Oak Ridge Today

UCOR presents 2017 small business awards

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UCOR presented its 2017 Small Business Awards in a breakfast ceremony in Oak Ridge on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017. Christy Jackiewicz, acting director, DOE Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization in Washington, D.C., left, was the guest speaker. Also participating were Jay Mullis, acting manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, center, and Freda Hopper, UCOR small business program manager. (Photo courtesy UCOR)

UCOR presented its 2017 Small Business Awards in a breakfast ceremony in Oak Ridge on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017. Christy Jackiewicz, acting director, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization in Washington, D.C., left, was the guest speaker. Also participating were Jay Mullis, acting manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, center, and Freda Hopper, UCOR small business program manager. (Photo courtesy UCOR)

 

UCOR on Wednesday presented awards to five small businesses to recognize their “exceptional efforts” in supporting UCOR’s cleanup contract on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation, a press release said.

UCOR, or URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, is a partnership of AECOM and CH2M. The company is responsible for cleaning up East Tennessee Technology Park, a former gaseous diffusion plant that DOE is converting into a private sector industrial park. It also performs cleanup work at other locations on the Oak Ridge Reservation.

“As always, our small business subcontracting work force constantly exceeds expectations, so it is difficult to select just a few to recognize,” said Freda Hopper, UCOR small business program manager. “This year’s winners have shown consistently exceptional performance and reinforce all the reasons we rely so heavily on small businesses for so many functions in our project.”

The subcontractors were honored at an awards breakfast held in Oak Ridge on Wednesday, August 16, a press release said. Christy Jackiewicz, acting director, DOE Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, was the guest speaker. The ceremony also included comments from Ron Slottke, UCOR project services and support director, and Jay Mullis, acting manager of the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

Here are the businesses that were recognized: [Read more…]

Video: Learn more about DOE’s first transuranic waste shipment in five years

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For the first time since 2012, processed and treated transuranic waste is leaving Oak Ridge’s Transuranic Waste Processing Center for permanent disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Employees celebrate in the photo above. A waste shipment is pictured above leaving Oak Ridge. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)

For the first time since 2012, processed and treated transuranic waste is leaving Oak Ridge’s Transuranic Waste Processing Center for permanent disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Employees celebrate in the photo above. A waste shipment is pictured above leaving Oak Ridge. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)

 

Oak Ridge has resumed shipments of transuranic waste to New Mexico after five years.

The waste is treated and processed in Oak Ridge. It is leaving the Transuranic Waste Processing Center, which is south of Bethel Valley Road on Highway 95 in southwest Oak Ridge. It is being shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico, where it will be kept underground permanently.

The first shipment left Oak Ridge on August 9.

Before then, Oak Ridge hadn’t made a shipment since 2012. The waste has been stored in facilities in Oak Ridge since 2014, when the shipments were suspended, said Jay Mullis, acting manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

The U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office has published a video about the resumption of shipments, which is considered an important risk-reduction activity. You can see the video below. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge makes first transuranic waste shipment in five years

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For the first time since 2012, processed and treated transuranic waste is leaving Oak Ridge’s Transuranic Waste Processing Center for permanent disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Employees celebrate in the photo above. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)

For the first time since 2012, transuranic waste processed and treated in Oak Ridge is leaving the Transuranic Waste Processing Center for permanent disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Employees celebrate in the photo above. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)

 

For the first time since 2012, transuranic waste processed and treated in Oak Ridge is leaving the Transuranic Waste Processing Center for permanent disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico.

The first shipment left Oak Ridge on August 9.

Transuranic waste consists of materials and debris that are contaminated with elements that have a higher atomic mass and listed after uranium on the periodic table. The majority of Oak Ridge’s inventory originated from previous research and isotope production missions at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“Resuming shipments has been an important priority for our program due to the large inventory of processed waste that is stored in onsite facilities,” said Jay Mullis, acting manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. “These shipments will remove risk from our site and help fulfill our commitments to the state of Tennessee. This was only possible through a lot of hard work from the federal and contractor employees here and support from staff in Carlsbad.”

Originally, much of the site’s transuranic waste was scheduled for shipment in 2014. However, weeks before shipments started, two events occurred at WIPP in February 2014—a truck fire and an unrelated radiological event—that suspended waste disposal operations, a press release said. These operations resumed in January 2017, and WIPP has begun receiving shipments from select sites across the U.S. Department of Energy complex. [Read more…]

Programs manager at MTSU Center for Historic Preservation to speak Thursday

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Lydia Simpson

Lydia Simpson

 

The programs manager at a historic preservation center in Middle Tennessee will speak in Oak Ridge on Thursday evening.

