Science, environment and technology summit: A long term national science strategy

This document contains the text of the testimony given by Alvin W. Trivelpiece, Director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, before the Subcommittee on Basic Research, Committee on Science, US House of Representatives in Oak Ridge, TN on June 1, 1995

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Institutional Plan for FY 1999 Through FY 2003

In January 1996, when the management and operation (M and O) contract for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was awarded to Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation, they were presented with the opportunity to develop and implement a management structure tailored to the Laboratory's needs and functions. In response, they launched a Laboratory-wide reengineering effort and undertook other work with the goal of fostering excellence, relevance, and stewardship in all aspects of the Laboratory's operations. This effort is paying off in improvements in their ability to meet the expectations established for ORNL as a Department of Energy laboratory overseen by the Office of Science: delivering advances in science and technology, securing new capabilities, improving the ability to operate safely and efficiently at reasonable cost, and being a good neighbor. The development of critical outcomes and objectives, now under way in partnership with the Department's Oak Ridge Operations Office, is aimed at providing a performance-based means of determining how ORNL measures up to these expectations

Environmental boundaries to energy development

Public concern about the environment, health and safety consequences of energy technology has been growing steadily for more than two decades in the United States. This concern forms an important boundary condition as the United States seeks to develop a new National Energy Strategy. Furthermore, the international aspects of the energy/environment interface such as acid rain global climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion are very prominent in US thinking. In fact, the energy systems of the world are becoming more closely coupled environmentally and otherwise. Now where is this coupling more important than that between the industrialized and developing world; the choices made by each will have profound effects on the other. The development of energy technologies compatible with both economic growth and improving and sustaining environmental quality represents a major R D challenge to the US and USSR. Decision about adoption of new technology and R D priorities can be improved by better measurements of how energy sources and uses are changing throughout the world and better methods to project the potential consequences of these decisions. Such projection require understanding relative risks of alternating existing and evolving technologies. All of these R D areas, technology improvement energy system monitoring and projection and comparative risk assessment are the topics of this seminar. Progress in each may be enhanced by collaboration and cooperation between our two countries. 7 refs., 27 figs., 5 tabs