<<

I COVER CAPTION I

Digital multispectral imagery of the Oak Ridge Reservation, collected in January 1987 by the French SPOT satellite, has been draped over a digital elevation model by the GIS and Computer Modeling group at ORNL to produce a 3-D perspectives image of ORNL and its surroundings viewed from the southwest. The three-band image has been pseudo-colored. Red features generally correspond to active vegetation (e.g., evergreens), light bluish colors tend to depict cultural features such as buildings and roads, and dark blue represents water bodies. See the article on geographic information system technologies (in use in photo below) on p. 46.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review is published quarterly and distributed to employees and others associated with or interested in ORNL. The address of our editorial office is Building 4500-South,M.S. 6144, 0akRidge,TN37831-6144; telephone: (615}574-7183or(615}574-6974; FAX, (615}574-1 001; electronic mail, [email protected].

If you have changed your mailing address and want to remain on the mailing li st, please notify the editorial office.

Internet users can find the Review at: http://www.ornl .gov/ ORNLReview/rev26-2/text/home.htrnl

The Review is also avai lable on microfiche at the ORNL Central Research Library.

The Review is printed in the of America and is also available from the National Technical Information Service, U.S . Department of Commerce, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161.

ORNL is managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc., for the Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05- 840R21400.

ISSN 0048-1262

Editor Carolyn Krause

Associate Editor Jim Pearce

Consulting Editor Bill Appleton

Designer Linda Dickert

Technical Editing Mike Aaron

Electronic Publishing Larry Davis

Produced by the Information Management Services Organization I Volume 28 Number 1, 1995 FEATURES

2 The Oak Ridge Solution to Manufacturing Problems Bill Wilburn

The business of the Oak Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technologies is to help business.

22 Risky Business: Assessing Cleanup Plans for Waste Sites Bonnie Blaylock

ORNL is the leader in assessing the health and ecological risks of cleaning up DOE's waste sites.

SIDEBAR: Ecological Risks of Environmental Restoration by Larry Barnthouse

36 Oak Ridge Reservation: Nationally Valuable Natural Resource Patricia D. Parr and Linda K. Mann

The Oak Ridge Reservation, although contaminated, has a rich diversity of plant and animal species.

46 ORNL and the Geographic Information Systems Revolution Jerome E. Dobson and Richard C. Durfee

Over the past 25 years, ORNL ha been a leader in developing and using geographic information system technologies, which are increasingly popular research and planning tools.

72 Tributes to Cliff Shull and Alvin Weinberg Oak Ridge honors its winner and a former ORNL director. Alex Zucker reviews Weinberg's late t book, and Weinberg speaks out on a variety of topics in an interview with the Review's editors.

DEPARTMENTS

90 A wards and Appointments

92 Technical Highlights--Environmentally safe bullets; self-lubricating coating for engine parts; new aqueous electrolytes software; waste-to-fuel cubes tested; world record for computer model of molecular dynamics

98 R&D Updates-Lawrence Award for ORNL researcher; dedication of world's fa test computer and Computational Center for Industrial Innovation; different neutron source proposed for ORNL; State of the Laboratory address; artificial magmas from in situ vitrification studied; real cost of power from coal explored; the value of DOE's inventions program; isotope production resumed at 50-year-old calutrons

115 Technology Transfer-CRADA, award, and license for ORNL's thin-film lithium battery technology; ORNL's role in reducing traffic congestion at the 1996 Summer Olympic in Atlanta

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a multiprogram, multipurpose laboratory that conducts research in energy production and end-use technologies; biological and environmental science and technology; advanced materials synthesis, processing, and characterization; and the physical sciences including neutron-based science and technology.

small company has a manufacturing Newton Solomon's company is just one problem th. at it cannot solve because it example of the hundreds of companies that have A lacks the in- resources. Then solved manufacturing problems through company officials learn they have easy access to interaction with ORCMT. Whether the problem is world-class manufacturing and applied research preventing corrosion of steel plates for electric and development facilities that can help them stay griddles, certifying a measurement reference in business. This valuable resource is the Oak master used in building a next-generation space Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technology telescope, or developing a way to make cloth ORCMT's (ORCMT). ORCMT offers the expertise of the faster and cheaper, ORCMT staff members can business is to Department of Energy's (DOE's) three Oak meet the challenge. Ridge sites managed by Lockheed Martin Energy help business Systems, Inc.-the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, Oak Hybrid Organization with Ridge National Laboratory, and the Oak Ridge "ORCMT combines the research and manufacturing, K-25 Site. development capabilities of ORNL with the Many of ORCMT's facilities were originally which is a unique manufacturing technologies of the Oak developed for manufacturing components of Ridge Y -12 Plant and the pollution-prevention key to nuclear weapons. Now, these technologies for research and waste management capabilities at defense are being adapted into technologies to America's the Oak Ridge K-25 Site to assist American help make American industries more competitive economzc industry," says ORCMT director Dave Beck. in the world marketplace while maintaining "We bridge the gap between ideas and products health. national security capabilities. and between the laboratory and the factory floor. ORCMT's business is to help business with We like to say we solve tough manufacturing manufacturing, which is a key to America's problems- and we do. I believe there are very economic health. Here' s an example of one of its few research or manufacturing problems that many successes. someone here at Oak Ridge cannot solve." Newton A. Solomon owns a small business in The centers-more than 25 in all- are Murfreesboro, Tennessee, that makes circuit organized through a matrix structure into seven board prototypes, specializing in fast turnaround core technology areas, such as manufacturing of small orders for companies developing new technology development. products. Inspection of the boards showed a high Each center concentrates on a specific failure rate because they were getting burned in technical area, such as coatings and finishing, and the plating process. These failures were costing may well perform work at several locations Solomon' s company money and potential linked as a "virtual center." Staffs for the centers business. He needed a quick and cost-effective are composed of personnel from various Y -12 solution to his manufacturing problem. He got Plant organizations, several ORNL divisions that solution-and immediate results in product (including Engineering Technology, improvement-by calling ORCMT at the Y-12 Instrumentation and Controls, and Metals and Plant. Ceramics), and Central Engineering Services. Solomon was pleased with the help he received. In a letter of appreciation to the ORCMT staff he wrote, "This is the first time in Maintain Expertise my more than 30 years in business that a large company has been so helpful to me- a small, ORCMT's efforts form a customer-driven, minority businessperson." nationally recognized industrial resource center

Jerry Whitaker of the Y-12 Plant's Testing and Evaluation Center analyzes acoustic emission data fro m a weld. Acoustic emission technology is used at the Oak Ridge Centers fo r Manufacturing Technology to understand weld cracking. This center is the most heavily used at ORCMT.

Number One, 1995 3 THE OAK RIDGE SOLUTION TO MANUFACTURING PROBLEMS

precise machining, process control, and inspection tools in the world. The plant's job was to turn the design ideas of the country's weapons design labs into shop-floor reality. Its staff manufactured items to levels of precision virtually unmatched in either the public or the private sector, and the SOOth part produced had to be precisely the same as the first part to ensure the reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile. ORNL, on the other hand, since its days of producing plutonium for the Manhattan Project, has built an international reputation as a multiprogram laboratory. It i known for its expertise in basic and applied The end of research, isotope production, energy production and conservation, physical and life sciences, the Cold War technology transfer, and education. continues to For the taxpayer, ORCMT offers an opportunity to realize a return on 50 years of Cold drive War investment in defense and energy a national technologies at DOE's laboratories. Now, the effort to use expertise across a broad spectrum of scientific and technological disciplines is available to solve defense manufacturing problems; create new materials, technologies Russ Greeley, a materials joining technologist, products, and processes; foster technological to enhance watches two parts being welded together by a innovation; reduce or prevent pollution; and help laser welder in the Materials Joining Center. create high-quality jobs for Americans. the nation's Harnessing such expertise is part of DOE's industrial for manufacturing technology. ORCMT had at strategic plan to dramatically improve American least part of its genesis in the National industrial competitiveness in the world competitive­ Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act of marketplace. ness. 1989. This law encouraged DOE's defense facilities to seek out and work with the private Manufacturing-Key to sector. President George Bush's 1992 announcement that the United States would not Economic Growth build any new nuclear weapons, the end of the Although manufacturing has been shrinking Cold War, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union over the past 20 years, it is an enormously brought an abrupt change in the mission of the important part of the U.S. economy. In 1991 and Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant. Quickly it shifted from 1992, the most recent years for which statistics are weapons production to weapons dismantlement available, manufacturing accounted for about and storage of the nation's enriched uranium 18.5% of our real gross domestic product. stockpile. The end of the Cold War also continues Although manufacturing is still a mainstay of the to drive-at increasing speed-a national effort to economy, production processes are changing. use defense technologies to enhance the nation's Because of these , ORCMT fits well into industrial competitiveness while maintaining its the manufacturing mosaic. capability to support the defense mission. "People say our economy is changing from a When it was producing nuclear weapons manufacturing economy to a service economy," components during the Cold War, the Y-12 Plant says Dave Beck. "We don' t believe that's true. acquired, or developed in-house, some of the most There is a need for the United States to maintain a

4 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW strong capability in manufacturing. There is a lot di sappeared because of tight budgets. Small firms of foreign competition, especially from Germany, use ORCMT as a research and development arm." France, and Japan, where the companies get a lot Jack Cook, co-director of ORCMT from of help from their government. This country has a ORNL's Engineering and Manufacturi ng growing need for the government to help the Directorate, says, "The combination of private sector. Manufacturing jobs are high­ manufacturing capability, technology, and applied paying jobs. Manufacturing is the backbone for research and development is the most valuable the whole country." asset in the centers, perhaps a unique combination One way that American business can compete in the coun try. The umbrella of the centers covers in a world where people will work fo r incredibly a lot of manufacturing terri tory. We can develop low wages is by increasing the efficiency of and test a new coating to make a product last manufacturing through use of technology. longer or we can help a mom-and-pop shop solve "Unfortunately," says Carl Leitten of the a problem that threatens to put them out of Manufacturing Technology Section of ORNL's business." Engineering Technology Division (ETD), "much Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary's Although of American industry's capability for Performance Agreement with the President manufacturing technology development has includes DOE goals that call for "a more mamifacturing is still a mainstay of the Karen Rogers holds a computer-designed mold for the lug displayed on the screen. The lug created by the mold is an example of the materi als that can be produced using economy, ORCMT'S concurrent engineering capabilities. production processes are changing.

Number One, 1995 5 THE OAK RIDGE SOLUTION TO MA NUFACTURING PROBLEMS

Small businesses need ORCMT has received requests from numerous businesses in the United States. Numbers on the map research and represent problems solved for businesses within each of the 50 states. In some cases ORCMT has development. responded to two or more different requests from a single busi ness. ORCMTcan be their R&D arm. productive and competitive economy." Two goals actually go to company sites to analyze problems are to "improve industrial competitiveness" and and suggest solutions. The funding is limited to a "promote economic growth and the creation of total of $5000 per company request. DOE's high-wage jobs through access to technical Defense Programs National Machine Tool information and research and development Partnership (NMTP) works in much the same partnerships with industry." way, except it can provide up to 10 days of technical help to any U.S. machine tool Reaching Out manufacturer or user. Since it was officially created in September ORCMT helps achieve these goals by aiding its 1993, ORCMT's industrial outreach has generated business customers through direct assistance, some impressive statistics. Through the second partnerships, cooperative research and quarter of fiscal 1995, the centers had assisted development agreements (CRADAs), user more than 1600 businesses nationwide. Industries facilities access, and work for others. requesting technical assistance include automotive Direct assistance transfers know-how on using part production, food product manufacturing, technology better, more efficiently, or in a unique ceramic manufacturing and machining, materials application. testing and evaluation, and precision Direct assistance is a hands-on approach. If measurement. The private-sector impact of this problems can't be solved through telephone calls assistance is estimated at more than $150 or fax transmittals, Oak Ridge technical experts million-a 400% (4: 1) return on investment. It is

6 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW estimated that between 1994 and 1998, the centers will timulate over $1 billion of private­ sector benefits and create 25,000 high-quality jobs. While the direct a sistance programs and the NMTP allow ORCMT to send its expertise out to businesses, the Deployment/User Facility Program permits businesse and educational Oak Ridge institutions to come to ORCMT and use technical facilities and equipment they might not experts go to otherwise be able to access. Feedback on the Deployment/User Facility Program rates the company sites program as excellent. The user facilities, which to analyze have been open since August 1993, have entered into 30 user agreements, including 18 problems and with educational institutions, 5 with large suggest businesses, and 7 with small busine es, solutions. involving entities in 10 states. Educational institutions can use the centers free if the work will provide economic benefit to small business. ORCMT staff also have been involved in 87 CRADAs with a value totaling $135 .7 million (both DOE and partner contributions) and in Work for Others agreements in which work i performed for specific companies on a reimbursable basis. Mike Pelfrey (right) a machinist in the Skills Demonstration Center, explains the workings of a Filling Gaps in Training computer numerically-controlled three-axis milling machine to John Jordon and Don Garren. ORCMT's Manufacturing Skills Campus and the Skills Demonstration Center provide training opportunities for clients ranging from manufacturing and maintenance skills. Classes high school and post-secondary vocational school cover subjects ranging from computer students to professional technicians, designers, numerically-controlled machining to personal and craftspeople. The center provides both computer maintenance and troubleshooting to classroom instruction and hands-on experience protecting the environment by proper refrigerant with a wide range of machine tools and testing management. The Skills Campus also has equipment. prepared a series of highly successful classes that Created to maintain essential manufacturing have been broadcast to remote ites by satellite. skills, retrain workers affected by defense Coy Gibson, director of the Tennessee program cuts, and transfer skills to local industrial Technology Center at Jacksboro, is involved with firms to increase their competitiveness, the Skills a program at the Skills Demonstration Center Campus has served more than 1500 students, where local workers are being trained as tool and including more than 500 from private industry or die makers. The training offered in this field fills a schools in the region. Projections are for the gap in East Tennessee, where no postsecondary program to increase private-sector involvement as tool-and-die programs are offered. Jacksboro's the program matures, providing training in both Tennessee Technology Center, which provides

Number One, 1995 7 THE OAK RIDGE SOLUTION TO MANUFACTURING PROBLEMS

vocational and technical training, saw local Another highly visible and highly successful indu try' s growing need for tool and die making technology training tool is the Mobile and began preparing to fill that need. The Manufacturing Learning Center, which was Technology Center, however, did not have developed for the state of Tennessee. This facility several pieces of high-tech equipment that would provides students at Tennessee high schools with enable it to offer a state-of-the-art program. a hands-on opportunity in advanced "We could deliver 85 % of what we needed for manufacturing technologies. It offers computer­ the program at the center, but we did not have integrated manufacturing device including those machines," Gibson says. As a result of the robots, milling machinery, a conveyor, a Jacksboro experience, the Skills Campus has computer, and computer-integrated manufacturing recently initiated a user agreement with the software, all operating on a local computer Knoxville Tennessee Technology Center to network in the center. provide a tool-and-die training program for Knoxville similar to the program offered for the Strategic Alliances Jacksboro campus. ORCMT ha formed strategic alliances with federal and state agencies to better serve industry. One such alliance with the Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) resulted in the creation of a NIST -accredited metrology program at Oak Ridge. This agreement allows ORCMT to offer a precision measurement ervice that previously had been available only from laboratorie in Germany. The service i now offered to domestic automobile, aircraft, and farm equipment manufacturer , among others. Under this agreement, the Dimensional Metrology Laboratory can calibrate end standards and step gauges up to 1.35 meters long to a certified accuracy of 0.7 micrometer per meter (or about one one-hundredth of the diameter of a human hair). Manufacturers use these standards as in-house references to verify the accuracy of their own measurement machines, such as those used to inspect the dimensions of finished parts and assembli es of parts. In fact, the Metrology Center recently completed a contract to certify eight reference rna ters used in the production of optical elements for the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility-the next generation space Ray Buttram, at the display board, makes a point telescope. The service combines NIST's durin g a software applications class at the measurement expertise and the Y-12 Plant's Manufacturing Skills Campus of the Oak Ridge advanced technological capabilities, including a Centers for Manufacturing Technology. The Skills high-precision, large-volume coordinate Campus offers remote broadcasts that reach measuring machine, the most accurate machine in seven states, and its videotapes of classes are distributed throughout the Southeast. its class. The mammoth machine is housed in a room in which the temperature can be controlled

8 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW to within 0.01 °C. The accuracies of the measurements performed at the ORCMT are certified by NIST, the nation's primary measurement and standards laboratory. The ORCMT laboratory recently received the first U.S. accreditation for dimensional metrology under the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program. In partnership with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Gear Manufacturers Association, and Penn State University, NIST and ORCMT are developing a national Gear Metrology Center in Oak Ridge to provide advanced measurement services critical to the manufacture and quality assurance of precision gears. To illustrate the impact of ORCMT on national competitiveness, gears in German-made helicopters last longer than those in U.S.-made aircraft because the gears are more precise and therefore mesh better. At the Gear Metrology Center, precision Companies measurements will be made on gear using the masters (or standards). Companies A coordinate measuring machine measures volume changes in center will using the center will be able to heat-treated gears as part of the data gathering process for be able to measure their gears against the gear cooperative research conducted by DOE, several American masters characterized in Oak Ridge to automakers, the National Center fo r Manufacturing Sciences, measure ensure precision and the best possible and the Gear Research Institute. meshing to lengthen gear life. their gears NIST experts perform hands-on to ensure work in the center, providing extensive Tennessee Department of Economic and preczswn engineering support for its calibrations. ORCMT Community Development, and the Southeast houses the center and provides experience in Manufacturing Technology Center. This and the best complex geometry measurement, precision partnership network increases ORCMT's possible measurement, and associated equipment. availability as a technology resource for industry Technical staff also address other aspects of gear in the areas served by the partners. meshing to manufacturing and measurement, including lengthen materials testing, nondestructive evaluation, and Areas of ORNL Involvement gear life. benchmarking. The centers provide direct technology ORNL researchers are closely involved with assistance through agreements with the five high-profile ORCMT programs-advanced Tennessee Valley Authority, the University of ceramics, textiles, composites manufacturing, Tennessee Center for Industrial Services, the coatings and finishings, and diagnostics.

Number One, 1995 9 Industry Segments Ill ·eu

10 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Organizational lines are blurred, with some Subcontracts have been set up with many project managers located at ORNL for work companies for demonstrating specific high­ being done at the Y-12 Plant, center managers on accuracy ceramic component manufacturing loan from several divisions, and technical support technology. Other companies are working with and equipment corning from all three sites. Here Oak Ridge staff to develop better grinding wheels is a brief look at each of these programs. and evaluation instruments. Numerous projects conducted by industrial Structural Ceramics users at the HTML concern high-accuracy instrumented ceramic grinding, dimensional To reduce our nation's dependence on analysis, and surface metrology. Industrial firms imported oil and cut emissions from vehicles, are also employing tools in the six HTML user highly efftcient piston and gas turbine engines are centers to characterize candidate materials for Weare being developed. Because they mu t be run at their products. establishing high temperatures to use fuel mo t efficiently and Arvid Pasto, HTML director, cited the creation an integrated emit little pollution, valves and other components of the Ceramic Manufacturability Center at of these engines will be made from structural ORNL as a model for other types of cross­ set of ceramics such as silicon nitride. These ceramics, organizational teams for the future. The center capabilities unlike metal, do not melt or corrode at such high contains state-of-the-art machine tools for use by temperatures. teams of researchers from industry, ORNL, and for Use of these ceramics is limited by two the Y-12 Plant. They are working together to manufacturing obstacles: the difficulty of making low-cost determine better ways to grind structural ceramics structural ceramic powders and the high cost of machining rapidly and accurately. This center complements these bard materials accurately to the critical the other six HTML user centers, allowing its ceramzcs. dimensions required to shape them into engine parts. The e problem are being addressed through the DOE­ supported Cost-Effective Machining of Ceramics (CEMOC) program. Ceramics are difficult to machine-the materials are nearly as bard a the diamonds used to grind them. Currently, engine components formed from structural ceramic cost far more than designers can accept. Reducing the cost depends heavily on advance in the nation's machine tool industry. The CEMOC program aims at helping the industry develop improved tools to machine ceramics at lower costs. The CEMOC program includes CRADAs, subcontracts with industry on ceramic manufacturing in the Ceramic Technology Project, and user projects at ORNL's High Temperature Materials Laboratory ORCMT staff are developing ceramic components for highly efficient (HTML). gas turbine engines that will be operated at temperatures that would melt metal engine parts.

Number One, 1995 11 THE OAK RIDGE SOLUTION TO MANUFACTURING PROBLEMS

users to rapidly and fully characterize their (CAFE), Demand-Activated Manufacturing machined materials. Architecture (DAMA), and Textile Resource Fred Jones, an Energy Systems Corporate Conservation (TReC). The CAFE laboratory Fellow and Core Manager fo r Industry Specific project manager is Glenn Allgood of ORNL's We have Technology, commenting on the working Instrumentation and Controls Division. ORCMT created a relationship that has developed through CEMOC, researchers are most closely involved with the says, "The terrifically unique thing about these CAFE project. textile center ceramic projects at Oak Ridge is that they bring "What we are doing here is building a to help show together the incredibly strong materials science partnership that supports textile industry needs," what expertise of ORNL research, the world-class Allgood says. "Specifically, we provide a central equipment at the High Temperature Materials point for developing and testing new concepts ORCMTcan Laboratory, and the Y-12 Plant staffs unique that could lead to rapid development, deployment, do for the experience in manufacturing. Those three and prototyping of new textile technologies. We elements make it go. What is significant is that we have created a textile center to test those textile are establishing an integrated set of capabilities technologies and to help show industry what industry. for manufacturing structural ceramics." ORCMT can do for the textile manufacturers." "We don't have this great delineation of us or Fabric woven from spun yarn and filament on them," says Bill Barkman, manager of the looms may develop defects during the weaving Ceramic Manufacturability Center. "We view it as process. After a production run, workers feel and an Oak Ridge program. We tap whatever look at cloth in search of defects. If defects are resources are appropriate. We've looked at the fou nd, the off-quality cloth is discarded. whole organization and pulled out the resources Correcting this inefficiency to reduce financial that could do the best job for the industrial losses i one of AMTEX's goals. partner." One purpose of the CAFE project is to develop an on-line inspection system that would detect defects as they occur and remove the bad cloth Textiles from the production run to reduce manufacturing waste. Allgood has led the development of an on­ Textile manufacturing occupies a very Large loom greige-inspection system that combines sector of the U.S. economy. The $219 billion optical sensors and machine diagnostics with textile industry employs 12% of the computers. Greige (French for gray) is manufacturing work force and consumes about unbleached, undyed raw fabric. The system can 6% of the nation's energy. And, like other sectors detect and map structural defects. Information is in the manufacturing economy, textiles have passed along by computer to the next production undergone dramatic changes in recent years step, such as cutting. This information is also fed because of pressure from off-shore manufacturers. back to the process to remediate the cause of the The AMTEX program is an agreement between defects. The data also provide the basis for DOE and the textile industry to apply the specific process control. skills of the national laboratories to improve all The CAFE project is also developing a system aspects of textiles-from raw material use to for inspecting color-printed pattern goods. Smart retail sales. optical sensors are used to ensure that colored Oak Ridge is participating in three AMTEX patterns on cloth are true and in register. A projects: Computer-Aided Fabric Evaluation prototype system now being tested at textile firms

12 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Coatings can be designed A high-speed weaving machine was provided by Glen Raven Mills for the development, testing, to protect and evaluation of an on -l oom greige-inspection system. Glenn Allgood (ORNL) , Marty Ellis (Institute parts from of Textil e Technology), and Bil l Martin of Glen Raven Mills examine the machine at the Y-12 Plant. abrasion, can "learn" a complicated pattern in the first part demands. The result should be better quality corroswn, of a roll and then inspect the remainder. products made at lower cost, with Jess waste and and high Another goal of the project is to develop a energy consumption, thus creating more system for inspecting knitted fabrics and three­ American jobs. temperatures. dimensional fabrics such as terry cloth and carpeting. Besides ORNL, DOE facilities Coatings and Finishing Center involved in the CAFE project are Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, and Because of competition from foreign Sandia National Laboratories. companies, U.S. firms are under increasing "The basics of weaving have not changed pressure to manufacture parts that last longer dramatically, but the process has," Allgood says. under trying conditions. Rather than redesigning "The textile industry now is trying to change it. parts to be made of advanced materials, it is often It's one of the few industries in the United States more cost effective to design coatings for current that has developed a plan for competing in the parts that will give the parts the desired functional world market. The textile industry is dedicated to surfaces. Coatings can be designed to protect parts seeing that this endeavor is successful." from abrasion, corrosion, and high temperatures In this program, ORCMT provides a transition as well as to make the parts "self-lubricating." As between the laboratory and factory environments, an example, al uminum pistons can be coated to where machines must cope with lint, vibration, help them better resist corrosion and deterioration heat, humidity, noise, and production schedule brought on by high temperatures.

Number One, 1995 13 THE OAK RIDGE SOLUTION TO MANUFACTURING PROBLEMS

Manufacturing Technology Areas

More than 25 separate centers form the Oak • energy and environmentally conscious Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technology. manufacturing These centers focus on seven core technology - energy conservation areas that are organized around the Department of -pollution prevention Energy' s initiative to improve American -advanced refrigerants industrial competitiveness. • manufacturing quality and process Tho e core technology areas and associated assurance area of expertise are -metrology center - diagnostics and process assurance • manufacturing technology development -testing and evaluation - direct assistance programs -measurement and control technology -manufacturing skiUs campus applications -skills demonstration -advanced photonics initiative

• manufacturing technology demonstration • industry-specific technology - ultraprecision manufacturing technology - advanced ceramics -manufacturing prototyping and - advanced propulsion demonstration - machine technology access - micromanufacturing technology - ceramic electronic packaging -concurrent engineering environment -textiles -lithium microbattery technology • special materials processing • manufacturing technology deployment - hazardous materials processing -composite manufacturing - hazardous materials packaging - coatings and finishings - hazardous materials management and -materials joining storage - plating and cleaning -depleted uranium processing - medical health engineering and - enriched uranium processing manufacturing -manufacturing information resources

14 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW ORCMT's Coating and Finishing The center i involved in various projects with Manufacturing Technology Development Center the government and private indu try. Some develops and validates environmentally benign, examples include development of advanced integrated coating manufacturing • coating materials and processes to enable processes, products, and capabilities. Its cheaper and faster fabrication of tooling for equipment applies coatings through various thermoplastic and thermoset composite , processes-plasma spray, high-velocity oxygen • a coating for the interior wall of the plasma fuel (HVOF) spray, electric wire arc jet, oxygen­ vessel of the International Thermonuclear acetylene flame spray, and ion sputtering. The e Experimental Reactor, processes are often integrated with robotics and • a dielectric coating to enhance the computer controls as well a contained in performance of high-temperature regulated environments, enabling tight control of electrostatic chucks for the semiconductor Composite process parameters and accurately reproducible industry, research at experiments. coatings to increase corrosion resistance of Because of these capabilities, the Coatings and aluminum alloy components for aircraft, OakRidge Finishing Center is a primary source of elutions • a sen or to measure coating characteristics has led to to problem in materials deposition and during and after fabrication as well as to significant manufacturing process development. Tbe center detect erosion of in-service air components, experiments with the following materials: metals, and breakthroughs alloys, ceramics, cermets (metal alloy • a "filling" process for use in manufacturing m composites), composites, intermetallics, polymers, wood furniture. and compounds. Companies from virtually every In addition to being accessible to outside development industry have approached the center for assistance companies and agencies, "the door is open for of materials in developing coatings or coating processes for anybody in the Oak Ridge complex to work in the for flywheel their products. The center provides coating center, use its tools, or bring problems to us that manufacturing test beds that enable development we can help them solve," Kahl says. "We've had energy and bands-on validation of integrated coating people from all three plants here. The door is open storage processes and new coating materials, according to for interaction, and I see it happening." center director Keith Kabl. systems. "Industry knows how to manufacture parts Composites inexpensively from material such as aluminum and steel, but these parts may not last very long High-performance composite materials have a because of their lack of resistance to wear, direct impact on daily life in the United States. erosion, or corrosion," Kabl ays. "The center They are found in automobiles, airplanes, ba eball helps companies find coatings that will enhance bats, orthopedic devices, tennis racquets, and the performance of parts for specific uses. For submarines. New composites are, quite literally, example, thermal barrier coatings are used in jet everywhere. Re earchers at ORCMT's Composite engines to retain beat to increase fuel efficiencies. Manufacturing Technology Center have 30 year The turbine blades used in Navy airplanes and of experience in energy, space, and defense seagoing vessels are coated to prevent salt and programs. sulfur corrosion. Typically, there are 500 coated Now, the Oak Ridge composites team is parts in each jet aircraft engine and more than 100 working in partnerships with U.S. industrial firms coated parts in each automobile. We've begun to to develop commercial u es for these advanced see that almost every industry-every indu trial engineering materials. Through the Composite ector in the world-can use coatings to enhance Center, U.S. industry gains access to the expertise their product performance." and manufacturing test facilities needed to

Number One, 1995 15 composite structure that can withstand very high compressive loads. Current investigation include innovative processing methods such as electron Weare beam and microwave curing. trying to find "Traditionally," says ways to center manager John Shaffer, "the compo ites business bring outside of DOE has been composites fueled by aero pace and defense, but that market is technology declining with shrinking into the defense budgets. Now we are commercial trying to fmd ways to bring composites technology into marketplace. the commercial marketplace." Some specific applications that the composites team helped develop are Advanced technology torpedo-Oak Ridge was a manufacturing test bed for development of fiberglass hull sections and other composite components in U.S . Navy advanced technology torpedoes. • Autonomous Composites winding machine in the Polymer Composites Manufacturing underwater search Technology Center. system-Oak Ridge designed, developed, and built a po itive-buoyancy graphite-epoxy pre ure maintain competitiveness in the use of composite hull for the U.S. avy Autonomous materials. The center has comprehensive Underwater Search System. The composite capabilities for the development, evaluation, and pressure hull, which has titanium end caps, demonstration of affordable advanced compo ite is qualified for repeated dives to pre sures materials and structures. corresponding to 20,000 feet. Composite research at Oak Ridge has led to • Cryogenic fuel tank-Oak Ridge significant breakthroughs in development of developed and manufactured lightweight materials for flywheel energy storage systems, graphite-epoxy fuel tanks for the National processing technology for thick-wall structures, Aerospace Plane program. The tanks have and the design and manufacture of large aluminum liners and end caps, and they are

16 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW designed to hold liquid hydrogen at three noise signatures. A similar technique was atmospheres internal pressure. developed at ORNL to detect hints of abnormal • Aerospace structures- Oak Ridge has operations in electric motors. This expertise is provided guidance to NASA and U.S. Air now being called upon at ORCMT's Advanced Force programs in developing new Diagnostic Center, which includes personnel from graphite fiber- reinforced thermoplastics both ORNL and the Y -12 Plant. Expertise in for structures in space. optical diagnostics, electrical signature analysis, The • Compressed gas cylinder- Fiber vibration monitoring, chaos theory, neural OakRidge placement methodologies and advanced networks, and other diagnostic techniques are complex resin curing processes are being developed used to address a wide range of industrial needs. at Oak Ridge for manufacturing Tbe center is working with numerous companies has a lightweight storage cylinders for high­ to help improve their operations and products. combination pressure natural gas fuels. Applications include condition monitoring of • Centrifugal concentrator-Oak Ridge is electrical machinery, diagnostics for advanced of developing a centrifugal concentrator development of automotive and aircraft engines, capabilities device that extracts trace quantities of predictive maintenance of industrial plant and facilities heavier-than-air molecules from air equipment, and improved techniques for disease samples, enhancing the sensitivity of diagnosis. unmatched existing gas detection instruments. A high­ Experts in optical diagnostics at ORCMT are anywhere in speed rotor in the concentrator is made of studying the potential of using phosphor graphite-epoxy composites. thermometry as a metrological standard. This the world. • Lightweight automotive materials-To method provides an absolute measurement of a improve the efficiency and safety of cars material's surface temperature using the and trucks, the structural materials for fluorescence signatures of certain chemically these vehicles should be light and strong. stable phosphors on the material. An optical Oak Ridge is working with private industry material, elastic silicone rubber optical fiber, has and other DOE laboratories, under the been developed at ORNL for weighing vehicles as direction of the Automotive Composites they roll over high-precision sensing plates placed Consortium, to perform basic materials on roads. This weigh-in-motion measurement research and optimize manufacturing technique is expected to play an important role in technologies for composites in traffic monitoring and control, truck weighing, transportation vehicle structures. and vehicle identification. • Flywheel energy storage-Oak Ridge is working with private industry and tbe Summary federal government to develop composite components for high-speed flywheel In conclusion, the Oak Ridge complex has a systems for storing energy for later use in combination of capabilities and facilities automotive vehicles. This work capitalizes unmatched anywhere in the country or even in the on the world-record flywheel rotational world. These resources have been used to help speed of 1400 meters per second (31 00 meet the challenges of producing and conserving miles per hour) set by Oak Ridge in 1985. energy, protecting the environment, and providing for the nation's defense. Now, these resources are Diagnostics being used to meet another important challenge­ increasing the nation 's industrial competitiveness. A couple of decades ago, ORNL developed Today, Oak Ridge is bridging basic and applied techniques for diagnosing problems in nuclear scientific research with manufacturing technology reactor operation by spotting abnormalities in and experience to benefit U.S. industry while

Number One, 1995 17 THE OAK RIDGE SOLUTION TO MANUFACTURING PROBLEMS

maintaining and enhancing DOE capabilities. Bill Wilburn is a staff member of Energy Systems ' ORCMT' s motto is "We Solve Tough Office of Public Affairs. oml Manufacturing Problems"-Calll-800-356- 4USA.

