Aviation in the United States is an essential part of our national economy.  Whether it is making sure hundreds of thousands of passengers reach their destinations each day, or rapidly moving baggage and cargo across the country, or even protecting our national defense and homeland security, the continued growth and success of America’s aviation system is vital to our nation’s future economic success.

 

But America’s air traffic system is facing a big challenge – one that will affect every airline passenger and every business operation in the country by 2025 if a solution isn’t found soon.  That challenge is overcrowding.

 

Several government reports indicate that in the next 20 years, airline passenger traffic will triple, with baggage and cargo increasing by fourfold.  With such a staggering growth rate, our present air transportation system is simply not designed to adjust to that kind of expansion without some radical redesign and change.

 

In 2006 alone, the number of air passengers exceeded 750 million. According to government projections, it is likely that passenger count will reach one billion each year between 2012 and 2015.  At that point, America’s current air transportation system will simply be reaching its limits.   

 

The strain on the system is already evident.  The num­ber of recurring flight delays we already see and the difficulties we have in maintaining the pace of system operations at airports during bad weather are early indications of some of the coming problems.

 

Although our cur­rent air traffic system has served the nation well since the 1950s, and it continues to be the world’s largest and safest air transportation system, it is a system that is inherently limited in its ability to grow and adapt.  

 

That is why the National Safe Skies Alliance (Safe Skies) is partnering with the Tennessee Valley Corridor (TVC) to establish a new regional pilot demonstration area here in the Tennessee Valley to help develop the nation’s Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).   

 

The vision for NextGen, in contrast to today’s air traffic system, is designed to be more flexible, resilient, scalable, adaptive and highly automated – meeting up to two or three times the current demand of passengers and air cargo.  Safe Skies and the TVC intend to be at the forefront in helping design, test and develop the components of this new system.

 

Safe Skies has already become a recognized leader in advancing aviation security and efficiency by conducting independent testing and evaluation of technologies in airports all across the nation.  But to build a leading demonstration area, we needed a strong partner that had a reputation for bringing people together to get things done. 

 

For over 12 years, the TVC has been dedicated to promoting the Tennessee Valley region as one of the nation’s premier science and technology centers by linking together and leveraging the Corridor’s world-class research institutions and technology assets.  The Corridor’s guiding motto of “National Leadership through Regional Cooperation” made them the ideal partner for this important new project.

 

Safe Skies and the TVC are working to bring together both large and small airports within the Tennessee Valley Corridor to collaborate on potential solutions to the major problems our air transportation system will experience by 2025.

 

This pilot program, with the support of the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), a multi-agency federal joint planning office led by the FAA, but including the federal Departments of Transportation, Homeland Security, Commerce, NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, seeks to evaluate all areas of airport operations: safety, environment, shared situational awareness, security, weather and airport infrastructure. 

 

By establishing this NextGen pilot program and getting all of the airports within the Tennessee Valley Corridor actively involved over the next few years, Safe Skies and the Tennessee Valley Corridor will not only help lead the nation to new and innovative air transportation solutions, but we can also advance the capabilities and capacity of our own air service here in the Tennessee Valley.

 

In the future, few issues will be more important to our continued economic success.

 

 

Technology 2020 announced today that fourteen companies have been selected to present their business plans at the 11th Annual Tennessee Valley Venture Forum. The conference begins Wednesday afternoon, September 26th and concludes by noon on Thursday, September 27th at the Knoxville Convention Center.

 

Presenters will have exhibit booths to display their products and services as well as to answer questions and make connections with the conference attendees.

 

“We have selected a diverse group of very promising companies from five southeastern states," said Tech 2020 President and CEO Tom Rogers. "We have divided the presenters into early stage and growth stage companies, and we encourage both institutional and individual investors to attend.”

 

The companies selected to present this year are:

 

Early Stage Companies:

·                              Elemental Knowledge, LLC Knoxville, TN

·                              Finagle, Inc. Nashville, TN

·                              Medical Interactive Education, LLC, Knoxville, TN

·                              Phenotype Screening, Knoxville, TN

·                              Neuronetrix, Inc., Louisville, KY

·                              SunsOil, LLC, Athens, TN

·                              Voices Heard Media, Knoxville, TN

 

Growth Stage Companies:

·                              The Aldis Group, Knoxville, TN

·                              CreatiVasc Medical, Greenville, SC

·                              NovaMin Technology, Inc., Alachua, FL

·                              Onsite Fuel, Brandon, MS

·                              Planar Energy Devices, Inc., Orlando, FL

·                              Protein Discovery, Inc., Knoxville, TN

·                              Tricycle, Inc., Chattanooga, TN

 

Descriptions of the companies are available at: http://tvventure.org/07Companies.htm 

 

In addition to company presentations, the Venture Forum will feature a Keynote Address by Ron Feinbaum, Executive Vice President of Scripps Networks as well as a panel discussion on “The Dollars and Sense of Biofuels” featuring leaders of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Tennessee, and Pilot Oil Corporation.

 

Conference registration is available online at www.tvventure.org.

Nationwide, the trend continues. Experts, institutions, communities and states are focusing unprecedented attention and resources into research and analysis of America’s energy future.

 

For the first time ever, the U.S. government is investing the funds to transform the way we harness and use energy.

Not since the Carter administration have we seen as much focus on energy policy and research and development on the federal level.

 

The Department of Energy and Congress have finally come together to support nuclear power as the one large-scale base-load energy supply form that emits no greenhouse gases. The president has set aggressive goals such as making cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive with gasoline by 2012 and reducing America’s gasoline consumption by 20 percent in 10 years.

 

The U.S. Department of Energy is creating three $125 million bioenergy science centers to find new ways to turn plants into fuel.

 

Many states are appropriating significant funds to explore new energy applications tailored to their climate, geography and economy.

 

But perhaps no one area boasts a greater confluence of energy assets than our own Tennessee Valley region, which could be considered Energy Central. Just consider a few of the initiatives going on right now.

 

Gov. Phil Bredesen and the Tennessee Legislature recently enacted an unprecedented package of energy programs, including $61 million for bioenergy research at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

 

UT continues to lead in energy research. For example, Dr. Barry Bruce was recently highlighted by Forbes Magazine as one of 10 global “revolutionaries” for his cutting-edge research on new methods for harnessing solar energy.

 

Also at UT, the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment (ISSE) is a center for important scientific research. ISSE’s work, in partnership with the UT-ORNL Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, has received acclaim for its initiative to pursue research on bioenergy and ecological impacts in China.

 

ORNL has always been a leader in energy research, and now the U.S. Department of Energy has decided that one of those three new bioenergy centers will be located at ORNL and operated in conjunction with UT and the University of Georgia. The goal of the centers will be to find naturally occurring microbes that can break down plants allowing the conversion of cellulose into ethanol or other liquid fuels.

 

The Tennessee Valley Authority has cleared the way for consumer transition to energy forms with lower environmental impact through a program called Green Power Switch, which allows customers to purchase into a pool of natural power from wind, the sun, and the Earth, so-called green power. Although each block adds about $4 to the customers’ monthly power bills, it’s significantly cheaper than in most other regions in America where green power can be purchased.

 

There is no area in America that has our strength of political leadership in Washington on key energy and environment issues. U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker and U.S. Reps. Zach Wamp, John J. Duncan Jr., Bart Gordon and Marsha Blackburn continue to take leadership roles in important committees dealing with energy and environmental issues.

 

Tennessee’s own Al Gore has been an influential spokesperson for climate change issues and environmental policy initiatives that have stimulated debate on related energy policy issues.

 

Senator Howard Baker Jr. has played a longtime critical role in shaping our nation’s energy and environmental policies. UT and Baker created the Howard Baker Center in 2004 with a mission of discussing and debating important public policy topics, with a special emphasis on our nation’s energy policy.

 

Through public programs, educational initiatives and research, the center strives to play a key role in highlighting issues, providing alternatives and bringing people and institutions together to discuss, debate and resolve this fundamental challenge.

 

One key way the Baker Center is doing that is through the creation of a Distinguished Fellow on Energy Policy in collaboration with ORNL and TVA. The Energy Fellow will serve as an integrator, stimulating public discussion, education and debate on key energy policy issues from our regional perspective but also addressing national and global energy issues.

 

Through the Energy Fellow program, we will foster insights and gain input from a variety of sources to promote sound energy policy through activities such as conferences and workshops, national and international partnerships, research and publications, archival initiatives, and educational programs, including classroom instruction.

 

As the first Energy Fellow at the Baker Center, I am proud to be working in Energy Central, an area with such a great history and tremendous resources. I believe that, given this solid foundation, we can provide solutions to the energy challenges of this new century.

Now is the time for our country to get serious about a true national energy plan. If we want to continue to grow our economy and provide jobs for our children and grandchildren, this plan must encompass all sources of energy and be focused on long-term solutions. Our energy challenges are daunting as U.S. energy demand is growing at 2 percent to 3 percent a year, while world demand is growing at 5 percent to 6 percent a year. The International Energy Agency estimates that world-wide demand will increase by 60 percent in the year 2030. We must work on both conservation and on supply.

 

Congress' recent actions on the energy bill focused mainly on short-term gasoline prices and alternative fuels. While both of these subjects are politically popular, they play an extremely small role in solving our long-term energy needs. If we want real energy security, we must focus on all areas of supply — crude oil and natural gas, nuclear, coal, and alternative fuels, and we must raise mileage standards on automobiles.

 

Following the Hurricane Katrina and Rita catastrophes, the media has placed a tremendous amount of emphasis on gasoline prices and oil industry profits. We all must understand the role that "Big Oil" plays in the global energy picture. Oil companies such as Exxon, BP, and Chevron now control less than 20 percent of the world's proven oil reserves. The vast majority of the crude oil in the world is controlled by national oil companies (countries). The prices of crude oil, gasoline, and diesel fuel are set by world-wide demand. It is true that Exxon and other oil companies are reaping record profits. Policies must be developed to offer incentives to these companies to re-invest in exploration and production of more crude oil and expanding and/or building new refining capacity in the United States. They should not receive tax breaks for stock buy-backs or large dividend payouts. We must send a clear signal to the petroleum industry that they must continue to reinvest heavily in increasing our nation's long-term supply. Sixty-three percent of our nation's energy comes from crude oil and natural gas. If we can increase that by 5 percent, that would raise our overall energy supply by 3 percent. To put this in perspective, 6 percent of our energy needs comes from alternative fuels. We would have t­­o increase this by 33 percent to net a gain of 2 percent.

 

In addition, we must open up new areas of our country for exploration of crude oil and natural gas. Our country's proven crude oil reserves are currently 22 billion barrels. It is estimated that the Gulf Coast of the United States and Alaska contain 112 billion barrels of crude oil and 656 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas. Modern technology has made the exploration, production and refining of petroleum a much safer and environmentally sound business. Consider the following:

 

1. During the horrible storms of Katrina and Rita in which offshore crude oil platforms and Gulf Coast refineries were literally torn apart, the environmental impact from that damage to our coast line and ocean life was extremely minimal.

 

2. Alaska is a huge state. A small portion of the state comprises the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), an area totaling 19 million acres. Recent technological advances would limit the "footprint" of proposed exploration and production in the area to only 2,000 acres or one-tenth of 1 percent of the total area. It is extremely disingenuous for an elected official to say that he or she is for energy independence and not to be for opening up areas with proven reserves in the United States.

 

Our nation must once again turn to nuclear energy. The Tennessee Valley Authority should be applauded for restarting the Browns Ferry nuclear reactor. The major issue with nuclear remains: "What to do with the spent fuel?" Technology is very close to becoming a reality that would allow us to deal with this spent fuel in a much more efficient manner. This is where government must play a major role in helping to fund the research necessary to solve what we do with long-term spent nuclear fuel.

 

The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal. Clean-burning coal technology and coal-to-natural-gas conversion technology is rapidly becoming a reality. The state of Illinois has more British thermal units (BTUs) of coal energy than Saudi Arabia does crude oil! Here again, our government must continue to fund the necessary research to help us take advantage of our vast supply of coal reserves while minimizing environmental impact.

 

We must also continue to explore alternative fuels (which really should be called additional fuels), but we must do so in a long-term fiscally responsible manner. We cannot let the nation's farm policy dictate our energy policy.

 

There are over 100 ethanol plants currently being built in the United States. For us to continue to put a tariff of 51 cents per gallon on ethanol coming into the United States is bad policy. Cellulistic ethanol which takes advantage of grass versus corn (or soybeans for biodiesel fuel) is a real alternative. Once again, our government must step up and continue to fund such projects as the one that UT-Battelle is working diligently on at Oak Ridge. This type of technology will help solve the nation's long-term supply needs without impacting the price of food.

 

Backing a national energy policy with such high visibility will be difficult for elected officials because of the passionate and diverse opinions held by their constituents. It is imperative that government work with all sectors of the energy universe — oil, natural gas, nuclear, coal, alternative fuels, etc. — to reach a long term, comprehensive policy to ensure our energy future. It is time for our leaders to introduce legislation that provides incentives for research. New tax laws are needed to encourage investment and to let the efficient private sector work. It will take political courage, not votes attracting pandering, to do what is right for America's future.

Connected Tennessee, a Nashville-based nonprofit working to accelerate technology use throughout Tennessee, has released the state's first broadband inventory map showing current levels of high-speed Internet availability across the state.

 

The analysis, released at a meeting of the Tennessee Broadband Task Force in Nashville on Friday is the first step toward ensuring Governor Phil Bredesen's goal of every Tennessean realizing the benefits of technology, from improved health care to better education. Connected Tennessee is a public-private partnership working with a number of state agencies and the private sector to implement Governor Bredesen's Trail to Innovation, a statewide program aimed at making Tennessee a leader in technology acceleration efforts.

 

"This data is the first step toward moving Tennessee forward with a common sense broadband strategy," said Governor Bredesen. "Increasingly, we're being told that broadband access is part of the basic infrastructure, like highways and utility lines. If we want to provide opportunities for growth and higher-skilled, better-paying jobs in all 95 counties, especially in rural counties, we need the data compiled by Connected Tennessee in order to attract those types of jobs."

 

According to Connected Tennessee's research, between 86% and 90% of Tennessee households have access to broadband, also called high-speed Internet (meaning service is available to the household). The group's survey results also show that 43% of households actually use broadband service and 71% of households own a computer.

 

Tennessee is taking an approach similar to a successful program implemented by the national non-profit Connected Nation in Kentucky. That program reached nearly 100 percent broadband coverage statewide within a three year period. Both the Tennessee and Kentucky programs are subsidiaries of Connected Nation whose goals include technology access and literacy.

 

The Tennessee Broadband Task Force is chaired by State Senator Roy Herron (d-Dresden) and State Representative Mark Maddox (d-Dresden) and includes representatives from the telecommunications industry and various state agencies. The Task Force was established to study the challenges related to providing broadband to all Tennesseans.

