Oak Ridge Today

Uranium Processing Facility team signs partnering agreement

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UPF Partnering Agreement

The Uranium Processing Facility Project Office and Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC signed a partnering agreement to move forward on delivering the UPF mission. Shown in the photo are, front row, left to right: Bill Priest, CNS; John Eschenberg, UPO; Brian Reilly, CNS; and Dale Christenson, UPO; and back row, left to right: Joe Brown, CNS; Brant Morowski, CNS; Mike Pratt, CNS; Jim Sowers, CNS; Matt Crookshanks, CNS; John Clayton, UPO; Art Haugh, UPO; Laurie Folden, UPO; and Steve Wellbaum, UPO. (Submitted photo)

 

Officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Uranium Processing Facility Project Office and Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC recently signed a partnering agreement to create a cohesive and effective team united in accomplishment of the Uranium Processing Facility mission.

“The UPF partnering agreement is an important step to ensure our team carries out its mission to deliver a new UPF, a key infrastructure investment for our country, with Building 9212 capabilities, for not more than $6.5 billion by 2025,” said UPF Federal Project Director John Eschenberg.

The agreement also emphasizes a collaborative approach to problem-solving and issue resolution focused on early identification and rapid communication. [Read more…]

City, AMSE Foundation have community meeting on museum Thursday

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AMSE Sign

The American Museum of Science and Energy is at 300 South Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge. (Photo by Sara Wise)

The City of Oak Ridge and the American Museum of Science and Energy Foundation are sponsoring a community meeting on Thursday that will include discussions of ways to strengthen the museum as a community and regional asset and destination attraction.

The meeting will also include an information session on current museum operations and the role of the AMSE Foundation. New AMSE Director David Moore will be at the meeting.

The meeting is scheduled from 6-8 p.m. Thursday at the museum, which is at 300 South Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge. Registration and light refreshments will be available beginning at 5:30 p.m., a press release said.

In a press release, Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said it’s the right time to get the community involved in a dialogue about the museum. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge first EPA green power community in Southeast

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EPA Green Power Community

Oak Ridge has been recognized as the first Green Power Community in the Southeast by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Pictured above from left during a Monday night Oak Ridge City Council meeting are Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan; Tennessee Representative John Ragan, vice chair of the House Energy Task Force; Robin Manning, executive vice president of external relations for the Tennessee Valley Authority; Marlene Witt, Oak Ridge business office manager; and Oak Ridge Electric Director Jack Suggs.

 

KNOXVILLE—The Tennessee Valley Authority has been recognized as a Top 10 utility leader in green power program sales, and Oak Ridge has been designated the first Green Power Community in the Southeast by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

TVA was recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. In the first NREL Top 10 ranking in a decade, TVA landed at No. 9 nationally with green power sales of 199,067 megawatt-hours in calendar 2013, thanks to TVA’s Renewable Energy Solutions programs and participating local power companies, a press release said.

Oak Ridge is one of the participating communities, and it received the EPA designation based in part on TVA green power purchases. TVA and Oak Ridge officials had a brief ceremony to celebrate during a Monday night Oak Ridge City Council meeting.

“TVA is proud to be recognized nationally for our strong and growing support of renewable energy,” said Patty West, director of TVA’s Renewable Energy Solutions. “Cost-effective, renewable energy is an important part of TVA’s diverse portfolio of energy-generation sources.”

A key to TVA’s renewable energy sales has been Green Power Switch, or GPS, which TVA launched on Earth Day 2000 with local power companies and members of the environmental community as the first-of-its-kind renewable power purchase program in the Southeast, the press release said. [Read more…]

Spotlight: Picture of Turnpike, Illinois Avenue shopping area in 1944

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Illinois Avenue and Oak Ridge Turnpike Shopping Area

The shopping area at Illinois Avenue and Oak Ridge Turnpike, where the new Kroger Marketplace is now, is pictured above in 1944. (U.S. Department of Energy photo by Ed Westcott)

 

The shopping center at Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue where the new Kroger Marketplace is now was previously home to a shopping area.

Here is a picture of that area taken by Ed Westcott in 1944. Westcott was the official government photographer here during the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II, when Oak Ridge was built to help enrich uranium for the world’s first atomic weapons.

The photo is on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office page on Flickr.

The new Kroger store, which replaced a few businesses and a small neighborhood, is the company’s fifth in Oak Ridge, and it opened a few weeks ago. The new shopping center has been named the Westcott Center in honor of Westcott.

