Fleischmann And The Enterprise Center Lead Business Development Trip To Oak Ridge

  • Monday, May 6, 2013
Dr. Thom Mason, J. Wayne Cropp, Don Aho, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, Hal Perloff, Congressman Chuck Fleischmann and Ben Ubamadu look on during a presentation inside ORNL’s EVERST facility.
Dr. Thom Mason, J. Wayne Cropp, Don Aho, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, Hal Perloff, Congressman Chuck Fleischmann and Ben Ubamadu look on during a presentation inside ORNL’s EVERST facility.

Congressman Chuck Fleishmann and The Enterprise Center led a trip of 50 area business leaders to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Y-12 National Security Complex to explore technology-based partnerships and future new business development opportunities for local companies.

“One of our missions at The Enterprise Center is to advance regional hi-tech initiatives by creating partnerships between area businesses and national laboratories, research universities and federal research-oriented programs,” said J. Wayne Cropp, president and CEO of The Enterprise Center. “The end result, of course, is to facilitate business startups, existing business growth and job creation.”

The full-day trip’s extensive agenda comprised of meetings with key leadership at the two facilities, including Dr. Thom Mason, ORNL laboratory director; Jeff Smith, ORNL deputy director of operations; James Haynes, Y-12 National Security Complex deputy general manager and senior vice president of programs and projects; Bill Reis, Y-12 National Security Complex vice president of environment, safety and health; and John Eschenberg, Y-12 National Security Complex federal project director for the proposed $6.5 billion Uranium Processing Facility.

Throughout the day, seven facilities were toured. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the group saw the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, Spallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, Exploratory Visualization Environment for Research in Science and Technology and Carbon Fiber Technology Facility. At Y-12 National Security Complex, the tour stopped at the New Hope Center and viewed the entire complex, including the future site of the Uranium Processing Facility, from the South Ridge Overlook.

“The trip was extremely valuable in demonstrating the technological capabilities available at Oak Ridge and the potential of those technologies,” said Tim Walsh, president and CEO of SimCenter Enterprises, a company already actively partnering with ORNL’s Computing and Computational Sciences program. “The ability to access ORNL’s facilities to test products and perform additional research in the aim of moving products from the laboratory into the commercial domain is an invaluable resource that is beneficial to industry and in the creation of jobs.”

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