Technology center lets science work

Web posted Monday, November 27, 2000

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By Steven Uhles
Staff Writer

Bill Sexton of the Savannah River Technology Center's glassblowing shop blows a globe shape into the end of a glass cylindrical tube. The tube will become part of a storage container used at SRS. Much of the SRTC's work involves finding simple but effective solutions to problems. FILE/STAFF

There is nothing conspicuous about the Savannah River Technology Center. Built following Eisenhower-era standards of intentional blandness, the main building sits low, square and average, indistinguishable from the surrounding government buildings in the Savannah River Site complex.

Inside, however, is another story. There, complex sensory equipment measures and quantifies. Lasers flash and burn and prod at the mysteries of the universe. Isotopes are corralled like so many wild horses, kept from running wild and free in prisons of glass. Part think tank and part toy box, SRTC is a place where theory becomes fact and science bridges the gap between problems and solutions.

The facility was established in the early years of Savannah River Plant, when the facility's primary mission was producing fuel for the United States' nuclear arsenal. Built as an in-house development center, SRTC's original mission was to develop technologies for use within the plant. When the last reactor was shut down in 1989 and the veil of secrecy was lifted from SRS, SRTC found that there was a need to shift its focus in order to justify the millions of dollars spent to keep it active.

Today, SRTC still labors to find solutions to obstacles on-site, but the staff of skilled scientists and technicians also have expanded its mission and have begun to apply the technologies developed at SRTC to real-world problems outside SRS.

``We are very good at developing and implementing technology solutions to support the missions at Savannah River,'' said Susan Wood, vice-president and director at SRTC. ``That's still really what we are here for. But we are also here to share our findings outside the complex, and if they are applicable commercially, fine.''

A multi-facet Bunsen burner in the shop brings the temperature of glass past its melting point so it can be fused with another piece to make a larger container. FILE/STAFF

Unlike most government-funded laboratory complexes, SRTC does not deal in the theoretical. There is no work being done in its myriad labs relating to the Big Bang, nor are there white-coated scientists seeking the one amoeba from which all life descended. Instead, the staff works in robotics and law enforcement, with hydrogen storage systems and glass containment. Their mission is developing answers to existing problems.

``Our motto is `We Put Science to Work,''' Ms. Wood said. ``We've just coined that recently. We are unique. We know that and are proud of that. We don't apologize for being an applied laboratory.''

Throughout the labyrinthine complex, corridors and cozy offices, protected labs and climate-controlled clean rooms bear witness to the work done at SRTC.

In the robotics department, a small battalion of Star Wars-ready remote vehicles, pipe crawlers and robots stand quietly awaiting their next command. The centerpiece is SIMON, which stands for Semi-Intelligent Mobile Observing Navigator. Looking every inch the electronic sidekick from a big-budget movie, SIMON sees little action these days, having become `old' in the ever-changing world of high-tech. While once he functioned as a hyper-accurate floor cleaning system, today he is more of a mascot, swinging the occasional golf club for visitors looking for robotic thrills. The workhorses in the department are the pipe crawlers, spider-like assemblages developed to travel inside the miles of pipe at SRS.

For many of the scientists working at SRTC, the payoff comes when they can show off a new technology integrated into a real world ``gee-whiz'' gizmo. One of the showy examples comes from the hydrogen labs. There, scientists have been working with metal hydrides, complex mixtures of various alloys that allow for storing hydrogen at low pressure. This technology was originally developed for controlling unruly isotopes, but it has also been found useful in the development of fuel cells. The result has been engines that eschew the petroleum standard for a much more environmentally-friendly alternative.

A glassblowing shop decal is placed on all glassware made for SRS departments when the appropriate materials can't be found commercially. FILE/STAFF

``We feel this is the fuel of the future,'' said the hydrogen lab's Edward Danko. ``The key reason, of course, is because it is a very clean fuel. When you burn hydrogen the byproduct is water, very clean water.''

Already, the SRTC hydrogen metal hydride technology has been incorporated into a city bus, tested on the streets of Augusta and an industrial utility vehicle called the Gator. Mr. Danko said the next logical step will be applying the technology to the mining industry.

``There are a lot of restrictions placed on underground mining,'' he explained. ``Noise from engines, gas fumes and particulates are real issues for worker safety. Those restrictions have pointed arrows toward metal hydrides being very key in the future.''

While Mr. Danko said there was a real feeling of accomplishment when he saw the hydrogen bus rolling on Augusta streets or the working Gator prototype, he said the true ``Eureka!'' moments come when each problem that arises is solved.

``Sometimes during the course of a project we will run into problems, maybe with the supplier of a material or something like that,'' he said. ``There are always little problems, and our real challenge is overcoming those.''

Behind a locked door in a quiet corner of the complex, there lies a facility that, perhaps more than any other at the plant, has made a real difference in people's lives. There, the newly minted Savannah River Law Enforcement Technology Support Center develops techniques and technologies to help law enforcement agencies combat crime in an increasingly high-tech world.

``Technology is with us to stay,'' said the law enforcement lab's Paul Deason. ``The bad news, of course, is that technology is available to the bad guys as well. Law enforcement has had to become a lot more than guns and bulletproof vests and radios and cars. That's what we do here.''

Like so many at the center, the law enforcement lab has concentrated its efforts not on producing new technology, but on adapting existing products for their needs. This might mean adapting a $25 headlamp to detect latent fingerprints or something on a much larger scale, such as the lab's submarine.

``This underwater tethered submarine is a distant cousin of the one that found the (John F. Kennedy Jr.) crash site,'' Mr. Deason explained, giving the short, cigar-shaped hull an affectionate pat. ``This one is equipped with an articulated hand and video capability. This is something that we have the talent to build from scratch, but that usually is not the right thing to do. The right thing to do is to buy something like this commercially as often as you can and modify it to fit your needs.''

Like the hydrogen-powered bus or SIMON or a thousand other ongoing projects at the lab, the little yellow submarine represents the Marine-like attitude of SRTC - adapt and overcome.

``That's how research and development works, frankly,'' Ms. Wood said. ``You keep building on it and reapplying and leveraging and you learn from an application how it might work in another situation.''

Reach Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626.

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