The grant, announced today by NSF, is to establish a network hub and high-performance network connections to support access to ORNL's neutron science instruments across the TeraGrid. The TeraGrid is part of a high-speed network that will provide scientists with extraordinary amounts of data from ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor and the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source. When complete, the TeraGrid's network backbone will operate at 40 gigabits (40 billion bits) per second and will be the fastest research network in the world.

"This award is a wonderful illustration of the continuing partnership between NSF and the Department of Energy's Office of Science on the TeraGrid," said Raymond Orbach, director of the DOE office. "ORNL's Center for Computational Sciences will now be able to provide the nation's research community with expanded access to ORNL's extraordinary neutron science facilities."

The SNS, which will be the world's premier neutron scattering facility, is scheduled for completion in 2006. The High Flux Isotope Reactor is the world's most intense source of thermal neutron beams used to unlock the molecular secrets of materials and to provide radioisotopes for a number of medical, industrial and academic uses. Data from the two neutron sources will be made available through the Center for Computational Sciences.

The Center for Computational Sciences, established in 1992 as a DOE high-performance computing research center, is a designated user facility with several missions, including to help solve grand challenges in science and engineering. The center is housed in a new 170,000-square-foot building with a 40,000-square-foot computer center. It is
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Contact: Ron Walli
wallira@ornl.gov
865-576-0226
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
29-Sep-2003