The summit involved an interdisciplinary group of scientists, economists, academics, entrepreneurs and policy analysts from the US and EU and was held from 2010 to 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee; Washington, D.C.; Paris, France; and Brussels, Belgium.

UT’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy partnered with the European Commission, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to organize the summit. It was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, and the European Commission.

“Senator Baker, who took an active role in formulating this project, has long been interested in balancing environmental preservation with our desire for economic growth and in the role of science in achieving that balance,” said Matt Murray, Baker Center director. “He has encouraged our collaboration with other institutions in projects that embrace different viewpoints and produce recommendations relevant in an increasingly complex global economy.”

The recommendations include:

• US-EU collaboration on new and innovative education techniques to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and remain competitive in an increasingly competitive global economy.
• An expanded role of the federally run water management organizations to manage water supply in the U.S. as increasing consumption, population growth and climate change will have important implications for water supplies.
• A joint US-EU patent system to enhance commercialization of joint research products, since both entities want to improve their innovation systems through joint research activities.
• US-EU improvement in energy efficiency through improved economic incentives and enhanced understanding of human behavioral issues to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gases.

The recommendations come at a time when the US and EU are recovering from severe recessions yet face important decisions about public and private investments in an environmentally constrained world.

“To succeed, these investments should support development of new technologies and improved science and math education and put the United States and the European Union on a path to a low-carbon future,” said summit organizer Robert Shelton, a senior fellow for energy and environment at the Baker Center. “These themes were central to summit deliberations.”

The US and EU have much in common, including democratic forms of government and market-based economies.

“Because of these shared values, we have considerable potential for improved cooperation in addressing the many economic, technological, and energy challenges we both face,” said Domenico Rossetti, principal administrator at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and member of the summit’s organizing committee. “This summit created an extensive and productive trans-atlantic dialogue, and these reports capture the essence of that discussion.”

The series of reports is available online at tiny.utk.edu/Summit.

UT’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy is a nonpartisan institute devoted to education and scholarship concerning public policy and civic engagement. For more information, visit bakercenter.utk.edu.

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C O N T A C T:

Robert Shelton (865-974-9076, rshelto2@utk.edu)

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)

The duel is part of RecycleMania, in which colleges across the nation and Canada are ranked in an eight-week competition based on the amount of recycling and trash collected each week.

This year, UT will have several opportunities for the campus community to participate.

Events include:

• Student Recycling Challenge: Since February 11, residence halls have been competing against each other to establish the best recycling program. The competition concludes on February 24.
• Paper Purge Party: from March 22 to 28, faculty and staff are invited to purge unwanted paper. Simply put paper in a box, bin, pile or bag, mark it for “recycling;” and set it outside the door. Volunteers with the Facilities Services department will make the rounds and do the heavy lifting.
• Recyclympics: on March 12 outside the Humanities/Social Sciences amphitheater, faculty, staff and students are invited to compete in six Olympic-style, recycling-themed events for prizes. Crowd-pleasing favorites include the Phone Book Shot Put, Plastic Bottle Hammer Throw, and Bottle Cap-in-a-Haystack.

These recycling efforts really add up and do good for the environment. Last year, UT recycled nearly five pounds of paper, more than two-and-a-half pounds of cardboard, nearly a half-pound of food waste, and 1.25 pounds of plastic bottles and aluminum cans per faculty, staff, and student during the eight-week period last year.

RecycleMania aims to increase recycling participation by students and staff and raise awareness about the significance of waste reduction programs on campuses. To learn more about the competition and keep current on scores, visit the Recyclemania website.

The Paper Purge Party is sponsored by UT Recycling and Make Orange Green. For more information about the UT recycling program, visit the Make Orange Green website.

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C O N T A C T:

Jay Price (865-974-3480, jayprice@utk.edu)

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)

The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to use green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use.

The Partnership’s Top 20 College and University list represents the largest green power users among higher education institutions within the Green Power Partnership, and the list is updated quarterly.

