Theragenics(TM) Corporation of Atlanta, Georgia, USA (www.theragenics.com), announced that it is operating Plasma Separation Process (PSP) equipment at Oak Ridge as a commercial scale technique for producing large quantities of a wide range of enriched isotopes for use in medical therapeutics, medical diagnostics, sterilization applications, nuclear power applications and national defense applications. The company has entered into a 30-year lease for exclusive use of the equipment. The PSP process was proposed by fusion pioneer John Dawson at UCLA and initailly developed by TRW. Refurbishment of the equipment at Oak Ridge has involved scientific staff from several divisions, including the fusion division. The process also involves use of superconducting magnets and gyrotrons developed in the US fusion program.

nLine Corporation of Austin, Texas (www.nline.com) has announced the introduction of its "revolutionary Fathom(TM) patterned-wafer defect inspection tool" at Semicon Japan. The tool uses digital-to-digital holography first developed at Oak Ridge for a laser holography imaging system for tracking fusion fueling pellets injected into the ISX tokamak there. The key new development is the direct digital to digital capture of the hologram, which allows a view down inside semiconductor wafer features such as trenches and contact holes. Several ORNL scientists recently won a 2002 Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer for their role in this development.

For more information, contact Dave Rasmussen (rasmussenda@ornl.gov)