The Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program is one of the Nation's major sponsors of fundamental research in broad areas of materials sciences, chemical sciences, biosciences, geosciences, and engineering sciences.   Through BES subprograms in these areas, the program encompasses more than 2,400 researchers in 200 institutions.  The DOE national laboratory system play a major role in the BES program.  Provided below are brief descriptions of BES program activities at the DOE national laboratories where we support basic research and scientific user facilities.

Ames Laboratory

The Ames Laboratory is a program dedicated laboratory (Basic Energy Sciences). The laboratory is located on the campus of the Iowa State University, in Ames, Iowa, and consists of 12 buildings (327,664 gross square feet of space) with the average age of the buildings being 39 years. DOE does not own the land. Ames conducts fundamental research in the physical, chemical, and mathematical sciences associated with energy generation and storage; and is a national center for the synthesis, analysis, and engineering of rare-earth metals and their compounds.

Basic Energy Sciences: Ames supports experimental and theoretical research on rare earth elements in novel mechanical, magnetic, and superconducting materials. Ames scientists are experts on magnets, superconductors, and quasicrystals that incorporate rare earth elements. Ames also supports theoretical studies for the prediction of molecular energetics and chemical reaction rates and provides leadership in analytical and separations chemistry. Ames is home to the Materials Preparation Center, which is dedicated to the preparation, purification, and characterization of rare-earth, alkaline-earth, and refractory metal and oxide materials.

Argonne National Laboratory

The Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in Argonne, Illinois, is a multiprogram laboratory located on 1,500 acres in suburban Chicago. The laboratory consists of 99 buildings (4.4 million gross square feet of space) with an average building age of 36 years.

Basic Energy Sciences: ANL is home to research activities in broad areas of materials and chemical sciences. It is also the site of three user facilities—the Advanced Photon Source (APS), the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), and the Electron Microscopy Center (EMC) for Materials Research.

§         The Advanced Photon Source is one of only three third-generation, hard x-ray synchrotron radiation light sources in the world. The 1,104-meter circumference facility—large enough to house a baseball park in its center—includes 34 bending magnets and 34 insertion devices, which generate a capacity of 68 beamlines for experimental research. Instruments on these beamlines attract researchers to study the structure and properties of materials in a variety of disciplines, including condensed matter physics, materials sciences, chemistry, geosciences, structural biology, medical imaging, and environmental sciences.

§         The Electron Microscopy Center for Materials Research provides in-situ high-voltage and intermediate voltage high-spatial resolution electron microscope capabilities for direct observation of ion-solid interactions during irradiation of samples with high-energy ion beams. The EMC employs both a tandem accelerator and an ion implanter in conjunction with a transmission electron microscope for simultaneous ion irradiation and electron beam microcharacterization. The unique combination of two ion accelerators and an electron microscope permits direct, real-time, in-situ observation of the effects of ion bombardment of materials. Research at EMC includes microscopy based studies on high-temperature superconducting materials, irradiation effects in metals and semiconductors, phase transformations, and processing related structure and chemistry of interfaces in thin films.

§         The Center for Nanoscale Materials provides capabilities for developing new methods for self assembly of nanostructures, exploring the nanoscale physics and chemistry of nontraditional electronic materials, and creating new probes for exploring nanoscale phenomena. The CNM is organized around six scientific themes: nanomagnetism, bio-inorganic hybrids, nanocarbon, complex oxides, nanophotonics, and theory and simulation.

Brookhaven National Laboratory

The Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a multiprogram laboratory located on 5,300 acres in Upton, New York. The laboratory consists of 336 SC buildings (3.8 million gross square feet of space) with an average building age of 37 years. BNL creates and operates major facilities available to university, industrial, and government personnel for basic and applied research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, and in selected energy technologies.

Basic Energy Sciences: BNL conducts research efforts in materials and chemical sciences as well as to efforts in geosciences and biosciences. It is also the site of one BES supported user facilities—the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS).  BNL is also host to the National Synchrotron Light Source-II construction project.

§         The National Synchrotron Light Source consists of two distinct electron storage rings. The x-ray storage ring is 170 meters in circumference and can accommodate 60 beamlines or experimental stations, and the vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) storage ring can provide 25 additional beamlines around its circumference of 51 meters. Synchrotron light from the x-ray ring is used to determine the atomic structure of materials using diffraction, absorption, and imaging techniques. Experiments at the VUV ring help solve the atomic and electronic structure as well as the magnetic properties of a wide array of materials.

§         The Center for Functional Nanomaterials focuses on understanding the chemical and physical response of nanomaterials to make functional materials such as sensors, activators, and energy-conversion devices. It also provides clean rooms, general laboratories, and wet and dry laboratories for sample preparation, fabrication, and analysis. Equipment includes that needed for laboratory and fabrication facilities for e-beam lithography, transmission electron microscopy, scanning probes and surface characterization, material synthesis and fabrication, and spectroscopy.

