Oak Ridge Today

Tonight: Cook to discuss his book, ‘Ignored Heroes of World War II’

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Richard Cook

Richard Cook

Oak Ridge resident Richard Cook will discuss his book, “Ignored Heroes of World War II: The Manhattan Project Workers of Oak Ridge, Tennessee,” during a meeting this evening (Thursday, November 10).

It’s a public and membership meeting of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. It’s scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Midtown Community Center at 102 Robertsville Road.

The book is an oral history, a press release said. Cook has lived in Oak Ridge since 2000, and his wife was born and raised in Oak Ridge. He wrote a newspaper column for The Oak Ridger from 2003-2005. He has written more than 100 columns, which have appeared in The Oak Ridger, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, and on The Tennessean website, the press release said. His book has been profiled locally on WBIR, WATE, and PBS. [Read more…]

Roane Alliance contributes $10,000 to International Friendship Bell Fund

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Steve Kelley, left, Pam May and Wade Creswell present a $10,000 check from the Roane Alliance to Pat Postma, second from right, for the new Peace Pavilion to house the International Friendship Bell. (Submitted photo)

 

The Roane Alliance recently contributed $10,000 to the fund supporting a new Peace Pavilion to house the International Friendship Bell in Oak Ridge’s Bissell Park.

Wade Creswell, president of the Roane Alliance; Pam May, Roane Alliance vice president; and Roane County Commissioner Steve Kelley presented the contribution to Pat Postma, co-chair of the International Friendship Bell Citizens Advisory Committee.

Kelley, who represents Roane County Commission District 4 in Oak Ridge, said county officials consider this a tourism contribution that will bring economic benefit to the county.

“The Tourism Committee of Roane County Commission had been looking for ways to help the new Manhattan Project National Historical Park become an economic engine for Roane County,” said Kelley, who chairs the committee. “I suggested a donation through the Roane Alliance to the bell project, to support the Bell and Peace Pavilion as an attraction for national park visitors. We believe it will help increase traffic to the national park and surrounding attractions.” [Read more…]

Photos: History talk at Freels Bend Cabin, city’s oldest structure

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Aaron Astor, an associate history professor at Maryville College, discussed life along the Clinch River in Anderson and Roane counties before Oak Ridge was built in a special meeting at the historic Freels Bend Cabin on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016 during a meeting of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. The Freels Bend Cabin was built in 1844, and it is the oldest structure in Oak Ridge. It’s on the National Historic Register. (Photo by D. Ray Smith)

 

Aaron Astor, an associate history professor at Maryville College, discussed life along the Clinch River in Anderson and Roane counties before Oak Ridge was built in a special meeting at the historic Freels Bend Cabin on Thursday, October 13.

It was the monthly public and membership meeting of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. Here are pictures by D. Ray Smith.

The Freels Bend Cabin was built in 1844, and it is the oldest structure in Oak Ridge. It’s on the National Historic Register. [Read more…]

See student art at Oak Ridge library this month

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The art display at Oak Ridge Public Library for September 2016 is a collection of illustrations created by art students of Jim Dodson from Jefferson Middle School. (Submitted photo)

 

The art display at Oak Ridge Public Library for September is a collection of illustrations created by art students of Jim Dodson from Jefferson Middle School.

These 19 tempera paintings were inspired by Ed Westcott’s photographs of early Oak Ridge. Some of the paintings were submitted as entries for the 2015 Congressional Medal of Honor Student Art Exhibit held at the Tennessee Valley Fair.

Painted in black, white, and gray tones, the images reflect the black and white photographs of Westcott, the famed Manhattan Engineer District’s photographer. Although the pictures depict the somber time period of World War II, youthful energy and movement can be seen in the artwork. [Read more…]

Secrecy, security, spies program at Turnpike Gatehouse on Saturday

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The Oak Ridge Turnpike Gatehouse is pictured above on the west end of town. (Submitted photo)

The Oak Ridge Turnpike Gatehouse is pictured above on the west end of town. (Submitted photo)

 

A Manhattan Project National Historical Park program in west Oak Ridge on Saturday will give visitors some insight into what life was like in Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project with all the security, the need for secrecy, and the worrying about spies.

The program is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, September 10, at the Turnpike Gatehouse. It’s free and open to the public. Parking is limited, so please try to carpool if possible. The gatehouse is also at a trail head for the North Boundary Greenway, and visitors can go for a self-guided hike after the program.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park was established in November 2015. It includes Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico. The Manhattan Project was a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II, before Germany could. Oak Ridge was a production site for the project, and at the time, it was a secret city not shown on maps. [Read more…]

Kirby named superintendent of Manhattan Project National Historical Park

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Kris Kirby

Kris Kirby (NPS photo)

Kris Kirby, a 20-year career employee of the National Park Service, has been selected as superintendent of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge.

The announcement was made in Denver on Thursday by Intermountain Regional Director Sue Masica.

Kirby will assume her new duties October 16, 2016.

Kirby currently serves as the chief of business and revenue management at Yosemite National Park in California. Prior to her assignment there, she served as chief of commercial services at Lake Mead National Recreation Area and previously worked in concessions management at Glacier National Park, a press release said.

“Kris has spent her career fostering relationships inside and outside the service,” Masica said in the press release. “Those skills are an excellent match for this park and its many partners.” [Read more…]

Opinion: Alexander discusses ETTP demolition, development; Oak Ridge cleanup work

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Lamar Alexander

Lamar Alexander

By Lamar Alexander

This week marked the end of an era. The last of the five uranium enrichment buildings in Oak Ridge has been cleaned up, making land available for new companies and new jobs coming to East Tennessee.

Tennessee should be extremely proud of the men and women who have worked for more than a decade to complete the demolition and cleanup at the East Tennessee Technology Park.