Lydia Simpson will be the featured speaker at the 7 p.m. meeting of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association at the Midtown Community Center at 102 Robertsville Road.

“The importance of heritage and science tourism for Oak Ridge cannot be overstated,” a press release said. “Our story is one that many other cities would love to have. We have been told that numerous times. Yet, we can’t seem to capitalize on the tremendous story that is Oak Ridge! Why? What are we missing?”

Simpson has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a master’s degree in history with a concentration in public history from Middle Tennessee State University. She is currently writing her dissertation on a 20th century rayon-mill community as she works toward completion of the Public History Ph.D. program at MTSU, the press release said. [Read more…]

ORHPA having 75th anniversary for Oak Ridge on Sept. 15

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ORHPA city 75th Birthday Celeb Flyer 2

Photographer Ed Westcott will be the honored guest and author Denise Kiernan will be the guest speaker at a 75th anniversary celebration for Oak Ridge on September 15.

The 75th anniversary celebration is presented by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. It’s scheduled to start with historical displays at the Historic Grove Theater at 2 p.m. Friday, September 15.

The celebration is free and open to the public, an event flyer said, but donations to Friends of the Grove and the ORHPA are welcome.

Westcott was the official government photographer in Oak Ridge during the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. He will be the honored guest from 4 to 5:30 p.m. September 15. There will be a photo slide show presented by Don and Emily Hunnicutt, as well as a question-and-answer session. [Read more…]

City wants to renovate fire station as DOE, contractors work on K-25 History Center

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K-25 History Center and Equipment Building

An image showing the K-25 History Center on the second floor of the city-owned fire station, right, at East Tennessee Technology Park, with the Equipment Building and Viewing Tower at left. (Graphic by David Brown/U.S. Department of Energy)

 

Note: This story was updated at 4:30 p.m.

Oak Ridge wants to renovate the fire station where the federal government and its contractors are building the K-25 History Center, a project that is expected to help preserve the history of the World War II-era Manhattan Project.

The K-25 History Center will be built on the second floor of Oak Ridge’s Fire Station Number 4. The fire station is at East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.

K-25 was one of three major federal sites built in Oak Ridge during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. That was a federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons, before Germany could.

K-25’s signature facility, the K-25 Building, has been demolished. But a 2012 agreement that allowed the complete demolition of that building, once the world’s largest building under one roof, called for the history center at the fire station, among other projects.

Work is proceeding on the K-25 History Center, Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said in a July 21 memo to City Manager Mark Watson. The K-25 History Center is a project of the U.S. Department of Energy and UCOR, DOE’s cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge.

As that project proceeds, several upgrades will be needed to the first floor of the city-owned fire station in order to create the required living space for fire department personnel, Kerley said. [Read more…]

City tree board has workshop on emerald ash borer on Aug. 29

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An ash tree is pictured above in Oak Ridge. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

An ash tree is pictured above in Oak Ridge. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

 

The Oak Ridge Tree Board is hosting a workshop focused on the impact of the emerald ash borer in the area. The event, scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, August 29, will provide important information regarding the emerald ash borer for property owners, landscapers, and others involved in the maintenance of green spaces, a press release said.

“Ash trees make up a significant percentage of our urban forest and have traditionally been a landscaping staple,” the press release said. “Many of these trees in Oak Ridge are already dead or beyond treatment, but a significant number can be saved. At the workshop later this month, experts from around the area will address issues such as identification of affected ash trees and responses to EAB (emerald ash borer) infestation, including appropriate treatment.”

Those who attend will learn about these pests and their origin and how they spread across the country, as well as the techniques used in diverse areas ranging from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to urban areas, such as Knoxville and surrounding municipalities. [Read more…]

Peace activists will remember Hiroshima, Nagasaki bombings, call for ban on nuclear weapons

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OREPA-Ralph-Hutchison-Aug-6-2016-2

Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, is pictured above during a rally at Alvin K. Bissell Park on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Peace activists will have events in Oak Ridge and Knoxville starting Saturday and ending Wednesday that will recall the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II, and the activists will call for a ban on nuclear weapons.

The events have been organized by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance. OREPA has events each August remembering the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II. The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge enriched uranium for the first atomic bomb used in wartime. Code-named “Little Boy,” the bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, shortly before the end of the war.

OREPA has scheduled a Saturday event called “And We Are Saying Peace.” It will start at 12:30 p.m. with a concert and theater presentation at Alvin K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge. Those who attend will call on the United States to join the countries that passed a legal treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons at the United Nations on July 7, a press release said.