UT ranked tenth on the January 2013 list after not being ranked the previous year. UT is the only SEC school in the top ten and was noted for its use of biogas, small-hydro, solar, and wind resources, as well as its partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority.

UT’s commitment to environmental responsibility has also been recognized by the Princeton Review and by the Sustainable Endowments Institute as one of the nation’s top campus sustainability programs.

Over the past eight years, the campus has used funds from the student environmental fee to gradually increase the amount of green power it purchases.

“This rating is a tribute to our students and their commitment to sustainability and the funding needed to make it happen,” said Dave Irvin, associate vice chancellor for facilities services.

For more information on UT’s sustainability initiatives, visit environment.utk.edu.

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

The competition is part of a grant awarded to professors within the College of Engineering by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) competition. The professors’ project, Promoting Sustainable Transportation Among Teens, aims to introduce a small group of high school students to the issues related to the impacts of transportation choice in a fun way.

The event will take place from 2:00 to 5:45 p.m. on Sunday, February 10. There will be three parts to the competition, each with a different location:

• 2:30 p.m. at the bottom of Tee Martin Drive under the stadium. Students will compete in “Road Trip through UT Football History,” where their bikes will be timed on a hilly course.
• 3:15 p.m. at Stephenson Drive. Students will compete in the “Late for School” obstacle course, where they will have to navigate obstacles such as trees and traffic cones while carrying books and a class project. They also will compete in “Pedal Pusher” and “Speed Racer” events, which will test the bikes under pedal power only and for raw speed.
• 4:00 p.m. Bike judging and poster defense in the Min H. Kao Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Building lobby. The bikes will be judged on the quality of assembly. The posters will be judged on factors such as design choices, team knowledge and sustainability analyses of various commuting options, such as cars, buses, electric cars, and e-bikes.

Three teams from West, Fulton, and Farragut high schools have designed and assembled their own electric bikes. This event marks the culmination of a more than semester-long project. The e-bikes’ abilities will be tested on climbing, speed, and agility, among other things.

Undergraduate engineering students have been advising the teams on the design and construction of electric bicycles. The high school teams will orally defend project reports discussing the design process and sustainability impacts of various transportation scenarios, including an e-bike as a commuting option for school and for general personal transportation.

This project is part of the first of two phases of EPA’s P3 competition. In the first phase, teams are awarded a $15,000 grant to develop their idea. They will bring the design in April to the National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, D.C., to compete for the P3 Award and a grant of $90,000 to take their design to real-world application. Read more about grant announcement in Tennessee Today.

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C O N T A C T :

Paul Frymier (865-898-1706, pdf@utk.edu)

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)

Glenn Richters, left, chair of the East Tennessee Green Building Council, presents Dave Irvin, right, with the Green Light Award.

UT has received the Green Light Award from the East Tennessee chapter of the US Green Building Council (USGBC).

The Green Light Award is the highest award given to an organization for advancing sustainability through green building practices and design.

Dave Irvin, associate vice chancellor for Facilities Services, accepted the award at the organization’s annual awards ceremony last week.

The USGBC recognized UT’s commitment to the environment and the 2007 signing of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. The university’s commitment to new buildings being constructed to meet LEED standards has made a significant impact on campus sustainability. Recent projects include Ayres Hall, which was renovated to become a LEED Silver certified building; the Min H. Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building; and the Student Health Building.

The council also noted the university’s master plan, which requires that all large-scale projects follow sustainable design and building guidelines. Also lauded were UT’s innovative educational projects like the New Norris House and the Living Light house, which was constructed for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon held in 2011.

The Ayres Hall renovation project also received an honorable mention in the Green Project Student’s Choice category.

UT Recycling provides free recycling bins to areas all over campus. Every office desk should have a blue recycling bin for paper, and there should be a blue recycling bin for paper next to every copy machine. Every classroom should have a blue recycling bin for paper and a green recycling bin for bottles, cans, and plastic. Each break room and kitchen area should have a green recycling bin for bottles, cans, and plastic. If you notice any places where these bins are missing, e-mail UT Recycling at recycle@utk.edu.

