ARRA Projects
The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory anticipates close to $180 million in funding from the recent American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). For Argonne, this means projects to help upgrade our scientific equipment, improve our infrastructure, and reduce the amount of nuclear legacy materials on site. This also means creating and retaining new jobs within the region. The following is a description of each of our ARRA-funded projects:
Scientific Equipment Upgrades
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Advanced Photon Source
The Advanced Photon Source provides the Western Hemisphere's most intense beams of X-rays for forefront basic and applied research in such fields as materials science, biology, physics, chemistry, and the environmental, geophysical and planetary sciences. Recent studies at the APS have revealed the structure of anthrax proteins, recreated conditions at the Earth’s core, and helped develop more efficient engine designs.
The APS was awarded $7.9 million for upgrades to the technical components that deliver X-ray beams and to acquire the detectors that scientists use to gather and record the experiment data provided by those X-rays. While the funds will be used mostly for equipment, they will also support jobs needed to provide the technical developments. Planning has begun for the first stages of the upgrade. |
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Center for Nanoscale Materials
The Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) is a premier user facility, providing tools and infrastructure for nanoscience and nanotechnology research. Facilities at the site study and manufacture nanomaterials, allowing scientists from across the globe to conduct research in areas ranging from solar panels to experimental cancer treatments.
The CNM was allocated $3.8 million for a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system; a near-infrared two-color transient absorption and emission spectrometer; and a new temperature and sampling-handling stage for the Hard X-Ray Nanoprobe, which uses brilliant X-rays to probe the properties of nanoscale materials, and for which Argonne received an R&D 100 award. |
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Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System
The Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) is the world's first superconducting linear accelerator for heavy ions at energies in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier. This is the energy domain best suited to study the properties of the nucleus, the core of matter, and the fuel of stars.
An award of $8.9 million will be used for an upgrade to double the intensity of the Californium Rare Isotope Breeder Upgrade (CARIBU) re-accelerated beams. Projects will replace the front end of the ATLAS positive ion injector linac with a new bunching system, a radio-frequency quadrupole, and a new cryostat of resonators. The ATLAS cryogenic system will also be refurbished. Preliminary design and development for the new additions are under way. |
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Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility
The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) is a DOE Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research scientific user facility for climate research.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has received $60 million in capital for the ACRF. The money will be used to improve observational capabilities related to cloud and aerosol properties to study the role of aerosols in regional climate and atmospheric circulation changes. The ACRF is multi-laboratory managed and unites the expertise of nine national laboratories. Argonne has received $4.59 million from PNNL to assist in the ACRF improvements. |
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High Energy Physics
High energy physics is challenged by unresolved mysteries—from missing particles predicted by the standard model to the 95% of the missing mass in the universe. To fulfill these missions, particle accelerators rely on continuously increasing acceleration gradients, now beyond the actual technology.
The Department of Energy’s Office of High Energy Physics recently awarded Argonne $3.3 million to improve the performance of superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities. The uniqueness of Argonne’s approach is to combine a recent synthesis technique, which combines atomic layer deposition with an original solution to improve and/or cure radio frequency niobium cavities: a multilayer structure composed of superconducting-insulating films synthesized on the inside walls of the cavity. This effort is being developed in close collaboration between Argonne’s High Energy Physics, Energy Systems and Materials Science divisions, as well as Jefferson Lab, Fermilab, Illinois Institute of Technology, and several other universities. |
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Nuclear Engineering
Argonne’s Nuclear Engineering Division has received ARRA funding within the Nuclear Data Program Initiative, sponsored by the DOE Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics. This award will allow Argonne to hire a postdoctoral appointee to work in the Nuclear Data Program in the area of nuclear structure data evaluation, with main emphasis on nuclear structure physics and astrophysics and their intersection with applied nuclear physics programs. The position has been advertised, and candidates are being interviewed. |
Infrastructure Upgrades
Argonne’s ten-year modernization plan includes the goal of phasing out unused sites and reorganizing workspaces to both facilitate collaboration and preserve as much green space as possible. ARRA funds are enabling the laboratory to modernize facilities and equipment.
Electrical upgrades: $15.1 million was allocated to upgrade switchgear assemblies, transformers, and perform other electrical upgrades to Argonne facilities. To date, $4.2 million of long lead equipment has been ordered, and $1 million of construction contracts have been awarded. Design work for other items is underway.
Nuclear Footprint Reduction
$35 million has been allocated for the demolition and cleanup of two historical Argonne sites and to facilitate the reduction of Argonne's transuranic waste.
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Alpha-Gamma Hot Cell Facility
The Alpha-Gamma Hot Cell Facility was used to perform nuclear materials experiments and examinations for over 40 years. The materials examined included fuel specimens from research, test, production, and commercial nuclear reactors.
Dormant research and research-related materials that accumulated over the facility’s 40-year history remain on site. Argonne has received ARRA funding to remove these materials from the hot cell. The majority of the material will be packaged as transuranic waste and shipped to DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico. A small portion of the material that originated from experiments conducted at Idaho National Laboratory will be returned to to that laboratory for additional conditioning before it can be shipped as waste to WIPP. |
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Chicago Pile-5 and Building 310
- Building 330 (left), the former site of Chicago Pile 5, which finished its decontamination work in 2000, is scheduled to be demolished and the land restored to native vegetation. Argonne is scheduled to release a bid for asbestos abatement and is planning the demolition phase.
- Building 310 was constructed in 1950 and formerly served to support a number of functions related to experimental work and waste processing, including research on food irradiation and development and testing for Argonne's 1964 experimental fast breeder nuclear reactor, the EBR-II Fuel Cycle Facility. The facility is in planning stages for full decontamination.
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Next-Phase Transuranic Waste Project
The Next-Phase Transuranic Project is squarely focused on reducing the quantity of transuranic waste currently housed at Argonne. Removal of this material supports Argonne’s overall goal of reducing its nuclear footprint. The project accelerates work that has already begun by providing additional resources to drive projects across the site. Acceleration of these tasks will reduce future surveillance and maintenance costs associated with these facilities and support the goal of future decommissioning of these facilities. Reducing the life-cycle costs of these areas will allow for more effective delivery of resources to support research and development work at the laboratory. |
National Nuclear Data Program
$220,000 is currently provided under KB-03-01-04-2 for the U.S. Nuclear Data Program to revitalize the work force of the National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC) which collects, evaluates, and disseminates nuclear physics data for basic nuclear research and for applied nuclear technologies. The NNDC is a worldwide resource for nuclear data.
The investment in the National Nuclear Data Center will improve America’s competitiveness by investing in the sciences. This investment will contribute to the support of scientific research and higher education, thus providing the scientific and technically skilled work force the U.S. needs. The investment in nuclear science trains the next generation of nuclear scientists that will play a lead role in developing cutting edge technologies in nuclear energy and other related disciplines. Nuclear science also develops instrumentation and technologies that are relevant to the development of alternative energy sources.
Energy Efficiency Conversion Block Grant
$200,000 is authorized for technical assistance to the Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Recovery Act recipients. These are applicants of the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Argonne will provide assistance with developing and planning energy efficiency conservation strategies and plans and project activity sheets in preparation for submitting applications.
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