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73-625: Oak Ridge National Laboratory ( ORNL ) is a federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee , United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is now sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administered by UT–Battelle, LLC . Established in 1943, ORNL is the largest science and energy national laboratory in the Department of Energy system by size and third largest by annual budget. It

146-479: A surrogate mother . The mouse pups were born healthy. The technique is popular in the livestock industry, as it allows the embryos of valuable cattle to be transported easily and a prize cow can have multiple eggs extracted and thus, through in vitro fertilisation , have many more offspring than would naturally be possible. In 1974 Alvin Weinberg, director of the lab for 19 years, was replaced by Herman Postma ,

219-708: A crucial area for developing a fusion power plant. The US ITER office is at ORNL with partners at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Savannah River National Laboratory . The US contribution to the ITER project is 9.1% which is expected to be in excess of US$ 1.6 billion throughout the contract. ORNL researchers participated in developing of an extensive research plan for the US-ITER collaboration detailed in 2022. Biological research covers ecology , forestry , genomics , computational biology , structural biology and bioinformatics . The BioEnergy Program aims to improve

292-696: A fusion scientist. In 1977 construction began for 6 metre (20 foot) superconducting electromagnets , intended to control fusion reactions . The project was an international effort: three electromagnets were produced in the US, one in Japan, one in Switzerland and the final by remaining European states. ORNL was involved in analysing the damage to the core of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station after

365-458: A major breakthrough in its capacity to automate Pu-238 production which helped push annual production from 50 grams to 400 grams, moving closer to NASA 's goal of 1.5 kilograms per year by 2025 in order to sustain its space exploration programs. ORNL conducts research and development activities that span a wide range of scientific disciplines. Many research areas have a significant overlap with each other; researchers often work in two or more of

438-472: A major source of medical radioisotopes since. As of 2013, HFIR provides the world's highest constant neutron flux as a result of various upgrades. Berkelium -249, used to synthesize tennessine for the first time, was produced in the HFIR as part of an international effort. HFIR is likely to operate until approximately 2060 before the reactor pressure vessel is considered unsafe for continued use. The SNS has

511-448: A new material for their diesel engines that can withstand large temperature fluctuations. The new steel, named CF8C Plus, is based on conventional CF8C stainless steel with added manganese and nitrogen ; the result has better high–temperature properties and is easier to cast at a similar cost. In 2003 the partners received an R&D 100 award from R&D magazine and in 2009 received an award for "excellence in technology transfer" from

584-572: A newly-built complex known as the Union Carbide Corporate Center . 270 Park Avenue later became the headquarters of JPMorgan Chase . The building was demolished and replaced with a new 1,200-foot-tall (370 m) tower serving as the consolidated headquarters for JPMorgan Chase. At 700 feet (210 m) tall, the Union Carbide Building was the tallest building in the world ever voluntarily demolished at

657-442: A possible 'runaway reaction'. Around midnight on 3 December 1984, gas was accidentally released from the plant, exposing more than 500,000 people to MIC and other chemicals. The Government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 16,000 deaths related to the gas release. It left an estimated 40,000 individuals permanently disabled, maimed, or suffering from serious illness, making it the world's worst industrial disaster . Following

730-485: A proof-of-concept for a proposed fleet of long-range bombers , but it was never used. Alvin M. Weinberg was named Director of Research, ORNL, and in 1955 Director of the Laboratory. In the early 1960s there was a large push at ORNL to develop nuclear-powered desalination plants, where deserts met the sea, to provide water. The project, called Water for Peace, was backed by John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and

803-612: A valve failure after a buildup of pressure in a storage tank containing 500 pounds of the chemical. A company spokesman insisted that the aldicarb oxime leak "never was a threat to the community." Union Carbide's operations in Australia commenced in 1957, when it purchased the plant of the Australian-owned company Timbrol Ltd. The Timbrol factory was on the shore of Homebush Bay in the Sydney suburb of Rhodes . Homebush Bay

