spring, the water heater will be industrial users ofthis technology existing minimum energy-effi­ installed by utilities in 100 homes who seek to reduce their depen­ ciency standards. Because of effi­ across the country-a major step dence upon oil and natural gas. ciency improvements such as an toward commercialization. It is Fluidized-Bed Coal Combus­ improved evaporator design and expected to cost about $250 as an tion. Recently, an agreement was control system, this appliance add-on to existing water heaters reached by which we would retains such features as auto­ and could pay for itself in energy supply analytical and experimen­ matic defrosting while reducing savings in one to five years, tal support to TVA in their effort power consumption. The payback depending on individual circum­ to design and build a 200-MW(e) period for any additional costs of stances. demonstration steam plant fired

SPRING 1979 13 SPIRALING LENGTH 315m DISSOLVED PHOSPHORUS INPUT. IN STREAM ("P, " PO. ) - .. -~ ~ \ # # P~MARY PROD!c'-ER-S--, OALGAE,__ , LEAF , DETRITUS).__ ___. '\-l·-#-----, CONSUMERS (COLLECTORS, FEEDERS, GRAZERS, PREDATORS)

Rainfall acidity has increased over large areas in the eastern sector of the United States. Watershed studies have established spi­ raling length phosphorus in a stream ecosystem. by atmospheric fluidized-bed testing and the design and con­ BTUs are recovered, and more combustion. We will help TVA in struction of a 1.5-MW demonstra­ than 40%ofthe ash and sulfur are analytical evaluation of emission tion "cogeneration" system for removed. This has been accom­ controls as well as in testing of which proposals are now being plished by using equipment and experimental materials. ORNL solicited from industry. process conditions which are tasks will include restart tests and Coal Cleaning by Magnets. readily available to industry and sectional-bed slumping as a way This past year, an embryonic which can be scaled up to com­ of dealing with fluctuations in activity to determine better ways mercial size. There is interest in load demand. These tests will be to clean coal before it is burned larger-scale demonstrations of performed with a 4 x 4 ft cold inspired a reexamination of mag­ this technology by TVA. model. Sulfur capture and carbon netic beneficiation. Improve­ It is evident that the Labora­ loss will also be studied in a newly ments using a high-gradient tory's involvement with fossil developed bench-scale combustor magnetic separator found that energy will continue in the near system. This system, now ready small particles normally present future to have a major impact on for operation, represents an im­ in coal usually result in the our programs. The designation of portant milestone this year. A agglomeration of the much larger ORNL by the Department of 10-in. diam.15-ft-tallfluidizedbed particles, thereby actually imped­ Energy as the laboratory respon­ has been designed to burn a small ing the separation of iron pyrites. sible for developing the base amount of coal, use limestone, The small particles can be re­ technology with a focus on east­ and operate at an appropriate moved without losing much ofthe ern coals is one reflection of that fluidizing velocity in order to give heating value of the coal, and growth. We recognize that the us operating experience and pro­ significant reductions in the sul­ growing scope of that involve­ vide design data in support of fur and ash content are possible. ment in the technologies will TVA's demonstration plant. This The objective of our program is to require strong supporting re­ device has been built as a joint develop this method into a com­ search efforts in such areas as effort of the Engineering Tech­ mercial process, not only to help coal chemistry and materials nology, M&C, and Engineering meet the environmental stan­ sciences, and we are developing divisions. It will include fluidized­ dards but also to reduce the cost of programs at the Laboratory to bed testing, coal combustion, heat producing electricity. Economic make sure that the research base transfer, and materials compat­ analyses by other people indicate is available to support the tech­ ability studies up to 1600°F. that cleaned coal reduces power­ nology efforts. We will be cooperating with plant operating costs by far more Morgantown in additional pro­ than the cleaning costs. So far the Nuclear Energy grams on fluidized-bed combus­ program has demonstrated very Reprocessing. The fuel cycle tion, with emphasis on materials satisfactory cleaning: 90% of the remains the principal focus of the

14 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review John E. Jones, Jr. (left), and Bob Holcomb work at the atmospheric fluidized-bed combustor (AFBC) bench-scale model. By minimizing discharges of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the fluidized-bed concept offers an environmentally ac­ Fred Weaver examines a mockup of a pipe­ ceptable wayofburningcoalforsupplying Laboratory's nuclear work; one insulation tester used to evaluate the process heat and electricity. significant fuel-cycle develop­ resistance to heat flow of insulating ment-sol-gel-has already been materials now in use. cited. This year, ORNL was also designated to become the man­ deeply rooted in our previous Advanced Instrumentation for ager of the Department of En­ experience in the development of Reflood Studies (AIRS) program, ergy's Consolidated Fuel-Repro­ reprocessing methodologies and sponsored by the Nuclear Regula­ cessing Program, giving the Lab­ includes among other tasks basic tory Commission (NRC). The goal oratory primary responsibility for laboratory and hot-cell testing, of the program is to develop and the development of nuclear fuel component development and test­ deliver a measurement system for reprocessing for breeder-reactor ing, and eventual demonstration application in several foreign fuels in the United States. The with hot radioactive substances reactor-safety experimental facil­ program is organized to em­ in the pilot plant. Before then, ities. NRC entered into a coopera­ phasize the development of tech­ research and development must tive program with agencies in nology which is generic or com­ focus on providing the technology West Germany and in Japan to mon to several fuel cycles and for building such a hot pilot plant. conduct pressurized water-safety includes work managed by us but That effort is now going into an studies to understand the reflood performed at Argonne, Savannah integrated-equipment test facil­ portions of a loss-of-coolant acci­ River, andGeneralAtomicaswell ity, to be completed in 1981, which dent. Our role is to develop as at several other industrial and will test in a nonradioactive instrumentation to measure the DOE laboratories. Originally, we system all of the components effects of such an accident. The concentrated on mixed uranium­ required for remote operation and program was managed by plutonium fuels from LMFBRs. maintenance of a commercial­ Instrumentation and Controls Because of the change in policy, scale reprocessing plant. Division and is supported by the scope was enlarged over the Reactor Safety Instruments. In significant work in Engineering last few years to include other reactor safety research, one of Technology, M&C, and the candidate fuels, including those the most significant accomplish­ UCC-ND Engineering divisions. based on thorium. The program is ments this year has come in the Sophisticated instrumentation is

SPRING 1979 15 I ru Federer (left) and Vic Tennery examine strips of insulating materials and refrac­ tory bricks that have been subjected to fuel-oil combustion in ORNL's Refractory Test Facility. They are trying to determine which materials used for furnace linings and other high-temperature applications are the most resistant to deleterious reactions with impurities in fuel oils.

required for measuring two-phase (water and steam) velocity and void fraction. Sensor configura­ tions have been investigated for use in both upper plenum and in-core measurements. Among the challenges has been the development of electronics to make high-resolution measure­ ments of the electrical admittance of sensors over a wide range of conditions; exotic materials that will survive a high-temperature, high thermal-shock environment; hydrogen "pellet-fueling" system; 1977, the mostimportantofwhich welding and brazing techniques; the beginning of construction on a was to produce an extremely long­ analysis of stochastic signals Large Coil Test Facility; the lived plasma for a low-magnetic­ from sensors using digital pro­ achievement of high tempera­ field device due to the plasma's cessing; and modeling and inter­ tures in tokamaks by using neu­ extreme cleanliness. It also pretation of those data. All the tral-beam heating devices that achieved high beta-the ratio of - development goals were met in a were pioneered, developed, and the plasma pressure to the com­ remarkably short time, and the delivered by ORNL; modifica­ bining magnetic field pressure­ sensors were fabricated and de­ tions to the Impurity Study Ex­ thereby demonstrating the effi­ livered to the test facility. As a periment to achieve higher per­ cient use of magnetic fields for result, a whole new type of formance; the successful running plasma confinement. The capa­ instrumentation now is available oftheELMO BumpyTorusdevice bility of refueling a fusion device for use in NRC's Reactor Safety with modifications; and the selec­ with hydrogen pellets was dem­ Research Program. tion of ORNL as the host in­ onstrated, a sophisticated tech­ stitution for the Department of Fusion Energy nique preferred in most fusion­ Energy's Engineering Test Facil­ reactor concepts. General Atomic Perhaps 1978 was the best year ity Design Center for fusion researchers working on the device ever for the fusion research pro­ reactors. used an advanced technique, gram in this country. Certainly it Impurity Study Experiment. called "impurity flow reversal," to was at Oak Ridge National Lab­ The ISX is a collaborative effort keep impurities out of the plasma. oratory. Developments this year between the Fusion Energy Divi­ The modification of the original mark fusion research as one of sion and General Atomic and is ISX to ISX-B, which was success­ our most productive programs. designed to test fusion-reactor fully completed this fall, includes Among the major accomplish­ concepts and to ascertain the the addition of neutral-beam in­ ments were the recent Impurity effects of impurities that can get jectors similar to those developed Study Experiment (ISX) results into fusion fuel and that can by ORNL for Princeton. The which have significant implica­ quench reaction. New develop­ ISX-B incorporates a specially tions for future fusion-power reac­ ments appeared when the ISX shaped plasma, which is a further tors; the development of the first went into operation in December step in the establishment of

16 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review Eugene Hise pours crushed coal into a high-gradient magnetic separator de­ signed to remove inorganic contaminants of sulfur-bearing iron pyrites and ash­ forming materials from pulverized coal. This technique for cleaning coal, called magnetic beneficiation, is being developed into a commercial process by ORNL.

attention in recent months that little additional comment is re­ quired except praise for a job well done, both here and there. Pellet Fueling. The pellet fuel­ ing demonstration, using an in­ jector that resembles a miniature rifle, represents an intermediate step in a series of advanced injectors. This year we created a device capable of injecting a frozen hydrogen pellet- very small, the size of a BB- into a fusion plasma a trifle-shot speeds. The fueling pellet moves across economical design criteria. The are hopeful that the decision will the plasma and is substantially aim will be to more than double soon be made to build in Oak captured without disrupting the the plasma pressure obtained in Ridge an even more powerful plasma. There is a need to refuel the original ISX plasma by version of the Elmo Bumpy Torus fusion reactors, as there is with changing the shape of the plasma as proof of this principle. any other energy system, because cross section, by adding neutral Our Large Coil Test Facility is the plasma escapes and must be injection heating, and by using under construction and will be kept at a very high density. The the pellet fueling technique to completed in two years. It will test difficulty of this task makes the increase plasma density. and evaluate six 40-ton, super­ present accomplishment very im­ ELMO Bumpy Torus. The conducting coils to be furnished portant. Pellet fueling was first ELMO Bumpy Torus confine­ by three U.S. manufacturers and tested in ORMAK several years ment concept, now a significant by one each from Japan, Switzer­ ago but did not produce a mea­ element in the national program, land, and EURATOM under a surable increase in plasma den­ is regarded as the leading alterna­ recent agreement. These coils will sity. However, devices to produce tive to the tokamak and mirror be very large-15ft by 12ft-but larger, faster pellets were devel­ approaches. It has been upgraded only half the size of those ex­ oped in ISX, and plasma densities through the addition of special pected in early fusion reactors. were increased by a factor of 2 high-powered versions of a device Doubtless the most visible suc­ without any serious interruption called the gyrotron, which pro­ cess this year in the na tiona} of the plasma characteristics. The duces microwaves to heat the magnetic-fusion program oc­ use of pellets now appears to be an plasma. The ELMO Bumpy Torus curred at Princeton, where record acceptable refueling technique. now operates at higher magnetic temperatures were achieved for a fields and power levels than did tokamak under extreme operating Conclusions the original torus which went into conditions. ORNL shared in that It is difficult to project what will operation some five years ago. success as the source of the happen in science and tech­ The goal is to demonstrate that neutral-beam injectors which nology-in 1979, or even tomor­ the principles will remain the made that development possible row. It's less risky to discuss those same as the plasma temperatures (see article on p. 30). The Prince­ things we can look forward to and densities are increased. We ton test has received so much completing, such as construction

SPRING 1979 17 John White (left) discusses with Ned North the scale model of the proposed Hot Experimental Facility, a pilot-scale nu­ clear-fuel-reprocessing plant. He is point­ ing to the high-level waste storage tank, which, when built, will be 40ft tall.

