Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, July 2008

PREPAREDNESS -- Battling terrorists . . .

People living in small towns and big cities alike will be a lot safer from the risk of improvised explosive devices because of an ongoing effort being coordinated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Homeland Security. While there are numerous partners and facets of the project, the goal is to integrate existing commercial and government software to maximize the ability to respond to a threat – and to prevent bombings in the first place. When completed, the DHS Office for Bombing Prevention will have a portable procedure, dubbed TRIPwire Field Tool, to conduct bomb squad assessments, perform site assistance visits and develop multi-jurisdictional security plans for incident response. The tool uses a geospatial framework to show physical relationships between the planning site, security partners, potential event and response. [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; ]

MATERIALS -- Under the microscope . . .

A new generation of electron microscope at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is helping scientists examine materials for fuel-efficient cars, superconductors, solar cells and other applications. The lab's latest instrument, the Hitachi HF-3300 transmission electron microscope, is the first of its kind in the nation and can determine the microstructure and chemical makeup of materials down to the atomic level. "These microscopes have become a vital new testing ground, accelerating advanced materials research," said Jane Howe of ORNL's Materials Analysis User Center. "By looking at structure on an atomic level, we can predict whether a material has the required properties to perform well in tomorrow's high-demand applications." Funding for the microscope was provided by the Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability programs, and DOE's Office of Basic Energy Sciences. The instrument is shared by the High Temperature Materials Laboratory, the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, and the Shared Research Equipment user programs at ORNL. [Contact: Sarah Wright, (865) 574-6631; ]