THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 25, 1996 TAG: 9605250494
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: 75 lines
After nearly two decades and an investment of $600 million, one of the world's premiere nuclear-physics research laboratories was dedicated and renamed Friday.
Before an estimated crowd of more than 2,000, U.S. Secretary of Energy and Newport News native Hazel O'Leary announced the name change: the former Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility will henceforth be known as Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.
``What the heck is a CEBAF?'' O'Leary asked rhetorically, referring to the lab's acronym. ``We want to try to bring the facility to the attention of the general public.''
CEBAF, or Jefferson Laboratory as some are already calling it, specializes in basic physics research. The lab's unique machinery makes use of magnets, radio waves and supercold liquid helium to speed, steer and focus a hair-thin beam of electrons around an underground oval track seven-eighths of a mile in circumference.
Scientists ram the beam into a variety of target materials, then use computers to analyze the debris. The goal: a vastly improved understanding of the structure of matter.
Old Dominion and Norfolk State universities are among the 41 members of the Southeastern Universities Research Association, the group managing the complex. With the participation of 11 experimental and theoretical physicists on its faculty, ODU has become one of the largest university contributors to the lab's development.
``(Jefferson's) research will have long-term impact on basic knowledge and on technology,'' predicted Gail Dodge, ODU assistant professor of physics. ``I'm absolutely sure of it. It's already started.''
Efforts are under way at Jefferson to commercialize a device spun off from the lab's accelerator technology. The so-called Free Electron Laser could improve the manufacture of everything from textiles to cars. Jefferson scientists are also working on sophisticated medical diagnostic gear, including more accurate breast-cancer detectors.
Dodge cited a host of consumer devices, such as television, radio and compact-disc players, derived from physics research. And she said that research into the nucleus of atoms has led to powerful medical diagnostic equipment, like Magnetic Resonance Imagers, or MRIs.
Speaking during the hour-long dedication ceremony, 1995 Nobel laureate and physicist Martin Perl drew some of the afternoon's biggest applause as he delivered passionate encouragement to young scientists.
``We don't know what this great new accelerator will do in the next 10 to 20 years,'' he said. ``If we did, we could sit and write it all down. The very act of building equipment and carrying out experiments will give us new ideas and new directions.''
The audience, however, saved its biggest ovation for popular Jefferson lab director Hermann Grunder, rising to its feet in salute as he began to speak.
``This is the end, namely, of construction, and the beginning,'' Grunder said. ``As always, the biggest challenge is ahead of us . . . Let me assure you: (financial) times are tough. We have to do a better job of educating our friends and instructing our opponents.''
The dedication ceremony drew a wide variety of attendees, from politicians to accelerator technicians. Researchers in T-shirts and sandals mingled with officials in dark suits and power ties.
As the crowd dispersed to a prearranged barbecue, energy secretary O'Leary was headed south. She said she would be visiting Newport News Shipbuilding to congratulate the yard on the production of its first double-hull oil tanker. And she said she would stop by to see her mother, who still lives in the area. ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON color photos/The Virginian-Pilot
Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, a Newport News native, gets a tour
of the newly renamed Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility,
located in her hometown.
``We want to try to bring the facility to the attention of the
general public,'' O'Leary told an estimated crowd of 2,000. by CNB