items or large experiments from which important results are ex­ pected. In the year just past, we have completed and occupied the new Environmental Sciences Laboratory. In 1979, we will see the final steps taken toward com­ pletion ofthe Holifield Heavy-Ion Accelerator and the user's group beginning work there. The Small­ Angle Scattering Facility, spon­ sored by the National Science Foundation, should be completed. Important results should be com­ ing from IS X-B. A number of other special projects should be ready for commencement of operation. Although the budget for 1980 is a stringent one, I hope that we have moved in the right directions and with the right emphasis, and that we are now working in the important areas. The cushion of subcontracting developed over the last few years will provide us role in coal-technology develop­ Laboratory, we found a receptive partial relief in the event that ment by working with the coal­ atmosphere to that diversifica­ restraint becomes necessary. research laboratories at Morgan­ tion within AEC and ERDA, In 1979, I anticipate ORNL's town and Pittsburgh. This we particularly in those fields in having increased responsibilities expect to occur in much the same which the expertise ofthe Labora­ as a lead laboratory in certain way that we supplied important tory could bring crucial capa­ areas- which, I hope, will be the neutral-beam support to the suc­ bilities and talents to bear on ones we designated in our Institu­ cess of the Princeton device in the difficult problems in a short time. tional Plan. Those decisions will fusion effort, and to General That acceptance and our con­ be made shortly by DOE. There Atomic in the High Temperature tributions over the years have will be more emphasis on selec­ Gas-Cooled Reactor. been gratifying to me personally, tivity in our program commit­ It is also proper to reflect upon and have produced major direc­ ments-areas in which we will the significance of a number of tions and changes: From a lab­ need to plan, to select, and to events that we have encouraged oratory that depended strongly on create priorities within personnel over the last few years. Several fission and fusion, with a number and budget constraints. We must years ago, when we pushed very of supporting sciences, we chose follow up strongly to support our hard for diversification of the certain directions in coal and

18 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review ------

The Impurity Study Experiment (ISX) has been modified to allow researchers to study the effects of increasing the plasma pressure by changing the shape of the plasma cross section, adding neutral­ beam-injection heating, and using a new pellet-fueling technique to increase plas­ ma density_ Information gained should help engineers evolve criteria for design­ ing smaller, more economical fusion reactors. go out and buy. We have to have the say-so-we must make our technical judgments unencum­ bered by the influences of politics, pork barrel, or other pressures. I have also encouraged strongly a corporate view ofthe missions of the Department of Energy, believ­ ing that as experts and as technical achievers, we could help when brought in for consultation guide DOE along the correct technical path. However, ORNL did not have to monopolize the A pellet-refueling technique for fusion work in every case; we have been reactors was demonstrated with ISX-A. very cooperative in supporting Refueling is essential for maintaining or HTGRs with General Atomic, in increasing plasma density. working with Princeton to de­ During that same time, we velop beams for their use, and encouraged program manage­ in working with the Energy ment and the subsequent sub­ Research Centers in the coal contracting. We believed with technology to support their work regard to carrying out the mis­ on research problems by provid­ sions of ERDA that the Labora­ ing the technical backup and tory had special capabilities for depth that have been needed. This managing such programs, for cooperation should not exclude making the best decisions about the concept of the Laboratory as the kinds of technologies to push, having principal areas for which conservation as our chief em­ and for monitoring those efforts it is almost solely responsible: phases because we could bring to and judging their outcomes. In so areas in which it performs re­ bear the kinds of talents that doing, we worked very closely search for its own use and for those problems needed. The con­ with industry; our subcontracting technical backup to the decisions tributions made by the scientific rose by a factor of 10 during the of others. staff and the acceptance by other last four years. On the other hand, We have also encouraged staff organizations of ORNL's role to undertake program manage­ involvement outside the Labora­ demonstrate that we have truly ment we must perform a sub­ tory. We have urged the estab­ fulfilled our expectations, al­ stantial amount of in-house R&D lishment of users' groups-teams though not always in the ways we in those same areas. This is that can avail themselves of the had initially thought. We have essential to maintain our ex­ unique facilities of the Laboratory not placed emphasis on solar and pertise and keep us at the fore­ for the advancement of science or geothermal research; instead, we front of such research. We must for the support of technological have tried to encourage emphasis have existing expertise and capa­ efforts. We have greatly en­ on those areas where significant bilities rather than being de­ couraged more involvement with contributions could be made. pendent on something we have to industry, in the form of joint

SPRING 1979 19 The Large Coil Test Facility now under projects and of subcontracting and the Laboratory. We have also construction will be used to test and R&D, to ensure that the inven­ pushed for stronger regional in­ demonstrate the operation of huge super­ tions at the Laboratory find their conducting electromagnets for use in volvement-with TVA and with confining plasmas in toroidal fusion way quickly to the user. A special the Morgantown and Pittsburgh devices. The facility, scheduled for com­ issue of the ORNL Review last Energy Research Centers, as well pletion in 1981, will test six electro­ year emphasized some of these as with the universities and the magnets constructed by three American achievements. We have also state governments- because of firms and three foreign organizations. sought greater involvement with our special situation, being universities, particularly those in located in the fastest growing part the Southeast; and we anticipate of the nation. We should be very working more closely with ORAU careful to remember that we are in the future to bring universities Oak Ridge National Laboratory in to utilize the facilities and to and that our missions are understand the missions of DOE national in scope.

20 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review George Klody, of the National Electro· statics Corporation, stands by the stain­ less-steel terminal shell which is sched­ uled to be installed this springontopofthe insulated column of the Holifield Heavy Ion Research Facility (HHIRF). National Electrostatics built the 25-MV electro­ static tandem accelerator for HHIRF.

capabilities of Oak Ridge are brought to bear on everything we undertake, that the right balance between science and technology, and that the balance among studies and evaluations and im­ pacts are all made correctly. We must not merely have ideas but the strength and the conviction to carry them forward. We must deal not only with models but also with their validation. We must be concerned not only with impacts, assessments, or evaluations but also with making the necessary measurements. We must make sure that the sciences and the technologies are related. Yet we must keep major portions of the Laboratory concerned with ad­ vancing the world of science and taking risks because it is by those who take risks that major devel­ opments are made. That balance and consolidation is a challenge for us all; and ORNL is a magnificent, productive, and established contributor to the world's science and technology.lt was made that way from your ideas and your hard work and from a spirit of teamwork. That Having viewed a number of ences so that the influences of one teamwork can be credited with the these major directions, we must impact on the other. That in­ accomplishments I have de­ now think about what might be volvement needs, in turn, the scribed here, and, in fact, with all seen as a consolidation around correct balance and provision of a the work that is being done. That these themes. We need to main­ technical base for those tech­ teamwork is made possible by the tain strong relationships between nologies so that they advance support and services of so many the basic sciences and the big correctly and with assurance. throughout the Laboratory and technologies. Those areas of We need to make sure that in our the Oak Ridge complex. technology that we have chosen program management we are To all of you who have made to emphasize at the Laboratory­ developing true leadership, that those contributions, I give a fission, fusion, coal, and conser­ spokesmen develop so that tech­ special thanks, and a very special vation- need the deep involve­ nological decisions are wisely appreciation for letting me be ment of the supporting physical made and firmly held. part of this magnifi.cen t under­ and life and environmental sci- We must ensure that the unique taking.~:!~

SPRING 1979 21 "Proceedings of the Atoms for Peace Awards, 1957-1969-A Memorial to Henry Ford and Edsel Ford," James R. Killian, Jr., editor. The MIT Press, Cambridge (1978). 304 pages +appendices & index, $15.00. Reviewed by Roy Thoma, BOOKS technical assistant to Executive Director Clyde Hopkins.

atomic energy underwent major the human state, and include In what has been termed one development that produced numerous candid viewpoints of of the great speeches of our time, achievements fully as significant these sages. As such, they collec­ President Eisenhower presented as the earlier creation of the tively form a book that is often proposals to the United Nations weapon. It became apparent that profound, and that conveys lucid in 1953 "to help solve the fearful not only could nuclear-power­ insights which are refreshing in atomic dilemma- [and] to devote reactor technology be realized the face of our currently mixed the United States' entire heart but also with the success of the priorities. and mind to find the way by EBR, designed and constructed The revolutionary develop­ which the miraculous inventive­ by Walter Zinn and his asso­ ments occurring within the span ness of man shall not be dedi­ ciates at Argonne National Lab­ of the Atoms for Peace Awards cated to his death, but conse­ oratory, mankind for the first sequence were effected in part by crated to his life." time was assured of a practically men who, as representatives of In 1955, at the Palais des unlimited source of energy. In the Oak Ridge National Labora­ Nations in Geneva, the President retrospect, one might now specu­ tory, brought about significant expressed the hope" that private late that this and other great advances in science and technol­ business and professional men advances in the peaceful uses of ogy and caused the Laboratory throughout the world will take atomic energy were partially due to become internationally recog­ an interest and provide an incen­ to the fact that the visibility of nized as a seminal source of such tive in finding new ways that the goal was heightened by the advances. Oak Ridge, which had this new science can be existence of the Atoms for Peace become widely known as the used ... for the benefit of man­ organization. place of origin of the atomic kind and not destruction." Henry In this book, Killian has col­ bomb, became recognized as a Ford's three grandsons, moved lected the citations, responses, major instrument for achieving by the President's appeal, soon and addresses that were given in the peaceful uses of atomic appropriated $1 million to realize each of the a ward ceremonies. energy. Had such efforts not this hope through a memorial He was impressed, as am I, by been championed powerfully, series of awards that would "the historical value of the one may pause to wonder recognize contributions to the material and the importance of whether there might now be a advancement of the peaceful its being brought together in City of Oak Ridge, or for that application of atomic energy accessible form. Ideas, insights, matter, whether in the absence over the following ten years. and information not easy to of the overall benign efforts the Establishment of the Atoms for come by are to be found in this use of atomic weapons would Peace Awards was announced material, and it is interesting to have been curbed, and the bal­ August 8, 1955, at the first World compare the views expressed ance in favor of peace lost, Conference on the Peaceful Uses when the awards were made falling prey to excessive vio­ of Atomic Energy in Geneva, with current views about nuclear lence. Switzerland. James R. Killian, technology and policies." The The pathway of peaceful uses Jr., then President of MIT, be­ citations of and responses by the of atomic energy is marked with came chairman of the a ward honorees, men whose activities the incandescent achievements committee. have changed the course of of the people honored by the During the following decade, human affairs, give utterance to Atoms for Peace Award. The the peaceful applications of some timeless perspectives on sequence begins with Niels Bohr,

22 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review -----~------·-

whose work in the 1920s set the manmade devices. Their dis­ Floyd L. Culler, Henry Kaplan, stage for the unlocked atom; covery revolutionized our ideas Compton Rennie, and Anthony Bohr was followed by de Hevesy, of elementary particles. Turkevich, who had made contri­ who converted a perceived re­ Bertrand Goldschmidt, Wilfred butions to such diverse fields as search failure into success in the Lewis, and Isodor Rabi shared theoretical nuclear physics, fuel form of a new and powerful the seventh award in 1967, not reprocessing, desalination, high­ means for studying nature-radio­ only for their contributions to temperature gas-cooled reactors, tracers. His discovery enhanced our knowledge of the nature of nuclear radiation and medical the wellbeing of people every­ the atom but also for their applications, and development of where through almost every field statesmanlike participation in nuclear techniques to analyze of science, agriculture, and tech­ the work of the United Nations the surface of the moon. nology. Advisory Committee and the The publication of this book The third and fourth awards International Atomic Energy reminds us of what we had concurrently honored four men Agency. almost forgotten: the importance who have "done the most to Sharing the eighth award were of identifying and honoring originate and perfect the nuclear­ Sigvard Eklund, Abdus Salam, heroes. To continue to forget fission chain reactor": Leo and Henry D. Smyth for their may make us incapable of recog­ Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Alvin effort that brought the Interna­ nizing great ideas. The Atoms Weinberg, and Walter Zinn. In tional Atomic Energy Agency to for Peace concept, and the wil­ his citation, Manson Benedict its present prestigious position. lingness of world leaders to commented: "It is appropriate Dr. Eklund was the first director espouse it, fortunately preceded that the fission chain reactor be general of the agency; Dr. Salam our present diffidence in the the central theme of the occa­ (whose name means "servant of matter of bestowing prestige for sion, because it alone, of all peace") was the first director of achievement. Thus, we have in devices thus far conceived, pro­ the International Theoretical this small volume a model for vides a practical means for Physics Centre, which was fore­ our return to the custom of utilizing the energy of the atomic seen as the beginning of an honoring members of society nucleus and providing radio­ International United Nations whose efforts have recognizably active isotopes in abundance. University; Dr. Smyth's contri­ improved man's prospects for a These gifts of the atom, if used butions to the peaceful uses of better life. To accord such honors wisely, will be of inestimable atomic energy began in. 1945, imposes responsibilities as well. benefit to mankind." with issuance of his famous As Dag Hammarskjold put it: "It In 1961, Sir John Cockcroft, report to inform the public of the is, indeed the duty of society to whose early discoveries were the basic scientific facts of atomic honor such men in words, but it first of the now tremendous energy. His work continued be­ is also its duty to honor them in number of known disintegra­ yond 1961, through his service as deeds, by treating the problems tions with artifically accelerated the U.S. representative to the of modern man in a way worthy particles, was the recipient of the IEAE International Atomic En­ of the advance of knowledge to fifth award. As the first director ergy Agency, with personal rank which they have made such of the British Atomic Research of ambassador. decisive contributions. Thus, it is Establishment at Harwell, he The elder statesman of the for society to shoulder its respon­ can take credit for bringing peaceful atom, President Eisen­ sibility in the fight against success to the large-scale atomic hower, and a relatively younger poverty, disease, inequality, and energy effort in Britain through group of scientists and engineers lack of freedom, by the means an extensive research and devel­ whose recent achievements illus­ put at its disposal by science and opment program. trate in striking and contrasting technology. It is, likewise, the The sixth award was shared ways the beneficial uses of duty of society to shoulder re­ by Vladimir Veksler and Edwin atomic energy, were honored sponsibility for the development McMillan for their independent concurrently in the ninth and of ways in which men can live major discovery that protons tenth awards, the last being together in this shrunken world, and electrons could be acceler­ reserved for the President. The turning the dynamics of change ated to energies previously technical group consisted of into the stability of peace." m1 thought to be unattainable in Aage Bohr, Ben Mottelson,