If the results of the Welding Company Samples Oak Ridge Expertise experiments on the ORNL recently provided a Fortune 500 company with the tools it needed to obtain steel specialty samples for research. As a result, the company has saved money and may increase its employment. steels are Lincoln Electric Company of Cleveland, Ohio, is a world leader in welding and cutting successful, products and a manufacturer of industrial electric motors. The company, which has been in the company business almost 100 years, has about 3200 employees in the United States and annual sales of about $846 million. could add Lincoln Electric Company's research efforts had been hampered because it could not more jobs. purchase small quantities of specialized steels to evaluate for possible welding applications. The smallest samples available for order from commercial steel mills were too large and expensive for the company. Through a professional association with Stan David, a welding expert in ORNL"s Metals and Ceramics (M&C) Division, a Lincoln Electric official visited Oak Ridge. During a tour, he learned about the nonconsumable arc melting facility and rolling capabilities in M&C. With assistance from the Oak Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technology and the Defense Programs National Machine Tool Partnership, the company was provided access to ORNL's facilities operated by M&C's Materials Processing Group led by Vinod Sikka. The steels were melted by Joseph Vought and rolled into ten appropriately sized sheets by Ken Blakely and Ed Hatfield. All are engineering technologists in Sikka's group. In this way, Lincoln Electric obtained the small samples of experimental steels it otherwise could not secure. The company is currently evaluating the samples to determine if they will meet product needs. If the results of the experiments on the specialty steels are successful, the company could add more jobs within the company. In a June 1, 1994, letter to Stephen Laggis of ORCMT, John Gonzalez, vice chairman of Lincoln Electric, wrote, "Your vacuum melting facility and rolling capabilities ... offer us the experimental tool we have sought for years. Your facility has solved a problem that has plagued us for years relative to the production (of) and experimentation on special steels. The knowledge and cooperation of your people have been outstanding."

18 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW After the changes were implemented, the company saw an immediate improvement in the outlays. As a result ORCMT Attracts Magnet Company of Oak Ridge's Arnold Engineering was looking for a way to make ceramic magnets faster with less technical waste and fewer defects. Company officials soon were attracted to the expertise in Oak Ridge. assistance, Arnold Engineering, a division of SPS Technologies, Inc., in Sevierville. Tennessee, Arnold manufactures hard ferrite permanent magnets for direct-current motors, magnetic separation of metals, and other uses. The company has 100 employees, has been in business for 23 Engineering ... years, and sells about $7 million worth of ceramic magnets each year. increased The company wanted to optimize its kiln process used to heat and density its ceramic sales by magnets. While exploring ways to optimize the sintering process, Arnold Engineering officials contacted the University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services, which referred 14.3% ... them to the Oak Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technology. and reduced Through ORCMT, two ceramic engineers consulted with Arnold Engineering staff by telephone and then visited the company to see its operation and kiln process first hand. The production engineers were Mark Janney of ORNL"s Metals and Ceramics Division and T. Gordon costs by Godfrey of the Y -12 Plant's Development Division. After their examination, they 2.6%. recommended that the company make two changes in its sintering process. After the changes were implemented, the company saw an immediate improvement in the outlays. The amount of scrap and number of defects in the magnets were reduced. The throughput of the kiln tripled because the changes allowed faster operation. As a result of Oak Ridge's technical assistance, Arnold Engineering retained four employees whose jobs had been in jeopardy, increased sales by 14.3% for the year, and reduced production costs by 2.6%. Jerry Roberts, plant and facilities engineer, said that Arnold Engineering's experience with ORCMT had been very good for the company. "We received a great benefit through the technology transfer program. It also made us aware of what the Department of Energy's technology transfer program can do, and it will probably result in other projects for us."

Number One, 1995 19 THE OAK RIDGE SOLUTION TO MANUFACTURING PROBLEMS

ORNL Helps Laser Firm and Former Soviet Union

Large volumes of natural gas are lost daily worldwide through leaks in pipelines. The Considerable energy would be saved if these leaks could be detected and repaired. In addition, less methane would escape to the atmosphere where. as a greenhouse gas, it immediate may contribute to global warming. result of the In Russia, one of the world's major gas producers, it is estimated that the gas pipeline system is losing from 1 to 15% of the 24 trillion cubic feet of gas annually produced. ORNL Even at the lowest leakage rate, Russia would lose a significant amount of gas-240 evaluation is billion cubic feet per year. Finding and stopping these leaks would help Russia that the economically because natural gas, which is cheaper than oil, is becoming a favorite fuel of electric utilities. crystal Pipeline leaks have been detected from small low-flying planes by inspection of materials, vegetation. Because natural gas kills green plants, dead vegetation in pipeline areas indicates the presence of leaks. In cities, a way to detect leaks is to lace the gas with an with some odorant. When pipelines leak, people smell the gas and report the problem. modifications, A team of Americans and Russians are taking a new approach to the problem by could be used developing an airborne leak detection system. The idea is to use laser light to remotely detect optical absorption caused by the escaping natural gas. Such a laser, which could in remote be operated from an airplane or helicopter. will be built when material that emits laser senszng. light of the required wavelength is developed. Just as radar is used by the U.S. Weather Service to spot developing rainstorms, laser "radar·· can be made to detect methane and other hydrocarbons. The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge complex is playing a role in the development of such a laser. LaSen. Inc., of Las Cruces, New Mexico. has been working with a Russian institute on developing an airborne laser radar for detecting leaks of natural gas from pipelines. The company's main product is solid-state mid-infrared tunable lasers for sensing environmental and process changes. The Institute of Energy Problems of Chemical in Moscow has unique capability for producing custom crystal materials needed for these lasers. LaSen is working with the institute to make a crystal that, when excited, emits infrared light at wavelengths that are absorbed by natural gas. The light is directed from an airplane to the ground through a telescope; the light bouncing back from the ground, minus that absorbed by leaking natural gas, would be captured by a detector onboard the airplane. Through detection of losses in reflected light intensity, gas leaks can be located. To evaluate the crystals produced by the Russians, LaSen turned to ORCMT at the Y -12 Plant. ORNL researchers were asked to provide technical advice on developing a lasing material for gas detection.

20 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Tom Schmidt of ORNL's Chemical Technology Division leads the effort to cut and polish the Russian crystal samples using Oak Ridge's special materials processing capabilities. Russia would Eric Wachter of the Health Sciences Research Division analyzes the optical properties of the crystals using spectroscopic equipment. He measures each crystal's ability to absorb be a good visible and near-infrared light so that he can predict whether it will lase-produce a laser market for beam of the desired wavelength. gas leak "We are examining crystals made of potassium. titanium. and arsenic ... Wachter says. "These KTA crystals are doped at Minsk, Belarus. with small amounts of neodymium. The detection dopant level of the crystal must be high enough that the material will lase. The current systems. level is 0.1% of the crystal content, but the goal is to achieve 1 to 5° o to create a lasing material." Wachter has provided spectroanalysis data for laser simulation models to demonstrate the material's potential usefulness as a laser medium. Based on these results, LaSen recommended that the Russians grow the crystal material in a larger format with the aim of mass production for long-term projects. Allen Geiger. president and one of the founders of LaSen. said the immediate result of the ORNL evaluation is that the crystal materials, with some modifications. could be used in remote sensing. "This promising result." he says. "will keep LaSen's six staff members employed. However. over the next 4 to 5 years, with mass production of the crystal material for laser applications. the company anticipates growing from $1 million in sales to between $15 and $40 million. We could employ up to 100 people to manufacture and tailor the materials for use in photochemical processing, laser arrays, and integrated optical applications." Wachter says this proJect involving LaSen. the former Soviet Union, and ORNLI ORCMT. which started out as a Defense Programs Small Business Initiative. has evolved into a larger project under the Newly Independent States Industrial Partnership Program. The first phase of the project, which will end in June 1995. focuses on crystal development. The second phase involves building airborne systems using these crystals for gas leak detection and testing these systems in the field. Besides the Moscow institute. the project will also involve the National Scientific and Educational Center of Particle and High Energy Physics. Byelorussian State University. in Minsk. Belarus. This center has considerable experience in development and characterization of crystals for tunable infrared lasers. The crystal materials program helps the United States meet its goal of helping the former Soviet Union convert its technologies developed for weapons production to the manufacture of commercial products for civilian use. Russia itself would be a good market for gas leak detection systems because it has proven natural gas reserves that total more than 40°o of the world supply.

Number One, 1995 21

Editor's Note: The U.S. Department of Energy's many production and research sites contain radioactive and hazardous wastes. These waste sites pose potential ri sks to the health and safety of remediation and waste management workers and the public. The risks, however, vary from site to site. Some sites undoubtedly present larger risks than others and should be cleaned up fi rst. However, before the cleanup begins, DOE is required by law to prepare an environmental impact statement on any actions that may significantly affect the environment-even actions that would These DOE installations in the United States will require clean it up. environmental restoration and waste management. Included The impact statement must also are three sites in Tennessee-the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, consider the health and safety risks to K-25 Site, and ORNL. workers and the public from the cleanup and management of the resulti ng wastes. In other words, attempts to reduce potential or existing ecological systems (i .e. , wildlife and ORNLwas health risks by cleaning up a waste site cou ld vegetation) and in predicting the risks of chosen to produce other risks, altering the benefit-to­ environmental restoration and management perform risk ratio. For example, cleanup might result of the wastes produced in the cleanup in the release of contaminants into the process. In the following article, Bonnie human health groundwater or air, potentially exposing the Blaylock describes ORNL's work in computer and public to hazardous substances. Workers modeling and human health risk assessment. removing contaminated soil may be injured In an accompanying article, Larry Barnthouse ecological while operating heavy equipment. Other describes ORNL's ecological risk assessment risk cleanup personnel might suffer from heat project in support of DOE's impact statement. stress as a result of wearing protective gear. assessments Sti ll other workers risk becoming ill from for DOE exposure to radiation or hazardous Since the spring of 1992, Oak Ri dge National because of its chemicals. Laboratory's Center for Ri sk Management (CRM) Clearly, it is a difficult task to weigh the has been a key participant in the Department of risk relative risks of leaving wastes at their sites Energy' Programmatic Environmental Impact assessment or removing , treating, and disposing of them Statement (PElS). The preparation of this expertise. to restore DOE sites to their original statement was mandated by the Secretary of environmental condition. ORNL has taken Energy in 1990 to develop and implement an the lead role in assessing the current risks of integrated environmental restoration (ER) and DOE waste sites to the public, workers, and waste management (WM) program for DOE sites.

Bonn ie Blaylock works at the computer on a health risk assessment document. It wi ll be part of a program matic environmental statement on DOE's proposed actions to remediate its waste sites and manage wastes from cleanup activities.

Number One, 1995 23 RISKY BUSINESS: ASSESSING CLEANUP PLANS FOR WASTE SITES

The PElS is conducted under the guidelines of the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires that federal agencies prepare environmental impact statements on major federal actions that may significantly affect the environment. The laboratories involved in the PElS are evaluating several options for environmental cleanup and waste consolidation to trace potential risks from the ER cradle (hazardous waste sites) to the WM grave (storage and disposal facilities). ORNL was chosen to perform human health and ecological risk assessments for this multi­ The team million-dollar project because of the center' s risk assessed the assessment expertise. The staff of the CRM risks for the (directed by Curtis Travis of the Health Sciences Research Division) performed the human health baseline Curtis Travis is director of ORNL's Center for Risk risk assessment portion of the PElS, and the staff conditions of Management. varzous categories of ...... :------Prevallng wind direction waste sites across the DOE Complex.

Release exposure mechanism route (spill)

Exposure medium (soli)

This schematic shows the various routes by which workers and the public can be exposed to radioactive and chemical contaminants.

24 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW of Larry Barnthouse in the Environmental linearity of the computer model allowed the team Sciences Division performed the ecological risk to use a unit risk approach to estimate risks for assessment portion of the PElS (see the following numerous exposure scenarios for various times article). In addition to health and ecological risks, (e.g., living on a waste site 500 years from now) other impacts evaluated in the PElS include for each of the waste sites being evaluated. socioeconomic impacts, air and water quality impacts, costs, and transportation risks. ORNL is A New Approach to responsible only for evaluating the human health Complex-Wide and ecological impacts. Risk Assessment Environmental Restoration, The unit risk approach is a simple concept that or "The Cradle" was applied on a large scale to yield complex results. ORNL worked with DOE's Pacific For effective project management, the human Northwest Laboratory, which provided health risk assessment was divided into two contaminant concentration data for each waste site parts-ER and WM. The ER risk assessment and many of the environmental parameters needed team, led by Jill Morris and Irene Datskou, to run the computer models used for the risk assessed the risks for the baseline conditions of assessment. The ER team assumed that one unit various categories of waste sites across the DOE ( 1 gram or 1 curie) of each contaminant was complex: facilities, buried waste, contaminated soils, liquid containment structures, surface water, and Primary Secondary groundwater. Primary release Secondary release sources mechanism sources mechanism Pathway Receptor To manage the Human huge number of Exposure On Off sites and route site site contaminants that lngHiion exist across the lnhlllatlbn Dermal •• DOE complex, the ER team used a Ingestion fate and transport lnhallllion model to simulate Dermal and predict the Complete pathway transport of Potential pathway contaminants ~ Elim inated Pathway ? Insufficient data through the • environment to different areas where people might be living under both present This conceptual model shows the sources, release mechanisms, and worker and' future site and off-site public exposure routes for contaminants at DOE sites that will conditions. The undergo environmental restoration.

Number One, 1995 25 RISKY BUSINESS: ASSESSING CLEANUP PLANS FOR WASTE SITES

The ER team present at the site. This one unit was used in the calculated the subsequent exposures and risks. computer simulation of environmental transport The final risks were presented in terms of cancer estimated for different exposure pathways (such as drinking fatalities, cancer incidences (the probability of risks during groundwater and swallowing soiJ), exposure developing fatal or nonfatal cancer), adverse remediation scenarios (such as on-site resident or off-site genetic effects, dose, and the potential for health population), and time periods (such as present effects from noncarcinogens, known as the hazard for various and future). Once the simulation was complete, index. remediation the analysts could tell how much contaminant For each site, different assumptions about land remained over time at different locations in the use were used to estimate the future risks to alternatives. environment. In addition, the ER team could various receptors (people who may be exposed to estimate how much of that contaminant might be contaminants). Land use included restricted use, ingested, inhaled, or absorbed by potential where the public was denied access to the site; populations or individuals located within a given unrestricted use, where a hypothetical distance of each site. Once the exposure was homesteader could live on top of the site; and estimated, then the potential health risk was mixed land use, where a combination of both estimated using standard U.S. Environmental occurred; but the groundwater use remained Protection Agency (EPA) toxicity values and restricted. The risks to the off-site public within a radiation risk assessment methods. The result was 50-mile radius of the installation and to a a "unit risk," or risk per unit of contaminant for hypothetical homesteader living on the site each exposure scenario and pathway. From there, boundary were examined. the actual risks posed by a site under given In addition to estimating baseline conditions of conditions were estimated by scaling up to the each site for different land use scenarios, the ER actual amount of contaminants at the site. If 50 team estimated risks during remediation for grams of a contaminant were present, the ER various remediation alternatives. Louis, Berger, team multiplied the final concentration by 50 and and Associates, an engineering firm based in New

1

In waste management, waste is retrieved, treated, stored, and disposed of in approved facilities.

26 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Jersey, was asked to determine several treated, stored, and/or disposed of within the WM remediation options for each site based on program. available technologies and costs. Once the flrm The WM risk assessment team, beaded by Pat selected the technologies, the CRM's ER team Pehlman, estimates the potential human health used standard emission rates recommended by the risks posed by various waste consolidation EPA for those technologies and performed more alternatives. In addition to the ER waste that is extensive computer modeling to estimate potential generated during cleanup, the WM program must risks to the public during remediation. For address the volumes of various types of waste that example, radioactive substances could be carried are already being treated and stored at various into the air by excavation and removal of installations throughout the complex. To contaminated soil. determine the best ways to treat, store, and Using a similar unit risk approach to automate dispose of these wastes, the WM team evaluated the process, a separate group within the ER team risks from treatment, storage, and/or disposal of estimated risks to remediation workers performing each type of waste at various locations across the Cleanup of the remediation activities. The group divided each complex. The team evaluated risks from high­ the DOE technology into its compo ite worker activities level waste, low-level waste, low-level mixed waste sites and then estimated the number of person-hours the waste, transuranic waste, and hazardous waste. activities required for completion. They then Risks were presented in the same terms as for ER generates estimated risks to workers from exposure to (i.e., cancer fatalities, cancer incidences, adverse volumes of contaminants using various computer models for genetic effects, and a hazard index). inhalation, ingestion, and direct radiation The WM program focuses on three primary ER waste exposure. In addition, the group estimated safety areas of waste handling: treatment, storage, and that must be risks such as fatalities and injuries from general disposal (TSD). Treatment comprises processes treated, construction activities, such as constructing a such as incineration, solidification, or building or operating heavy equipment. The vitrification; and treatment processes differ stored, or worker assessment accounted for protective depending on the waste type and treatability disposed of clothing and equipment in the assessment of classification of the waste. Storage refers to either potential risks, which added another potential current or interim storage. Current storage is safety risk: heat stress fatalities and injuries, often storage at the installation without waste transfer to caused when workers become overheated from another location. However, sometimes waste must wearing protective equipment. be retrieved from current storage and treated or (See sidebar "Worker Risk Assessment: Breaking shipped to another location for storage or Ground" on p. 31). disposal. Interim storage is a temporary stage when waste is transferred from one location to another to await treatment or disposal. Disposal is Waste Management, a stage of permanent accumulation at DOE sites or at federally prepared facilities such as Yucca or "The Grave" Mountain in Nevada or the Waste Isolation Plant in New Mexico. Like the runner in a relay race banding off the The WM team works with DOE's Argonne baton, the results from the ER assessment feed National Laboratory, which provides contaminant into the WM assessment. The ER assessment emission rates from treatment processes and shows the scope of the problems within the potential accident scenarios that were evaluated environmental management (EM) program. The during the treatment or storage stages. The WM baseline risks at each site trigger various team has developed an automated unit risk remediation alternatives, depending on the approach that works much like the ER approach. magnitude of the risk. Cleanup of the DOE waste For on-site and off-site populations, a unit sites generates volumes of ER waste that must be inventory of contaminant (1 gram or I curie) is

Number One, 1995 27 RISKY BUSINESS: ASSESSING CLEANUP PLANS FOR WASTE SITES

For the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, potential receptors for atmospheric releases are defined as (1) the pub]jc within a 50-mile radius of the installation and (2) on-site A separate employees who are not directly group involved with evaluated waste handling the risks to activities. Because the waste maximum management exposure to One approach to radioactive waste management is to store it in a tumulus facility, contaminants workers who like this one at ORNL. Concrete and metal casks are filled with radioactive waste released to are directly and cement to further immobilize the waste material. The waste casks are groundwater can transported to and stacked on a concrete pad at the tumulus facility. The casks are occur several involved then covered with more concrete, plastic liners, and soil to keep water away. year or lifetimes with waste following the handling initial release, the receptors activities. first assumed to be released to the air from a analyzed for the groundwater pathway (i.e., treatment or storage facility. For disposal, a unit disposal) are the most-exposed generation, which inventory of contaminant is assumed to be is a hypothetical farm family of four. disposed of, and the groundwater pathway is ln addition to the public and plant employees, a evaluated during the disposal stage. Fate and separate group within the WM team evaluated the transport computer model are used to estimate risks to waste management workers who are the resulting exposures of individuals living near directly involved with waste handling activities. the facilities and of on-site plant employees. The In many cases, TSD facilities do not exi tat an models simulate environmental tran port and installation and, for the purposes of the PElS, are account fo r different exposure pathways and assumed to be constructed. Health and safety routes. Actual risk calcul ations for various waste risks to workers from construction-related consolidation alternatives are then performed by hazards are also assessed. The WM worker risks scaling unit risks according to actual contaminant are also estimated using a unit risk approach. Unit amounts and then adj usting the results by doses are estimated per contaminant and exposure scenario-specific parameters (e.g., effective stack route for each WM module or specific TSD task. height, release periods). These calculations are WM modules can be interchangeably arranged to performed in a data base that was con tructed form a "treatment train." A module is a self­ specifically for this application. contained waste handling or treatment process

28 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW where workers are located to treat or handle waste occur during either the treatment or storage stage. as it is processed through a facility. A treatment They estimated risks for a variety of scenarios or train of several modules might include receiving consolidation alternatives. First, they estimated and inspection, sorting, compaction, incineration, risks for a no-action scenario, which represents solidification, packaging, and shipping. Workers the TSD activities if they were to cease today. are located inside the building where the module's Then, they evaluated a current program alternative process occurs, and fugitive emissions from that represents the WM program in its current treatment processes may be released into the state, including planned transportation of waste atmosphere of the building. A facility can contain and planned TSD activities. The remaining several treatment modules simultaneously, and a alternatives were evaluated to determine the module may contain several subactivities with impacts of different waste consolidation options. different unit exposures. The unit exposures are These alternatives are regionalization, summed to yield the total exposure for a given centralization, and decentralization. For each of module, and the exposures for modules are these alternatives, the WM team evaluated many summed to yield the total exposure for a given different "cases" or permutations of waste treatment train. consolidation. The difference between these The WM computer models require many alternatives is the number of sites that treat waste, different types of information to estimate risks store waste, or dispose of waste. The from TSD facilities. Such information includes To determine the potential impacts of facility dimensions, treatment and storage regionalizing the handling of hazardous waste, for worker risk capacities, stored waste inventory, engineered example, the team might evaluate the impacts of methodology safety controls, storage and disposal criteria, and six sites treating hazardous waste, four sites is a ground­ TSD technologies. For disposal, in most cases, storing the waste, and three sites disposing of the two engineered disposal options are considered: waste. If the alternative mandates that fewer breaking (1) installations in the eastern United States are installations across the complex treat, store, or development. assumed to use the tumulus option, and dispose of waste, those installations must take on (2) installations in the western United States are more of the waste from other installations, assumed to use the shallow land burial option. increasing the risks at the chosen installations and A tumulus is an aboveground, vault-type disposal increasing the transportation risks by requiring facility made entirely of reinforced concrete. The more waste shipments. However, if an alternative waste is placed in a metal and concrete cask and specifies that many different installations must then placed inside the vault. Once the vault is treat, store, or dispose of waste (i.e., decentrali­ filled, it is closed and covered with a clay soil cap zation), then more installations must build to reduce infiltration of contaminants into the facilities to accommodate these processes, and groundwater. costs and risks will increase at these installations. Shallow land burial uses a long, narrow, unlined Evaluation of the different waste consolidation trench for waste disposal. Waste is stacked on the alternatives shows the trade-offs between cost and earthen floor, the voids between the waste risk that must be weighed by decision makers. containers are ftlled with earthen material, and The integration of the ER and WM program the top of the disposal unit is covered with dirt. within the PElS will present decision makers with A third disposal option, a below-ground vault, is a large body of information on different options also evaluated only for the Savannah River Site in for cleanup and waste treatment, storage, and South Carolina. disposal. This information is intended to be useful The WM team estimated risks for normal for demonstrating the options available within ER operating and accident conditions assumed to andWM.

Number One, 1995 29 RISKY BUSINESS: ASSESSING CLEANUP PLANS FOR WASTE SITES

Further Results development because DOE bas previously had no consolidated guidance for assessing occupational of the PElS health risks at its waste sites. The risk assessment methodologies have been validated by pilot For this project, the CRM developed risk studies and have been successfully applied in assessment methodologies for estimating human installation-wide risk assessments of ER activities health risks (for the public and for workers) at two DOE installations. associated with ER and WM activities. Both In addition to these methodologies, our staff methodologies are broad in scope and are useful has automated the unit risk approach for both for DOE risk assessment applications beyond the public and worker risk assessment for ER and PElS. The worker risk methodology, developed in WM activities. The automated methodology and conjunction with Pat Scofield of the DOE Office data bases developed for the PElS have of Environmental Compliance and applications beyond the PElS because they Documentation, is a ground-breaking provide an efficient, user-friendly method of

Packaging Ex situ Incineration solid waste vitrification

r------1 Ex situ I Thermal solidification desorption & stablization

Ex situ soil washing

Excavation of Site Transport restoration of waste 0 0 Sequential activities required for site remediation form a technology train , which depicts the number, order, and nature of remediation activities that workers must perform to remediate a s ite.

30 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Worker Risk Assessment: Breaking Ground

Workers who will clean up contaminated DOE sites or handle wastes generated by the cleanup will be exposed to risks to their health and safety. To calculate these risks, scientists must gather data to address several questions. For example, what types of radiation or pollutants will a worker be exposed to? What are the likely routes of exposure-inhalation. ingestion. or direct radiation exposure through the skin? What is the estimated volume of each contaminant at the waste site? Will heavy equipment be used? In what types of activities is a worker involved-waste incineration. packaging of solid waste. solidification and stabilization of waste. use of heating processes to remove pollutants from soil (thermal desorption) or turn contaminated soil to glass (vitrification), excavation of contaminated soil, soil washing, site restoration, or transport of waste? How many workers engage in each activity and for how many hours? For DOE's Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. risks to remediation and waste management workers were estimated using a unit risk approach to automate the risk assessment process. The unit risk approach involves five basic steps for estimating worker risk: (1) identify alternative. (2) identify specific activities and types of workers for each alternative. (3) identify number of workers and hours required for each activity. (4) estimate unit doses for each activity, and (5) estimate unit risks. Once the remediation method or waste management alternative is selected, the types of activities and workers required to complete site cleanup or waste handling are identified. Both the environmental restoration (ER) and waste management (WM) teams have developed automated user-friendly data bases for choosing typical activities required for a particular remediation or waste treatment method. These activities. occurring sequentially, form a "treatment or technology train" (see drawing on p. 30). The ER data base includes 58 of the most widely used ER technologies, and the WM data base contains 32 possible waste management modules-waste treatment. storage. or disposal activities. The data bases also include various types of workers such as heavy equipment operators, laborers. supervisors, and waste handlers. It is important to estimate the types of workers involved in an activity because the type of workers affects a worker's exposure. For example, because a laborer is closer to a waste than a supervisor is. the laborer is more likely to be exposed to contamination through inhalation. An important feature of the automated risk assessment system is its incorporation of levels of worker protection. The more equipment and safety gear a worker uses, the less likely he is to be exposed to contaminants. The ER data base includes various levels of protection that can be selected to ensure compliance with DOE and Occupational Safety and Health Administration protection standards. Identifying the number of workers and the hours required to complete a WM or ER activity is the next step in estimating worker risks. This information is available from site managers or site or DOE data bases (such as costing data bases). Once the types and number of workers are identified. potential exposures are estimated using a suite of computer models. Unit exposures (exposure per unit contaminant resulting from inhalation. ingestion. or direct radiation exposure) are calculated using standard Environmental Protection Agency exposure assessment methods. The ER and WM systems each include 350 of the most common contaminants found within the DOE complex, ranging from cesium and plutonium to mercury and PCBs. Unit risk factors for each contaminant, ER technology, and WM module were developed and stored in a data base developed especially for this purpose. These unit risk factors are multiplied by the unit exposures or unit doses to yield a unit risk (worker risk per unit contaminant) for each contaminant and activity involved in the alternative being evaluated. Finally. the unit risks are multiplied by the actual inventory of contaminants at a site or waste treatment facility. Risks for each exposure pathway, activity, and contaminant are summed to yield the actual estimated risk for a given alternative or remediation method. This worker risk assessment will provide information that may be used by decision makers trying to determine how particular DOE waste sites will be remediated and how their wastes will be managed.

