UCHICAGO ARGONNE, LLC
Contract: $163,724,912 - Department of Energy - May. 22, 2009
55% voted satisfied - 45% voted not satisfied - 69 vote(s) cast
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Award Description: Argonne National Laboratory manages a variety of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)-funded projects, which will create jobs and help secure America’s sustainable energy future. Projects funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) include environmental clean-up, infrastructure improvements, scientific facility upgrades, vital equipment for experimental facilities along with several research and development projects. (1) The environmental clean-up project enables Argonne to completely decontaminate and demolish two obsolete nuclear research facilities, accelerate removal of transuranic (TRU) waste from the site and dispose of non-TRU stored nuclear materials from the Alpha Gamma Hot Cell Facility. (2) The infrastructure improvement project upgrades the laboratory’s electrical distribution system, including 480V switchgear assemblies, 13.2 kV switches and 138kV substations for several buildings. (3) Scientific facility upgrades include improvements to the Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS), the Advanced Photon Source (APS), the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), and Argonne High Performance Computing. (a) The ATLAS upgrade provides for replacement of the first booster cryostat module and radio-frequency quadrupole accelerator. This will significantly increase the beam intensity and performance of the superconducting linear accelerator. (b) The APS will install improved beamline detectors and front-ends/undulators. (c) The CNM will install a high performance computing cluster expansion and upgrade the heating/cooling specimen stage for hard X-ray nanoprobe and time-resolved, near-field scanning optical microscopy. Additionally, (d) Argonne will deploy a Magellan distributed computing cluster testbed with approximately 40 TF peak speed and appropriate supporting infrastructure including chilled water and mechanical and electrical outfitting. (4) ARRA support of other Argonne scientific research includes funding for numerous computational science postdoctoral appointees to provide expert assistance to SciDAC-e; a large-area, fast photo-detector program; an Energy Frontier Research Center project investigating direct catalytic conversion of biomass to biofuels in coordination with Purdue University; developing processes for nanostructured photovoltaics, filled carbon nanotubes for superior latent heat storage enhancers and ultra-high-efficiency aluminum-production cells; and measurement and evaluation of actinide neutron cross-sections relevant to advanced fuel cycles via accelerator mass spectroscopy. Other key DOE projects support enhanced geothermal research and involve synchrotron X-ray studies of supercritical carbon dioxide/reservoir rock interfaces; waveguide-based ultrasonic and far-field electromagnetic sensors and chemical energy carrier processes to recover heat from enhanced geothermal systems. A Department of Interior-awarded project for environmental research will support a programmatic environmental impact statement for solar energy development on Bureau of Land Management-administered public lands in the western United States.
Project Description: In general, Argonne’s ARRA projects have been started but are less than 50% complete, given that the majority of contract funding has been awarded only in the last three months. Project activity summary follows: (1) Environmental Clean-up Project. Progress this quarter included asbestos removal from a building scheduled for demolition and preparation of a demolition bid package. Arrangements have been made for Idaho National Laboratory to receive and store sodium-bonded fuel specimen materials and for shipment of remote-handled TRU waste to WIPP. (2) Infrastructure Improvement Project: Contracts have been awarded for electrical upgrades and construction is in progress. (3) Scientific Facility Upgrades: (a) The main parameters for the ATLAS facility upgrade have been established and preliminary designs have been completed for most components. (b) The layout and components design were completed for the APS front-ends and vacuum chambers. Contracts have been awarded for the vortex detectors procurement. (c) All CNM instrument specifications have been completed, reviewed and are ready to release to vendors. (d) Specifications are nearing completion for the Magellan cluster acquisition and technical discussions for phase 2 storage and 100 Gbit networking are ongoing. (4) Scientific research projects: (a) the Large-area Fast Photo Detector program has entered into agreements with the University of Hawaii and MinoTech Engineering. The program also had several notable achievements: demonstration of increased signal gain from an atomic layer deposition coated microchannel plate, first atomic layer deposition onto borosilicate glass substrates and simulations of the microchannel plate electron trajectory. (b) Other scientific research projects recently awarded are currently in planning.
Jobs Summary: ARRA funding has created 19.2 full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions directly hired by Argonne. These include 3.5 unionized hourly positions, 12.3 professional/scientific positions, and 3.4 administrative/clerical positions. (Total jobs reported: 19)
Project Status: Less Than 50% Completed
This award's data was last updated on May. 22, 2009. Help expand these official descriptions using the wiki below.
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