It’s important for the campus community to know what is okay—and not okay—to recycle.

It’s okay to recycle:

• Printer paper of any color or printing
• Junk mail, even with the plastic window
• Newspaper
• Hardback books
• Phone books
• Magazines
• Cereal and shoe boxes
• Index cards
• File Folders
• Hanging Folders, even with the metal bars on top
• Aluminum cans
• Tin Cans
• Glass bottles
• Plastics
• Cardboard

Cans, glass bottles, and plastics are collected together everywhere on campus, regardless of what the label on the bin may indicate (such as “aluminum cans only”). Most plastic items are labeled with a number inside the recycle symbol. UT Recycling can accept any clean plastic labeled #1-7. This includes plastic bottles, cups, and plastic bags, but not Styrofoam. When recycling plastic bags, it is preferred to recycle multiple bags stuffed in together as individual bags cause problems.

Toner/ink cartridges, electronics, and batteries may also be recycled. UT Recycling has filing cabinets to collect these items located in the University Center and Hodges Library.

It’s not okay to recycle:

• Laboratory glass
• Food wrappers
• Paper towels
• Paper plates
• Paper cups
• Napkins
• Waxy cardboard
• Take-out containers and ice cream containers
• Dirty plastic wrap
• Dirty food containers
• Packing peanuts
• Styrofoam
• Aluminum pans or plates
• Aluminum foil

Corrugated cardboard is picked up Monday through Friday evenings from building loading docks and dumpster areas. For a complete list of the locations visit the website. Corrugated cardboard should be flattened and placed in hallways or at the outdoor pickup location at the end of the day.

UT Recycling provides free temporary 95-gallon bins for paper to offices for clean outs. Offices can request recycling services by visiting the Facilities Services website and filling out a request form or by e-mailing recycle@utk.edu.

UT Recycling works hard to keep campus waste out of the landfill, to save the university money, and to help protect the environment. Please help UT Recycling by pitching in and recycling all your paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, tin cans, glass bottles, and plastics.

As part of a comprehensive energy conservation project, work is under way in the Jane and David Bailey Education Complex; the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Building (HPER); the Student Services Building; and the Communications Building.

Old fixtures are being replaced with energy-efficient lights, manual switches are being replaced with on-off sensors, and other upgrades are being done. In some of the public areas of the buildings, “daylight harvesting” sensors cue the lights to remain off when sunlight is bright enough to light the area.

The work, which also includes some sprinkler system upgrades and ceiling work, will cost $2.25 million, funded by monies provided by the state during stimulus years. The new lights will save the campus as much as $500,000 a year. The campus’s utility bill runs about $20 million a year.

“Any dollars we can save is money we can put back into the classroom,” said Dave Irvin, associate vice chancellor for facilities services.

Elsewhere on campus, new construction is equipped with energy-efficient lighting. Buildings slated for major renovations will get the lighting overhaul as part of that work. Eventually, the whole campus will have the more energy-efficient lights.

Last September through November, UT competed in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Game Day Recycling Challenge, finishing first in the greenhouse gas reduction category, and two other categories.

The Game Day Recycling Challenge is a friendly nationwide contest to determine which university can reduce the most waste during football game days.

In total, 79 universities and 5.4 million fans diverted 1.09 million pounds of waste from football games, preventing 1,732 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released.

The schools competed in five categories: recycling per capita, diversion rate (recycling percentage), greenhouse gas reduction per capita, organics reduction per capita, and waste minimization.

UT proved a strong competitor in the Southeastern Conference division. The university won the greenhouse gas reduction, organics reduction, and diversion rate categories. It finished second in recycling per capita and fifth in waste minimization.

Before, during, and after each game, UT Recycling and dozens of volunteers canvassed campus tailgating areas collecting glass bottles, plastics, and aluminum cans as well as food waste from Volunteer Village, Circle Park, Neyland Stadium skyboxes, and parking areas. They collected more than 13.3 tons of garbage for recycling from the Florida game.