Number One, 1995 31 RISKY BUSINESS: ASSESSING CLEANUP PLANS FOR WASTE SITES

estimating site-specific or installation-wide wide human health, transportation, and ecological human health risks. In the ER worker risk portion risk estimates that can be used in conjunction with of the package, for example, the user can choose the other evaluated impacts to integrate the ER the technologies used to clean up a particular site, and WM programs in the most cost-effective the number of personnel involved, the manner. The project has provided an opportunity contaminants present, and the level of protective to develop important risk assessment tools for gear the workers are wearing. DOE and other agencies, and ORNL's Center for The PElS is an ambitious DOE endeavor. Risk Management expects to continue having a When it is completed (the draft is scheduled for national impact in the risk assessment arena. oml The project release in September 1995), it will yield complex- has provided an opportunity Biographical Sketch to develop Bonnie Blaylock joined the research staff of ORNL' s Health Sciences Research Division in important 1991. She holds an M.A. degree in English from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Blaylock was a key member of the team that produced the risk assessment methodologies risk used for the programmatic environmental impact statement described in this article. assessment tools for DOE and other agenczes.

From left, Pat Pehlman, waste management group leader; Bonnie Blaylock, member of the risk assessment team; Jill Morris, environmental restoration group leader; and Irene Datskou, environmental restoration PElS team leader, discuss the health risks of cleaning up DOE sites.

32 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Ecological Risks of Environmental Restoration

Ecological risks of environmental restoration and waste management activities were evaluated as part of the project of preparing a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PElS) for DOE sites. Major issues for restoration include current contamination, residual contamination following remedial action, and adverse ecological impacts of remediation and new facility construction. For waste management, the ecological issues evaluated include (1) deposition of atmospheric contaminants on soil and (2) potential spills of radioactive, hazardous. and mixed waste during transport to central storage and disposal sites. The ecological risk assessment team included staff of ORNL's Environmental Sciences Division (ESD) and Advanced Sciences, Inc. Participating ESD staff members included Linda Mann. Lorene Sigal. Jerry Eddelmon, and Dan Jones. The environmental restoration assessment focused on reservation-wide ecological resources. Of the approximately 30 facilities discussed in the impact statement. 6 were singled out for detailed ecological risk assessments: the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, the Hanford Reservation, the Fernald Environmental Management Project, the Oak Ridge Reservation, the Rocky Flats Plant. and the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. To compare impacts among sites, the specific ecological resources on the six reservations were grouped into six categories: • Threatened and endangered species • Wetlands • Recreational fish and wildlife • Agriculture or timber production • Parks and other public lands • General biodiversity Ecological resources falling into each of the six categories are identified from documents. maps. and contacts with resource management personnel on each reservation. The distribution of each resource on and near the facilities was mapped. These resource distributions were overlaid on the distributions of environmental restoration activities at each facility. For contaminant exposures, transport media were identified and exposures were quantified using the same data sources and models employed in the human health risk assessments. The area disturbed by remedial action or construction activity was estimated. including both the actual contamination site and the surrounding area expected to be disturbed by road construction, dust, erosion, or noise. Ecological benefits and risks of remedial actions were evaluated by determining whether existing contamination poses a risk to ecological resources. evaluating the reduction in contaminant risk expected from remedial activities, and estimating the fraction of existing ecological resources that would be disturbed by restoration activities. An example of such a disturbance would be loss of habitat for small mammals and birds from excavation of large volumes of contaminated soil.

Number One, 1995 33 RISKY BUSINESS: ASSESSING CLEANUP PLANS FOR WASTE SITES

For waste management (WM). the long-term accumulation of atmospheric contaminants emitted from waste treatment facilities was identified by DOE as a potentially significant ecological issue. These impacts were addressed using the Human Health WM team's atmospheric transport modeling results to estimate deposition and accumulation of radionuclides and toxic chemicals for different WM scenarios. The ecological exposure and effects models developed for the ER ecological risk assessment were then used to determine whether this accumulation could potentially affect plants or small mammals downwind from the facilities. A "consequence assessment" was performed to evaluate the potential ecological risks of accidents involving radionuclide releases. A consequence assessment involves estimation of the ecological effects of a given size and type of accident but does not include estimation of probabilities of occurrence of accidents. Estimates of maximum credible radiological releases were obtained from Argonne National Laboratory for transportation accidents involving high-level waste, low-level waste, contact-handled transuranic waste (TRUW), and remotely handled TRUW shipments. The scenario evaluated for the ecological risk assessment involves an accident in which the contents of a rail shipment are spilled into a stream. Assessments were performed for five stream size classes ranging from a small, second-order stream with a flow rate of a few cubic meters per second to a major continental river such as the Mississippi River. Two alternative assumptions were made about the fate of the spilled material. First, it was assumed that all material remains suspended or dissolved in the water column and is transported downstream. For this scenario, the team estimated (1) the length of stream (m) of each size class that would be affected before longitudinal dispersion reduced the dose rate below the safe level (1 rad/day) recommended by the National Council on Radiation Protection for protection of aquatic life and (2) the time required (h) for this dispersion to occur. Alternatively, it was assumed that all of the spilled material is immediately deposited on the bottom of the stream at the site of release, where it becomes incorporated in bottom sediment. Biota present at the release site receive radiation exposure over their whole lifetime and can receive both external and internal doses. For this scenario, the team estimated the total number of kilograms of clean sediment required to dilute the spilled material to a sediment activity level corresponding to a 1 rad/day lifetime dose to a large fish residing at the bottom of the stream and feeding on benthic biota. This quantity should be a reasonable estimate of maximum mass of sediment that would have to be removed during a remedial action taken following the spill. The final comparison evaluated the maximum ecological consequence of potential spills for each waste type. Results of the waste management assessment showed that the physical form of the transported waste is much more important than either the total radiological activity or the size of the shipment in determining the potential ecological consequences of a spill. It now appears that the results of the ER ecological risk assessment will not appear in the PElS because of scope changes that occurred after most of the work was completed. However. the reservation-wide approach adopted for the PElS fits well into DOE's new policy of including future land use as a key factor in setting environmental restoration goals for its facilities. land use, and stewardship of its lands. We hope that the results of our assessment will support DOE in implementing this policy. -Larry Barnthouse

34 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW The physical form of the transported waste is much more important than either the total radiological activity or the size of the shipment in determining the potential ecological impacts of a spill.

Biographical Sketch

Larry Barnthouse is a senior research staff member in ORNL' s Environmental Sciences Division. He has an A.B. degree in biology from Kenyon College and a Ph.D. degree in biology from the University of Chicago. He has been on the staff of the Environmental Sciences Division since 1976. Since that time he has been involved in dozens of environmental research and assessment projects involving development of new methods for predicting and measuring environmental risks of energy technologies. Barntbouse has been the author or co-author of nearly 100 publications relating to ecological risk assessment. He has received two Martin Marietta Energy Systems Technical Achievement Awards and was named Energy Systems Author of the Year for 1991.

Larry Barnthouse

Number One, 1995 35

An osprey nests on a platform mounted over the Clinch River bordering the Oak Ridge Reservation. Ospreys are a rare species in the state of Tennessee.

The Oak Ridge Reservation has evolved into a providing an invaluable reference point for nationally val u ~ bl e natural resource over the past determining the effects of human development on 50 years. De pite the well-publicized problems of natural resources. contamination from the Department of Energy' s When the land was acquired by the federal Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Y-12 government in 1942 for the Manhattan Project, it Plant, and Oak Ridge K-25 Site on the consisted of approximately 1000 individual tracts reservation, the land ha a regionally unique of land that were primarily farmsteads. This land diversity of plant and animal species. was a patchwork of forests, wooded pastures, and Occupying about 14,000 hectares (35,000 fields. Aerial photographs taken in the rnid-1920s acres) of mostly contiguous native forest, the and late 1930s show that about half of the area was reservation land provides interior habitat for the cleared. Some clearings for orchards and pastures area' s sensitive species of wildlife. It contains were on upper slopes, rocky areas, and ridgetops; relatively undisturbed ecosystems that are tillage crops were mostly restricted to lower slopes important habitats for many species uncommon or and bottomland . Agricultural practices of the time absent in surrounding areas. And, perhaps most resulted in evere erosion on most slopes. Not importantly, it has experienced minimal impact surprisingly, erosion gullies are sti ll evident in from human land use for the pa t 50 years, some areas.

Rare orchids like the one shown here grow in wet areas on the Oak Ridge Reservation.

Number One, 1995 37 of how the picture should look, and tare at it slightly out-of-focus, you begin to see the hidden picture in the pattern of colors. In thi article, we will describe the hidden picture of the Oak Ridge Reservation that show its value as a natural resource. Over 1000 Plant Species

Forests, primarily oak-hickory, pine­ hardwood, or pine, cover about 75 % of the reservation. Contained within the larger framework of mixed hardwood and pine forests on the reservation are many ecological communities that are of pecial intere t because of their unusual species as emblages, which often include rare species. Some of these special communitie are more common in mountainous, coastal plain, or prairie regions of the continent, whereas others result from unusual or re tricted soil-related and topographic features, uch as uncommon soil types, seep , prings, and river bluffs. All re ervation areas are relatively pri tine when compared to the surrounding region, which has been strongly affected by agriculture, cattle grazing, and land clearing Linda Mann looks for viable seeds on a member of one of during the past 50 years. the world's largest populations of tall larkspur. More than 1000 different species of plants grow on the reservation, reflecting it diversity . By comparison, 1300 known plant species have been observed in the Except on very steep slopes, mo t of the forest Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was cut for timber, though not necessarily has greater elevational changes than the Oak cleared. Many partially cut forest areas were used Ridge Reservation. as rough pasture. After 1942, many previously Twenty-one different species of rare plant Twenty-one cultivated fields developed into forests either occur on the reservation-all of them are on the different through natural succession or planted seedlings. state protected species list, and four of them are Between 1948 and 1954, many of the abandoned under consideration for federal listing. The rare species of fields that were not already welJ stocked with species occur across the reservation in 33 rare plants naturally regenerating timber specie were different locations. They are provided protection occur on the planted with loblolly, shortleaf, and white pine. through National Environmental Research Park Some of that pine is still evident today-or was Natural Area de ignations. Additionally, seven of reservation. until the spring of 1993. At that time, much of the e special habitats have been named State the remaining planted and native pine became Natural Areas in an agreement between the infe ted with pine beetles. Heavily infested areas Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Operations were cut to prevent their spread and salvage and the Tennessee Department of Environment marketable timber. The forest gaps are now and Conservation. The presence of 21 species of filling in by natural regeneration. listed plant and seven State Natural Areas is an To a casual observer, the reservation land may important indicator of the unique character of appear wild and overgrown, suggesting that it is eco ystems on the reservation. not being used to its full potential. The Rare plant population sizes may range from a reservation may be compared to a picture that few individuals to several hundred. Our Oak appear to you first as just a pattern of color. But Ridge population of tall larkspur, one of the as you relax, rid your mind of preconceived idea species under consideration for federal listing and

38 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW The cedar barrens habitat used to be common in East Tennessee. Now, most cedar barrens are found in protected, undeveloped areas. Vegetation seen there is similar to that found in midweastern prairies.

At least two rare plant species grow here at Bull Bluff, a river bluff habitat.

Number One, 1995 39 About 500 acres of Pat Parr (lett) and Barbara Rosensteel, a subcontractor with JAYCOR , survey wetlands. wetlands are also found on the listed by the Nature Conservancy as globally reservation. threatened, i one of the largest population (if not the largest) known to occur anywhere in the world. Topographic and geologic features often determine the presence of sensitive plant species. Because these features are discontinuous across the reservation landscape, some plant communities exist as highly patchy systems. These include cedar barrens and river bluffs. Some biotically important wetlands also follow this pattern. The mo t widely eli tributed and perhaps important plant community on there ervation is the cedar barren. Although individually mall in area, cedar barrens are fairly common on the reservation-and used to be common acros Ea t Tennessee. On the reservation these drought­ tolerant plant communities occur only on shallow, flaggy soils, derived from limestone geologic material. Dominant species in the cedar barrens are grasse , uch as little bluestem, and a variety of forb , with some eastern red cedars and tun ted The New Zion Boggy Area wetland. oaks. Bare rock is fairly common. Cedar barren are habitat for several species of rare plants.

40 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Prairie species more common in the midwestern United States are also characteristic of these sites. River bluffs are found bordering the river reservoir where the C]jnch River and Poplar Creek have cut through limestone ridges. River bluff communities contain an assemblage of plant species that flourish in these exposed, rocky environments where the buffering effects of the river provide humidity and some ame]joration of extremes in temperature. This rugged environment is home for several rare plant species. Three of the four species under consideration for federal listing-false foxglove, bugbane, and white walnut-are found in this type of habitat. About 500 acres of wetlands are also found throughout the reservation. Types include emergent communities in shallow embayments on Watts Bar and Melton Hill reservoirs, emergent and aquatic communities in ponds, forested wetlands on low ground along major streams, wet meadows and marshes associated with streams and seeps, and small headwater wetlands that have developed along nearly all seasonal and perennial minor streams. Wetlands on the Oak Ridge Reservation help prevent flooding and flood damage, serve as The rare blue flowering plant Delphinium filters to trap pollutants, and help control erosion. exa/tatum grows in cedar barrens. The reservation may have the largest population of this plant in the They also provide habitat to numerous species of world. fish, birds, and other wildlife. Over half of the listed rare plants for the Oak Ridge Reservation occur in wet areas. Richness of plant species on the reservation that are provided protection by federal law exceeds that of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on an area basis. (The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has the highest overall diversity of all national parks in the contiguous United States.) Thus, it is one index of the vital role played by our reservation both regionally and nationally in conserving biological diversity. The Oak Ridge Reservation has about four times as many bsted species per unit area as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park-an impressive return in species preservation per investment in area. Approximately one third of the reservation was designated a Department of Energy National Environmental Research Park-one of a network of seven representing seven different ecoregions across the United States. The Oak Ridge Reservation lies in what is called the Ridge and Valley physiographic province. This area, characterized by the Hemlock and rhododendron, which are commonly elongated ridges and broad-to-narrow valleys, is found in the Great Smoky Mountains National between the Cumberland Plateau and the Smoky Park, also grow in a protected area on the Mountains. Within this province is a low level of reservation.

Number One, 1995 41 land preservation. In contrast, the Blue Ridge shorebirds; and about 40 mammal species. physiographic province (where the Smoky Habitats supporting the greatest number of Mountains occur) has a relatively large proportion species are those dominated by hardwood forests of protected natural vegetation. and wetlands. The Oak Ridge Reservation was selected to be a Mammals present on the reservation range Biosphere Reserve in 1988 and is a unit of the from commonly seen white-tailed deer, Southern Appalachian Biosphere Reserve. It plays groundhogs, bats, and skunks to the more elusive an important role as the only representative of the bobcats, red fox, mink, and weasels. Ten species Ridge and Valley physiographic province in the of wildlife known to occur on the reservation are international United Nations Educational, state or federally protected. There are at least 35 Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) more species for which appropriate habitat exists, Man and Biosphere Program. but their presence has not yet been confirmed. The reservation also provides habitat for Animals on the Oak Ridge numerous species that, although not currently listed, could be Listed in the future. A project is Reservation cunently under way to identify potential habitat for listed species and to survey the areas to As would be expected given the diversity of determine if the species are present (and if not, to plants and habitat types, the reservation supports a try to figure out why). wide variety of wildlife species. Checklists include The reservation is a Tennessee Wildlife 60 reptilian and amphibian species; 63 fish Management Area. Restoration activities by the Ten species species; more than 120 species of tenestrial birds; Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) 32 species of waterfowl, wading birds, and with the Oak Ridge National Environmental of wildlife known to occur on the reservation are state or federally protected.

These baby black vultures were spotted at an old home site.

42 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Pat Parr holds a tagged wild turkey that was later released to the reservation.

Research Park have resulted in a wild turkey "in need of management," is found in numerous population that is now estimated to have 500 to streams and tributaries on the reservation. 600 individual . TWRA now traps them here to Populations here appear to be stable, in contrast to stock other sites. Young turkeys (poults) may be declining or absent populations in streams outside seen in the spring, and groups of 20 to 30 adults the reservation. The dace is a pollution-intolerant are commonly spotted in the fall in favorite species that currently inhabits only 45 sites in East feeding place . Tennessee, and its statewide distribution is The osprey is now successfully nesting and concentrated .in streams in the Cherokee National breeding on waterways adjacent to the reservation. Forest in Polk County and on the Oak Ridge Because of restoration programs like this across Reservation. the state, the osprey has recently been downlisted We are currently exploring what the role of the from "threatened" to "in need of management" in Oak Ridge Reservation may be in the migration Tennessee. Nesting platforms were put up in and nesting of neotropical land birds. Because of 1988. Young ospreys, which are counted and the presence of a large forested area that provides banded by TWRA, were found at three of the important interior habitat, we think that the platforms in 1994. reservation may play a role in providing refuge Smaller streams and tributaries on the for migratory birds (as well as our bird residents). reservation, unlike those in the surrounding area, When the !.and that is now the reservation was are minimally affected by sedimentation from selected to be federal land, the criteria were based construction and agriculture. The Tennessee dace, on isolation for security reasons. These are not the a fish species listed by the state of Tennessee as same criteria used to designate most other public

Number One, 1995 43 THE OAK RIDGE RESERVATION

lands such as national forests or national parks. and Valley continues, the Oak Ridge Reservation The land did not have breathtaking features such will play an increa ingly important role in the as high mountains, waterfalls, or great stone understanding and protection of regional arches. It was typical East Tennessee land ecosystems. experiencing typical East Tennessee land use. But because it became federal land 50 years The authors would like to acknowledge ago, it is no longer typical of East Tennessee. As assistance in obtaining ref erence material, data, urban and agricultural development have and manuscript review from the many individuals expanded in the region surrounding the who work with and care about the natural reservation, the types of ecosystems native to our resources on the Oak Ridge Reservation. Special area have become less widespread. Thus, their thanks go to Debra Awl, Rebecca Cook, Hal existence on the reservation has become much DeS elm, Jim Evans, Cindy Gabrielsen, Robin more important-on a local, regional, and even Graham, Jim Loar, Jason Mitchell, Larry national Level. Pounds, Lon Rathmell, Barbara Rosensteel, Mike In Oak Ridge we have a natural resource that is Ryon, Andrew Schiller, Beth Schilling, John of national value. As development in the Ridge Smith, Robert Washington-Allen, Warren Webb, and Li z. Vail. oml

Biographical Sketches

Patricia Dreyer Parr, an Oak Ridge native, is currently area manager for the Oak Ridge Reservation and a research staff member in ORNL's Environmental Sciences Division (ESD). She wa manager of the Oak Ridge National Environmental Research Park from 1984 to 1994. She joined the ESD taff in 1974 after receiving her B.S. degree in biology from Tennessee Wesleyan College. In 1981 , she earned an M.S. degree in ecology from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Parr ha served on the Oak Ridge Reservation Resource Management Organization (reservation land u e planning) since 1984. She is the ORNL representative on the Public Affairs Committee of the Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere program. She led the development of the Ecological and Pby ical Sciences Study Center (ORNL program for precollege education) in 1984. She i a member of the Tennessee We Jeyan College Natural Sciences Advisory Board and vice pre ident of the Association of Southeastern Biologists.

Linda K. Mann, a native of Montclair, New Jersey, who has lived in East Tennessee for mo t of her life, earned a B.S. degree in botany in 1967 and an M.S. degree in ecology in 1976 from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Her career at ORNL started in 1968 in tbe Biology Division, where she served as a laboratory technician. In 1970, she transferred to ESD, where she worked as a laboratory and field technician and as a research associate in a variety of ecological disciplines, including radiation ecology, effects of air pollutants on vegetation, forest nutrient cycling, oil carbon cycling, and terre trial ecology in impact assessments. She is the ORNL repre entative on tbe Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Natural Resource Management committee. She also serves as secretary-treasurer of the Roane County Soil Conservation Service board of supervisors and as a member of the Ecological Society of America and of the Soil Science Society of America.

44 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW .~-Biodiversity in the Oak Rid ...-- National Environme tal esearch Park ·

Number One, 1995 45 ORNL and the Geographic Information Systems Revolution

By Jerome E. Dobson and Richa rd C. Durfee

Explorers from competing teams race to find a mysterious lost city in the heart ofAfrica . The American team is continuously in touch with its Houston home base through satellite communications. In flight, team leader Karen Ross displays a map ofAfrica on her computer screen and notes the multicolored lines suggesting different routes from city to city and into the rain forest. Each pathway is accompanied by a precise estimate of travel time to the final destination. Zooming in on the target area, she switches to satellite images and interprets them in shades of blue, purple, and green. At each checkpoint, the team reports its progress and gets a revised estimate of arrival time. Beset by difficulties, the explorers ask for a faster route, but the computer says the alternative is too dangerous. A simulation model with data representing geology, terrain, vegetation, weather, and many other geographic factors predicts local hazards, including the impending eruption of a nearby volcano. The Americans take the faster route anyway and beat the odds.

46 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Thi fictional account of emerging geographic streams on the terrain (see figure on p. 48). After information system (GIS) technologies comes developing spatial models, we determined which from Michael Crichton' s 1980 novel Congo, streams were most likely to receive acid drainage which was made into a 1995 movie. The same from the strip mines. The visual impacts of strip technologies were highlighted in Clive Cussler's mining on Oak Ridge residents were also 1988 techno-thriller Treasure. In reality, GIS predicted. technology began more than a quarter of a century With or without satellite imagery, GIS is a ago at key universities and government powerful tool. In 1990, when the United States laboratories in the United States and Canada. and other nations responded to Saddam Hussein's Since 1969, Oak Ridge National Laboratory has inva ion of Kuwait, military leaders mounted the been among the leading institutions in th is largest and most rapid deployment of military Since 1969, diverse, now booming field. GIS has been personnel and equipment ever attempted. The ORNLhas evolving through new form and applications ever massive logistics were processed on the Airlift since. Consider the following examples of GIS Deployment Analysis System (ADANS) been a applications that rival and sometimes exceed developed at ORNL. ADANS, operating on leading Crichton' futuristic vision. networked computers, draws on a variety of For the past three summers, ORNL geographers logistic and spatial technologies to efficiently institution in have monitored the potentially devastating effects schedule the transport of U.S military troops and developing of an Alaskan glacier with an annoying habit of equipment to trouble spots anywhere in the world. and using GIS rerouting whole river systems. We drive as far as Since 1990, ADANS has been used to deploy the roads go or fly over roadless terrain with a military personnel and equipment not only to the technologies. color laptop computer that displays Ed Bright's Persian Gulf but also to Somalia, Rwanda, and interpretation of satellite images. A dot moves Haiti. across the screen continuou ly showing our In 1995, at ORNL's World Wide Web position on the image and thus on the ground Showcase, Peter Pace showed a colorful high­ calculated from Global Positioning System (GPS) resolution image of ORNL buildings and the signal from satellites. We've used the same road , stream , and forested areas of the system successfully in helicopters, boats, and even surrounding reservation. The view on hi rental cars on the Oregon-Washington coast, the computer screen was constructed from a series of Gulf of Maine, and the North Slope of Alaska. aerial photographs that had been scanned and The roots of our remote sensing and GIS converted to form a digital image. Various tradition started early at ORNL; more than 20 computer techniques were used to enhance and years ago, ORNL scientists studied some of the blend a series of images, eliminating unwanted first satellite data from Landsat satellites (then elements and bringing out important details. called ERTS). By analyzing computer images of Special photogrammetric techniques were used to the Cumberland Mountains north of Oak Ridge, remove distortions from the digitized photos. we were able to compute and display a three­ Each pixel (tiny rectangular element) on the 2 dimensional perspective view of the coal strip screen represent 0.25 square meter (m ) on the mines in the area and superimpose the nearby ground. Spatial registration of geographical

Fred Latham demonstrates the use of a video projection digitization system developed as one of ORNL's early (1970s) contributions to geographic information system (GIS) technologies. It projected onto a paper map a light beam that instantaneously followed the operator's mouse as linear features were traced on the map. This development addressed the problem of constantly having to compare digitized features from paper maps with their vector representation on a computer screen. The computer data directly overlaid the paper map in real time. Note the audio input headset.

Number One, 1995 47 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

A three­ dimensional perspective view of coal strip mines in the Cumberland Mountains north of ORNL. Streams are superimposed on the terrain. The spatial model computed the geographic relationship between disturbed land and nearby water surfaces, allowing assessment of environmental and visual impacts of strip mines.

DISTURBED LAND WATER SURFACE

features in the image is sufficiently accurate that a navigational tool for accessing still and animated highly detailed map can be overlaid on the image. linages as well as audio and text from the Internet. Pace zoomed in on a cooling tower and magnified Recent growth of GIS markets has been it enough to see the blade of a fan . He printed phenomenal. In 1994, GIS was listed under out an image of the cooling tower alone. He and "Whole Systems" in the Whole Eruth Catalog. other ORNL researchers are preparing Tens of thou ands of people and organization - geographical data and imagery developed at Oak univer itie , re earch center , municjpal planner , Ridge for distribution to selected users of the tax a e sor , corporations, and resource World Wide Web through Netscape, a managers-have come to depend on GIS fo r

48 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW geographic data collection, analysi , and display. technology beginning with the digital The commercial GIS industry, which started in the repre entation of landscapes captured by cameras, early 1980s, is now estimated to be worth $3.5 digitizers, or scanners, in some ca es tran rnitted billion. by satelli te, and, with the help of computer Today's rosy picture harply contra ts with the systems, stored, checked, manipulated, en hanced, situation in 1969 when GIS first began at ORNL. analyzed, and displayed as data referenced to the At that time only a few center -principally earth. This spatial information includes earth Environment Canada, the U.S. Geological Survey, coordinates and geometric and topological Harvard University, and ORNL- shared a configurations to portray spatial relationships common interest in solving the riddle of between features such as streams, road , cities, geographic analysis. Along with scientists from and mountains. GIS is "a digital representation of these centers and a few leading research the landscape of a place (site, region, planet), universities, early members of ORNL's GIS and structured to support analysis." Under this broad Computer Modeling (GCM) Group, led by definition, GIS conceivably may include process Dobson Richard Durfee, contributed many of the models and transport model as well as map ping served on a developments that made the current boom and other spatial functions. The ability to integrate possible. and analyze spatial data is what sets GIS apart committee These contributions include fu ndamental fro m the multitude of graphics, computer-aided that development of early geographic computational design and drafting, and mapping software techniques that supported and accelerated the systems. composed growth of a commercial industry; development Typical sources of geographic data for most of the and integration of key GIS data bases and computer manipulation include digitized maps, new national methodologies; and use of geographic and spatial fie ld survey data, aerial photographs (including analy i to provide information to help infrared photographs), and satellite imagery. Most Spatial Data policymakers make decisions on national issues, image data are collected using remote sen ing Transfer such as development of energy sources and techniques. Aerial photographs are normally taken protection of water resource and fi h populations, with special mapping cameras using photographic Standard. and to help government agencie assess natural film. Most commerciall y avail able satelli te resources and environmentall y contaminated sites imagery is collected using multispectral scanners, needing remediation. which record light intensities in differen t Becau e of the increased u e of GIS wavelengths in the spectrum-from infrared technology, a new national Spatial Data Transfer through visible light through ultraviolet light. Standard (SDTS) bas been establi hed. Pioneering Spatial information can be represented in two efforts by ORNL researcher Durfee, Bob distinctly different forms. Satellite image , for Edwards, Phil Coleman, and Al Brooks helped example, usualJy appear as raster data, a gridded build a fo undation for the exchange of spatial matrix in which the position of each data point i data, and Jerry Dobson erved on the Steering indicated by its row and column numbers. Each Committee of the National Committee for Digital position on a computer screen or map thus Cartographic Data Standard , which composed corresponds to the position on the ground most of SDTS. President Clinton's recently signed measured by the satellite as it passes overhead. In executi ve order requires all federal agencies to contrast, cartographic features such as roads, coordinate GIS data activities and make key data boundaries, buildings, and contour lines usually bases available to the public. are represented in vector fo rm . In digitizing a lake, for example, the shoreline can be indi cated What Is GIS? as a series of points and line segments. In this case, each point is measured in Cartesian (X, Y) Many people think of GIS as a computer tool coordinates and each line segment is measured as for making maps. Actually, it is a complex a vector leading from one point to the next. The

Number One, 1995 49 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

more point recorded, the more detailed the within Martin Marietta Energy Systems have shoreline will be. Both forms, raster and vector, included the Energy Division, the Environmental are es ential to support environmental re toration Sciences Division, Chemical Technology project on the ORNL reservation, for in tance, Division, the Environmental Restoration Program, and the software must be capable of rapid Biology Division, Data Systems Research and conver ion from one form to the other. Development, and the Hazardou Wa te Remedial For such geographic information to be Action Program. We highlight everal of the GIS and meaningful, it must be accompanied by larger efforts to illustrate the diversity of "metadata" documenting the source, description, applications and techniques. We describe some of remote specification , accuracy, time of acquisition, and the early GIS developments and summarize some senszng quality of each data element. As GIS technologies of the current systems capabilities. We offer technology and multitudes of geographic data ba es have examples in which GIS has proven u eful in pread to the desktop in the past decade, metadata research and decision support. can detect have become very important. Good metadata are changes in essential in determining fitness of the geospatial History of GIS Development data for each intended use-that is, determining land which applications can be accomplished while Actually, the term GIS, though first introduced features. ensuring the de ired quality of results and in 1964, was not extensively used until the late decisions made from those data. 1970s. The first comprehensive geographic data One of the mo t exciting applications of GIS management system-called the Oak Ridge combined with remote sensing technology is its Regional Modeling Information System ability to detect changes in features of large areas (ORRMIS)-was developed in 1974 at ORNL by of land over many years by analyzing and Durfee. Its purpose was to integrate and support comparing past and present landscape images. the data management needs of a series of regional Each pixel can indicate a type of land cover, such analytic models depicting and foreca ting land­ as wetlands, forests, pastures, and developed use, environmental, socioeconomic, and areas. Such technology is now being used to sociopolitical activities in the East Tennessee monitor gains and lo ses in wetlands along the region. U.S. coa t for assessing environmental impacts on Many early ORNL developments in GIS that U.S. fi heries. The technology has the potential are commonplace today are remarkable primarily for monitoring global change. For example, it is because of their dates. Examples from the 1970s po sible to detect increases in deforestation, and early 1980s include perspective and isometric which may alter the climate, or increa es in drawings of cartographic surfaces, integration of desertification that may result from climate remote sen ing and tatistical technique with change. GIS, raster-vector transformation, viewshed In thi article, we focus primarily on ORNL's calculation, polygon intersections, tran portation role in the development and application of GIS to routing models, and true three-dimensional (3 -D) real-world problems over the pa t 25 years. Over imaging. this time, hundreds of projects and tasks involving ORNL has a long heritage of GIS research, GIS have been carried out by several development, and application to complex organizations at ORNL involving a number of problems ranging from national issue to site­ scientists, managers, and sponsors. It would be specific impacts. After presenting an overview of impossible to mention them all, but we do GIS technology development in ORNL's recognize and appreciate their significant computing environment, we discuss three eras of contributions and collective vision fo r advancing GIS history at ORNL-regional modeling and GIS technologies over the years. In addition to the fundamental development (1969-1976), Computational Physics and Engineering Division, integrated assessments (1977-1985), and issue­ the examples of collaborating organizations oriented research and analysis (1986-1995).

