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U.S. Department of Energy

Partnership Between ORAU and DOE Extends More than 60 Years with an Eye to the Future

Oak Ridge Operations Manager Gerald Boyd (left) and former ORAU President Ron Townsend signed a contract in 2005 for ORAU to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for five years with an option for an additional five years.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) has no larger or more important partnership than the one it shares with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Although DOE has only existed in its current arrangement since 1977, the partnership between ORAU and the federal government’s key energy agency goes all the way back to ORAU’s earliest days in the 1940s.

The Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (ORINS), which was ORAU’s original name, came into existence in 1946 for the purpose of helping major research universities in the southeast gain access to the government’s Manhattan Project facilities in Oak Ridge, known at the time as Clinton Laboratories.

In 1947, ORINS signed its first contract with the fledgling U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)—DOE’s predecessor—formalizing the relationship between the federal government and the newly minted ORINS consortium. That first contract also called for ORINS to create and deliver special training courses for professional personnel in how to use radioactive isotopes in research.

Since that first contract, when both organizations were in their infancy, the partnership between ORAU and DOE has matured into a vibrant and significant enterprise that serves America’s needs in a wide range of activities.

The relationship between the two organizations evolved in 1992 with the creation of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) to clearly differentiate between the work that ORAU managed for DOE and other corporate initiatives.

Under the terms of the ORISE contract, ORAU focuses on three primary mission areas:

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