Oak Ridge Today

Free Medical Clinic has Boot Scootin’ Bash on Saturday

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Phil and Ann Carter

By Carolyn Krause

The best party in town, many attendees have said! A lively dance contest, line dancing lessons, delicious dinner and drinks, as well as delightful auction items. Dance music by popular disc jockey Dave King. Casual attire. 

It’s the Boot Scootin’ Bash of the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge, complete with a Western theme (think boots, saddles, wagon wheels, horses, cowboys, cowgirls, rodeos, and saloons). The bash is the annual fun fundraiser for Free Medical Clinic, which provides no-charge primary care and wellness services to low-income, uninsured residents of Anderson, Morgan, and Roane counties who otherwise would not have access to the medical care they need.

Elaine Graham, the entertaining emcee and 2016 dance contest winner, will run the show. Free Medical Clinic volunteers and staff will present the Boot Scootin’ Bash on Saturday, August 10, from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Parish Life Center of St. Mary’s Catholic Church at 327 Vermont Avenue.

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City will work to improve visibility at Tyler, Tennessee

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Tyler Road Tennessee Avenue Intersection July 29 2019
The intersection of Tyler Road and Tennessee Avenue is pictured above on Monday, July 29, 2019, looking west down Tennessee Avenue.

The City of Oak Ridge on Friday said the recommended sight distance is already available at the intersection of Tyler Road and Tennessee Avenue, where the stoplight will be removed, and the city will be taking action to improve the line of sight for drivers looking left from Tyler Road.

An Oak Ridge Today reader had asked about obstructions at the intersection that affect visibility looking left from Tyler Road to Tennessee Avenue. There are two utility poles there, as well as a hospital sign and utility box, and the reader had mentioned vegetation and the roadside hill alongside the eastbound lanes of Tennessee Avenue.

This week, City of Oak Ridge spokesperson Sarah Self said the utility box, which appears to be the widest of the obstructions next to the intersection, will be removed when the traffic signal is decommissioned in October.

Public Works crews will soon trim the trees and other vegetation there to provide an extended view, Self said.

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Geothermal well system leaking under ORHS soccer field

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The geothermal well system is leaking under the soccer field at Oak Ridge High School, requiring emergency repairs to prevent classroom heat pumps from shutting down, school officials said.

“Recently, we lost a section of the geothermal wellfield to leaks in the well system that would require extensive exploratory excavation to locate and repair the leaks,” said Allen Thacker, Oak Ridge Schools maintenance and operations supervisor. “This option is not possible due to the location of the wellfield under the soccer field and the extensive cost of excavation and replacement of field damage. The wellfield is now operating at below 80 percent capacity, and the need for the cooling tower to be the primary source of water cooling is imperative to prevent shutdown of the classroom heat pumps.”

Thacker said the heat pumps serve all of the Learning Center, most of Comprehensive Studies, part of the Wellness Center, Visual Arts, and administration areas.

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Crews start work for Mercury Treatment Facility at Y-12

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Workers remove asphalt on the east end of the Y-12 National Security Complex, where the Mercury Treatment Facility treatment plant will be built. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)

Work began in June to build the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The Mercury Treatment Facility will allow the U.S. Department of Energy to clean up and demolish several large Y-12 buildings that used mercury to separate lithium for nuclear weapons during the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s. The facility is expected to help reduce the amount of mercury in East Fork Poplar Creek, which flows through Oak Ridge.

DOE announced in December that it had awarded a $91 million contract to build the Mercury Treatment Facility. The contract, which could be in place for up to four years, was awarded to APTIM-North Wind Construction JV LLC.

A groundbreaking was held at the site in November 2017, and site preparations were completed by December 2018.

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For members: Y-12, Pantex contract extended for two years, $3.8 billion

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The Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above. (Photo courtesy CNS Y-12)

The contract to manage and operate the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, has been extended for two years, and the extension is valued at about $3.8 billion, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Wednesday.

More than $500 million in cost savings were verified during the first four years of the consolidated contract, according to the NNSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy and oversees the work at Y-12 and Pantex, among other nuclear weapons sites.

The Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above. (Photo courtesy CNS Y-12)

 

The contract to manage and operate the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, has been extended for two years, and the extension is valued at about $3.8 billion, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Wednesday.

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Man charged with assault, DUI after allegedly hitting vehicle with pregnant woman inside

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Bobby Lindsay
Bobby Lindsay

A Clinton man has been charged with two counts of vehicular assault and driving under the influence after allegedly running a red light, hitting a vehicle with a pregnant woman inside, and then fleeing from the crash, according to court records.

The crash left the pregnant woman trapped and unable to talk to police officers because of her injuries, court records said. She was taken by ambulance to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.

The Clinton man driving the first vehicle, Bobby Lindsay, 48, has been charged with two counts of vehicular assault, DUI, possession of drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving on a revoked license (fourth offense), failure to use due care, leaving the scene of an accident, and violation of the financial responsibility law.

Affidavits filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton said a witness saw the vehicle driven by Lindsay run a red light in Clinton on April 18 and hit the vehicle with the pregnant woman inside, leaving the woman trapped. Lindsay then jumped out of the first vehicle and ran off, the witness said.

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Arts Council asks for help funding arts, music, ballet

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The Arts Council of Oak Ridge is asking for your help funding arts, music, ballet, and other organizations.

The Arts Council organizes the United Arts Fund Drive. That helps member organizations that include Oak Ridge Civic Music Association, Oak Ridge Civic Ballet, Oak Ridge Arts Center, Oak Ridge Community Band, Oak Ridge Philharmonia, and Music Arts.