 

Connected Tennessee will work in partnership with telecommunications providers, information technology companies, public agencies, business leaders, community leaders, researchers and universities in an effort to meet five primary goals, which include:

Chattanooga is a "high" profile city in the August edition of US Airways Magazine, which features a 38-page segment on the Scenic City, covering everything from the 21st Century Waterfront Redevelopment to the Read House, from Moon Pies to UTC's Sim Center, from the Lookout Mountain Flight Park to the Tennessee Aquarium.

The coverage in the in-flight US Airways magazine that reaches over 3 million business and leisure travelers each month also includes beautiful photography of the Hunter museum, the Walnut Street Bridge and Bluff View - all introduced by a stunning two-page panoramic view that captures a boat-flecked Tennessee River sweeping around downtown during Riverbend with Lookout Mountain as the backdrop, officials said.

Headlines call Chattanooga "one of the most livable cities in the South," a "re-energized river city" and a community that's "drawing attention and business."

After US Airways Magazine’s staff made initial contact with the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber and the Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau took the lead in helping the writers collect material for the article by forming a partnership that included Hamilton County, the City of Chattanooga, the RiverCity Company, and the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport, it was stated.

“By working together, we utilized the Chattanooga Way to highlight our community’s strongest assets across a broad spectrum of topics,” said J.Ed. Marston, Chamber vice president of marketing and communications.

According to Bob Doak, president and CEO of the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, the story offers a kind of publicity that’s rare for a community. “Normally, we only get tell our story from a tourism angle or a business viewpoint,” Doak said. “In this profile, the writers created a profile of the whole community. That’s good for all of our efforts to promote the area, from winning conventions and attracting tourists to recruiting new companies and marketing our assets to retirees and others who might want to live here.”

 

This is just a small sample of the almost daily headlines and announcements about technology topics in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley.  The excitement continues.  Part of that excitement surrounds the opening of the University of Tennessee’s new Business Incubator.  This facility will house companies spinning-out from technology created at UT and ORNL.

 

The Venture Capital Forum is coming in the fall, and will provide opportunities for promising young technology companies to reach investors.  The companies and investors might not otherwise have had a chance to reach one another.  That is going to be an important conference.

 

Technology 2020 and the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth are assisting a large number of start-up companies with everything from advice on business issues to helping find capital, to providing floor space.  The Tennessee Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Proposal Assistance Center is open for business and has helped companies win millions of dollars in federal grants.

 

In addition, the Governor is investing millions of dollars in technology research in East Tennessee.  That research will focus on the exploration of switchgrass as a feedstock for ethanol production.  The Governor’s investment helps make Tennessee a major player in the biofuels industry.

 

Technology pervades our modern culture.  We live in a world of cell phones, digital cameras, camcorders, iPods, DVDs, and a whole array of other gadgets.

 

My laptop computer is a great example of technology integration.  It gives me the ability to write and store documents, store picture that I take with my digital camera, keep my calendar and contact list.  If I choose, I can transfer any of this to my PDA, phone or store it on a storage device such as a CD or memory stick.  Not only can I store this information, I can send it to anybody anywhere at the speed of light just by having an email account.  My contact list populated using the card scanner that plugs into a USB port, reads business cards, and stores the info on my hard drive.  It also backs-up to a website, just in case my computer crashes.  I can also send a copy to my Outlook contact list.  I could go on and on.

 

Technology is also pervading the Knoxville area and US economies.

 

In the future, US industries will depend on technology for survival.  This is especially true in the manufacturing sector.  We have already seen examples where the majority of an entire industry has moved offshore.  These industry sectors include textiles and commodity products.  Technology based jobs are harder to export, so its critical to encourage technology development and entrepreneurship in the Knoxville region.  Technology originated in this valley will create jobs not only in the community, but across the region and state.  And those jobs will help improve the lives and welfare of all Tennessee residents.

 

The Innovation Valley is emerging as one of the nation’s top technology regions.  Over the next few years, I believe there will be tremendous growth in both the development and application of technology.

 

The list of technologies available at the University of Tennessee, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Y-12 National Security Complex, the Board of Regents institutions and private sector organizations is tremendous.  Look to the super computer, the Spallation Neutron Source, Cherokee Farm, research scientists and professors as prime examples.  And that’s just a sampling.

 

I believe regional companies are just beginning to realize what a tremendous asset these organizations are to their bottom line and are capitalizing on the benefits.

 

Advanced materials is a field in the technology world that is growing in importance in the global economy.  The Chinese and Indians are buying all the metal they can get their hands on, driving the price to unacceptable levels for many companies.  To address this dilemma, I am working with a number of Innovation Valley companies to assist them with making the right connections with ORNL materials researchers.  In many cases, these researchers have already developed a solution to the company’s problem and it is just a matter of making the connection.  Other cases may involve the development of new materials or processes that can save the company time and money.  In any case, I found the folks at ORNL to be very helpful and extremely knowledgeable.  Partnerships that help companies stay competitive in the global market are just one of the reasons Innovation Valley is an attractive location for technology companies.

 

Opportunity, resources, technology, partnerships… it’s all coming together in the Innovation Valley.

 

Sam Hart is the Technology & Manufacturing Consultant for the Knoxville Chamber.  He manages the Technology Mining & Matching Program and helps pair technologies and experts at UT, ORNL, Y-12 and elsewhere with both existing & new business and industry across the Knoxville region.

BusinessTN magazine is now offering a mix of regionally based stories with statewide impact through both its monthly magazine and its free weekly “e-briefs.”

 

The e-briefs, which readers can sign-up to receive free of charge and directly to their inbox each week, provide a quick, up to date glance at the latest business and political news happening around the state of Tennessee.

 

To sign up for the free weekly e-briefs, please visit www.businesstn.com.

To most of the world, Alcoa Inc. means aluminum. To East Tennessee, it also means more than $4.7 billion a year.

 

That’s the finding in a new economic impact study done on Alcoa Inc.’s East Tennessee operations, which include facilities in Blount, Knox and Hamblen Counties. Through its operations and its impact on others, Alcoa creates and supports more than 12,000 jobs, and generates nearly $48.3 million in state and local tax revenues.

 

“We have multiple operations in this area because we know it’s a good place to do business,” said Geoff Cromer, Alcoa Inc., Vice-President of U.S. Primary Metals, based in Knoxville. “Frankly, we didn’t know how much of an impact we had on the region, that’s why we commissioned the study. We’re obviously pleased to know that Alcoa operations end up creating so many jobs and so much income.”

 

The study, conducted by the market research and economic consulting firm Younger Associates, examined the overall impact of all Alcoa operations in East Tennessee as well as the impact of each individual facility located in the region.

 

Alcoa’s largest Tennessee operation is in Blount County, where its smelting plant and power generation facilities employ 1,668 individuals, while nearly 4,000 other jobs across other industries exist because of activity related to the company. Combined, these jobs were paid more than $340 million as a result of Alcoa operations in Blount County. The total annual economic impact in Blount County is in excess of $3 billion.

 

Knox County is home to Alcoa’s worldwide metal trading operations, and headquarters to the Primary Metals business unit. The office employs 149, while more than 120 other jobs across all industries exist because of activity related to the company. Knox operations include everything from worldwide metal trading and information technology to managing a steamship line delivering materials and products, as well as the corporate energy group. Combined, these jobs were paid more than $28 million. The total annual economic impact in Knox County is in excess of $93 million.

 

Alcoa Power and Propulsion operates one of its investment casting support facilities in Hamblen County. The plant employs 646 people, while more than 500 other jobs across all industries exist because of activity related to the site. Combined, these jobs were paid more than $46 million. The total annual economic impact in Hamblen County is in excess of $59 million.

 

If the staggering impact that Alcoa has on the regional economy has not been fully appreciated, it may be partly due to a lack of awareness regarding the company’s full range of operations. The economic study will help provide state and local policy makers with an understanding of the economic significance of Alcoa’s operations.

 

“The methodology in this study is recognized and used by the International Economic Development Council,” says Younger Associates President Sharon Younger. “Over the years, our approach has proven to be highly accurate and even slightly conservative in projecting tax revenue generation.”

 

The full economic impact study can be viewed on-line at www.alcoa.com/tn_operations

 

About Alcoa

 

Alcoa is the world's leading producer and manager of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum and alumina facilities, and is active in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation and industrial markets, bringing design, engineering, production and other capabilities of Alcoa's businesses to customers. In addition to aluminum products and components including flat-rolled products, hard alloy extrusions, and forgings, Alcoa also markets Alcoa® wheels, fastening systems, precision and investment castings, structures and building systems. The company has 116,000 employees in 44 countries and has been named one of the top most sustainable corporations in the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. More information can be found at www.alcoa.com.

Some aviation experts and at least one influential Georgia state senator think that a second commercial airport for metro Atlanta doesn't have to be in the metro area. In fact, they argue, it doesn't even have to be in Georgia.

 

A small but growing chorus of voices has begun pushing the idea that the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport just across the line in Tennessee could be substantially expanded, eliminating — or at least delaying — the need for a second Atlanta airport.

 

"Going to Chattanooga, especially for the population north of the city, is a legitimate prospect," said Bruce Seaman, a Georgia State University economics professor who has conducted several studies on aviation issues related to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

 

State Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), who chairs the Senate's Transportation Committee, likes the Chattanooga idea. Mullis said he thinks an improved Chattanooga airport could draw Georgians from all along the I-75 corridor — Cobb, Cherokee, Bartow counties and points north.

 

Mullis, however, thinks the airport would have to be connected to the northern suburbs via high-speed rail for the idea to work.

 

"I think many people in the northern areas would consider the Chattanooga possibility, especially with the traffic problems we have in the Atlanta area," Mullis said. "It would be a smart concept as opposed to building a new airport."

 

The federal government awarded Atlanta a $1 million grant this year to study ways to increase capacity at Hartsfield-Jackson, the world's busiest airport. Federal transportation officials have strongly suggested that Atlanta look at a second airport to take the pressure off Hartsfield-Jackson, which could begin to reach capacity in a decade or so.

 

The mere hint of a second airport has jump-started the debate about where it should be located, north or south of the city. The "north" argument makes sense because that would put it near the major population centers, aviation experts say. But big chunks of land in the fast-growing region are scarce and expensive. And perhaps more important, it would be politically difficult to put any new airport near the sprawling north metro suburbs.

 

Proponents say the Chattanooga argument overcomes many of those obstacles.

 

The argument goes like this: Expand the existing Chattanooga facility, and add more flights — its longest runway already surpasses the longest ones at Washington's Reagan National and New York's LaGuardia — to woo passengers from north metro Atlanta. That, in turn, would free up Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson for long-haul domestic and international flights and the millions of passengers who now use it only to transfer from one flight to the next.

 

"If you siphon off a bunch of people to Chattanooga for U.S. routes it essentially becomes a de facto second airport," said Seaman. "A lot of people out of the northern suburbs are not making complicated connections. They're going to Chicago or Denver or New York. They don't need to go to Hartsfield-Jackson for that."

 

Paulding County resident Gary Badertscher flies out of Hartsfield-Jackson several times a week for his window coverings business. It takes him about an hour and 15 minutes to get to Hartsfield-Jackson. It's a 90-minute drive to Chattanooga, he said.

 

"If there were a high-speed train that I could drive to that would get me to the Chattanooga airport in another 20 minutes [less], I'd do it," Badertscher said. "You can count on delays out of Hartsfield-Jackson in the afternoon. If I could cut the commute time to the airport, and then cut delays in the air, I'd be all for it."

 

But loan officer Kevin Jones of Vinings said it takes him only 20 minutes to get to Hartsfield-Jackson. A less-crowded Chattanooga option would have less interest for him.

 

"It would depend on price for me," Jones said. "If they could offer cheaper flights from Chattanooga, then I might consider it."

 

Chattanooga's airport is now a very small David to Hartsfield-Jackson's Goliath. Chattanooga handles about 50 flights a day and about 500,000 passengers a year. Hartsfield-Jackson sees about 3,000 take-offs and landings per day and expects 86 million passengers this year.

 

Mike Landguth, president and CEO of the Chattanooga airport, said traffic at the small facility is up 20 percent this year as more fliers from North Georgia begin to cross the border.

 

"It is our hope that [federal agencies] will adequately fund airport infrastructure development to ensure airports like Chattanooga are positioned to meet the needs of our growing traveling community and provide relief to megahubs like Atlanta," Landguth said.

 

Ben DeCosta, Hartsfield-Jackson's general manager, declined comment on the Chattanooga idea. DeCosta has repeatedly declined comment on where he would like to see a second airport. He is expected to appoint a panel in coming months to study increasing Hartsfield-Jackson's capacity.

 

State Sen. Mullis, meanwhile, said he had several "informal discussions" about the Chattanooga idea with various officials. Mullis said he plans to meet with DeCosta in coming months to discuss the concept.

 

"I think you'll see discussions of this kicked up a notch in the future," he said.

The National Governors Association announced two new reports as part of their year-long initiative highlighting the economic importance of innovation.  

 

Innovation America: A Final Report (http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0707INNOVATIONFINAL.PDF) summarizes the project and recommends actions to foster innovation, including improving science, engineering, and math education, and investing in innovation projects. 

 

Investing in Innovation (http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0707INNOVATIONINVEST.PDF), the more interesting document, concentrates on the creation of an Innovation System with six guidelines focusing on the creation, strategic analysis, collaboration, expert advice, consistency, and measuring results.

A new National Academies report suggests that computers will replace 60 percent of today's jobs by 2030. 

 

Researchers use recent advances in computer science and the skills outlined in occupational profiles to estimate the levels of human language, reasoning, vision and movement abilities that computers will be able to replicate in the future. 

 

Using these predictions, computers could displace two-thirds of the workers in education, food preparation, cleaning, personal care and service, sales and office and administrative support industries.  Contrastingly, less than one-third of the science, engineering, law, healthcare, protective service and installation and repair jobs would be lost. 

The full report, Projecting the Impact of Computers on Work in 2030, is available at: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/cfe/Stuart_Elliott_Paper.pdf

As of today, the pressure's truly on at Tennessee Technology Development Corporation, the nearly dormant economic-advocacy group created a decade ago by the General Assembly.

TTDC today announced its new chief executive and a replenished board of directors who are now responsible for redeeming the group's promise of fostering creation of "new economy" businesses and jobs that require higher skills and pay higher wages than in Tennessee's traditional industries.

The board today voted to approve the appointment of Eric Cromwell as president and de facto CEO of the nonprofit. Until June 30, Cromwell served as director of technology-based economic development programs in Bredesen Administration's department of economic and community development.

In some ways, the biggest surprise is that TTDC is alive to make such announcements.

The Bredesen Administration had planned for several years to supplant TTDC, which was born during the tenure of former Gov. Don Sundquist, with beefed-up government resources and, ultimately, with the launch of a new entity that was to be called "Innovation Tennessee," the leader of which, it was long assumed, would be Cromwell.

While explanations for the change abound, the issue is probably less important than the question of whether or not fresh blood at TTDC will translate into gains for the state's economy. A consultant's 2006 assessment of Tennessee's economic strengths and weaknesses underscored that challenges include politics, regionalism, turf protection and sheer parochialism.