SPRING 1979 23 Tom Wilbanks took the job of senior planner in the Energy Division in the fall of 1977, after spending the summer at the Laboratory as a visiting scholar from the University of Oklahoma. His doctorate in geography was earned at Syracuse University, where he was subse­ quently appointed to the faculty of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. In 1971-72, he became executive director of the Urban Transportation Institute at Syracuse, and the following year was made research director of the Syracuse-Yugoslav Project on En­ vironmental Policy and Planning. That year he transferred to the University of Oklahoma, where he served as chairman of the depart­ ment of geography, and later as research fellow in the university's Science and Public Policy Program. This led to his participation in a number of energy-related technol­ ogy assessments and policy anal­ yses. At the Second Annual Practi­ cal Conference on Communications, sponsored by the East Tennessee Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication last fall in Gatlin­ burg, he was invited to speak on the problems of communication be­ tween different disciplines. The following article is excerpted from the talk. communications Between Hard & Soft Sciences By TOM WILBANKS

et me tell you why I am Essentially, disciplines are ad­ how to assure a stable and L interested in communica­ ministrative conveniences-suit­ secure society, or how to under­ tions between hard and soft ing the needs of academic insti­ stand the meaning of the uni­ sciences. Basically, it's because I tutions and perpetuating them­ verse, these subdivisions get in have always thought that aca­ selves as social organizations. the way more often than they demic disciplines are less than But when it comes to such basic help out. adequate to deal with interesting questions as how to assure that It was this kind of point of intellectual and social issues. people get enough food to eat, or view that resulted in my choos-

24 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review -~ ------~

Disinterest First of all, most people are busy with their own affairs. Their hands are full trying to be good in their specialities, and it's hard to find the time to engage their minds in someone else's field- except as a sort of recrea­ tion, if it interests them. In other words, I might be interested enough in "black holes" to read a lot about them, regardless of whether an astronomer wants to communicate with me. But dig­ ging into the chemistry of coal conversion, which sounds like work (not fun), might be a different thing altogether. It's my impression that sub­ stantive communication between fields of science is more work than is staying within a familiar community. For one thing, it can involve some costs. For example, the time you spend learning a Disinterest little sociology to talk to the other person could be spent ing to specialize in geography, a volves two goals: (1) to help build keeping up with the proliferating field that seemed to close fewer a first-rate social-science­ professional journals in your doors than most. Geography has research capability in a research own field. Time is one of our direct links with the social institution that has always em­ most precious personal re­ sciences and the earth sciences. phasized the physical sciences, sources, and allocating it to one Its intellectual sibling is proba­ life sciences, and engineering kind of communication means bly physics when it comes to specialities; (2) to help integrate that it's not available for theory building, and its analyti­ this social science work with the another. cal tools are shared with such rest of the expertise there. So I think the first challenge is fields as communication theory, I have had a real professional that we can't assume that hard plant ecology, and crystallogra­ stake in communications be­ and soft scientists consider it a phy. tween the hard and soft sciences­ high priority to communicate At the University of Okla­ both in trying to talk to them with each other. They don't homa, I spent four years as part and in trying to understand object to it, as long as it doesn't of the Science and Public Policy what they say. And I think the interfere with more important Program (S&PP), an interdisci­ challenges in this kind of com­ things. But they don't get around plinary technology-assessment munication include overcoming to it very often, and that doesn't worry them much. program. At S&PP, I worked • Disinterest every day with nuclear engineers, ecologists, civil • Niche-Seeking Niche-Seeking engineers, political scientists, • Acculturation Next, although I wouldn't philosophers, law school faculty, want to carry this too far, I think and many others. • Stereotypes that there may be a little bit of Now, at Oak Ridge National These challenges are substantial self-selection that operates as Laboratory, my job mainly in- ones. people choose one field of science

SPRING 1979 25 over another for themselves. The aren't even willing to grant that college student gravitates toward it's useful! Communicating from fields in which he or she finds one field of science to another other students who seem to be usually requires people to redis­ kindred spirits. cover the regular English lan­ To the extent that this is true, guage. Yet, we have been trained trying to communicate across to think that the regular lan­ boundaries between professional guage isn't adequate for profes­ groups is like talking to people sional work. Although it's our from a different country or a lingua franca as citizens, it's not different culture- people who the way we communicate as picked a life that is hard for the scientists. So this sort of deeply communicator to imagine choos­ ingrained attitude makes it hard­ ing. The campus politicians are er to communicate with other all of a sudden trying to talk to types of scientists as fellow pro­ those strange people who actu­ fessionals. ally liked spending hours in those laboratories, and vice Stereotypes versa. It's not easy, after you get Finally, there is the problem of finished covering the weather stereotypes: the nuts-and-bolts and the fortunes of the local engineer, the narrow-minded football team. physical scientist, or the woolly Acculturation minded social scientist. We tend to approach people who chose Stereotypes The third challenge is profes­ another kind of specialty as sional acculturation. I am con­ representatives of a narrow disci­ • Getting Their Attention vinced that one of the main plinary image instead of as the objectives of graduate school is complex individuals that they • The Perils of Simplifying to train people how to play a usually are. We tend to try to • Toe-Stepping particular professional role­ communicate in terms of what how to react to situations. we think that other person can • "You Can't Please Everybody" Many times, it's almost a classic do, rather than to try to learn example of behavior modifica­ more about his or her real Getting Their Attention tion: reinforcement here, penal­ interests and skills. But, stereo­ Disinterest is compounded ties there. Unless a person is types are always too narrow, and when a third party tries to reach pretty tough, he or she comes out they are usually off-target. two or more disinterested people, of all that a different person­ These are some of the chal­ and it's even worse when the one who is comfortable play- lenges: People aren't often very medium of communication is ing the role, and uncomfortable interested in communicating; written rather than face to face. operating outside it. they find it easier and more We are all immersed in things to One of the most important comfortable talking their own read, when, in fact, very little parts of the acculturation is language with people like them; reading gets done. So coming up learning the jargon of one's own and they often fail to connect with a theme, a gimmick, or discipline. In a way, jargon is a with the other person because something else that will attract kind of professional shorthand they are trying to communicate the attention of a bunch of that speeds up and clarifies with a stereotype rather than a dissimilar people is the first communication within the com­ person. challenge. munity. But as you know, and as Such problems are obviously I have found out myself, it's multiplied when a third party The Perils of Simplifying pretty unsettling to try to work wants to communicate with both professionally in a situation hard scientists and soft scien­ Second, talking to a lot of where others not only don't tists at the same time. Here, the specialists at the same time understand your jargon but challenges are also complex: means that all jargon has to be

26 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review I not only believe such commu­ nication can take place but I have seen it happen, being lucky enough to have participated in it firsthand. Feature this: a group of five people-a nuclear engineer, a systems ecologist, an operations-research specialist, a political scientist, and a geogra­ pher-charged with writing a book together about science and technology policy. Nearly two years later, when the time comes to decide what the conclusions are, they find that they not only have arrived at the same conclu­ sions but that they also are speaking the same language, that their thoughts are just about interchangeable, that they no longer can remember which of the ideas in the book started with which person. That's com­ Getting their attention munication between hard and soft scientists. Before I try to draw some avoided. But this means using surely, somebody is going to say lessons from that experience and simple language to communicate that his or her interests have not other evidence, let me quickly things that some of the people been represented as strongly or indicate some popular ap­ will think really require compli­ effectively as somebody else's­ proaches that I think don't work cated language. And, in fact, which brings up the last very well. One is suggesting that some of the technical meaning point ... one group attend courses to learn will probably get lost--or dis­ about the other. Disinterest and torted a little. niche-seeking and acculturation "You Can't Please are just too much to overcome. Toe-Stepping Everybody ... " What's the incentive, anyway? Third, when a third party tries I think it takes more than a Another approach is putting to talk about a cross-cutting little bravery to communicate to together multidisciplinary pro­ subject to a wide range of people, a diverse scientific audience. A grams, courses, or research ef­ he or she is probably going to person has to be prepared to look forts, where each specialist does step on some toes. Often it's a little foolish, to be considered a his or her thing as part of an because some of the audience little naive, to be judged as being overall scheme of things. In spite have a vested interest in deci­ a little superficial, to take a of noble intentions, I think it is sions that the communication little criticism. very rare for much cross­ might influence. For example, Well, where do we stand at this disciplinary communication to try presenting a balanced sum­ point? We have concluded that it take place- except perhaps in­ mary of the issues surrounding is just about impossible to get side the heads of students or the use of nuclear power in the hard and soft scientists to com­ coordinators. People get busy, do United States in such a way that municate with each other as what is required to meet their nuclear engineers, ecologists, professionals, and we have con­ own specific commitments, and and sociologists will understand cluded that it is even harder for a that's all. I have directed a one anothers' bases of informa­ third party to communicate with program like that, and I could tion and points of view. Almost both. Is there any hope? make it sound truly integrated

SPRING 1979 27 jS

when I wrote an annual report or ers. There is nothing really paper is eventually going to be a new proposal for funding. But amazing about any of these read by policymakers (such as a it was really a bunch of inde­ approaches; but they work, and biologist when the paper deals in pendent activities under a fragile the successes can be docu- some way with environmental umbrella which was largely mented. impacts). But there are some cosmetic and which existed secrets to this. You get more mainly because of a combination Mutual Focus feedback if the written materials of opportunism and utopianism. really look like drafts, if they First of all, it's necessary to aren't too polished or finished­ Another approach that doesn't cut across niches and break work very well is the introduc­ looking. People want to think through disinterest by focusing they can have some effect on the tion of fancy methodologies, the attention of both hard and including formal group­ document, that they can get gaps soft scientists on a technol- interaction procedures. Peo­ filled or can remove inaccuracies ogy or policy issue to which they or mistaken emphases. A pol­ ple-especially well-educated all agree is worth paying atten­ people-are so a ware of being ished paper looks as if it's too tion. The issue needs to be late for any of this. At Okla­ "processed" that they seldom let complex enough in its ramifica­ their guards down to communi­ homa, we developed a national tions so that everybody can see a reputation for our coffee-stained, cate freely under these circum­ way to contribute, and it needs to stances. dittoed drafts with hand-written be important enough so that inserts, typos, and gaps. It was What does work is some combi­ people are willing to work in nation of these things: deliberate, and we got terrific some unconventional ways in response. Furthermore, once this • Mutual Focus on a Technology order to be involved. There are opened up a communication or Policy Issue lots of such issues in science channel, a lot of the time we policy: energy conservation, re­ • Reviews of Draft Materials could keep it open, especially if combinant DNA, communication the next draft showed we had • Joint Responsibility for Written and privacy, quality of urban listened to the comments on the Reports life, resource scarcity, solar ener­ first one. gy-and many more. Basically, • "Living Together" you ask everybody to think of Physical Proximity himself or herself as, perhaps, an Joint Responsibility Group Review Processes energy specialist rather than as A third avenue is to get hard Field Trips a mechanical engineer or as a and soft scientists to write some­ political scientist. Once everyone • Exceptional Gate Keepers thing together-not separate redefines his or her niche, even This is drawn from the Science contributions to an edited vo­ just for awhile, communication and Public Policy Program expe­ lume, but something that will be is not only possible but also rience at Oklahoma-truly an jointly authored so that each necessary. This, I think, is the epistemological experiment, and person is responsible for all that secret behind the effectiveness of is said. This works especially a successful one. It reflects a Science and the AAAS. range of other things: the experi­ well if a management process is ence of advisory panels for used that assures a lot of interac­ Draft Reports government agencies; a number tion. The way we worked it at of successful interdisciplinary A second avenue is to use Oklahoma was to integrate this policy studies (such as the very written materials to communi­ joint responsibility with the innovative National Coal Policy cate-by asking for responses to review procedure. Essentially, a Project, jointly arranged by a them. I have found that even four- to six-person diverse core senior official of the Dow Chemi­ when somebody in a well-defined team is formed to write some­ cal Company and a former niche is busy, he or she will thing about a technology or president of the Sierra Club); the usually read and comment on policy issue. The territory is split work of the American Associa­ something you write-if you ask up and farmed out for each tion for the Advancement of and as long as there is some member to write a rough first Science (AAAS) and its remark­ kind of overlap of substantive draft of some part of it, prefer­ able journal, Science; and oth- interests-especially if the ably one that is not in his or her

