ORNL (Oak Ridge National Labs) is the scientific gem of the Tennessee valley, sure Nashville has Dell & country music and Memphis has Fed Ex, but East Tennessee has Oak Ridge - home of THE BOMB!!! No matter what you do if push comes to shove while Nashville is trying to process it or play it and Memphis is trying to deliver it, Oak Ridge is ready and able to obliterate all that comes again it. (yes that is East Tennessee English for those in other environ’s)
With a decrease in demand for uranium ORNL has turned to working on super computing via use of numerous inexpensive processors instead of a few costly ones. ORNL has a one of the world’s fastest computers (link here). Oak Ridge was in the running to develop the scrapped breeder reactor over a decade ago and the Spallation Neutron Source in Oak Ridge is soon to be online. Never a place completely decided solely to research though, Oak Ridge has also been pivotal in working on various means of detecting and analyzing terrorist threats, which leads us to the current issues.
They did a very bad bad thing out at the lab, they let a visiting scientist play with some Anthrax. Now it was dead virus, but it would still register a positive hit on a scan and the researcher was not approved for access to such things. The virus was also not properly checked in and out which opened up a opportunity for theft. ORNL claims it was not a big deal as the virus was dead, and at that point it is mere protein, but in a world that is concerned about bio attacks nothing with that begins with A and ends in a X is a small issue.
Our purpose in writing this is to remind the people at “the Ridge” that this is not the cold war and federal dollars are not as easy to get as in day’s past. The role of ORNL in today’s world is different, and you seem to understand that when it comes to your research and future direction. Sure some of your dollars come from private enterprise today, but at the end of the day the US taxpayer still funds the majority of your work. The taxpayer funds most of your research, and whether you like it or not - you do still work for the taxpayer, even if part of your current project has private funds. That means if the US people think it is a big deal, then it is a big deal. You answer to the people that sign your check - which is the taxpayer. Even if most of them have no idea what you are doing, they are still your boss. All we taxpayers are asking for is for you act like our issues are your issues and then move on with a renewed focus on serving the public that you work for.
Full Story here (WATE.COM)