Although UT’s performance continues to improve each year, Jay Price, UT environmental coordinator, still sees room for improvement.

“We continue to see people throw garbage in the trash instead of the recycling bins, so we will look for more ways to change behavior,” said Price.

UT’s game day food waste is composted at UT’s on-site composting facility, located across from the UT Medical Center. Glass, aluminum, plastics, paper, and cardboard collected by UT Recycling are taken to the Rock Tenn recycling facility in Knoxville. Leftover concession food is donated to local charities through Second Harvest Food Bank.

For a complete list of results, visit the EPA website.

For more information about recycling on campus, visit the UT Recycling website here.

Together, professors from four different departments within the College of Engineering have won a $15,000 grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The grant is phase one of the EPA’s People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) annual student design competition, which offers students quality hands-on experience that brings their classroom learning to life.

Paul Frymier, associate professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Chris Cherry, assistant professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering; David Irick, research assistant professor in Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering; and Leon Tolbert, head of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, are advising undergraduate engineering students working with teams of high school students to design and construct electric bicycles.

Three local high schools are participating in the project—West, Fulton, and Farragut. A competition between the teams will be held in January.

“The objective of our project is to encourage new teenaged drivers to consider the impacts of their personal transportation choices,” said Frymier. “To make the project interesting, we showed them how to use elementary physics, mathematics, and engineering to select components for converting a bike to an e-bike to navigate a hilly area such as Knoxville.”

Since September, undergraduate engineering students have been advising the teams of high school students on the design and construction of electric bicycles. The high school teams will prepare and orally defend project reports discussing the design process and sustainability impacts of various transportation scenarios, including an e-bike as a commuting option for school and for general personal transportation.

Teams also will participate in a final event test-driving their e-bikes to determine which is the best at climbing hills, energy efficiency, and speed on a prescribed obstacle course.

“One of the teams will be selected as the competition winner based on its written report, the oral defense of their report and the outcome of the various performance trials,” said Frymier. “The winner will receive a trophy and bragging rights.”

Students also will be surveyed before and after the project to determine their attitudes toward and expectations for personal transportation. Results will be analyzed to see if project participation leads to more favorable attitudes toward use of personal transportation options that lower environmental, societal, and economic impacts.

The undergraduate student advisors are Rebekah Patton in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Rick Wheeler in Civil and Environmental Engineering; Candice Patton in Electrical and Computer Engineering; Chris Stanfill in Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering; and Jordan Bryner and Yi Ying Chin in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

The student advisors are assisted by a team of high school faculty advisors including Karyn Storts-Brinks, David Hawkins Fulton, and Kimberly Kennard at Fulton, Matthew Milligan at Farragut, and Joe Foy at West.

EPA’s P3 has two phases. In the first phase of the competition, teams are awarded a $15,000 grant to develop their idea. They bring the design in April to the National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, DC, to compete for the P3 Award and a grant of $90,000 to take their design to real-world application.

Forty-five college teams were awarded a total of almost $700,000 in grants in Phase One. For more information about the competition, visit the press release at the EPA website.

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C O N T A C T :

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)

The interdisciplinary major offers a curriculum that enables students to learn the policy and procedures behind reducing the impact on the natural environment to create a healthy economy and meet the needs of citizens. Launched and directed by Mike McKinney, professor of Geology and Environmental Studies, the programs intent is that these students will be change makers in producing a sustainable society and environment.

“This generation can effect change,” said McKinney. “As a paleontologist, my time frame is millions of years so I realize that we aren’t here very long and we have to keep the place clean while we are here. We have to think long term.”

Fifteen students are completing their first semester in the major.

“I love this major,” said Nick Alderson, a senior. “I wish it had existed when I first came to UT. In all honesty, I believe that I have learned so much more about environmental issues because this major encompasses so many disciplines, from geology all the way to natural resource economics.”