50 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW r------,______1...... > ~------~~/

..------,-- ~ ""' ...... ;> ~------, , , '

ORNL mainframe '-----> GIS Specialized min icomputer Q systems systems Hardware Unix-based workstation networks • • • • • • 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 ~------O~R~N=L-~d=e~ve=lo~p~e~d~G=I=S~s~o~ftw~a~re~------~> ~----~P~C~s=o~ftw==a~ffi~t=o=o=ls~--~> Software !Commercial GIS syste~

Historical Evolution of GIS Technology development of GIS computer atORNL systems at ORNL, including hardware In the past 25 years (see figure above), GIS many different types of problems. One example and softwa re. software development and applications have was the development in the early 1980s of migrated from mainframe computers to electron microscope tomography for 3-D minicomputers to personal computers (PCs) to reconstruction of DNA chromosomes as a networked UNIX workstations (see figure on coll aborative effort led by Don Olins and hi s p. 52). GIS software is now being modified for coll eagues in ORNL's Biology Division in use on parallel processors and supercomputers, cooperation with the GCM group at ORNL. such as the IBM SP2 and Intel Paragon X/PS Adaptation and development of hardware and machines at ORNL. software for a commercial remote sensing system, In the very early 1970s, a technological feat FS, on GCM minicomputers played a major role was the development of a computer-generated in the analysis of electron micrographs and 3-D perspective movie by Tom Tucker of ORNL. di splay of chromosome structure . When it wa The movie simulated terrain and population determined that more sophisticated true 3-D changes over a 40-year period in the Norris, displays were needed, a pecial varifocal mirror Tennessee, area as Norris Dam began operation as display was built (see photo on p. 53). Depth a hydroelectric facility. visualization was provided by a vibrating mylar Over the years, one of the benefits of these mirror synchronized with a monitor mounted spatial technologies has been their applicability to above the mirror whose image was reflected to the

Number One, 1995 51 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

Workstations PCs Shared Storage Sun SPAACstatlons (various) 486 and Pentium computers Silicon Graphics Crimson lnlergraph 2020

> 30 gigabytes storage 112 GB op11callibrary Audio/video disc Exabyte drives 9-track 1ape drives Software QJC cartndge drives r------1 I Supercomputing 1 Gl~~f~e Processing: ORNL CSS lntergraph EROAS Imagine Servers PCI SUN SPARCserver Earth Vision - ethernetted to aUo ther - Intel Paragon-64 nodes AVS Intel Paragon-512 nodes AutoCAD ._...___.___.Intel Paragon-1024 nodes Maplnfo I Compilers IBM SP2 c I C++ FORTRAN Environ ments N-Cube Sun OS, Solaris MSWindows Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM)

Oracle SAS

Input Devices Output Devices I------,

600dpi ll"x 17" color scanner 36" x 48" tablet Audio/video Capture co Electrostatic E Size 121 Video Thermal Transfer B Size Film recorder Compression/decompression Dye Sublimation 8 Size Scan conve rt er VCRS V1deo disc recorder/player I Stereo display 1 World Wide Web 1 Audio output 1 ______1 ______) Mosaic Netscape

Another ORNL's GIS and Compute r Modeling Group has a variety of computing resources used in support of a number of efforts ranging from natural resource assessments to environmental restoration. technical development operator. Data at greater depths were displayed studies in collaboration with the Energy Division. in the 1980s when the mirror was at a greater deflection, thus In the late 1970s, ORNL developed tran portation varying the focal length to correspond to the data bases and capabilities for routi ng hazardous was appropriate depth. This occurred at a rate of wastes across the United States. Through use of integration 60 times per econd, so the observer saw a GIS technology to match proposed routes with continuous 3-D image. population den ity, the health and safety risks of of video Another ORNL breakthrough in GIS bazardou waste tran port could be estimated. information technology in the mid-1970s was the Another technical development in the 1980s with digital development of vector-ba ed algorithms and their was integration of video information with digital eventual integration with raster-ba ed grid cell data in the computer by Steve Margie and Ed data in the systems. The GCM group used these techniques Tinnel at ORNL. Raster digitization of video computer. for all types of water-resource and energy-related ignals and the introduction of laser video discs

52 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW ORNL researchers, building on earlier work at the University of North Carolina, developed a special varifocal mirror system to provide viewers with a continuous three-dimensional image. This sophisticated technology was used in the display of electron micrographs of chromosome structures and medical computer tomography scan images.

other geographic and military information in real time. Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, development of Development new GIS hardware and of new GIS software technologies made new applications possible and hardware improved our abili ty to solve and software old problems. It is interesting to note that some of our primary ... improved GIS appli cations in the first our ability to half of the 1990s have solve old addressed a legacy of environmental problem , just as problems. many initial application in the early 1970s promoted GIS to help evaluate environmental impacts. Some of the latest GIS research under way at ORNL in volve developing software for use on parallel-processing supercompute rs. Very recent opened up a whole new way of dealing with work has shown that, by significant improvement graphic and map data. Working in cooperation of algorithms and by using parallel processors on with the Data Systems Research and Development ORNL supercomputers, the transformation and organi zation, the GCM group demonstrated the interpolation (estimation of values between data feasibility of usi ng video from scanned map points) of large GIS data sets can be done 50 to images recorded on laser video di scs for 18,000 times faster than on smaller Spare imulations of war games as training exercises on workstations. Because of the explosion in data a hi gh-resolution workstation (see figure on collection from all types of earth sensor systems, p. 54). ln this technique implemented by Beverly workstations and supercomputers must be Zygmunt, multiple video frames were located, integrated to handle massive volume of data. computerized, and combined into large electronic We are also integrating portable GIS map that could be roamed and overlaid with capabilities with GPS in which relative positions

Number One, 1995 53 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

Oak Ridge researchers demonstrated the feasibility of using laser disc video of scanned map images to aid simulati ons of war games in a workstation environment. In this technique, multiple video frames were combined into large electronic maps (shown here) that cou ld be roamed and overlaid with other geographic and military information in real time. Real-time airborne GPS of objects on the earth can be pinpointed in real other distortions) from stereo photography. Also, techniques time by satellite sensors in communication with 3-D subsurface modeling and visuali zation are hand-held devices. As this technology becomes being done for hazardous waste studies. have been more commonplace, geospatiaJ data will be To provide intelligent and efficient acce s to used in collected at an ever increasing rate. Real-time large amounts of geospatial data, work is under aerial airborn e GPS techn iques have already been used way to prepare and load thi information on in aerial surveys of the Oak Ridge Reservation to Internet and World Wide Web servers, which can surveys of collect high-resolution aerial photography with be accessed by data browsing tools uch as the accurate positioning information. Computerized Mosaic and Netscape. These capabilities are stereo techniques are being used with special important to the Oak Ridge user community and Oak Ridge goggles to help generate orthographic images to the success of the National Spatial Data Reservation. (digital images corrected fo r camera, terrain, and Infrastructure (NSDI) during the 1990s.

54 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Regional Modeling and new algOLithms designed by Phil Coleman and Bob Edward provided a capability for analyzing GIS Development and displaying large national data bases. (1969- 1976)

In 1969, the U.S. Congre spas ed the National Integrated Assessments Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the National (1977 - 1985) Science Foundation (NSF) initiated the Research Applied to National Need (RANN) program, Ian In the mid-1970s, a shift in federal policy McHarg published Design with Nature, and greatly reduced NSF funding for the DOE ORNL delved headlong into regional modeling national laboratories. From then on, hardly and GIS. Clearly, NEPA wa a major impetus to another penny was received to upport basic the other three events. research , development, or operation of GIS Before NEPA, re earch and development, systems at ORNL. The GCM group and the infrastructural development, and resource Energy Division shifted to applications-driven ORNL management decisions had been based al most research, the funding for which allowed continued systems were exclusively on engineering and co t-benefit development and operations. considerations. Suddenly, NEPA thrust all large We never had the luxury of focusing on a used... to enterpri ses, including the federal government particular technology (remote sensing or support itself, into a new legal and eth ical milieu in which computer cartography, for instance) to the comprehensive, interdisciplinary analyses were excl usion of other technologies. We were then, conflict ab olutely essential. Alvin Weinberg, director of and are still, comprehensive integrators with resolution in the Laboratory from 1955 to 1973, immediately analytical purposes paramount in everything we power plant recognized the need and sought to diversify the do. In many respects, thi s approach has been Laboratory's missions. advantageous because ( I ) the integrated GIS siting. For GIS, the most important development in the technologies were then applicable to a wide range early days at ORNL was the Oak Ridge Regional of spatial problems, and (2) the application - Modeling Information System and as ociated driven development minimized "ivory-tower" tools that supported spatial data input and di play. research looking for a problem to solve. The primary purpo e was "to provide the data The first seeds of the new order were sown in management capability for analysis model which 1975 when Richard Durfee and Bob Honea used forecast the spatial distribution and ecological ORRMIS tools for predictive modeling of coal effects of activities within a geographi cal region." strip mining and associated environmental The land-use modeling efforts became the problem . Re ults of thi s work were presented to principal impetus to remote sensing development Robert Seamans, head of the Energy Research and a well a to the GIS expansions. Development Administration (ERDA), Initial GIS software techniques were based on predecessor to DOE. Soon afterward, we becan1e hierarchical grid cell systems. It became apparent heavil y involved in siting analysis. In 1975 and that additional capabilitie were needed for 1976, ORNL systems were used, along with data accurate cartographic representation and analysis from the Maryland Automated Geographic of vector-based map data. By the mid-l970s, Information System, to support conflict re olution development of sophisticated polygonal-based in power plant siting. By the late 1970s, these GIS sy terns at ORNL were well under way. Our systems were heavily involved in decision support development of efficient torage and fo r federal energy policy and resource computational techniques for integrating raster­ management. ORNL employed GIS extensively to based grid cell and vector-ba ed systems opened evaluate the environmental impacts of various the door to addressing larger and more complex proposed National Energy Plans. Later, we problems with a national scope. Incorporation of predicted the amount of coal that could be

Number One, 1995 55 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

produced from federally leased lands and availability and location of potential uranium evaluated the impact on energy supply of resources for future commercial nuclear power, designating certain lands as wilderness areas, thus research reactors, and other use . ORNL staff protecting them from exploration for and were responsible for overaU data management, extraction of oil, gas, and uranium. GIS processing, spatial analysis, and mapping. During the mid-to-late 1970s, the Laboratory AI Brooks was director of the Oak Ridge effort to played a major role in the National Uranium support DOE in surveying the country for Resource Evaluation (NURE) Program. ORNL's potential uranium resources and estimating Computer Sciences Division (now the possible reserves. Through a multitude of Computational Physics and Engineering subcontractors, DOE conducted both aerial Division), in cooperation with DOE' s Grand radiometric and geomagnetic surveys and Junction Office, was the national repository for all hydrogeologic ground sampling on a quadrangle­ data collected and analyzed to assess the by-quadrangle basis across the United States.

98 . 00 97 . 00 96. 00

39 . 00

38.00

This map shows varying magnetic intensities in the Hutchinson, Kansas, region . ORNL helped develop a technique for converting one-dimensional flight line data into meaningful contour maps of regional magnetic data that could help identify anomalies potentially related to geologic deposits.

56 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW The aircraft had special sensors to detect amount of water available in each basin in the radioactive isotopes of elements such a bismuth, United States (see figure below). ORNL's thallium, and potassium as wel l as magnetic projection of electrical generation for different fie lds. areas were pa sed to other national laboratories One example of highly specialized GIS work at (Argonne, Brookhaven, Los Alamo , and the ORNL was Ed Tinnel's development, in Solar Energy Research Institute), which used the cooperation with Bill Hinze of Purdue Uruversity, information to evaluate effects on air quality, of spatial filtering, interpolation, and contouring water quality, and labor supply. All results were techniques to convert one-dimensional flight line reported to DOE, which conducted policy analysis data into meaningful maps of regional magnetic of the feasibility of each proposed plan. Results of data ( ee figure on p. 56). The purpose was to use one GIS assessment of the projected water the e data to help study geologic features and consumption by energy facilitie in the Ohio identify magnetic anomalie that might indicate River Basin ( ee figure on p. 58) were shown to the pre ence of mineral deposits. These maps President Carter in a live presentation using a were al o provided to the U.S. Geologkal Survey graphics station when he visited ORNL in 1978. for publication. This was one of the earli est In short, as early as the 1970s the nation 's projects that required the handling of massive energy system and many pertinent physical and amounts of spatial, tabular, and textual cultural features were simulated th rough GIS in information of many different types. During this linkage with econometric models, location- time specialized GIS hardware system were implemented to provide new ways of digitizing and di playing large amounts of geographic data. Multiple energy asses ments were early examples of poli cy analysi using GIS. A flurry of activity began each time President Jimmy Carter propo ed a new National Energy Plan. Econometric models were run by the Energy Information Administration to project, as far as the year 2000, energy demand and fuel use by type in each major region of the country. These regional projections were passed to ORNL, where energy demand was disaggregated by Dave Vogt to Bureau of Economic Analy is Regions and su pply was allocated to counties. Around 1980 Ed Hillsman and others of the Energy Division projected electrical generation from each existing plant and simulated constructi on or retirement of different plants by fuel type to deterrlline if the president's goals would be met. Dobson and Alf Shepherd projected the amount of water needed AMOUNT AVAILABLE for energy production and compared it with the (IN MILLION GALLONS/DAY):

l ,OOO o s,ooo o w,ooo Q ORNL researchers used GIS and computer PERCENTAGE CONSUMED BY All SECTORS modeling techniques to predict the amount of IN 1985 BASE CASE water needed for national energy plans and REMAIN ING compared it with the amount of water available in SUPPLY watershed basins across the Un ited States.

Number One, 1995 57 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

2020 CONSUMPTION OF 7-DAY/10-YEAR STREAM LOW FLOW ESTIMATES FOR COUNTIES PROJECTED WATER CONSUMPTION BY ENERGY FACILITIES IN THE OHIO RIVER BASIN lliill < 5.0% CONSUllED ~ 5.1% - 10.0% ~ 10.1% - 15.0% 1m 15.1% - 20.0%

Ill 20. 1% - 25.0% • 25.1% - 30.0% • 30. 1% - 35.0% • 35. 1% - 40.0%

88' 80 '

Results of one assessment of projected water consumption by energy facilities in the Ohio River Basin were shown to President Carter in a live presentation using a graphics station when he visited ORNL in 1978.

allocation models, environmental assessment inventory for the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) models, and spatial data bases. The principal of the Department of Interior. This effort, beaded output was by county, but many of the data base by Bob Honea, wa ba ed on federal legislation and computation covered details finer than the mandating that abandoned mine lands be county level. For example, the data bases included reclaimed to protect human health, safety, welfare, population at the Enumeration District level, all and the environment, u ing funds collected as power plants over 10 megawatts in generating taxes on mining operations. A national inventory capacity ( ee figure on p. 59), and all U.S. of abandoned mine lands was necessary to Geological Survey stream gauging station record . determine the affected areas in urgent need of The models were a sophisticated as any in use at reclamation and to establish priorities for that time with or without GIS. reclamation of other site . The effort was initially Another major multiyear effort involving viewed as a technology-based project involving ORNL researchers in the early 1980 wa the heavy use of remote sensing, GIS, record-based development of a national abandoned mine lands information systems, and tatistical tools.

58 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW 10,218 MW LOS ANGELES , CALIF. 3,593 MW DADE COUNTY, FLA. 895 MW ANDERSON COUNTY, TENN. -=100 MW OSCEDA COUNTY, IOWA TOTAl GENERATING CAPACITY EXISTING IN 1985

Using spatial techniques and various models and data bases, ORNL researchers displayed a geographic breakdown of the total electrical generating capacity in 1985 in the Un ited States. The information aided utilities and energy agencies in the planning process for meeting projected demands for electricity.

It wa anticipated that analysis of Land at field data collection and field a essment effort . satellite imagery would be a key ingredient for Thus, a major field collection effort, which identifying detailed impacts from the disturbed, included on-site interviews with affected abandoned lands. However, an interesting turn of populations, was carried out in conjunction with events made the project much more difficult than the state agencies of all the coal-mining states (see expected. When attempts were made to use results photo on p. 61). Unique information handling from satellite analyses to meet the mandates in the techniques were devised to standardize and legislation, we found that the worst threats to computerize textual, tabular, temporal, and spatial human health and safety (e.g., open mine shafts, data from forms and maps that could then be acid drainage, polluted water supplies) could not linked with GIS for spatial aggregation, statisti.cs, be determined from satellite data. Major and mapping. Don was responsible for environmental impacts could be addressed by over eeing the computerization of all this analyzing satellite images, but health and safety information and development of a consolidated impacts and reclamation cost estimates required data base. These results could then support

Number One, 1995 59 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

assessments at the state, regional, and national watersheds throughout the United States. The goal levels to aid OSM in allocating reclamation fund was to characterize contemporary cberni try, and overseeing mitigation of the everest temporal variability, and key biological resources problems. of lakes and streams in regions potentially Methodologies developed at ORNL for one sensiti ve to acid precipitation. application were readi ly adapted and applied to Simultaneously, the Energy Division other problems. For example, our initial approached the same problem from a different demographic work of the late 1970 wa extended perspective. While NAPAP focused on impact of to compute detailed population distributions for acid precipitation, this project focused on any pl ace or region in the United States (see watersheds and investigated possible causes of figure on p. 62). lake acidification. The technique was used by Phil Coleman and In 1950, a huge storm with heavy rain and 105- Durfee to compute population di tributions mile-per-hour winds blew down numerous tree in around all nuclear power plants in the United 171 ,000 hectares of fore t in the Adirondack States. Our results, including the calcul ation of Mountains of New York (see figure on p. 63). In population exclu ion zone , enabled the Nuclear the 1980s it was observed that several lakes in the Regulatory Commission to assess these exclusion area were acidified, o one hypothesi was that the areas-regions where additional nuclear power blowdown of the fore t might be a cause. To ORNL plan.ts should not be built because too many determine if a relationship exi ted between the people live or work there-to help make planning forest blowdown and lake acidificati on, Dobson researchers and licensing decisions. and Dick Ru h of ORNL and Bob Peplies of East concluded Tennessee State Univer ity u ed an approach that that forest Issue-Oriented Research combined GIS and digital remote sensing with the traditional field methods of geography. The blow down and Analysis (1986-1995) methods of analysis consisted of direct facilitated observation, interpretation of satellite images and Starting in the mid-1980s, the emphasis shifted aerial photographs, and statistical comparison of the again, this time in a very positive direction, as two geographical distribution -one representing acidification GIS became an important tool in topical research forest blowdown and another representing lake of some on scientific issues of national interest, as chemistry. illustrated in the e four examples. Associations in time and space between swface lakes. water acidity level (pH) and landscape Lake Acidification and Acid Precipitation. disturbance were found to be strong and consistent Acid precipitation can cau e water in lake to in the Adirondacks. Evidence of a temporal acidify, potentially reducing fish populati ons. association wa found at Big Moose Lake and Lake acidification and other environmental issues Jerseyfield Lake in New York and at the Lygners that may be related to acid precipitation were Vider Plateau of Sweden. The ORNL researchers major themes of GIS work at ORNL in the late concluded that forest blowdown faci litated the 1980s. The Environmental Science Di vision acidification of some lakes by altering pathways (ESD) was involved prominently in the National for water transport. They suggested that waters Acid Precipitation Asses ment Program previously acidified by acid deposition or other (NAPAP), especiall y the National Surface Water sources were not neutralized by contact with Survey. Through extensive collaboration with sub urface soils and bedrock, as is normally the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) case. Increased water flow through "pipes"­ laboratories and numerou universities and private small tunnels formed a root decayed- was firms, Dick Olson, Carolyn Hunsaker, and other proposed as the mechanism that may link ESD personnel collected, managed, and analyzed biogeochemical impacts of fore t blowdown to massive geographk data ba es for lakes and lake chemi try.

60 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW ORNL's AI Voelker (now deceased) and colleague Bob Peplies (in back) evaluated the health, safety, and environmental impacts of abandoned mine lands in 1980 for the U.S. Office of Surface Mining.

ORNLhas Both efforts illustrate an ORNL strength-the data ba es to support a multitude of research led the ability to assemble multidisciplinary teams and efforts. technical multiple organizations to attack complex problems. GIS, in itself, is an integrating Coastal Change Analysis. For decades, the effort to technology because it draws together different National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the improve sciences that have a common need for spatial data, National Oceanic and Atmospheric visualization, and analysis capabilities. Such was Administration (NOAA) has been concerned methods for the case in the acidification stuclies just described. about declining fish populations in U.S. coastal analyses of Although primary responsibility for these two waters. Suspecting that these declines might be changes in efforts rested separately in the Energy and caused by losses of habitat, such as saltmarshes Envi ronmental Sciences eli visions, the GCM and seagrasses, and increases in pollution uplands and group was heavily involved in both efforts. Thus, resulting from expancling urban and rural wetlands. considerable interaction took place between the development, as well as agriculture, NMFS two projects. Si nce then , ESD, in cooperation with initiated a research effort to solve the technical, GCM and other groups, has continued to expand institutional, and methodological problems of its GIS capabilities and resources. ESD scientists large-area change analysis-methods for now have hands-on access to GIS systems and determining the time, location, and degree of

Number One, 1995 61 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

POPULATION DENSITY PREUMINARY 1980 CENSUS D ' tOO PEOPLE/SQ IItLE • 100 - 250 /SQ II.ILE • ~50 - 500 /SQ MILE • 500 - 1.000 SQ ~ILE • 1.000 I'EOPLE >

. ------•":'H 04-20-Si! .

ORNL developed a technique for computing detailed popu lati on distributions for any place or region in the United States. The technique was used to compute population distributions arou nd all U.S. nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission rel ied on th is information to assess future exclusion areas­ highly populated regions where additional nuclear power plants should not be built.

changes in large areas to better understand understanding of the linkages of coastal and changes in ecosy tern s and ecological processes. submerged wetland habitats with adjacent uplands ORNL has led the technical effort to improve and with the di tribution, abundance, and health of methods for analyses of changes in uplands and living marine re ources. Satellite imagery wetl ands, detected by satellite sensors, and to (primarily Landsat Thematic Mapper), aerial perform prototype satellite change analysis of Lhe photographs, and field data are interpreted, We found Chesapeake Bay. Integration of these remote classified, analyzed, and integrated with other ensing and GIS methodologies in a laboratory digital data in a GIS . The resulting land-cover that environment, in fiel d investi gation , in workshop change data bases are disseminated in digital form marshland settings, and for presentati ons and briefi ngs in for use by anyone wi hing to conduct geographic in the policy and management arena show how much analysis in the completed region . this evolving technology is becoming ingrained in Land cover change analysis has been completed Chesapeake all phases of earth-sciences work. for the Chesapeake Bay based on Landsat Bay region The Coastal Change Analysis Program Thematic Mapper (TM) data (see photograph on (C-CAP) i developing a nationally standardized p. 64). There ulting data base consists of land increased data base of Land cover and land-cover change in cover by class for 1984, land cover by class for slightly. the coa tal region of the United States. As part of I 988 and 1989, and a matrix of change by class the Coastal Ocean Program (COP), C-CAP from 1984 to 1988-89. We found that, contrary to inventories coastal and submerged wetland popular opinion, mar hland in the Chesapeake habi tats and adjacent uplands and monitors Bay region increased slightly during the period. change in these habitat over one to five years. However, both fore ted wetlands and upland This type of information and frequency of fore ts declined significantly, while land detection are required to improve cientific development expanded rapidly. At greater detail,

62 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW LAND COVER CLASSES

Numbers Indicate pH 5 Miles

8 km

This GIS image of part of the Adirondack Mountains shows the geographical relationship between forested areas where trees were blown down by strong winds in 1950 and acidified lakes (numbers on lakes show acidity level, or pH). The forest blowdown has been linked to acidification of the lakes.

we observed the formation of a new barrier island foundati on for change analysis throughout the and recorded lateral movement of portions of its entire U.S. coast. Four regional workshops tip by almost a kilometer. (Southeast, Northeast, Great Lakes, and Pacific) Although the Chesapeake Bay prototype addressed a full range of generic issues and focused on a single region, its purpose was to identified the issues of special interest in each provide a technkal and methodological major coastal division of the United States.

Number One, 1995 63 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC IN FORMAT/ON SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

In studying satellite lmages, we have looked

for changes Ed Bright develops and views results of land-cover change analysis of wetland changes in the Chesapeake in land Bay region based on data from Landsat satellites. cover... and tried to Ultimately, the protocol development effort poised to move again , and the new, more quantify involved more than 250 technical specialists, permanent ice dam that is expected could cause these regional experts, and agency representatives. the fiord to empty through th.e Situk watershed, During the summer of 1994, field work was drastically altering its ecosystem. changes on a conducted in the Gulf of Maine, along the Oregon Using satellite images of the Alaskan coastline regional and Washington coast, and in Alaska. The from various years, we are identifying changes in basis. Alaskan study is especially interesting. the Alaskan coastline that will help predict the In 1986, the Hubbard Glacier moved, closing impacts on fisherie when the glacier closes the the narrow opening between the glacier and gap again. If the Situk River salmon are Russell Fiord's Gilbert Point on the coastline of threatened, it may be necessary to some Alaska. The ice dam later burst as the fiord 's of them to less vulnerable stream . water rose, and the narrow opening was restored. In studying satellite images, we have looked The event was worrisome to salmon fishermen for changes in land cover from 1986 on and tried because the fiord 's alternative outlet to the sea to quantify these changes on a regional basis. For could destroy the unique stock of sockeye salmon example, we have looked at changes in the size that spawn in the Situk River. The glacier is and shape of woodlands, wetlands, gras lands, and

64 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW bare ground over a period of years to characterize investigation of the types and characteristics of coastal changes. We are trying to model the direct contaminants; the location of pos ible pollutant relationship between land-cover change and sources; previou waste disposal technique ; the ecological processes. spatial extent of contamination; relationships To verify the accuracy of our interpretations of among nearby waste sites; current and past the satellite data, we visit the imaged sites. In environmental conditi ons, including surface, 1993 and 1994, Ed Bright and Dobson went to subsurface, and groundwater characteri tics; Alaska to conduct field verification of a 1986 possible pollutant transport mechanism ; efficient land-cover classification in the Yak.'Utat Foreland methods for analyzing and managing the and Russell Fiord. Now, when we do field work, information; effective cleanup strategies; and we use a hand-held GPS device linked directly to mechanism for long-term monitoring to verify GIS a color laptop computer. Commercial software compliance. integrates the live GPS location coordinates with Three programs that in volve significant GIS technologies raster images representing land cover and with activities in support of environmental restoration support vector images representing other features such as (ER) in Oak Ridge include the Oak Ridge environmental roads. The device has more than doubled Environmental Information System (OREIS), the productivity in the field. We are currently Remote Sensing and Special Surveys (RSSS) monitoring designing a modeling approach that wi ll link GIS, Program, and the GIS and Spatial Technologies and cleanup. transport models, and process models to address (GISST) Program. The OREIS effort is designed the linkage between land-cover change and to meet environmental data management, fisheries. analysis, storage, and dissemination needs in compli ance with federal and tate regulatory Environmental Restoration. To clean up a agreements for all five DOE facilities operated by legacy of environmental contamination and to Lockheed Martin Energy Systems. The primary comply with environmental regulations, U.S . focus of this effort has been to develop a government facilities must locate, characterize, consolidated data base, an environmental remove or treat, and properly dispo e of information sy tern, and data management hazardous waste. In the 1980s, ORNL researchers procedures that will ensure the integrity and legal helped develop geographic workstation , spatial defensibility of environmental and geographic algorithms, 3-D ubsurface modeling techniques, data throughout the facilities. The information and data base sy terns for handling hazardous system is composed of an integrated su ite of GIS, waste problems at Air Force install ations. Later, relational data base management, and statistical thi work provided a foundation for supporting tools under the control of a user-friendly interface. environmental restoration activities at DOE Examples of some of these tools are shown on the facili ties. Since the late 1980s, environmental inside back cover. The OREIS effort, previously restoration has become a major theme for GIS led by Larry Voorhees and Raymond McCord, is activities at ORNL. The integration of GIS with now being directed by David Herr. other technologie provides an important resource GREIS's data have been combined with other to support hazardous waste assessment and site-specific information to tudy a variety of management, remediation, and policy formulation environmental problems. ORNL has modeled for environmental cleanup at DOE facilities. The contaminant leakage from underground waste location of waste area (i.e., surface operable lines and used hi torical aerial photos to asses units) across the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation potential pollutant migration. (ORR) are represented by the bold polygons The RSSS Program under Amy King supports shown on the map at the top of p. 66. ER site characterization, problem identification, In conducting successful cleanup efforts and and remediation efforts through the collection and meeting regulatory requirements at these facilities, analysis of data from aircraft and other remote GIS can a sist in many way . Key aspects include sensor . One example has been helicopter

Number One, 1995 65 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

Waste areas designated as surface operable units on the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation.