28 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review "We need to learn to build bridges ... "

area of specialization. Then, the time the communication is who talk with theologians. Or each of the drafts is reviewed in intensive, and it's highly profes­ economists, such as Lester Lave, detail by the groups-general sional. I think it is a much more who talk with engineers and concept and coverage, writing interesting way to work than physical scientists. Or political style, word usage-eventually with one's own discipline alone. scientists, such as Don Kash, almost sentence by sentence. It who talk with earth scien­ helps if the deadlines for doing Living Together tists- people with a special gift the first drafts are so tight that for communication and a desire nobody feels that he or she has I think what I have described to communicate. I am not talk­ done anything that approaches is, in many ways, just a struc­ ing about the John Kenneth perfection. If it's clearly thrown tured way to assure this next Galbraiths or. the Isaac Asimovs together, nobody's ego gets too point: In order to communicate or the Carl Sagans, although tied up with specific wording. well, hard and soft scientists they help, too. I am talking Then, you juggle the assign­ have to spend a lot of time about scientists who spend a ments and have revised drafts together- to break down stereo­ great deal of their time building written by people other than the types, to learn to converse with­ and maintaining bridges to ones who wrote them the first out relying on their own individ­ groups of professionals outside time. All along, the group meets ual jargons, to reorient their their own fields. You can't pro­ to talk about whether the whole definition of niches. An espe­ gram this, and I am not sure thing is moving in the right cially effective way to move this that people can be trained to do direction and whether it is subdi­ along is "field trips" -several it. But it is surely possible to vided in the right way. These people with different back­ encourage and reward it. early stages are what we called grounds traveling together, go­ We live in a society that isn't "the wallowing around period," ing to see things or to talk to working as well as it ought to, and it helps if there is time to let people. The National Coal Policy and I think the main reason is it proceed without rushing. As Project found that it was on long that we have gotten so compart­ you can see, it is a matter of weekends in Montana or in West mentalized. We need to learn to using the first two avenues, Virginia, over dinner or in air­ build bridges between all sorts of structured just a little and port lounges, or in the bar in the compartments. The private sec­ oriented toward a joint publica­ evening, that the industrialists tor and the public sector need to tion, to get people with very and environmentalists really be able to work together without different professional back­ started to talk to each other and suspicion and rhetoric. Manage­ grounds to spent a great deal of to identify things they could ment and labor should be able to time together as fellow profes­ agree upon. work as partners rather than as sionals. I am using a similar adversaries. Ethnic groups and Exceptional Gatekeepers approach at the Laboratory now, neighborhoods and regions need in order to provide DOE with Finally, I think we need to to understand each others' con­ assessments of the environmen­ recognize that communication cerns. All of mankind would tal and social impacts of some between the hard and soft benefit by hearing what is being ideas that are being considered sciences depends a great deal on said by all of womankind. Hard for the second National Energy what sociology calls gatekeepers­ sciences and soft sciences as Plan. The core team includes an exceptional individuals who play compartments are only one ex­ engineer, a physicist, an ecolo­ a special role in connecting a ample of a much larger problem, gist, a social scientist, and me. community with the outside and it behooves all of us to help Again, it's working very well. We world. There are nuclear solve the larger problem as well are communicating daily; a lot of engineers, such as David Rose, as the smaller one.mJI

SPRING 1979 29 tions that the nucleus undergoes on its path to fission. Theorists have depicted these forces in terms of a fission barrier, informatio11 meeting highlights which , until recently, was assumed to have a single hump. In 1967, Russian theorist V. M. Strutinsky postulated a "double-hump" barrier model , which has proved extremely successful in explain­ INSTRUMENTATION uranium-235, uranium-233, and pluto­ ing experimentalists' observations in AND CONTROLS. Dec. 7. 1979 nium-239. But fission can be induced in subthreshold fission. such isotopes as uraniu.m-238, pluto­ TF-30 Op-Amp Because the probability of subthresh­ nium-240, and thorium-232. Fission mea­ old fission is so small, highly specialized Ken Rush reported on the development surements of these latter isotopes are equipment is required to study this by his group of a fast, accurate, opera­ being made by researchers at ORNL and fission behavior as a function of energy. tional amplifier, the TF-30 Ultra Fast at other laboratories. Groups of physicists from different Op-Amp, that was designed to be built The fission process is most simply countries and from different American into precise electronic-measurement in­ interpreted by the liquid-drop model of laboratories have collaborated to mea­ struments, such as the position-sensitive the nucleus which was introduced by sure in detail (i.e., with good energy proportional counter and the Johnson Danish physicist Niels Bohr in the 1930s. resolution) the subthreshold fission noise thermometer. which require an According to this model, forces similarto of 2Jsu . 232Th , and 240Pu. The very high amplifier with a very wide bandwidth and the surface tension in a drop of water intensity and good time resolution of the fast settling. The TF-30, using highly tend to hold the nucleus together, Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator advanced transistors, is a universal gain whereas the repulsive Coulomb forces (ORELA) time-of-flight facility make element that can amplify extremely small between the charged particles inside the ORELA a unique source of neutrons for signals (as low as a microvolt) to nucleus tend to push apart the compo­ these experiments. The detector for measurable levels with greater band­ nents of the nucleus. If sufficient energy the 232Th was designed and constructed in width and less noise than did previously is delivered to the nucleus, such as by the France, assembled in Los Alamos, and available amplifiers. The broad band­ absorption of a neutron, the nucleus recently installed on a 40-m flight path at width and low noise allow small signal­ undergoes large deformations and may ORELA. The 238U detector, obtained from timing measurements in the picosecond eventually fission. These deformed ORNL's Fusion Energy Division, contains range. Applications for the TF-30 are states resemble a football or even a exceptionally pure 238U separated some many, both at ORNL and in industry. It is peanut shell. years ago at the Y-12 Plant. useful in nuclear-particle spectroscopy, In 235U, the absorption of a slow Researchers involved in making recent radar-signal processing systems, nu­ neutron (with thermal kinetic energy) subthreshold-fission measurements on clear-radiation detectors , and in any provides enough energy to cause a 23su . 232Jh, and 240Pu at ORELA are G. A. measurement that requires picosecond fission. On the other hand, in 23BU, Auchampaugh (Los Alamos), Gerard de timing resolution .-BL a neutron must possess considerable Saussure, F. Difilippo (Argentina), kinetic energy (- 1.5 MeV) if there is to be F. Gillespie, Jack Harvey, N. W. Hill, R. W. ENGINEERING PHYSICS, an appreciable probability of fission . Ingle, D. K. Olsen , Raphael Perez, Jan. 10-11. 1979 Hence, if one plots the probability of S. Plattard (France), J. H. Todd , and L. W. fission (or fission cross section) of 238U Weston. Other measurements , notably on Subthreshold Fission Measurements against the energy of the neutron causing 234 U, were done by other groups a few In 1939, German physicists Otto Hahn the fission, one observes a step near years ago at ORELA. and Fritz Strassman discovered that 1.5 MeV called fission threshold. Above According to De Saussure: 'The high after absorption of a neutron the uranium the threshold, a neutron has a high precision and good resolution of mea­ nucleus could split into two fragments probability of causing fission; below surements done at ORELA in conjunction with the release of 200 MeV of energy. the threshold, this probability is with other specialized measurements, This release is the energy source ex­ very small. such as fission-fragment angular dis­ ploited in nuclear reactors and atomic In recent years it has been observed tributions done at other laboratories, weapons. that even below threshold there is a have led to a much improved understand­ Nuclear fission is a very complex measurable probability of fission and ing of the fission process. However, phenomenon which is far from com­ that this probability undergoes rapid additional measurements and more ac­ pletely understood in spite of many variations with the energy of the neutron curate calculations of fission barriers are decades of experimental and theoretical causing fission . A detailed study of the necessary to interpret-and hopefully to studies resulting from the importance of structure of this so-called subthreshold predict-the variations of the probability this process for the production of nuclear fission has yielded extremely interesting of fission as a function of neutron energy. energy. Fission is commonly thought of information concerning the forces that Rapid progress is being made in that in connection with the fissile isotopes: hold the nuclei together and the oscilla- direction."

30 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review Working at the personal computer interfaced with the derivative ultraviolet­ absorption spectrometer (DUVAS), Alan Hawthorne determines the amount of a specific polynuclear aromatic compound present in an air sample. Pictured in the inset is the DUVAS with air sampling tube. The instrument can detect hazardous compounds in coal-derived gases and tars.

HEALTH AND SAFETY RESEARCH. DUVAS is based on the principle that The prototype instrument is sensitive Nov. 1-2. 1978 PNAs and other gaseous, coal-derived to a few parts per billion of PNAs in the compounds each absorb ultraviolet (UV) vapor phase (such as naphthalene and its methyl derivatives), and it can Monitoring Instrument for Coal Gases light of a characteristic wavelength. Thus, if one shines UV light of a known monitor other important pollutants such Products and waste discharges from wavelength and intensity through a tube as ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, coal conversion plants include gases, of air containing pollutant compounds and ammonia. The spectrometer will be liquids, and tars containing polynuclear and only part of that light gets through to evaluated under field conditions as part aromatic hydrocarbons (PNAs). Because the detector, one can determine which of the monitoring program at the low-Btu many of these compounds may cause compound is present and its amount coal gasifier operated by the University cancer, they pose a health hazard to based on the intensity of the light of Minnesota at Duluth. The Tennessee workers in facilities designed to convert absorbed. The second derivative (change Valley Authority is also interested in coal to liquid and gaseous fuels. New in curvature) of the UV-absorption testing the instrument for plume monitor­ federal standards should result in a spectrum of a compound is measured , ing and for fugitive-emissions measure­ reduction of PNA concentrations in the which allows improved selectivity of ments at their coal-to-ammonia conver­ worker environment in coal facilities. But volatile PNA compounds with over­ sion facility in Muscle Shoals , Alabama. better instruments are needed to monitor lapping spectral bands. Developers of the prototype DUVAS are these levels, to assess worker exposure, DUVAS consists of the main instrument Alan Hawthorne and John Thorngate, and to warn workers of elevated concen­ package (10" x 16" x 6") and a 1-m tube who is now at Lawrence Livermore trations of airborne pollutants due to with mirrors to achieve multiple reflec­ Laboratory. Hawthorne, a nuclear engi­ leaks and other operational problems. tion of UV light. At one end of the tube is a neer by training, is with the Monitoring At ORNL, an instrument has been photomultiplier which detects the UV Technology and Instrumentation Group developed that can identify and quantify light that has passed through samples of of the Biomedical Effects and Instrumen­ specific gases and vapors in the workers' polluted air. Inside the instrument hous­ tation Section, in ORNL's Health and atmosphere. Called DUVAS-short for ing are power supplies, processing Safety Research Division. Group leader of derivative ultraviolet-absorption spec­ electronics, a microprocessor to analyze the Monitoring Technology and Instru­ trometer-this portable instrument is data and correct for interfering com­ mentation Group is Richard Gammage. the culmination of a year and a half of pounds, a deuterium UV lamp , and a Mike Dougherty of the Computer Sci­ development work to improve the per­ monochromator that allows a selected ences Division assisted with software formance of a derivative spectrometer wavelength of UV lightfromthe lamp into development.-CK and to tailor it for pollutant detection. the air-sampling tube.

SPRING 1979 31 The assistant superintendent of the Research Shops came to for his fine work, told Wallace the Chemistry shop to tell the that he owned a house in Flor­ lab anecdote three men that their lunches ida, and he would just take his were to begin promptly at noon. wife down to Florida and retire The men suggested that they right then if he couldn't eat with were assigned to the Chemistry his chemist friends on their Division and should be allowed schedule. The machinist told Out to L.unch to eat when the chemists ate and Wallace a similar story, that he not when the men in the main fe~t .r~sponsible to the Chemistry This story was told me by shop ate. DivisiOn, and his lunch time Frank King. Some will remember The superintendent of the should depend on them. Frank as an active member of Research Shops came to the Frank had heard both stories and frequent actor in, the Oak' Chemistry shop with the same by the time Wallace got to him. Ridge Little Theatre, forerunner message and received the same As an actor, as well as a devotee of today's Playhouse. At ORNL, response. of the elegant variation, he tried he was a draftsman and for a The superintendent's superior, another tack. He told his chief while was assigned to the Chem­ K. P. Wallace, came to the Chem­ that a general could design his istry Division shop along with istry shop to tell the men one own uniform, a major could an instrument maker and a by one, that lunch began' manage a week off when he machinist. If there is no mention promptly at noon. Art Mitchell a wanted it, "and even a sergeant here of matrix organizations or 60-year-old instrument maker ' has his little privileges." field engineers or horizontal who was revered by the chemists No more was heard from the integration, it is because those superintendent's office.-Herbert terms were not then in use. Pomerance

32 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review Researchers Madhavan Menon, beams to heat tokamak plasmas. The Walt Gardner, and Jinchoon Kim ion source is in the chamber on the (clockwise from top) work at the right, the ion-beam dump chamber is at High Power Test Facility, which tests the center (where the men are working), new ideas for making powerful neutral and the target chamber is at the left.

