A federal safety board has asked for a report and briefing after 15 exothermic (heat-producing) reactions of uranium materials were reported at the Y-12 National Security Complex between 2016 and 2021.
The report and briefing have been requested by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which wants a response from the National Nuclear Safety Administration. The NNSA is part of the U.S. Department of Energy and oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons work, including at Y-12.
Bond for an Oliver Springs man accused of murdering his wife Monday morning was set at $1 million.
The bond order for Nathan Lee Newport, 60, was signed by new Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Matthew Tuck on Tuesday.
One person was injured and charges are pending after a two-vehicle crash involving a semi truck on Oak Ridge Turnpike on Monday.
The crash was reported at about 1:40 p.m. between Adams Lane and Van Hicks Road, just west of Illinois Avenue, according to law enforcement officers.
A preliminary crash report from the Tennessee Highway Patrol said Amber O. Carow, 27, was driving west on the Turnpike in a 2004 Toyota Camry when the vehicle crossed over two lanes and hit the trailer of a 2020 Volvo semi truck driving east.
When the Camry stopped, it was facing east, opposite its direction of travel, the report said. The collision knocked the truck trailer off its back tandem.
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Note: This story was updated at 1 p.m. Dec. 13.
CLINTON—A 51-year-old man was sentenced to one year and nine months when pleading guilty Monday to a fatal hit-and-run crash between a pickup truck and motorized bicycle in Clinton about one year ago.
Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch was appointed without opposition to a fifth two-year term on Monday, and Council member Jim Dodson was appointed to his first two-year term in a 4-3 vote.
Gooch is starting his third four-year term on Oak Ridge City Council. He has been mayor since being elected to Council in 2014. He had no opposition on Monday.
A 60-year-old Oliver Springs man allegedly killed a 52-year-old woman with a shotgun Monday morning and, during a police standoff, refused to let officers give her medical aid, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
The man, Nathan Newport, 60, has been charged with criminal homicide—first-degree murder. He is alleged to have killed Janice Newport, 52, in a home in Oliver Springs at about 6:30 a.m. Monday.
Nuclear fuel company TRISO-X needs electrical power for a manufacturing facility in Horizon Center by December 2024, and the Oak Ridge Electric Department wants the authority to spend up to $3 million to help make that possible.
If approved by Oak Ridge City Council, the money would be used to design and build a new electric substation and distribution network to provide power to Lot 6 on the back side of Horizon Center, which is on the west side of town. The work would include engineering design, land surveys, site clearing, the purchase of materials, and acquiring permits and other required items.
Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch is seeking a fifth two-year term as mayor. Gooch has asked the other six members of Oak Ridge City Council to re-appoint him to that position on Monday. He is the only council member seeking to be appointed mayor.
Meanwhile, there are two candidates for mayor pro tem, which is like vice mayor. Council members Jim Dodson and Chuck Hope have both asked to be appointed to that position.
The council member who had been mayor pro tem, Rick Chinn, did not seek re-election in November after two four-year terms on council.
In his letter of intent for mayor, Gooch said Oak Ridge is headed in the right direction, with good news across the city from Elza Gate in the east to The Preserve in the west.
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A new supervisor has been named for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge.
The selection of Wendy Berhman as the new superintendent was announced by National Park Service Acting Regional Director Kate Hammond.
Berhman succeeds Kris Kirby, who served in the position for six years before accepting a position as associate state director for the Bureau of Land Management Wyoming State Office, the NPS said.
Besides Oak Ridge, the three-site national park includes Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. The three sites were part of the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. The park was established in 2015, and it is administered through a collaborative partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy.
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An Oak Ridge board on Monday endorsed overhead power lines and an alternate route that could be less controversial to provide electricity to a nuclear fuel company at Horizon Center.
Environmental advocates, ecologists, and trail users had objected to an earlier proposal to run overhead power lines along a U.S. Department of Energy patrol road on the back side of Horizon Center. Among other objections, those lines would have been relatively close to the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement, and opponents said the power lines would have decreased the area’s recreational value.
The widening of Edgemoor Road between Pellissippi Parkway and Clinton Highway could cost an estimated $175 million, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said Wednesday.
Planning for the six-mile project, which will include replacing the bridge over the Clinch River, was completed in August.
The City of Oak Ridge has been designated a World War II Heritage City, the only city in Tennessee to receive that designation.
The National Park Service has notified the city of the designation, Oak Ridge said in a press release Tuesday.
“The American World War II Heritage Cities Program honors the contributions of local towns, cities, (and) counties, and commemorates the stories of the men, women, and children whose bravery and sacrifices shaped the U.S. home front during World War II, and still impact our nation today,” the press release said. “Only one American World War II Heritage City can be designated in each state or territory. Oak Ridge played a critical role in history and has been designated Tennessee’s American World War II Heritage City through the program. ”
Oak Ridge was a key production site during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, a federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons, before Germany could. Among other work, Oak Ridge enriched uranium for the first atomic bomb used in wartime and had the first reactor to make plutonium-239. A plutonium sample was sent to scientific facilities at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and more of that isotope, the fuel used in the second bomb, was produced at Hanford, Washington.
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