There are also two affiliate organizations, Tennessee Mountain Writters and Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge.

The funds raised through the United Arts Fund Drive go directly to the member organizations you designate, a press release said.

“It is through your support that these organizations can continue to grow and thrive,” the release said.

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Fatal aircraft crash occurred shortly after takeoff, NTSB says

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The fatal aircraft crash near Oliver Springs Airport occurred shortly after takeoff on Saturday, July 13, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The crash of the Quicksilver MXII was reported at 5:18 p.m. July 13, the NTSB said. The airplane was an experimental, amateur-built model, the board said. It was a two-place, open cockpit, high-wing airplane made of aluminum tubes and fabric with a 50-horsepower Rotax 503 engine and three-blade propeller.

The non-certified pilot, who owned the plane, was fatally injured in the crash, which was on the other side of a tree line east of the airport. The pilot has been identified as Patrick Lucas, 45, of Morristown.

The Quicksilver took off headed mostly north on runway 33. But after takeoff, the airplane appeared to “crab into the wind,” the NTSB said, citing a witness. That would generally mean that it was turned somewhat sideways from its forward direction of travel in order to counteract winds from the side, or crosswinds.

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NRC could finish design review of small reactor by 2020

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Cross-sectional view of the NuScale Power small modular reactor building. (Image courtesy NuScale Power)

NuScale Power of Portland, Oregon, said Monday that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has completed the second and third phases of its review of NuScale’s design for a small modular nuclear reactor, and the NRC is on track to complete the design review by September 2020.

This could be important to Oak Ridge because small modular reactors are possible at the Clinch River Nuclear Site in west Oak Ridge, although there are additional approvals that would be required.

The completion of the second and third phases of the NuScale design review is six weeks ahead of schedule, the company said in a press release on Monday.

“Completing phases 2 and 3 of the NRC’s design review certification process is a critical milestone for our company and the advanced nuclear industry,” said NuScale Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Hopkins.

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Anderson County plans $2.8 million animal shelter

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The proposed Anderson County Animal Shelter is pictured above in this plan by Blankenship and Partners LLC of Knoxville on Thursday, July 25, 2019.

Note: This story was last updated at 12:45 p.m. July 26.

A $2.8 million animal shelter is planned in Anderson County, possibly inside the city of Clinton.

The current animal shelter is on Blockhouse Valley Road in the Claxton community. It has 12 dog runs and 12 cat cages. It’s a 720-square-foot animal holding facility, the first in the county, and it cost about $25,000 to build. It was built by the county on county property with help from local contractors and inmate labor. It opened in the fall of 2015, about six months after Anderson County Commission approved an animal task force, said former Anderson County Commissioner and Oak Ridge resident Robin Biloski, who has helped lead the animal shelter project, including through fundraising.

“It was little, but it spoke volumes,” Biloski said during an unveiling ceremony for the plans for the new shelter at Calhoun’s restaurant in Oak Ridge on Thursday evening.

The new shelter would be much larger than the current facility. It would be more than 10,800 square feet, including about 2,900 square feet for kennels. It could have 20 dog kennels—30 total including kennels for animals that need to be quarantined and for miscellaneous animals such as pigs—and space for 20 to 30 cats, said Brian Porter, Anderson County Animal Control and Shelter Director.

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NRC has public hearing on Clinch River Nuclear Site in August

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This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Clinch-River-Nuclear-Site-Map-EIS-April-2019.jpg
This image shows the location of the Clinch River Nuclear Site in west Oak Ridge. (Image by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from the April 2019 “Reader’s Guide” for the “Final Environmental Impact Statement for an Early Site Permit at the Clinch River Nuclear Site.”)


The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will have a mandatory hearing on August 14 regarding an application for an early site permit for one or more small modular nuclear reactors at the Clinch River Nuclear Site in west Oak Ridge. It’s the final step in the agency’s review of the application.

The Commission hearing will include testimony and exhibits from the Tennessee Valley Authority, which applied for the early site permit, as well as from the NRC staff. The testimony and exhibits will be about the question of whether the NRC staff’s review adequately supports the findings that are necessary to issue a permit, a press release said.

The August 14 hearing will begin at 9 a.m. in the Commission Hearing Room at NRC Headquarters at 11555 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland. The hearing will be open to public observation and webcast. A detailed agenda and presentation slides will be available in advance on the Commission’s meeting page.

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SNS adding 20th instrument

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An artistic rendering of the VENUS imaging beam line under construction at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source. ORNL said VENUS will provide insights into research areas that include nuclear fuels such as uranium, left, additively manufactured materials, biological processes, engineered components, and studies of archeological and natural materials. (Image credit: ORNL/Jill Hemman)

A 20th research instrument is under construction at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The new neutron imaging instrument is known as VENUS, or Versatile Neutron Imaging Instrument. It is expected to be completed in 2022 and expected to be ready for scientific use by 2023.

“The beam line will ensure the United States remains competitive with international spallation sources that are already building or currently operate advanced imaging instruments,” ORNL said in an article by Jeremy Rumsey published Tuesday.

The new instrument will allow researchers to study “in real time” the makeup and performance of a wide range of functional materials under varying environments, ORNL said.

“Coupled with SNS, the world’s most powerful pulsed accelerator-based neutron source, VENUS will be the only open research facility platform in the U.S. to provide time-of-flight neutron imaging capabilities to users from academia and industry,” the lab said.

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