Idaho National Laboratory

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is a multiprogram laboratory located on 572,000 acres in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Within the laboratory complex are nine major applied engineering, interim storage, and research and development facilities.

Basic Energy Sciences: INL supports studies to understand and improve the life expectancy of material systems used in engineering.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is a multiprogram laboratory located in Berkeley, California, on a 200-acre site adjacent to the Berkeley campus of the University of California. The laboratory consists of 107 buildings (1.5 million gross square feet of space) with an average building age of 38 years. LBNL is dedicated to performing leading-edge research in the biological, physical, materials, chemical, energy, and computer sciences. The land is leased from the University of California.

Basic Energy Sciences: LBNL is home to major research efforts in materials and chemical sciences as well as to efforts in geosciences, engineering, and biosciences. It is also the site of three Basic Energy Sciences supported user facilities—the Advanced Light Source (ALS), the Molecular Foundry, and the National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM).

§         The Advanced Light Source provides vacuum-ultraviolet light and x-rays for probing the electronic and magnetic structure of atoms, molecules, and solids, such as those for high-temperature superconductors. The high brightness and coherence of the ALS light are particularly suited for soft x‑ray imaging of biological structures, environmental samples, polymers, magnetic nanostructures, and other inhomogeneous materials. Other uses of the ALS include holography, interferometry, and the study of molecules adsorbed on solid surfaces. The pulsed nature of the ALS light offers special opportunities for time resolved research, such as the dynamics of chemical reactions. Shorter wavelength x-rays are also used at structural biology experimental stations for x-ray crystallography and x-ray spectroscopy of proteins and other important biological macromolecules. The ALS is a growing facility with a lengthening portfolio of beamlines that has already been applied to make important discoveries in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. An ALS User Support Building (USB) will finish construction in FY 2012. The USB will provide high-quality user support space in sufficient quantity to accommodate the very rapid growth in the number of ALS users and to accommodate projected future expansion. The USB will contain staging areas for ALS experiments, space for a long beamline that will extend from the floor of the ALS into the USB, and temporary office space for visiting users.

§         The National Center for Electron Microscopy provides instrumentation for high-resolution, electron-optical microcharacterization of atomic structure and composition of metals, ceramics, semiconductors, superconductors, and magnetic materials. This facility contains one of the highest resolution electron microscopes in the U.S. The Transmission Electron Aberration Corrected Microscope will be completed in FY 2009.

§         The Molecular Foundry provides users with instruments, techniques, and collaborators to enhance the study of the synthesis, characterization, and theory of nanoscale materials. Its focus is on the multidisciplinary development and understanding of both “soft” (biological and polymer) and “hard” (inorganic and microfabricated) nanostructured building blocks and the integration of these building blocks into complex functional assemblies. Scientific themes include inorganic nanostructures; nanofabrication; organic, polymer, and biopolymer nanostructures; biological nanostructures; imaging and manipulation of nanostructures; and theory of nanostructures. The facility offers expertise in a variety of techniques for the study of nanostructures, including electronic structure and excited-state methods, ab initio and classical molecular dynamics, quantum transport, and classical and quantum Monte Carlo approaches.  

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a multiprogram laboratory located on 821 acres in Livermore, California. This laboratory was built in Livermore as a weapons laboratory 42 miles from the campus of the University of California at Berkeley to take advantage of the expertise of the university in the physical sciences.

Basic Energy Sciences: LLNL supports research in materials sciences and in geosciences research on the sources of electromagnetic responses in crustal rocks, seismology theory and modeling, the mechanisms and kinetics of low-temperature geochemical processes and the relationships among reactive fluid flow, geochemical transport, and fracture permeability.

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is a multiprogram laboratory located on 30,413 acres in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Basic Energy Sciences: LANL is home to a few efforts in materials sciences, chemical sciences, geosciences, and engineering. LANL supports research on strongly correlated electronic materials, high-magnetic fields, microstructures, deformation, alloys, bulk ferromagnetic glasses, mechanical properties, ion enhanced synthesis of materials, metastable phases and microstructures, and mixtures of particles in liquids.

Research is also supported to understand the electronic structure and reactivity of actinides through the study of organometallic compounds. Also supported is work to understand the chemistry of plutonium and other light actinides in both near-neutral pH conditions and under strongly alkaline conditions relevant to radioactive wastes and research in physical electrochemistry fundamental to energy storage systems. In the areas of geosciences, experimental and theoretical research is supported on rock physics, seismic imaging, the physics of the earth’s magnetic field, fundamental geochemical studies of isotopic equilibrium/disequilibrium, and mineral-fluid-microbial interactions.

