Oak Ridge Today

NRC seeks public comment about test reactor

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Kairos Hermes test reactor (Image via Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment and will have a public meeting and online seminar Wednesday about issuing a construction permit for a proposed test reactor in Oak Ridge.

The NRC has issued a draft environmental impact statement for the construction permit for a Kairos Hermes Test Reactor. The nuclear reactor would not produce electricity, but it would test Kairos Power’s fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor technology, according to the NRC.

Completed in September, the draft environmental impact statement includes the NRC staff’s preliminary analysis of the environmental impacts of issuing a construction permit to Kairos.

“After weighing the environmental, economic, technical, and other benefits against environmental and other costs, the NRC staff’s preliminary recommendation, unless safety issues mandate otherwise, is that the operating license be issued as requested,” the NRC said in a notice published in the Federal Register.

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ORNL to receive $497 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding 

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory will receive $497 million from the Inflation Reduction Act for projects that include nuclear fusion and neutron research, supercomputing, materials science, and radioisotope production. More than half of the money, 52% of it, will be used for U.S. contributions to an international nuclear fusion project.

ORNL’s $497 million is about one-third of the $1.55 billion provided to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science by the Democrat-led Congress under the IRA. President Joe Biden signed the IRA, which included a range of provisions and passed along party lines, into law in August. It provides money for more than 52 DOE projects already in the works.

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Greenway, park closures announced for hunts

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There will be greenway and park closures in November and December for hunts in the Oak Ridge Wildlife Management Area.

The big game quota hunts will be held by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy and the City of Oak Ridge.

“For everyone’s safety, only hunters possessing a valid Oak Ridge WMA quota permit are allowed on the WMA during scheduled quota hunts,” a press release said.

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Tree Lighting ceremony on Dec. 1

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oak-ridge-christmas-tree-lighting-a-dec-2-2016
The Oak Ridge Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022, in Alvin K. Bissell Park. (File photo by City of Oak Ridge)

The annual Community Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, December 1, in Alvin K. Bissell Park.

The tree lighting ceremony, sponsored by the Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department, is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. December 1.

The tree, a Norway spruce that was presented to the city by the Woman’s Club, has become part of a growing community tradition, a press release said.

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Bond reduced for wife charged with murder

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Samantha Hendley

Bond has been reduced for a woman charged with murder for the death of her husband in Oak Ridge in 2014.

Bond for Samantha Anne Hendley, 36, was reduced from $1 million to $450,000 in an order issued November 7 by Senior Judge Don R. Ash. If Hendley is able to be released on bond, she is required to wear a global positioning system (GPS) monitoring device, the order said.

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Crews demolish ORNL reactor once used for aircraft nuclear propulsion research

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Demolition began in September 2022 on the Bulk Shielding Reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and it was completed in November. It was the first teardown of a former reactor at the site. (Photo by U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management)

Workers have demolished a nuclear reactor that was built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1950s for studies that were part of the federal aircraft nuclear propulsion program.

It’s the first demolition of a reactor in the ORNL central campus area. The demolition was reported to be completed ahead of schedule.

The Bulk Shielding Reactor, also known as Building 3010, was built in the 1950s for radiation shielding studies as part of the federal aircraft nuclear propulsion program. It included a 27-foot-deep reactor pool filled with water to shield the radioactive components contained in the pool, according to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management. Its mission changed to a general-purpose research reactor in 1963, and it was shut down permanently in 1991.

The reactor was demolished by cleanup contractor UCOR, working for DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM).

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ORNL studying hydrogen as rail fuel to fight climate change

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Pictured above at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022, for a project to research using hydrogen in a locomotive at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are, from left, Jim Gamble, vice president of engine and power solutions technology for Wabtec Corporation; Siddiq Khan, technology development manager for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office; Melissa Shurland, program manager in the Office of Research, Development, and Technology in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration; Dean Edwards, ORNL research and development lead; Xin Sun, ORNL associate laboratory director in the Energy Science and Technology Directorate; and Muhsin Ameen, senior research scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Note: This story was updated at 1 p.m. Nov. 12.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has started a research project to investigate using hydrogen fuel in a railroad engine to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and help fight climate change. Rail is one of the industries considered challenging to decarbonize along with aviation and shipping.

Researchers at ORNL and Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago will use a large single-cylinder 375-horsepower Wabtec engine that will burn a mixture of hydrogen and diesel fuel, which is what locomotives burn now. Under four-year agreements, the researchers will study things like engine hardware, fuel mixtures, and ignition strategies. Other low-carbon fuels could also be studied.

“We are excited to be a part of this collaboration because it addresses the need to decarbonize the rail industry by advancing hydrogen engine technology for both current and future locomotives,” said Josh Pihl, an ORNL distinguished researcher and group leader for applied catalysis and emissions research. “It is also a perfect example of how a DOE-funded collaboration between industry and national laboratories can accelerate the development and commercialization of technologies to help reduce carbon emissions from transportation.”

The 15.7-liter engine, larger than a tractor-trailer motor, was recently installed in garage-size research space at the National Transportation Research Center, an ORNL campus in Hardin Valley. ORNL had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the engine research project on Wednesday.

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Community Thanksgiving on Nov. 24

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The annual free community Thanksgiving dinner is in Oak Ridge on Thursday, November 24.

“Everyone should have someone to give thanks with on Thanksgiving!” a press release said. “The grassroots annual tradition continues, and this year we are back to in-house dining!”

Everyone is invited, the press release said.

The dinner is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, November 24, at the Historic Grove Theater at 123 Randolph Road in Oak Ridge. No RSVP is required, the press release said.

