Innovate 2.0 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

9 Sept 2025, 09:00 → 10 Sept 2025, 18:00 US/Eastern

Room 182 (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Robert Saethre (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Welcome to Innovate 2.0, a dynamic workshop designed for early to mid-career engineers from the Department of Energy's National Laboratory complex. The workshop, held September 9-10, 2025, was an engaging experience focused on career development, configuration management, and cutting-edge engineering practices. This workshop aims to foster connections among peers while enhancing your knowledge of engineering practices across various facilities. 

 

Innovate 2 day 1 summary.pdf

Hidden folder Draft Agenda

Tuesday 9 September

Welcome

Innovate 2 Welcome.pptx

1 Keynote Speaker – The future of nuclear power and the story of LIS Technologies Inc.

Laser Isotope Separation Technology (L.I.S.T) LIS Technologies Inc.
o Accomplished professional with 30 years of diverse technical & management experience in state-of-the-art laser & optical systems and applications. Most of this experience is in the field of Laser Isotope Separation of UF6, and he was involved in several classified laser enrichment processes on three different continents.

Speaker: Christo Liebenberg (LIS Technologies Inc.)

Christo Liebenberg LIS Technologies.pdf

Christo Liebenberg LIS Technologies.png

10:15 Break

2 Round table Discussion of Collaborations between Labs

Framework:
1. Case Studies and Lessons Learned:
o Do you have any examples of successful DOE complex collaborations for operations engineering, user facilities engineering, or supporting R&D.
o Highlight challenges faced during past cross-lab collaboration and strategies to overcome them.
2. Future State Vision:
o What does the future of collaborative operations engineering, user facilities, and R&D look like at DOE labs?
o Identify opportunities for integration and synergy not yet fully realized.
3. Action Items and Implementation:
o Define specific steps labs can take to improve operations and the efficacy of user facilities.
o Identify collaboration models that can be replicated across labs for greater collective impact.

Speaker: Robert Saethre (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Round table Discussion of Collaborations between Labs topics.docx

3 Training for Afternoon Breakout Session

Speaker: Robert Saethre (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Breakout Session 1.docx

Working Lunch-catered onsite

Breakout 1

Career development groups (3-5 people) (Teams Option?)
a. Staff Retention
b. Recruiting
c. On boarding & Initial Training
d. Mentoring
e. Networking (internal and external)
f. Continuous learning/ educational opportunities

Breakout Session 1.docx

14:15 Break

Breakout group summary reports

15 minutes per group

4 Tour Graphite Reactor

Tour Graphite Reactor

https://www.ornl.gov/content/graphite-reactor
X-10 Graphite Reactor
Manhattan Project National Historical Park

The X-10 Graphite Reactor is on Oak Ridge National Laboratory property. No public access is currently offered by the US Department of Energy.

On February 2, 1943, only two months after the first experimental nuclear reactor was constructed by Enrico Fermi's team at the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory, design work began on the X-10 Graphite Reactor. The Chicago reactor, known as CP-1, had only operated for a few minutes; X-10, by contrast, was designed for continuous operation so that Manhattan Project personnel could develop the necessary skills and technologies for the production-scale reactors and plutonium separation plants at Hanford, WA.

Convener: Robert Saethre (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Graphite Reactor

Graphite Reactor Small Brochure FINAL 9.4.15.pdf

Graphite Reactor Virtual Tour

Walk to Graphite Reactor.pdf

No Host dinner Off-Site: Aubrey's Oak Ridge

Aubrey's Oak Ridge

Convener: Robert Saethre (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Wednesday 10 September

Networking

Informal discussions among attendees

Convener: Robert Saethre (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

09:00 Laboratory-wide facility evacuation exercise

Recap of Day 1

Conveners: Makayla Edawards (ORNL-FO), Robert Saethre (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Innovate 2 Day 1 recap.pptx

Keynote Speaker - Accelerator Workforce Development

Convener: Dr Fulvia Pilat (ORNL-RAD)

Fulvia_Innovate_talk.pptx

10:15 Break

Topical Presentations - LANL: Configuration Management at LANL

Conveners: Karen Marsh, Raeanne Clabeaux (LANL)

CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT AT LANL.pptx

Topical Presentations - ORNL: Configuration Management at ORNL

Convener: Robert Saethre (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Topical Presentations - SRNL

Convener: Zaire Shaw (Savannah River National Laboratory)

Innovate 2.0 Configuration Management Presentation Final Version (CM) - Zaire Shaw (1) (1).pdf

Innovate 2.0 Configuration Management Presentation Final Version (CM) - Zaire Shaw (1) (PVersion).odp

Training for afternoon breakout sessions

Conveners: Makayla Edawards (ORNL-FO), Robert Saethre (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Breakout Session 2.docx

Breakout Session 2 r1.docx

Working Lunch-catered onsite

Breakout Group Summary Reports

14:00 Break

Closeout

Closeout

ORNL Tour Afternoon - Frontier Supercomputer

Frontier ORNL’s exascale supercomputer

Getting to frontier.pdf