Oak Ridge Today

Brian Henry named portfolio federal project director for Y-12 cleanup

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Brian Henry (DOE photo by Lynn Freeny)

 

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, has named Brian Henry as its new portfolio federal project director for cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

Henry will replace Laura Wilkerson, who is now director of the Planning and Execution Division, where she oversees the portfolio cleanup directors at Y-12, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and East Tennessee Technology Park. Henry will report to Wilkerson.

As the portfolio federal project director, Henry oversees all of the planning and execution for Y-12’s current and upcoming cleanup projects, including all decontamination, demolition, and disposal operations, a press release said. In this role, he is also leading preparations for the Mercury Treatment Facility and the Environmental Management Disposal Facility, two of OREM’s largest and most vital near-term capital projects. [Read more…]

Cange to move to DC to serve in interim DOE Environmental Management job

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Sue Cange, manager of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, is pictured above at the end of demolition of the K-27 Building on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 2:30 p.m.

Sue Cange will be moving at least temporarily to Washington, D.C., to become interim principal deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management. She will be temporarily serving in the role formerly filled by Mark Whitney, who has taken a job in the private sector.

Whitney is a former manager of the Environmental Management program in Oak Ridge. He has been appointed chief operating officer of AECOM’s nuclear and environment strategic business unit. He worked for DOE for 11 years and served in both the Environmental Management office and the National Nuclear Security Administration, AECOM said in a press release.

Cange is expected to move in the next few weeks, sometime in October, said Ben Williams, DOE spokesperson for the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. [Read more…]

Local environmental board meets with federal, state agencies to discuss cleanup mission

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The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board holds its annual planning meeting in August 2016 with U.S. Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. (Submitted photo)

 

In August, members of a citizen’s advisory board met with representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to consider key issues for Oak Ridge Reservation cleanup in fiscal year 2017, which begins in October.

The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board held its 2016 Annual Planning Meeting in Townsend, Tennessee, on August 6. The Saturday meeting brought together members of the Oak Ridge board, leadership from DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, and liaisons from federal and state regulatory agencies to review cleanup accomplishments in FY 2016 and discuss priorities for FY 2017.

ORSSAB is a federally chartered citizens’ panel that provides recommendations to OREM on its environmental management activities at DOE sites locally. OREM encourages public participation in federal projects and meets regularly with the Oak Ridge board, as well as with other citizen and stakeholder groups within the community to gather public perspectives regarding a diverse cleanup mission that addresses legacy nuclear waste at sites across the Oak Ridge Reservation through numerous activities, including waste disposition, long-term stewardship, and site restoration. [Read more…]

Park Service, DOE seek comment on foundation document for new Manhattan Project park

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Manhattan Project National Historical Park Opens Nov. 12, 2015

The iconic “War Ends” photo is recreated in part on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, with a “Park Opens” photo that celebrates the new Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge. (U.S. Department of Energy photo by Lynn Freeny)

 

The National Park Service and U.S. Department of Energy are asking the public to review and comment on a draft foundation document for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The park includes Oak Ridge, and it was established in November 2015.

The foundation document is designed to affirm the park’s core mission and significance, its key resources and values, and the interpretive themes that tell its stories, a press release said.

Formally established last November at DOE locations in three states, the park marks the history of the mid-20th Century people, science, and events that led to creation of the atomic bomb in the top-secret effort known as the Manhattan Project.

Foundation documents are guidance tools individualized for each of the National Park Service’s 413 units to direct basic park planning and management, the press release said. [Read more…]

ORNL United Way campaign tops $900,000, an increase from 2015

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s United Way campaign’s $900,000 “big check” with, from left, Ann Weaver, whose Facilities Management Division was the top special fundraiser; 2016 chair Sharon Kohler; co-chair Ken Tobin; Facilities and Operations Director Jimmy Stone, directorate challenge winner for large directorates; and David Keim, representing the Office of the Laboratory Director, the challenge winner for smaller directorates. (ORNL photo by Genevieve Martin)

 

The 2016 United Way campaign at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory raised $900,000—an increase of $30,000 over the 2015 campaign.

“This is a fantastic and generous offer of support from our employees, management, volunteers, and everyone who has been associated in one way or another with this year’s United Way effort,” said campaign chair Sharon Kohler.