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876-737: Is US$ 2.4 billion. As of 2021 there is a staff of 5,700 working at ORNL, around 2,000 of whom are scientists and engineers, and an additional 3,200 guest researchers annually. There are five campuses on the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge reservation: the National Laboratory, the Y-12 National Security Complex , the East Tennessee Technology Park (formerly the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant ),

949-880: Is a former component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average . Founded in 1917 as the Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation , from a merger with National Carbon Company , the company's researchers developed an economical way to make ethylene from natural gas liquids, such as ethane and propane , giving birth to the modern petrochemical industry . The company divested consumer products businesses Eveready and Energizer batteries, Glad bags and wraps, Simoniz car wax and Prestone antifreeze . The company divested other businesses before being acquired by Dow including electronic chemicals, polyurethane intermediates, industrial gases (Linde) and carbon products. The Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation

1022-540: Is an American chemical company. UCC is a wholly owned subsidiary (since February 6, 2001) of Dow Chemical Company . Union Carbide produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers before reaching consumers. Some are high-volume commodities and others are specialty products meeting the needs of smaller markets. Markets served include paints and coatings, packaging, wire and cable, household products, personal care, pharmaceuticals, automotive, textiles, agriculture, and oil and gas. The company

1095-484: Is located in the Roane County section of Oak Ridge. Its scientific programs focus on materials , nuclear science , neutron science, energy, high-performance computing , environmental science , systems biology and national security , sometimes in partnership with the state of Tennessee , universities and other industries. ORNL has several of the world's top supercomputers , including Frontier , ranked by

1168-465: Is normally produced using a base chemical, methyl isocyanate (MIC). Initially this plant imported MIC, but in 1979 the company decided to manufacture the ingredients on their own. They built a MIC unit within the Bhopal plant. This plant was located next to a very densely populated neighborhood, and heavily trafficked railway station. Locating it near this densely populated area was a direct violation of

1241-583: Is on the Parramatta River which flows into Sydney Harbour . Tibrol produced phenol , the insecticides chlorobenzene / chlorophenol / DDT , and the herbicides 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T . Union Carbide continued the production of the 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T until 1976 and chlorobenzene/chlorophenol/DDT until 1983. Union Carbide also commenced the production of bisphenol A in 1960 and phenol formaldehyde resins in 1964. Union Carbide reclaimed land on neighboring properties by depositing spent lime and ash into

1314-486: Is permitted but requires payment. The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) researches the behaviour and fabrication of nanomaterials . The center emphasises discovery of new materials and the understanding of underlying physical and chemical interactions that enable creation of nanomaterials. In 2012, CNMS produced a lithium-sulfide battery with a theoretical energy density three to five times greater than existing lithium ion batteries . ORNL provides resources to

1387-594: The Cold War , the company was active in the field of rocket propulsion research and development for aerospace and guided missile applications, particularly in the field of chemicals and plastics, solid rocket motors , and storable liquid fuels . R&D and engineering were conducted at the Technical Center in South Charleston, West Virginia . The Aerospace Materials Department was part of

1460-605: The Federal Laboratory Consortium for the commercialisation of the steel. There is a high-temperature materials lab at ORNL that permits researchers from universities, private companies and other government initiatives to use their facilities. As is the case for all designated user facilities, the resources of the High Temperature Materials Laboratory are available for free if the results are published; private research

1533-764: The Late Woodland period was excavated. The site is currently inundated by Melton Hill Lake . The city of Oak Ridge was established by the Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Clinton Engineer Works in 1942 on isolated farm land as part of the Manhattan Project . During World War II, advanced research for the government was managed at the site by the University of Chicago 's Metallurgical Laboratory . In 1943, construction of

