State and local briefs for Feb. 25

State and local briefs for Feb. 25
By STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS February 25, 2003

ORNL, Cray formalize supercomputer pact Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Cray Corp. announced Monday they have formalized an earlier agreement to work together on advanced designs for supercomputers.
Under terms of the contract, ORNL will receive a Cray X-1 supercomputer in March and begin testing its effectiveness in scientific problem solving.
Cray and ORNL officials earlier said they plan to build the world's fastest supercomputer, with the goal of surpassing Japan's Earth Simulator within two years. That schedule, however, will not be met because the Bush Administration's proposed budget allotment for fiscal 2004 was not as generous as anticipated.

Douglas landowners to discuss TVA lakes Land Owners and Users of Douglas Lake (LOUD) will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in the third-floor meeting room of the Sevier County Courthouse Annex in Sevierville.
Dr. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and a member of Tennessee Valley Authority's Green Power Steering Committee, is guest speaker.
The meeting will include updates on TVA's Reservoir Operations Study and a status report on the University of Tennessee's study of the economic impact of improved lake levels on seven TVA tributary lakes.
Chris Umberger, chairman of LOUD's information committee, said the analysis is being done to determine if it would be economically feasible for TVA to leave lake levels high until September rather than draw them down in August.