Oak Ridge Today

Perma-Fix announces new VP of Nuclear Services Business Development

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Richard Macon

Richard Macon

Perma-Fix Environmental Services Inc. has announced the promotion of Richard Macon to vice president of Nuclear Services Business Development.

In this role, Macon will be responsible for pursuing opportunities, developing proposal “win themes,” and forming strategic partnerships to further company growth, a press release said. Macon will continue to cultivate relationships with Perma-Fix’s new and existing clients, including the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Defense, commercial nuclear industry, and Canada. [Read more…]

FBI investigating report of possible trespassing at ETTP

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

East Tennessee Technology Park

The East Tennessee Technology Park is pictured above as it looked before most of the U-shaped K-25 building, center left, was demolished. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy)

The FBI is investigating a report of a man possibly trespassing at the East Tennessee Technology Park on Thursday evening, but so far, they said, it doesn’t appear he posed any danger to the former uranium-enriching site.

“I can tell you right now that there is no indication that this incident involves any kind of threat to the facility or to national security,” said Marshall Stone, supervisory special agent in the Knoxville office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. [Read more…]

Y-12 operator exposed to lithium hydride received second-degree burns, returned to work

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

An operator injured after being exposed to lithium hydride powder at the Y-12 National Security Complex in early April sustained second-degree burns, primarily on the face and scalp, but has returned to work, federal officials said.

The operator, who is not identified in federal reports, also received some first-degree burns. But in two separate reports, officials said the employee’s injuries were healing as expected without complications, and the worker was expected to make a full recovery. [Read more…]

Registration open for Oak Ridge Emergency Management Forum

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Online registration is open to the public for the U.S. Department of Energy’s DOE Oak Ridge Office and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency’s 10th Oak Ridge Emergency Management Forum that will be held Sept. 26 at the New Hope Center.

This year’s forum theme, “Back to Basics: Partnerships in Emergency Management,” will feature general session speaker Richard Serino, deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He will speak on current innovations in emergency management partnerships. [Read more…]

Students benefit from ORNL’s surplus equipment donations worth $1.7 million

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Sydney Burchell

Sydney Burchell, a sophomore at Morristown-Hamblen High School East, uses ORNL’s donated equipment to study waste management at distilleries. She and John Hale, a senior and lead researcher for the project, won first place at the INTEL-International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Ariz. (Submitted photo)

Old or unused laboratory equipment that has outlived its usefulness at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other U.S. Department of Energy sites doesn’t have to sit idle or wind up in the scrap heap. In 2012, ORNL donated $1.7 million worth of surplus property to nonprofits, including local schools, where it is now helping to inspire future scientists.

DOE works with the state of Tennessee to enable the surplus government property to go to school science labs and nonprofit agencies that can make effective use of the equipment.

Local schools have received fume hoods, water baths, centrifuges, and tilt tables, as well as ultrasonic cleaners, balances, and a variety of expensive glassware. The donated tools, outdated at any national lab, are now treasures for high school students, allowing them to conduct STEM research with high quality materials at a reasonable cost. [Read more…]

College of American Pathologists renews accreditation of beryllium laboratory managed by ORAU

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

The College of American Pathologists, or CAP, has renewed its accreditation of the Beryllium Laboratory managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.

Located in Oak Ridge, the laboratory is one of only four in the United States certified to perform the beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test. This test helps to determine if a person has developed sensitization to beryllium, which could evolve into chronic beryllium disease also known in the past as berylliosis. Inquiries regarding the test and how to access lab services can be sent to occ.health@orau.org. [Read more…]

Peace group wants fence removed from longtime Y-12 protest area

Posted at
By 7 Comments

Y-12 Fence on Scarboro Road

The temporary fence erected at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex encloses an area, pictured above, that has been used for protests and vigils for years. An Oak Ridge organization that wants to eradicate nuclear weapons has asked a federal court to order the removal of the fence before an Aug. 6 ceremony.

Calling it an assault on their First Amendment rights, an Oak Ridge organization has again asked a federal court to order officials to remove a fence that blocks an area long used for protests, vigils, and demonstrations in front of the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, which opposes Y-12’s nuclear weapons production work, filed the preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on Friday. The lawsuit, which amends a complaint filed in April, names new U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz as the sole defendant.

OREPA wants the U.S. Department of Energy to reopen a small grass field near Y-12’s main entrance at East Bear Creek and Scarboro roads before an annual Aug. 6 demonstration. If it is left in place, the temporary fence erected April 1 would cause “irreparable harm” to First Amendment rights—including the rights of free speech, peaceful assembly, and the ability to petition the government for a redress of grievances, OREPA said. [Read more…]

Officials to offer update on Alexander Inn project tonight

Posted at
By 2 Comments

Guest House

The Guest House in Oak Ridge, now known as the Alexander Inn, as it looked during the top-secret Manhattan Project in World War II. (Photo by Ed Westcott)

Rick Dover, general manager of the company converting the historic Alexander Inn into an assisted living center, will provide an update on the project during an Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association meeting this evening.

Also present will be Knox Heritage’s Ethiel Garlington, director of preservation field services for the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. today (Thursday, July 11) in the Midtown Community Center at 102 Robertsville Road at the corner of Robertsville Road and Oak Ridge Turnpike. [Read more…]

US, international partners remove last highly enriched uranium from Vietnam

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Vietnam HEU Removal

A worker prepares a special container carrying highly enriched uranium before loading onto a cargo plane for repatriation to Russia. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

Official in the United States, Vietnam, and Russia announced this month that they have removed 11 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, or HEU, from the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute in Dalat, Vietnam.

“With this shipment, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam became the eleventh country from which all HEU has been removed since President Obama’s 2009 announcement in Prague of an international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world,” the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration said in a press release. “The U.S. will work with our international partners to remove the remaining HEU from another country by the end of 2013 in support of this global effort and the goals of the Nuclear Security Summits.” [Read more…]

CASL milestone validates reactor model using TVA data

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

CASL VERA Simulation

This CASL visualization shows the thermal distribution of neutrons in Watts Bar Unit 1 Cycle 1 reactor core at initial criticality, as calculated by the VERA program. (Image courtesy Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors this week announced that its scientists have successfully completed the first full-scale simulation of an operating nuclear reactor.

Headquartered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, CASL is modeling nuclear reactors on supercomputers to help researchers better understand reactor performance with much higher reliability than previously available methods, with the goal of ultimately increasing power output, extending reactor life, and reducing waste.

Simulation results from the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) program, which was developed by CASL, were compared with actual data provided by the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Tennessee, which confirmed its accuracy. [Read more…]

DOE asks for more information on $2 million CROET grant

Posted at
By 7 Comments

The U.S. Department of Energy has requested additional information as it tries to close out a $2 million grant awarded 16 years ago to a nonprofit organization that owns, develops, and manages former DOE property.

The grant was issued in 1997 as part of a larger grant that the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee requested from DOE, said Lawrence Young, CROET president and chief executive officer. Most of the money was used for a high-risk loan program for small businesses. The purpose was to create jobs and promote economic development in East Tennessee, said Mike Koentop, spokesman for the DOE Oak Ridge Office. [Read more…]

UT names solar nanotechnology expert, ORNL deputy as Governor’s Chair

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Ramamoorthy Ramesh

Ramamoorthy Ramesh

KNOXVILLE—Ramamoorthy Ramesh, an authority in the physics of functional materials, has been named the 12th University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair. He has also been appointed as deputy director for science and technology at ORNL.

Ramesh will serve as Governor’s Chair for Nanomaterials Engineering, based in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He began on June 1. [Read more…]