OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY

Putting Your Home on an Energy Diet
(U.S. News & World Report) Putting your house on an energy diet is simple: airtight construction, smart heating and cooling design, and high-efficiency appliances...The nation's power demands, like our waistlines, are growing ever more bloated...Not far from EPRI's test center, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory set out to prove how to drive down home energy use. Working with the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity and the Tennessee Valley Authority, they designed five homes with tight walls and windows, energy-sipping appliances, and ductwork inside the building envelope...One December evening soon after the homes were built in 2003, Jeff Christian, Oak Ridge's director of building technology, rushed to see if the monitors were out of whack but found the sky-high readings were due to a festoon of Christmas lights and inflatable snowmen. He didn't mind: "These were families who had trouble affording to eat, who could enjoy the holidays this way because their electricity costs were so low."...4/17

Lab-on-chip design automation takes cue from EDA
(EETimes) Algorithms developed by a range of research groups aim to automate microfluidic lab-on-chip technologies that perform chemical identification and medical tests by shuffling nanoliters of samples and reagents around micron-sized channels...Besides Carnegie Mellon, research institutions working on microfluidic labs-on-chip—and devising computer-aided techniques to design them—include Duke University, National Taiwan University (Taipei), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Penn State University (Harrisburg), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, N.Y.), the University of Alberta (Canada), the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Texas (Austin)...4/22

Local DOE :

Utah won't take foreign nuclear waste processed at OR
Salt Lake City (AP) Gov. Jon Huntsman said Wednesday he will block the shipment of Italian nuclear waste to Utah, reversing his earlier position that foreign waste should be an issue decided by the federal government...4/24

community:

FBI breaks ground on new Knoxville facility
(WBIR.com) Dozens of community leaders celebrated the latest milestone for Knoxville's FBI. The agency broke ground on its new local headquarters off Middlebrook Pike on Wednesday...4/23

Bredesen hosts roundtable in OR at state's first pre-kindergarten site
(Knoxville News Sentinel) One of the state's biggest fans of early education is coming to the city that launched Tennessee's first pre-kindergarten program to lead a discussion on its importance...4/24

state & regional :

U.S. to fund three biorefinery projects
Washington, D.C. (UPI) The U.S. Department of Energy says it's selected small-scale biorefinery projects in Maine, Kentucky and Tennessee for up to $86 million in funding. The four-year projects are designed to support development of small-scale cellulosic technology biorefineries in Old Town, Maine; Vonore, Tenn.; and Washington County, Ky...4/21

State to consider cuts amid potential shortfall
Nashville (AP) As much as $500 million may have to be cut out of the upcoming state spending plan amid worsening tax revenue projections, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Wednesday....4/24

Plastic bottle concerns boost sales of new Eastman product
(Times News) Growing health concerns over the use of certain plastic bottles could help boost business at Eastman Chemical Co. in Kingsport...4/23

ut:

Final chancellor candidate visits campus
(The Daily Collegian) Robert Holub applied to be chancellor of the University of Massachusetts because he saw it as "a campus that wants to move forward."
It was the advertisement for the position, he said, that attracted him to the job...Since 2006, Holub has been the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville...4/23