ORNL geophysicists led by Bill Doll perform spatial analysis and mapping of magnetic and electromagnetic · ..~ . data from airborne surveys to provide information that may aid in locating potentially contaminated areas on the Oak Ridge Reservation. Integration of th is information with other types of remotely sensed data can help identify waste areas in burial grounds that may --. ----...... ,;;;-~- be a source of waterborne contaminants. ._...... -::=~ ... ··-=

66 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW ORNL's fusion of orthoimagery with all types of spatial data on the Oak Ridge Reservation (note waste lines, operable unit boundaries, and solid waste management units in this figure) can help improve the identification and understanding of relationships among contaminant sources, support environmental monitoring activities, and assist in various types of facility management and land-use planning. Results from radiometric surveys to determine gamma radiation airborne GPS. When completed, these terrain data such levels across mapped areas of DOE facilities. GIS will be the most comprehensive GIS and analyses are and remote sensing techniques also aid in the orthoimage coverages of any DOE reservation. useful in interpretation and visualization of airborne This project, under the technical direction of Mark multispectral scanner data, thermal imagery, Tuttle, is being carried out in cooperation with the locating infrared and natural color photography, and Tennessee Valley Authority. Desktop mapping potentially electromagnetic and magnetic survey analyses. systems are being integrated into the daily The back cover, inside back cover, and map at the operations of many Oak Ridge staff devoted to contaminated bottom of p. 66 show examples of these types of monitoring and cleaning up the ORR. To support ... areas. processed information. Integrated results from these activities, a repository of the resulting data such analyses are useful in locating potentially from this project is being made available to users contaminated and affected areas, as well as networked into a local file server, which will soon possible underground structures that may be be acces ible as a World Wide Web server. These pertinent to hazardous waste burial and migration. GIS data provide a consistent, current, and Another example bas been the delineation of accurate base map that can be integrated with all waste trenches in burial ground areas that may be other types of environmental and pollutant data a source of waterborne contaminant requiring for analysis and reporting. remediation. The RSSS Program is also The fu ion of all types of spatial data is an responsible for surveys of environmentally important tool for any environmental activity on sensitive areas on the ORR. the ORR (see photo above). Through these and The GISST effort, under Durfee, promotes the other ER programs, facility data and development, maintenance, and application of GIS environmental data bases have been developed to technology, data bases, and standard throughout improve understanding of relationship among the ER Program. The largest activity currently pollutant sources, surface and subsurface under way is the development of base map data, pathway , and receptors of environmental digital orthophotos, and elevation models for all contaminants. Three-dimensional modeling, data Energy Systems facilities using advanced stereo management, and contaminant analysis have been photograrnmetric techniques based on real-time enhanced through integration of computer tools

Number One, 1995 67 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMAT/ON SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

RADTRAN 11 Popul11tion Zonu

Rure.l {< 170 people/m1')

1 uburban {170 - <1313 peOJ) Ie/ m1 ) Prt"pa-red by Ceoarephic Deltll Systems for lhe Oepartment of Energy / Orri ce or Ci,·iiian Radioactive lfute Management ~ Urban 1> -4313 people/ ml")

BASALT-WA Truc k

Results from Paul Johnson and Dave 's work depict the computation and display of possible truck routes for transporting radioactive waste material from groups of nuclear reactors to a candidate repository site. These routes are superimposed on zones of computed population densities across the United States.

and geospatial data. All these resources are Three main centers heavily involved in becoming an integral part of the remectiation transportation modeling and geographic networks planning and cleanup process, supported through are the Energy Division (ED), the Chemical communication networks linking scientists, Technology Division (CTD), and the engineers, and decision makers with analytical Computational Physics and Engineering Division software and data bases. (CPED). CTD has been primarily supporting DOE GIS is used transportation needs in collaboration with CPED; increasingly Transportation Modeling and Analysis. ED has been supporting the Department of to plan, Transportation systems and networks are crucial Transportation; and both ED and CPED have been to the U. S. economy and way of life. GIS is used supporting the Department of Defense. develop, and increasingly to plan, develop, and manage Collectively, the three groups have developed manage transportation infrastructures (e.g., highway, detailed representations of highway, railway, and railway, waterway, and air transport networks) waterway networks for the United States and transportation with the goal of improving efficiency in military air transport networks for the entire infrastructures. construction and operation. world. ED, for example, is the developer and

68 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW proprietor of the National Highway Planning asynchronously. Thus, schedule pl an ners can use System and the initial INTERLINE railway the windowing ystem to keep track of and to routing model. CTD has had a major modify multiple pieces of information. The three responsibility for routing and a. sessing hazardous main components of the user interface are material on the nation's highway and rail systems movement requirement and airlift resources data for many year (see figure at left). They have management, schedule analysis, and algorithm enhanced and adapted the INTERLINE and interaction. HIGHWAY routing model to assist in this work. All data and algorithms are geographically CPED has been a maj or developer of the Joint explicit. The u er inputs data on a station-by­ Flow and Analysi System for Transportation station basis wi th the textual network editor; the (JFAST), which is a mul ti modal transportation graphical network editor al low the user to analysi model designed fo r the U.S. establish a network and to enter or to edit Transportati on Command (USTRANSCOM) and informati on directly on a world map. With this the Joint Planning Community. system, it is easy to determine how cargo and Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm passengers were moved, how many were moved (1990-1991) involved the largest ai rlift of as required, and to what aircraft they were personnel and equipment from region to region as igned. ever accomplished. The U.S. Air Force's Military The JFAST effort, initiated by Bob Hunter, is Airlift Command, now the Air Mobility designed to determi ne tran portation requirements, Command (AMC), was re ponsible for this perform cour e of action anal y i , and project movement from the United States and Europe to deli very profiles of troops and equipment by air, the Persian Gulf region. Prior to that event, ORNL land, and sea. JFAST was u ed in Desert Shield to ADANSis had worked with AMC to develop the Airlift analyze th e airlift and sealift transportation Deployment Analysis System (ADANS), a eries requirements for deploying U.S . forces to the currently of scheduling algorithms and tools that enabled Middle East and predict their arrival dates in­ being AMC to chedule missions to and from the theater. These deployment estimates provided Persian Gulf more rapidly and efficiently than input for establ ishing concepts and timing for used... to ever before. ADANS is currently being used 24 military operati ons. Under Brian Jone ' direction schedule ... hours per day by AMC to chedul e peacetime, during Desert Storm, JFAST was also used to peacekeeping exerci se, and contingency missions, as well as track ships, provide delivery forecasts, and analyze peacekeeping relief and humanitarian operations. what-if scenarios such as canal closings and relief and Some of the key members of the ADANS team maintenance delays. In addition to analyzing humanitarian have included Glen Harri on, Mike Hilliard, Ron support fo r humanitarian effort such as those in Kraemer, Cheng Liu, Steve Margie, and Irene Rwanda and Somalia, USTRANSCOM and the operations. Robbin . Joint Planning Community u e JFAST to The ADANS architecture is based on a determine the transportation feasibility of relational data base management sy tern , which deployment plans. operates on a network of powerful, UNIX-based JFAST incorporates a graphi cal user interface workstations stretching across the United States that make significant use of geographic di play of with current instal lations at ORNL; Scott Air transportation data as well as other graphic Force Ba e, Illinois; and Travis Air Force Base, displays to aid the planner in understanding the Californi a. PCs are used to perform some output fro m the flow models. To assist in functions. The configuration include a data base preparing briefings, all JFAST creens and graphic management system, a fo rm generation tool, displ ays can be captured and inserted directly into graphical di splay tools, a report generation pre entation software while JF AST is running. sy tern, communication software, a windowing Data from JFAST can also be sent directly to other system, and more than 500,000 lines of ADANS­ Window '1Kcompliant applications, such as unique code. All modules exchange data and run spreadsheets and word processing packages.

Number One, 1995 69 ORNL AND THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMAT/ON SYSTEMS REVOLUTION

ORNL's Role in the supercomputer technology. We are currently addressing these and other technological issues, GIS Revolution such as GIS animation, telecommunications, and real-time GPS and video linkage with GIS. After a quarter of a century, how have GIS We hope to maintain a leader hip position developments and applications at ORNL through continued advancement of hardware and advanced science and served the national interest? graphic ystems, GIS software, and data ba es ORNL has played an instrumental role in the GIS that will more effectively solve complex spatial revolution by e tablishing and implementing a problems. We think that knowledge-based expert coherent vision that has been welcomed by systems will play a role in advancing future scientific, policy, and management communities. development and use of GIS technologies. We ORNL has advanced the use of GIS within our intend to assist the GIS community in improving national infrastructure. Today, commercial GIS standards and quality assurance procedures, and products address many of the technical needs that we look forward to assisting in enhancement of ORNLhas required so much of our effort in the past, and the the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. advanced the research frontiers have moved on to more Ultimately, we view GIS as an integrating use of GIS complex methodological issues. However, no technology with the potential to improve all single commercial product today will handle all branches of science that involve location, place, or within our the current needs for GIS and related spatial movement. Consider, for example, that most of national technologies. One of our ongoing roles will be the advances in medical imaging have been based integration of multiple products with in-house on visual analysis. Imagine how much greater the infrastructure. technologies to best meet real-world needs that potential would be if the images were enhanced arise. by data structures, models, and analytical tools For the future, we envision linkages of GIS similar to those employed in analysis of the three­ with environmental transport models and process dimensional earth. We envision that certain models traditionally used by biologists, technological thresholds will open the door to ecologists, and economists; implementation of entire fields . For example, true 3-D analysis (more GIS and digital remote-sensing techniques on than visualization) and temporal GIS should supercomputers; 3-D GIS visualization and provide new insights to geophysicists studying analysis; temporal analysis in a spatial context, plate tectonics and the dynamic forces operating and improved statistical analysis capabilities for beneath the earth's surface. The single geographic and other spatial data. The use of advancement of linking GIS with environmental supercomputers will become even more important transport models and process models will as new data collection -for example, the next suddenly enable scientists and profe sionals in generation of high-re elution satellite imagery­ numerous other discipline to incorporate spatial inundate the scientific community with terabytes logic and geographical analysis alongside their of information. Justification for collecting and traditional approaches. As these and other using these data will depend on the ability to developments take place, a truly revolutionary extract meaningful information using new form of science should emerge. om~

70 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Biographical Sketches

Jerome E. Dob on (left) is a senior research staff member in ORNL's Computational Physics and Engineering Division. He currently serves as chairman of the Interim Research Committee of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, scientific editor of the International GIS Sourcebook, and a contributing editor and member of the editorial advisory board of GIS World. He holds a Ph.D. degree in geography from the University of Tennessee. He joined the ORNL staff in 1975. He is a former chairman of the Geographic Information Systems Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers, and member of the Steering Committee of the National Committee for Digital Cartographic Data Standards. He previou ly served as leader of the Resource Analysis Group in ORNL's Energy Division, as visiting a sociate professor with the Department of Geography at Arizona State University, as a member of the editorial board of The Professional Geographer, and as a member of the Steering Committee of the Applied Geography Conferences. Dobson was co-founder and first chairman of the Energy Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers. He proposed the paradigm of automated geography, and he was instrumental in originating the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis and in establishing the Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Employing geographic information systems (GIS) and automated geographic methods, he has proposed new evidence and theory regarding the mechanisms responsible for lake acidification and regarding continental drift and plate tectonics.

Richard Durfee is head of the Geographic Information Systems and Computer Modeling Group (GCM) in ORNL's Computational Phy ics and Engineering Division. He is also program manager of the GIS and Spatial Technologies Program for Environmental Restoration supporting DOE's Lockheed Martin Energy Systems facilitie . He i responsible for an advanced GIS Computing and Technology Center at ORNL with special facilities for analyzing and displaying all types of geospatial information. Previously, he was head of the Geographic Data Systems Group in the former Computer Applications Division and section head in the former Computing and Telecommunications Division. He joined ORNL in J 965 as a member of the Mathematics Division. He has an M.S. degree in physics from the University of Tennessee. An expert in GIS and remote sensing technologies, he served on the initial steering committee for the DOE Environmental Restoration GIS Information Exchange conferences and for the early DOE Interlaboratory Working Group on Data Exchange. He was also an early member of the Federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on Digital Cartography. He is coauthor of many publications and presentations, including a GIS-related presentation to President Carter during his visit to ORNL in 1978. For more than 25 years, he has researched and directed a wide range of GIS technologies supporting hundreds of applications for more than 15 different federal agencies.

Number One, 1995 71 Oak Ridge Pays Tribute to its Nobel Prize Winner

Nobel Laureate examines the neutron diffractometer now on display at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge. Shull used this instrument for his neutron-scattering research at ORN L's Graphite Reactor.-Photograph by Kelley Scott Walli.

72 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Joy, pride, and hope. These were the emotions new exhibit for the museum's future ORNL room. that Oak Ridge residents and ORNL employees At the ceremony, Oak Ridge Mayor Ed felt October 13, 1994, when it was announced Nephew said the city is proud of Shull's that Cliff Shull had received a Nobel Prize for achievements. He presented the scientist with a phy ics. These emotions were rekindled on April proclamation declaring AprillO, 1995, as 10 and 11 , 1995, when Shull came home from "Clifford G. Shull Day" in Oak Rjdge. Massachusetts to be honored for his achievements Shull's Nobel Prize also raised the hope that the and to describe them in a replay of hi Nobel Advanced Neutron Source research reactor to be Prize lecture. built at ORNL would stay in the president's The professorial Shull-diminutive in stature budget as a construction item and receive but a giant among scientists-had been a resident congressional funding. That did not happen, but of Oak Rjdge from 1946 to 1955. He and his wife Oak Ridge was named the preferred site for a Martha lived on Kentucky A venue, and his propo ed spallation neutron source, an accelerator children played with the children of former to replace the reactor as a future facility for ORNL Director Alvin Weinberg. He conducted neutron scattering research. his pioneering research using neutron cattering On Aprill1, before Shull gave his Nobel Prize with Ernie Wollan at the Graphite Reactor of Oak lecture "Early Development of Neutron Rjdge National Laboratory. He is the first person Scattering" at ORNL, Tennessee Representative This to receive a Nobel Prize for research conducted in Zach Wamp pledged to Shull that be would instrument Oak Ridge. support funding for neutron science and would was designed Shull shared the 1994 educate fellow congressmen about the need to with of McMaster support activities in neutron science to which by a Nobel University in Hamilton, Ontario. Shull and Shull had dedicated his life. For neutron scientists, Prize winner, Woll an used neutron scattering to determine there was still hope for more research where atoms are in a crystal, and Brockhouse opportunities ahead. and it was used this tool to learn how atoms move in a The neutron diffractometer now on display in used by material. Neutron scattering has been used at the Oak Rjdge museum was buiJt at the University another ORNL reactor and research reactors throughout of Chicago u ing a 1915 design by Arthur the world to probe the structure and dynamics of Compton, Nobel Prize winner under whom Nobel Prize materials. The research ba led to development of Wollan had done hi s doctoral research in wmner. high-strength pla tics and improved magnetic scattering of X rays from olids and ga es at the materials used for small motors, credit cards, University of Chicago. "This instrument was computer di ks, and compact discs. designed by a Nobel Prize winner," Moon said, "This award was greeted with great joy in the "and it was used by another Nobel Prize winner." neutron science community because of the respect A frequently used photograph of Wollan and we have for both men and in Oak Rjdge because Shull with their econd instrument was first Cliff Shull did the work here that earned him the published in the April 8, 1949, issue of The Oak prize," said Ralph Moon, Shull's first doctoral Ridge National Laboratory News. The photograph student at the Massachu etts Institute of is displayed with the original instrument as part of Technology (MIT), where Shull spent his career the museum exhibit. after leaving ORNL in 1955. Moon was master of "I last saw this diffractometer in England in ceremonies for an AprillO, 1995 , program at the 1982 during the celebration of the 50th American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak anniversary of the discovery of the neutron by Ridge, where Shull was honored. Sharing the ," Shull said. "Since I last used it, stage was the original neutron diffractometer that it's been gilded and nicely polished. Shull had used for his prize-winning research and "The years I spent in Oak Ridge were really that was brought to Oak Ridge from the exciting. I left Oak Rjdge because of the prospect Smith onian Institution in Washington, D.C., as a of teaching at MIT and starting a re earch

Number One, 1995 73 In 1945 when the war was over, Wollan and other scientists pondered some possible cientific u es for the Graphite Reactor. Wollan, who had studied X-ray scattering from solid and gases, considered usi ng neutrons from the reactor for scattering studies. In late 1945, he obtained a neutron beam of a single wavelength by passing reactor neutrons through a crystal. He arranged fo r a neutron spectrometer to be sent to Oak Ridge from Chicago. The Shull goes through the motions of operating his old neutron diffractometer, now a museum piece. Looking on are, from left, ORNL Director Alvin spectrometer made possible measurement of the Trivelpiece; Ralph Moon, Sh ull's first doctoral student at MIT; and Mike angle at which neutrons are scattered from atom Wilkinson, one of Shu ll's collaborators at ORNL in the 1950s. Photograph in a target material and the intensities of the by Curtis Boles scattered neutrons; such information is useful in determining material structure. W ollan and Robert Sawyer showed that they program using the new reactor there. Our years at could get a "powder pattern" by scattering MIT were as wonderful as the earlier period in neutrons in a beam from powder ground from a Oak Ridge." sodium chloride crystal. They then showed that During his Nobel lecture at ORNL ( imilar to neutron scattering could do what X-ray scattering the one he gave in December 1994 in Stockholm, could not-detect hydrogen atoms in hydrogen­ "My biggest Sweden, during the Nobel Prize ceremonies), containing materials. The definitive experiment regret, " Shull Shull traced the history of the neutron, from it showed that neutrons scatter differently from discovery in 1932 to the discovery of fi ion in water (Hp) than from deuterium oxide (Dp), said, "is that 1939 to the demonstration of the first neutron which contain heavy hydrogen, because of Ernie Wollan chain reaction in December 1942 in Chicago. He differences in the nuclear properties of the two then talked about his collaboration with Wollan hydrogen isotopes. Thus, they proved that did not live that ORNL Director Alvin Trivelpiece called hydrogen contributes to neutron scattering long enough "unusually productive." patterns in a recognizable way. to share in "My biggest regret," Shull said, "is that Ernie Shull learned of these results when he first Woll an did not live long enough to share in the visited Wollan in April 1946 at the Graphite the honors honors that came to people in this field. " Reactor. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that came to Wollan joined the Manhattan Project at the Shull earned a B.S. degree from the Carnegie University of Chicago during World War II to Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. degree in people in this work in radiation protection and detection. He nuclear physics from field. " developed the first reliable ftlm badge, a pocket (NYU). He wa there when 0. Halpern and radiation dosimeter, and a gamma ray meter that M. H. Johnson of NYU developed the theory of recorded the tartup of the Graphite Reactor. Then magnetic scattering of neutrons. During World known as the Clinton Pile, this air-cooled, War II, Shull became an expert in X-ray graphite-moderated reactor was built in 1943 as a diffraction through his research at Texaco on pilot plant for the production of plutonium to aid catalysts being developed for production of high­ in the de ign of the plutonium-producing octane aviation gasoline. Impressed by Wollan's Hanford, Washington, reactor . These reactors research, Shull came to Oak Ridge to coll aborate produced the nuclear material used in the second with him in June 1946, about the time that Sawyer atomic bomb dropped on Japan. Wollan came to left for Lehigh University. ORNL in 1944 as as ociate director of the Physic In his Nobel lecture, Shull said he and Wollan Division. irradiated sodium chloride, calcium chloride, and

74 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW deuterium oxide. "We used an ice ball machine," Shull said, "but we omitted the flavoring." By accident, Shull and Wollan were the first to obtain a neutron radiograph, similar to an X-ray radiograph. They had set up an experiment to observe the first neutron Laue diffraction pattern using a single crystal of sodium chloride and a white (aU wavelengths) neutron beam from the Graphite Reactor. The diffracted neutrons were detected using an indium sheet, which converts neutrons into photons, followed by a sheet of X-ray fi lm. They had used Scotch tape to piece together strips of indium, and the images of these pieces of tape are clearly visible in the background of the Laue pattern. Shull said he spent the rest of hi career at ORNL using neutron scattering to probe the In a nostalgic moment, Shull examines the control tructure of alloys and magnetic materials. His room in the Graphite Reactor, where he work in magnetic scattering led to the conducted hi s Nobel Pri ze- wi nni ng research. development of improved magnetic materials that -Photograph by Curtis Boles. have proved important to the recording and

computer industries. ornl carbon in diamond du t and graphite powder. They were trying to match intensities of scattered neutrons with material structures. But they failed to find quantifiable relationships; instead, they obtained discrepancies that they called diffuse scattering anomalies. , ORNL research director who received a Nobel Prize in physics in 1963, listened quietly to their problem. Recall Shull: "Wigner said, 'Maybe there's something brand new here.' He urged us to keep trying to quantify the effects. Eugene had more faith in our experiments than we did." They later determined that they had multiple scattering effects that could be sorted out, allowing neutron inten ities to be correlated with structure. In their neutron scattering experiments with sodium hydride and sodium deuteride, Shull said be and Wollan got their "fust clear indication of where the hydrogen Onej of the obs of a Nobel Prize winner is to tal k to news reporters. He re, Shull atoms are." They also obtained scattering explains neutron scattering to Frank Munger, science writer for the Knoxville patterns showing the locations of hydrogen Ne ws-Sentinel, while ORN L Herb Mook listens in .-Photograph by atoms in ice balls made of water and Curtis Boles.

Number One, 1995 75 Tribute to Alvin M. Weinberg

Former ORNL Director Alvin Weinberg (lett) chats with Nobel Laureate Cliff Shull, who performed his prize­ winning work at ORNL when Weinberg was Laboratory research director.-Photograph by Curtis Boles.

76 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Review of the Weinberg Homogeneous Reactor Experiment (HRE), as it was called, went into operation in 1950. At the Years at ORNL criticality party, Weinberg pulled a bottle with a black label from his briefcase. Beall recalled that He asked penetrating questions and made tough Alvin told him, "Sam, when pile go critical in reque ts. That's how former Laboratory staff Chicago, we celebrate with wine. When piles go members remembered former ORNL Director critical in Tennessee, we celebrate with Jack Alvin Weinberg at his 80th birthday celebration Daniel's." on April 20, 1995. Bill Fulkerson, former ORNL The HRE had a 105-day run and then was associate director, called Weinberg "our spiritual closed despite Weinberg's attempts to ell the leader." merits of the reactor to powerful people in In honor of the occasion, ORNL Director Alvin Washington. In fact, Weinberg even invited Trivelpiece announced the inauguration of the Senator Jack Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy and annual Alvin M. Weinberg Lecture Series. The Senator Albert Gore, Sr., to visit the reactor. fir t lecture, "On Plutonium" ( ummarized Weinberg recalled the event: "I invited John below), wa presented by Wolf Hafele, scientific Swartout to be in charge of Jack Kennedy so I director of the Re earcb Center at Rossendorf­ could be in charge of Jackie." Dresden, Germany. Information gained from operation of the HRE Several persons recalled that Weinberg used to and the Aircraft Reactor Experiment (for 100 Reactors sit in the front row at ORNL division information hours) led to the design and operation of the were the meetings and ask the first question after each Molten Salt Reactor Experiment. It set a record cientific talk-often a very penetrating question. for continuous operation of a reactor, and it was centerpiece For a young scientist giving his first information the first reactor to use uranium-233 as fuel. of the meeting presentation, the experience was Ellison Taylor, former director of ORNL's old frightening but also exciting and stimulating. Chemistry Division, said, "Reactors were the Laboratory Trivelpiece acknowledged that he is not always centerpiece of the Laboratory in the Weinberg in the able to attend information meetings and ask era." But he called the Molten Salt Reactor Weinberg questions. "How did you find the time?'' be asked Experiment "a chemist's reactor" because the Weinberg. The former ORNL director replied in "make-or-break problems" of the reactor required era. jest, "We didn't have a DOE in those days." chemical solutions. Sam Beall, director of ORNL's old Reactor Howard Adler, former director of ORNL's Division, recalled Weinberg's requests that led to Biology Division, recalled that under Weinberg the development of several new reactors and this division was the largest, "five time the size "criticality parties" when the reactors were started. of the next largest division." It mission, he said, "Fifty year ago, I was called to his office and was to understand bow radiation interacted with asked, 'Can we convert the Materials Testing living things and to find ways to help organisms Reactor mock-up to a real reactor?' He wanted survive radiation damage, such as with bone something for nothing." The result was ORNL's marrow transplants. Low Intensity Test Reactor (LITR), or the "Poor Fulkerson remembered Weinberg a an Man' s Pile." Experiments at the LITR supphed environmentalist. "He viewed national data that aided the design of both pressurized­ laboratories as tools for achieving social water and boiling-water nuclear reactors, the progress." Fulkerson said that once the nuclear era dominant reactor types in commercial nuclear was under way, Weinberg thought that ensuring power plants. sufficient food, clean water, and biological Weinberg then asked the reactor engineers to survival were important missions. Thus, in the de ign a reactor that used fluid fuel instead of 1960 Weinberg pursued new missions for the solid fuel. It was called "Alvin's 3P reactor" Laboratory, such as using nuclear energy to because it required a pot, a pipe, and a pump. The desalinate seawater and "make the deserts

Number One, 1995 77 Happy Birthday ALVINH

Weinberg performs classical music durin g his 80th birthday celebration in Oak Ridge.

bloom." Philip Hammond was recruited to the Laboratory from Los Alamos to push this mi ssion. Weinberg then invited David Rose from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to come to ORNL and provoke discussion of the future of nationallaboratorie . One resuJt was a controversial publication "A Case for a National Environmental Laboratory." U.S . Representative Chet Holifield, chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, opposed the idea. "Holifield," Fulkerson said, "didn't want nuclear labs tainted with the environmental brush." Under Weinberg's leadership, the first big ecology project in the United States was started in 1970 at ORNL as the National Science Foundation-Research Applied to National Needs Environmental Program. Rose was the first director; when he left, his successor wa phy icist Jack Gibbons, now President Clinton's science adviser. Concerning this program, Gibbons has said, "We were ahead of our time." "The exciting activity that Alvin stimulated in the late 1960s and early 1970s transformed the Laboratory," Fulkerson said. "Now, a quarter of a century later, another Alvin- Alvin Trivelpiece­ suggested to the Galvin Commission that the new mission for the national labs should be sustainable Weinberg offers birthday cake to his wife Gene.

78 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW development in the areas of the three E's­ plutonium-240 so that the nuclear material could energy, the environment, and the economy." not be used to make an atomic weapon. But he did Hafele, who in 1959-60 was a guest scientist not know if enough plutonium-240 exists to fully with ORNL's Neutron Physics Division and an "denature" plutonium-238. assistant to Weinberg ("a highlight of my "Ultimately, the issue is organizational," profes ionallife"), poke on plutonium as a future Weinberg said. "I the regime of terrorism the resource, a future investment. Some people, he bitter fruit of today's technology? Is there no said, are "religiously against plutonium" because longer order in our society? It has been said that if of its toxicity and potential for use in weapons. society has a choice between freedom and order, Because 200 tons of scrap plutonium exist in the it will choose order. Is it possible to have both?" United State (80 tons) and former Soviet Union, More penetrating questions from Alvin. people are looking for ways to deal with it. One Weinberg called for the strengthening of the The main job proposal is to burn it in reactors; another is to International Atomic Energy Agency and for "hide it" by i elating it permanently from the defensive systems as the number of nuclear of the environment. weapons for each superpower drops from the Laboratory Hafele sees plutonium as a resource to be thousands to a few hundred. guarded and proposes subsurface storage of The main job of the Laboratory director, director is to plutonium. He said it should be kept in this Weinberg said, i to keep money coming in to keep money "bank" for later use when nuclear power becomes support research, not to sit in the front row at coming in to more acceptable and energy need nece sitate a scientific meeting and ask questions. He noted second nuclear era. Various countries would that the recent publication of the Clinton support withdraw the plutonium they own from the bank administration, Science in the National Interest, research. as they need it for reactor fuel in accordance with proposed that 3% of the national budget be international guidelines. Nuclear power will be allocated to support re earch and development. more acceptable, be says, once waste disposal is But, he said, this report is not being taken addressed by an international group and once seriously as was Vannevar Bu h's report 50 years people have experienced problems in using ago that called for strong government support for alternative nonnuclear energy sources and the science. adverse environmental and climatic impacts of Now that he is 80, Weinberg said he looks to fossil fuel use. the next generation to take over. "The problems "Plutonium is neither waste nor fuel," Hafele they will face will be monumental. They will have said. "It is an endowment." large opportunities to deal with problems and In his remarks at the end of the birthday bring on the second nuclear era. I hope they will celebration, Weinberg complimented Hafele on make a better world than we oldtimers were able his proposal for a global plutonium regime. He to produce." then poke of the previous day's car bomb So spoke Weinberg, whom former Tenne ee explosion at the federal office building in Senator Howard Baker called "the rna ter of the Oklahoma City, which killed or injured hundreds majestic concept" and whom Oak Ridge of adults and children. The worst bomb attack Associated Universites President Jon Veigel ever in the United States, he said, raises "grave called "a citizen of the world who is our neighbor questions and concerns for a world that finds and friend." Even on his 80th birthday, Weinberg existence of plutonium to be threatening. How made sure we had some intellectual meat to chew does the world deal with ensele s acts if nuclear on before we helped him eat his birthday cake. oml bombs come into the possession of people like that? I don't really have an answer." He noted that a possible solution to the scrap plutonium-238 problem is to blend it with

Number One, 1995 79 TRIBUTE TO ALVIN M. WEINBERG

Confessions of a Nuke: A Book Review

Alvin M. Weinberg, The First Nuclear Era: The Life and Times of a Technological Fixer, American Institute of Physics, New York, 1994, 291 pages.