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1606-446: The Manhattan Project . The end of armed conflict did not end the need for organized research and development in support of the government. As the Cold War became the new reality, government officials and their scientific advisors advanced the idea of a systematic approach to research, development, and acquisitions—one independent of the ups and downs of the marketplace and free of the restrictions on civil service. From this idea arose

1679-579: The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education , and the developing Oak Ridge Science and Technology Park, although the four other facilities are unrelated to the National Laboratory. The total area of the reservation is 150 square kilometres (58 sq mi) of which the lab takes up 18 square kilometres (7 sq mi). In 1934 the Freel Farm Mound Site , an archaeological site and burial mound of

1752-801: The TOP500 as the world's most powerful. The lab is a leading neutron and nuclear power research facility that includes the Spallation Neutron Source , the High Flux Isotope Reactor , and the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences . Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT–Battelle , a limited liability partnership between the University of Tennessee and the Battelle Memorial Institute , formed in 2000 for that purpose. The annual budget

1825-595: The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency out of ORNL to monitor forest ecology for the surrounding Appalachians & Cumberland Plateau Domain of NEON. There are two neutron sources at ORNL; the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). HFIR provides neutrons in a stable beam resulting from a constant nuclear reaction whereas SNS, a particle accelerator, produces pulses of neutrons. HFIR went critical in 1965 and has been used for materials research and as

1898-726: The US Navy . The US Army also contracted the design of portable nuclear reactors in 1953 for heat and electricity generation in remote military bases. The reactors were produced by the American Locomotive Company and used in Greenland , the Panama Canal Zone , and Antarctica . The US Air Force also contributed funding to three reactors, the lab's first computers, and its first particle accelerators. ORNL built its first molten salt reactor in 1954 as

1971-520: The United States Department of Homeland Security and other defense programs. The Global Security and Nonproliferation (GS&N) program develops and implements policies, both US based and international, to prevent the proliferation of nuclear material . The program has developed safeguards for nuclear arsenals, guidelines for dismantling arsenals, plans of action should nuclear material fall into unauthorised hands, detection methods for stolen or missing nuclear material, and trade of nuclear material between

2044-430: The accident in 1979 . The 1980s brought more changes to ORNL: a focus on efficiency became paramount. An accelerated climate simulation chamber was built that applied varying weather conditions to insulation to test its efficacy and durability faster than real time. Materials research into heat resistant ceramics for use in truck and high-tech car engines was performed, building upon the materials research that began in

2117-470: The 1950s. ORNL was the only Western source of californium-252 . ORNL scientists also performed the world's first successful bone marrow transplant in mice by suppressing their immune systems . In 1950 the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology was established with two courses in reactor operation and safety; almost 1,000 students graduated. Much of the research performed at ORNL in the 1950s

2190-567: The 1960s ORNL was equipped with an IBM 360/91 and an IBM 360/65. In 1995 ORNL bought an Intel Paragon based computer called the Intel Paragon XP/S 150 that performed at 154  gigaFLOPS and ranked third on the TOP500 list of supercomputers. In 2005 Jaguar was built, a Cray XT3 -based system that performed at 25 teraFLOPS and received incremental upgrades up to the XT5 platform that performed at 2.3 petaFLOPS in 2009. It

2263-617: The 1975 Bhopal Development Plan. This development plan posed that hazardous industries such as the MIC plant be located in a different part of the city that was further away, and downwind, from more densely populated areas. According to one of the authors of the Bhopal Development Plan, "Union Carbide India Limited's" initial application for a permit was rejected, yet the company was able to gain approval from centralized governing authorities. In 1982, Carbide's auditors had warned of

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2336-505: The Bhopal disaster, a faulty valve at the UC plant in Institute, West Virginia caused a large cloud of gas that injured six employees and caused almost 200 nearby residents to seek medical treatment for respiratory and skin irritation. Union Carbide blamed the leak of aldicarb oxime (made from MIC but does not contain any MIC itself), the main ingredient in the popular farm pesticide Temik , on