During today's conference call meeting of the TTDC board, actions included reappointment of Dan Marcum as chairman; and, appointment of Jim Phillips as vice chairman and Bruce Doeg as secretary. While three board appointments remain to be made, the board now includes:

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee took another quantum leap in the computing universe Wednesday with a decision by the National Science Board to underwrite a second world-class supercomputer in Tennessee.

 

The board authorized the National Science Foundation to award $65 million over five years to build a supercomputer capable of nearly 1,000 teraflops — or 1,000 trillion calculations a second — at UT’s Joint Institute for Computational Science.

 

The institute is located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a Department of Energy facility managed by UT and Battelle Memorial Institute.

 

The announcement means that the Oak Ridge lab, which currently hosts the second-fastest supercomputer in the world, could have the world’s two fastest machines by 2009.

 

“This is another tremendous win for UT and for the partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory,” said U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District. “Our state is rapidly becoming the world’s center for high-performance computing.”

 

For scientists studying global climate change, the design of new materials and the reactions occurring in living cells, the new supercomputing goal is 1 petaflop — or 1,000 trillion arithmetic calculations per second.

 

That would be three times faster than the world’s current fastest supercomputer — the 280-teraflop, restricted-access IBM BlueGene/L at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

 

It would be faster still than the world’s No. 2 machine — the open-research, 101.7-teraflop Cray XT3/XT4 supercomputer known as “Jaguar” already operating at the Oak Ridge lab.

 

However, Oak Ridge’s Jaguar is on a track for upgrades that will take it to the 1 petaflop level by 2009, when the second supercomputer announced Wednesday is slated to power up.

 

The National Science Board on Wednesday recommended an even larger award of $208 million over four and a half years to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for an even faster petascale supercomputer. But that computer isn’t set to go online until 2011.

 

UT officials said they couldn’t comment on the award until a final agreement is negotiated with the National Science Foundation.

 

The UT proposal was led by Thomas Zacharia, who heads the supercomputer program in Oak Ridge, and includes two partners, the Texas Advanced Computing Center and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

David Rayburn, CEO of Modine Manufacturing Company, discusses 100-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell that UTC is slated to receive. Also shown are Congressman Zach Wamp and Dr. K.R. Sridhar, founder and CEO of Bloom Energy Corporation. Click to enlarge.

 

UTC will get the first 100-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell for a demonstration project, officials announced at a press conference in the Alternative Energy Lab at the SimCenter on the campus of UTC on Wednesday.

 

Congressman Zach Wamp was joined by Dr. K.R. Sridhar of Bloom Energy Corporation and David Rayburn of Modine Manufacturing Company in the announcement.

 

The congressman said he asked for and received a $3.5 million appropriation in a House-passed defense bill that, if it becomes law, will bring the first 100-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell to the campus of UTC for a demonstration project.

 

 

UTC already has a 5-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell in the SimCenter and it was present and operating in the room. The energy it produces is sold to TVA.

 

Congressman Wamp, who spoke earlier in the day to the Chattanooga Technology Council, reiterated that the Tennessee Valley Corridor has become the national leader on energy technology development and deployment. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, he said, sits right in the center of that corridor and he is proud of the role that the UTC SimCenter has played and will play in alternative energy development.

 

“The sooner we, as a nation, become independent to oil, the better off we will be,” the congressman said. He said he can foresee mass production of these units right here in Chattanooga because they were first demonstrated here. Enterprise South would be the perfect location, he said.

 

“With mass production of these units, we can take coal-fired generation down to zero,” Congressman Wamp said. A 5-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell can produce enough energy to heat or cool a 5,000 square foot home. A 100-kilowatt cell can produce enough energy to heat or cool a 30,000 square foot office building or supermarket. “These units are not connected to any transmission system,” he said.

 

The 100-kilowatt cell can fit in an area the size of a parking space. The 5-kilowatt cell is slightly larger than a large heat pump.

 

Congressman Wamp first congratulated and then introduced representatives from Bloom Energy Corporation and Modine Manufacturing Company. These two companies serve as partners for bringing these units to the forefront of alternative energy production. A business plan to mass produce these units could be written soon, Congressman Wamp said.

 

Dr. Sridhar is founder and CEO of Bloom Energy Corporation. Dr. Sridhar conceived and designed the solid oxide fuel cell while working for NASA where he was asked what he would do if required to design an energy providing source that was not connected to a transmission system.

 

Dr. Sridhar said, “When I entered the building and looked at the 5-kilowatt cell over there, I thought, ‘It sure is noisy.’ But as I walked around it, I realized the noise was from the HVAC system in this room.” The solid oxide fuel cell, he said, is designed to be noise free, vibration free, and emission free.

 

Dr. Sridhar said Congressman Wamp is an extraordinary advocate for this corridor and this valley and that the people in Chattanooga should be proud of him.

 

Chattanooga, Dr. Sridhar said, holds a special place in his own heart because the first unit that he designed and had built was sent here, to UTC, and has performed very well.

 

Mr. Sridhar said that for the nation to have economic leadership the U.S.

must have energy leadership as well. Products like this fuel cell have to be economically viable. “In our company and in our partnership, we strive to design and produce products that have economic viability, economic parity with other solutions, and are environmentally friendly and sustainable,” he said.

 

“If you look inside these fuel cells, you would see that the components look very much like automotive, mass produced components,” Dr. Sridhar said. “This gives the ‘dynamo of Dixie,’ another pathway to go in the future with mass production of these units.

 

The fuel used in these cells can be any carbon or any hydrogen fuel, he said. That fact, coupled with the advances in biofuel alternatives, like switchgrass used to produce ethanol, means that these units will become important to this region, this country, and to the whole world, said Dr.

Sridhar.

 

David Rayburn, CEO of Modine Manufacturing Company, which manufactured the 5-kilowatt unit, said, “These units won’t be mass produced until they are ready. That is why these demonstration projects are so important.”

 

“We believe in these solid oxide fuel cells,” Mr. Rayburn said. “We spent

$82 million last year on research and development. We would not spend that kind of money if we did not believe that this would turn into a commercially viable opportunity for our shareholders.”

 

Mr. Rayburn also said, “We believe that within 5 years we will have over $250 million in sales in solid oxide fuel cell technology.” “That translates to jobs,” he said.

 

“Our fuel cell group has been together since 2000,” Mr. Rayburn said. “We have 18 engineers and scientist working full-time on this.” “We are excited, it will create jobs, and it’s just the right thing to do.”

 

UTC received the first 5-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell on Jan. 17, 2006.

Dr. David Whitfield, president of the SimCenter, said that after an early period of testing, the unit has performed flawlessly since November 2006 and is operating at an efficiency rating above what it was expected to perform.

 

Congressman Wamp said the person who introduced him to Dr. Sridhar was former mayor of Chattanooga, Bob Corker.

 

Congressman Wamp said Mayor Corker led the recruitment of the SimCenter to Chattanooga. The SimCenter, he said, has a bold vision; it is supported by the Department of Energy, the University of Tennessee, and the governor. “Development of these fuel cells is an exciting possibility. We hope to make it a probability.”

 

During a time for questions from the audience, Congressman Wamp was asked if these cells had any use in the transportation area. Congressman Wamp explained, “These units produce hydrogen as a by-product and if hydrogen fuel cells are developed for transportation, then this unit could fill your car up while you sleep.”

 

Dr. Sridhar added that even if you have an electric vehicle, you could just plug your car into the unit to recharge it at night.

 

Dr. Sridhar also answered a question on the cost of energy from this technology. He said, “Electricity is sold as a commodity to consumers at a price point set by the market. Until new technologies come in and compete at that price point, we will not have massive options. So that is the price to meet; that is the price to beat. The average consumer will not pay more.”

 

When asked when the 100-kilowatt unit would arrive at UTC, Dr. Sridhar answered, “We can begin building the 100-kilowatt system only when we get the money from the government. We anticipate having a finished product within 6 to 9 months from the start of construction.”

 

The press conference was attended by Mayor Littlefield, County Mayor Claude Ramsey, various Chattanooga City Council and Hamilton County Commission members, TVA executives, and UTC executives.

 

Congressman Wamp said he thinks that the media does not understand the role that the SimCenter at UTC plays, not only in the region but the nation as well, in alternative energy development for the future of the country.

The new $125 million Bioenergy Science Center may be coming to Oak Ridge thanks to oodles of government money, but the inspiration for the center’s setup is rooted in the private sector.

 

The announcement came in late June that a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory was one of three selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to host the national research centers, which will tackle the challenges of making biofuels from plants.

 

“We set up our center like a startup biotech company,” said project director Martin Keller, who heads ORNL’s biosciences division. “This field is moving really fast, so you need to have a structure in place to react to changes.”

 

That structure includes a diverse board of directors to oversee the center’s activities. Vinod Khosla, one of the country’s most visible venture capitalists and proponents of alternative fuels, is a board member. So are representatives from chemical giant DuPont and oil company Chevron.

 

Jack Britt, the former executive vice president of the University of Tennessee, will sit on the board, along with Reinhold Mann, ORNL’s associate director for biological and environmental sciences. Representatives from the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory round out the eight-member board.

 

Under the startup analogy, Keller is equivalent to the center’s CEO. The center will have a finance director, an operations manager and directors to coordinate the work done in each of the three major research areas.

 

Keller’s background appears suited to the task, having come to the lab last July after 10 years with Diversa Corp., now called Verenium Corp. after a recent merger. Verenium, which specializes in the enzymes that break down plant materials, is one of three private-sector companies on the research team, joining UT and other universities and research institutions.

 

The research center holds promise for those who hope to see Tennessee and the Southeast develop a new biofuels-based industry. The federal government’s five-year, $125 million investment — along with $72 million in biofuels money from the state of Tennessee — will help seed the area with talent and set the stage for spin-out companies.

 

“We now have a sign out in the front door that says, ‘We are the leader in biofuels,’ ” said Glenn Kline, general partner at the Knoxville-based $35 million venture fund Innovation Valley Partners.

 

Kline said the research center presents an opportunity for ORNL to create an event showcasing its biofuels capabilities to the investment community, much as the lab did in April with the nanotechnology-focused Nano Nexus.

 

“Strategically, it’s a magnet for development and commercialization efforts, and it makes ORNL the focal point for a lot of opportunities,” Kline said.

 

ORNL’s Keller said managers have not developed a full staffing plan, but the center would likely create new full-time, support and postdoctoral research positions.

 

“There are not enough people out there who are trained to be in this field,” Keller said. “It is a challenge right now to get qualified people to oversee this bioenergy field.”

 

With the new research center, Keller said the region could begin to cultivate a critical mass of talent to launch biofuels spin-outs and educate the next generation of bioenergy scientists.

 

The startup flavor of the Bioenergy Science Center reflects the need to make an impact in a relatively short timeframe. But the taxpayer dollars fueling the center underscore the importance of getting the research results where they can make a difference.

 

Keller said the center would have two basic “products”: the scientific methods that researchers develop and the publicly available papers they publish.

 

“We have a mission,” Keller said. “We need to make breakthroughs.”

A former uranium enrichment facility has the land, utilities and transportation to be an ideal site for either a small pilot biofuel plant or a full-blown ethanol production facility.

 

That conclusion in a study of the former K-25 site comes as the University of Tennessee is close to picking a location for a $41 million, state-funded pilot biofuel research plant.

 

Not only could the K-25 site host a 5 million gallon-a-year pilot project, it would be suitable for a full-scale, 60 million gallon-a-year facility, according to the study.

 

“It’s easy for me to conclude that a logical place for (an ethanol plant) is the K-25 facility,’’ said Lawrence Young, president of the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee.

 

UT spokesman Hank Dye said Wednesday that the university is meeting with several potential partners for the construction and operation of the pilot plant.

 

He said UT is also looking at several likely sites in the area. “We hope to move this on a fast track,” Dye said, adding that a final decision would be reached in the near future.

 

With the explosion of interest in biofuel and ethanol production plants, “everybody is chasing them,” Young said. “Everybody thinks they have the ideal site.’’

 

CROET commissioned the $15,000 engineering study of the K25 site, now called Heritage Center of East Tennessee Technology Park.

 

CROET is a regional nonprofit organization that seeks new uses for excess Department of Energy buildings and land.

 

Heritage Center is a sprawling complex of mainly World War II-era buildings. Most of them are being torn down, and the rest are being cleaned up.

 

According to the study, Heritage Center has suitable land for an ethanol plant, as well as access to rail, truck and barge transportation.

 

It also has a huge building that could be used for unloading, storing and grinding up switchgrass, the fast-growing plant that’s the raw material for making cellulosic ethanol.

 

That building is called K-31 and has 1.4 million square feet under roof. It is now being decontaminated as part of DOE’s accelerated cleanup.

 

Young says Heritage Center has another advantage as a possible ethanol plant site.

 

The 1,300-acre complex has plenty of land for growing switchgrass and is already doing so under a separate project, he said.

TVA is vying to host a national demonstration project for recycling spent nuclear fuel, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp said Thursday.

 

“I believe TVA is going to ... prove to our country that you can deal with the No. 1 liability associated with the nuclear industry, and that is the waste,” the Chattanooga Republican said after touring an unfinished Watts Bar Nuclear Plant reactor that TVA intends to complete in five years.

 

America needs nuclear power to meet growing demand for energy and power sources that don’t foul the air like coal-fired plants, he said.

 

But the country will never be able to find enough places to bury the radioactive waste already piling up at nuclear plants, including TVA’s, he said.

 

“You can’t build Yucca Mountain after Yucca Mountain after Yucca Mountain,” Wamp said of the long-stalled Nevada site for nuclear waste. “As a matter of fact, we are proving it is kind of hard to build the first one.”

 

But if an anticipated nuclear revival develops as predicted, the United States will need six more Yucca Mountains during the next 50 years, said Wamp, a member of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee.

 

“So let’s look at what the British and French do and prove to our country that you can close the fuel cycle. Reprocess the waste back into energy — safely and efficiently,” he said.

 

Wamp is confident that reprocessing works. He said he’s seen it work on a small scale at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the country’s top energy laboratory.

 

Reprocessing the waste to extract still-usable uranium could help recycle about 80 percent into new fuel. Officials estimate that the remainder would still have to be buried at a facility like Yucca Mountain.

 

Toward that end, the Department of Energy is reviewing proposals from four industry groups for a nuclear fuel reprocessing pilot project under the Bush administration’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership initiative.

 

Cooperative agreements with the groups are expected to be announced next month. They will then have until 2008 to come up with more-detailed business plans.

 

TVA, the nation’s largest public utility, has incorporated its processes into proposals from three of the four groups — AREVA Federal Services LLC, EnergySolutions LLC and General Electric-Hitachi Nuclear Americas LLC. The fourth group is General Atomics.

 

Ashok Bhatnager, TVA’s senior vice president for nuclear power, said TVA is proposing a “Tennessee-only” demonstration involving potentially all nuclear waste at Watts Bar and TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Chattanooga.

 

“This is a very phased approach,” he said. It would start with “taking it from a laboratory demonstration at a microgram kind of scale to something that’s the size that you could process the waste from Watts Bar and Sequoyah combined — more of an industrial-size demonstration facility.”

