Oak Ridge Today

ORNL, HTS International Corporation to collaborate on manufacturing research

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory and HTS International are exploring collaborations in advanced manufacturing research such as conformal cooling. These specially placed coolant lines allow parts to cool faster, which increases productivity for molding and casting manufacturers. (Image by ORNL)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and HTS International are exploring collaborations in advanced manufacturing research such as conformal cooling. These specially placed coolant lines allow parts to cool faster, which increases productivity for molding and casting manufacturers. (Image by ORNL)

 

HTS International Corporation and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have signed an agreement to explore potential collaborations in advanced manufacturing research.

The memorandum of understanding follows HTS’s recent decision to locate its headquarters and production operations in a Knox County business park adjacent to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL (in Hardin Valley). The lab’s expertise and unique facilities in materials science, metallurgy, and advanced manufacturing attracted the attention of HTS’s leadership during a 2015 visit to Tennessee.

“Our researchers push the boundaries of what’s possible with materials and advanced manufacturing techniques, and we value partners such as HTS,” said Thomas Zacharia, deputy for science and technology at ORNL. “Industrial partners help to ensure we’re tackling the right problems, and our results help them to improve production capabilities and American competitiveness.”

HTS supplies specialty products to the injection molding and die casting industries, using its proprietary metal fusion technology to produce large-scale steel production components with conformal cooling. These specially placed coolant lines allow parts to cool faster, which increases productivity for molding and casting manufacturers. [Read more…]

Celebrated violinist Rachel Barton Pine to perform in Oak Ridge

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Violinist Rachel Barton Pine (Submitted photo)

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine (Submitted photo)

 

There will be a series of performances and outreach activities featuring internationally renowned violinist Rachel Barton Pine in late March and early April, a press release said.

The events, scheduled from March 30-April 2, are presented by the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association.

Pine is an American violinist who made her solo debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 10, and she was the first American and youngest ever gold medal winner of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition, the press release said.

Saturday, April 1: [Read more…]

CNS introduces hundreds of girls to engineering

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Chloe Roach from Anderson County Career and Technical Center pedals a bike to generate electricity. (Photo by Y-12)

Chloe Roach from Anderson County Career and Technical Center pedals a bike to generate electricity. (Photo by Y-12)

 

Y-12 National Security Complex shows how STEM skills lead to careers

Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC recently hosted more than 200 female high school students from 15 area schools as part of Introduce a Girl to Engineering. The goal of the event was to inspire girls to consider careers in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, a press release said.

This program was conducted in concert with Girl Day, an initiative founded by DiscoverE and expands CNS’ existing relationships with area schools.

Kristin Waldschlager of CNS Educational Outreach said educating the younger generation about STEM-related opportunities is “critical” for Y-12.

“At Y-12, we have a sense of responsibility to make sure we support the development and growth of future scientists and engineers who could be working here,” Waldschlager said in the press release. [Read more…]

Community listening event in Rocky Top to focus on painkillers, substance abuse, addiction

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Terry-Frank-Aug-15-2016

Terry Frank

A community listening event in Rocky Top in April will focus on painkillers, substance abuse, addiction, and overdoses.

The listening event will be at the Rocky Top Community Center on Monday, April 3, from 6-7:15 p.m. It will be hosted by Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank and concerned citizen Patricia Adkins, a press release said.

“The open invitation event will focus on receiving community comments about opiate abuse, addiction issues, and/or treatment, and any concern surrounding substance abuse issues in the community,” the press release said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdoses now account for more deaths in the U.S. than motor vehicle accidents, with 52 percent attributed to prescription medications. [Read more…]

Breakfast with Legislators is Monday

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McNally-Ragan-Calfee-at-Breakfast-with-Legislators-April-25-2016

The next Breakfast with the Legislators is at the Oak Ridge Civic Center on Monday, March 27, 2017. Pictured above in a breakfast in 2016 are Sen. Randy McNally (now lieutenant governor), Rep. John Ragan, and Rep. Kent Calfee. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The next Breakfast with the Legislators is Monday morning at the Oak Ridge Civic Center. The breakfast is scheduled from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Monday, March 27, in the Social Room of the Oak Ridge Civic Center.

The Civic Center is at 1401 Oak Ridge Turnpike. A light continental breakfast will be provided at no charge. The public is encouraged to attend, a press release said.

Senators Ken Yager and Randy McNally, who is now lieutenant governor, and representatives John Ragan and Kent Calfee have been invited to bring everyone up to date on what’s happening in the Tennessee General Assembly, the press release said. Members of the audience may ask questions and give opinions. [Read more…]

Attempted murder charge dismissed, woman pleads guilty to aggravated assault

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Treasure Sheitel Threat

Treasure Sheitel Threat

An attempted murder charge was dismissed, and an Oak Ridge woman pleaded guilty to aggravated assault this month.

Treasure Sheitel Threat, 30, had been indicted on charges of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in October 2013. She was accused of stabbing Kingston resident Stanley Wallace in the stomach in his car at the intersection of Robin Lane and Raleigh Road on July 27, 2012, after an argument in Grove Center.

Arrest warrants filed in 2012 said another woman had summoned Threat to Grove Center, but she forgot that Wallace and Threat didn’t like each other. [Read more…]

Learn more about Oak Ridge, bike with a park ranger on Saturday

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Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge

Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge

 

You can join a park ranger for a bike ride down Melton Lake Greenway on Saturday.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge, will present a free program on Saturday, March 25, at 10 a.m. The program will begin at Elza Gate Park, former entry point to the Secret City, and continue down Melton Lake Greenway. Rangers will stop several times along the bike ride to point out the rich history that is found within the Oak Ridge area, a press release said.

