A conference at the end of February will give small businesses a chance to learn how to benefit from the planned $6.5 billion Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
The 2013 Construction Opportunities Conference is scheduled from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at the New Hope Center at Y-12. It’s offered by the Tennessee Small Business Development Center and partners.
Chuck Fleischmann
Third District Rep. Chuck Fleischmann has announced the Tennessee Valley Corridor National Summit will be held the last week of May and return to the site where it started 18 years ago—Oak Ridge. The exact dates are being determined based on the schedules of several anticipated national speakers, including U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Senior decision-makers representing academia, government, and industry from Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina will convene in the New Hope Center at Oak Ridge’s Y-12 National Security Complex for the two-day meeting. Fleischmann will serve as host and be joined by of members of the TVC congressional delegation.
B&W Y-12 historian Ray Smith, left, joins Lincoln Memorial University board of trustees chairman Pete DeBusk in front of the “Scientists Who Changed the World” exhibit in the university’s Math and Science Building. (Submitted photo)
Sharing information related to the early years of Oak Ridge is all in a day’s work for Y-12 National Security Complex historian Ray Smith.
Recently, Smith’s flair for historical detail was incorporated in a permanent display on the main campus of Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn. Located in LMU’s new Math and Science Building, the display pays tribute to nuclear energy research and the subsequent creation of what is now the U.S. Department of Energy.
Building 9204-3 at the Y-12 National Security Complex could be included in a Manhattan Project National Historical Park under legislation that could be reintroduced in Congress early this year. (Photo courtesy of Y-12 National Security Complex.)
A U.S. Senate committee assistant said officials expect a bill to be reintroduced early this year to create a Manhattan Project national park that could include sites in Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, N.M., and Hanford, Wash.
An earlier bill to create the park died in the last session of Congress, and one of its key sponsors, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, has retired.
Bingaman was chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has replaced him as chair.
“As you know, Sen. Bingaman sponsored the bill to create a Manhattan Project National Historical Park with components in New Mexico, Washington, and Tennessee, because one of the areas to be included (Los Alamos, N.M.) was in his home state,” said Sam Offerdahl, press assistant for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “We expect the bill to be reintroduced early this year, likely with a member from one of the states that is home to the proposed parks as lead sponsor (following Senate custom).”
Y-12 National Security Complex (Submitted photo)
A second protest has been filed challenging the federal decision to award a five-year contract to Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC to manage and operate the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.
The second protest was filed Jan. 25 by Integrated Nuclear Production Solutions LLC.
The first was filed Jan. 17 by Nuclear Production Partners LLC, a team led by Babcock and Wilcox.
Now mostly demolished, the former mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building is pictured above. The site could be included in a Manhattan Project National Historical Park. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy)
A bill to create a Manhattan Project national park that would include Oak Ridge died in the last session of Congress, but the legislation could be revived this session.
“It will be reintroduced,” said Cindy Kelly, founder and president of the Atomic Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. “We are very optimistic that the bill will move through the process.”
Besides Oak Ridge, the park would also include sites in Los Alamos, N.M., and Hanford, Wash.
Brett Spradlen, third adult from left, was presented his carpenter’s certificate by Y-12 Vice President and Facilities, Infrastructure and Services Director Linda Bauer, third from right. Also pictured from left are Vivian Spradlen (Brett’s mother), Alison Spradlen (wife), Hunter and Brody Spradlen (sons), Eddie Spradlen (father and Y-12 Security and Emergency Services employee), and Wayne Jobe (Y-12 journeyman carpenter). (Submitted photo)
Seven people recently graduated from the Y-12 National Security Complex Apprentice Program at a ceremony held at the site’s New Hope Center.
Each graduate spent three to four years with a journeyworker and attended between 144 and 246 hours of classroom training each year on his own time, usually in the evenings at local union halls.
This is the second graduation ceremony for the restarted apprentice program at the site. Previously, Y-12 had not graduated an apprentice for almost 30 years.
Originally scheduled to open two hours late, the Anderson County Courthouse is closed today due to the winter storm that dropped a sheet of ice on local homes, driveways, and roads Thursday night.
Schools in Oak Ridge, Clinton, and Anderson and Roane counties are closed. The Y-12 National Security Complex has restricted access to essential employees, and Oak Ridge municipal offices are scheduled to open at noon.
The U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office announced that it had delayed its opening until 10 a.m. for employees of the Oak Ridge Office, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Site Office, Oak Ridge Environmental Management Site Office, Oak Ridge Nuclear Energy Site Office, and Office of Scientific and Technical Information.
Oak Ridge municipal offices will open at noon Friday and access to the Y-12 National Security Complex will be restricted to essential employees due to the wintry, icy weather that is forecast to begin tonight in the southern Appalachians.
A winter storm watch is in effect through Friday evening across the region, including in Anderson and Roane counties, and the National Weather Service in Morristown said significant icing is possible across the East Tennessee Valley.
In a press release Thursday, the city of Oak Ridge said it is preparing for possible disruptions to city services, including widespread and extended power outages.
The three anti-nuclear weapons activists pictured above allegedly cut through fences and vandalized a high-security building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and now face federal charges of property destruction, property depredation, and injuring national defense premises. From left to right the three are Michael R. Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed. (Submitted photo)
In one of a series of motions last week, the three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28 asked a federal court to dismiss the new sabotage charges filed against them in December.
Attorneys for the protesters—anti-nuclear weapons activists Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael R. Walli—said the new charges, which could add up to 20 years in prison, are unconstitutional, vindictive, and selective. They said the new charges were brought because the defendants earlier refused to plead guilty to less serious crimes.
In addition, the sabotage charges are rarely applied to civilian conduct and should not have been used in this case because Y-12 is a private contractor site and not a military base, the four attorneys for the protesters said in a motion to dismiss filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on Friday.
The proposed Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Image courtesy of B&W Y-12)
The following is an edited version of a question-and-answer session with John Eschenberg, federal project director for the proposed Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Federal officials said last fall that the UPF could be larger than originally planned to make sure all the building’s equipment fits inside.
Q: What is the status of the UPF redesign?
A: UPF is currently at 66 percent of design completion. Once 90 percent design completion is achieved, we will submit a Critical Decision-2 (CD-2) package to headquarters for approval that will contain the complete cost and schedule baseline for UPF. This process, which involves both an independent cost estimate and an external independent review, will likely take several weeks to complete.
The cost range for UPF is unchanged: $4.2 billion-$6.5 billion.
Thanks to a Y-12 National Security Complex aluminum beverage can recycling program, more than 400 local organizations have received a $200 donation from the company since the program’s inception in 1994. Over the years, more than $81,600 from recycling revenue has been donated.
The most recent recipients are Tabitha’s Table, an ecumenical Oak Ridge food ministry that provides a hot meal weekly; Family Promise of Knoxville, a program for individuals facing homelessness for the first time in their lives; Sunshine Industries, a therapeutic recreation program for handicapped adults who live in Knox County; and People Promoting Animal Welfare, an organization that operates a feline/canine adoption center and spay/neuter clinic in Greenback and offers low-income families affordable sterilization of cats and dogs.