The interdisciplinary curriculum spans law, business, and science, focusing in areas of economics and sustainability, resource management, ethics and sustainability and climate change. The university also offers a minor in sustainability.

“Being well rounded is at the heart of sustainability,” said McKinney, who also helped start the environmental studies program two decades ago. “You have to be a jack of all trades. Students in this major are exposed to many professors and courses in many major departments. They’ll get a chance to experience a much wider variety of ideas and skills than in a traditional major.”

The program culminates with a semester-long capstone experience in which students participate in a real-world setting such as an internship with UT, the city of Knoxville, a corporation’s sustainability office, or a nonprofit.

“The capstone experience is so important to the major as it builds the resume and it allows students to network,” said McKinney. “The specific internship will depend on the career goals of the student. For example, a business-oriented student will be encouraged to intern with a company that has a sustainability officer or project.”

Graduates may pursue positions as a sustainability director or enter into emerging sustainability graduate programs. Students may also pursue careers in public administration, policy, and business.

“A bachelor’s in sustainability will allow me to pursue careers in so many sectors of our economy today,” said Alderson. “In the future I hope to use the knowledge that I have gained from this major to help develop and implement environmental policy in the United States.”

For more information about the program, visit the program’s website.

The major is part of UT’s Make Orange Green environmental initiative. For more information, visit the Make Orange Green website.

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C O N T A C T :

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)

Massey Hall staff celebrates winning the 2012 POWER Challenge with the “Mo Green” trophy in hand.

Massey Hall has won the eighth annual Make Orange Green POWER Challenge, earning the title of “greenest” residence hall at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Hosted every October by the Office of Sustainability, the POWER Challenge encourages resource conservation, recycling, and environmental awareness in the university’s twelve residence halls.

During the month-long competition, each hall receives points based on its energy use, water use, recycling, and environmental programs. The hall with the most points at the end of the month wins the POWER Challenge, along with an awards party, bragging rights, and the cherished “Mo Green” trophy.

The competition was fierce, and Massey Hall won the challenge through a strong combination of water conservation, hall programs, and participation in the Office of Sustainability’s annual compact fluorescent light bulb exchange.

“The POWER Challenge is a great way to spark conversations among residents about resource conservation,” said Kristina Klamm, Massey hall director. “It also shows residents that small changes in daily routines can make a big impact on the environment.”

As in the past, the 2012 POWER Challenge helped reduce resource consumption in the residence halls. Compared to October 2008, when the competition did not occur, campus residents used 443,700 cubic feet less water (the equivalent of roughly five Olympic swimming pools) and recycled seven tons more waste. Energy conservation efforts by the residents helped prevent 126 metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution, providing an environmental benefit equivalent to saving 14,000 gallons of gasoline.

Overall, campus residents helped UT avoid approximately $56,000 in water, wastewater, electricity, and trash disposal costs during the POWER Challenge.

“Congratulations to Massey Hall and everyone who supported the 2012 POWER Challenge,” said Jerry Adams, associate director for Residence Life. “By adopting green practices, our residents can help the environment and contribute to a more sustainable campus.”

The 2012 POWER Challenge was supported by University Housing, the United Residence Hall Council, Volunteer Dining, and Eco-Vols, a student organization that promotes sustainable living in the residence halls. Special activities held during the competition included a “Five-Minute Shower” pledge and the Black Out Bash, an event to encourage residents to turn off their lights.

“There are so many reasons to support resource conservation and other sustainable living habits,” said Sustainability Outreach Coordinator Hannah Slodounik. “We hope that the POWER Challenge demonstrates that going green can be simple, effective, and fun,” said Slodounik.

The challenge had winners in four different categories based on number of employees. Other winners were the Metropolitan Planning Commission in Category 1 (1 to 99 employees), 21st Mortgage in Category 2 (100 to 499 employees), and Scripps Networks Interactive in Category 3 (500 to 1,999 employees).

“The Commuter Challenge helps increase Smart Trips’ program participation while improving air quality,” explains program manager, Kelley Segars. “This year’s event ran from June 1 to July 31. We’re so pleased with how everyone really got behind us.”

