OAK RIDGE, Tenn., April 24, 2009 - U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, (D-New Mexico), who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, visited Oak ridge National Laboratory today said research taking place at the Spallation Neutron Source at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory works in concert with work taking place at the two national laboratories located in his state of New Mexico.
"It's a very impressive facility," Bingaman said of the SNS. "It's obviously state of the art - not just in this country -- but worldwide. It compliments and adds to the work that's being done in my own state at Los Alamos."
Bingaman visited Oak Ridge as guests of U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, who are both Republicans from Tennessee.
"Lamar and I have worked well together on the America COMPETES legislation, which has done some good in focusing on the minds of the people in Congress and throughout the country on the importance of investing in science, engineering and education," Bingaman said. "Bob Corker and I have spent many an hour together sitting in our Energy Committee, trying to understand a lot of the issues that this laboratory is very involved in and the laboratories in my state are also involved in."
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.