Tuesday, April 9, 2013
New era expected for DOE
New Era for Energy Department Expected Under a Secretary Moniz
April 8, 2013
National Journal
With stimulus funding for clean energy at an end, climate-change policy dead in Congress, and harsh budget cuts looming over all agencies thanks to the sequestration, the days of President Obama’s vision of the Energy Department as a green juggernaut have probably come to an end...
The MIT professor and former Energy undersecretary in the Clinton administration is also likely to renew the agency’s traditional focus on nuclear energy, nuclear waste, and nonproliferation of nuclear weapons...
Like the man he would succeed, Nobel laureate Steven Chu, Moniz is a renowned physicist with serious research chops: He is director of the Energy Initiative at MIT, where he has been on the faculty since 1973. Unlike Chu, however, Moniz has a long record of supporting a broad portfolio of energy sources, including natural gas. He also has a strong background in nuclear issues, making him a better fit considering the agency’s historic nuclear portfolio.
Also unlike Chu, Moniz is viewed as a pragmatic and politically savvy operator who knows his way around Washington.
“I think it will be a very different agency than it was in the first term,” said Charles Ebinger, director of the Energy Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution...
“Ernie knows climate change, but also unconventional oil and gas and coal and nuclear. He will push the president towards a more balanced policy. I think you’ll see a focus on unconventional oil and gas and not as much on renewables.”
Frank Verrastro, director of the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, “He’ll be a more complete secretary of Energy. He brings different skills. He’s focused on climate and clean energy, but he’s aware of what’s going on in the oil and gas space. It’s an opportunity for the administration to gain back some energy-policy stake.”
The nation’s energy picture has changed profoundly since 2008... Obama has been particularly bullish on natural gas as a one-two punch for his climate-change and economic goals: The fuel has half the carbon emissions of coal, and the new glut of it has lowered U.S. manufacturing costs.
The fossil-fuel industry, which regularly railed against Chu, has already indicated its openness to Moniz.
“Moniz seems to be a pragmatist on the important energy issues facing our nation including natural-gas development,” said John Krohn, a spokesman for Energy In Depth, which represents the gas-fracking industry... “When he arrives at DOE, he will join many senior-level Obama officials who have publicly stated that natural gas is an important fuel for our nation’s environment and economic future.”
Among the biggest policy decisions facing the Energy Department ...will be the question of whether or not to grant permits for U.S. companies to begin exporting natural gas. Manufacturers fear that exporting the fuel will increase their prices, but foreign policy thinkers believe it could help increase U.S. muscle in Asia. Moniz is expected to be a key player in these decisions.
Nuclear-energy issues are also likely to get more attention under Moniz. While some environmentalists remain wary of nuclear energy, Moniz is among a group of thinkers who see nuclear power... as a key piece of a future clim ate policy. While nuclear-waste issues were not a forte of Chu’s, Moniz was part of the blue-ribbon commission on nuclear waste that last year recommended building medium-term nuclear-waste storage facilities that could hold waste for up to a century.
“There will be more attention paid to nuclear waste and the nuclear stockpile,” said John Deutch, a professor at MIT and former head of the CIA ... and who has worked with Moniz on energy issues for more than 30 years.
“He will have a much broader agenda, and he will be asked to have a broader agenda by President Obama,” Deutch said.
U
Friday, April 5, 2013
IGNITION FAILED!
This is like whack-a-mole. If it's not one thing, it's another. We are
getting a reprieve from the painful reminders of NIF EoS threads, and
I'm sure those people involved are breathing a sigh of relief. This
time, it's about NIF ignition!
Title: IGNITION FAILED
Source: Science News
Date: April 4, 2013 (web)
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/349381/description/Ignition_Failed
Title: IGNITION FAILED
Source: Science News
Date: April 4, 2013 (web)
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/349381/description/Ignition_Failed
Thursday, April 4, 2013
ORNL gets new S&T head
ORNL gets new S&T head
Mason's announcement is striking compared to when LANL recently filled a comparable position. Oak Ridge gets a nationally recognized leader that has lots of personal research accomplishments as well as good experience in DC. Los Alamos promotes another of their insiders and tells everyone it is the best that they can find.