Note: Thanks to Ginny Boeing Manning at RSI for bringing this photo to our attention.

ORNL wins eight R&D 100s

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Jun Qu ORNL R&D 100 Award

Jun Qu displays a flask of the ionic liquid anti-wear additives for fuel-efficient engine lubricants, one of ORNL’s eight 2104 R&D 100 Award winners. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received eight R&D 100 awards, presented by R&D Magazine in recognition of the year’s top technological innovations.

“These awards recognize the tremendous value of our national labs,” said Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. “Research and development at the national labs continues to help our nation address its energy challenges and pursue the scientific and technological innovations necessary to remain globally competitive.”

The eight awards bring ORNL’s total of R&D 100 awards to 187 since their inception in 1963. This year, ORNL scientists and engineers received awards for the following technologies: [Read more…]

Tennessee man pleads guilty in $2.5 million Y-12 extortion case

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Y-12 Aerial Photo June 2012

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is pictured above in June 2012. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

KNOXVILLE—A Tennessee man who appeared on the television reality show “The Millionaire Matchmaker” has pleaded guilty in a $2.5 million extortion case involving the former managing contractor at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

Adam Winters, 26, of Robbins, Tenn., said he had copies of slides that would injure the reputation of the contractor, Babcock and Wilcox Y-12 LLC, and he met with undercover officers on May 23 to exchange the slides for the money he demanded, U.S. Attorney William C. Killian said in a Thursday afternoon press release. Law enforcement officers revealed their identity during that May 23 meeting and arrested Winters.

Earlier, on May 8, Winters had e-mailed Babcock and Wilcox and attempted to email Vice President Joe Biden about the slides, Killian said. After he sent the email, Winters used the Internet and telephone to communicate his threat to injure their reputation through the use of the slides, according to the plea agreement on file with the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Tennessee. [Read more…]

Stuart, Stribley receive DOE Small Business Program awards

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Cassandra McGee Stuart

Cassandra McGee Stuart

Two Oak Ridge National Laboratory staff members have received DOE Small Business Awards under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Secretarial Small Business Awards Program.

Cassandra McGee Stuart is the recipient of the Facility Management Contractor Small Business Program Manager of the Year award. McGee Stuart manages ORNL’s Small Business Programs, which identifies qualified firms to establish business relationships with UT-Battelle, which manages ORNL for DOE.


LeAnne Stribley

LeAnne Stribley

LeAnne Stribley, director of ORNL’s Acquisition Management Services, won the DOE Mentor award through her involvement in the ORNL Mentor Protégé Program. The mentor-protégé program guides small businesses in performing subcontracts at ORNL and helps the small businesses improve their company infrastructure through marketing plans, onsite training and business plans.

Stuart and Stribley are both Knoxville residents. The awards were for Fiscal Year 2013.

ORAU promotes Kistner to director of Office of Quality

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Kristy Kistner

Kristy Kistner

New director has more than 16 years of quality assurance and project management expertise

Oak Ridge Associated Universities has named Kristy Kistner director of its Office of Quality. In this position, Kistner will direct and coordinate the quality management system and quality assurance across ORAU, including responsibility for maintenance of ORAU’s ISO 9001 registration and compliance with the U.S. Department of Energy contractor assurance requirements.

Kistner has more than 10 years of quality assurance and project management experience at ORAU, a press release said. She had been serving as the project manager for the Office of Quality, where she was instrumental in ORAU attaining its ISO 9001 certification. She also managed quality management system initiatives, conducted quality assessments, led assessment teams, and ensured compliance with regulatory and contractual requirements relative to quality. [Read more…]

President Obama nominates defense aide for DOE deputy secretary

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Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall (Photo courtesy Stanford University)

President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a presidential aide and national security official, to become deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she would replace Daniel Poneman, who is stepping down from the No. 2 job this fall after five years.

Sherwood-Randall currently serves as special assistant to the president and White House coordinator for defense policy, countering weapons of mass destruction, and arms control, a position she has held since 2013. She served as special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council from 2009 to 2013.

The New York Times reported that Sherwood-Randall, 54, would bring a background in nuclear weapons and nonproliferation strategy to the department, which has split responsibilities for energy strategy and the country’s weapons and counter-proliferation work. It would be her third job in the Obama administration.

