New focus for ORNL

A new Oak Ridge National Laboratory initiative will consolidate and expand the lab's research and development efforts in radiation detection technologies.

The goal of the new Center for Radiation Detection Materials and Systems (CRDMS) is to establish ORNL as the USA's central national laboratory for innovation and development in the field of radiation detection materials and systems.

"This centre takes what is currently a collection of relatively independent projects and pulls them together into a program with more focus on major goals,” said Centre Director Lynn Boatner. “It will co-ordinate and concentrate our efforts by bringing together ORNL physicists, chemists, materials scientists, crystal growers, nuclear engineers, and electrical and electronics engineers."

"There is a lot of expertise here, but we have lacked a cohesive program. Now, in place of individual proposals and relatively small projects, we plan to take on more global challenges," continued Boatner, a materials physicist in ORNL's Condensed Matter Sciences Division and an ORNL Corporate Fellow.