U.S.-Funded Research Spawns Many Innovations

Researchers at government nuclear plants are developing more than energy and bombs--they are coming up with innovations that may lead to improvements like cars without radiators.

The scientists work for Martin Marietta Energy Systems, a government contractor that runs the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. But not all their time is spent refining uranium for reactors or developing the implements of destruction.

Martin Marietta spokesman Ed Aebischer said the researchers spend a good deal of time developing innovative materials and ideas for industrial applications.

For example: a technique for implanting nitrogen ions in metals.

“It may never wind up on American coffee tables, but Johnson & Johnson is marketing the concept for replacement hips and knees. Implanting (nitrogen) ions on the surface of a titanium ball creates an extremely hard surface that is very resistant to corrosion and erosion. It lasts about 10 times longer than regular titanium implants.”

Most patents developed by scientists at Martin Marietta are the property of the federal government, which pays for the research, but a few are made available for the company to license for commercial use.

Jon Soderstrom, who is in charge of licensing Martin Marietta’s patents, said one such patent is for a super-hardened ceramic that is toughened by reinforcing it with silicon-carbon “whiskers.”

Soderstrom said the initial use of the ceramic will be in cutting tools that will operate at speeds 10 times faster and last seven times longer.