Elza Gate Park is located at 101 Oak Ridge Turnpike in east Oak Ridge. If you need directions, maps are available at the National Park desk in the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, or you can call (865) 576-6767. [Read more…]

With WIPP re-opening, DOE Oak Ridge plans to start shipping transuranic waste again

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An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that has been shut down for more than three years after a salt truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. (Photo by DOE Oak Ridge Office)

An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that was shut down for about three years after a salt haul truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. (Photo by DOE Oak Ridge Office)

 

An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that was shut down for about three years after a salt haul truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge.

Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico, according to the DOE Oak Ridge Office.

The shipments to be accepted starting in April will be the first received at the facility since the fire and radiological release in February 2014, WIPP said. There was an official re-opening event on Monday, January 9, with remarks by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and members of the New Mexico congressional delegation.

Since the closure three years ago, Oak Ridge workers have continued processing waste and developed innovative storage solutions until shipping can resume to WIPP, said Ben Williams, spokesperson for the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

Oak Ridge Today last reported on TRU waste in December 2015, when North Wind Solutions took over the operation of the Transuranic Waste Processing Center, which is south of Bethel Valley Road on Highway 95 in southwest Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

DOE addresses high-risk facilities in Oak Ridge

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Excess facilities at Oak Ridge's Y-12 National Security Complex are marked in red. (Image by DOE)

Excess facilities at Oak Ridge’s Y-12 National Security Complex are marked in red. (Image by DOE)

 

A new initiative by the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management is improving safety and preparing two of the federal sites—Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex—for cleanup and modernization, officials said. The initiative is an excess contaminated facilities initiative.

The congressionally funded cleanup initiative was stimulated by a report to Congress by the Governmental Accountability Office. The report noted that the U.S. Department of Energy designated more than 2,300 of its facilities as “excess,” meaning they’re not operating and no longer serve the department’s missions.

“Many of these facilities pose high risk from contamination and deteriorating structural integrities due to their age and the limited resources to maintain them,” the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM, said in a story published January 31.

The Office of Environmental Management said more than a quarter of all DOE’s high-risk excess facilities are in Oak Ridge at either ORNL or Y-12. Y-12 has 90 excess facilities to address while ORNL has more than 200, DOE EM reported. [Read more…]

DOE finishes demolishing another building at ETTP

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Building K-731 at East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge, is pictured above during demolition. (Photo by DOE)

Building K-731 at East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge, is pictured above during demolition. (Photo by DOE)

 

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and its cleanup contractor have finished demolishing another building at East Tennessee Technology Park, or ETTP, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.

The work is part of an effort to advance toward Vision 2020, a goal to complete cleanup at ETTP by 2020 and continue transferring the remaining land to private industry, benefiting the regional economy, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM, said in a story published February 28.

The latest progress involves the removal of Building K-731. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, and cleanup contractor URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, or UCOR, began demolishing Building K-731 on August 30, moments after taking down the final pieces of Building K-27 and fulfilling Vision 2016. That was Oak Ridge’s ambitious goal to be the world’s first to successfully remove all of its former uranium enrichment facilities by the end of 2016. [Read more…]

DOE: Roof repairs lower future cleanup costs at Alpha 4 at Y-12

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Workers perform repairs on Alpha 4’s four-acre roof at Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo by DOE/Y-12)

Workers perform repairs on Alpha 4’s four-acre roof at Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo by DOE/Y-12)

 

By DOE Office of Environmental Management

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management recently finished repairs to an aging Y-12 National Security Complex building as part of an initiative that is designed to improve safety, reduce cleanup costs, lower risks, and stabilize excess facilities that are contaminated and are expected to be demolished.

Maintaining the roofs of aging, contaminated facilities prevents water damage, the greatest threat to rapid deterioration and the spread of contamination. These factors create a more hazardous environment for future demolition crews that must enter the facility, and they increase the cost of cleanup exponentially.

“We are applying lessons we’ve learned from previous cleanup projects,” said Jay Mullis, acting manager of Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM. “Buildings that are neglected cause cleanup to be much more costly and complicated. Performing smaller tasks like this one to maintain facilities will create considerable savings by the time we begin major demolition at Y-12.” [Read more…]

DOE works to remove risks, prepare excess buildings for demolition at ORNL, Y-12

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Workers remove combustible items from the Homogenous Reactor Experiment facility, or Building 7500, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which allowed the building’s heat detection system to be deactivated. (Photo by DOE)

Workers remove combustible items from the Homogenous Reactor Experiment facility, or Building 7500, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which allowed the building’s heat detection system to be deactivated. (Photo by DOE/ORNL)

 

By DOE Office of Environmental Management

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management and its cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge are taking steps to remove risks and help prepare excess facilities for eventual demolition at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Oak Ridge is home to more than 350 excess facilities totaling more than six million square feet. Many of them are several decades old.

Alan Stokes, associate director for the Planning and Execution Division in Oak Ridge’s Environmental Management, or EM, program, said during a panel discussion this month at the 2017 Waste Management Symposium in Phoenix that Oak Ridge has more than a quarter of the “higher-risk” excess facilities in the entire DOE inventory. [Read more…]