The $900,000 total included a corporate contribution from UT-Battelle. Kohler credited the lab’s Leadership Givers, who contribute a certain percentage of their salary per pay period, for providing 65 percent of the total designated by staff through payroll deduction. There were 22 new Leadership Givers joining this year. [Read more…]

ORNL launches new business accelerator for energy tech entrepreneurs

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Pictured above during an Innovations Crossroads business accelerator announcement on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, at the National Transportation Research Center in Hardin Valley are, from left, Mark Johnson, Johanna Wolfson, Moe Khaleel, Thomas McDonald, Charlie Brock. (Photo by ORNL)

Pictured above during an Innovation Crossroads business accelerator announcement on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, at the National Transportation Research Center in Hardin Valley are, from left, Mark Johnson, Johanna Wolfson, Moe Khaleel, Thomas McDonald, and Charlie Brock. (Photo by ORNL)

 

The nation’s top innovators will soon have the opportunity to advance their promising energy technology ideas at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in a new program called Innovation Crossroads. Up to five entrepreneurs will receive a fellowship that covers living costs, benefits, and a travel stipend for up to two years, plus up to $350,000 to use on collaborative research and development at ORNL. The first cohort is expected to start the program in early 2017, a press release said.

A growing global population and increased industrialization require new approaches to energy that are reliable, affordable, and carbon neutral. While important progress has been made in cost reduction and deployment of clean energy technologies, a new program at DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or EERE, will invest in the next generation of first-time clean energy entrepreneurs to accelerate the pace of innovation, the press release said.

Innovation Crossroads is the most recent clean energy accelerator to launch at a DOE national laboratory and the first located in the Southeast. ORNL is the nation’s largest science and energy laboratory, with expertise and resources in clean energy, computing, neutron science, advanced materials, and nuclear science. [Read more…]

Letter: Make Vogel one of your three choices for City Council

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To the Editor:

We are very fortunate to have several candidates running for City Council on issues that Council actually works on. Continuing good schools seems to be on all platforms and should be. Safety for citizens and the community is also very important. How to pay for these without raising taxes is probably the most important part of the platform. Oak Ridge is a city dependent on the U.S. government more than most Tennessee cities. During the early years, scientists and engineers from the “plants” lived in Oak Ridge and made it a well-run, highly educated city that was famous the world over.

Some of the “plants” are still here and now are making scientific breakthroughs that are changing manufacturing in this country. 3-D printing, carbon fibers, and the Spallation Neutron Source are part of great scientific achievements. However, less than one-half of the employees live in Oak Ridge, and almost no new manufacturing is moving here to take advantage of this great success coming out of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex. That can change. [Read more…]

Centrus, ORNL agree on $25 million contract for work on gas centrifuge uranium enrichment technology

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American Centrifuge Technology Manufacturing Center

The American Centrifuge Technology Manufacturing Center in south Oak Ridge is pictured above. (Photo courtesy USEC/Centrus Energy Corp.)

 

Six months after signing one contract, Centrus Energy Corporation and UT-Battelle LLC have agreed on a new contract for engineering and testing work on technology that uses gas centrifuges to enrich uranium.

Enriched uranium can be used in nuclear power plants and in nuclear weapons, as fuel for nuclear naval vessels, and to ensure a tritium supply, which is needed to maintain the effectiveness of America’s nuclear deterrent, a press release said.

The new Centrus Energy-UT-Battelle contract is valued at about $25 million, and it runs through September 30, 2017. Under this new contract, Centrus scientists, engineers, and operators will “use the company’s unique facilities in Oak Ridge to develop and test technology improvements to reduce costs, improve manufacturability, and enhance the long-term reliability of U.S. uranium enrichment technology,” the press release said.

UT-Battelle operates Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy.

The uranium enrichment technology is known as the American Centrifuge technology. It’s expected to support future national security and energy security needs, the press release said. [Read more…]

City Council, DOE manager to discuss relations, hiring, housing; water rates also on agenda

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Kenneth R. Tarcza

Kenneth R. Tarcza (Photo courtesy DOE Oak Ridge Office)

 

Some members of the Oak Ridge City Council and some residents have had a few concerns related to the U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors, including whether the DOE sites are doing enough to encourage new employees to live in Oak Ridge and whether DOE is paying enough on its payments in lieu of taxes to the City of Oak Ridge.

A more recent concern is whether DOE is paying enough for water supplied by the city to Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex, which are both federal sites.