During the challenge, employers encourage their employees to join the program. Everyone was asked to drive less by bicycling, carpooling, taking transit, or walking to work or working from home and to log their commutes online. Businesses earned points for their performance in each category.

Points were averaged into a final score and Scripps Networks Interactive was named the overall winner.

Two UT employees—Daniel Feller, a history professor, and Peter Krawczel, an assistant professor in animal science—won individual prizes in the competition.

More information about the challenge and the Smart Trips program is available at knoxsmarttrips.org.

Ryan Howell, graduate student in mechanical engineering; Mitchel Routh, graduate student in mechanical engineering; David Irick, mechanical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering (MABE) research assistant professor; Scott Curran, research associate in MABE; Emily Wise, graduate student in business administration; Michael Pickelsimer, graduate student in electrical engineering; and Katelynn Routh, senior in communications studies.

The graduate and undergraduate students are part of a team competing in EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future, a three-year collegiate engineering competition established by the US Department of Energy and General Motors. They’ve spent the past year planning their design with the goal of making the GM-donated car a better, more efficient hybrid vehicle than what is currently on the roadways. Now, they get to see their hard work pay off as they begin to implement their design into the car.

The EcoCAR 2 competition challenges the next generation of automotive engineers to reduce the environmental impact of a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu without compromising performance, safety, and consumer acceptability. UT is one of fifteen universities in North America participating in the challenge.

A year into the competition, the students have used math-based tools to model and design their own unique architecture for a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. They’ll select the system’s powertrain components the same way major automakers do.

“The real-world experience these students are receiving is invaluable,” said David Irick, co-adviser and research professor in the College of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering. “They will actually get to see something they’ve developed in practice. But what is more is that we are training our future engineers to create products that take into account the environmental impact.”

The arrival of the Malibu marks the official entry into Phase II of the competition, where the design is applied to the car. The design, called series-parallel plug-in hybrid electric vehicle architecture, will improve the vehicle’s environmental impact and efficiency in three ways.

First, the vehicle will be able to couple and de-couple the engine from the wheels while still providing electric power from the battery and/or generator to drive an electric motor. Second, the vehicle will have a large, high-voltage battery pack which allows the vehicle to run on electric power. If the battery—which can be charged using a standard wall outlet—gets depleted, the vehicle will use a combination of an engine and electric motor. Third, the vehicle will utilize E85 fuel which is a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline and burns cleaner.

“The technology in these advanced vehicles is allowing us to use multiple sources of energy within the vehicle, which, in the end, allows us to use less fuel more efficiently on an average commute,” said Mitchel Routh, controls team lead and a graduate student in mechanical engineering.

While translating their design into reality, the team is also developing a working vehicle that meets the competition’s goals. The competition culminates at the end of each academic year when all of the schools and their vehicles come together to compete in more than a dozen static and dynamic events. UT won sixth place in Phase I’s competition. Winners receive cash awards. Since 1989, UT has had more than 500 students participate in similar projects.

GM provides production vehicles, vehicle components, seed money, technical mentoring, and operational support to EcoCAR 2. The DOE and its research and development facility, Argonne National Laboratory, provide competition management, team evaluation, and technical and logistical support. In total the fifteen teams have been given $745 million. UT’s team has received additional support of $50,000 from Denso North America Foundation.

For more information on the student engineering program, the participating schools, or the competition sponsors, please visit www.ecocarchallenge.org or www.greengarageblog.org.

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C O N T A C T :

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)

UT researchers have successfully developed a key technology in developing an experimental reactor that can demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy for the power grid. Nuclear fusion promises to supply more energy than the nuclear fission used today but with far fewer risks.

Mechanical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering professors David Irick, Madhu Madhukar, and Masood Parang are engaged in a project involving the United States, five other nations, and the European Union, known as ITER. UT researchers completed a critical step this week for the project by successfully testing their technology this week that will insulate and stabilize the central solenoid—the reactor’s backbone.