 

Wamp said the French have half as many reactors — 53 — as the United States — with 105 — but can reprocess all of their spent fuel at one facility. That could mean two such facilities would be adequate for the United States, but Wamp said the better goal would be developing reprocessing systems that can work at the reactor sites.

If an earthquake of about 6 or larger occurs anywhere around the globe, every single sand grain dances on this planet.

-- Ross Stein, U.S. Geological Survey

Amid the photos of collapsed houses, shattered roads and buckled bridges, the most arresting image out of Japan after last month's 6.8-magnitude earthquake was of black smoke billowing from an electrical transformer at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, near the epicenter. The plant has seven reactors and 8.2 million kilowatts of generating capacity, making it the world's largest nuclear facility.

Initially, officials said damage was confined to a small fire and a 300 gallon leak of water with negligible amounts of radioactivity. But that was followed by reports of toppled barrels of low-level nuclear waste. Then came word that Tokyo Electric may have unwittingly situated the plant atop an active seismic fault.

After a recent three-day examination of the plant, however, six international safety experts dispatched by the International Atomic Energy Agency reported better news. The July 16 earthquake exceeded the level of seismic activity the facility was designed to withstand, but the design still helped contain the damage. No one was hurt, and there was no measurable environmental fallout from the plant.

"Safety related structures, systems and components of the plant seem to be in a general condition, much better than might be expected for such a strong earthquake, and there is no visible significant damage," the IAEA report said.

That's comforting for Japan, and good news for those who want to revive the nuclear energy industry in the U.S.

The U.S. has 104 operating reactors at 65 sites, providing roughly 20 percent of the country's energy needs, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Illinois, with 11 reactors at six sites, has the highest nuclear capacity of any state.

With energy consumption and concerns about global warming rising, more nuclear power is a must. It can be done efficiently, cost-effectively ... and safely.

Before a plant is built in the U.S., extensive studies are done at the site to account for potential natural hazards. Plants in different areas are built to different codes, to account for the likelihood of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding and other natural disasters.

"They're overdesigned," said David Wald of the U.S. Geological Survey. "They're very tough structures."

They had at one time also become prohibitively expensive structures. Unit 1 of the Watts Bar nuclear plant in Tennessee, the last nuclear reactor to go into service in the U.S., took 23 years to build and open and cost $6.2 billion. Though the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island stopped nuclear expansion, skyrocketing costs and endless construction delays had already started to cripple the industry.

The cost of nuclear power, however, is poised to come down, and its efficiency has been rising.

In mid-May, the Tennessee Valley Authority successfully rebuilt and restarted Unit 1 of the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, a five-year, $1.8 billion effort that came in on time and on budget. The reactor, which went into service in 1974, was shut down in 1985 after a series of problems, including a fire.On Aug. 1, the TVA agreed to complete work on Unit 2 of Watts Bar, a project that was suspended in 1985. The TVA is approaching this project the same way it approached the restart of Browns Ferry's Unit 1, laying out a realistic construction timeline.

Construction also isn't expected to take as long as it once did. The Harris 1 reactor outside Raleigh, N.C., received a construction permit in 1978, but didn't receive its operating permit until 1987. By combining the planned construction and anticipated operation review into one, the fast track licensing process instituted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to compress the normal time frame to four years. Construction on a plant could be finished in 36 months.

Inception to operation would take just seven years, meaning that new nuclear power plants could come online as early as 2015.

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said last May that nuclear power, along with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, has to be in the mix of technologies to curb global warming.

Nuclear power is a safer industry, it is a more efficient industry, and it is critical to answering energy demands and protecting the environment. The U.S. can have faith in nuclear power.

From podcasts to a mobile visitor center, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has won early recognition for 13 proposals that could be eligible for funding to celebrate the national park system's 100th anniversary in 2016.

 

"If these projects move forward through the budget process and to the next phase, the park will have a tremendous opportunity to provide expanded visitor services and programs," said Smokies Superintendent Dale Ditmanson.

 

The list includes such continuing activities as the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory to catalog all living creatures in the Smokies — the country's most-visited national park covering 520,000 acres on the Tennessee-North Carolina border.

 

There are also ongoing efforts to restore native brook trout, suppress invasive bugs attacking hemlocks, establish a permanent elk herd and expand the student intern program.

 

But the list, worth some $4.27 million, also includes new undertakings to appeal to a wider audience — audio and video podcasts to educate younger visitors, a mobile visitors center and a parks-as-classrooms educational program with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

 

There also are new exhibits for the proposed Oconaluftee Visitor Center in Cherokee, N.C., and renovated exhibits for the main Sugarlands Visitor Center in Gatlinburg.

 

New research activities also are proposed to study airborne mercury pollution and the impact of storms on aquatic ecosystems.

 

The Centennial Initiative program is designed to provide up to $3 billion for the parks over 10 years, beginning Oct. 1. The plan calls for $100 million a year in additional funding for maintaining the parks and $200 million more annually — half from private donations — for special projects.

 

National Park Service Director Mary Bomar and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced Thursday that more than 200 projects in 116 parks will be considered, including the 13 in the Smokies.

 

Ditmanson said additional funding could provide $1.9 million more annually to the Smokies for cost-of-living pay raises, seasonal employee hires and volunteer program enhancements.

 

Meanwhile, the Friends of the Smokies and Great Smoky Mountains Association support groups, both major donors to the park, "are ideally positioned" to stretch their donations through a centennial matching fund, he said.

Because of its potential to incur a massive earthquake, Shelby County has been chosen as one of three U.S. communities to be tested on how well it handles disasters.

 

The study, conducted by the the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Community and Regional Resilience Initiative, will use Shelby County, Gulfport, Miss., and a yet-to-be named Southeastern city to test community resilience and to develop a quick recovery plan.

 

"This gives us an outside set of eyes that can look into how prepared we are and help us establish milestones and baselines," said Ted Fox, the county's public works director.

 

He added that the agency will "use us as a laboratory" to test resiliency, meaning how quickly the county can return to a state of normalcy. The study is set to kick off in October.

 

Fox presented the study to commissioners earlier this week, along with a resolution calling for their support.

Commissioner George Flinn said the bridge collapse in Minneapolis on Wednesday provides a reminder that counties can never be too prepared for disaster, natural or otherwise. That's why he supports the study.

 

"This outside agency will say these areas are where you are strong and these areas are where you are weak," Flinn said. "We saw just (Wednesday) in Minneapolis that anything can happen. You can never be too prepared."

Commissioner Mike Ritz said he's also supportive of the study that may highlight what he sees to be the county's greatest shortfall -- communication.

 

"Quite frankly, to me the most important thing is to ensure that everybody who needs to talk to each other can, and we don't have that right now," Ritz said.

 

He added that if a disaster like the Minneapolis bridge collapse happens here, the substandard communication system between the county and West Memphis may pose the greatest hurdle.

 

"If our Mississippi River bridge falls due to an earthquake, a lot of the cellular phones won't be working," Ritz said. "We need to develop methods for communicating that don't involve towers."

 

Fox said the study will also address effects of disaster, including the economic impact on area schools and businesses.

 

"It will provide Memphis with an opportunity to set the pace and become a leader in resiliency that can be used as a template by other large municipalities," he said.

Army and Boeing Co. engineers hope Redstone Arsenal tests of a vehicle-mounted laser beam could one day help soldiers clear their path of dangerous roadside bombs, unexploded ordnance and enemy aerial vehicles.

 

Boeing is developing a laser pod that can be mounted on its Avenger Agile Multi-Role Weapon System. The one-kilowatt, solid-state laser would be used to destroy explosives and possibly shoot down enemy unmanned aerial vehicles, said Phil Hillman, Boeing project manager for the Avenger program in Huntsville.

 

"The key goal is to use the laser to melt away the explosives and destroy the bomb or unexploded ordnance at a safe distance without setting it off like it was intended to do. That will keep damage down and keep troops and people in a safe" area, Hillman said during last week's Space & Missile Defense Conference in Huntsville.

 

Boeing already uses its 20-year-old Avenger system as the foundation for its Agile Multi-Role Weapon System, which is designed to allow U.S. forces the ability to use a variety of rockets, guided missiles and guns to tackle ground and air threats.

 

The Army and Boeing have been testing those variants in combat in Iraq, and got feedback and opinions from combat troops who expressed a desire for a weapon that could be used to disable roadside bombs, said Debra Rub-Zenko, Boeing vice president for Integrated Missile Defense.

 

"We saw a way to use this platform in a different way and bring something more to" soldiers, Rub-Zenko said.

 

In addition to roadside bombs, Boeing engineers hope that the laser pod can be used to swat small enemy UAVs out of the sky, said Gary Fitzmire, Boeing vice president for directed-energy programs. "That's our plan for 2008," he said.

 

Fitzmire said the laser still has to be tested and improved, and "the key area we want to test out and develop is shoot-on-the-move capabilities to strike the UAVs."

 

The laser pod has to be stable so the advanced optics can be used to generate a beam to strike small aircraft such as UAVs. For ground use, the laser system will be tested at Redstone beginning around the first of September, Fitzmire said.

 

Hillman said the system would be produced and integrated at Boeing's Huntsville JetPlex facility.

Positioned at the junction of three valleys and a major river, Chattanooga has always been prime real estate for railroads. It's one of the city's most identifying characteristics and a major draw for tourism. For the last half-century, however, the railroad's monopoly on transit and freight has been overshadowed by the system of highways crisscrossing the nation. But the railroads may well be reborn as the nation's avenues of information and business, and the tracks laid in this ideal railroad town may give Chattanooga an ideal head start in the Information Age.

 

Rail lines, according to George Eichelberger at Norfolk Southern, have been selling right of way to national ISPs like Sprint and Quest for years. The old phone and cable companies had no trouble laying copper line along public streets and highways, but that was decades ago. Now, Eichelberger says, urban sprawl and improvement projects make streets a less viable option for laying lines. Railroads, on the other hand, are privately owned and protected.

 

It's linear property that can be bought at once, rather than in piecemeal patches of land, and it runs right to the heart of the nation's biggest cities. Thanks to geographic fortunes, railroads also converge on Chattanooga, which makes the city a new Internet hub. But what does it mean that the Internet has a lay-over in Chattanooga?

 

Jeff Averbeck at Chattanooga-based AirNet Group explains that, "it's just like pumping water — the closer you get to the source, the easier it is to get it." For AirNet, a local ISP, ease of access is everything. With a major piering point and junction for the Internet just south of them in Atlanta, Chattanooga has information on tap, giving AirNet and their customers a powerful resource. Even the topography of Chattanooga is friendly to advances in technology.

 

Wireless providers like AirNet have a major advantage in site-to-site connection, as the mountains surrounding the city allow direct line-of-site transmission to customers downtown. The bowl shape of Chattanooga that once held so much industrial smog is now a soup of connectivity. Even the municipal authorities are cashing in on the wealth in Chattanooga's connection. Mark Keil, head of the city's Information Services, has been busy establishing a wireless network for emergency personnel and police. The system, utilizing mobile, wireless cameras, will allow officers to access surveillance data before entering a potentially dangerous situation. To cut back on the cost of redundancy, Keil is buying access on the existing wireless networks in some areas of the city, areas that AirNet has been connecting for free. It saves the city money in establishing an infrastructure, and gives even more business to a local company.

 

But AirNet isn't the only Chattanooga company benefiting from the fiber. It's part of a city-wide cottage industry of IT, an industry bolstered in turn by a community of tech-savvy personnel. George Bairaktaris has worked in the Chattanooga tech industry for more than a decade, starting out with the city's first ISP, Chattanooga Online in 1996.

 

Bairaktaris watched the company move out of "a closet on UTC's campus," to its own location, sitting right on a rail line. For the fledgling company, location was everything. "When checking the maps," Bairaktaris says, "I noticed that in this one location, there were the POPs of [the three main service providers of the time] within blocks of each other. The only junction like that in the country was in San Jose, which has the largest POP in the country." (POP stands for "point of presence," an information translation point that is essentially the gateway to the World Wide Web.) Bairaktaris says that level of access saved Chattanooga Online $3,500 a month in connection costs. Out of Chattanooga Online's success, several employees, including Bairaktaris, joined up with Jeff Averbeck and others to form the multi-faceted online company, ST3. Starting in 1999, ST3 rode the crest of the information boom until it went under in 2001. According to Bairaktaris, the day following ST3's official closing, 92 of the 104 employees showed up to work and volunteered to keep the company going. A judge ordered them to stop unless they could raise $8 million in a certain time frame; they raised $6 million.

 

But ST3's failure spawned a host of companies, as different departments specialized into their own businesses. (See above sidebar.) Ken Smith, a managing partner with local Web and system design firm, Episode 49, was one of the founders of ST3. Ultimately, the loss of ST3 was a boon to the local economy, as it "let people focus on what they wanted to do rather than trying to do everything with one big company [with] too diverse a focus," Smith says.

 

Out of the ST3 fallout, Averbeck joined up with Keith Campbell to found AirNet, Ken Smith moved on with fellow ST3 alum Kurt Schaffer, making Episode 49, and George Bairaktaris helped bring Tubatomic Studios, another Web design company, to its headquarters in Chattanooga. All these companies know each other on a personal level, and support each other on a professional level, creating a network of businesses that are booming.

 

J. Ed Marston, vice president of marketing and communications with the Chamber of Commerce in Chattanooga, says that the information sector is the fastest growing industry in town. A factor contributing to growth, Marston says, is Chattanooga's high quality of life. Since it isn't a large city, Chattanooga avoids the downsides of urban life, attracting more young professionals. As Jeff Averbeck puts it, "We're not a tier 1 city," comparing Chattanooga to major hubs like Atlanta, "but we have the connection of a tier 1 city," granting Chattanooga the best of both worlds for starting companies.

 

The tremendous connection advantage afforded by the railroads, the visionary entrepreneurs tapping into that resource, and the room to grow provided by the area's relatively blank slate in technology combine to make Chattanooga's digital industry the little engine that could become a giant in the South.

A Knoxville company, Cadre5, is providing an emergency-alert system to the Pentagon, part of a broader move by the technology firm into security-related government markets.

 

In 2004, none of the company’s revenue came from government contracts, said company President and CEO Steve Hicks. Today, about 60 percent of Cadre5’s revenue is from the government sector.

 

“In our history, we’ve been somewhat dynamic,” Hicks said of the 8-year-old firm headquartered in West Knoxville. “We know what we’re good at, so we kind of move where the work is.”

 

Work on the alerting system began in 2005, when Cadre5 licensed a prototype of the system from another company and began to modernize it at the request of the Pentagon, which was looking to implement such a system in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

 

Cadre5’s software allows for “granular alerting,” sending different messages to different groups of people based on what they need to know in a specific emergency. System administrators can install alert messages in advance based on likely threats.

 

The Department of Defense-approved system, which Hicks said is also deployed at NASA and the U.S. Navy, provides two-way communications for users to receive and respond to alerts. It’s not just for emergencies — Hicks said the company advises clients to use it on a daily basis — but the features are designed to save valuable time in scenarios like a bomb threat, fire or worse.