The Saturday event will also mark the conclusion of a peace pilgrimage from Asheville, North Carolina, to Oak Ridge, led by the Buddhist order Nipponzan Myohoji, the press release said. The walk left Asheville last Sunday and is expected to arrive at Bissell Park on Saturday. The final leg will leave Solway at 9 a.m. Saturday. [Read more…]

National Park Service will offer free eclipse glasses, viewers for total solar eclipse

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National Park Service 2017 The All-American Total Solar Eclipse

The National Park Service will distribute free eclipse glasses and free eclipse viewers at two viewing sites in Oak Ridge during the total solar eclipse on Monday, August 21.

The two viewing sites are:

  • American Museum of Science and Energy/Manhattan Project National Historical Park Visitor Center at 300 South Tulane Avenue in central Oak Ridge, and
  • East Tennessee Technology Park, 200 Heritage Center Boulevard, in west Oak Ridge.

Oak Ridge is part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

The total solar eclipse will cross the Manhattan Project National Historical Park on Monday, August 21. The entire area of the park falls within the path of totality, a press release said.

“The park will be offering two free viewing locations where park rangers will be distributing free eclipse glasses and free eclipse viewers that include a commemorative artistic rendering of the ‘All-American Total Solar Eclipse,'” the press release said. “Park rangers will also be discussing safe viewing practices and using enhanced viewing equipment to help visitors enjoy all phases of the eclipse.” [Read more…]

Photos: Oak Ridge-Heritage football scrimmage

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Oak Ridge had an opening football scrimmage at Heritage High School in Blount County on Monday, July 31, 2017. (Photos by Luther Simmons)

Oak Ridge had an opening football scrimmage at Heritage High School in Blount County on Monday, July 31, 2017. (Photos by Luther Simmons)

 

BLOUNT COUNTY—Oak Ridge had an opening football scrimmage at Heritage High School in Blount County on Monday. Here are photos by Luther Simmons.

The final score was Oak Ridge 41, Heritage 14. You can see some of the highlights posted by Oak Ridge Sports on Twitter.

During the freshman scrimmage, Oak Ridge scored three touchdowns while holding Heritage scoreless. [Read more…]

Baldwin joins planning, design company in Knoxville

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Kathryn Baldwin

Kathryn Baldwin

 

Former Oak Ridge Community Development Director Kathryn Baldwin has joined Lose & Associates, a planning and design company that once developed a master plan for the Oak Ridge City Center.

Lose & Associates is a landscape architecture, architecture, civil engineering, and planning firm with offices in Nashville and Atlanta, a press release said. The company recently announced its expansion to the Knoxville area, in Franklin Square on Kingston Pike.

Baldwin, office manager and senior planner, will lead the Knoxville office, the press release said. She has a master’s degree in geography from East Tennessee State University, and she “brings a wealth of geographic knowledge, management skills, and technical knowledge to her new position,” the press release said.

Baldwin retired after 16 years with the City of Oak Ridge, and her last day was July 28. Wayne Blasius, who had been executive director of the nonprofit East Tennessee Community Design Center, has been hired to replace her, starting August 28. [Read more…]

See 2017 Oak Ridge football schedule here

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Note: This story was updated at 11:20 a.m.

Here is the 2017 game schedule for Oak Ridge Wildcats football:

  • August 18—Hardin Valley at home (Blankenship Field)—7:30 p.m.
  • August 25—Dobyns-Bennett in Kingsport (away)—7:30 p.m.
  • September 1—Campbell County in Jacksboro (away)—7:30 p.m. (Region 3-5A game)
  • September 8—Farragut at Farragut (away)—7:30 p.m.
  • September 15—West at home—7:30 p.m. (Region 3-5A game)
  • September 22—Sevier County at home—7:30 p.m.
  • September 29—Karns at home—7:30 p.m. (Region 3-5A game)
  • October 13—Clinton at home—7:30 p.m. (Region 3-5A game)
  • October 20—Powell at Powell (away)—7:30 p.m. (Region 3-5A game)
  • October 27—Fulton in Knoxville (away)—7:30 p.m. (Region 3-5A game)

Fulton and West, both of Knoxville, are new regional opponents of Oak Ridge in 2017 under the 2017-2018 classification.

Farragut and Lenoir City—two high schools that were in Division I, Class 5A, Region 3, with Oak Ridge last year—have both moved to another class or region. Farragut, a longtime Oak Ridge rival, is now in Class 6A, although the Wildcats will still play the Admirals this season. Farragut won the Class 5A state championship in 2016 after losing to Oak Ridge during the regular season. [Read more…]