Visit to Oak Ridge, TN

The cooling tower seen on the right is used to provide the initial cooling of water fed to the chillers, which provide cooling to office, laboratory, and equipment rooms for the entire Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) site at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, near Knoxville, Tennessee.

The SNS is the world's leading research facility for study of the structure and dynamics of materials using neutrons. The SNS operates as a user facility that enables researchers from the United States and abroad to study the science of materials that forms the basis for new technologies in telecommunications, manufacturing, transportation, information technology, biotechnology, and health. For example a lot of lithium battery technology was developed here.

My visit today had been meticulously planned and was something very special, as this is a high security facility. It was a private guided tour, making this a day I will never forget. In many areas I was not permitted to take any photos for obvious reasons. For example I was not taken anywhere near the Y-12 National Security Complex. The Y-12 National Security Complex is a US Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration facility near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 

It was built as part of the Manhattan Project for the purpose of enriching uranium for the first atomic bombs. It is considered the birthplace of the atomic bomb. In the years after World War II, it has been operated as a manufacturing facility for nuclear weapons components and related defence purposes.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by University of Tennessee-Battelle for the Department of Energy.