2409-729: The Clinton Laboratories, what would later be known as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was completed. The site was chosen for the X-10 Graphite Reactor , used to produce plutonium from natural uranium . Enrico Fermi and his colleagues developed the world's second self-sustaining nuclear reactor after Fermi's previous experiment, the Chicago Pile-1 . The X-10 was the first reactor designed for continuous operation. After

2482-691: The ORNL Frontier system broke the exascale barrier, achieving 1.102 exaflop/s using 8,730,112 cores. Since 1992 the Center for Computational Sciences has overseen high performance computing at ORNL. It manages the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility that contains the machines. In 2012, Jaguar was upgraded to the XK7 platform, a fundamental change as GPUs are used for the majority of processing, and renamed Titan . Titan performed at 17.59 petaFLOPS and held

2555-550: The Oak Ridge National Lab wrote the first version of Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM), software that enables distributed computing on machines of differing specifications. PVM is free software and has become the de facto standard for distributed computing. Jack Dongarra of ORNL and the University of Tennessee wrote the LINPACK software library and LINPACK benchmarks , used to calculate linear algebra and

2628-655: The Radiation Laboratory at MIT, and the Navy's Operation Research Group evolved into the Center for Naval Analyses. The first FFRDCs served the Department of Defense . Since then, other government organizations have sponsored FFRDCs to meet their specific needs. In 1969, the number of FFRDCs peaked at 74. The following list includes all current FFRDCs: Union Carbide Union Carbide Corporation ( UCC )

2701-558: The US and reduce dependence on foreign oil supplies. There are three key areas of research: electricity, manufacturing and mobility. The electricity division focuses on reducing electricity consumption and finding alternative sources for production. Buildings, which account for 39% of US electricity consumption as of 2012, are a key area of research as the program aims to create affordable, carbon-neutral homes. Research also takes place into higher efficiency solar panels , geothermal electricity and heating , lower cost wind generators , and

2774-578: The US and Russia. The GS&N's work overlaps with that of the Homeland Security Programs Office, providing detection of nuclear material and nonproliferation guidelines. Other areas concerning the Department Homeland Security include nuclear and radiological forensics, chemical and biological agent detection using mass spectrometry , and simulations of potential national hazards. ORNL has been

2847-555: The accident was an act of sabotage by a plant worker. The plant site has not yet been cleaned up. Hazardous chemicals can still be found in the now abandoned site. Warren Anderson , CEO at the time of the disaster, refused to answer to homicide charges and remained a fugitive from India's courts. The U.S. denied several extradition requests. Anderson died on 29 September 2014 in Florida. Seven UCC employees were convicted of criminal negligence in 2010 and fined $ 2,000 each. The year after

2920-663: The adjacent marshes in Homebush Bay . This practice, which had been approved by the Maritime Services Board, ceased in 1970. Union Carbide ceased operations in Australia in 1985. In 1987, the New South Wales Pollution Control Commission ordered Union Carbide to remediate the site. This work, which cost Union Carbide $ 30 million, was conducted between 1988 and 1993. The work involved excavation and encapsulation of

2993-525: The behaviour of biological molecules in various conditions. The center hosts projects that examine cell walls for biofuel production, use neutron scattering to analyse protein folding , and simulate the effect of catalysis on a conventional and quantum scale . ORNL is home to a field site for the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), which has a field office nearby. The Department of Energy works closely with

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3066-512: The biology division studied the effects of chemicals on mice, including petrol fumes , pesticides , and tobacco . In the late 1960s, cuts in funding led to the cancellation of plans for another particle accelerator, and the United States Atomic Energy Commission cut the breeder reactor program by two-thirds, leading to a downsizing in staff from 5,000 to 3,800. In the 1970s, the prospect of fusion power

3139-470: The company set up a chemicals division which manufactured ethylene glycol for use as automotive antifreeze . The company continued to acquire related chemical producers, including the Bakelite Corporation in 1939. The company changed its name to "Union Carbide Corporation" in 1957 and was often referred to as Carbide. It operated Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1947 to 1984. During