[]llu~r.r~ui ~lliiflr irJr.rJ ir'i Sufi Reaching Fusion Temperatures with ORNL Neutral Beams

By CAROLYN KRAUSE

n 1978, astronomers ol:r the influence of gravity, this clear reactions similar to the I served evidence of a new­ cloud contracts, and the temper­ reactions that occur in a hy­ born star. If it evolved in ature in the interior rises rap­ drogen bomb. The reactions the same manner as other idly with compression. The soar­ liberate an enormous amount of stars in the last 20 billion years, ing temperature reaches a criti­ energy that prevents the further its early life story goes like this. cal level of 15 million degrees, collapse of the gaseous cloud. A Pockets of gas come together by igniting the hydrogen within the star is born. mutual gravitational attraction, ball of compressed gas and Our star, the sun, with an forming a gigantic cloud. Under setting off a series of thermonu- interior temperature of 15 million

SPRING 1979 33 the plasma. Doughnut-shaped Development of neutral beam injectors at ORNL has contributed fusion-research devices such as to dramatic rises in fusion plasma temperatures as well as in the the PLT and the ISX-B at Oak careers of a handful of men intimately associated with the Ridge use magnetic fields to technology. confine the plasma. Historically, it has been a formidable chal­ lenge to confine a dense plasma degrees, bathes the earth with has been the key to the achieve­ for the required time because the heat and light as a result of ment of high temperatures in the plasma is so unstable. It's a bit thermonuclear fusion reactions. PLT deuterium plasma. A like trying to hold jelly with One would suspect that the plasma is a gas so hot that the rubber bands. temperature in the sun's interior electrons have dissociated from The PLT and ISX-B are toka­ would be the hottest temperature their respective nuclei. 0. B. maks, modeled after a Russian attained in the solar system. But Morgan, director of ORNL's doughnut-shaped fusion device. in the summer of 1978, research­ Fusion Energy Division, calls In the late 1960s, both the ers at Princeton University in neutral-beam injection the "most Russians and Americans had New Jersey used a doughnut­ rapid and significant technologi­ experimented with the torus, the shaped fusion-research machine cal development in the fusion American version of which was equipped with neutral beam community." Neutral-beam heat­ called the stellarator. The stellar­ injectors developed and built in ing has had more impact in ator used coils to produce two Oak Ridge to achieve a tempera­ achieving high plasma tempera­ magnetic fields, one within the ture of 60 million degrees, four ture-one of the three criteria for other, to contain the plasma, and times that of the solar interior. fusion reactions- than has any it employed a current in the (Even higher temperatures have other in the lineup of heating plasma to heat it by electrical been attained in other fusion technologies, including ohmic resistance (ohmic heating). In devices, but many scientists do (resistance) and radiofrequency both the American and Russian not view these machines as heating. cases, the torus was part of a promising as the toroidal devices Fusion reactions between nu­ transformer with a primary coil for achieving controlled fusion.) clei of deuterium and tritium (two to induce a secondary current in This not unexpected feat heavy-hydrogen isotopes) be­ the circular plasma. The late Lev at the Princeton Large Torus come probable when the plasma Artsimovich suggested to his (PLT) received widespread temperature approaches 100 mil­ Russian colleagues that the attention from the news media. lion degrees because at such a plasma current should be used It rekindled optimism that de­ high temperature the nuclei not only for heating but also for vices could be built to harness overcome their electrostatic re­ creating a second magnetic field thermonuclear reactions for pulsion and can stick together. to help confine the plasma. The producing electricity. The prom­ This fusion of nuclei results in Russians called their machine a ise of such devices is that they the formation of a very energetic "toroidal magnetic chamber," or would use fuel that can be found helium nucleus and a neutron tokamak. After convincing evi­ or made in enormous quantities­ accompanied with an energy dence of the good confinement deuterium, which is readily release of 17.6 MeV. But produc­ properties of the tokamak was available from seawater, and ing useful energy requires more presented at the 1968 Interna­ tritium, which can be bred from than a superhot plasma. The tional Atomic Energy Agency lithium in the fusion reactor. plasma must be sufficiently (IAEA) conference in N ovosi­ Thus, by learning how to create dense and well-enough confined birsk, U.S.S.R., the Russian and control a miniature sun in a that enough energy is produced concept was quickly adopted by fusion device, man has hope of to overcome this energy loss. A Americans. In the early 1970s, helping the sun provide the earth density-confinement time pro­ Princeton converted its stellara­ with heat and light in the next duct of 1014 sec/cm3 and a tor to the Symmetric Tokamak century when other energy temperature of 70 million degrees (ST); ORNL built its first toka­ sources will be less available. would produce a condition of mak (ORMAK); and other groups The successful use of ORNL­ energy breakeven- providing as constructed other types of toka­ developed neutral-beam injection much energy as is used to ignite maks.

34 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review Physicist Walt Gardner checks the operation of the 35-in_ diffusion pumps on the High Power Test Facility, which is used to test advanced concepts in neutral-beam development_

raised hopes for magnetic mirror machines, which are linear tubes that use increasing magnetic fields at both ends to prevent the plasma from touching walls or escaping the "magnetic bottle." The experiment showed that ORNL was rapidly gaining ex­ pertise in making hydrogen ion beams for fusion research. Work on DCX-1 and later DCX-2 con­ tinued well into the next decade. In 1968, Herman Postma (then director of ORNL's Thermonu­ clear Division and now ORNL director), Norm Lazar, Gareth Guest, Rodger Neidigh, John Clarke, and Mike Roberts (the latter two are now with DOE's Office of Fusion Energy) visited the Kurchatov Institute in Mos­ cow where tokamak research was being conducted. They came away skeptical of the Russians' favorable interpretations of their results and took only a casual interest in the tokamak scheme. Unfortunately, ohmic heating tory's entry into the fusion field In 1969, the tide turned for the from the plasma current alone seemed warranted by its exper­ tokamak. In that year Artsimo­ cannot produce the high temper­ tise and experience in the motion vich came to the United States atures required for fusion reac­ of ions in electric and magnetic and promoted his idea in a series tions in tokamaks. A supplemen­ fields, as in electromagnetic of lectures at the Massachusetts tary source of heating is needed. separations of isotopes in calu­ Institute of Technology, and "The Russians gave the world trons and in high-current cyclo­ then a British team confirmed the tokamak, and we gave it trons. Two years later, small­ the Soviet measurements. At this powerful neutral beams," says scale R&D on fusion was started. time, Postma decided that the Morgan. How Oak Ridge became In 1957, the Thermonuclear Ex­ tokamak scheme deserved closer involved in tokamaks and neu­ perimental Division was formed, examination and asked Clarke, tral beam development is related and the Direct-Current Experi­ Roberts, and George Kelley, now below. ment (DCX-1) was constructed. retired, to look into it in greater In its first year, DCX-1 success­ detail. After discussions with Early History fully trapped in its magnetic Artsimovich in Boston, ORNL In 1953, ORNL conducted a field an accelerated beam of researchers made a proposal small, theoretical study of some atomic hydrogen ions created by presentation in late June to the possible approaches to the the dissociation of hydrogen AEC, which granted approval achievement of controlled ther­ molecular ions in a high-current July 1 and set the stage for monuclear reactions. The Labora- vacuum arc. The demonstration construction of a tokamak at

SPRING 1979 35 Oak Ridge. That fall, Clarke and Morgan, Kelley, and others more uniform plasma. Morgan Roberts traveled to Moscow and began developing injectors using dubbed the modified ion source Dubna to absorb more details an ion source that produced a the duoPIGatron. This was the about tokamak design. ORMAK- beam of suitable intensity. Their ion source used to produce the 1 was born, and Kelley was put designs are now used worldwide. first multiampere beams that in charge of the project. showed that neutral-injection In late 1969 and early 1970, Ion Sources and Neutral heating was technologically several ORNL researchers grap­ Beams feasible. pled with the difficult problem of When Morgan came to work at Why is a spread-out, uniform making a superhot plasma. Ac­ ORNL in 1958, available ion plasma so important? To get the cording to Mike Roberts in ''The sources included the "duoplas­ maximum energy out of the ions Birth of ORMAK: A Personal matron," an East German inven­ for fusion research purposes, it is Recollection" (ORNL Review, tion further developed here by essential that the ions be ex­ Winter 1974): Charlie Moak of the Physics tracted from the plasma through "The tokamak had demon­ Division. Only a few tens of many small holes. Kelley ex­ strated the ability to contain a milliamperes of ions could be plains: 'quite warm' plasma, but simple obtained from these sources. "For the early fusion research calculations showed that the Initially under the direction of machines like the DCX, we conventional heating meth­ Kelley (leader of the Ion Source needed high-voltage beams. At od-by the friction of the electri­ Group from 1957-67), Morgan set these high voltages it was possi­ cal current in the discharge­ out to improve the duoplasma­ ble to get the current required could not make a reactor or a tron ion source for the DCX. By from a single aperture. Tokamak 'reactor~like' plasma. George 1969, Morgan, Kelley, and their injectors, however, must operate (Kelley) had thought briefly colleagues had achieved a ten­ at relatively low voltages- high about the possibility of using fold leap from tens of milli­ enough to get the beam particles energetic neutral beams of hy­ amperes to hundreds of milli­ into the plasma center, but low drogen to add heat, but a rough amperes with an ion energy of600 enough so that the particles calculation was discouraging. keV. Kelley holds a patent on the don't pass right through the Director Bas Pease of Culham accelerator configuration, which plasma. In this low voltage Laboratory (England), visiting is still used today. range it is not possible to extract ORNL, urged a more careful In the early ion sources, a hot a large current from the plasma look." cathode (negative electrode) through a single hole because a Postma also urged a re­ emits electrons, which flow to the tiny hole is needed to get a well­ examination, so Kelley then anode (positive electrode). Hy­ defined beam. Since the current performed a more detailed calcu­ drogen gas introduced into the per hole is fixed for a given lation and found that injection ion source chamber is ionized­ extraction voltage, many holes was indeed a promising means converted to a plasma- by the are required to draw from the for providing supplemental heat­ discharge of electrons, which are plasma a large total current. ing. Spurred by his discussions collected at the anode. To im­ Thus, the multiple aperture plate with Bas Pease in Oak Ridge, prove this type of ion source, was devised to increase beam Postma met with Morgan, Kel­ Morgan incorporated a Phillip current." ley, and Harold Forsen (consul­ Ion Gauge (PIG) discharge by How does one get neutral tant from the University of Wis­ extending the anode region beams from an ion source? Ion consin) and made the crucial where the electrons can oscillate beamlets are extracted from the decision to proceed with develop­ back and forth between the ion source chamber and acceler­ ment of neutral-beam injectors. electrodes in the existing mag­ ated by an applied electric field Says Morgan: "We were the first netic field rather than die at the (as in a linear accelerator) to laboratory in the world to com­ anode. Such oscillation is a more form a focused ion beam which mit ourselves to making neutral­ efficient use of electron energy to enters a chamber containing beam injection technologically produce hydrogen ions. The ordinary hydrogen gas. The ions feasible for heating plasmas in magnetic field could also be used pick up electrons from the hy­ tokamaks." to spread out the ions and form a drogen gas, forming energetic

36 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review CRYOCONDENSATION PUMP SOURCE MAGNETIC ION BENDING SHIELDING MAGNET

BEAM DEFINING PLATES

NEUTRALIZER

VACUUM ENCLOSURE SECONDARY VACUUM SYSTEM

DRIFT CHAMBER '

neutral particles. Ions that be­ gallon of lukewarm water sub­ The essential components of a neutral· come neutral atoms can be stantially raises total water beam injection system are shown here. injected into a tokamak plasma temperature. About one-third of In this schematic of a PDX beam line, the power consumed by the the beam enters the torus at the bottom because they are able to pene­ left. trate the powerful magnetic field injection system finally appears in and around the tokamak. Ions as heat in the tokamak. and Jim Tsai have found other that do not pick up electrons in In 1972, Kelley, Morgan, Larry ways to improve plasma uni­ the chamber are eliminated from Stewart, and Forsen published formity. The duoPIGatron has further action by a deflecting the first paper on the subject of been continuously modified and magnetic field. When the neutral neutral beams for tokamak fu­ has recently had incorporated atoms penetrate the tokamak sion research. The paper, which into it a new type of plasma plasma, they can lose their appeared in the journal Nuclear source which makes use of an recently acquired electron and Fusion, is entitled "Neutral­ invention by Ken MacKenzie of then can be trapped in the Beam-Injection Heating of To­ the University of California at containing magnetic field while roidal Plasmas for Fusion Re­ Los Angeles. This source uses they transfer their energy to the search." Since then, ORNL has permanent magnets forming a other plasma ions and electrons, continued to improve the ion cusped field around the ion thus heating them just as a pint sources for neutral beam injec­ chamber to keep the plasma of boiling water poured into a tors. For example, Will Stirling away from the chamber walls so