 

“The alert should be sent out in seconds or minutes, not half-hours or hours,” Hicks said.

 

Cadre5, with projected revenue of about $6 million this year, still does software development and Web-based work for commercial clients, including IdleAire Technologies Corp., Heritage Log Homes and E.W. Scripps Co., Hicks said.

 

But in recent years, he said, Cadre5 has seen more opportunities in the public sector, and the company is focusing on opportunities with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies.

 

The 30-person firm has satellite offices in Oak Ridge, Nashville and Memphis, and it recently opened one in Huntsville, Ala. Hicks said the latter was “definitely associated with government opportunities,” given the large military and NASA presence in the North Alabama city.

 

In February, Cadre5 demonstrated a mobile system designed to detect chemical and radiological threats, developed in conjunction with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The company has sold one of the roughly $600,000 units to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, and Hicks said there has been interest from other potential clients.

 

Hicks said Cadre5 also was certified recently to be a subcontractor on a Boeing-led project to install sensors that can detect chemical, biological and nuclear materials along the U.S. border.

 

“It just shows how local companies are really affecting some national issues,” Hicks said.

If there is one company in Tennessee that has figured out how to make money out of thin air, it's EMJ Corp. Already the largest contractor in Tennessee (and 59th largest in terms of annual revenue in the country, according to Engineering News Record magazine's ranking this year), the 39-year-old construction firm that for decades has built shopping malls, entertainment and distribution buildings, three years ago went into the unlikely business of wind farm construction.

 

Less popular in the United States, the wind farm industry has been a staple in Europe, where countries like Denmark and Germany generate 20% of their electricity from wind. "And their wind speeds are much less than we have here in the U.S.," says Ben Fischer, president of Chattanooga-based Signal Wind Energy, the subsidiary started by EMJ to focus on wind farm construction. While wind power use in the States is significantly below 1%, it has been on the rise after skyrocketing fossil fuel costs sparked renewed interest in renewable energy. Suddenly, financing and energy giants such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and BP are getting into the wind business.

 

Naturally, investors willing to spend up to $400 million on a single wind farm project demand depth of experience and financial stability from the contractor, which is why Signal Wind is in demand, says Fischer, who previously worked at Siemens and power plant builder SCS Energy. Usually netting 20%-30% of the total project cost, Signal Wind is responsible for everything but supplying the wind turbines. It handles road construction and foundation work, installs electrical systems and the turbines, and then connects it all to the grid.

 

In mid-June, having just returned from the dedication ceremony of the Forest Creek Wind Project in Texas, Fischer and his staff of 30 were busy with six ongoing wind farm projects — and seven more in the pre-construction phase — with locations ranging from Northeast Texas to Vermont and from Minnesota to Canada. Signal Wind is currently building the country's largest wind farm near Snyder, Texas, which features 21 three-megawatt turbines atop 150-meter towers. Always trying to improve efficiency, Signal Wind relies heavily on EMJ staff and subcontractors. A typical project, which can take between three months to a year to complete, requires 80 to 100 people at the construction site. Sort of like a shopping mall job, but with better margins and a hip, renewable-energy pizzazz.

 

Even though the hills and hollows of Tennessee are far from ideal sites for wind farm construction, the state is home to several important industry players. Thomas & Betts of Memphis supplies components to wind farms, while Knoxville's Enernex does electrical utility studies. Wind tower builder Aerisyn opened a large production facility in Chattanooga in 2005. In the meantime, Signal Wind and EMJ are happy in Chattanooga, where they have a seemingly infinite supply of qualified workforce, steeped in experience at TVA and other energy-related ventures.

 

Expecting combined revenues of nearly $1 billion this year, EMJ hired another shopping mall builder, CBL, to construct its new headquarters downtown at Hamilton Place — probably because they were too busy building wind farms.

Eight-Week-Long Test Underscores Companies' Mutual Support of Hydrogen Technologies CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- As NASA engineers prepare to launch the Space Shuttle Endeavour today, BMW of North America and NASA announced the successful completion of an eight-week test period of the BMW Hydrogen 7 -- the first-ever hydrogen-powered luxury sedan.

The test period, which was initiated under a Space Act Agreement between NASA and BMW, underscores the organizations' shared commitment to advancing hydrogen technologies and to exploring innovative transportation concepts and alternative energy sources.

"We are very proud to have been able to offer this test period of the BMW Hydrogen 7 to NASA, an organization that truly is on the forefront of discovery and innovation and with whom we share a unique common goal: the use and ongoing research of liquid hydrogen solutions," said Karl-Heinz Ziwica, Vice President of Engineering, BMW of North America.

"It is the high energy density of liquid hydrogen that allows the space shuttle to be accelerated into space. The same concept is used to power the BMW Hydrogen 7. Using hydrogen as a fuel can potentially reduce CO2 emissions by 90 percent. The BMW Hydrogen 7 is tangible proof that hydrogen-drive vehicles are a very viable option for the future of sustainable mobility, and we're pleased that NASA was able to experience it first-hand."

During the test period, NASA personnel had full access to the fleet of BMW Hydrogen 7s, which run on a form of liquid hydrogen similar to what NASA uses in its shuttles. During their time with NASA, the vehicles -- which feature a dual combustion engine capable of running on liquid hydrogen or gasoline and shifting seamlessly between the two -- were conveniently refueled using the space center's liquid hydrogen fueling supply located on the space center's premises.

The BMW Hydrogen 7

Last year, BMW underscored its commitment to hydrogen-drive technologies with the debut of the BMW Hydrogen 7 -- the world's first hydrogen-drive luxury performance automobile -- to help stimulate demand for a viable hydrogen infrastructure in the long term. The car comes equipped with an internal combustion engine capable of running on either liquid hydrogen or gasoline and is based on the BMW 760Li. The V12 cylinder engine delivers 260 hp; the top speed of the Hydrogen 7 is 143 mph and acceleration 0-60 mph is 9.2 sec. When driving in hydrogen mode, emissions of the BMW Hydrogen 7 are virtually nothing but water vapor. Since the start of research and development in alternative fuel sources more than 25 years ago, BMW has focused on liquid hydrogen as the appropriate source of energy for the automobile. The car features a high-tech vacuum super-insulated hydrogen tank in which liquid hydrogen can be stored at the extremely low temperature of -423 degrees Fahrenheit (-253 degrees Celsius) for a long period of time -- the same insulating effect as a 17-meter-thick layer of Styrofoam. One hundred BMW Hydrogen 7s have been built, and 25 are used in test programs in the US. The cars have already covered more than 1.3 million miles in test programs around the globe.

Photo of the BMW Hydrogen 7 at the Kennedy Space Center available for free editorial use at www.newscastonline.com/media.

Extensive press material including high resolution pictures on the BMW Hydrogen 7 can be found at www.press.bmwgroup.com.

BMW Group In America

BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003. The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, an industrial design firm in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country. BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group's global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all Z4 models and X5 Sports Activity Vehicles. The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 338 BMW passenger car centers, 335 BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 142 BMW motorcycle retailers, 81 MINI passenger car dealers, and 30 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group's sales headquarters for North, Central and South America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

Congressman Bart Gordon (D-TN-6) and U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) today announced a Senate and House conference has completed work on a three-year, $43 billion initiative to double government funding for basic scientific research and create hundreds of new opportunities for math and science students, teachers and researchers.

Alexander and Gordon said Congress should complete work by the end of the week on the global competitiveness legislation designed to keep America's brainpower advantage. They also said the agreement reached last night by a Senate-House conference "will have a large and immediate impact in Tennessee," including

*Scholarships for hundreds of future math and science teachers

*Summer academies for teachers and students at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and universities such as Middle Tennessee State University

*Support for the state's proposed residential high school in math and science

*A 10 percent a year increase in funding for research and development in science and technology at universities and laboratories.

The legislation is the result of two years of bipartisan congressional work in response to recommendations found in the National Academies' "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" report. In 2005, Alexander, Gordon, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) had asked the National Academies for "specific recommendations to keep America's brainpower advantage."

Gordon is now chairman of the House Science Committee. Alexander and Bingaman are co-chairs of the Senate science and technology caucus.

"Keeping America's brainpower advantage is the single best way in a global economy to keep good jobs from going overseas to China, India and other fast growing countries," said Alexander, who served as lead Republican conferee on the legislation in the Senate. "Congress will enact no more significant piece of legislation this year. I congratulate Bart Gordon on his leadership."

"Keeping America competitive will help us keep good jobs on our nation's shores and ensure our ability to compete in a global marketplace," said Gordon the lead House negotiator. "That process begins with a high-quality educational system and follows with ideas and investments in people here at home."
The final compromise bill authorizes $43.3 billion during fiscal years 2008 - 2010 for science, technology, engineering and mathematics research and education programs spread across the federal government.

The America COMPETES Act puts research programs at the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Energy on a path to double their budgets during the next decade.

The Act also:

*Invests in the content training of thousands of science and math teachers through scholarship and partnership programs

*Fosters the engagement of high-risk, high-reward energy research and technology development

*Expands programs to enhance the undergraduate education of the science and engineering workforce and provides additional support for outstanding young investigators at federal agencies

*Increases the number of teachers serving high-need schools and expands the pool of qualified teachers of AP and IB classes

*Directs the president to convene a National Science and Technology Summit and establishes a President's Council on Innovation and Competitiveness.

The America COMPETES Act (S. 761) was jointly introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and ultimately attracted 69 bipartisan cosponsors. The bill was based on proposals in the Protecting America's Competitive Edge (PACE) Act, which Alexander introduced with Senators Bingaman, Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) early in 2005.

The 21st Century Competitiveness Act of 2007 (H.R. 2272), the House companion bill, was introduced by Gordon. The legislation was comprised of bills authored and steered by Gordon and other members of the Science and Technology Committee. Each of the bills previously passed the House by wide bipartisan margins.

Alexander sits on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and is a former U.S. Secretary of Education.

Gordon is the Chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee.

At a time when our national conversation is marked by divisiveness and stalemate, two Tennesseans have used bipartisan cooperation to assure America’s standing as the global leader in science and technology.

 

Sen. Lamar Alexander and Rep. Bart Gordon have shown exceptional leadership in shepherding the America COMPETES Act to passage in both the House and Senate. The bill takes a comprehensive approach to keep our nation at the forefront of scientific achievement and economic innovation.

 

As a professor of chemistry and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee and as the president-elect of the American Chemical Society (ACS), I can say that this bill is one of the most vital pieces of legislation passed in recent memory. It clearly represents a victory for ACS and its membership and for scientists at UT and other research universities across the country. But its impact on society will reach far past the walls of scientific laboratories to our future economic prosperity.

 

The bill’s name, COMPETES, stands for Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education and Science. At its core, though, the bill is about our nation’s ability to compete in a quickly evolving world.

 

First and foremost, the bill creates the essential educational infrastructure in the United States necessary to build a new generation of scientists and researchers. Teachers are critical to any effort to improve science and math education, and this bill provides for more and better teacher training in these vital fields. In addition, the bill creates a number of new scholarship programs to encourage students to pursue careers in the sciences and mathematics.

 

This new generation of scientific scholars must enter a world where there is adequate research funding, and this bill takes a giant leap toward addressing funding issues. Over the next seven years, the research funds at our nation’s three research leaders in the physical sciences — the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Institute for Standards and Technology — will double.

 

Research funded by these three agencies is a major driving force for innovation and remains the underpinning of our nation’s leadership in the sciences. The bill also creates new incentives to conduct research on the edge of possibility — the high-risk, high-reward work that can lead to new innovations in energy and other critical societal needs.

 

Our investment now in the nation’s scientific education and infrastructure can literally change the face of our world in ways we might not anticipate. For example, the World Wide Web, which has transformed information technology, communication and commerce, was created as a means to facilitate communication among scientists in high-energy physics. Discoveries such as these are at the heart of why investment in science is vital. They lead not only to knowledge but to entrepreneurship and business success.

 

In 2005, the National Academies, responding to requests from both Alexander and Gordon to look into the state of U.S. scientific and technological enterprise, presented a challenge to the nation in the form of a report titled “Rising Above the Gathering Storm.” This report, which was alarming in its bluntness, highlighted current failures in our training of science students at all levels from K-12 to college. It also laid out a plan for our nation to compete with the increasing scientific prowess of nations such as China and India.

 

The America COMPETES bill meets those challenges to set our nation on the path not only to greater competitiveness but to success and economic development. That accomplishment is all the better for having been led by two Tennesseans — Gordon and Alexander — in different houses of Congress, of different parties, who share a vision of an America that maintains its scientific leadership and economic strength for generations to come.

 

Bruce Bursten is a distinguished professor of chemistry and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee and is president-elect of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society with more than 160,000 members. His e-mail address is artscidean@utk.edu.

Congressman Zach Wamp, speaking to the Chattanooga Technology Council on Wednesday, said that with new technology, energy independence is attainable in the United States. “We don’t have to eliminate oil to be energy independent, just reduce it,” he said.

Congressman Wamp said the National Biofuels Initiative is distributing $375 million over the next three years to establish three centers for bio-fuel research. One of those centers, he said, is going to be at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL). ORNL will receive $125 million and will lead one-third of the nation in bio-fuel research.

The National Biofuels Initiative marks the first time in over 30 years that the U.S. had gotten serious about energy independence. The oil embargo of the 1970s was the last time, he said.

The future for Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley Corridor is bright, the congressman said. Chattanooga is halfway between Oak Ridge and Huntsville on the Tennessee Valley Corridor. “I can foresee mass production of fuel cells at Enterprise South,” he said. “This is our future and we must claim it.”

The Tennessee Valley Corridor, said Congressman Wamp, will lead this country in the coming years in stationary solid oxide fuel cell system design and production.

Rep. Wamp told the group that later in the day he, along with K.R. Sridhar from Bloom Energy Corporation and David Rayburn from Modine Manufacturing Company, would announce the coming of a 100kW Stationary Solid Oxide Fuel Cell demonstration system to the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

A 5kW solid oxide fuel cell already located at the UTC SimCenter on M. L. King Boulevard has been in operation for 18 months and the energy from it is already being sold back to TVA, Congressman Wamp said.

A 5kW solid oxide fuel cell can produce enough electricity to heat or cool a 5,000 square foot house. A 100kW fuel cell could heat or cool a 30,000 square foot office building or supermarket.

The beauty of a stationary solid oxide fuel cell, said Congressman Wamp, is that it is not connected to any transmission lines. It runs off one feedstock source such as natural gas or ethanol.

Speaking of ethanol, Congressman Wamp said, corn-based fuel could ruin our agriculture system and drive the price of corn too high as a food source. An alternative, he said, is switchgrass.

As an experiment, 40 acres of switchgrass is growing in west Tennessee near the city of Milan. Congressman Wamp said that switchgrass can become the feedstock for ethanol fuel production in the southeast. The grass in Milan is currently 9-feet tall and grows as much as 13-feet tall. It can be harvested twice a year and only has to be replanted every ten years. Commercial plants to convert switchgrass to ethanol could be built in the Tennessee Valley area.

The Congressman told the council that Brazil currently uses sugarcane as feedstock for ethanol production, and Ethanol-85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) is available at almost every gas station in Brazil.