By Alex Zucker We at ORNL think of Alvin Weinberg as our first long-time Laboratory director with a vision: to make nuclear power practical, to ensure cheap and clean electrical energy for the immediate and distant future. We saw a Laboratory director who cared, who knew all our names, and who et high standards for us and for him elf, and we tried to live up to those standards. It was a matter of pride: we were all working for Alvin. The Weinberg's new book, The First Nuclear Era: The Life and Times of a Technological Fixer, is a too seldom. On finishing the book I am left with astonishing personal memoir of his life in the world of nuclear the thought that there is yet another book in Alvin Weinberg, a book about the private thoughts of a thing is that technology. It begins with the first nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago and ends very public person. in all these with a search for the rebirth of fission reactors as After Chicago comes his 26-year career a fields he was an acceptable energy source. research director and then director of ORNL. Weinberg bad the simple idea that the near the top, It soon becomes obvious how much more than a laboratory director Weinberg was. In management function at the Laboratory was "fir t, honored, approximate chronological order, be was a reactor to maintain standards, and, second to show that it (management) cares." Hence Weinbercr's sought after, physicist, a pioneer in nuclear energy, a reactor 0 builder, a laboratory director, a lecturer, a writer, unbroken record, sitting in the front row at respected, division information meetings, asking penetrating a thinker, a policymaker. The astonishincr0 thincr0 is and listened that in all these fields be was near the top, questions, and making comments that could well honored, sought after, respected, and listened to. influence the direction of an entire research to. The book, then, describes a life full of program. I recall that, when I gave reports at accomplishment but also a life that contains its information meetings, I always felt that I was measure of disappointments and, at least during speaking directly to Weinberg and that I had one period, de pair. better have something interesting to say and be The book tarts with a very personal account of prepared to answer difficult questions. Weinberg's origins, his early education and his Weinberg used his position at ORNL as a bully youth. By an accident of circumstances he is pulpit for nuclear energy. He was carried away drawn into the Manhattan project at the when in 1964 General Electric "published . .. a University of Chicago, where he has earned a catalog listing guaranteed prices of boiling water Ph.D. degree in what his adviser called reactors ranging from 50 to 1000 megawatts." mathematical biophysics. At this point personal Cheap nuclear power seemed to have arrived, and history is narrowed to the technical and political Weinberg embarked on two quests. One was to domain , and purely personal reactions appear far ensure mankind unJjmited energy for a very long time through development of the breeder reactor,

80 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW which in large numbers would provide fissionable Committee on Atomic Energy, told him, "Alvin, material far beyond what was then thought to exist if you are concerned about the safety of reactors, in natural uranium deposits. The other was the then I think it might be time for you to leave application of nuclear energy to solve social or nuclear energy." Soon after, Weinberg was fired political problems-the technological fix. The from his job as director of ORNL. That was in most ambitious such fix was the agro-industrial 1972.ln 1979 Three Mile Island fully justified complex, which would use giant reactors to Weinberg's concern, setting in motion events that supply cheap electricity and desalted seawater to led to much enhanced safety of U.S. reactors but overpopulated and underfed regions of the world also leading to cancellation of many reactor sales. and thus ensure peace and plenty to their No new reactor orders have been placed by U.S. struggling peoples. Clearly, Weinberg was going utilities since then. for the long ball. Big problems have always Did Weinberg acknowledge defeat? Not at all. tempted him, and in the 1960s he was captured by From his position as director of the Institute for Weinberg a nuclear euphoria and became one of nuclear Energy Analysis at Oak Ridge Associated used his energy's most eloquent exponents. Universities, he redoubled his efforts to make position at But the devil is in the details. Fermi saw a nuclear energy a viable source of power. He problem as early as the Chicago days. In the book, initiated among the first government-funded ORNLasa Weinberg quotes him as saying, "It is not clear studies of global warming caused by increased bully pulpit that the public will accept a source of energy that atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide from -produces so much radioactivity or that might be burning fossil fuels to produce electricity. He for nuclear subject to diversion of bomb material by examined a new class of reactors, the so-called energy. terrorists." A in so many other cases, Fermi turns inherently safe reactors, whose safety does not out to be right. Perhap nuclear energy was depend on engineered systems but rather on developed too rapidly. Because of the pressing processes based on laws of nature. His intellectual need for a nuclear navy, reactors became an article curiosity led him into arms control issues, high­ of commerce before engineers could examine in level waste storage, and eventually to the nub of depth such issue as nuclear waste, reactor safety, the question: Why are people afraid of nuclear fuel reprocessing, and the economics of energy energy? And, why are they so averse to certain production and use. Weinberg points out that the very small risks? choice of the light-water reactor system was really There is much to read in tbis book for those driven by the naval reactor programs, and that who are interested in the history of ORNL. Buy other systems, and there are plenty of them, never the book and get the inside scoop on the X-10 pile had a chance. In their euphoria, reactor (Graphite Reactor), the Aircraft Nuclear entrepreneurs forgot Fermi 's warning. "During Propulsion program, the Materials Testing my year at ORNL," Weinberg says, "I paid too Reactor and its progeny, the thermal breeder, the little attention to the waste problem. Designing Homogeneous Reactor Experiment, the and building reactors, not nuclear waste, was what Experimental Gas-Cooled Reactor, the Molten turned me on ... had I to do it over again, it Salt Reactor Experiment, and other projects would be to elevate waste disposal to the very top nuclear. of ORNL' agenda." On the whole, Weinberg thinks nuclear energy When Weinberg became convinced that reactor has done reasonably well, progressing in "50 safety was an issue of the greatest importance, that years . .. from a miraculous dream into a major loss-of-coolant accidents were not unthinkable, he source of electric energy." But he recognizes that was punished by the nuclear advocates. In the there is a pause in its further development and that book Weinberg quotes what, to me, is the most not much is likely to happen in the next several bizarre statement of the whole story. In a years. Weinberg is ever the optimist, especially conversation about reactor safety, Chet Holifield, when it comes to the ability of mankind to rise to then chairman of the Congressional Joint the occasion. "To deny rebirth of nuclear energy

Number One, 1995 81 TRIBUTE TO ALVIN M. WEINBERG

is to deny human ingenuity and aspiration. This I Alex Zucker, now retired, was acting director of cannot do. During my life I have witnessed ORNL in 1988 and ORNL associate director for extraordinary feats of human ingenuity. I believe the Physical Sciences and later for the Reactor Designing that this truggling ingenuity will be equal to the and Engineering Technologies for many years. He and building task of creating the Second Nuclear Era." has taught courses at Roane State Community reactors, not Whenever it comes, Weinberg's labors will be College. He is writing a book about scientific there to light the way. literacy. nuclear waste, was what turned A Glimpse at Weinberg's Career me on ... had I to do it 1915 Born in Chicago in 1915 over again, it 1939 Received Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in mathematical biophysics would be to 1942 Worked at the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago elevate waste disposal to 1946 Named director of ORNL's Physics Division the very top 1948 Appointed research director at ORNL ofORNL's agenda. 1955 Named director of ORNL 1958 Weinberg and Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner's classic The Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors is published

1959 Elected president of the American Nuclear Society

1960 Began service on President's Science Advisory Committee

1965 Appointed vice president in the Union Carbide Corporation's Nuclear Division

1973 Became director of energy R&D in the White House

1975 Founded and became director of Institute fo r Energy Analysi at Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU)

1985 Retired from ORAU and became ORAU distingui hed fellow

1992 Named chairman of International Friendship Bell Committee

82 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Q: Emphasis on reduction of U.S. budget A Chat with Alvin deficits may threaten the survival of many Weinberg scientific programs and even some Department of Energy national laboratories. In anticipation of Alvin Weinberg's 80th What is your view on this situation? birthday in April 1995, Bill Cabage, editor of Lab Notes, and Carolyn Krause, editor of the WEINBERG: Today' s situation is analogous to ORNL Review, recently interviewed the the situation 50 years ago. The issue 50 years former ORNL director (1955-73) in his home ago was what would be the future of the entity in Oak Ridge. Our edited interview with then known as Clinton Laboratories. What the Weinberg follows. Oak Ridge laboratory is for and where the money will come from have always been central issues.

Weinberg is author or coauthor of these books: The Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors, Reflections on Big Science, The Second Nuclear Era: A New Start for Nuclear Power, Continuing the Nuclear Dialogue, Strategic Defenses and Arms Control, Stability and Strategic Defenses, Nuclear Reactions: Science and Trans-Science, and The First Nuclear Era: The Life and Times of a Technological Fixer.

Among the honors he received were the Atomic Energy Commission's E. 0. Lawrence Memorial Award and its highest award, The Prize.

Famous Weinberg phrases: Big science, little science, first nuclear era, second nuclear era, trans-science, Faustian bargain, technological fix, burning the rocks and burning the seas.

Weinberg and Eugene Wigner stroll up the aisle of Oak Ridge High School after one of Weinberg's State of the Laboratory addresses.

Number One, 1995 83 TRIBUTE TO ALVIN M. WEINBERG

Norris Bradbury, director of Los Alamos life of genteel poverty. It was a trade-off-you did Scientific Laboratory for a long time, u ed to something you enjoyed doing, but you had to pay scare other lab directors by saying, "Suppose an by living a life of genteel poverty. I hope this does earthquake destroyed your laboratory. Would the not happen. I hope people realize that cience AEC or DOE decide to rebuild it?'' The must be pursued and that government must have a implication was that he wasn' t sure. dominant role in supporting it. The contract between the scientific establishment and the government is being reviewed again. In 1945 Vannevar Bush wrote a Q: Your mentor, Nobel Laureate Eugene It was an paper that set forth why science shouJd be Wigner, always seemed to be two steps ahead supported by society. That provided the of everyone. Was that really so? awful error underlying understanding for why the e big on the part laboratorie and cience are supported. Well, 50 WEINBERG: Eugene Wigner was smarter than years later, we seem to be reopening that anyone else by a good deal. No one at the of the question. The advantage today is that we have Laboratory was in the same intellectual cla s as government people very adept at exploiting the political Eugene Wigner. That was so evident during a to cancel the proces . Why should science be supported? Only scientific di cussion. His intellectual power was the government can decide the proper role of phenomenal. ANS. science and the lab . His aptitude as an engineer was remarkable. He would argue details of design for the Hanford plutonium-producing reactors, invoking common Q. What was your reaction to the decision to engineering principles. Yet he was not a trained terminate the Advanced Neutron Source engineer or physicist. He started out as a chemist. research reactor, which would have been built In his eulogy on Wigner (who died January 1, at ORNL to produce medical isotopes, test 1995), Frederick Seitz recalled that Wigner knew materials, and provide beams for neutron­ how to prepare every known inorganic chemical scattering research? compound. Isn't that extraordinary? Wigner attributes much of his excellence in WEINBERG: It was an awful error on the part of science to having gone to the best high school in the government to cancel the ANS. A dreadful the world. It was a Lutheran high chool in decision. The government is prepared to pend Budapest. His classmate and best friend, John von $30 billion on an international space station, but Neumann, was a genius like Wigner. it won' t spend one-tenth of that on omething of ORNL i wonderfully fortunate in having had central importance. this close interaction with a great genius. Even the people there who didn' t know him are aware of Wigner's influence on the Laboratory. He had a Q: Do you think scientists have lived in a tremendou influence on me. golden era that may be ending?

WEINBERG: For 50 years, the contract between Q: One-third of the DOE budget is devoted to scientists and government has been firmly in environmental restoration. What is your place, and it has been very generou . We position on the goal to remediate all hazardous scientists were very lucky people. It is a much sites even though many of them may pose no colder world today. Perhaps it will mean that more of a health risk than areas where most scientific careers will revert to the way they were people live and work? in the 1930s, some 60 years ago. In that time, scientists didn't have large sum of money. WEINBERG: I think it's non en e. We' ve gone College profe sors were poor then. They lived a crazy. I have argued at various times that one of

84 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW the prices of nuclear energy is the commitment of WEINBERG: Karl Morgan, once director of certain pieces of real estate in perpetuity to ORNL's Health Physics Division, disagreed with nuclear activity, incl uding waste disposal. This is the way reactor development was going. He not all that big a commitment becau e there are thought the thorium cycle (breeding uranium-233 onl y 85 reactor site and 50 other nuclear-related in a reactor by neutron bombardment of thorium) sites throughout the United States. That's the price should be pursued because the waste disposal we pay, and I'm prepared to pay that price. Not problem wa impler to handle. We bad some that these sites are not useful. They are. difficult times there. The problem that Laboratory Recentl y, Donna Cragle, director of the Center management always faced was that our surv ival for Epidemiologic Research at Oak Ri dge depended on our ability to get money, mostly Associated Universities, led a study at the from the Atomic Energy Commission' Reactor Savannah Ri ver Pl ant in South Carolina that fo und Division under Milton Shaw. Karl Morgan's that long-term exposure to low-level radiation dissenting views on reactors placed ORNL in an may increase workers' risk of leukemia. (The awkward position, but Karl's career didn 't suffer. study fo und that workers exposed to higher doses He's going strong even though he's close to 90. bad a higher rate of leukemia deaths than workers Milton Shaw had a singleness of purpose. In exposed to lower doses; however, the study did many ways I ad mired him, and in many ways be not find a significant increase in leukemia ca es drove me nutty . He had a single-minded over the expected rate for the general population.) commitment to do what he was told to do, which The study also showed that the Savannah Ri ver was to get the Clinch River Breeder Reactor built. worker population bad a lower risk of developing My views were different from hi s. I think the I hope people certai n other cancers and a lower death rate than Commission decided that my views were out of realize that the national population. Overall, life expectancy is touch with the way the nuclear industry was rather long for nuclear workers. actually going. science must be pursued

Q: Why do you think people worry so much Q: Which views were these? and that about the hazards of nuclear power plants and government hazardous waste sites when greater health risks WEINBERG: I wasn' t a great believer in the must have a are closer to home in the form of cigarettes, liquid metal fast breeder reactor (which was food, alcoholic beverages, and cars? designed to breed plutonium using neutrons from dominant the plutonium fuel). I pushed for the molten salt role in WEINBERG: You look around and Americans breeder reactor, which used the thori um cycle. are fat. This is the fat generati on. I think eati ng the Al so, I was outspoken on bow much effort should supporting it. wrong foods in large amoun ts is a more serious go into developing safety systems for reactors. ri k to health than making. Not everybody smokes, but everybody eats. Q: In your book, you mentioned that Rep. Chet Holifield, chairman of the congressional Joint Q: In your book The First Nuclear Era: The Committee on Atomic Energy, said, "Alvin, if Life and Times of a Technological Fixer, you you are concerned about the safety of reactors, come across as a man of integrity. You have then I think it might be time for you to leave spoken out on your beliefs, even when your nuclear energy." views were, as we say today, politically incorrect. Should researchers at government WEINBERG: I did include that anecdote in my laboratories speak out truthfully about their book, but I'm not quite proud that I'd done that findings and concerns even if their careers because Chet Holifield was a remarkable man . could be jeopardized? He, perhaps more than any other person, was

Number One, 1995 85 TRIBUTE TO ALVIN M. WEINBERG

responsible for the government spending billions reverence make us overly concerned about and billions of dollars on nuclear energy. It was health risks of environmental agents? kind of odd. Toward the end, he and I did disagree in 1970 when the establishment of national WEINBERG: I don't think so, the main thing is environmental laboratories was proposed. I had that we have enormous amounts of coal. It has worked with senators Howard Baker and Edmund always been problematic whether nuclear energy Muskie on this i sue, and we advocated that can compete with coal. ORNL become an environmental laboratory. That really caused Chet Holifield to blow his tack. Q: But someday we'll run out of the coal. I'm pleased that we came Q: Speaking of national environmental labs, WEINBERG: Yes, someday we'll run out of the you wrote in your book that you proposed the coal. That's when many of us say a econd up with this idea for a solar energy national lab, which nuclear era may begin. But we don't really know idea of a became the Solar Energy Research Institute, or when. SERI, which has since been renamed the In the meantime, the problem with coal is that solar energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Are burning it produces carbon dioxide, which can national you in favor of making more labs single­ intensify the greenhouse effect and may produce laboratory. subject labs? undesirable climate changes. I was the first to alert the Energy Research and Development WEINBERG: Not necessarily. I guess I feel that Administration, AEC's successor, to the carbon the establishment of SERI was the one thing I wa dioxide question. The head of ERDA then really proud of in that year (1974) I spent in established a carbon dioxide effects office in Washington (a director of the Energy Re earch 1975. ERDA gave the new Institute for Energy and Development Office of the Federal Energy Analysis that I had established in Oak Ridge the Administration). We were to have a think tank in responsibility of assessing the impacts of Washington, but no one told us what to think increased atmospheric concentrati ons of carbon about. I'm pleased that we came up with this idea dioxide. From 1976 to 1984, lEA became the of a solar energy nati onal laboratory. Most people nation's center for tudie of the carbon dioxide are unaware of where the idea for that got started. issue. What the foc us of the national labs ought to be for the future is very difficult for me to say. I think a big environmental component i Q: Do you think the United States will ever be inevitable. I still have this notion that nuclear energy independent? energy will reemerge. Although we spent 50 year and an awful lot of money on the development of WEINBERG: It depends on the time scale you are nuclear energy, I don't see the development as talking about. How long will the oil and ga last? completed. If I had my druthers, I would ay, 100 year ? 200 years? In a sense the question "Let's take out a clean sheet of paper and let's answers itself. When I worked on Project design a new category of reactor that avoids all Independence in 1975 under AEC Chairman Dixy difficulties and is inherentl y safe." Lee Ray, the goal was that we would be energy independent by 1980. It wa utter nonsense. The question is, is energy independence all that Q: Do you think that nuclear energy is less important? When I was in Washington it wa of popular in the United States than in France central concern. It is no longer regarded as a and Japan because there is more reverence for central concern except that it contributes a lot to human life in this country? Does this our trade imbalance.

86 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Weinberg points out a feature of the Oak Ridge Research Reactor to Senator John Kennedy (left of Weinberg) and Sen. Albert Gore, Sr., and Jackie Kennedy. Looking on at far left is Sam Hurt.

Weinberg shows the controls of ORNL's Molten Salt Reactor to Glenn Seaberg, Nobel Prize winner, discoverer of plutonium, and once a chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Seaberg was at the controls October 8, 1968, when the reactor started its successful Weinberg prepares to give his State of the operation using uranium-233 as a fuel. Weinberg called this reactor Laboratory address in 1971 at Oak Ridge High ORNL's greatest technical achievement. School's auditorium.

Number One, 1995 87 TRIBUTE TO ALVIN M. WEINBERG

Q: Dixy Lee Ray claimed in her autobiography water reactor was used in many commercial Is It True What They Say about Dixy? (by Louis nuclear power plants throughout the world.) R. Guzzo) that she saved the Laboratory back As a cientific administrator, I am proud that in 1972. Is that a realistic claim? under my leadership, ORNL became a very viable entity. WEINBERG: Let me read to you what she said in But my contribution to what I call the her book: "One of the notions he (Milton Shaw) philosophy of scientific administration is probably bad was his stated desire to destroy the Oak Ridge the most important and original thing that I did in National Laboratory. I never really knew exactly my life. The philosophy of science is concerned why but I was equally determined that that fme with how you decide if a scientific finding is My American institution should live forever. At one correct or true. You have to establish criteria to contribution time be (Milton Shaw) could have accomplished determine if the fmding or theory is valid. Validity to the his goal, because he had Congressman Holifield is a fundamental problem in the philosophy of on his side and both of them detested my old science, bu( the fundamental problem in the philosophy friend, Dr. Alvin Weinberg, who ran the Oak philosophy of scientific administration is the of scientific Ridge lab. To thi day I don' t understand the question of value] wo cientific activities are Holifield-Shaw dislike of Oak Ridge, but I had to equally valid if they achieve results that are true. administration believe it had no place in the Holifield nuclear Now, how do you decide which activity is more is probably empire." valuable? The question of value is the basic the most So she fired Milton Shaw. Her claim that he question that the scientific administrator asks so was out to destroy the Lab is not reali tic because that decisions can be made about funding important the Lab is a big place. Shaw was out to get me priorities. Criteria for mea uring value of and original fired, and I did get fired. But, in looking back, I competing cientific ventures that I set forth in a think I had outlived my usefulness at Oak Ridge series of papers have been accepted by people in thing that I National Laboratory. I left at an appropriate time. the National Science Foundation. did in my I had been director and research director for 26 Another thing I've done is to promote the life. year , which is an awfully long time. Friendship Bell now in Oak Ridge as a way to live with the bomb. (Weinberg showed us hi miniature copy of the replica of the Hiroshima Q: What contributions are you most proud of bonshoo friendship bell now in Oak Ridge; he as a scientist, scientific administrator, and chaired the International Friendship Bell writer and thinker? Committee, which raised money for the project.) It's pretty controversial, and I'm prepared to live WEINBERG: My career as a practicing scientist with the controversy. was really quite short. But the formulation and In my most recent book, I wrote about what I codification of the theory of nuclear reactors call the anctification of Hiroshima. People ask, culminated in the book I coauthored with Wigner 'Was the Hiroshima bomb justified?' Well, it was called The Physical Theory of Nuclear Chain justified on two accounts. I believe that Hiroshima Reactors. That's probably my most important really did end World War II, that it saved many contribution to science. lives. I was a signer of several petitions urging I'm known as the person who propo ed to that the bomb not be dropped on Japan, just Admiral Rickover that the Nautilus submarine be demonstrated by blowing up a tower in the desert. powered by a pressurized-water reactor. We were I've come to decide that dropping the bomb working on the Materials Testing Reactor at the actually saved lives. time, o it was easy enough for me to say, "Take The other justification is that we will have to the MTR and put it under pressure and put it in live with bombs for the rest of time. Is there some your submarine." (After that, the pressurized- way we can invest in the bomb some "aura of

88 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW forbiddenness" so people won't use it again? We can communicate with each other. What is should look upon an event such as Hiro hima as your view of new trends in communicating one to be remembered 1000 years from now scientific information? because it killed a lot of people like the Holocaust in Germany, which is passing into the Jewish WEINBERG: I was on the President's Science tradition as a religious tradition. This bronze bell, Advisory Committee from 1959 to 1961. The which was made by the same bellmaker who cast panel I chaired produced the report Science, the original Hiroshima bell, will last 1000 years. Government, and information. I acquired a Years from now, people seeing the Oak Ridge bell reputation for my leadership in dealing with will have forgotten the controversy and remember burgeoning scientific information. the lesson of Hiroshima-we have to live with the As for the Internet, I tend to have profound bomb, but we must avoid using it. Through doubts about the value of this communication sanctification of Hiroshima, we will establish a advance to science. I wonder if, in an era of the tradition of non-use. Internet, we can have somebody like Eugene Wigner. Eugene Wigner's genius manifested itself in his ability to concentrate for a long time on a Q: You have been concerned with the si ngle idea. If you are constantly beset by outside proliferation of scientific information. We are ideas, can you really get to the true heart of the even more aware of it on the Internet, which matter? It' s a very different way of doing science. offers researchers a "virtual lab" in which they Things have changed a lot in 50 years. omt

Weinberg chats with Dixy Lee Ray, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and later governor of Washington. Wein berg introduced her to an ORNL audience in 1992 before she gave a talk on environmental research and regulation.

Number One, 1995 89 mJ Awards & Appointments

Doug Lowndes Tuan Vo-Dinh Ph il Thompson Steve Lindberg

Lockheed Martin Energy television series The Heartland Robert V. O'Neill has Reactors Division received Systems has conferred one of Series entitled From the received the Di tinguished the ORNL A ward for its highest honors, the rank of Mountains to the Ocean. This Statistical Ecologist Award Excellence in Environment, corporate fellow, on Oak production, which traces the from the International Safety, and Health. Ridge National Laboratory Little River from its Association for Ecology. Rufus Ritchie, a retired scientists Douglas H. headwaters in the Great Smoky Don Trundle has received senior corporate fellow, was Lowndes and Tuan Vo-Dinh Mountains National Park to the the 1995 Professional honored with a symposium and the Oak Ridge Gulf of Mexico, was awarded Leadership Award from region covering the major themes of K-25 Site scientist Michael J. an Emmy for the Mid-South 3 of the Institute of Electrical research in which he has been Stephenson. In announcing Region by the Academy for and Electronic Engineers, Inc. involved. the selections, Martin Marietta Television Arts and Sciences. Andrew F. Diefendorf will Noel Nachtigal has been Energy Systems President Philip B. Thompson has serve as the president-elect of honored by the Society for Gordon Fee said such been named director of Central the Tennessee Section of the Industrial and Applied recognition is accorded on an Engineering Services for American Institute of Mathematics for coauthoring a extremely limited basis to Lockheed Martin Energy Professional Geologists in paper designated as one of the individuals whose Systems. Thompson, who has 1995 and will assume the role two most outstanding papers contributions have been both served as engineering manager of president in 1996. published on linear algebra significant and continually for the Advanced Neutron Pat A. Scarbrough was between 1991 and 1993. high over a number of years. Source Project since 1989, elected chair of the Southeast Charles A. Flanagan has Alvin Trivelpiece has been succeeds Don Cannon, who Regional ARC/INFO User's been presented the named the Outstanding has retired. Group for 1995. Distinguished Career A ward Engineer of 1995 by region 3 Tony SchafThauser ha Po-Yung Lu has been by the Fusion Power of the Institute of Electrical been appointed director of presented the Tillmanns- Associates Board of Directors. and Electronic Engineers, Inc. ORNL' Energy Efficiency and Skolnick Award by the Nancy L. Gray bas been Arvid E. Pasto has been Renewable Energy Program, Chemical Health and Safety named ORNL Protocol named director of the High succeeding Roger Carlsmith, Division of the American Officer. Temperature Materials who bas retired. Chemical Society. Joe Culver has been Laboratory in ORNL's Metals Steven E. Lindberg will During the latest ORNL appointed manager of ORNL's and Ceramics Division. chair the 1996 International Director's A wards ceremony, Public Affairs Office. Michael Kuliasha has been Conference on Mercury as a the Metals and Ceramics Jack Cook, formerly of appointed director of ORNL' s Global Pollutant to be held in Division received the ORNL ORNL's Engineering Computational Physics and Hamburg, Germany. A ward of Excellence in Technology Division, has been Engineering Division. Jane G. Mural has been Research and Development; named co-director of the Steve Lindberg and Roger selected to participate in the the Health Division received Centers for Manufacturing Clapp assisted in the Antarctic Biology Training the ORNL Award of Technology at the Oak Ridge production of a special 30- Course sponsored by the Excellence in Operations and Y-12 Plant, replacing Dave minute episode of the National Science Foundation. Support; and the Research Bartine, who retired.

90 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Tony Schaffhauser C. J. Sparks Philip Maziasz Marshall Adams

Laura Toran has been Cullie J. Sparks has been Richard P. Woychik has been Carolyn Krause has been appointed to the American elected a fellow of the named head of the Mammalian named an associate fellow of Geophysical Union's Ground American Physical Society. Genetics and Developmental the international Society for Water Committee. James R. Sand, Edward Biology Section in ORNL's Technical Communication. A poster presentation titled A. Vineyard, and Van D. Biology Division. Theodore M. Besmann has "Laboratory Evaluation of the Baxter have received the 1993 Laura Toran has been been elected vice president of In Situ Chemical Oxidation of American Society of Heating, appointed to the American corporate and extemal affairs Contaminated Soils," prepared Refrigeration and Air- Geophysical Union's (AGU) for the American Ceramic by D. D. Gates, R. L. Conditioning Engineers, Inc., Ground Water Committee. Society. Siegrist, and S. R. Cline, (ASHRAE) Symposium Paper Larry Barnthouse and Michael J. Saltmarsh has received a first-place award in A ward for their paper Marvin Poutsma have been been named director of the the R&D category at the "Laboratory Evaluation of an elected fellows of the American Fusion Energy Division and Water Environment Ozone-Safe Nonazeotropic Association for the the fusion program at ORNL. Federation's annual Refrigerant Mixture in a Advancement of Science. R. J. Michael Fry has been conference. Lorenz Meutzner Refrigerator Linda L. Horton has been selected as the 32nd Fai ll a John B. Bates' research on Freezer Design." appointed associate director of Memorial Lecturer by the rechargeable Thin-Film Two ORNL entries won the Metals and Ceramics Radiation Research Society. Lithium Batteries was judged Second-in-Class awards in the Division. Tommy Phelps received a to be a "Significant annual International Johnnie B. Cannon has Certificate of Appreciation Implication for the Metallographic Competition been appointed director of the from the Department of Department of Energy Rel ated sponsored by ASM Office of Planning and Energy's Office of Energy Technologies International and the Management. Research for his work in Accomplishment" in DOE's International Metallographic Philip J. Maziasz has been determining the origins of annual Materials Science Society. These were an entry named a fellow by the microbial communities in the Research Competition. by J. Sipf, Stan David, Lynn American Society of Metals deep subsurface. Robert Siegrist has been Boatner, Mary Jane International. Max Morris bas been named chair of the Task Force Gardner, and A. Baldwin S. Marshall Adams has elected editor of on Contaminated Sites under entitled "Development of been awarded the annual prize Technometrics. the International Committee of Microstructures in Single from the Association of ORNL's Energy Efficiency the Water Environment Crystal Stainless Steel Spot American publishers for the and Renewable Energy Federation. Welds" and another entry by outstanding book of the year in Program has been included in Nic Korte has been Stan David, John Vitek, biological sciences. Adams Renew America's appointed to the editorial Lynn Boatner, Robert served as co-editor of the book Environmental Success Index, review board of the journal Steele, and A. Baldwin Biodiversity of the Southeastern a data base communities can Groundwater Monitoring and entitled "Dendritic Growth in United States: Aquatic use to learn about successful Remediation. a Nickel-Based Superalloy." Communities. environmental programs.

