National Center for Computational Sciences

As Mother Nature continues her experiment in East Tennesseans’ heat tolerance, Oak Ridge National Laboratory might be the place to be.

Its computer room is cool as a cucumber.

“The work we are doing on climate modeling, even just a year ago, it would take about a week to do a simulation on models that today we could do in just a few hours,” said Computational Science Director Buddy Bland. “It makes the science much more productive.”

Oak Ridge National Laboratory houses several supercomputers including the second-fastest in the world.

“This is the Jaguar. The orange is for University of Tennessee,” Bland said. “When you pay this much for a computer, you get to pick the colors that you want.”

On the inside, the computers get red hot calculating the toughest problems around.

“The microchips dissipate as much heat as the small eye on your stove. That’s a lot of heat,” Bland said.

The supercomputers must stay cool to work properly.

“We have big chillers that create very cold water,” Bland said. “We circulate the cold water. Two thousand gallons of cold water every minute go through the computer room.”

The water goes into air conditioners that pump the cold air through vents in the floor.

Other computers use a chemical misting method.

“We spray a fine mist directly in the computer,” Bland said. “It evaporates, and it takes the heat away much more effectively than just trying to blow air.”

The cooling system alone uses one point three megawatts of power. According to KUB, that’s the equivalent of about a thousand homes.

“These computers use a lot of power. In the center, we are using 4 megawatts of power. It’s like a $4-million-a-year electric bill.”

It is the price they pay to lead the way in technology and scientific research.

“It’s a really popular place. It’s about 65 degrees in there. After walking over to the cafeteria and becoming a little damp, we might take a trip to the computer room to cool off.”

The fastest computer is now at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Source: WBIR.COM
By: Robin Murdoch, Reporter