SPRING 1979 37 CONFINED FAST IONS (Eo 2 25 keV) This schematic shows how a neutral DEPOSIT THEIR ENERGY, MOMENTUM beam heats a tokamak plasma. IN THE BACKGROUND PLASMA that the electrons have a longer life. ORNL physicists continue to CHARGED PARTICLES alter the magnetic-field geometry ENERGETIC NEUTRALS and make other changes with the aim of ~etting as many amperes oi beam current as possible per watt of ion-source power. Today's neutral-beam injectors are water-cooled, pulsed systems with ion currents up to 100 amperes each, an improvement of 3 orders of magnitude over the ion sources that Morgan and his colleagues had originally devel­ oped. In the past few years, numerous neutral-beam injectors have been built and scaled up in power and energy. ORMAK used four injectors with a total injec­ tion power of 500 kW. PLT's four injectors (750 kW each) have a developed neutral-beam injectors instabilities in the plasma, and total injection power of 3 MW. tailored for use on ORMAK. At they calculated that it would not The ISX-B has two injectors with the same time, a group at the matter much whether the neutral a total beam-power capacity of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, beams were injected in the same 1.8 MW that will be upgraded to capitalizing on its accelerator direction (coinjection) or counter 3 MW by 1980. The PDX at experience, developed neutral­ to the direction of the plasma Princeton will have four 1.5 MW beam injectors for Princeton's current in ORMAK. injectors by next year. By 1983, Adiabatic Toroidal Compressor Lee Berry, now director of the the Tokamak Fusion Test Reac­ (A TC). Simultaneously, a group Fusion Program, recalls that tor (TFTR) at Princeton will at the Culham Laboratory in when the neutral-beam-heating have four injectors, each with England prepared to do injection experiments started up at three ion sources (to be built by heating on the Cleo tokamak. ORMAK, ATC, and Cleo in the the Lawrence Berkeley Labora­ Princeton achieved successful summer of 1973, researchers tory), for a total beam power of plasma heating on ATC in 1974. were concerned that the neutral 20 to 25 MW. Before the experiments in beams might cause the plasma 1973-74, Jim Callen, Clarke, and to disappear: ''We threw a switch ORMAK and Neutral Beams Jim Rome considered the theoret­ and found that plasma re­ In 1972, ORNL researchers ical aspects of neutral-beam mained. Our heating was several took the necessary steps to heating. Work began on develop­ tenths of a percent over what we demonstrate that it is technologi­ ing both analytic and computer would get with ohmic heating cally feasible to apply neutral­ models to predict effects of neu­ alone." In 1974, experiments beam injection for heating the tral-beam injection on tokamak began on ORMAK to determine plasma of ORMAK, which was plasmas. (John Hogan and Herb whether it matters which direc­ then under construction. In Howe have continued to modify tion the beam is injected into the 1973-74, the Energetic Particle and refine these models.) The plasma. Experiments cast doubt Injection Group, which Morgan theorists worried about whether on the theorists' initial esti­ headed from 1969 through 1974, neutral beams would trigger mates. Berry remembers telling

38 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Reuiew 2 ( 150, 100,10) TNS 0

105 Ion-source development at ORNL has removed impurities from the wall LPTT (80,100 , 10)~ been proceeding as an exponential func­ by discharge cleaning-running ORNL tion of the extracted energy. 5 PLASMA HEATING ·,unconfined plasma to scrub the TECHNOLOGY wall. Impurities· cause energy (keV, amp, t) beams-2 to 3 million degrees­ losses in plasmas because they 2 and the difference between radiate away energy. Finally, 4 coinjection and counterinjection the ORMAK researchers stepped 10 were reported by Berry, Clarke, up the external magnetic field

5 Jim Lyon, Masanori Murakami, from 15 to 25 kG. By boosting TFTR (120, 50, 0 .5) 0 and others at the 1974 IAEA the toroidal field, the researchers PLT4- (40,60,0.3)0t meeting in Tokyo. The theoreti­ could increase the ohmic current 2 I POX (50, 100,0.5) cal developments and their corre­ and thus get more heating. As a JSX (40,100,0.3! 0 lation with the experimental result of these modifications, the 103 - I results were presented at the ion temperature of ORMAK was same meeting by Callen, Dick raised tenfold from 2 million w ;·'" "0' 60, 0 " If) 5 -' Colchin, Ron Fowler, Dave degrees in 1975 to 20 million :::> Q. McAlees, and Rome. An abbrevi­ degrees in the fall of 1976. '..., -"' 2 ated account of the combined ORMAK had achieved a temper­ •ORMAK (37, 12, 0 .35) experimental and theoretical ature hotter than the interior of 1 work was published in Physical the sun. At an IAEA fusion l (40, 6, 0 .3) Review Letters in 1975. conference at Berchtesgaden, 5 ORNL theorists told the exper­ West Germany, Berry reported - i (25,8,0.2) imentalists in 1975 that there that ORMAK had attained 2 keV 2 should be twice as much heating (equivalent to 20 million degrees) in the plasma as had been of heating, and TFR researchers =I {40.4. 0 . <1 td observed. Not enough power from France claimed heating to from the injection system was 2.2 ke V using duplications of the 5 e (50,1, O.t) getting into the plasma, the Oak Ridge ion sources. theorists said. The experimental­ How does one measure such a ists checked out this assertion by temperature in a fusion device? 2 - inserting a chunk of metal in Certainly not with a mercury ORMAK with attached tempera­ thermometer. The chief measure­ wo L----'------'------'------' 1970 '78 '82 '86 ture gauges (calorimeter), inject­ ment was made by a charge­ YEAR ing neutral beams into the ma­ exchange neutral spectrometer chine, and observing the temper­ developed by ORNL's Clarence Ann Davies, a University of ature rise. Seeing that the Barnett and Jack Ray. This Texas postdoctoral scientist then theorists were right, the experi­ instrument measures the energy visiting ORNL and currently mentalists undertook the task of of fast, neutral hydrogen atoms director of DOE's Tokamak Sec­ getting a greater fraction of the that seep out of the tokamak tion, that counterinjection did power m. plasma, then feeds the data to a not work. Coinjection has been To get steadily larger incre­ computer which calculates re­ used predominantly ever since. ments of heating in the ORMAK sults. These neutral atoms are Following a suggestion by plasma, the experimentalists formed by reactions between the Berry that the counterinjected made a number of improve­ hydrogen ions and the small neutral beam induced fast ions ments. They expanded the ex­ amount of neutral hydrogen at which were more readily scat­ traction system (number of holes the plasma center. Another way tered and lost from the machine, for ion beamlets) and made other to measure temperature is to use improved theoretical calcula­ modifications that increased the scintillators to count the neu­ tions showed good correlation injection power from 50 kW in trons emerging from a deuterium with the experimental results. 1975 to 350 kW in 1976. To plasma because the number of The experimental success of increase plasma heating even neutrons emitted increases with modest heating with neutral more, the tokamak researchers temperature.

SPRING 1979 39 ... in early 1977, significant electron heating by neutral-beam injection was first demonstrated ...

Since the experimentalists had showed definitively that neutral put into operation, PLT attained resolved that coinjection was beams could heat tokamak plas­ a record high temperature of 25 more effective than coun terinjec­ mas. The heating was found to million degrees. tion and had raised the maxi­ be in substantial agreement with Over a frantic 15-month pe­ mum power delivered to the theoretical predictions. The ex­ riod, ORNL built and delivered plasma, they next sought to heat periments also demonstrated three more injectors for the PLT the electrons and not just the that plasma temperatures sub­ and sent engineers and physi­ ions. In tokamaks, the electrons stantially in excess of those cists for several days at a time to are heated primarily by the achievable by ohmic heating debug the systems, to solve ohmic dissipation of the plasma alone could be produced with interfacing problems, and to current. Neutral beams deposit a neutral-beam injection. Thus, train Princeton employees to minor portion of their energy in confidence was gained in apply­ operate the injectors. the electrons, but the major ing ever-increasing neutral-beam The crash program to build the portion goes to the ions, which heating for larger tokamaks, PLT injectors involved the ef­ eventually share some of their such as the PLT, PDX, and forts of the Fusion Energy Divi­ energy with the electrons. Until ISX-B. sion, the UCC-ND Engineering 1976, the neutral-beam power Division, and the Y-12 Plant's machine shops. Haselton, Tsai, delivered to the electrons had Neutral Beams for PLT been modest compared to the Stirling, and Stan Ponte pro­ ohmic heating power, and no While the PLT was being built vided critical input to there­ significant heating by neutral in the mid-1970s, John Clarke, search and development for the beams had been produced. In director of ORNL's Fusion En­ PLT injectors and beam lines. fact, researchers in the field were ergy Division since early 1974 Carbide engineers Ed Bryant beginning to doubt the ability of and a member of the PLT review and Ray Johnson provided the neutral beams to heat electrons committee, urged that neutral­ leadership of the UCC-ND in tokamaks. beam injection be applied to the Engineering team. Key members But in early 1977, significant PLT. A decision was made in of the Y-12 group included R. L. electron heating by neutral-beam Washington to assign ORNL the Mcilwain (general shop coordi­ injection was first demonstrated project of building four scaled-up nation), T. W. Compton (plan­ in a clever series of experiments, injectors for the Princeton de­ ning, estimating, scheduling), devised by Murakami and his vice. Development began here D. Gillespie, Jr. (metal fabrica­ associates, in which the ratio of under the direction of Larry tion and welding), W. F. Cart­ the injection power delivered to Stewart with Hal Haselton as wright(machining), G. Baird, Jr. electrons to the ohmic heating the PLT program manager. By (dimensional inspection), and power was raised by reducing March 1977, when Haselton had J. R. Garrison (mechanical in­ the ohmic heating current to the replaced Stewart as the leader of spection). lowest possible level consistent the beam section, the first PLT DOE's Office of Fusion Energy with containment of the fast injector was assembled, tested, (OFE) exerted constant pressure ions. In these experiments it was disassembled, and loaded on two on Postma, Clarke, Morgan, and shown not only that neutral trucks for a trip to Princeton. On George Jasny (director of the beams could effectively heat the the trucks were an ion source, UCC-ND Engineering Division) electrons but also that neutral associated electronics, a neutral­ to expedite assembly of the beams could be used interchange­ izer, systems for pumping hy­ injectors. Construction and deliv­ ably with the usual ohmic drogen, the ion-removal system, ery of the systems continued into currents to heat and sustain the neutral-beam-transport the fall of 1977 when Morgan tokamak discharges. system, and diagnostic instru­ became Fusion Energy Division In summary, the plasma heat­ ments. After the first injector director, replacing Clarke who ing experiments on ORMAK was reassembled, mounted, and moved to Washington to work

40 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review ------~-- - ~ - --~----~~------~

In this view of the Princeton Large Torus, the cylinders labeled "north," "east," "west," and "south" (the tank, but not the label, can be seen) indicate the location of the neutral-beam injec­ tion systems built at Oak Ridge.

SPRING 1979 41 ... temperatures exceeding 75 million degrees.

for Edwin Kintner as deputy achieved in a larger machine Atomic Company from Decem­ director of DOE's Office of Fu­ such as the TFTR in the 1980s. ber 1977 until March 1978 and sion Energy. (Kintner, OFE This Princeton tokamak, which then converted to ISX-B, demon­ director, had written ORNL will be heavily shielded to con­ strated methods for refueling officials a complimentary letter tain the fast neutron radiation with hydrogen pellets and for after the first injector was suc­ from the deuterium-tritium keeping impurities out of the cessfully operated on the PLT.) plasma, is designed to prove tokamak plasma. At the time of Morgan's appoint­ scientific feasibility-that is, to ISX-B now has two PLT-class ment, ORNL created the Fusion demonstrate that as much or injectors, but these will be re­ Energy Program and named more energy can be produced placed with two PDX-class injec­ Berry the director. than is consumed to ignite deute­ tors in 1980. The ISX is now Operating at a reduced power rium-tritium fusion reactions. being used to study plasmas level because not all systems with a high "beta"- the ratio of were working well, the PLT plasma pressure to the pressure PDX and ISX under the leadership of Harold of the containing magnetic field. Eubank achieved the much bal­ Oak Ridge is still in the The plasma pressure hinges on lyhooed 60-million -degree temper­ business of neutral-beam­ neutral-beam injection because ature in July 1978. With close to injection development, but where rapid deposition of energy from full power, the PLT has recently possible this technology is being neutral beams makes the plasma attained temperature levels ex­ transferred to industry. Hasel­ hot. The hotter the plasma be­ ceeding 75 million degrees. ton's group is now building a 1.5- comes, the more pressure it At a Washington press confer­ MW injector- with twice the exerts, the more it tends to ence on August 14, 1978, Melvin injection power of a PLT injec­ expand, and the more it resists Gottlieb, director of the Prince­ tor-for the Poloidal Divertor confinement by magnetic fields, ton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Experiment (PDX) at Princeton. which exert pressure of their own called ORNL's development Princeton has contracted CBI by physically pushing the of the injectors "a magnificent Nuclear Corporation of Ohio to plasma in on itself. As the source of help to us." Gottlieb take ORNL designs and build plasma gets hotter, more nuclear told of concerns that the hot three more 1.5-MW injectors for fusions occur; consequently more hydrogen-deuterium gas mixture the PDX. Scheduled to operate neutrons are produced per unit in the PLT would clump together with neutral beams in 1980, PDX volume of plasma. In ORMAK, in microscopic swirls that would is designed to test the concept of deuterium-deuterium neutrons tend to cool the gas and prevent removing impurities from the were produced at a rate of fusions of the deuterium nuclei. plasma by the use of special 10 11/ sec at 20 million degrees. "To our great joy," he said, "we magnetic-field coils (divertors) to When the ion temperature found that this is not so." divert the impurities to a collec­ reached 60 million degrees at the Buoyed by Princeton's success tion chamber. PLT, D-D neutrons were pro­ in raising tokamak temperatures ORNL is also building two 1.5- duced at a rate of 10 13/sec. The from 25 million to 60 million MW injectors for the ISX, more neutrons produced per degrees in a short time, Gottlieb another device for studying im­ plasma volume per second, the predicted that the 100 million purities. The first Impurity greater the power density and degrees required to fuse nuclei of Study Experiment (ISX-A), oper­ overall efficiency of the fusion deuterium and tritium would be ated by ORNL and the General machine. (In a power-generating

