Lockheed Martin 1996 Annual Report Download - page 48

he national laboratories have
been aptly described as the
jewels in America's scientific
crown. Lockheed Martin's Energy &
Environment Sector recorded a successful
year in managing three of those jewels
for the Department of Energy, with the
goal of creating a unified, cohesive system
of laboratories. As valuable national
assets, the Department of Energy labs
operated and managed by Lockheed
Martin continued to advance the frontiers
of science and technology.
Lockheed Martin pursued that aim
in 1996 through continued attention to
streamlining management, reducing costs
and strengthening core missions. In
addition, the Energy & Environment
Sector last year broadened the cooper-
ation among the three labs; the Idaho
National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
and Sandia National Laboratories.
A system-of-labs team was created to
improve synergies, and integrate opera-
tions in such areas as procurement, finan-
cial systems, training, environmental
management and construction, to name
a few. We have made significant progress.
For example, the procurement team has
already saved more than $4.5 million
on joint software development as the three
labs leverage their combined buying power.
Instituting these changes brings the
operations of the labs closer to those of
a business and it is that approach that will
open the way for more opportunities in
the commercial marketplace. For example,
last year, researchers at Sandia and
General Motors worked together to
develop an economical way to make
durable aluminum engines by spraying a
wear-resistant coating onto the cylinder
walls. Scientists at Sandia last year also
made the world's first working microelec-
tronic device to be fabricated using
extreme ultraviolet light. The device, a
common building block of all integrated
circuits, is hundreds of times smaller than
the width of a human hair. A new era in
computing is unfolding at Sandia with
tests of the teraflops, the fastest supercom-
puter in the world. How fast is teraflops?
It would take someone operating a
hand-held calculator about 30,000 years
to calculate a problem the teraflops can
compute in a second.
At Oak Ridge National Laboratory
researchers made significant break-
throughs that may someday lead to night-
vision cameras in commercial aircraft and
automobiles, similar to the night-vision
equipment now used by military aircraft
pilots. Through a revolutionary Uncooled
Microcantilever Infrared Camera devel-
oped at Oak Ridge last year, the cost could
be significantly reduced to install such
infrared night-vision imaging systems in
automobiles, for example, where such
cameras would allow drivers to see past
oncoming headlight glare and beyond
what they can see with headlights. The
Department of Energy in 1996 awarded
Lockheed Martin two-year extensions to
manage and operate Oak Ridge National
Laboratory and the Oak Ridge Y-12 plant
which is managed by Lockheed Martin
Energy Systems.
The Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) and
Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies,
which operates the lab for the Department
of Energy, are engaged in some of the
most advanced agricultural research in the
world. Only a few miles from Yellowstone
National Park, the research involves
bringing together diverse technologies
ranging from the Global Positioning
System to artificial intelligence. The goal
is precision farming — the application of
advanced technologies integrated into an
agricultural system that preserves
resources and improves efficiency. By
determining how all of the technological
tools work together, the INEEL team will
build a system that allows farmers to
manage their crops better.
With the end of the Cold War, the
Department of Energy labs are finding
innovative ways to turn weapons technol-
ogy into useful commercial products, as
well as safely store nuclear material. In
1996, the INEEL licensed a new technol-
ogy that turns a byproduct of nuclear
weapons production into harmless rock.
The new material is ideal for concrete
casks used to store the spent fuel from
commercial nuclear reactors.
The Corporation's extensive techno-
logical capabilities and experience in
environmental remediation were instrumen-
tal in the Department of Energy's decision
Energy & Environment