ITER is building a fusion reactor that aims to produce ten times the amount of energy that it uses. The facility is now under construction near Cadarache, France, and will begin operations in 2020.

“The goal of ITER is to help bring fusion power to the commercial market,” Madhukar said. “Fusion power is safer and more efficient than nuclear fission power. There is no danger of runaway reactions like what happened in nuclear fission reactions in Japan and Chernobyl, and there is little radioactive waste.”

Unlike today’s nuclear fission reactors, fusion uses a similar process as that which powers the sun.

Since 2008, UT engineering professors and about fifteen students have worked inside UT’s Magnet Development Laboratory (MDL) located off of Pellissippi Parkway to develop technology that serves to insulate and provide structural integrity to the more than 1,000 ton central solenoid.

Researchers and staff at UT's Magnet Development Laboratory prepare the central solenoid mockup for the vacuum pressure impregnation process

A tokamak reactor uses magnetic fields to confine the plasma—a hot, electrically charged gas that serves as the reactor fuel—into the shape of a torus. The central solenoid, which consists of six giant coils stacked on top of one another, plays the starring role by both igniting and steering the plasma current.

The key to unlocking the technology was finding the right material—a glass fiber and epoxy chemical mixture that is liquid at high temperatures and turns hard when cured—and the right process of inserting this material into all of the necessary spaces inside the central solenoid. The special mixture provides electrical insulation and strength to the heavy structure. The impregnation process moves the material at the right pace, factoring in temperature, pressure, vacuum, and the material’s flow rate.

This week, the UT team tested the technology inside its mockup of the central solenoid conductor.

“During the epoxy impregnation, we were in a race against time,” Madhukar said. “With the epoxy, we have these competing parameters. The higher the temperature, the lower the viscosity; but at the same time, the higher the temperature, the shorter the working life of the epoxy.”

It took two years to develop the technology, more than two days to impregnate the central solenoid mockup and multiple pairs of watchful eyes to ensure everything went according to plan.

It did.

This summer, the team’s technology will be transferred to US ITER industry partner General Atomics in San Diego, which will build the central solenoid and ship it to France.

ITER—designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power—will be the world’s largest tokamak. As an ITER member, the US receives full access to all ITER-developed technology and scientific data, but bears less than 10 percent of the construction cost, which is shared among partner nations. US ITER is a Department of Energy Office of Science project managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

More information on the ITER project can be found at www.usiter.org and www.iter.org.

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C O N T A C T :

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)

EcoCAR 2 Team

EcoCAR 2, a three-year competition sponsored by the US Department of Energy, General Motors and twenty-five other government and industry leaders, gives students the opportunity to gain real-world, eco-friendly automotive engineering experience while striving to improve the energy efficiency of an already highly-efficient vehicle—the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu.

Year One of the competition series emphasized engineering design though modeling and simulation to select and virtually test their plug-in hybrid electric vehicle architecture.

For more information about EcoCAR 2, visit www.ecocar2.org/. For more information about UT’s team, visit web.utk.edu/~autosys/EC2home.html.

UT Recycling will accept household electronics such as computers, cell phones, televisions, and game systems between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. at the Staff Lot 66 parking lot at the corner of Joe Johnson Drive and E. J. Chapman Drive.

Businesses, government agencies, non-profits, and other organizations may bring their electronics to be recycled on Friday, May 18. These items will be collected between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. at the student lot at the corner of Joe Johnson Drive and River Drive. While the event is free, these groups are encouraged to register online in advance.

For a full list of items that may be recycled and for additional information, visit the UT Recycling website.

UT is partnering with Apple for the two-day e-waste recycling event in order to provide a free, environmentally friendly way of discarding electronics. The National Safety Council projects that nearly 250 million computers will become obsolete in the next five years, amounting to an estimated 3.2 million tons of e-waste.

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C O N T A C T :

Rebekah Winkler (865-974-8304, rwinkler@utk.edu)

Jay Price (865-974-3480, jayprice@utk.edu)