3212-570: The company's Carbon Products Division. Ucar batteries was Carbide's industrial and consumer zinc chloride battery business. The business, including Eveready and Energizer alkaline batteries , was sold to Ralston Purina in 1986, following a hostile takeover attempt. After the Bhopal disaster , Union Carbide was the subject of repeated takeover attempts. In order to pay off its debt, Carbide sold many of its most familiar brands such as Glad Trashbags and Eveready Batteries. Dow Chemical announced

3285-476: The concept of FFRDCs—private entities that would work almost exclusively on behalf of the government—free of organizational conflicts of interest and with a stable workforce of highly trained technical talent. The U.S. Air Force created the first FFRDC, the RAND Corporation , in 1947. Others grew directly out of their wartime roles. For example, MIT Lincoln Laboratory , founded in 1951, originated as

3358-572: The construction of the reactor. It operated from 1966 until 1969 (with six months down time to move from U-235 to U-233 fuel) and proved the viability of molten salt reactors , while also producing fuel for other reactors as a byproduct of its own reaction. The High Flux Isotope Reactor built in 1965 had the highest neutron flux of any reactor at the time. It improved upon the work of the X-10 reactor, producing more medical isotopes as well as allowing higher fidelity of materials research. Researchers in

3431-561: The contaminated soil. In 2004, the New South Wales Minister for Planning granted consent for additional remediation of the former Union Carbide site to proceed, including parts of Homebush Bay. Approximately 900,000 tons of soil were excavated from the site, 190,000 tons of soil from the adjacent Allied Feeds site, and approximately 50,000 tons of sediment from the bay. Remediation of the Allied Feeds Site

3504-402: The early 1960s, Union Carbide Corporation began mining a newly identified outcrop of chrysotile asbestos fibers near King City and New Idria, California . These fibers were sold under the brand name "Calidria", a combination of "Cal" and "Idria", and sold in large quantities for a wide variety of purposes, including additives for joint compound or drywall accessory products. Union Carbide sold

3577-478: The early 1970s for nuclear reactors, so ORNL staff wrote almost 100 requirements covering many factors including fuel transport and earthquake resistance. In 1972 the AEC held a series of public hearings where emergency cooling requirements were highlighted and the safety requirements became more stringent. Also in 1972, Peter Mazur , a biologist at ORNL, froze with liquid nitrogen , thawed and implanted mouse embryos in

3650-512: The economic and environmental feasibility of potential hydro power plants . The Fusion Energy Division pursues short-term goals to develop components such as high-temperature superconductors , high-speed hydrogen pellet injectors, and suitable materials for future fusion research. Much research into the behaviour and maintenance of plasma takes place at the Fusion Energy Division to further the understanding of plasma physics ,

3723-469: The efficiency of all stages of the biofuel process to improve the energy security of the United States. The program aims to make genetic improvements to the potential biomass used, formulate methods for refineries that can accept a diverse range of fuels, and to improve the efficiency of energy delivery both to power plants and end users. The Center for Molecular Biophysics conducts research into

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3796-462: The end of World War II, management of the lab was contracted by the US government to Monsanto ; however, they withdrew in 1947. The University of Chicago temporarily re-assumed responsibility, with the site receiving the prestigious "National" laboratory designation, until in December 1947, when Union Carbide and Carbon Co. , which already operated two other facilities at Oak Ridge, took control of

3869-655: The fields listed here. The laboratory's major research areas are described briefly below. The laboratory has a long history of energy research; nuclear reactor experiments have been conducted since the end of World War II in 1945. Because of the availability of reactors and high-performance computing resources, an emphasis on improving the efficiency of nuclear reactors is present. The programs develop more efficient materials, more accurate simulations of aging reactor cores, sensors and controls as well as safety procedures for regulatory authorities. The Energy Efficiency and Electricity Technologies Program aims to improve air quality in

