Energy Dept.: R&D Stimulus-Funded Infrastructure Work

U.S. Energy Dept. Uses Stimulus Funds to Push Technology Transfer

07/13/2011 - U.S. Dept. of Energy laboratories are finishing up work on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stimulus-funded infrastructure work that could accelerate research for breakthroughs in energy, medicine and other areas. However, transferring that research and development to the marketplace poses challenges.

Funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act boosted work on conventional infrastructure at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Ill. Says Bruce Chrisman, the lab's chief operating officer, “[The funds] allowed us to jump-start some of the major experiments that we wanted to do so we can get them done sooner and faster.” About $25 million of the $114.3 million in stimulus funds that Fermi received went toward infrastructure upgrades and improvements, Chrisman says.

At Fermi, which focuses on high-energy physics and is DOE's largest lab, construction is nearly complete on a research building in which scientists will study superconducting materials for accelerator magnets and radiofrequency cavities. A.J. Maggio Co., Mt. Prospect, Ill., won the $3-million construction contract for the addition.

At two other Fermi buildings, expansions are being completed that will house superconducting radio-frequency cryomodules and test beam lines. Superconducting radio-frequency cavities at the lab could be applied to thorium reactors, a type of power generation that is more stable than uranium, Chrisman says.

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