Energy and Water bill has Oak Ridge leading nation's priorities
The Oak Ridger - May 25, 2006

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, announced the House Appropriations Committee has approved the Energy and Water Bill for Fiscal Year 2007 to fund critical missions in Oak Ridge at nearly $3 billion.

"East Tennessee is home to many important priorities of the federal government and it will continue to be strong and productive in the coming year," Wamp said. "This year has been tough, but this bill demonstrates that Washington recognizes how important the Tennessee Valley is for America and our interests around the world."

The Spallation Neutron Source will be fully funded at $171.4 million. The super computing program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a national leader in computational sciences, received $83 million for hardware to support the Department of Energy's high-speed computational research.

The SNS will help strengthen America's economic competitiveness by providing the next generation of materials research. One of the world's largest science projects, the $1.4 billion SNS is being constructed on time and on budget. The project was tested on April 28, and this year's full funding of the SNS will make possible the transition from construction to operation. When fully operational, research at the SNS has the potential for discoveries in a broad variety of materials. In Tennessee, the research could lead to lighter and more fuel-efficient automobiles, superconducting wires that carry more power for TVA and reduce electricity costs, and new drug delivery systems that release a medicine precisely when needed by the body.

"The SNS has received an unprecedented level of support from the Congress, two administrations and the scientific community," ORNL director Jeff Wadsworth said. "Our goal now is to reward that confidence with scientific breakthroughs that can literally reshape our lives."

Likewise, the supercomputing advances being made at ORNL's National Leadership Computing Facility has it on the path to becoming the world's most powerful center for unclassified computing. This year's appropriation will make possible 100 trillion calculations per second, or 100 "teraflops," by year's end. The goal is to reach 250 teraflops in 2007 and the incredible goal of 1,000 trillion calculations per second, or one "petaflop," by 2008. This enormous computing power will enable Oak Ridge scientists to handle the volume of data required for new discoveries in energy, climate change and drug design.

"High-performance computing will be the foundation for almost all scientific research in the coming years," Wadsworth said. "With the help of the Department of Energy and the Tennessee congressional delegation, Tennessee is positioned for some time to come to be among the world's leaders in computing."

The Energy and Water Spending Bill provides a total of $2.928 billion for Oak Ridge and now moves to the full House for approval.