3942-408: The highest intensity neutron pulses of any human-made neutron source. SNS was made operational in 2006 and has since been upgraded to 1 megawatt with plans to continue up to 3 MW. High-power neutron pulses permit clearer images of the targets, meaning smaller samples can be analysed and accurate results require fewer pulses. Between 2002 and 2008 ORNL partnered with Caterpillar Inc. to form

4015-522: The incident, organizations representing the victims in Bhopal filed a U.S. $ 10 billion injury claim against Union Carbide. Additionally, the Government of India filed its own $ 3.3 billion claim against the company. Union Carbide's response was an offer in the range of $ 300-$ 350 million. In 1989 the company paid $ 470 million to the Indian government as a final settlement. Broken down, the total cost of

4088-565: The laboratory and renamed the site Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Post-war, the demand for military science had fallen dramatically, and the future of the lab was uncertain. The X-10 reactor and the laboratory's 1,000 employees were no longer involved in nuclear weapons. Instead, it was used for scientific research. In 1946 the first medical isotopes were produced in the X-10 reactor, and by 1950 almost 20,000 samples had been shipped to various hospitals. The quantity and variety of radionuclides produced by X-10 for medicine grew steadily in

4161-425: The mine to its employees under the name KCAC ("King City Asbestos Mine") in the 1980s, but it only operated for a few more years. Union Carbide India Limited , owned by Union Carbide (50.9%) and Indian investors (49.1%), operated a pesticide plant in Bhopal , the capital of Madhya Pradesh . This plant was opened in 1969. The pesticides and herbicides they produced were created from a insecticide carbaryl , which

4234-504: The nuclear reactors of the 1950s. In 1987 the High Temperature Materials Laboratory was established, where ORNL and industry researchers cooperated on ceramic and alloy projects. The materials research budget at ORNL doubled after initial uncertainty regarding Reagan's economic policy of less government expenditure. In 1981, the Holifield Heavy Ion Research Facility, a 25 MV particle accelerator ,

4307-754: The number 1 spot on the TOP500 list for November 2012. Other computers include a 77 node cluster to visualise data that the larger machines output in the Exploratory Visualization Environment for Research in Science and Technology (EVEREST), a visualisation room with a 10 by 3 metre (30 by 10 ft) wall that displays 35 megapixel projections. Smoky is an 80 node Linux cluster used for application development. Research projects are refined and tested on Smoky before running on larger machines such as Titan. In 1989 programmers at

4380-483: The purchase of Carbide in 1999 for $ 8.89 billion in stock. The deal was consummated in 2001 and valued at $ 11.6 billion. The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster took place between 1927 and 1932 in a West Virginia tunnel project led by Union Carbide. During the construction of the tunnel, workers found the mineral silica and were asked to mine it for use in electroprocessing steel. The workers were not given masks or breathing equipment to use while mining, despite best practices at

4453-634: The role until 2000. In 1992 whistleblower Charles Varnadore filed complaints against ORNL, alleging safety violations and retaliation by his superiors. While an administrative law judge ruled in Varnadore's favor, Secretary of Labor Robert Reich overturned that ruling. However, Varnadore's case saw prime contractor Martin Marietta cited for safety violations and ultimately led to additional whistleblower protection within DOE. In January 2019 ORNL announced

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4526-537: The settlement to Union Carbide's expenses was 43 cents per share, an amount criticized by some for its comparison to the annual report post-settlement declaring earnings per share. In that 1988 report, Union Carbide claimed to have had its best year yet, citing a record $ 4.88 earnings per share (this figure included the 43 cents per share charge from the Bhopal settlement). After the settlement, Union Carbide’s parent company divested its entire stake in UCIL. Carbide insists