42 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review "... a neutral-beam-power density that will not be surpassed .. .for many years."

fusion reactor, the neutrons will what was believed to be the mous amounts of energy? Recent transfer their energy to a lith­ workable limit if one took proper results on the PLT suggest ium-bearing blanket through account of the effect of rapid attainment of this temperature is which a coolant circulates to neutral-beam heating. At that almost certain. Will neutral carry away the heat to the time, ORMAK had achieved a beam injection work on large, steam-generation system. The beta of less than 1%. Theoretical fusing plasmas which are only neutrons also convert the lithium calculations carried out by Glenn partially penetrated by the pres­ to tritium, which will be used to Bateman, Bob Dory, John Ho­ ent types of neutral beams? Is fuel the fusion reactors.) gan, Herb Howe, Dave Nelson, there an effective way to protect and Martin Peng indicate that the injectors from a tokamak "The efficiency of heating and ISX-B can reach a beta of 6 to plasma's 14-Me V neutrons, containing plasmas is strongly 10% with a circular or D-shaped which are likely to come back up dependent on the power density plasma. If a 5 to 10% or greater the beam line and cause second­ of neutral beams-the amount of beta is achievable, it will mean ary electron emission, arc neutral beam power compared to that smaller, more economical breakdown, and beam ioniza­ plasma volume," says Haselton. fusion reactors are feasible. tion? Finally, there is a serious ''These ISX experiments are question as to whether such important for understanding expensive systems as neutral how to achieve high beta and Prospects beam injectors will be economi­ hence greater efficiency of mag­ Neutral-beam injection is be­ cal for commercial fusion reac­ netic confinement. In 1980, when ing used all over the world in tors. Concerning this last ques­ the 1.5-MW injectors are in­ fusion research machines in the tion, Morgan says, ''The opti­ stalled on ISX, this relatively United States, England, France, mum possibility is to use neutral small machine will have a neu­ Germany, Italy, Japan, and injection to ignite a small tral-beam-power density that will Russia. This spring, ORNL is to plasma in the doughnut which not be surpassed by other de­ host an international conference will then be further heated by vices for many years." on the application of neutral­ the alpha particles (helium nu­ Neutral-beam injection will beam injection to tokamaks. clei produced by fusion reactions). increase the plasma pressure Speakers will discuss neutral­ This could result in the neutral and beta, but it will make it more beam heating on the PLT, the injectors being technologically difficult for the magnetic fields ISX-B, the DITE (Diverted Injec­ and economically viable." from the copper electromagnets tion Tokamak Experiment) in Despite these unknowns, neu­ to confine the plasma. Says England, the TFR in France, tral-beam injectionhas given Berry: "Researchers will be us­ and the T-11 in Russia. physicists cause for believing ing ISX-B to search for the Of course, important questions that fusion is scientifically feasi­ boundary between stability and remain for neutral-beam heating, ble and that it is now proper to nonstability in the confinement just as there are unknowns begin examining engineering of the plasma as it is heated to concerning the details of build­ and economic questions. The higher temperatures and betas." ing economic fusion devices. Will technology pioneered at Oak In 1976, John Clarke and neutral-beam heating raise Ridge has also achieved some of Dieter Sigmar predicted that the plasma temperatures in large the hottest temperatures known plasma pressure could be raised tokamaks to the 100 million on earth.m:J by a factor of as much as 10 over degrees needed to release enor-

SPRING 1979 43 take a number

BY V. R. R. UPPULURI

Do First Digits Have A Peculiar Distribution? A Sorting Problem

Suppose we have a large body of physical Suppose we have n objects, no two of the data, such as the Farmer's Almanac, census same weight, which are to be ranked reports, or the Handbook of Chemistry and according to their weight. Suppose we only Physics. 0 ne may ask for the frequency of have a balance scale without any measured occurrence of the first dig it in a body of data weights to accomplish this goal. The such as the molecular weight of thousands problem is to find the minimum number of of chemical compounds. A priori it seems weighings f(n) needed to accomplish this reasonable to think that each of the nine goal. digits, one through nine, appears equally Clearly, if we have two objects, A and B, often in any such data. this can be accomplished in one weighing. In 1938, the physicist Frank Benford Thus f(2) = 1, and we can rank two objects in observed that this is not so. He investigated one weighing. Similarly, if we have three several tables of numbers and came up with objects, A, B, and C, we can accomplish this the wondrously tantalizing conclusion that goal in f(3) = 3 weighings. Suppose the first the nine digits do not appear equally often. weighing determines A is heavier than B; He observed that in the first position, the then weigh B against C. If B is heavier than number 1 appears more often than 2, and the C, then the problem is done in two number 2 appears more often than 3, and so weighings. But if C is heavier, then a third on. He, in fact, observed that in any table of weighing is needed to compare C with A. constants, number 1 appears in the first Similarly four objects, A, B, C and D, can position 30.6% of the time, and number 2 be ranked with no more than f(4) = 5 appears in the first position 17.6% of the weighings. time, and so on. More generally, Benford The following is a short table of n, the found that the frequency of the digit d being number of objects, versus f(n): the first digit (in any table of physical constants) was very closely approximated n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 by log1o(d + 1) - log1o(d). This law was referred to as the law of anomalous f(n) 0 1 3 5 7 10 13 16 19 22 26 numbers; and several authors such as R. S. Pinkham and R. A. Raimi tried to give A general method of ranking n objects by theoretical justification of this phenomenon. weight with the minimum number of Can one rationalize Benford's Law? weighings seems to be unknown.

44 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review ------

Karen Cromer, the assistant editor shown here, in her office, inter­ of Nuclear Division News at X-10, is viewing Ralph Gable, on leave from on the staff of the UCC-ND Public the faculty of Davidson College in Relations Department. She has Davidson, North Carolina , who is been here since receiving her B.S. faculty advisor this semester for in communications in 1976, with a the Southern College University major in public relations from the Union students working out their University of Tennessee. She is Science Semester at ORNL.

RidGE sciENCE SEMESTER

By KAREN CROMER Southern College University stitutions from five states. Union (SCUU) Oak Ridge Sci­ Many of the 21 students par­ ticipating in this winter's pro­ ' 'It's not easy ... but its ence Semester. Established in worth it," begins a 1974, SCUU is a consortium of gram echo the same sentiments: recruiting pamphlet for the eight southern educational in- "It's no piece of cake ... it's a full

45 SPRING 1979 At left, Laboratory supervisor At left, SCUU Laboratory supervisor Wes Shumate of the Chemical Technology Richard Jones of the Chemistry Division Division and Bruce R. Locke from and Denise Y. Williams of Birmingham­ Vanderbilt University attempt to remove Southern College in Alabama, work to uranium from waste water using bac· develop less expensive surfactants so teria. Locke, a junior majoring in chemi­ that oil can be recovered from fields cal and environmental engineering, is where it is now economically unfeasible. helping develop chemical engineering This research project is one of several at techniques for upgrading a microbio­ ORNL aimed at enhancing oil recovery. logical process from the laboratory scale Williams is a senior majoring in to the pilot-plant scale. chemistry.

40-hour-plus work week." "The ORNL. This is particularly ad­ with the Laboratory and the stakes here are much higher. vantageous to students from community. One of his functions We're not just trying to pass a small liberal arts colleges." as faculty advisor was to serve test; we're preparing for Gable, a member of the faculty not only as a liaison between careers." at Davidson College in North SCUD and ORNL but also as This year's students have Carolina, is participating in the an information resource for the home bases in 13 states from program by special invitation students concerning such mat­ coast to coast. They represent since Davidson is not a member ters as housing, banking, utility seven colleges and universities of the consortium. On assign­ connection, telephone installa­ in four states: Alabama, Ken­ ment with the Chemistry Divi­ tion, shopping, and dining and tucky, Mississippi, and sion's resource and waste chem­ recreational opportunities. Tennessee. istry group, he is studying the "When the students arrived in Dr. Ralph Gable, faculty atmospheric carbon dioxide Oak Ridge in early January, advisor for the 1979 SCUD pro­ problem. they were given an orientation gram, explains the science Gable came to Oak Ridge in to the Laboratory and the com­ semester concept. "It allows December with his wife, munity," said Yvonne Lovely, undergraduate students to carry Wendell. Setting up residence who administers the program out significant research in an in a furnished apartment, he for ORNL's Office of University outstanding facility such as proceeded to familiarize himself Relations and Professional Edu-

46 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review Paul J. Caldwell, Southwestern at Memphis, is attempting to make a self­ supporting diffraction gradient, which is faster and less expensive to develop. He does this holographically by crossing two laser beams and recording the interference pattern. On assignment with the Physics Division, the senior physics major is working with Ed T. Arakawa.

cation. The four-month program semesters are cosponsored by provides juniors and seniors the participating consortia and with opportunities for research the Department of Energy." and study in the following Under the guidance of ORNL areas: engineering, physics, staff members, SCUU partici­ chemistry, biology, ecology, pants carry out research in metallurgy, mathematics, and areas of each student's major economics. field of interest. The research "A similar program-one areas range from projects aimed which was the forerunner of the at enhancing oil recovery to SCUU program-has been con­ those dealing with DNA and ducted each fall at the Labora­ carcinogens. A look at a cross tory since 1970," said Lovely. section of SCUU student re­ "The Fall Science Semester is search projects illustrates how for participants in the Great the backgrounds of the partici­ Lakes Colleges Association­ pants are matched with the Associated Colleges of the Mid­ division assignments. west, a consortium of 25 colleges Bruce R. Locke, a junior at and universities. The science Vanderbilt University working

47 SPRING 1979 Barbara A. Broughton, Centre College (Kentucky), has been assigned to the Biology Division, where she is observing the effects of certain coal-conversion by-products on the growth, respiration, behavior, and devewpment of Tetra­ hymena pyriformis, a ciliated protozoa. The senior biowgy major is working under the direction of James Dumont.