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Ramamoorthy Ramesh of the University of California, Berkeley as my Deputy for Science and Technology effective June 1, 2013. Ramesh will also hold an appointment as a Governor’s Chair Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Ramesh has an exceptional record of accomplishment in fields that are well aligned with ORNL’s current scientific thrusts. In particular, he is internationally recognized for his work on complex multifunctional oxide thin films, nanostructures, and heterostructures. He has published more than 400 papers in areas spanning magnetic materials, recording materials, magnetic and magnetoresistive metal oxides, high-temperature superconductors, ferroelectrics, dielectrics, piezoelectrics and relaxors, semiconductor heterostructures, and advanced transmission electron microscopy techniques applied to materials characterization. These papers have been cited more than 35,000 times, making him one of the world's most highly cited researchers. Ramesh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 in recognition of his contributions to the science and technology of functional complex oxide materials.
In addition, Ramesh has been a driving force in moving innovation to the marketplace, most recently as the director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative and Solar Energy Technologies Program. In this capacity he set the science and technology agenda for SunShot, established funding priorities, and oversaw solar research and development activities at the Department’s national laboratories. His management experience in this and other roles, including director of the Berkeley Nanoscience and Nanoengineering Institute and the Singapore-Berkeley Research Institute for Sustainable Energy, will be a valuable asset in our continuing development and execution of multidisciplinary research initiatives that are focused on delivering outcomes.
Ramesh received a B.S. in chemistry in 1980 from Madras University, Madras, India, and a Ph.D. in materials science from UC Berkeley in 1987. He currently holds the Purnendu Chatterjee Endowed Chair in Energy Technologies in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UC Berkeley, where he is also on the faculty of the Department of Physics. In addition, he serves as a Faculty Senior Scientist, Materials Sciences Division, at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Ramesh recently returned to Berkeley after serving as the Director of the SunShot Initiative, working directly for the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu. Earlier, Ramesh served as Associate Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at UC Berkeley. He was previously a distinguished professor at the University of Maryland and a member of the technical staff at Bell Communications Research.
Ramesh has organized a number of international conferences and symposia, and he has served on the editorial boards of Applied Physics Letters, Integrated Ferroelectrics, the Journal of Applied Physics, the Journal of Materials Research, and the Journal of Electroceramics. In 2001, he was awarded the Humboldt Senior Scientist Prize, the A. James Clark School of Engineering Faculty Outstanding Research Award, and Fellowship in the American Physical Society (APS). In 2006, he was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was selected to present the David Turnbull Lecture to the Materials Research Society (MRS) in 2007 and was elected MRS Fellow in 2009. Ramesh was also awarded the 2010 APS James C. McGroddy New Materials Prize.
Thom
Mason's announcement is striking compared to when LANL recently filled a comparable position. Oak Ridge gets a nationally recognized leader that has lots of personal research accomplishments as well as good experience in DC. Los Alamos promotes another of their insiders and tells everyone it is the best that they can find.
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Ramamoorthy Ramesh of the University of California, Berkeley as my Deputy for Science and Technology effective June 1, 2013. Ramesh will also hold an appointment as a Governor’s Chair Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Ramesh has an exceptional record of accomplishment in fields that are well aligned with ORNL’s current scientific thrusts. In particular, he is internationally recognized for his work on complex multifunctional oxide thin films, nanostructures, and heterostructures. He has published more than 400 papers in areas spanning magnetic materials, recording materials, magnetic and magnetoresistive metal oxides, high-temperature superconductors, ferroelectrics, dielectrics, piezoelectrics and relaxors, semiconductor heterostructures, and advanced transmission electron microscopy techniques applied to materials characterization. These papers have been cited more than 35,000 times, making him one of the world's most highly cited researchers. Ramesh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 in recognition of his contributions to the science and technology of functional complex oxide materials.
In addition, Ramesh has been a driving force in moving innovation to the marketplace, most recently as the director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative and Solar Energy Technologies Program. In this capacity he set the science and technology agenda for SunShot, established funding priorities, and oversaw solar research and development activities at the Department’s national laboratories. His management experience in this and other roles, including director of the Berkeley Nanoscience and Nanoengineering Institute and the Singapore-Berkeley Research Institute for Sustainable Energy, will be a valuable asset in our continuing development and execution of multidisciplinary research initiatives that are focused on delivering outcomes.
Ramesh received a B.S. in chemistry in 1980 from Madras University, Madras, India, and a Ph.D. in materials science from UC Berkeley in 1987. He currently holds the Purnendu Chatterjee Endowed Chair in Energy Technologies in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UC Berkeley, where he is also on the faculty of the Department of Physics. In addition, he serves as a Faculty Senior Scientist, Materials Sciences Division, at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Ramesh recently returned to Berkeley after serving as the Director of the SunShot Initiative, working directly for the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu. Earlier, Ramesh served as Associate Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at UC Berkeley. He was previously a distinguished professor at the University of Maryland and a member of the technical staff at Bell Communications Research.
