July, 1997 Story ideas from Oak Ridge National Laboratory
To arrange for an interview with researchers on any of these topics, please call Ron Walli of Communications and Public Affairs (423) 576-0226.
FUSION -- Smooth skies
In the air, turbulence can drop a cup of coffee or a fellow passenger in your lap. Turns out, it's just as big a problem in fusion energy. Fluctuations in fusion plasma velocity and pressure result in lost heat and poor energy efficiency, and until recently, scientists believed that when you turned up the power to a fusion device, you were stuck with a bumpy plasma ride. But ORNL researchers working at the DIII-D tokomak reactor in San Diego and the Tokamak Fast Test Reactor in Princeton, N.J., have discovered how to control energy plasma temperature, density and current in ways that dramatically reduce turbulence and virtually eliminate it at some power levels. The finding is good news for designers of the next big fusion kid on the block, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER . . .
MATERIALS -- Letting off steam
Steam explosions injure and kill dozens of workers and cost industries -- like the metal-casting industry -- millions of dollars each year. Coating a hot metal surface with organic material where it comes into contact with water helps -- the coating burns off, releasing oxygen and other gases that drive away the trapped water responsible for explosions. But many of the coatings in use today are toxic, so ORNL researchers have developed a way to inject the gases directly between the water and metal, keeping the water/steam from being trapped and exploding. The new technique is ready for field demonstrations in conjunction with the Aluminum Association of America under a cooperative research and development agreement . . .
SPACE -- Next stop, Mars
Today's sophisticated space ships may well be capable of making the trip to Mars, but astronauts may not fare so well, according to a preliminary study by a researcher at ORNL. Long-term living in microgravity conditions and the increased exposure to radiation from solar flares and cosmic rays could serve as a "double whammy" to the immune system. Studies have shown extended living in zero-gravity conditions causes reductions in bone mass at a rate of about 1 percent per month. Coupled with the fact that radiation destroys bone marrow cells and cripples the immune system, a three-year trip to the red planet may require special precautions . . .
ENVIRONMENT -- A spreading problem
Municipal sludge from sewage treatment plants may be a great fertilizer, but an ORNL researcher who studies the sludge has found it can be an important source of mercury from an unlikely mechanism -- vaporizing into the atmosphere. About 800,000 acres of farmland and forest get covered with 1-1/2 million tons of sludge every year in the United States. The practice of hauling treated sewage is also common in Europe. The result is almost 4 tons of mercury emissions into the atmosphere annually, ORNL's Steve Lindberg reports in the July issue of Environmental Science and Technology. "It's an alternative to more expensive means of disposal, such as landfilling or incinerating," says Lindberg, who has evidence that sunlight acts as a catalyst, allowing the mercury to escape into the air . . .
You may read other press releases from Oak Ridge National Laboratory on the World Wide Web at http://www.ornl.gov/news
RSS