Oak Ridge National Laboratory has defined its emphases and strategic direction in its Institutional Plan. Excerpts from this plan indicate the intended directions for the future. Inclusion of an initiative in this plan does not imply DOE approval of or intent to implement the initiative.
Neutrons play a vital role in many areas of science and technology.
Neutron science is one of ORNL's distinctive technical competencies, with roots in the Laboratory's original mission. ORNL proposes to apply its strengths in this area to national needs through leadership of DOE's Spallation Neutron Source project, through modernization of the High Flux Isotope Reactor to maintain and extend its unique capabilities for some classes of neutron scattering experiments and for neutron activation analysis, and through collaboration with the state of Tennessee in establishing a Joint Institute for Neutron Science. Large-scale sequencing of the human genome has begun and is expected to produce several million base pairs every day for the next five to ten years. This will provide the biomedical research community with a computerized catalog of the names, locations, and nucleotide sequence of the 80,000 to 100,000 genes on the human chromosomes. Intense efforts are also under way to sequence the genomes of microorganisms and plants.