The story of how these buildings first came to be built is by now a familiar one. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Senator Kenneth McKellar, the Tennessean who chaired the Appropriations Committee, to hide $2 billion for a secret project to win World War II. McKellar replied, “Mr. President, I have just one question: Where in Tennessee do you want me to hide it?”

They hid it in Oak Ridge, on 2,200 acres along the Clinch River, where they quietly built K-25, the largest building in the world, to enrich uranium through gaseous diffusion—a complicated and now mostly obsolete process. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Symphony to start season with new music, national park celebration

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Part of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra string section is pictured above. (Photo courtesy ORCMA)

 

The Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra will kick off its new season in September with new music by East Tennessee composer Mark Harrell and a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.

The concert is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, September 24, at the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center. It’s the 72nd season for the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association. The Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra will be led by Music Director Dan Allcott.

The concert, titled “Pride of Place,” is a celebration of Oak Ridge, especially recognizing the scientists and immigrants who founded this community, a press release said.

Commissioned by the JAZ Fund, Harrell’s “π to the Sky: Tribute to Discovery” is a celebration of the post-World War II generation of Oak Ridge scientists and their numerous accomplishments. The concert will also celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service with Peter Boyer’s moving narrated work, “Ellis Island: The Dream of America.” [Read more…]

Historic day: Last wall to be demolished at last of big five uranium-enriching buildings at ETTP (K-25)

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K-27 Demolition Aug 17 2016 Freeny

The last wall of the last of the big five buildings once used to enrich uranium at the former K-25 site will be demolished Tuesday. A section of the K-27 Building, the last to be demolished, is pictured above on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. (DOE photo by Lynn Freeny)

 

The last wall of the last of the big five buildings once used to enrich uranium at the former K-25 site will be demolished Tuesday.

Demolition on the last building, the K-27 Building, started in February.

The other four buildings—K-25, K-29, K-31, and K-33—were demolished between 2006 and 2015. All five of the huge buildings once used a process called gaseous diffusion to produce highly enriched uranium for atomic weapons and commercial nuclear power plants, starting during World War II and continuing through the Cold War. The largest was K-25, a mile-long U-shaped building.

When K-27 demolition is complete, it will be the first time that all of a site’s uranium-enriching gaseous diffusion buildings will have been cleaned up anywhere in the world, officials said.

“Demolition eliminates environmental hazards and prepares the land for productive reuse through deindustrialization,” a media advisory said. [Read more…]

Red Cross building—the city’s housing office in World War II—is for sale

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The Red Cross building, which was the city’s housing office during World War II, is for sale. The building, which is on Oak Ridge Turnpike, is pictured above on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The Red Cross building, which was used as the city’s housing office during World War II, is for sale.

The American Red Cross had been in the building since 1945, but it last had a part-time employee there in 2014.

It’s one of the few original Oak Ridge buildings remaining on Oak Ridge Turnpike or Illinois Avenue, said Mick Wiest, president of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association.

A Red Cross official said the organization is trying to lower its overhead across the country and occupy fewer buildings. That leaves more money to serve clients, said Michelle Hankes, executive director of the Red Cross East Tennessee Chapter Office, which is based in Knoxville.

Much of the organization’s work is field work and can be conducted with a laptop and cell phone, Hankes said. [Read more…]

Demonstrator arrested after annual march to Y-12

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Beth Rosdatter of Lexington, Kentucky, in white T-shirt, was arrested on a state misdemeanor charge of obstructing a highway after she walked up to the federal “blue line” and sat on the pavement in front of it at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex on East Bear Creek Road on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 9:45 p.m. Aug. 7.

A Kentucky woman was arrested on a state misdemeanor charge after she walked up to the federal “blue line” at the front entrance of the Y-12 National Security Complex on East Bear Creek Road on Saturday afternoon and sat down on the pavement at the main entrance to the nuclear weapons plant.

Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, said Rosdatter, a 55-year-old mother who has a doctorate in philosophy, did not cross the blue line. Crossing it can result in federal charges.

In an apparent act of civil disobedience, Rosdatter sat in the roadway, on the hot asphalt near the blue line. She appeared to be questioned by Y-12 security officers and the Oak Ridge Police Department and then detained by the ORPD.

Also Saturday, Michael Walli, one of three protesters who broke into Y-12 on July 28, 2012, and splashed blood and sprayed graffiti on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility as part of an effort to protest nuclear weapons, helped lead a two-mile nuclear disarmament march to Y-12 from Alvin K. Bissell Park in central Oak Ridge. Rosdatter’s arrest followed that march.

Walli was released from prison along with his two fellow protesters, Megan Rice and Greg Boertje-Obed, on May 16, 2015, eight days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned their more serious felony sabotage convictions. [Read more…]

OREPA has nuclear disarmament events at A.K. Bissell Park, Y-12 today

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Y-12 OREPA Peace March

About 125 anti-nuclear weapons activists rallied at the Oak Ridge Civic Center on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2015, before marching almost two miles to the Y-12 National Security Complex. At front from left are JR Dazo of Las Vegas; Ken Jones of Asheville, N.C.; Buddhist monk Denise Laffan of Newport, Tennessee; and Roberto Guzman of Detroit. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance has organized several nuclear disarmament events at Alvin K. Bissell Park and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge today.

There was a names and remembrance ceremony scheduled from 6-9 a.m. today (Saturday, August 6) in front of Y-12, at the intersection of Scarboro and Bear Creek roads. That annual ceremony marks the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, near the end of World War II. Uranium for that bomb, code-named Little Boy, was enriched in Oak Ridge.

From 12:30-3:30 p.m. today (Saturday, August 6), OREPA has a Concert for Peace and Rally for Disarmament at Alvin K. Bissell Park with a March for Abolition that starts at the park. [Read more…]