For about $150 each, he said, our cars in the U.S. can be converted to burn Ethanol-85.

Congressman Wamp said that he is an advocate for more nuclear-powered energy production in America. France, he said, leads the world with 80% of their energy produced from nuclear plants.

“You can’t find a better nuclear program in America than right here at TVA,” he said. “TVA has six operating nuclear plants and they run them safely and economically.” “I applaud TVA for announcing the planned completion of a second reactor at Watts Bar,” he said.

According to the Congressman, the problem we have in America with nuclear energy is with storing the nuclear waste.

France, he said, uses a nuclear fuel recycle system that takes the spent fuel and turns it usable fuel or plutonium. That process partially closes the loop in the nuclear fuel cycle.

Whereas France has 56 nuclear reactors, the U.S. has 106, Rep. Wamp said. France has one nuclear recycle center; the U.S. would need two. Our current nuclear waste disposal system, he said, is to store it onsite for eventual shipment to the Department of Energy Yucca Mountain Repository in Nevada.

Congressman Wamp said that within the next 10 years he expects a closed nuclear fuel cycle plant to be demonstrated in Tennessee.

Another need in America is a second form of mass transportation, Congressman Wamp said. “Our air transportation is just one incident away from being grounded,” he said. “The MagLev (magnetic levitation) high-speed rail proposal between Chattanooga and Atlanta is a long-shot, but we (as a nation) will be paralyzed if we do not develop a ground-based mass transit system.”

If MagLev is started in the U.S., the first line would be built between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, he said. The Atlanta to Chattanooga route would be built second. MagLev is an exciting possibility, just not a probability, he said.

“People in America are beginning to realize that change is needed,” Congressman Wamp said. “It’s up to Congress make it happen.”

Congressman Wamp told of meeting a group of Battle Academy 5th graders at the Challenger Center at UTC earlier in the day. He said the students were wearing t-shirts that had ‘Battle Geek’ printed on the front. Upon inquiring, he learned that these students have expressed an interest in math and science at their school.

He said that he told them he was proud of them for tackling the tough subjects like math and science because our country will be relying upon them for future technology and scientific advancements.

Paul Weidlich, president of the Chattanooga Technology Council, made the introduction of Congressman Wamp to the council. After citing all of Rep. Wamp’s appointments and chairmanships of various committees and caucuses related to energy and technology he said, “Zach Wamp is a Tech Council kind of Congressman.”

The only way to address global warming is through nuclear power, and reprocessing nuclear waste would solve the problem of what to do with contaminated material, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp said Thursday.

 

"Over 80 percent of France's electricity is nuclear power," Rep. Wamp, R-Tenn., said. "What do they do with the waste? They don't bury it. They turn it back into energy and reprocess it."

 

Rep. Wamp, of Chattanooga, toured the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City on Thursday and held a news conference afterward touting an experimental process that takes nuclear waste and burns it as energy.

 

Tennessee Valley Authority officials said the U.S. Department of Energy has four proposals for demonstrations of nuclear waste reprocessing. One of the proposals involves TVA, officials said.

 

"You have to accept nuclear power," Rep. Wamp said. "It is zero emissions. It is no carbon emissions."

 

Dr. Edwin Lyman, a senior staff scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C., said Thursday that while proponents of reprocessing nuclear power make it sound good, it is a "bad idea" because it creates a possible security risk and actually develops more waste.

 

During reprocessing, plutonium is separated from uranium, creating weapons-grade material, he said. That material could be stolen by terrorists and made into a nuclear bomb, Dr. Lyman said.

 

"The U.K. has piled up 100 tons of plutonium, and that's the equivalent of tens of thousands of nuclear bombs," he said.

 

Reprocessing also creates more waste because any chemicals or materials used become waste, he said. Plus, any fuel made from reprocessing is not as desirable as the original, he said.

 

Rep. Wamp said there are 103 commercial nuclear reactors online right now and 140 need to go online to address future U.S. energy needs. Reusing spent fuel from reactors would cut nuclear waste by 80 percent, he said.

 

But in order to do that, a congressional act would need to be passed, he said.

 

"It's not in our national policy," Rep. Wamp said.

 

U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers (KY-05) announced today that $1.45 million is slated to go the University of Kentucky to develop coal to liquids technology which would reduce dependence on foreign oil and open new markets for Kentucky's coal mining economy. The funding measure passed the House of Representatives last week and now moves on to the Senate for further consideration.

 

"As we've seen so many times in American history, the power to innovate leads to drastic improvements in people's lives," said Rogers. "We've been addicted to foreign oil for a long time and have paid a steep price for it, and not just at the gas pump either. Now is the time to make targeted investments that get our best and brightest working on alternative approaches to our nation's energy needs starting with the coal beneath our feet."

 

There are many promising applications for the expanded use of coal as a means to replace crude oil for transportation fuels and chemicals by using coal-to-liquids technology. The funding will expand capabilities at the University of Kentucky's Center for Advanced Energy Research to deliver test quantities of synthetic fuels for evaluation in civilian and military applications. Funding will support the design of a pilot plant for fuel conversion which will produce quantities of refined products large enough for testing and evaluation purposes.

 

The University of Kentucky center will also conduct research that will make the coal-to-liquid process more efficient and environmentally friendly. Additional research into the manufacturing process of coal-to-liquid technology is widely seen as the critical next step to gaining market acceptance of this alternative fuel.

 

Rogers works to secure funding for important projects throughout Kentucky in his role as a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee.

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker said in a conference call Monday that he is considering supporting legislation that would set up a national carbon trading market.

 

The freshman Republican returned Sunday from a two-day trip to Greenland with nine other senators to tour a glacier that holds 10 percent of the world’s fresh water and learn about climate change. The delegation was led by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

 

“I think there’s a way in this world community we can work together ... to make all our energies more secure by focusing on alternative fuels,” Corker said. “This is something we want to play a very constructive role in.”

 

Corker said he is “leaning” toward supporting a so-called “cap-and-trade” system, which would limit carbon

dioxide emissions and then set up a market for businesses to trade credits. The market system would allow businesses with carbon emissions lower than the cap to sell shares of their allowances.

 

The carbon market is touted to help the environment by providing economic benefit to companies that emit less carbon dioxide, which scientists say is responsible for global warming.

 

Corker, who is a minority member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he anticipates a Senate debate over a carbon trading system to begin this fall.

 

Corker said he is not sure if humans are contributing to climate change but says there should be solid energy policy changes regardless.

 

An international group of scientists released a report this year that suggests human activity is responsible for climate change with 90 percent certainty.

 

“If (scientists) are right, we develop a policy that is right,” Corker said. “And even if for whatever reason this body of thought that scientists have on climate change is wrong over time, we have an ability to put in place policies for our country that make us energy-secure.”

 

European countries have implemented a cap-and-trade carbon market in recent years, and Corker said Europe’s experience will provide a basis for tweaking the system for use in the United States.

 

Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., are expected to introduce legislation that would lay the groundwork for a carbon trading system in the U.S., Corker said.

 

He said he hopes to find a marriage of economic benefit and increased energy dependence, while decreasing reliance on foreign oil stocks.

Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) today announced that the House of Representatives fully funded the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Exploration Systems at the President's requested level of $3.923 billion.

"This is an important day for NASA and the Marshall Space Flight Center in particular. For the last several years NASA, particularly its exploration programs, has suffered from a lack of funding that has compromised its core missions," said Congressman Aderholt. "My hope is that this is only the first step in an ongoing effort to ensure that the United States remains a leader in space exploration."

The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives today by a vote of 281 to 142.

On April 18, 2007, Congressman Aderholt sent a letter to Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Chairman Alan Mollohan and Ranking Member Rodney Frelinghuysen requesting that NASA Exploration Systems be funded at $4.423 billion. This amount was a $500 million increase over the President's requested level. This increase was intended to make up for the $500 million cut that occurred when Congress passed the FY2007 Continuing Resolution earlier this year.

"This significant cut in funding for NASA's Exploration Systems was one of the reasons that I voted against the Continuing Resolution," said Congressman Aderholt. "NASA told Congress that it would take this $500 million increase in order to make them whole. While that hasn't happened yet I hold out hope that as this bill moves through the legislative process additional money will be found to make this happen."

The FY2008 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies bill provides the annual funding for several federal departments including the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Justice Department, NASA and other agencies.

The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate for further action. 

Gov. Phil Bredesen and Environment and Conservation Commissioner Jim Fyke announced that 14 applicants are eligible to receive Alternative Fuel Innovations Grants totaling more than $881,000.

“This grant program was designed to encourage local governments and public universities to assess opportunities to increase their use of biofuels and create projects to take advantage of those opportunities,” said Bredesen. “I’m pleased to see the variety and innovation represented by these projects as we continue to expand the use and production of alternative fuels in Tennessee.”

In 2006, Governor Bredesen proposed $4 million in state funding, which was approved by the General Assembly, for Tennessee’s alternative fuels initiatives. In February, Bredesen dedicated $1 million of these funds for Alternative Fuel Innovations Grants to help local governments and public universities increase the alternative fuel use in their fleets and measure positive impacts to state air quality, particularly in areas not currently attaining federal air quality standards.

“The grant awards show both governments and universities are taking advantage of this opportunity to improve air quality by increasing their use of alternative fuels,” said Deputy Commissioner Paul Sloan, who represents the Department of Environment and Conservation on the Governor’s Alternative Fuels Working Group. “Making cleaner burning fuels more readily available to fleets, while at the same time providing additional research experiences to universities, is an important step in the right direction.”

The 14 Alternative Fuel Innovations Grant recipients and project descriptions are:

 

-City of Chattanooga/City Yards Refueling Station - $35,162 to purchase and install one new E85 fuel tank and pump at City Yards to serve Chattanooga’s fleet of 157 flex fuel vehicles.

-City of Chattanooga/Amnicola Highway Refueling Station - $35,162 to purchase and install one new E85 (ethanol) fuel tank and pump to serve the Amnicola Highway Refueling Station.

-City of Kingsport - $39,250 to offset the cost of converting the city’s 200+ diesel vehicles to B20 (biodiesel). All fleet vehicles will be marked with signage to show the use of biofuels. Kingsport will also partner with Charter Communications to produce an informational video on the importance of alternative fuels and develop additional educational materials for public distribution.

-City of Oak Ridge – $18,000 to offset the cost of converting the city’s 70 vehicle fleet to B20.

-Cleveland State Community College - $84,000 to develop a Biodiesel Learning Lab in the newly proposed Cleveland/Bradley Energy Business Incubator, which will be located on the Cleveland State campus and will house the college’s Biodiesel Education Program. Grant funding will also help purchase necessary equipment to convert food waste products to biodiesel blends of B20.

-East Tennessee State University - $25,600 to install an E85 storage tank and dispensing system on campus in order to convert its 106 flex fuel vehicles to E85.

-Middle Tennessee State University - $79,700 to purchase a Toyota Prius and convert it to a plug-in flex fuel vehicle, to operate on electricity, solar power, hydrogen and ethanol. The vehicle will be used in the MTSU motor pool after the research phase.

-Middle Tennessee State University/Center for Green Energy Management – $97,621 to convert used cooking oil into biodiesel. The project will allow innovative chemical reaction methods to be evaluated and work to develop a catalyst that will lower the cost of production while ensuring that ASTM specifications for biodiesel are met.

-University of Memphis - $99,998 to build a biodiesel production unit. The unit will be designed, built and operated by the university’s students and faculty and will have a production capacity that will enable them to replace conventional diesel with biodiesel in campus vehicles. The unit may also be utilized as a testing resource for commercial biodiesel producers facing challenges related to feedstock variability, product quality and operational efficiency.

-University of Tennessee/Agricultural Experiment Station - $73,120 to purchase a baler, scales and trailer to study the most economical harvest method of cellulosic material for ethanol production.

-University of Tennessee/College of Engineering - $75,000 to provide demonstrations across Tennessee of hydrogen generation/fueling and operation of a university owned hydrogen-fueled vehicle. The university will demonstrate the ability to generate hydrogen using conventional energy sources, storage and dispensing of hydrogen and the operation of a hydrogen fueled vehicle.

-University of Tennessee/Facility Services - $78,723 to build upon the UT Biodiesel Production Plant by producing biodiesel from waste cooking oil collected from UT dining services. The biodiesel will be tested to ASTM specifications and the fuel that meets those specifications will be used in Facility Services’ 26 diesel trucks.

-University of Tennessee - $100,000 to design and construct a small-scale biodiesel production facility capable of producing ASTM specification diesel from a wide-range of feedstocks. Feasibility research will be conducted using various feedstocks for biodiesel production, including soybeans, switch grass, algae and other agricultural residues.

-University of Tennessee - $40,000 to install a tank and pump to store and dispense the biodiesel produced at the production facility, above. Promotional materials will also be purchased for university vehicles using the biodiesel.

Maximum Innovations grant awards are $40,000 for fuel purchasing, maintenance or fuel promotional projects and $100,000 for capital projects.

UT President John Petersen touted the university's alternative fuels initiative during a visit to Chattanooga on August 2, describing it as an economic engine for the state.

 

The University of Tennessee received $40.7 million in the state's fiscal 2007-08 budget to build a pilot plant that will convert switchgrass, trees and other woody materials into ethanol for fuel.

 

UT has identified almost a million and a half acres in Tennessee that is suitable for growing switchgrass, he said.

 

"Ultimately in 10 or 15 years, we could be looking at the production of enough ethanol to replace a third of the fuel that we use in this state," Dr. Petersen said during a luncheon with community leaders at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

 

Dr. Petersen's visit to Chattanooga was part of a week-long tour of the UT system's campuses.

Thanks to an Army reorganization plan, Huntsville stands to gain about 350 additional Space & Missile Defense Command jobs on top of military work slated to come here because of the 2005 base realignment decisions, a command chief deputy said Friday.

 

Michael Schexnayder, SMDC deputy for research, development and acquisition, said the command reorganization would bring 50 jobs from Colorado Springs, Colo., to Huntsville "and possibly up to 300 from Kwajalein" Island, part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

 

Kwajalein has been used by the Pentagon since 1961 for launching missiles and rockets and testing ballistic missile defense systems. About 2,500 people live on the island, mostly Defense Department workers.

 

Schexnayder said the move is part of a reorganization of SMDC to streamline some of the missile defense engineering support functions the command provides and should be completed by the end of next year. The exact number of positions being transferred from Kwajalein is not finalized, he said.

 

Schexnayder made his remarks to more than 1,000 people during a BRAC update presentation at the Von Braun Center on Friday. Representatives from SMDC, the Army Aviation and Missile Command, Army Materiel Command and Missile Defense Agency made presentations about the BRAC plan to bring 4,500 jobs to Redstone Arsenal by 2011.

 

All the representatives stressed that their internal surveys showed that about 15 to 20 percent of employees have elected to move. However, Army Brig. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, MDA deputy director, said those figures were normal this early in the BRAC process.

 

"We are finding that the longer you give people to decide and the more information you provide, the more likely people will move" to the Tennessee Valley, O'Reilly said.