Ramesh has organized a number of international conferences and symposia, and he has served on the editorial boards of Applied Physics Letters, Integrated Ferroelectrics, the Journal of Applied Physics, the Journal of Materials Research, and the Journal of Electroceramics. In 2001, he was awarded the Humboldt Senior Scientist Prize, the A. James Clark School of Engineering Faculty Outstanding Research Award, and Fellowship in the American Physical Society (APS). In 2006, he was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was selected to present the David Turnbull Lecture to the Materials Research Society (MRS) in 2007 and was elected MRS Fellow in 2009. Ramesh was also awarded the 2010 APS James C. McGroddy New Materials Prize.
Thom
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
DOE Pushes for Cost-Saving Moves at National Labs
Energy Department IG Pushes for Cost-Saving Moves at National Labs
Global Security Newswire
March 28, 2013
The Energy Department's top auditor this month said the Obama administration should look to shrink, close or take other steps to reduce costs at the 16 DOE national laboratories, the Center for Public Integrity reported on Wednesday.
No particular facility became a target for potential shutdown in the advice issued by DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman. The national laboratories include the country's three nuclear-weapon research sites: the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
The 16 facilities together cost $10 billion each year and employ 110,000 people, Friedman told the House Science Oversight Subcommittee as it mulled federal funding reductions mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act. “The operative question going forward from our perspective may well be, what can the department afford in this environment?” he asked.
Friedman initially pushed for cost-cutting steps at the national laboratories in 2011.
“Our recommendation has not been adopted, and I must say that there are a number of members of Congress who have said it was dead on arrival,” he told lawmakers. “We thought it was the right thing to do and the time has come for a re-evaluation, but it has not (been) received with a great deal of acceptance.”
Friedman also suggested cutting certain managerial positions at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi-independent DOE branch responsible for oversight of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex.
Global Security Newswire
March 28, 2013
The Energy Department's top auditor this month said the Obama administration should look to shrink, close or take other steps to reduce costs at the 16 DOE national laboratories, the Center for Public Integrity reported on Wednesday.
No particular facility became a target for potential shutdown in the advice issued by DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman. The national laboratories include the country's three nuclear-weapon research sites: the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
The 16 facilities together cost $10 billion each year and employ 110,000 people, Friedman told the House Science Oversight Subcommittee as it mulled federal funding reductions mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act. “The operative question going forward from our perspective may well be, what can the department afford in this environment?” he asked.
Friedman initially pushed for cost-cutting steps at the national laboratories in 2011.
“Our recommendation has not been adopted, and I must say that there are a number of members of Congress who have said it was dead on arrival,” he told lawmakers. “We thought it was the right thing to do and the time has come for a re-evaluation, but it has not (been) received with a great deal of acceptance.”
Friedman also suggested cutting certain managerial positions at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi-independent DOE branch responsible for oversight of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex.
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Physics Today has an article about what went wrong with the LANL/LLNL contract. http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstod...
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Global Security Newswire U.S. Nuclear Weapons Agency to Delay Work on Interoperable Warhead By Global Security Newswire Staff February 18, ...
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The budget has a 20% decrease to DOE office of science, 20% cut to NIH. NASA also gets a cut. This will have a huge negative effect on the ...
Who will win this battle if it comes down to it, LNLL vs LANL?
Global Security Newswire
March 28, 2013
The Energy Department's top auditor this month said the Obama administration should look to shrink, close or take other steps to reduce costs at the 16 DOE national laboratories, the Center for Public Integrity reported on Wednesday.
No particular facility became a target for potential shutdown in the advice issued by DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman. The national laboratories include the country's three nuclear-weapon research sites: the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
The 16 facilities together cost $10 billion each year and employ 110,000 people, Friedman told the House Science Oversight Subcommittee as it mulled federal funding reductions mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act. “The operative question going forward from our perspective may well be, what can the department afford in this environment?” he asked.
Friedman initially pushed for cost-cutting steps at the national laboratories in 2011.
“Our recommendation has not been adopted, and I must say that there are a number of members of Congress who have said it was dead on arrival,” he told lawmakers. “We thought it was the right thing to do and the time has come for a re-evaluation, but it has not (been) received with a great deal of acceptance.”
Friedman also suggested cutting certain managerial positions at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi-independent DOE branch responsible for oversight of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex.