Thom Mason, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said a Manhattan-like project for energy independence could employ some of the same development techniques used during the A-bomb work – such as parallel testing of different ideas to see which ones work best.
However, energy independence is likely to be an even more complicated task, Mason said, because unlike the World War II project it doesn’t have a single, dedicated “deliverable” – a bomb to end the war.
A number of ORNL scientists, including David Greene, a top fuel economist and transportation researcher, offered comments during the session and discussed what should be priorities. Greene said transportation is at the heart of the nation’s oil-dependence problem, and he said one goal should be doubling the fuel economy over today’s level by 2030.
But production of biofuels and greater fuel economy won’t be enough to achieve energy independence, Greene said.
“To accomplish that goal, we must make electricity, hydrogen – or both – clean, carbon-free, competitive choices for American motorists,” he said. Greene cited the need for a new generation of advanced batteries and fuel cells and better, safer ways of storing hydrogen aboard vehicles.