LANL is also the site of two BES supported user facilities: the Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering Center (Lujan Center) and the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT).

§         The Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering Center provides an intense pulsed source of neutrons to a variety of spectrometers for neutron scattering studies. The Lujan Center features instruments for measurement of high-pressure and high-temperature samples, strain measurement, liquid studies, and texture measurement. The facility has a long history and extensive experience in handling actinide samples. The Lujan Center is part of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), which is comprised of a high-power 800-MeV proton linear accelerator, a proton storage ring, production targets to the Lujan Center and the Weapons Neutron Research facility, and a variety of associated experiment areas and spectrometers for national security research and civilian research.

§         The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies provides tools and expertise to explore the continuum from scientific discovery to the integration of nanostructures into the microworld and the macroworld. CINT is devoted to establishing the scientific principles that govern the design, performance, and integration of nanoscale materials. Through its core facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and its gateways to both Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory, CINT provides access to tools and expertise to explore the continuum from scientific discovery to the integration of nanostructures into the microworld and the macroworld. CINT supports five scientific thrusts that serve as synergistic building blocks for integration research: nano-bio-micro interfaces, nanophotonics and nanoelectronics, complex functional nanomaterials, nanomechanics, and theory and simulation.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is a program-dedicated laboratory (Solar) located on 632 acres in Golden, Colorado. NREL was built to emphasize renewable energy technologies such as photovoltaics and other means of exploiting solar energy. It is the world leader in renewable energy technology development. Since its inception in 1977, NREL’s sole mission has been to develop renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies and transfer these technologies to the private sector.

Basic Energy Sciences: NREL supports basic research efforts that underpin this technological emphasis at the laboratory, e.g., on overcoming semiconductor doping limits, novel and ordered semiconductor alloys, and theoretical and experimental studies of properties of advanced semiconductor alloys for prototype solar cells. It also supports research addressing the fundamental understanding of solid-state, artificial photosynthetic systems. This research includes the preparation and study of novel dye-sensitized semiconductor electrodes, characterization of the photophysical and chemical properties of quantum dots, and study of charge carrier dynamics in semiconductors.

Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), operated by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), is located on a 150-acre site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Established in 1946, ORAU is a university consortium leveraging the scientific strength of major research institutions to advance science and education by partnering with national laboratories, government agencies, and private industry. ORISE focuses on scientific initiatives to research health risks from occupational hazards, assess environmental cleanup, respond to radiation medical emergencies, support national security and emergency preparedness, and educate the next generation of scientists.

Basic Energy Sciences: ORISE supports a consortium of university and industry scientists to share the ORNL research station at NSLS to study the atomic and molecular structure of matter (known as ORSOAR, the Oak Ridge Synchrotron Organization for Advanced Research). ORISE provides administrative support for panel reviews and site reviews. It also assists with the administration of topical scientific workshops and provides administrative support for other activities such as for the reviews of construction projects. ORISE manages the Shared Research Equipment (SHaRE) program at ORNL. The SHaRE program makes available state-of-the-art electron beam microcharacterization facilities for collaboration with researchers from universities, industry, and other government laboratories.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a multiprogram laboratory located on the 24,000 acre reservation at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The laboratory’s 1,100 acre main site on Bethel Valley Road contains 248 buildings (3.4 million gross square feet of space) with an average building age of 37 years. Scientists and engineers at ORNL conduct basic and applied research and development to create scientific knowledge and technological solutions that strengthen the nation’s leadership in key areas of science; increase the availability of clean, abundant energy; restore and protect the environment; and contribute to national security. The laboratory supports almost every major Departmental mission in science, defense, energy resources, and environmental quality. It provides world-class scientific research capability while advancing scientific knowledge through such major Departmental initiatives as the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), the Supercomputing Program, Nanoscience Research, complex biological systems, and ITER. In the defense mission arena, programs include those which protect our Homeland and National Security by applying advanced science and nuclear technology to the Nation’s defense. Through the Nuclear Nonproliferation Program, Oak Ridge supports the development and coordination of the implementation of domestic and international policy aimed at reducing threats, both internal and external, to the U.S. from weapons of mass destruction. The Laboratory also supports various Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs and facilitates the R&D of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

Basic Energy Sciences: ORNL is home to major research efforts in materials and chemical sciences with additional programs in engineering and geosciences. ORNL has perhaps the most comprehensive materials research program in the country. It is also the site of three BES supported user facilities—the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS); the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR); and the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS).

§         The Spallation Neutron Source is a next-generation short-pulse spallation neutron source for neutron scattering that is significantly more powerful (by about a factor of 10) than any other spallation neutron source in existence. The SNS consists of a linac-ring accelerator system that delivers short (microsecond) proton pulses to a target/moderator system where neutrons are produced by a process called spallation. The neutrons so produced are then used for neutron scattering experiments. Specially designed scientific instruments use these pulsed neutron beams for a wide variety of investigations. There is initially one target station that can accommodate 24 instruments; the potential exists for adding more instruments and a second target station later.