4599-526: The site of various supercomputers , home to the fastest on several occasions. In 1953, ORNL partnered with the Argonne National Laboratory to build ORACLE (Oak Ridge Automatic Computer and Logical Engine), a computer to research nuclear physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. ORACLE had 2048  words (80  Kibit ) of memory and took approximately 590 microseconds to perform addition or multiplication of integers. In

4672-426: The standard method of measuring floating point performance of a supercomputer as used by the TOP500 organisation. Federally funded research and development centers During World War II scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and other specialists became part of the massive United States war effort—leading to evolutions in radar, aircraft, computing and, most famously, the development of nuclear weapons through

4745-480: The time. Due to silica dust exposure, many workers developed silicosis , a debilitating lung disease. According to a marker on site, there were 109 admitted deaths. A congressional hearing placed the death toll at 476, but a book published by epidemiologist Martin Cherniack, and as stated by the U.S. National Park Service, estimated the death toll to be 764, making it America's deadliest industrial disaster. In

4818-745: The total cost of clean-up were into the hundreds of millions of US dollars. The five older reactors were subjected to safety reviews in 1987, ordered to be deactivated until the reviews were complete. By 1989 when the High Flux Isotope Reactor was restarted, the US supply of certain medical isotopes was depleted. In 1989 the former executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science , Alvin Trivelpiece , became director of ORNL; he remained in

4891-546: Was completed in August 2009, Homebush Bay sediments in August 2010, and the Union Carbide site in March 2011. The cost of the remediation work was $ 35M for the Allied Feeds site, and $ 100 million for Union Carbide site and Homebush Bay sediments. The former Union Carbide headquarters building, at 270 Park Avenue in New York City, was a 52-story modernist office building designed by architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 1960. The company relocated its headquarters to Danbury, Connecticut in 1983, to

4964-411: Was formed on November 1, 1917, from the merger of the Union Carbide Company founded in 1898, the National Carbon Company founded in 1886, Linde Air Products Company , a maker of liquid oxygen at Buffalo confiscated from Gesellschaft für Linde's Eismaschinen AG under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 , and the Prest-O-Lite company, manufacturer of calcium carbide in Indianapolis . In 1920,

5037-443: Was opened at ORNL. At the time, Holifield had the widest range of ion species and was twice as powerful as other accelerators, attracting hundreds of guest researchers each year. The Department of Energy was concerned with the pollution surrounding ORNL, and it began clean-up efforts. Burial trenches and leaking pipes had contaminated the groundwater beneath the lab, and radiation tanks were sitting idle, full of waste . Estimates of

5110-421: Was presented at a 1964 United Nations conference, but increases in the cost of construction and falling public confidence in nuclear power caused the plan to be shuttered. The Health Physics Research Reactor built in 1962 was used for radiation exposure experiments leading to more accurate dosage limits and dosimeters , and improved radiation shielding . In 1964 the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment began with

5183-422: Was recognised as the world's fastest from November 2009 until November 2010. Summit was built for Oak Ridge National Laboratory during 2018, which benchmarked at 122.3 petaFLOPS. As of June 2020, Summit was the world's second fastest [clocked] supercomputer with 202,752 CPU cores, 27,648 Nvidia Tesla GPUs , and 250 Petabytes of storage, having lost the top position to the Japanese Fugaku supercomputer. In May 2022,

5256-455: Was related to nuclear reactors as a form of energy production, both for propulsion and electricity. More reactors were built in the 1950s than in the rest of the ORNL's history combined. One of their most influential projects was the light-water reactor , a precursor to many modern nuclear power stations. The US Military funded much of its development, for nuclear-powered submarines and ships of

5329-424: Was strongly considered, sparking research at ORNL. A tokamak called ORMAK, made operational in 1971, was the first tokamak to achieve a plasma temperature of 20 million Kelvin. After the success of the fusion experiments, it was enlarged and renamed ORMAK II in 1973; however, the experiments ultimately failed to lead to fusion power plants. The US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) required improved safety standards in

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