Number One, 1995 91 Environmentally Safe Bullets Developed

estimates that for each dollar spent on ammunition, $100 is spent for cleanup and reclamation of shooting ranges contaminated with lead. Powell River Laboratories, Inc., of Oak Ridge has been granted the right to manufacture ESP™ bullets in a licensing agreement with Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc., which manages ORNL for DOE. ORNL is The working with Delta Defense, Laboratory Inc. , in Alexandria, Virginia, in a cooperative research and has development agreement to developed Rick Lowden shoots an ORNL-made lead-free environmentally safe test the bullets to ensure that bullet at a target on a local private shooting range. lead-free, they meet all appropriate standards. environmentally Ten of billions of lead safe bullets bullets are fired each year in Lead shot and bullets may present a double the United States. It is estimated that 400 to 600 that may keep threat to ducks and geese. They can be killed by ton of lead per day are used to produce bullets. new shooting ammunition from bunters' guns during waterfowl "The grounds of some of the nation's 8000 ranges from season. Or, if they eat near recreational shooting public and private recreational shooting ranges are ranges tainted with lead from bullets, they may contaminated with hundreds of tons of lead from becoming die from lead poisoning. Lead bullets are not bullets," says Rick Lowden, chief developer of the hazardous environmentally safe. ESP™ bullet and a metallurgist in ORNL' s Metals ORNL has found a solution that may prevent and Ceramics Division . "The most contaminated waste sites. this environmental problem from getting worse. ranges pose a threat to humans and wildlife. Duck The Laboratory has developed lead-free, and geese have been found poisoned in lakes environmentally safe bullets that may keep new polluted by lead shot. Shooting ranges could be shooting ranges from becoming hazardous waste declared hazardous waste sites by the sites. Environmental Protection Agency when they are The new bullets, which are being developed to shut down, and it will cost millions of dollars to replace lead bullets used for training and security clean them up. at DOE's production and research sites, are made "DOE recognizes the contamination problem of mixtures of tungsten and other metals or alloys. that exists at its own shooting ranges, which are The composite-metal bullets are called used by security per onnel. So it plans to switch environmentally afe projectiles, or ESP™. from lead bullets to ESP™ bullets for training and DOE is committed to reducing environmental security." pollution from lead ammunition. Each year DOE At this time, each ESP™ bullet costs about five expends approximately 17 million rounds of small times more than a lead bullet-a quarter instead of arms ammunition, depositing more than 300,000 a nickel per bullet. However, Lowden says, the pounds of lead and copper on DOE ranges. DOE ORNL bullet offers several advantages over lead

92 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW bullets. It has been proven to be nontoxic. The ESP™ material is completely recyclable. In adclition, the bullet can be made to be both lethal and "frangible"-that is, they will break apart upon impact, minimizing property damage and the risk of accidents at facilities containing hazardous materials. The ORNL metallurgist and his colleagues started on this project in early 1993 when ORNL was asked by DOE to evaluate a plastic-metal bullet developed by Delta Defense for training purposes. A group led by Tom McCoig in DOE plans to ORNL's Safeguards and Security Division found the bullets wanting. "The plastic-metal bullets switch from were half as dense as lead bullets," Lowden says, lead bullets "so they did not function as well as lead bullets from the security guards' guns." to ORNL's McCoig and Joe Dooley of the Special Projects lead-free Office of Energy Systems met with Lowden and bullets for asked him if he could make ceramic bullets to replace lead bullets. Lowden replied that ceramic training and bullets would be too light in weight and too hard Norm Vaughn shapes a lead-free bullet using security. to adequately replace lead bullets. He proposed commercially available equipment. using powder metallurgy techniques to make a metal-composite bullet that has the same weight, amount of heat treatment," Lowden says, "we can density, and mechanical properties as a lead control its penetration and optimize its bullet. performance for any specific use. We can meet "We set out to make a metal-composite bullet DOE's request to make bullets that don 't ricochet with the same density as a lead bullet. We mixed off indoor range targets." hard, heavy, high-density metals like tungsten "For the future," Lowden says, "We hope to with soft, low-density metals or alloys and found learn how to make fine shot for skeet shooting compositions that worked. using metal composites." In 1986 Lead was "We u ed a powder metallurgy techrllque in phased out as a material for shot; steel shot is which we press powders of the metals into a solid now being used, and bismuth-tin may be cylindrical core at room temperature in a approved as a replacement for steel. "We also cylindrical die. Then we squash them into the hope to learn how to manufacture our bullets shape of a bullet using a technique called swaging. using casting instead of swaging to give industry Major manufacturers would have to make only another production option." minor changes in their equipment to add the Lowden has been assisted in the laboratory by powder metallurgy step to mass produce the Norman Vaughn, a co-op student at Tennessee metal-composite bullets." Technological University in Cookeville. The ORNL' Industrial Hygiene Department development and testing of the bullets at ORNL checked the hazard ratings for the inclividual is supported by DOE's Office of Safeguards and metals and alloys in the ESP™ material. It Security. determined that the metal composites for the Ducks may not feel any safer, but they could bullets are environmentally safe. "By changing the be now that Americans are no longer ducking the composition, shape, and size of the bullet and the issue of the environmental harm posed by bullets.

Number One, 1995 93 TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS

Self-Lubricating Coating for valve guides, and other parts in jet and internal combu tion engines. Coated samples from ORNL Engine Parts Developed are now being te ted at the General Electric Company's Aircraft Engine Division in A elf-lubricating compo ite coating that could Cincinnati, Ohio. make engine and other moving parts last longer Metals and Ceramics Divi ion staff has been developed at ORNL. member Woo Lee and Peter Blau, postdoctoral "Oil-based lubricants break down at high scienti t Y. Bae, and Besmann developed a temperature ," says Ted Besmann, a scientist in composite coating made of titanium nitride, a hard, ORNL's Metal and Ceramics Division and one wear-resistant material at high temperatures, and of the developers of the new coating. "A a re ult, of molybdenum sulfide, a solid lubricant. Electron components of engi nes that are run at high micrographs of the composite coating show that temperatures to improve their fuel-use efficiency separate grains of the solid lubricant are dispersed tend to wear rapidly and require replacement. Our near the surface of the titanium nitride coating. Our composite coating hould help engine parts last To make the coating, the researcher at ORNL longer because it incorporate a solid lubricant used chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In this composite that makes them slide more easily." process, vapor or ga es are allowed to flow over a coating The self-lubricating coating may be u ed for heated olid urface (called a substrate), react, and should help high-speed bearings, piston rings, cylinder linings, form a solid coating. engine parts last longer.

Substrate

Electron micrograph and drawing show how molybdenum sulfide lubricant is incorporated in a titanium nitride structure, making a self-lubricating, wear-resistant coating for engine or other parts in sliding contact.

94 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW The researchers simultaneously deposited the ORNL Software desired materials on substrates such as silicon and graphite. Then they depo ited the composite for Salt Solutions coating on a titanium alloy used for part in Saves Time and Money engines. "To make the coating for a titaniwn alloy Highway maintenance crew battle icy roads by ubstrate," Besmann says, "we flowed several salting them. But how much salt should be ga es at a temperature of 800°C and low pressure prinkled on the ice to melt it as quickly as into a reactor containing the heated substrate. To possible? Moon is Ally of ORNL can provide the get the best coating composition, we varied the answer in a few minutes using a personal composition of the gases, which included computer program he helped to write. molybdenum hexafluoride, hydrogen sulfide, "If you add just the right amount of salt," Ally The result is a ammonia, and argon, that carried the titanium ays, "the freezing point of the ice will be lowered labor-saving organometallic vapor into the reactor." as much as possible, and the ice will melt faster. Researchers el ewhere have used CVD, But if you add too much salt, compounds called software sputtering, or plasma spraying to deposit films of hydrates will form, raising the freezing point. The package that titanium nitride and of molybdenum sulfide. But salt then becomes a burden instead of a benefit. In the ORNL group is the ftrst to co-depo it the two fact, too much salt not only wastes taxpayers' rapidly and material to form a composite coating. money but also can be toxic to roadside inexpensively "Sohd lubricating films of molybdenum sulfide vegetation." predicts the have been depo ited on moving parts, but the To develop the software, Ally, a researcher in lubricant tends to be worn away quickly," ORNL's Chemical Technology Division, and properties of Besmann says. "Our composite coating increases retired consultant Jerry Braun tein developed the varzous the sliding life of the molybdenum sulfide theory and algorithm, a step-by-step method for lubricant by incorporating it in a hard material." arriving at an wers using available information; water-based Besmann proposed that CVD could be used to Andrea Sjoreen, a programmer in ORNL's salt solutions. develop a low-wear, low-friction composite Computational Physics and Engineering Division, coating. The development of the coating was converted the algorithm into a computer program. carried out primarily by Bae and Lee. The result is a labor-saving software package that Other division members who contributed to the rapidly and inexpensively predicts the properties work are Blau and Charles Yust, who measured of various water-based salt solutions. Called the coating's friction and wear characteristics; Aqueous Electrolyte (AE), the software Karren More, who took electron micrographs of eliminates the need for researchers to measure the experimental coating to reveal their structure; such properties in the laboratory-a time­ and David Bra ki , who analyzed the coating consuming, laborious, and expensive proce . tructure using Auger electron spectroscopy. "In only one day," Ally says, "AE can predict "Through the analytical work," Besmann says, the thermodynamic properties of mixtures of "we are determining which coating structure and different salt in water that would take chemi ts compo itions are lowest in wear and friction. We several months or even a year to obtain in the have found that the friction of our best coatings laboratory. These properties include boiling and containing titanium nitride and molybdenum freezing point , den ity, and vapor pressure a a ulfide is three times lower than a titanium nitride function of solution temperature, salt coating alone." concentration, and alt composition. The coating development was upported by the "In addition, our software can predict the Division of Advanced Energy System Project in properties of aqueou electrolytes that have higher the Department of Energy's Office of Basic salt concentrations than those treated by Energy Sciences. competitive programs. Also, it can be used on

Number One, 1995 95 TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS

evaporator, which was ordered in October 1994 and will be installed in May 1995, will further concentrate these wastes to make space for recently generated waste. "The wastes are alt sol utions, and their boiling points depend on the salt concentration," Ally says. "If a olution is 30% salt, its boiling point is higher than that of a ol ution that is I 0% salt. Salt concentration also affects freezing points." "Using the software, Ally also helped us determine whether the The patented liquid wastes might freeze in the software aboveground transfer line if the already has evaporator is run in the winter," says Vic Fowler, a contractor had several with ORNL' s Chemical important Technology Division. "He fo und that the wastes will not freeze in applications winter, so costly heating at ORNL in equipment is not needed." waste In another example at ORNL, a proposal was made to use a wiped treatment film evaporator to evaporate and energy water from some hazardous wa te containing zi nc bromide conservation that are stored in everal ORNL research. ORNL researcher Moon is Ally (left) and consultant Jerry buildings. But before a final Braunstein developed a computer program that saves time and decision was made on treating the money by analyzing salt solutions in minutes instead of days. wa tes, a decision was made to determine the thermodynamic properties of the waste solution. "It would have taken too much difficult problem such as predicting when a salt time to get the answers in the laboratory," Ally solution will form solid crystals." says, "so we were asked to determine the The patented software already has had several properties of the wa te sol ution using AE. We did important applications at ORNL in wa te it in 15 minutes. We found that boiling the waste treatment and energy conservation research. would req uire a higher temperature than the For example, result obtained by the new proposed evaporator could achieve. So that oftware have confirmed that ORNL ha selected method was abandoned, and an alternative the correct de ign for an evaporator. This device method was later used." must supply enough heat to remove water from Ally also has used AE to help ORNL's Energy low-level liquid radioactive wastes in ORNL' Divi ion screen salt solutions in the search for the eight Melton Valley torage tanks. The be t refrigerants for ab orption heaters and

96 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW chillers-refrigerators under development that do World Record Set not require energy-hungry compressors. Such refrigerants remove heat from the refrigerator for System Size in cabinet at lower temperatures and reject it to the Molecular Dynamics outside at higher temperatures. To make such machines more energy efficient, developers are A team of researchers from ORNL, trying to identify aqueous salt mixtures that have Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), and the even better heat-transfer properties than the more State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony fully understood mixtures of lithium bromide and Brook have set a new world record for system water and of ammonia and water. Several size in molecular dynamics, u ing the 1024-node potential salt combinations have been identified Intel Paragon XP/S 150 supercomputer at ORNL. by AE for advanced absorption machines. Molecular dynamics, a field of study that models the interactions among atoms in a chemical, biological, or solid-state system, is a ORNL Researchers Test cornerstone of applications ranging from the Trash-Based Fuel Cubes study of DNA-protein interactions to the design of new materials. A new record The paper you throw away at ORNL may In two record-breaking runs, members of the has been set someday be used to heat your office, reducing the Partnership in Computational Sciences (PICS) using the need for coal and landfill space. ORNL consortium performed molecular dynamics researchers have begun work on a pilot project to simulations for systems of 200 million and 400 Intel Paragon demonstrate the feasibility of burning fuel cubes million particles, with each simulation step taking supercomputer made of shredded wastes collected from DOE 80 and 160 seconds, respectively. These results facilities in Oak Ridge. far exceed recently reported simulations of 10 at ORNL. The pilot project will allow testing of air million particles on the 512-node Intel emi sions and ash from various fuels and fuel Touchstone Delta system at the California mixtures to determine if refuse-derived fuel Institute of Technology at Pasadena and 180 (RDF) is suitable for use in steam plant boilers. million particles on a 1024-node Thinking The project will proceed with a full- cale ORNL Machine CM-5. steam plant demon tration if the pilot "This breakthrough is yet another example of demonstration identifies no air emission or ash the High Performance Computing and problems as a resuJt of burning the RDF fuels and Communications program bearing fruit for U.S. fuel mixtures. science and industry," said Ken Kliewer, director Tens of millions of pounds of sanitary waste are of the Center for Computational Science (CCS) produced on the Oak Ridge Reservation annually. at Oak Ridge. "It demonstrates the ability of key A successful RDF program would reduce both the molecular dynamics algorithms to scale up to the amount of waste placed in landfills and the large sizes needed for biologically interesting amount of coal burned at the ORNL steam plant, problems. This achievement should lead to major with possible savings of more than $300,000 per breakthroughs in molecular biology by permitting year. the simulation of realistic systems over significant The Oak Ridge project may be a model for time scales." other DOE facilities. Municipalities across the The computer code used to achieve this feat country already are implementing similar was developed by Osman Yasar of ORNL's CCS, programs to comply with new Environmental Robert B. Marr and Ronald F. Peierls of BNL, Protection Agency and state mandates to reduce and Yuefan Deng and R. Alan McCoy of SUNY. the volume of waste placed in landfills. All three in titutions are members of the PICS consortium, which uses the large Intel Paragon system at ORNL.-Jennifer Ball

Number One, 1995 97 a R&D Updates Lawrence Award for Gerard Ludtke

applies to the development, use, or control of nuclear energy. It is named after E. 0 . Lawrence inventor of the cyclotron. While at the Y-12 Plant from 1982 to 1991, Ludtka developed a process that __ revolutionized the ...·--...... __ __ ...... manufacture of .. _ hemispherical weapons ·­-­ components. He recognized --- that uranium alloys could be "superplastic" at high temperatures-that is, flat sheets of the materials could be haped into half spheres and other geomet1ic hapes for weapons components. After characterizing the superplastic behavior of uranium alloys, Ludtka developed imple superplastic forming equipment that was scaled Gerard Ludtka, an ORNL researcher who recently won one of DOE's E. 0. Lawrence Memorial Awards, explains results from a computer simulation using the Quench Simulator code he up for component developed. production runs. The equipment fabricated the parts much closer to the desired final shapes, significantly reducing the Gerard Ludtka, a metallurgist in ORNL's amount of waste material and co t of Metals and Ceramic Division, received the manufacturing. Department of Energy's E. 0. Lawrence Ludtka also developed a computer simulation Memorial Award in 1995. He led a code to predict the effect of component hape multidisciplinary team that developed a computer and rapid cooling, or quenching, on the code for weapons components production that i micro tructure and internal stresses produced in now being adapted for use in the automobile and heat-treated uranium weapons parts. The parts are steel industries. heated and then rapidly cooled to room Ludtka was cited for "significant contributions temperature with cold water or oil to strengthen to material technology through the development them and to achieve the de ired internal structure and implementation of superplastic forming of and other properties. But the cooling rate must be uranium alloys and through development of a right for a given hape to make the desired method to predict the effect of quenching on product, or cracking will occur. microstructure and residual stresses." Ludtka is Ludtka's Quench Simulator code predicts the one of seven winner of the E. 0. Lawrence cooling rate that will produce a heat-treated Award, given out tore earchers whose work component with the be t possible feature . Use of

98 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW this code eliminates the need for trial-and-error performance computing developments celebrated experiments in part design, resulting in significant at the Laboratory on April 21. savings. The other was the opening of ORNL's new The Quench Simulator code is now being computer-based facility for users from industry. applied to nonmilitary tasks, such as helping the Joining in were distinguished guests representing automobile and steel industries. Ludtka, now a Intel, the Department of Energy, other agencies of staff re earcher in the Materials Modeling Process the federal government, the state of Tennessee, Group of ORNL's Metals and Ceramics Division, U.S. industry, ORNL, Lockheed Martin Energy is a principal investigator for a three-year, $20- Systems management, and users at ORNL's million cooperative research and development Center for Computational Sciences (CCS), one of agreement (CRADA) that is based on the success two DOE High Performance Computing Research of the Quench Simulator code. CRADA Centers. participants include DOE and four of its national The first development was the completion and laboratories, the National Center for installation of the Intel Paragon XP/S 150, which Manufacturing Sciences, General Motors, Ford has 1024 MP-nodes (two computer processors and Motor Company, and Torrington Bearing one processor for message passing per node), or a Company. total of 3096 processors. This machine passed For the CRADA, Oak Ridge, Lawrence tests and was made available to CCS Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia national users January 20, 1995. It is the fourth in a series laboratories are producing customized software of massively parallel machines developed for based on concepts used in the development of the ORNL by Intel. The other Intel Paragon machines Quench Simulator code. For the automobile are the XP/S 14 (96 MP-nodes), the XP/S 35(512 industry, the software will be used to improve the GP-nodes, each with one computer processor and efficiency of design of gears for transmission one message-passing processor), and the XP/S 5 systems. When gears are beat-treated to increase (66 GP-nodes). The processors working together their strength, their volume will increase, affecting on complex problems can do more than 150 gear tooth size and shape. The software will billion calculations per second (150 gigaflops). predict the starting geometry that will give the The goal of future machines is one trillion desired gear design and properties. calculations per second (one teraflop). This CRADA is also developing software to At the April 21 event, the Paragon XP/S 150 predict the effects of trace impurities on the heat was dedicated at a ceremony at ORNL's Central treatment of recycled steel. Recycled steel from Auditorium in which the speakers simultaneously old cars is used to make new cars. But the steel flipped switches for the symbolic ribbon cutting. from car parts may have impurities such as copper As a result, the lights on the face of the new Intel from wire for electric circuits. The software will machine displayed the words ON TO predict the quality of the recycled steel product TERAFLOPS (as shown to the audience on based on its impurities and manufacturing cycle. closed-circuit television). In addition, the new DOE national user facility, the Computational Center for Industrial Quantitative Leap: Dedication of Innovation (CCII), was inaugurated with a ribbon New Computer and User Center cutting by a Remotec robot (seen at the auditorium by closed-circuit TV). The purpose of The latest quantitative leap at ORNL provided a the center is to promote and encourage industrial reason to jump for joy. A new parallel computer participation in mutually beneficial, now being used at ORNL has over four times the computationally intensive collaborative projects peak computing power of its predecessor of the with ORNL scientists and engineers. same type and, as of April 1995, was the world's Participants at CCll include Reynolds Metals, fastest computer. This was one of two high- Weyerhauser Technology Center, and the U. S.

Number One, 1995 99 R&D UPDATES

DOE's new Computational Center for Industrial Innovation at ORNL will help U.S. companies become more competitive. The center's staff is working with paper and aluminum companies .-Photograph by Bill Norris.

Department of Transportation (DOT). Reynolds energy used by the paper industry come from Metals is interested in demonstrating through burning chemicals recovered in these boiler ) and computer simulations that tructurally trong to reduced air pollution. DOT supports design of bridges could be designed using aluminum, which highly efficient cars made of lighter materials, but does not corrode, to replace steel bridges, which it wants to ensure that these cars are crashworthy. eventually are weakened by corrosion. Car crash modeling can be done on a Cray Weyerhauser researchers are interested in supercomputer in 48 hour , but the Intel Paragon optimizing the design and operation of recovery XP/S 150 at ORNL can perform a car crash boilers used in kraft pulp mills. They anticipate simulation in 2 hours. So DOT has a car crash that computer imulations of the fluid dynamic safety project at CCII. phenomena in these boiler will lead to increased The [ntel machines are also being used to solve co-generation of energy (currently 40% of the "grand challenge" problems in the areas of space

100 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW exploration, fusion power, climate prediction, the Intel Paragon, said it is being used to model environmental remediation, materials science, transport of contaminants in groundwater and human genome analysis, and high-energy physics. simulate properties of materials calculated from At the ceremony, CCS Director Ken Kliewer first principles. For example, a computer acknowledged the contributions of the Department simulation of several hundred atoms of copper of Energy and ORNL Director Alvin Trivelpiece and nickel can improve understanding of to the development of the center. He said that magnetism in a copper-nickel aHoy. Or simulation Trivelpiece's "recognition of the need for high­ of several thousand atoms of carbon can aid performance computing made possible the understanding of the melting behavior of emergence of ORNL as one of the premiere diamond-information nearly impossible to get ORNL's computational centers in the world." Trivelpiece experimentally. Stocks noted that understanding newest user noted that DOE national laboratories are interactions among nuclei and electrons in facility will distinguished by their user facilities and that CCII, materials took a leap forward in the 1980s with ORNL's newest user facility, will use "one of the the introduction of vector computers and another use one of latest state-of-the-art computers." leap in the 1990s with the introduction of parallel the world's James Decker of DOE's Office of Energy computers. Research noted that CCS and other centers have Thomas Zacharia, CCII director, said that the fastest been established to improve the nation' s new user facility offers a classroom, computers, computers. competitiveness in world commerce. He and visualization capabilities. He called CCII "a challenged computer scientists and engineers to focal point for industrial interactions and build machines capable of peta:flops, or a partnerships in the critical area of high­ quadrillion calculations per second. He then performance computing." CCII was made mentioned two trends: partnerships and strategic possible by support from DOE's Office of alliances are being formed for many megascience Scientific Computing and Roo Hultgren, DOE site projects, and computational science is moving into manager for ORNL. Hultgren said, "Let's business and industry. officially open CCII and let the good times roll." Ed Masi, the Intel manager responsible for the Gordon Fee, president of Lockheed Martin Intel Paragon machines built for ORNL, said that Energy Systems, called the construction, building parallel computers is technically and installation, and programming of the latest Intel financially difficult. He noted that the U.S. supercomputer "a great accomplishment" for government has given considerable support in the DOE and the country. past to the development of big computing Other distinguished guests at the ceremony machines, especially in 1983 with the included Walter Ermler, David Nelson, and Ed inauguration of the National Science Foundation's Cumesty of DOE; Jose-Marie Griffiths of the four supercomputer centers and in 1989 with the University of Tennessee; Robert Sugar of the High Perfonnance Computing and University of Santa Barbara; David Daugherty of Communications (HPCC) initiative pushed by the University of Vermont, who is a member of then Tennessee Senator Albert Gore and President the CCS Advisory Committee; Faris Bandak of Bush. "Big computing machines, like giant the National Highway Traffic Safety telescopes, are enormously important tools Administration; and Peter Gorog of Weyerhauser. because they lead to new discoveries," Masi said. Ron Tipton of Reynolds Metals Company is He challenged the government to continue support optimistic that CCII will help his company find for the development of faster computing ways to better use aluminum for building cars and machines, and be challenged ORNL scientists "to bridges. "When you know where people are make great use of this outstanding tool" and get coming from and they know where you 're coming results to justify continued government funding. from," he said, "you can get a lot done." It is Malcolm Stocks, an Energy Systems corporate hoped that CCS and CCII will smooth the way for fellow and an ORNL materials scientist who uses

Number One, 1995 101 R&D UPDATES

a quantum leap in cooperation between industrial Because the Department of Energy had firms and national laboratories. promised to provide new facilities to ORNL and other national laboratories under its facilities U.S. Proposes a revitalization plan, Appleton said that DOE supports replacing the canceled ANS with a new Different Neutron spallation neutron source at ORNL. The pulsed Source for ORNL spallation source would provide neutrons for neutron scattering research but, unlike the ANS, For 20 years U.S. scientists have sought an would not produce radioisotopes or steady-state advanced source of neutrons fo r research. Debate beams for materials irradiation experiments. DOE supports centered on whether to build a reactor or Neutrons from the spallation source would be replacing the accelerator as the primary source. The most recent used primarily to address questions in scientific consensus favored building a reactor fundamental and condensed-matter physics, canceled ANS first-the Advanced Neutron Source (ANS) structural chemistry, materials science, and with a new proposed for Oak Ridge-and a complementary molecular biology. accelerator source second. Appleton said ORNL was also chosen for the spallation However, because of the push to reduce the spallation source to maximize use of the neutron source national deficit and because a reactor could cost Laboratory's neutron source design expertise and at ORNL. three times as much as an accelerator, the Clinton to take advantage of its experience in operating administration in January 1995 canceled the $2.9 particle accelerators and in conducting neutron billion ANS, which had been in the president' s scattering research. He noted that expertise in budget as a construction item for the past two particle source design resides in ORNL's Fusion years. To replace the ANS, the Clinton Energy, Metals and Ceramics, Engineering admini tration proposed an accelerator option Technology, Solid State, and Research Reactors called a spallation neutron source and designated divisions and in the ANS Project Office. ORNL as the preferred site. "We are doing about $120 million worth of In an April4, 1995, internal workshop at studies in neutron science," Appleton said. "We ORNL to discuss plans for designing a spallation have a strong neutron science competency. We neutron source, Bill Appleton, ORNL associate also have complementary neutron science director for the ANS, said, "The design fo r the facilities, such as the High Flux Isotope Reactor ANS was the best and most complete design of (HFIR), Radiochemical Engineering Development any recent Department of Energy project." He Center, the Oak Ridge Electron Linear noted that the design, which was done under the Accelerator, and hot cells. Also, we have a strong leadership of the ANS Project Office in Oak materials cience and engineering program. What Ridge, may still be useful in the future and that is missing is experience in high-energy accelerator efforts will be made during closeout activities to design." properly preserve the ANS design for DOE. Appleton said that ORNL will team with The ANS, Appleton said, was canceled mainly accelerator design experts from Europe and from because of its cost. A secondary reason was a U.S. national laboratories and universities to come political consideration related to the U.S. up with the best accelerator design. The goal is a government's nonproliferation goal. Some people 5-megawatt (MW) source. However, because the in the Clinton administration were concerned that, best available technology will now permit the because the ANS was originally designed to use operation of only a 1- to 3-MW source, Appleton highly enriched uranium (although designs were said the spallation source would be built in stages in progress for making use of low-enriched while new technology is developed to contain uranium), the government would have a problem such a high-energy beam in the target area. urging other nations to avoid using nuclear Another option, Appleton said, would be to materials that could be made into weapons. upgrade ORNL' s HFIR to make it more suitable

102 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW as a neutron re earch facility. To become a metal , uch as lead, tantalum, tungsten, or complementary capability to a spallation source, uranium. As are ult of the intense interaction the HFIR would receive modest upgrades, such as between the high-energy protons and neutrons in the addition of a cold neutron source in exi ting the target, many neutrons are knocked out. As the beam tubes, and it would continue to be u ed for neutrons spray out in different direction , they are isotope production and materials irradiation slowed down as they pass through a moderator­ experiments. If for some reason the spallation liquid methane or deuterium, for example. Then source were not funded , he said, improvements they enter various beam line for neutron could include a new reactor vessel and moderator, scattering studies. a high-flux cold ource, increased power level According to workshop speakers, one (HFIR' s power level is now 85 MW but will advantage of the spallation source over the ANS ORNLhas return to 100 MW; ANS would have been is that, because the beam is intermittent rather developed operated at 330 MW), and new neutron-scattering than steady, more accurate measurements can be instruments. He noted that any options would taken between pul es when the source of shielding have to be consistent with available funding. background radiation is off. In addition, the codes that "There are ignificant problems involved in the pulsed beam can be used to measure cattered spallation source project," Appleton said. "We neutron energies by time-of-flight techniques. A have helped have to get it through Congress to maintain third advantage is that measurements can be made other funding in the fiscal-year 1996 budget. The big without moving equipment, permitting the use of accelerator problem is bringing the neutron science many time-of-flight neutron spectrometers around community together and getting a consensus on the target area. Additional physics experiments facilities the best spallation source design, a teady- tate possible with a spallation ource include studies solve their neutron source such as an upgraded HFIR, and an of neutron oscillation and of particles such as affordable integrated facility. muons and neutrinos. shielding "Argonne, Brookhaven, and Los Alamos The chief disadvantage of the spallation source, problems. national laboratories have already done designs compared with the ANS, is that the pulsed for a complementary spallation source, so people source's repetition rate limits the possibilities for there think their lab should be the site for the cold, or slow, neutrons. "By the time slow Spallation Neutron Source. But DOE supports neutron get through the system," ORNL building it at ORNL." physicist Herb Mook said, "the next pulse will be A spallation neutron source con i ts mainly of upon u ." Cold neutrons are particularly useful for an ion source, a linear accelerator, a synchrotron probing the structure of polymers in plastics and or torage ring, a target area, and neutron beam biological materials. lines. A continuous beam of negative ions of Designers of a spallation source must overcome hydrogen is obtained from an ion source and at least two problems. One problem is the accelerated by the Linear accelerator. At the Los possibility of losing control of the beam, allowing Alamos spallation source, the ion beam pa ses it to irradiate and damage magnets and other through the linear accelerator's radiofrequency accelerator parts. Second, proton beams can cause quadrupole (RFQ), where it is bunched into pulses materials in the accelerator and target to become and accelerated by RF waves; then it is focused by highly radioactive. quadrupole magnets into the storage ring. There "We can shield high-energy accelerators to the negative ions pass through a foil, which strips protect workers from activated parts," said ORNL all electrons from the negative hydrogen ion , physicist Tony Gabriel. "ORNL has developed converting them into positive ion , or protons. shielding codes that have helped other accelerator The pulsed proton beam is guided around the facilities solve their shielding problems." ring by a series of magnetic fields ; when some ORNL physicist John Whealton noted that the fields are turned off, the beam is "dumped" out of Laboratory's expertise in RF technology and the ring and directed to a target made of a heavy computer analysis has been used to help Los

Number One, 1995 103 R&D UPDATES

len source

Hydrogen The ions Storage ring spallation source would be built in stages while new technology is

developed to , ...,.__ Proton beam contain such a high­ energy beam in the target _,-Neut1ron detector

area. Experiment station

In one concept, a spallation neutron source consists mainly of an ion source, a linear accelerator that includes a radiofrequency quadrupole (RFQ), a storage ring, a target area, and neutron beam lines that end at experiment stations. A continuous beam of negative ions of hydrogen (H-) is obtained from an ion source and accelerated by the linear accelerator. When the ion beam passes through the RFQ, it is bunched into pulses and accelerated by RF waves; then it is focused by quadrupole magnets into the storage ring. There the negative ions pass through a foil , wh ich strip all electrons from the negative hydrogen ions, converting them into positive ions, or protons. The pulsed proton beam is guided around the ring by a series of magnetic fields; when some fields are turned off, a proton beam is directed to a heavy-metal target. As a result, neutrons spray out from the target in different directions. After being slowed by a liquid moderator, they pass through various beam lines for neutron scattering studies.