48 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review Jan M. Coe, Centre College, is testing deciduous trees during the winter Patti L. Holt, a junior biology and art months to evaluate their photosynthetic major, has been assigned to the Biology capacity and changes during the dor­ Division under the guidance of her mant period. The senior biology and Laboratory supervisor, Howard Adler, environmental science major works with leader of the microbial genetics group. Sandy McLaughlin, terrestrial ecolngy The Centre College student is investigat­ > section, Environmental Sciences ing the mechanism of cell division using Division. Escherichia coli.

cover oil from many fields where it is now too expensive. There­ fore, my project involves work­ ing with others to develop surfactants which cost less. Specifically, we are trying to make fatty-acid carboxylates (widely available natural prod­ ucts) more effective as sur­ factants by modifying their structure." A junior in economics and management at Centre College in Kentucky, Karen Frisina is working with Ken Corum of the Energy Division, where she puts her textbook knowledge into real-world application. ''My final product will involve a regional on a double major in chemical (Alabama), Denise Y. Williams microeconomic analysis of solar­ and environmental engineering, has been assigned to the heating versus conventional appears to be well placed. Under Chemistry Division, where space-heating systems." the direction of Wilson Pitt in Josh Johnson is her Laboratory Ed Maggart, a biology major the Chemical Technology Divi­ supervisor. Her research project from the University of the South sion, Locke is developing some is one of several at ORNL aimed at Sewanee, has been working of the chemical engineering at enhancing oil recovery. with Barbara Walton, an ento­ techniques for upgrading a "It is known that the addition mologist in the Environmental microbiological process from of surfactants to oil wells can Sciences Division. He is investi­ laboratory to pilot-plant scale. significantly increase oil recov­ gating the effects of acridine, The specific process deals with ery," said Williams. "For this one of the chemical by-products the removal of uranium from purpose, detergents have to be of coal conversion, on crickets. waste water using bacteria. used in large quantities, and By using low levels of acridine, A senior chemistry major at cheaper detergents would make which are both sublethal and Birmingham-Southern College it economically feasible to re- environmentally realistic, he

SPRING 1979 49 Mark L. Friedman, a junior biochemistry major, is working with Mayo Uziel in the Biology Division, where he is isolating transfer RNAs from normal and malignant tissue cells and detecting any structural changes in the nucleotides of the tRNA. He attends Centre College. is determining whether these levels of the chemical in food influence reproduction and growth. His goal is to determine how this chemical affects insect populations and other invertebrates. Considering the time it takes to train and advise the SCUU students, do the Laboratory supervisors working on a one-to­ one basis with them think the four-month investment is a worthwhile venture? Two Labo­ ratory advisors shared their comments. "Absolutely!" declared Lawton Smith of the Biology Division, who has served three years as his division's university rela­ tions coordinator, with respon­ sibility for assigning students to different biology researchers. "Both the student and the re­ assigned to the Environmental radioactive isotopes. They also searcher profit from this ar­ Sciences Division, also feels the participate each week in an rangement. The findings of investment is worthwhile: "Even interdisciplinary colloquium. many students are often sig­ though this is my first experi­ About half the students are tak­ nificant contributions to ence with the SCUU program, I ing a history of science course publications." see rewards in two areas. First, I taught by Gable, while others He emphasizes that the find answers to problems I don't are pursuing independent stud­ students are not given ''busy have time to research myself. ies under home faculty or are work." "I don't know of any Second, with respect to the taking courses through the supervisor who has used his or projects assigned to Ed, I'm University of Tennessee. her student as just another pair not under pressure to reap The students receive not only of hands." immediate results from these hands-on experience but also Smith speaks from experience. projects. His findings may be academic credit. The Oak Ridge Having worked both as univer­ exploratory in nature, suggest­ Science Semester-including re­ sity relations coordinator and as ing new ideas for research." search participation, one resi­ a laboratory supervisor, he has In addition to work on their dent course (or independent seen 30 students pass through research assignments, students study course), and the seminar his division, either as SCUU attend a three-day training series- is considered equal to participants or as participants course at Oak Ridge Associated one full term's work, or a maxi­ in similar programs. Universities. This consists of mum of 16 semester hours. Oc­ Barbara Walton, who is serv­ lectures and laboratory sessions casionally, students who make ing as advisor to Ed Maggart, dealing with applications of special arrangements to extend

50 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review Verba A. Moore, Millsaps College in Mississippi, is working with transfer RNA trying to establish a pathway in the production of a protein which is not always present in a normal cell. The protein is used for detoxifying metals. A premedicine senior majoring in chem· istry, she works with Lee Shugart in the Biology Division.

The 21 SCUU students currently at the Laboratory by division and educational institu­ tion are as follows: Biology: Barbara A. Broughton, Michael C. Cronen, Mark L. Friedman, and Patti L. Holt, all of Centre College; Verba A. Moore and Duane B. Shroyer, Michael C. Cronen, a junior majoring in Millsaps College; and Ronald C. chemistry, has been assigned to the Watson, Birmingham-Southern Biology Division's cancer and toxicowgy College. section. Under the guidance of Arend Kootstra, he is working with DNA and Chemical Technology: Bruce R. carcinogens, specifically, the binding of Locke, Vanderbilt University. benzo[a]pyrene diol-epoxide to the histone proteins. Cronen attends Centre Chemistry: Charles M. Fowler College. and Mark L. Mudano, Univer­ sity of the South; Timothy A. overall grade-point average and Whitley, Southwestern at no lower than a 3.0 average in Memphis; and Denise Y. their major field, based on a Williams, Birmingham-Southern 4.0 scale. College. Most students participating in Energy: Karen Frisina, Centre the program are juniors or se­ College; and Kathleen H. niors majoring in biology, chem­ Herbert, University of the istry, physics, engineering, South. their research terms may be mathematics, and economics. granted more credit than the Students majoring in other sci­ Environmental Sciences: Jan M. normal maximum. entific and social science dis­ Coe, Centre College; Catherine "Selection of participants is ciplines may also be eligible. C. Keffer, Ed F. Maggart, and made by the SCUU Science Participating institutions in Mel S. Schulze, University of the Policy Committee (composed of the Southern College University South; and Karla F. Vetter, faculty in the eight-college con­ Union include: Birmingham­ Eastern Kentucky University, sortium), with the advice and Southern College, Alabama; which is participating in the assistance of Laboratory scien­ Centenary College, Shreveport, SCUU program through special tists," said Lovely. "Final selec­ Louisiana; Centre College, permissiOn. tion is based not only on grades, Canville, Kentucky; Fisk Uni­ Health and Safety Research: which are an important factor, versity and Vanderbilt Univer­ Paul J. Caldwell, Southwestern but also on whether the stu­ sity, Nashville; Millsaps College, at Memphis. dents' background experience Jackson, Mississippi; South­ fits the scientists' current re­ western at Memphis; and the Oak Ridge Associated search needs." Usually, appli­ University of the South, Universities: Robert W. Butler, cants should have at least a 3.0 Sewanee, Tennessee.§ Centre College.

SPRING 1979 51 awards and appointments

Carol A. Heckman has been prize, compilations category; Geo­ Preliminary Analyses," History appointed to a second term on the logical and Geochemical Aspects of American Ecology, by Robert National Science Foundation's of Uranium Deposits: A Selected L. Burgess, first prize, journal Advisory Committee on Cell Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 1, review articles; "Fuel from Ac­ Biology. by M. B. White and P. A. celerators-An Alternative to Ted Lundy has been named Garland, second prize, compila­ Breeder Reactors?" ORNL Re­ manager of the National Thermal tions category; HTGR Safety: view, by Lorraine S. Abbott, Insulation Materials and Sys­ Review of Current Issues and first prize, news articles category; tems Programs for the Depart­ Bibliography by Joel Buchanan ORNL Regional Energy News­ ment of Energy. and G. W. Keilholtz, third prize, letter, edited by Betty Galyan compilations category; Reactor Shields, second prize, newslet­ R. A. Bradley has been ap­ Operating Experiences, 1975 - 77 ters category; The Role of pointed manager of the National by G. T. Mays and R. L. Scott, Electron Accelerators in U.S. Fossil Energy Materials Program fourth prize, compilations cate­ Medium Energy Nuclear Science, for the Department of Energy. gory; Environmental Monitoring R. S. Livingston, Study Group In the joint competition held Handbook for Coal Conversion Chairman (L. Foster and recently by the East Tennessee Facilities by M. S. Salk, S. G. J. Swift, editors), first chapters of the Society for Tech­ DeCicco, and Radian Corpora­ prize, technical reports cat­ nical Communication and Indus­ tion, second prize, handbooks egory; Reviews of the En­ trial Graphics International, the category; Regional Transporta­ vironmental Effects of Pol­ following ORNL entries received tion Energy Conversion Data lutants. IV. Cadmium by A. S. awards: Energy Division An­ Book (first edition), fourth prize, Hammons, J. E. Huff, H. M. nual Progress Report by Bill handbooks category; ORNL Braunstein, J. S. Drury, C. R. Fulkerson, first prize, annual Review, Barbara Lyon and Chriner, E. B. Lewis, B. L. reports category; Chemical Tech­ Carolyn Krause, first prize, Whitfield, and L. E. Towill nology Division Annual Progress house organs category; Nuclear (authors) and Carol B. Mc­ Report by Don Ferguson and Safety, edited by William B. Glothin and Anita B. Gill staff, second prize, annual reports Cottrell, first prize, journals (editors), second prize, technical category; Neutron Physics Di­ category; Synthetic Fuels Pro­ reports; and Radiological Impact mswn Progress Report by cess Research Digest, edited of Airborne Effluents of Coal­ Lorraine S. Abbott, second by Fred O'Hara, second Fired and Nuclear Power Plants prize, annual reports category; prize, journals category; "Large by J.P. McBride, R. E. Moore, Proceedings of the 1977 Thermocouple Thermometry Er­ J. P. Witherspoon, and R. E. DOE Statistical Symposium by rors Caused by Magnetic Fields," Blanco, third prize, technical Donald A. Gardiner and Review of Scientific Instruments, reports. Tykey Truett, third prize, books by T. G. Kollie, R. L. Ander­ In the technical art cate­ category; Teaching Your Heart to son, J. L. Horton, and M. J. gories, ORNL winners were Survive, first prize, brochures Roberts, first prize, journal re­ John Waggoner, third prize in category; United States Uranium search articles; ''Uranium brochure design and third prize in Enrichment Services by Joe Assay of Phosphate Fertilizers cover design, and David Cot­ W. Gollehon, second prize, and Other Phosphate Materials," trell, third prize in visual aids/ brochures category; President Health Physics, by Edward J. charts. Carter's Visit to Oak Ridge Na­ Bouwer, John W. McKlveen, tional Laboratory, May 22, 1978, and W. J. McDowell, fourth Richard F. Kimball has been second prize, brochures category; prize, journal research articles; designated a Corporate Research Bibliography of Reports on Re­ "The Ecological Society of Amer­ Fellow by the Union Carbide search by Joel Buchanan, first ica Historical Data and Some Corporation's Nuclear Division.

52 OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Review Paul Blakely has been ap­ William R. Busing has been vironmental Monitoring Hand­ pointed chairman of Meeting appointed a member of the Com­ book for Coal Conversion Facil­ Publications for the newly es­ mittee for Crystallography of the ities," in the International Tech­ tablished Publications Steering National Research Council. nical Communications Confer­ Committee in the American ence competition. The award will Sheldon Datz has been named Nuclear Society. be presented at the conference's a Corporate Research Fellow by 26th annual meeting in Los the Nuclear Division of Union Robert J. Gray and Gerald M. Angeles this month. Slaughter have received "Certi­ Carbide Corporation. ficates of Appreciation" from Gerald M. Slaughter has been W. Harvey Gray has been asked DOE for their participation in the selected to present the Comfort A. to serve on the Computer Tech­ investigation of the September 21, Adams Lecture at the Ameri­ nology Committee of the ASME 1978, explosion and fire at the can Welding Society's annual Pressure Vessel and Piping Divi­ Strategic Petroleum Reserve in meeting. sion. He has also been asked to West Hackberry, Louisiana. serve on the Review Board for the James D. Regan has been Journal of Applied Mechanics. Stanley I. Auerbach is a juror selected as a Fellow ofthe Japan for the 13th annual Chief of Society for the Promotion of Yok Chen was appointed Fellow Engineers Design and Environ­ Science. in the American Physical Society. mental Awards Program. Stanley I. Auerbach has been Ed Kobisk has been elected to Noah R. Johnson has been named an editor of Environment the Board of Directors of the elected a Fellow of the American International, a new journal of International Target Develop­ Physical Society. science, technology, health, moni­ ment Society. toring and policy. David E. Reichle has been Liane Russell has been inducted appointed to a two-year term on Charles C. Coutant has been into the Hunter College Hall of the National Science Founda­ appointed to a three-year term on Fame in recognition of her con­ tion's Advisory Subcommittee for the advisory board of Environ­ tributions to the field of radiation the Applied Physical, Mathemat­ mental Science and Technology. mutagenesis. ical, and Biological Section of the Division of Applied Research. M. S. Salk and Steve DiCicco, with Radian Corporation and the LaRue Foster was elected vice­ ORNL Technical Publications president of the East Tennessee Department, won the Award of Chapter of the International As­ Excellence (second place) in the sociation of Business Communi­ Handbooks category, for "En- cators.

In the month of February of this year, a card was mailed to everyone on the "internal" distribution list (employees only) for the OR NL Review. The card contained instructions to the effect that the recipient who wished to continue to receive the publication should return the card in the plant mail. The response indicated that 81% of the salaried employees and 17% of the hourly employees want to continue to receive the Review. However, identifying the employees who did not return the card will be such a large job that for many of them, the first issue to be missed will be the Summer 1979 issue, rather than this one, as was promised on the card. As of this writing, similar cards are in preparation for the external mailing list. U.S. Postage PAID BULK RATE Oak Ridge, Tenn. OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY REVIEW Permit No. 3 P. 0. BOX X: OAK RIDGE, TENNESSEE 37130

POSTMASTER: DO NOT FORWARD: IF ADDRESSEE HAS MOVED, RETURN TO SENDER IMMEDIATELY. RETURN POSTAGE GUARANTEED.

This stitchery, commissioned by Herman Postma of Sharon Fields to represent the variety of people who work at ORNL, now hangs on the Laboratory Director's office wall. It is worked in mixed fibers, in tones of brown and green and coral with a natural fiber background. Fields is employed by the Anderson County Community Action Commission as a craft center developer in charge of the Community Craft Cooperative, near Norris. She is the wife of David Fields, a member of the Computer Sciences Division. The panel is over three feet long.