 

Robert Harrison, a key civilian aide to Army Materiel Command chief Gen.

Benjamin Griffin, said plans to move about 2,000 jobs from that command to Redstone are on track. Harrison said a four-phase program would shift the workers to Redstone "without interrupting our support to" soldiers, he said.

 

Harrison said AMC workers are being asked to volunteer to move here to set up an advance team to prepare for the next phase of the move, which will bring about 163 people to Huntsville.

 

Those people will be put in place by mid-2008, he said.

 

By summer 2010, AMC managers want the bulk of the 2,000 jobs to be in place on Redstone and for the new headquarters to be completed, Harrison said. "We want to be fully in place and have all our (jobs) filled by January 2011."

 

The MDA is moving jobs to Redstone and is ahead of the BRAC schedule, O'Reilly said.

 

MDA employees are moving into their new $44 million office building on Redstone, part of the Von Braun Office Complex. O'Reilly said the office will allow the agency to move employees to Huntsville more efficiently by providing a staging area.

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge office got a big lift in late July when Clay Sell, the deputy energy secretary, approved the “mission need” — known as Critical Decision-0 in federal parlance — for the Integrated Facilities Disposition Program.

 

IFDP is a huge cleanup program that would dismantle more than 200 old facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex.

 

Gerald Boyd, DOE’s Oak Ridge manager, said his team would begin work on CD-1 during the rest of this year and 2008.

 

“That’s planning for the schedule and a better cost estimate and scope of what’s going to be done,” Boyd said.

 

The more detailed planning is required to support the program’s funding path in Congress. The price tag could reach billions of dollars, based on some estimates.

 

The project is enormously important to DOE and the federal contractors at ORNL and Y-12 because it supports modernization plans already under way and will help with future cleanup projects — including treatment of polluted groundwater at the sites.

 

This is one to watch.

Thirty-five years after breaking ground at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, TVA plans to finish what it started.

 

On Wednesday, the federal utility’s board of directors unanimously approved completion of the Unit 2 reactor at the Spring City, Tenn., plant, about 65 miles southwest of Knoxville.

 

The construction effort is expected to last five years and cost $2.49 billion.

 

Against a backdrop of growing demand for power, rising fuel costs and impending regulation of carbon emissions from fossil fuel plants, TVA’s management cast Watts Bar Unit 2 as a necessary addition to the federal utility’s portfolio of power plants.

 

“We are convinced Unit 2 offers TVA and its stakeholders the most economically and environmentally sound means of serving the valley’s future power needs,” board Director Howard Thrailkill said before the vote.

 

TVA expects to complete the 1,180-megawatt reactor in 2013. It will generate enough electricity to power 650,000 homes. The Watts Bar reactor would be TVA’s seventh at three plants in Tennessee and Alabama.

 

The decision on Watts Bar 2 follows the successful restart in May of the Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in north Alabama, a five-year effort costing at least $1.8 billion that drew a visit from President Bush in June.

 

The Watts Bar 2 reactor — estimated to be about 60 percent complete — represents a different challenge than Browns Ferry 1, which ran for more than a decade before being shut down in 1985.

 

“It’s more engineering at Watts Bar than materials and craft, whereas at Browns Ferry, it was more craft than engineering,” said Ashok Bhatnagar, TVA’s senior vice president of nuclear generation and development. “Because Browns Ferry ran for such a long period of time, there was more wear and tear on the equipment.”

 

The Browns Ferry restoration was paid for directly out of revenues from TVA’s power system. TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore said the utility would borrow 60 to 70 percent of the construction costs for Watts Bar 2.

 

During Wednesday’s four-hour meeting at TVA’s downtown Knoxville headquarters, the federal utility’s directors and management heard an earful from 17 speakers on both sides of the nuclear divide. Anti-nuclear activists criticized the description of nuclear power as “clean,” pointing to the nuclear waste created and the energy-intensive process of mining and enriching uranium for nuclear fuel.

 

“Nuclear power is not clean, and the idea that you all found no significant impacts on your environmental impact statement is a joke,” said Earth First! activist John Johnson, referring to a federally required environmental study released in June.

 

Stephen Smith, executive director of Knoxville-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, asked TVA board members to delay the decision and undergo a more transparent review of the project.

 

Smith also criticized TVA for basing its cost and scheduling estimates on a $20 million study done in part by Bechtel Power Corp. and other contractors that likely will work on the reactor’s construction.

 

“You’re basically relying on this company that is going to walk away with billions of dollars from actually doing the work,” Smith said. “I actually think that’s the definition of a conflict of interest.”

 

Bhatnagar said after the meeting that contractors for the project will be selected through a competitive bid process to be reviewed by an independent team.

 

Several speakers offered support for the project, including Thom Mason, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Ken Jones, mayor of Meigs County; and representatives of the public electric utilities and directly-served industries that make up TVA’s customer base.

 

Jim Cobb, a state representative whose district includes both Watts Bar and Sequoyah nuclear plants, said his experience as a senior reactor operator at the Watts Bar plant gave him confidence in its safety.

 

He stressed the importance, however, of being prepared for the impact on Rhea and Meigs counties of a construction effort that, at its peak, will employ as many as 2,300 workers.

 

“We also ask that you take into consideration the fact that our schools are already overcrowded,” Cobb said.

 

The Watts Bar plant was one of TVA’s most controversial projects, marked by safety complaints, regulatory problems, protests, construction stoppages and cost overruns. The single operating reactor at Watts Bar was completed in 1996 — the last new nuclear plant to come online in the United States — at a cost of $6.9 billion.

 

Construction on Watts Bar 2 was halted in 1985 when TVA shut down its entire nuclear program, and the utility’s board wrote off $1.7 billion of related construction costs in 2001.

 

TVA canceled eight of 17 planned reactors in the early 1980s, and the ambitious program contributed to much of the agency’s nearly $23 billion debt. But TVA officials say they’re now taking a more measured approach to nuclear power.

 

“We’re lucky that we’re not trying to build four or five of these things at the same time, as TVA got beat up about in the past,” said TVA Chairman Bill Sansom.

The bad guys got bloodied, and nuclear terror was averted — at least for the day.

 

That was the outcome of Thursday’s intense exercise at a one-of-kind training facility at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant.

 

Members of a special unit from the Louisiana National Guard battled extreme heat — it was 140 degrees inside their protective suits — to test their nuke-detection skills and equipment. They were preparing for the type of terrorist event that many experts believe is inevitable.

 

In this training scenario, the team members surveyed a stolen van after terrorists inside had been killed in a shootout. They knew, based on preliminary monitoring, that radioactive materials were inside. As it turned out, the smoking van was hauling so-called dirty bombs that could have been exploded to disperse radioactive materials across a large area.

 

“The purpose of our unit is to respond to catastrophic events, whether it be weapons of mass destruction or terrorist events, a flood or hurricane, anywhere within our state or — if needed — anywhere in the United States,” Maj. Greg Parker, commander of the 62nd Civil Support Team from Louisiana, said after the exercise.

 

Members of the news media were invited to view the test at the Nuclear and Radiological Field Training Center, a relatively new training site at a secure ridgetop location near Y-12.

 

Kurt Westerman, former leader of a U.S. Army nuclear disablement team, heads the Oak Ridge training facility. It’s based at a converted World War II-era facility that once was a storehouse for uranium used in atomic bombs.

 

Westerman said the Y-12 facility is the only place in the United States where emergency responders can train with “relevant” amounts of radioactive materials in a high-security setting with the assistance of top-level nuclear experts. He said the four trainers have more than 100 years of experience responding to dangerous situations around the world.

 

The Y-12 official said he could not discuss the specific kinds of radioactive materials used in the training exercises or the actual amounts.

Nearly 200 acres of property at Enterprise South (the former Volunteer Army Ammunitions Plant) was formally gifted to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga from the U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday.

The dedication ceremony celebrating the deed transfer was held on the site of the UTC field classroom and attended by Mary Hughes, director of the Federal Real Property Assistance Program, U.S. Department of Education, along with representatives from Chattanooga and Hamilton County governments, the university and the business community.

"This is a win-win for the community as well as the federal government," Ms. Hughes said. "The transfer was made at no expense to taxpayers, and comes with a significant public benefit, as well."

She said the property would be put to good use for education purposes and economic development.

She added that another parcel on the property was being discussed as an additional acquisition for the university.

The most significant aspect of the gift is the size, officials said. UTC's current downtown campus covers just less than 120 acres. This new property at Enterprise South provides space that in the future could almost double the size of the current campus.

"We are tremendously appreciative for this vote of confidence from the federal government," said Dr. Roger Brown, UTC chancellor. "When you consider all of the opportunities that become possible with a site of this magnitude, the prospects are almost unlimited.

"Just as our business and government leaders look to this Enterprise South property as the catalyst for economic sustainability in our community, students and faculty members from our biology department are looking to ensure that the land continues to sustain the wildlife that is already here. This represents a perfect marriage of academic pursuit and economic development."

Chancellor Brown announced that UTC is a host institution for the 2008 Society for Conservation Biology convention, which is scheduled to bring more than 1,700 scientists and policymakers from around the world to Chattanooga in July 2008.

The Society for Conservation Biology has more than 10,000 members representing 140 nations. Past conferences have been held in China, South Africa, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and other major cities in the United States.

University biologists have already begun to explore the wildlife and plant life on the site, allowing students to conduct research in the field. Much of the land is a pine plantation with some hardwoods. A wetland, owned by Hamilton County schools, has become a hot spot for biological research. More than 100 students are expected to study and perform biological research in the field at the Enterprise South site during the fall and spring semesters.

A low metal drift fence around the wetland has become the backdrop for strategically placed buckets in the ground, where Dr. Thomas P. Wilson's classes in the UTC Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences can examine the wildlife that enters the wetland, according to Dr. Timothy Gaudin, professor of Biological and Environmental Sciences at UTC.

"Frogs, turtles, snakes, mice, shrews and small terrestrial vertebrates have all been present," said Dr. Gaudin. "Salamanders are most interesting. Dr. Wilson has set up a long term project to study the breeding of salamanders."

Dr. Wilson explored the site this week with a visiting student scientist from China, Fei Yan Zhang. Mr. Zhang is also interested in Dr. Wilson's turtle conservation research at the Tennessee Aquarium and on the Tennessee River. Mr. Zhang's U.S. trip is supported by the Asian Scholarship Program, part of the Turtle Survival Alliance that works in cooperation with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

East Tennessee State University J. Phil Andrews has been named vice president of Business Operations and chief financial officer for Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). Andrews will also serve as the deputy director for operations for the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE).

 

In his new position, Andrews will oversee all financial, facility, communications, information systems, security and infrastructure support services.

 

“We are very excited to have Phil join the ORAU management team,” said ORAU President Ron Townsend. “He has the experience and expertise we’ve been looking for, and he will help lead us to an even higher level of operational excellence.

 

Andrews’s duties will include providing executive level leadership for the operations of five departments. He will lead the development and implementation of policies and procedures in the areas of financial management, contract management, communications and public relations, information technology, facilities, transportation and security. In addition, he will serve as the ORAU staff liaison to the finance and audit committee of the ORAU Board of Directors and as treasurer of the ORAU Foundation Board.

 

Andrews worked at Boeing in Oak Ridge for 26 years and, most recently, served as Boeing commercial airline manager/government and community relations manager. Andrews received both his bachelor’s degree in accounting and his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is a certified public accountant.

 

Andrews also sits on the board of directors for the State of Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce and the East Tennessee Economic Council.

 

ORAU is a university consortium leveraging the scientific strength of 98 major research institutions to advance science and education by partnering with national laboratories, government agencies and private industry. ORAU manages the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the U.S. Department of Energy.

More than 100 students, ages 18 to 24, from 35 states, who are working for Marshall Space Flight Center this summer, had a unique opportunity provided to them by the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce during its first Student Recruiting Event held July 24 in the South Tower of ADTRAN Inc., located in Cummings Research Park.

 

The students, many of whom still have one to two years of school to complete, were not looking for immediate employment but instead were introducing themselves and learning more about the many opportunities in Huntsville. Also participating in this event were 16 local companies and organizations.

 

Several years ago Aaron Brown was in a similar situation while earning his degree. As a participant in one of the Armys Educational Outreach Programs he was able to gain on-the-job experience and guidance from his mentors and then become a full-time employee with the Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center.

 

I started my employment in July 1999 in the Science and Engineering Apprentice Program with the Unmanned Ground Vehicles/Systems Joint Project Office, Brown said. In January 2001 I started working in the CT Division as an engineering aide in the Cooperative Education Program. Upon completion of my bachelor of science degree in 2003 from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in computer engineering, I was accepted as a full-time employee.

 

Since that time I have gone on to receive my masters degree in computer engineering from Walden University.

 

The event proved to be stressful, informative and an overall success.

 

The format for the event based on speed dating was a new way of doing a job fair, but in my opinion it was very successful, Army Materiel Command representative Karen Bandera said. We were able to speak to a lot of students in a very short time and hopefully interest them in working for AMC whether it be at AMRDEC, AMCOM or the headquarters. AMC participated to have an opportunity to broaden students awareness of AMC and I think we accomplished our goal resumes are already coming in.

 

The students, in groups of four, were allowed one minute to give an introductory elevator speech and then it was the companys turn to provide its one-minute presentation.

 

Roger Berry, chief of the Electronics and Computer Technology Division at AMRDEC, gave a presentation to the students. His talk incorporated the Guidance and Control Section that was built by AMRDEC for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System technology demonstration program

 

This activity is a good illustration of the type of hands-on engineering done at AMRDEC, Berry, a mechanical engineer who has worked at ASGE Directorate since 1982, said. The point I tried to make with the students is that AMRDEC is a great place to work because: one, outstanding hands-on engineering work, like the GMLRS design, development and test; two, great opportunities for graduate education; and three, job stability. I also told them that GMLRS was a system that was ultimately transitioned to our Soldiers and is now in production.

 

When the bell rang, the students then moved to the next station until they had visited with all 16 in the event.

 

The AMC team took the approach of showing the students a sample of hands on work for a missile guidance system at AMRDEC, Bandera said. Students were impressed that they could actually do hands-on work and not sit at a desk all day.

 

Berrys hands-on hardware display showcased one of the many AMRDEC successes throughout its history and demonstrated to the students what they would be doing if employed by the center.

 

From his perspective as a former SEAP student and now a full-time employee, Brown summed up the event and offered some advice to the students.

 

I think it is excellent anytime we have a chance to make a positive impact on younger kids coming up, he said. I know how much guidance and advice meant to me as I was trying to find my way in life. My hope is that whether these kids come and join the AMRDEC or not, that we are able to impress on them the importance of staying in school and earning their degree. We would love to have them in the AMRDEC sure, but their success in life is far more important.

Four college students had an out-of-this world experience at the Flight Robotics Lab at Marshall Space Flight Center this summer.

 

Kyle Unfus, Kristie Llera, Jonathan Minder and Kyrie Jig participated in the NASA Robotics Academy from June until August.