Daniel B. Poneman

Daniel B. Poneman

The newspaper said Sherwood-Randall oversaw the effort to get chemical weapons out of Syria and the development of the administration’s policy for dealing with the nuclear arsenal.

Poneman has been U.S. deputy secretary of energy since May 2009, and he also served as chief operating officer under former Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Poneman has been focused on nuclear safety and proliferation, among other issues, the Times said. He briefly served as acting secretary in 2013 before the confirmation of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. [Read more…]

ORAU receives DOE Small Business Award for work under ORISE contract

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ORAU Small Business Award

Pictured above, from left to right, are Heidi Timmerman, director of Procurement and Contracts Administration, and Rebecca Crowe, Small Business advocate, both with ORAU, receiving the Facility Management Contractor Small Business Achievement of the Year Award for fiscal year 2013 from John Hale III, director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization for DOE. (Photo courtesy ORAU)

The U.S. Department of Energy has presented Oak Ridge Associated Universities with its Facility Management Contractor Small Business Achievement of the Year award for Fiscal Year 2013. The award recognizes ORAU’s subcontracting achievements with small business suppliers used to support work performed under the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education contract that ORAU manages for DOE.

In FY13, ORAU committed to awarding 69 percent of its subcontracts in support of ORISE work to small businesses, and it exceeded that goal when more than 80 percent of subcontracts were awarded to small businesses.

According to DOE’s website, the award winner “recognizes the tangible, annual, organizational results of a DOE facilities management contract. These results are measured in terms of dollars and percentage increases in small business procurement activity as well as policies, programs, and procedures that promote small business use.”

“We are honored to receive this recognition from DOE for our efforts in providing opportunities for small businesses to work with us on critical DOE projects,” said ORAU Chief Executive Officer Andy Page. “We believe very strongly that small businesses are crucial to fueling a strong economy and in building this nation’s entrepreneurial spirit.” [Read more…]

Record-breaker: SNS operates at full power—1.4 megawatts—for users for first time

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ORNL SNS Full Power

The accelerator-based pulse neutron source at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source operated steadily for users at the maximum design power of 1.4 megawatts on June 26. (Photo credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL)

 

The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory operated steadily at its full design power of 1.4 megawatts for researchers for the first time on June 26.

“We’re producing neutrons now at this intensity for user experiments,” spokesman Bill Cabage said in a telephone interview last week.

The $1.4 billion SNS is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility built on a ridge top at ORNL. It uses a linear proton accelerator and mercury target to provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. The proton beam hits the mercury target, knocking off neutrons from liquid mercury atoms. The neutrons, which are used to study materials from superconductors to biological systems, are then channeled down 16 instrument beam lines, where neutron spectrometers produce data revealing the structures and dynamics of molecules and atoms.

The SNS has been used for experiments since it started producing neutrons in April 2006, but at lower power. Researchers wanted to eventually get to full power, even if that had to be done gradually during the past eight years.

“They didn’t want to have a lot of disruption playing with it,” Cabage said. “They wanted to keep it reliable for users.” [Read more…]

Guest column: ECA highlights local government’s role with Energy Secretary Moniz

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ECA Board and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz

From left to right are Aiken County Council Chairman Ronnie Young, Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson, Los Alamos County Councilor Fran Berting, Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan, ECA Executive Director Seth Kirshenberg, Secretary Ernest Moniz, Aiken County Council Member Chuck Smith, Kennewick Mayor Steve Young, SRSCRO Executive Director Rick McLeod, Los Alamos County Administrator Brian Bosshardt, and ECA Deputy Executive Director Allison Finelli. (Submitted photo)

 

On June 23, the Energy Communities Alliance Executive Board met with U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz to highlight the importance of the Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup, national security, nuclear energy, and waste management missions. The ECA Executive Board, including Chair and Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan, and other elected local government officials also stressed the importance of regular communication and partnership between DOE and the local governments that are adjacent to DOE facilities. Secretary Moniz agreed that working with local governments is important to the success of DOE.

Earlier in the day, the ECA Executive Board also met with National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Frank Klotz, Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Dave Huizenga, and other DOE and administration officials, as well as congressional staff.

Mayor Beehan stated that local governments can be DOE’s asset for gaining support for missions and for infrastructure development at the sites, but in order for that to occur, local governments must be involved in decision-making. Mayor Beehan also stressed the importance of land transfer to local communities. [Read more…]