§         The High Flux Isotope Reactor is a light-water cooled and moderated reactor that operates at 85 megawatts to provide state-of-the-art facilities for neutron scattering, materials irradiation, and neutron activation analysis and is the world’s leading source of elements heavier than plutonium for research, medicine, and industrial applications. The neutron scattering experiments at HFIR reveal the structure and dynamics of a very wide range of materials. The neutron-scattering instruments installed on the four horizontal beam tubes are used in fundamental studies of materials of interest to solid-state physicists, chemists, biologists, polymer scientists, metallurgists, and colloid scientists. A number of improvements at HFIR have increased its neutron scattering capabilities to 14 state-of-the-art neutron scattering instruments on the world’s brightest beams of steady-state neutrons.

§         The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences integrates nanoscale science with neutron science; synthesis science; and theory, modeling, and simulation. Scientific themes include macromolecular complex systems, functional nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, nanoscale magnetism and transport, catalysis and nano building blocks, and nanofabrication.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a DOE multiprogram laboratory located in Richland, Washington that supports DOE’s science, national security, energy, and homeland security missions. PNNL operates the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)—a 208,775 square feet national scientific user facility constructed by DOE that houses 375 people. PNNL also utilizes 23 Federal facilities in the 300 Area of the Hanford Reservation (543,000 square feet of space that house nearly 600 people). These facilities provide nearly 50% of the PNNL’s laboratory space and 100% of its nuclear and radiological facilities. In addition, PNNL operates facilities on land owned by its parent organization, Battelle Memorial Institute (494,000 square feet), and leases an additional 775,500 square feet of office space in the Richland area occupied by approximately 2,100 staff.

Basic Energy Sciences: PNNL supports research in interfacial and surface chemistry, inorganic molecular clusters, analytical chemistry, and applications of theoretical chemistry to understanding surface. Geosciences research includes theoretical and experimental studies to improve our understanding of phase change phenomena in microchannels. Also supported is research on stress corrosion and corrosion fatigue, interfacial dynamics during heterogeneous deformation, irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking, bulk defect and defect processing in ceramics, chemistry and physics of ceramic surfaces, and interfacial deformation mechanisms in aluminum alloys.

Sandia National Laboratories

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is a multiprogram laboratory located on 3,700 acres in Albuquerque, New Mexico (SNL/NM), with sites in Livermore, California (SNL/CA), and Tonopah, Nevada.

Basic Energy Sciences: SNL is home to significant research efforts in materials and chemical sciences with additional programs in engineering and geosciences. SNL has a historic emphasis on electronic components needed for Defense Programs. The laboratory has very modern facilities in which unusual microcircuits and structures can be fabricated out of various semiconductors. It is also the site of the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT).

§         The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies provides tools and expertise to explore the continuum from scientific discovery to the integration of nanostructures into the microworld and the macroworld. CINT is devoted to establishing the scientific principles that govern the design, performance, and integration of nanoscale materials. Through its core facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and its gateways to both Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory, CINT provides access to tools and expertise to explore the continuum from scientific discovery to the integration of nanostructures into the microworld and the macroworld. CINT supports five scientific thrusts that serve as synergistic building blocks for integration research: nano-bio-micro interfaces, nanophotonics and nanoelectronics, complex functional nanomaterials, nanomechanics, and theory and simulation.

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is located on 426 acres of Stanford University land in Menlo Park, California. SLAC is a laboratory dedicated to the design, construction, and operation of state-of-the-art electron accelerators and related experimental facilities for use in high-energy physics and photon science and has operated the 2 mile long Stanford Linear Accelerator (linac) since 1966. SLAC consists of 115 buildings (1.7 million gross square feet of space) with the average age of 30 years. In addition, SLAC will become the site of the world’s first hard x-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) in 2009. Funding for operations of the SLAC linac is transitioning from High Energy Physics to Basic Energy Sciences, with full funding by Basic Energy Sciences starting in FY 2009. SLAC houses the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), which is an independent laboratory of Stanford University.

Basic Energy Sciences: SLAC is the home of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and peer-reviewed research projects associated with SSRL. The facility is used by astronomers, biologists, chemical engineers, chemists, electrical engineers, environmental scientists, geologists, materials scientists, and physicists. A research program is conducted at SSRL with emphasis in both the x-ray and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum. SSRL scientists are experts in photoemission studies of high-temperature superconductors and in x-ray scattering. The SPEAR 3 upgrade at SSRL provided major improvements that increase the brightness of the ring for all experimental stations.

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