104 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Alamos solve two problems with the linear extend the operational hfe of ORNL's High Flux accelerator of its spallation source. RF technology Isotope Reactor for production of radioisotopes. and computer modeling will also be needed for Trivelpiece said that 433 ORNL staff members the advanced spallation source planned for ORNL. took the special retirement in 1994 as part of Whealton says the spallation source will present ORNL' s downsizing in response to a reduced ORNL staff with research opportunities in such budget. He called the loss of 200 researchers a areas of development as RF technology, better major event. "The good news here is that it brings negative ion sources, longer-lasting foils, and an opportunity to recruit young staff members," computer programs to enable designs to reduce he said. "The bad news is that many of the people beam halo (spreading of the beam, which can who left were the ones writing the proposals, cause accelerator parts to become radioactive) and maintaining contacts with program managers in to sort out and make sense of the information in Washington, and bringing in funding." detectors. Because the new Congress is focusing on Clearly, ORNL has its foot in the spallation deficit reduction and middle-class tax cuts, the source door. With the right resources, it should be Department of Energy, to save itself from able to go full speed ahead. abolishment, pledged to cut $14.1 billion over five years. But because the fiscal 1996 budget is so far along, Trivelpiece said, the cuts may occur State of Laboratory over only four years, forcing ORNL to tighten its Trivelpiece Address by ORNL called the Director loss of200 researchers a The Advanced Neutron Source (ANS) research major event. reactor proposed for ORNL was quashed because of its $2.9 billion cost, but a $1 billion accelerator for neutron scattering may be built here in its place. Some 200 scientists and engineers left the Laboratory last year under the Special Retirement Incentive Program, but ORNL now has more opportunities to hire younger researchers to energize its staff. A former ORNL researcher won the Nobel Prize, but ORNL's most famous Nobel Prize winner died. This mixture of good and bad news marked the annual State of the Laboratory address that ORNL Director Alvin W. Trivelpiece presented on March 3, 1995, at the Laboratory. He noted that, although ORNL's future is uncertain, he believes ORNL will survive and continue as a world-class institution. ORNL is the preferred site for DOE's proposed accelerator for neutron scattering research, Trivelpiece noted, because of the Laboratory staff's experience in particle accelerator operation and neutron scattering research. Because the ANS reactor will not be built, steps will be taken to Alvin Trivelpiece

Number One, 1995 105 R&D UPDATES

fiscal belt even more. "The budgets we have to Facility; and ORNL's entry into forensics research deal with," he added, "are the lowest science and by analyzing the chemical composition of technology budgets since 1975 in terms of gross children's fingerprints, which vanish from domestic product." surfaces more quickly than do adult fingerprints. A number of government councils and task Trivelpiece said that the Laboratory is well forces-including the Galvin Task Force-will positioned to support DOE's new mission of also influence ORNL's future, as will the recent developing and deploying technologies and change in congressional representatives. To face influencing social systems to ensure a sustainable such an uncertain future, Trivelpiece future for the world. Such work could help sustain recommended that the Laboratory sharpen its ORNL through an uncertain future. focus with R&D strategic planning, produce high­ quality proposals, market its capabilities effectively in Washington, and ensure top-quality work. ORNLwould He also urged that the Laboratory become more Environmental Restoration continue to "user friendly" for the benefit of the 4400 guest researchers and 24,000 students who spend time Magmas Studied become better at ORNL each year. He said that ORNL would known .. . continue to become better known to the What happens when molten volcanic rock cools community through another Community Day in a lava lake or below the surface of the earth? through .. . planned for the fall. How are large granite masses formed? Answers to Community In 1994, he noted, former ORNL researcher these questions may be emerging from volcano­ Day. Cliff Shull received a Nobel Prize for physics for free Tennessee. his neutron scattering research, and ORNL A soil-to-glass environmental restoration geneticist Liane Russell won the Fermi A ward for process used at ORNL can mimic some of the her biological research. Two ORNL innovations processes of magma formation and cooling. received R&D 100 Awards from R&D magazine, That's the conclusion of geoscientists from and ORNL researchers Doug Lowndes and Tuan around the nation. Vo-Dinh were named Corporate FelJows by The process, in situ vitrification (ISV), is a Lockheed Martin Energy Systems. patented technology developed for DOE by On a sad note, Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner, Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory. It uses a former ORNL research director, died at the age electrodes to heat soil contaminated with of 92. Trivelpiece said that as a memorial to the radioactive elements to temperatures up to famed physicist he hoped to rename Central 1600°C (2900°F). Upon cooling, the molten soil Auditorium after Wigner. transforms to a mixture of glass and crystals in the Trivelpiece's choice of research highlights for ground, trapping the radioactive material. 1994 included the acquisition of the 1024-node ISV has been tested with and without Intel Paragon, which is one of the world's most radioactive materials at ORNL. It will be used in powerful massively parallel supercomputers; the September 1995 to produce 600 tons of glass at an introduction of ORNL to the Internet and World ORNL waste pit. In this melt, 4 megawatts of Wide Web; ORNL work in collaboration with electrical power wiU heat and melt the soil. others to make cars and textile production more "ISV melts," says Mike Naney, a geochemist efficient; use of ORNL-developed nickel with ORNL's Environmental Sciences Division alurninides for longer-lasting furnace trays for (ESD), "can provide artificial magmas in a making parts for the automobile industry; the controlled, monitored environment. The molten acquisition of a recoil separator from England for rock, crystals, and gases produced by the melting use with the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam are formed at temperatures similar to those in

106 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW Nyquist of ESD were interested in using geophysical methods developed for near-surface environmental studies to obtain acoustic images of the artificial magma produced during an ISV test planned for 1991. They asked Gary Jacobs of ESD and Naney to join them We were able to identify to take petrological and geocherrtical advantage of studies that rrtight a unzque be complementary opportunity to the geophysical studies and then to to advance write a proposal understanding An in situ vitrification (ISV) test was performed at ORNL in 1991. In September 1995, for funding. ISV will be used to turn the soil in a radioactive waste pit into 600 tons of glass, "The proposal of magmas. immobilizing the contaminants. was successful," Naney says, "and we were able to take advantage of a crustal magma chambers that supply lava to unique opportunity to advance understanding of volcanoes. magmas and magmatic processes by 'piggy­ "But the ISV melts are not subjected to the backing' interesting studies on the 1991 ISV test." explosively high pressures of volcanoes. By The test of this technology for environmental studying the cooling and crystallization in remediation was sponsored by DOE's Office of artificial magmas, we can learn more about what Technology Development. happens during the cooling of crustal magma Using thermocouples, the ORNL scientists chambers and lava lakes." measured the temperature profile of the 1991 ISV These magmatic processes include extraction of magma. Temperatures ranged from 1oo oc several metals and their deposition as mineral ores, feet away from the melt to 1500°C in the molten heating and circulation of water that can be tapped soil. They observed vigorous bubbling and rapid as geothermal energy, and venting of gases to the convection of heat by circulation of heated liquid atmosphere that affect global climate. and gases at the melt surface. After the artificial The idea of using ISV technology to develop magma cooled, they obtained samples by diamond large-scale melts for scientific studies was core drilling the rocklike product. Then they spawned before ORNL's 1991 ISV test. In the fall analyzed the textures and chemistry of the of 1989 Rick Williams, of the University of minerals that formed during crystallization of the Tennessee's Geology Department, and Jon melt.

Number One, 1995 107 R&D UPDATES

"Our studie of artificial magmas during and The observed halt in cooling, a thermal arrest, after cooling," Naney says, "help us understand was produced by the generation of sufficient heat how igneous rocks form during the cooling of within the magma to counterbalance the three pools of natural magma and lava lakes. The heat-removal processes. The source of this energy ORNL soils that we studied melt to form a basalt­ was heat liberated during growth of crystals in the like liquid, rich in calcium, magnesium, iron, and magma. This is a well-known thermodynamic silicon. As the molten basalt cools, minerals phenomenon-an exothermic phase change. containing calcium, magnesium, and iron The same phenomenon benefits fruit growers precipitate out, leaving a liquid rich in silicon. As when they mist citrus groves with water during the last remaining liquid cools, it olidifies into a cold weather. The water droplets are cooled by mixture of glass and crystals having the cold air and freeze to form ice crystals. In the composition of granite. process of freezing, the water crystallizes (a phase "Our observation of small amounts of granite change), giving off heat to the surfaces of fruit filling spaces between the larger feldspar and and the surrounding air. For air temperatures near Our studies pyroxene cry tals that form the predominantly ooc (32°F), this heat can be sufficient to prevent of artificial basalt-like rock provides information on granite the temperature of fruit from falling below ooc formation in the crust of the earth," Naney says. and destroying a crop. magmas "The same phenomenon in natural magma would "In the case of the ISV test," Naney says, help us trap granite liquid between interlocking crystals "thermal arrests were anticipated, but the of a basalt, preventing migration and coalescence magnitude and duration of the effect was understand of the granite liquid to form large masses." surprising. The temperature and duration of the how igneous What conclusions have the ORNL researchers thermal arrest provide information about rocks form. made from their observations? Says Naney: "The crystallization processes within the melt that could existence of some large bodies of granite, of the not be directly observed." size exposed at Stone Mountain, Georgia, or in Although ba alt is a common rock at volcanoe Yosemite National Park, may require multiple in the Cascades in the western United States and cycles of melting and squeezing of solidified in Hawaii, it is not present in East Tennessee. The basalts. These processes extracted the small common rocks at the ORNL site are limestone and amounts of granite liquid required to form granite shales. "But/ ' Naney notes, "the chemical masses as large as hundreds of cubic kilometers." compositions of basalt and the combination of This idea is not new to geologists. "But," shale and limestone are similar, so ISV melts in Naney says, "the ORNL studies provide a large­ Tennessee can provide useful information on scale example of the 'fractionation ' process that volcanic processes." generates granite from a 'parent' basalt magma." Naney and Jacobs pursued the idea of using The ORNL researchers noticed an interesting ISV melts as artificial magmas at a meeting of phenomenon 20 hours after the ISV power was geologists in San Francisco and later in Boston. In shut off. "The cooling of the artificial magma the spring of 1994, he and Gary Jacobs organized halted for 24 hours," Naney says. a workshop on this subject in Oak Ridge. It was The high temperatures needed to generate and attended by 23 geoscientists from universities, maintain the ISV molten rock are the result of research institutions, and national laboratories adding heat energy through electric-resistance across the country. heating of the soil and resulting melt. After the "The participants concluded that ISV electrical power is turned off, the magma begins technology can produce large silicate melts whose to cool. Radiative, convective, and conductive makeup and properties provide unique analogs for processes all constantly remove heat, cooling the natural magmas," Naney says. "They agreed that magma. ISV melts are u eful for testing theories that

108 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW l

cannot be investigated through direct observation The workshop and other ISV magma research using bench-top experiments or uncontrolled were supported by the Geosciences Research studies of natural ystems such as lava lakes." Progran1 of the Department of Energy' s Office of As volumes of soil up to 300 cubic meters Basic Energy Sciences. undergo melting, Naney says, a "magma cham ber" is created. "Such a melt is large enough Real Cost of Power for field-scale geophysical instruments to be used but small enough to be controlled and monitored from Coal Explored like a laboratory experiment," be says. "We can determine the chemical composition and physical What is the real cost of electricity? Is it simply properties of the materials before and after the total cost reflected in our electricity bills? This melting. In addition, we can follow the history of issue is addressed in the recently published second the melting and cooling by using sensors and and third of a series of eight reports on the taking samples of magma, gases, and particle external costs and benefits of electricity fuel Our emissions from the ISV melts." cycles. The reports, which cover analytical observation provides information on granite formation in the crust of the earth.

r------2oooc------

bdehydration ~ degassing • magma m boiling water

Artificial magmas created by in situ vitrification processing provide analogs for the thermal and chemical processes associated with the intrusion and solidification of magma, as shown in this illustration. (Figure courtesy of J. G. Blencoe, ORNL's Chemical and Analytical Sciences Division.)

Number One, 1995 109 R&D UPDATES

methods and the coal fuel cycle, were written by of Economic Advisers. Russell Lee, a geographer ORNL and Resources for the Future (RFF) as part with ORNL' s Energy Division, took over the of a study sponsored by DOE. Laboratory part of the study when Cantor left in According to the report on coal power, the real 1991. In 1995, Lee was honored for the report on cost includes the social costs of all activities coal fuel cycles by the Association of American involved in the production of electricity-that is, Geographers. of the fuel cycle. These social costs are the The full social cost of producing electricity, Lee financial costs plus the external costs and benefits says, includes two components. The first (externalities) of extracting fuel, processing it, component is the price reflected in electric bills; it transporting it, burning it to generate electricity, covers labor, capital, fuel, insurance, regulatory Surprisingly, and disposing of wastes. These external costs compliance, and taxes. The second component the report include injuries, illnesse , and environmental cover costs to people other than producers and damage. consumers. For example, sulfur and nitrogen found that Surprisingly, the report found that the external oxides emitted from coal plant stacks may cause the external costs at one coal-fired power plant that was lung disease, reduce fish populations, and damage costs at one studied are much lower than expected-about 2 to crops in some regions. 3% of the total cost of generating electric power "From mining to transportation to generation coal-fired from coal. Some external costs, however, cannot and transmission of electricity, the coal fuel cycle power plant be reliably estimated (e.g., global warming) and imposes burdens on the environment that can are not included in this estimate. harm ecosystems and human health," Lee say . are much ORNL prepared the report in collaboration with "Individuals place orne value on preserving lower than RFF and with DOE and the Commission of the ecosystems, good health, and materials and are, expected. European Communities (EC). In this project, therefore, implicitly willing to pay to avoid methods were developed for analyzing the damage to them. These values are reflected in the externalities of electricity production. ORNL and full social cost, or externalities, of providing RFF are applying the methodology to estimate the electric power from coal." social costs of coal, biomass, hydropower, oil, Lee noted that the coal fuel cycle also has some natural gas, and nuclear fuel cycles. EC is using benefits that must be accounted for in estimating the methodology to estimate the costs of the full social cost. An example is fertilization of photovoltaics, wind fuel cycles, and energy soil in some areas by deposits of sulfur and conservation options in addition to its studies of nitrogen. these other fuel cycles. The methodology developed at ORNL and RFF DOE's and EC's interest in this study stems include the "damage function approach," which from their desire to assess the full costs of is considered by most researchers the preferred alternative energy technologies. ''Total energy method for estimating most coal fuel cycle cycle assessments" are needed to guide research externalitie . Lee says that the work also resulted and development and facilitate deployment of in several new analytical methods. energy-efficient and renewable energy "We developed new models for estimating technologies in the marketplace. Their interest concentrations of ground-level ozone from coal also stems from the fact that the impact of energy plants at various locations and of sulfur and production on the global environment is nitrogen oxides, lead, and particulates at distances considered an important issue for years to come. from coal plants that are not treated by other The methodological foundation for the study models," Lee says. "In addition, we developed was developed largely by Robin Cantor, formerly new methods to estimate nonenvironmental of ORNL and now at the National Science impacts such as damages to roads by coal trucks Foundation, and Alan Krupnick, an RFF and reduction in unemployment because of power researcher who was with the President's Council plant construction and operation."

110 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW In the study, a coal power plant in the DOE's Inventions southeastern United States and one in the Southwest were examined. The researchers Programs Saves Energy looked at specific impacts of various stages of the and Money-QRNL coal fuel cycle. "Mining coal can lead to injuries and deaths The news media claim that some government from accidents and to lung disease from emissions programs "rip off' American taxpayers. However, of radon and coal dust," Lee says. "Transporting an ORNL report shows that taxpayers clearly coal can lead to injuries and deaths from rail and benefit from a government program called the truck accidents. Energy-Related Inventions Program (ERIP). "Generating electricity by burning coal results This federal government program for in the emission of gases and heavy metals that stimulating energy-related inventions has have environmental impacts. The most notable are generated commercial products that are saving carbon dioxide, which contributes to global Americans energy and money, creating jobs, warming; nitrogen oxides, which contribute to boosting tax revenues, and slowing global ground-level ozone; and sulfur oxides, which warming. That's the conclusion of a recently The coal fuel form acid rain. These pollutants can cause harm to published report prepared by Marilyn Brown, cycle also crop , forests, fish, wildlife, materials, and human C. Robert Wilson, Charlotte A. Franchuk, Stephen health." M. Cohn, and Donald W. Jones, all with ORNL's has some Lee said the study made several conclusions Energy Division. benefits that after evaluating the two reference sites. Some The report, Economic, Energy, and findings showed that costs are generally site Environmental Impacts of DOE's Energy-Related must be specific-for example, health effects of airborne Inventions Program, examines the results of accounted for pollutants emitted from the coal plant in the ERIP, which has been jointly operated since 1974 in estimating Sou thea t are 100 times greater than those by DOE and the National Institute of Standards associated with the plant in the Southwest. and Technology (NIST). This program solicit the full social "We estimate that the externalities are and selects invention ideas, and from 1975 cost. considerably less than some people expected," through 1992, it provided $41 million in grants to Lee says. "For the power plant in the Southeast, inventors to develop the most promising concepts. the externalities amount to little more than 1 mill, "The value of sales of ERIP inventions is or 0.1 cent, per kilowatt-hour, which is only about 19 times the value of ERIP grants awarded and 2 to 3% of the total cost of generating electric 7 times the appropriations for the program," power u ing coal." Brown says. "In 1992, the last year covered by However, Lee notes, damage from potential our evaluation, ERIP technologies launched new global warming is not part of the estimate. "It businesses, created more than 650 full-time jobs, could be 1 cent, or more, per kilowatt-hour," he and provided the U.S. Treasury with $2.7 million say . in individual income taxes. "One problem is that ecological damages are "The commercial success of three ERIP difficult to estimate and are not all included in the projects has saved more than half a billion dollars 1-mill estimate. Also, if a coal power plant is in energy expenditures over the past decade," located in a more populated area, then damages Brown says. "In addition, the energy savings cut might be several times greater." greenhouse gas emissions by nearly one million "We found that precise social costs are difficult metric tons of carbon." Carbon dioxide and other to estimate," Lee concludes, "because of greenhouse gases contribute to global warming, differences from site to site and because of which may have undesirable environmental uncertainties in estimating ecological impacts, effects. including global warming effects."

Number One, 1995 111 R&D UPDATES

The three highly succes ful ERIP projects were research, and agricultural uses. In the United (1) replacement rings for steam turbines, which States alone, radioisotopes, some of which are prevent the gradual loss in efficiency that produced from stable isotopes, are used for characterizes conventional packing rings; (2) an medical diagnosis or treatment of 30,000 to ignition control system for automotive internal 40,000 patients a day. combustion engines; and (3) a high-efficiency ORNL's calutrons at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant gas-fired water heater for industrial applications. are high-current mass spectrometers that u e ERIP has brought prosperity to some inventors. magnetic fields to separate isotopes by charge and "By the end of 1992," says Brown, "at least 129 mass. Some 1152 calutrons were used during of the 625 inventions recommended by DOE for World War II to produce fissionable uranium-235 support bad entered the market, generating total for the atomic bomb. cumulative sales of $763 million. In 1992, ERIP In the current facility (Building 9204-3) of inventors earned an estimated $1 million in ORNL's Isotope Enrichment Program, a track of royalties. Over the lifetime of the program, 36 calutrons began separating uranium-235 from royalties have totaled $18.6 million." other uranium isotopes on December 13, 1944; The The authors obtained the report's information another track of 36 calutrons started uranium commercial by designing and distributing a 16-page separations on January 30, 1945. Production of questionnaire to the 557 inventors who had been stable isotopes commenced November 11 , 1945, success of recommended for program participation by NIST with the separation of copper-63 from copper-65 three ERIP prior to October 199 I. (It was judged that more in the Building 9731 pilot plant at the Y-12 Plant. recent participants would not have bad enough In the fall of 1959, ORNL took over operati.on projects has time to complete their projects and develop a of the calutrons in Building 9204-3 for its stable saved more successful new product.) They measured an isotope production program. Over the years it has than haifa invention's progress primarily in terms of market operated 30 calutrons for 4 million hours, entry, level of sales, and length of time in the producing a total of 250 kilograms (550 pounds) billion market. of material enriched in 232 different stable dollars in isotopes. energy The eight restarted calutrons are now used to 50-Year-Old Calutrons produce material enriched in thallium-203 for expenditures Trace Sciences International. This feed material Resume Isotope over the past goes to the isotope supplier, which uses proton Production beams in cyclotrons to convert thallium-203 to decade. thallium-201 , a radioisotope. Tballium-201 is After being idle for three years, 8 of ORNL's used worldwide to diagnose heart disease. 36 calutrons were restarted by DOE on January 3, ORNL bad been producing thallium-203 until 1995, beginning the year that marks the 50th 1991 when its customers turned to Russia because anniversary of stable isotope production in Oak it was selling the isotope for 10 to 20% less. So Ridge. The reason for the restart: DOE changed the calutons were shut down. However, during the its policy, recognizing that some customers that shutdown, the program began selling its reserve have been buying low-priced stable isotopes from supply of strontium-88 to Amersham Russia require a more stable supplier. International, a pharmaceutical company in On December 22, 1994, Trace Sciences England that produces strontiurn-89 chloride for International of Ontario, Canada, signed a three­ relieving cancer-induced bone pain. year contract with DOE to buy stable isotopes in The calutron is based on an invention by E. 0. large quantities at a volume discount. These Lawrence and associates at Berkeley, California. stable, or nonradioactive, isotopes will be In early 1942, this group converted a 37-inch distributed to 14 countries for medical, industrial, cycloton to a production mass spectrometer and

112 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW ORNL uses these calutrons at the Y-12 Plant to produce thallium-203, a stable isotope that is converted to radioisotope thallium-201 for heart scans. The calutrons were recently restarted after being idle for three years.

The restarted 8 calutrons are now used showed that electromagnetic separation of weapons program. In 1986, Iraqis operated their to produce uranjurn-235 is possible. ftrst experimental electromagnetic separator at the material The ORNL calutrons are the only source of Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center near Baghdad; stable isotopes in the Uruted States. The only in 1987, they operated two experimental enriched in other operating calutrons in the world are in Chjna separators there. Iraq planned to deploy 70 thallium-203 and Russia. calutrons at one sjte and 20 at another. In 1990, for Trace Calutrons were built and operated in Iraq in eight eparators were installed and operated at upport of Saddarn Hus ein's fledgling nuclear Tarrniya; they were shut down for modifications Sciences International.

Number One, 1995 113 R&D UPDATES

The ORNL calutrons are the only source of stable isotopes in the United States.

A technician adjusts a calutron ion source used for stable isotope production.

in 1991. Iraq's eparator facilities were de troyed to electrical and chemical engineers. Says Joe by February 1991 air attacks during the Persian Tracy, manager of ORNL' s Isotope Enrichment Gulf War. Program, "Producing isotopes is a beneficial ORNL's stable isotope production program bas peaceful use of wartime technology. And it is a staff of 45 persons, including 25 technical popular with the U.S. government becau e it employees ranging from chemi ts and bring in revenue."

114 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW mJ Technology Transfer ORNL's Battery Technology Gains More Recognition

The participants in the CRADA are Research International of Woodinville, Washington, and John Bates, Nancy Dudney, and Chris Luck, all of the Ceramic Thin Films Group that Bates heads in ORNL' s Solid State Division. The group's development of rechargeable thin-film lithium batteries also received a Significant Implication for Department of Energy-Related Technologies Award in the Solid State Physics category in DOE's 1994 Materials Sciences Research Competition. The lOOOth DOE CRADA was signed in September 1994 in Washington, D.C. Present at the signing were Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary; Elric Saaski, president of Research International; and Alvin The ORNL Trivelpiece, ORNL director. This agreement was one of 87 CRADAs battery can signed in fiscal-year 1994 by Martin operate at Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. The goal of this CRADA is a credit­ higher card-size device in which a gas sensor voltages and detects hazardous gases and special currents than This Hazard Card, being designed to warn workers of the electronics warn the badge wearer of presence of hazardous gases, will be powered by ORNL's the presence of these gases through previously thin-film lithium battery. The battery technology has been licensed to Teledyne Electronic Technologies. light and sound signals. The electronics developed would be powered by a rechargeable lithium rnicrobattery half as thin as thin-film plastic wrap. batteries. ORNL's development of rechargeable thin-film The lithium-vanadium oxide battery used for lithium batteries continues to attract attention. The the Hazard Card is one of several types of thin­ technology is being used in the Department of film rechargeable lithium batteries developed by Energy's lOOOth cooperative research and the ORNL group. These solid-state batteries, development agreement (CRADA), it received a which can be cycled thousands of times, can be prestigious DOE award, and the rights to fabricated in virtually any size and shape to meet commercialize it have been granted to Teledyne the needs of a variety of electronic devices. Electronic Technologies. "For the Hazard Card," Bates says, "a battery A Hazard Card, a badge that will warn workers measuring 9 square centimeters and 5 microns of the presence of hazardous gases, is the expected thick will supply the current required-between product of DOE' s lOOOth CRADA. The 2.5 and 3.5 volts-to operate the card electronically operated gas sensor will be powered continuously for more than 8 hours before by the award-winning thin-film lithium battery recharging." developed at ORNL.

Number One, 1995 115 TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

The ORNL battery can operate at higher ORNL Sensor Research voltages and currents than previously developed thin-film batteries. The key to this improvement To Aid Traffic Flow was the group's discovery in 1991 of an effective for Atlanta Olympics solid electrolyte, called amorphous lithium phosphorus oxynitride, or Lipon. The electrolyte separates the reactive electrodes (the lithium and ORNL is involved in a CRADA with an vanadium oxide film layers), enabling the Atlanta, Georgia, company to improve the traffic conversion of the battery's chemical energy into flow during the Summer Olympic Games to be electrical energy. held in 1996 in Atlanta. Steve Allison, David Bates' group participated in an earlier CRADA Howell, and Gary Capps, all of ORNL' s in 1992 with Eveready Battery Company. In this Engineeering Technology Division, will work project the researchers developed a protective with Supercond Technology, Inc., to develop a coating for thin-film lithium batterie . traffic monitoring ystem. Currently, the group is involved in a CRADA Sensors embedded in road material - called with Teledyne Electronic Technologies. "smart structure "-for use in major highways Sensors will Researchers are working to apply the sen ing will allow staff at computer control center to allow staff at device first to the electroencephalogram (EEG), a monitor the pace of traffic and identify slowdown computer test that monitors activity in the brain. The or other problems. The ORNL researchers must technology may later be applied to the determine the compatibility of the en ors with control electrocardiogram (EKG), a test for detecting road materials, such as asphalt and concrete, centers to abnormal activity in the heart. before they can develop smart structures. They In these tests, extremely low-level electric will test the effects of extreme temperatures and monitor the signals received from the body are relayed by other conditions on the ensors to determine their pace of sensors across electrical wires to a machine that durability. traffic and amplifies the signal for a reading. "During that Another project is to develop and implant trip, motion and other environmental factors can silicone rubber fiber into reusable shipping identify distort and even swamp out the signal," say Bob containers made of polymer-ba ed composite slowdowns. Steenberge, a researcher at Teledyne. "The materials. The fibers will serve as sensor for technology we're developing puts the amplifier quickly and easily monitoring the containers' right at the head of the source, making for a structural integrity. clearer signal, and the lithium battery may provide Supercond Technology, a minority-owned just the power source we need to operate it." company, specializes in defense technology Several companies have shown interest in conversion focu ing on smart-materials ORNL's thin-film lithium battery for these development and advanced communication applications: backup power for computer memory systems for aerospace and other commercial chips in case of a power outage, backup power for applications. solar-powered devices in space, notebook Thomas Mensah, president of Supercond, said computers, miniature hearing aids, and ultrathin the research is expected to have applications far watches. Bates' group is also exploring the use of beyond the 1996 traffic flow in Atlanta. thin-film batteries for powering micromachines.

116 Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW for Hazardous Waste Studies

Oracle

Various computer tools that support studies of hazardous waste sites on the Oak Ridge Reservation include GIS, statistical tools, relational data-base management systems, subsurface modeling, and visualization techniques. These resources are important for managing, analyzing, storing, displaying, and disseminating environmental and geographic information throughout the DOE complex. OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY REVIEW U.S. Postage P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6144 PAID BULK RATE Oak Ridge, Tenn. Permit No.3

ED AEBISCHER 105MIT 6496

All types of remotely sensed information are analyzed and integrated to characterize DOE facilities. Examples from John Smyre's work are shown here including mosaics of rectified aerial photography over the Oak Ridge Reservation, airborne thermal studies of water bodies at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site, gamma radiation contours computed from helicopter surveys superimposed on digital terrain models of ORNL, and land-cover patterns across the ORNL burial grounds as computed from airborne multispectral scanner surveys.

POSTMASTER: DO NOT FORWARD: ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED, RETURN POSTAGE GUARANTEED.