ORNL chief lauds Obama's DOE choice
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for him," Mason said.
Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Mason have participated in lab director meetings and also joined forces on occasion to preach the merits of funding science research.
Mason said Chu's selection as energy secretary is anything but business as usual. "There's clearly an understanding that in tackling the energy problem, it's not sufficient to just push for current deployment of existing technology, but looking for a transformational breakthrough," the ORNL director said.
"That's very promising for Oak Ridge because that's really where we are as an institution," he said.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which Chu has directed since 2004, has been strongly involved in development of renewable energy sources, Mason said, noting that Berkeley, in California, has one of the DOE's new biosciences centers - as does ORNL.
Because Chu is already familiar with the DOE system of national labs, there won't be a learning curve, Mason said, and that's a big advantage in moving forward to address research priorities.
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Power grab: 5 arrested after Hydro-Québec busts electricity theft ring
MONTREAL - Five people have been arrested in connection with an electricity theft ring alleged to have operated for five years.
The thefts were allegedly committed by the owners of rental properties who used stolen personal information to create accounts with Hydro-Québec.
The utility alleges that between 2014 and 2019, Mario Brousseau, Simon Brousseau-Ouellette and their accomplices defrauded Hydro-Québec of up to $300,000 worth of electricity. It was impossible for Hydro-Québec’s customer service section to detect the fraud because the information on the accounts, while stolen, was also genuine.
The suspects are expected to face 25 counts of fraud, conspiracy and identity theft.
Hydro-Québec…