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Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education announces winners of inaugural Future of Science Awards to celebrate its 30th anniversary

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OAK RIDGE, Tenn.— To honor the 30th anniversary of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, the organization announced the winners of its inaugural Future of Science Awards.

These prestigious awards recognize excellence performed by ORISE participants in the areas of scientific achievement, professional growth, project contributions and leadership in three categories: undergraduate and post-baccalaureate, graduate student and post-master’s, and postdoctoral. Each winner will receive $1,000 cash and recognition from ORISE.

ORISE Director Jim Vosburg presented the 2022 ORISE Future of Science Awards during a virtual ceremony to the following ORISE participant winners:

Brooke Vollmer – Undergraduate Student and Post-Baccalaureate Award

Brooke Vollmer is an ORISE fellow in the Research Branch at the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL), which is a division within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), located in Pittsburgh. Vollmer received her Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the
University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in Spring 2020. Throughout her education, she gained her research experience at NIOSH/NPPTL, first as a summer intern (2019) and regular fellow (2020-2021) prior to beginning her ORISE journey (2021-present) with her mentor, Michael Bergman. Vollmer has
contributed to an abundance of research projects within her division and by representing NIOSH/NPPTL in research collaborations with outside organizations. She has focused her efforts on research that looks into understanding the factors that affect respirator performance, such as fit and filtration efficiency. This research helps to protect workers worldwide who rely on respirators to prevent occupational disease and illness.

Geneva Gray – Graduate Student and Post-Master’s Award

Geneva Gray is a doctoral candidate in Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University and a current ORISE participant with her mentor, Tanya Spero, at the Environmental Protection Agency. She studies how extreme precipitation events change under future warming conditions using stakeholder-driven case studies and extreme value analysis. Geneva holds two Bachelor of Science degrees in Meteorology and Environmental Sciences and a master’s degree in Atmospheric Science, where she studied quantitative methods on climate model ensemble selection. She is a former U.S. Geological Survey Global Change Fellow and Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network Fellow. Geneva started her career in 2012 as an environmental meteorologist at the North Carolina State Climate Office where she learned how to build impact-driven research projects and how to communicate those results to the general public. Her career goal is to lead actionable climate science for a resilient future.

Ryan Corey – Postdoctoral Award

Ryan Corey is an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellow conducting research with Professor Andrew Singer in the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree from Princeton University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all in electrical engineering. A hearing aid user since he was a teenager, Corey’s research focuses on signal processing strategies to help people hear better in noisy environments. In particular, he is developing systems that allow multiple sensors and audio devices to work together to improve performance in adverse environments. Since 2017, he has mentored a team of engineering, design and business students in the Illinois Augmented Listening Laboratory, which explores applications of large-scale microphone arrays and acoustic sensor networks. Corey has received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant, the Microsoft Artificial Intelligence for Accessibility Award, and the Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. He was also awarded the Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics 2019 Best Student Paper Award and the 179th Acoustical Society of America Meeting Best Student Paper Award.

For more information, and to watch for information regarding next year’s Future of Science Awards in spring 2023, visit the ORISE website: https://orise.orau.gov/

About ORISE
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is a U.S. Department of Energy asset that is dedicated to enabling critical scientific, research, and health initiatives of the department and its laboratory system by providing world-class expertise in STEM workforce development, scientific and technical reviews, and the evaluation of radiation exposure and environmental contamination. ORISE is managed by ORAU, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and federal contractor, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science

Like us on Facebook: ORISE Facebook
Follow us on Twitter: ORISE Twitter
Connect with us on LinkedIn: ORISE LinkedIn
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oriseconnect/

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Street Painting Festival raises $20K for Roane State scholarships

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Sonia Summers won the Best of Show award in the 2022 Street Painting Festival in Jackson Square in October. (Submitted photo)

The 2022 Street Painting Festival this month raised more than $20,000 to help fund scholarships for Roane State Community College students in Anderson County.

The annual festival was hosted by the Noon Rotary Club of Oak Ridge in Historic Jackson Square. The festival blends art, history, and community for a fun event in support of local students, a press release said. More than $300,000 in scholarships issued by the nonprofit Roane State Foundation have been provided since the start of the festival in 1999.

Festival sponsors make a tax-exempt donation to the Foundation, with levels ranging from $5,000 for Platinum down to $100 for Individual. Sponsors’ names are assigned to sidewalk squares upon which the artists paint pictures with chalk.

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Tickets available for ADFAC Bow Tie Event on Nov. 5

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Pictured above from left to right are Bow Tie recipients or representatives Bill Capshaw (2019), Cande Seay (2015), Teresa Myrick (Tim Myrick, 2014), Pat Postma (2022), Ray Smith (2013), Pat Row (Tom Row, 2016), Jim Dodson (2021), Tom Beehan (2020), and Bear Stephenson (2016). Not pictured is Louise Mixon, who received the award in 2018. (Submitted photo)

ADFAC (Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties Inc.) is selling tickets to the upcoming Bill Wilcox Bow Tie Event to be held in Oak Ridge on November 5.

This year’s event, “Lady With a Legacy,” will honor community volunteer Pat Postma as the 10th Bill Wilcox Bow Tie Awardee, a press release said.

The Bow Tie Event is scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m. November 5 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Free Trunk or Treat, movie in Rocky Top on Oct. 28

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ASAP of Anderson is partnering with the City of Rocky Top to present free trunk-or-treating and a showing of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” on Friday, October 28.

It’s scheduled from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on October 28 at Rocky Top’s George Templin Field, a press release said.

“Fun activities and free resources will be available for the whole family!” the release said.

The free event will include food and costume contests, the press release said.

[Read more…]