 

The Robotics Academy is new in Huntsville, noted Frank Six of the Academic Affairs Office at Marshall. The program started at Goddard Space Flight Center three years ago.

 

"The purpose of the program is to give them experience," Six said. The students are all majoring in technical disciplines such as mechanical engineering and physics. They came to Huntsville from colleges in Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., Florida and Missouri.

 

The students reacted enthusiastically when asked if they enjoyed the experience.

 

"I want to work for NASA," announced Llera, a physics and space sciences undergraduate at Florida Institute of Technology. The other three students nodded vigorously in agreement.

 

Unfus, a graduate student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, said he especially enjoyed working on the assignment, knowing it was "a real project that has implications."

 

According to Unfus, the leader of the student team, the group worked on modifying the existing architecture for a Small Air Sled (SAS) and created a wireless control station to operate the vehicle manually.

 

The vehicle, which is the size of a large cart, operates on a special 84 foot by 44 foot epoxy "flat floor" housed in the Flight Robotics Lab at Marshall. The SAS "floats" on a small cushion of air, using its 18 thrusters to translate and rotate, according to Unfus.

 

Together, the SAS and the flat-floor facility are like a large version of the popular air hockey game, except, "the puck is the air sled," noted Llera.

 

The sled has gyros, laser range finders and other equipment to obtain position, acceleration and velocity measurements on the floor relative to its environment. The SAS can determine its position relative to a docking station on the edge of the floor. This information is recorded and analyzed using one on-board laptop computer. A second computer, also on-board, receives the data. Using a second program, the sled automatically docks with the docking station in real-time, Unfus said.

 

The group had to take the existing hardware and software associated with the SAS, adapt it and wirelessly transmit telemetry to a wireless control station (WiCS). The goal of the project was to provide a working control station that will allow for manual to automatic comparison of timing and efficiency for the SAS, according to Unfus.

 

The student work was supervised by the Automated Rendezvous and Capture group at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

 

"Automated Rendezvous and Docking was asked if we would be interested in hosting a NASA Academy Robotics team," said Linda Brewster, deputy branch chief/avionics systems test branch. Applications from across the country were evaluated and the students were selected based on experience and interests. The team was then given a list of potential projects. They selected the remote control of the SAS, she said.

 

The SAS is one of the Flight Robotics Lab key capabilities for developing and testing docking sensors, Brewster said. The ability to control the sled remotely will add a "pilot" type of interface to the vehicle simulator, she said.

 

In addition to working on their research project, the students went on field trips to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University to view robotics research, and also to Johnson Space Center. They also traveled to the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, where they observed the use of robotics in the automotive industry.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities is a consortium of universities and colleges across the Southeast that partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to bring education and technology closer to students and school faculty, according to ORAU President Ron Townsend.

 

The government contractor, which operates the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the Department of Energy, is a not-for-profit organization that focuses largely on science, education, and public health.

 

"We are about filling the pipeline of future science and technology leaders," Townsend told members of Leadership Oak Ridge Alumni. The group held its last meeting recently before taking a summer hiatus until September.

 

ORAU's mission is four-fold, according to Townsend. It strives to strengthen U.S. scientific research and education, build the public's trust of the management of former DOE workers' health and environmental clean-up, and enhance national preparedness to respond to acts of terrorism or national disasters.

 

First and foremost, Townsend said, "We are national leaders in science education."

 

ORAU recruits thousands of students and faculty from around the world each to work at ORNL. The organization also recruits post-doctoral students for research facilities operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

 

In addition, ORAU annually gives its financial support to local schools and teachers to further science education in the classroom.

 

"This is my own opinion, but I believe a community is defined by its education and health care systems," Townsend admitted. "It's important to invest in our communities to make them stronger. Communities that are willing to invest are going to grow."

 

ORAU mainly focuses its efforts on the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. Of ORAU's annual $230 million budget and 950 employees, 650 personnel and $155 million of the annual budget is dedicated to ORISE, Townsend explained.

 

"ORISE is the predominant part of what we do," he said, pointing specifically to the newly re-established Cytogenetic Biodosimitry Lab. In the event of a mass casualty radiological event, the lab and one other lab like it in the United States would be utilized to determine the amount of radiation to which victims have been exposed.

 

In addition to all its everyday activities, ORAU is getting ready to focus on the construction of a new 74,000-square-foot facility on its main campus, located on Badger Road. The new $20 million building will be situated behind K-25 Federal Credit Union, and will include executive offices for ORAU as well as a Center for Science Education.

 

Officials recently conducted an official groundbreaking ceremony.

Oneida High School science teacher Mike Delk recently came back to the classroom as part of UT-Battelle’s program to recruit certified math and science teachers for rural East Tennessee schools. UT-Battelle is offering $10,000 bonuses to science and math teachers who are willing to teach in rural schools for at least three years.

 

An Oak Ridge-based government contractor is offering a $10,000 bonus in an effort to recruit certified math and science teachers for rural East Tennessee schools.

 

In accepting the one-time bonus, a teacher must agree to stay at school for at least three years, said Billy Stair, director of communications for UT-Battelle, which manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy.

 

“It’s an upfront check,” Stair said. “In a rural county where the starting salary is $26,000 or $27,000, to give someone a $10,000 bonus is enough to move the system.”

 

Mike Delk agrees. He’s the latest teacher to sign up for the bonus.

last week.

 

For a school district seeking to be competitive, “the added incentive helps,” he said.

 

Delk, a native of Fentress County, decided to return to the classroom after running a successful catalog-order business for 18 years. He holds a degree in art education and certifications in biology and chemistry.

 

The shortage of math and science teachers is a national trend. Programs such as UT-Battelle’s are “popping up” all over the country in an attempt to fill those vacancies, said Francis “Skip” Fennell, president of the Reston, Va.-based National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

 

Oftentimes, teachers are lured to better-paying jobs because of their qualifications. In addition to recruiting teachers, “probably just as important is retaining them” with incentives that are offered in some of the emerging programs, he said.

 

President Bush on Aug. 9 signed the America COMPETES Act, which authorizes $33.6 billion from 2008-10 for science, technology, engineering and math education programs. It’s designed to help the United States compete in the global marketplace.

 

Part of the measure would provide grants to educate current and future math and science teachers.

 

U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Murfreesboro, who sponsored the bill, chairs the House Science and Technology Committee.

 

The bill and UT-Battelle’s program “go hand in hand so that our kids get ready for the future,” said committee spokeswoman Alisha Prather.

 

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, through a statement, called UT-Battelle’s program “an important step toward keeping our competitive edge.”

 

“Now, the federal government is stepping up to the plate, too,” he said, by expanding opportunities for math and science teachers and students.

UT-Battelle is using its own money for the teacher bonus program, none of which goes to a school system or the federal government, Stair said. It also doesn’t cost them anything, he said.

 

The program largely focuses on the nine counties in the greater Knox County region.

 

In its second year, the program has attracted only four teachers so far. In addition to Delk, two math teachers are in Union County schools and a science teacher is in Morgan County.

 

A deterrent may be that in a rural county, “there’s less we can offer as far as social life and shopping and that kind of thing,” said Henry Baggett, superintendent for the Oneida Special School District. “It’s hard to find young people who want that kind of life in a rural setting.”

 

Many benefits do outweigh the negatives, however, Delk said, especially for older people like him.

 

An example, he said: It’s quiet.

 

For more information on UT-Battelle’s teacher bonus program, contact Brenda Hackworth at 865-574-4160.

We’re pleased to see that UT officials have been working to improve both and that officials are focusing on making UT’s large campus seem smaller and more friendly to more than 4,300 freshmen expected this fall.

 

“What you’re seeing today is a real change,” Ruth Darling, assistant vice chancellor of academic affairs and director of UT’s Student Success Center, said Sunday, while freshmen were moving into dormitories on campus.

 

UT held a series of open houses and sessions on class success earlier in the week. Classes start today.

 

An open house was scheduled for students who have not yet chosen a major, and several sessions were planned for students interested in tips on how to succeed.

 

UT’s retention rate — the number of freshmen who stay in school until their sophomore year — is 81.7 percent. A university task force has been working on recommendations in a report due next month, but officials think efforts have already been working.

 

Some of the top schools listed in U.S. News & World Report’s celebrated yearly ranking of colleges and universities have retention rates of higher than 90 percent.

 

At the same time, studies show that involvement in campus activities, whether sports, cultural clubs, tutoring groups and others, improves the likelihood that students will stick around and that they are an accepted part of the academic community. The studies also indicate that such involvement can boost students’ grades.

 

Richard Bayer, UT’s dean of enrollment services, said attention to the retention rate so far has probably helped boost total enrollment at the school to 26,750, an increase of 2 percent to 3 percent from last year.

 

Other numbers are on the upswing at UT, too. A third of this year’s incoming class had straight-A averages in high school. In a press release, officials cite an average core grade-point average of 3.65 and ACT score of 26.

 

“We had more applications than last year, too,” Bayer said. Some 12,850 applied for admission this fall.

 

Academics have been improving steadily for several years, and UT officials cite the HOPE scholarship program, which began in 2004, as a reason.

 

Raising the academic profile of any educational institution is important, and we’re happy UT is focusing on that as well as improving the retention rate. Academic excellence doesn’t do much good unless students stay in school to benefit.

 

It’s a new year and a new slate, as well as a good time to see the recommendations due in September on retaining students.

 

We have confidence that UT officials are working to improve the health of the system and education as a whole as well as for the benefit of the university’s students.

BioMimetic Therapeutics’ executives are spearheading a new nonprofit foundation aimed at improving science and technology education in the region.

 

BioTN (pronounced bio-ten) plans to bring pre-K through 12^th grade schools, higher education institutions and businesses together to collaborate on projects that create more hands-on learning and training experiences for students and faculty in science and technology.

 

The organization is led by Executive Director Dr. Leslie Wisner-Lynch, also director of applied research of BioMimetic (NASDAQ: BMTI).  The foundation’s start is privately funded by Wisner-Lynch and her husband and co-founder Dr. Sam Lynch, BioMimetic’s president and CEO.

 

Wisner-Lynch wouldn’t say how much money they’re putting into the organization, but says it’ll be funded by grants.

 

 The region’s businesses and economy will benefit from BioTN, Wisner-Lynch says, because more education opportunities will lead to more students entering tech fields after graduation, creating a better educated work force to help staff new, existing and relocating biotechnology companies.

 

“Education is a really big, significant and important component of a state’s ability to participate in the 21^st century economy,” says Wisner-Lynch.  “We want to make sure that the science and technology businesses within and outside Tennessee feel the state is effectively positioned to provide a supportive environment for their business development and growth.”

 

Ira Weiss, co-founder of biotechnology firm BioDtech, says BioTN is an important step toward making the region a biotech destination.

 

“It will encourage local people from high school on to get educated in science and engineering,” Weiss says, leading to a better employee base for biotech companies that the region wants to attract.

 

As the Business Journal reported in May, another move toward attracting biotech and pharmaceutical companies is the creation of a GMP (good manufacturing practice) facility in the Cool Springs Life Sciences Center, a building that will house some of BioMimetic’s operations and have spaces available for other businesses.  GMP facilities meet Food and Drug Administration standards for preparation of certain foods and drugs.

 

A main focus of BioTN is expanding application-based learning – providing students with hands-on projects, presentations from businesses and internships.

 

“If we get students involved in doing science and math, then they get a lot more excited about that and we have a better chance of keeping them engaged,” says Dr. Thomas Cheatham, den of the college of basic and applied sciences at Middle Tennessee State University.

 

The BioTN foundation is still forming its board, but Wisner-Lynch says it already has plans to work with the member of the Nashville Health Care Council and Tennessee Biotechnology Association, as well as Columbia State Community College and MTSU.

 

The nonprofit is working on a three-year, $5 million grant application with MTSU through the National Science Foundation to send graduate students in science, math, engineering and technology to high schools to share their research and experience, Cheatham says.

 

The nonprofit will also partner in Tennessee’s participation in the American Diploma Project, a national initiative focused on increasing the rigor of curriculum in school systems so students are college or work ready after high school.

 

Wisner-Lynch is already a member of Tennessee’s diploma project alignment team, which includes members from business, education and the state.

The importance of nurses is clear to Dr. Richard Salluzo, Wellmont Health System president and chief executive officer.

 

They are the "lifeblood of health care," Salluzo said Tuesday in announcing a partnership he hopes will keep the supply of local nurses flowing.

 

Salluzo handed Northeast State Technical Community College President William Locke a $1 million check from Wellmont to help pay for scholarships, equipment and supplies for a new nursing program set to open at the college this fall.

 

Along with opening its pocketbook, Wellmont also will open its doors for Northeast’s newest students by offering hands-on clinical training at many local hospitals.

 

"This is a giant step not only for health care, but for higher education," Salluzo said.

 

Students will have the opportunity to earn a registered nurse license in two years while preparing for continued studies in a four-year program.

 

The program will feature a special curriculum tailored to students who plan to continue their pursuits of a bachelor’s degree at East Tennessee State University, King College or Milligan College after completing their course work at Northeast State.

 

The creation of the program comes as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports a national nurses shortage. An aging nurse population and increasing medical technology means fewer people are available to assist a growing number of treatable patients.

 

A government study in 2000 showed more than 100,000 open nursing jobs nationwide. Health and Human Services projections suggest the shortage will quadruple to 20 percent of all nursing jobs by 2015.

 

Officials from Wellmont and Northeast State said they hope the new program will help alleviate the problem in the region.

 

Thirty students will make up the program’s first class when school begins in August.

 

Representatives from the college said the program will expand to 60 students in 2008, the same year a move for the department is planned from the campus in Gray, Tenn., to a new center for allied health in downtown Kingsport.

 

Locke said a portion of Wellmont’s money will go toward the school’s expenses as it moves into the center. The gift also will cover administrative costs involved in starting the new program and will help to establish scholarships for nursing students.

Roane State recently received a $50,000 planning grant from the National Science Foundation that will allow officials to assess the logistics of developing an advanced technology center in the region.

 

A 12-person steering committee, comprised of representatives from industry and education sectors, will oversee proposals for the new center, which will provide education in the growing field of nanotechnology science. The committee will collect data and use the findings to develop a proposal that will be submitted to the National Science Foundation for the establishment of an advanced technology center in nanotechnology education.

 

With Oak Ridge National Laboratory at Roane State 's doorstep, Ken Yager, dean of the business and technology division at RSCC, thinks that the development of a technology center can vastly improve the regional economic landscape.

 

"We want to be in the position to be in the pipeline to provide the technology that will be the support for Oak Ridge and the surrounding region," Yager said in a news release.

 

Yager added that a large number of area professionals in the technology sector are retiring, which will soon create a demand for a trained workforce in these new fields.

 

Potentially, with the establishment of a center, Roane State students will get the training needed to fill that void.

RSCC applied for the grant last October along with 186 other schools. Only 50 were accepted.

 

In response to discussions with business, science and technology leaders, Roane State President Gary Goff was a main advocate for seeking out the planning grant to support the development of an educational infrastructure for the area's emerging nanotechnology industry.

 

"He saw a niche here at Roane State . His vision has been instrumental," Yager said.