On Tuesday, the Oak Ridge City Council could discuss these issues as it meets in a non-voting work session with Kenneth R. Tarcza, manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Operations. The work session, which is open to the public, starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Central Services Complex on Woodbury Lane (behind the Kmart shopping center).

Among the DOE-related items on the agenda are a discussion and review of city-DOE relations, local hiring for DOE projects, housing, and “other related issues.” [Read more…]

Council wants to roughly triple proposed water rate at ORNL, Y-12

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The Oak Ridge Water Treatment Plant is pictured on Pine Ridge above the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge)

 

Note: This story was updated at 6:50 p.m.

Some Oak Ridge City Council members have questioned whether the federal government is paying enough for municipal water at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex, and on Monday, four of them proposed roughly tripling a potential new high-volume water rate at the two federal sites in 2017.

The new water rate would apply to water consumption over 20 million gallons per month, which would limit it to ORNL and Y-12. The two sites use a total of more than 100 million gallons of water per month.

The new rate is expected to go into effect in April 2017 only if Oak Ridge and the U.S. Department of Energy aren’t able to agree on a contract for water at ORNL and Y-12 by the end of March. Those two federal sites now pay a flat annual rate but could default to what is known as a retail rate if the contract lapses.

The city staff had proposed a new default rate of $1.08 per thousand gallons for consumption over 20 million gallons starting January 1, 2017. The following year, in 2018, the staff had proposed a $1.35 rate.

But four City Council members—Rick Chinn, Charlie Hensley, Trina Baughn, and Chuck Hope—voted to raise the $1.08 rate in 2017 to $3 per 1,000 gallons. Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch, Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Smith, and Council member Kelly Callison voted against the increase. [Read more…]

Council to consider water rate, sewer rate, trash fee increases

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Oak Ridge City Council 2014

The Oak Ridge City Council is pictured above in 2014. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

 

Note: This story was updated at 10:38 a.m.

The Oak Ridge City Council will consider increases in the water and sewer rates that would go into effect in January 2017 and January 2018 during a regular meeting tonight (Monday, September 12). Council will also consider a trash fee increase that members endorsed during budget deliberations in June.

A 6 percent increase has been proposed for both water and sewer rates starting January 1, 2017. The next year, effective January 1, 2018, a 4 percent increase has been proposed for water rates and a 6 percent increase has been proposed for sewer rates.

A home that uses the minimum amount would pay an extra $2.26 per month for water and sewer starting in 2017 and an additional $2.17 per month in 2018.

A home that uses 5,000 gallons per month would pay $5.33 more per month for both water and sewer in 2017 and another $4.87 in 2018.
[Read more…]

Last seven days have been great for Oak Ridge, mayor says; read presentation here

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Warren Gooch (2016 file photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This is a lightly edited version of a presentation that Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch gave to the East Tennessee Economic Council on Friday, September 9.

It is a pleasure for me to be here this morning as I begin my 22nd month as mayor and to share my thoughts about the positive direction of our city, and why that is important to you and your companies. First, I want to thank you for supporting Oak Ridge and investing your time and your money here.

My family and I have lived in Oak Ridge for 23 years. But my law firm, Kramer Rayson, has been involved in one way or another with Oak Ridge from its earliest days when our founding partner, Russell Kramer, received a call from an old friend in Washington. (Gooch tells a story about a telephone call with President Roosevelt.)

By any standard, the last seven days have been great for Oak Ridge and have increased the excitement that is being expressed about the momentum of our city.

First, demolition has accelerated at the old mall as construction for Main Street Oak Ridge ushers in a new and exciting era for our community. The tax increment financing (TIF) loan for Main Street had closed, and so has the loan for the new Marriott hotel that is being built. The importance of Main Street Oak Ridge to the image and self-confidence of our city and the economic vitality of Oak Ridge, Anderson, and Roane counties cannot be overstated. The success of Main Street and the continued redevelopment of our center city’s retail, residential, and commercial properties is my number one priority. We must work hard to maintain this momentum and take full advantage of it in the coming months. If we are successful, it will help you recruit the new workers you require for your businesses.

Second, LeMond Composites announced its licensing agreement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and that the company is coming to Oak Ridge to manufacture innovative, high-volume, low-cost, carbon fiber in the Horizon Center Industrial Park.

Third, the National Park Service named Kris Kirby as the superintendent of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. [Read more…]