A federal contractor violated nuclear safety requirements at the Y-12 National Security Complex, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The violations are associated with the accumulations of uranium-235 in a glovebox, furnace, and casting line in Building 9212 at Y-12. The equipment is used to recover and process uranium-235, a fissile material that can be used in nuclear weapons and reactors.
Barber shops, hair salons, nail spas, massage therapy services, and similar businesses can re-open in 89 of Tennessee’s 95 counties on Wednesday, May 6.
The potential re-openings in the 89 counties, which include Anderson and Roane, was announced by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee this week. It’s part of the phased re-opening of the economy. Much of Tennessee has been shut down for about a month or more as the state tries to reduce the spread of COVID-19, a contagious respiratory illness that can be deadly.
There are certain guidelines that businesses are expected to follow as they re-open. The guidelines include limiting the number of customers in a business to 50 percent of its capacity, trying to keep people at least six feet apart as much as possible, wearing cloth face coverings, and requiring appointments for services.
The businesses allowed to re-open on Wednesday are called “close contact” businesses. Their re-opening follows the re-opening of restaurants on Monday, April 27; the re-opening of retail stores on Wednesday, April 29; and the re-opening of gymnasiums and exercise facilities on Friday, May 1.
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Note: This story was updated at 5:45 p.m.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Tennessee passed 10,000 on Tuesday.
The number of new cases reported fell to 134. That was just a 1.4 percent daily increase in COVID-19 cases, the lowest percentage increase going back to at least March 20.
It came just two days after the biggest one-day increase. On Sunday, 478 new COVID-19 cases were reported, the most new cases reported in one day in Tennessee.
But Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey has urged residents to not focus too much on the daily variations in the number of cases. People should instead focus on trends, Piercey said.
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Clark Center Park in Oak Ridge will re-open on Friday, May 1.
The re-opening was announced by the U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday.
DOE closed the park on April 4 in response to an executive order by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee as the state tried to control the spread of COVID-19.
The park has been closed since then.
[Read more…]Gymnasiums and exercise facilities in 89 of Tennessee’s 95 counties will be able to re-open on Friday, May 1.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced the possible re-openings on Tuesday.
The six counties that are excluded from the governor’s announcement are those with locally run health departments: Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Madison, Shelby, and Sullivan.
The Tennessee Economic Recovery Group has announced guidelines for how gyms and exercise facilities can re-open safely as the state continues to try to control the spread of COVID-19, a contagious respiratory illness that can be deadly.
“Exercise is incredibly important for the physical and mental health of our population, and we want Tennesseans to have access to safe environments where they can exercise as appropriate,” Lee said in a press release. “These guidelines outline best practices in keeping with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and health experts for gyms to reopen in a way that will keep their employees and customers safe.”
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Construction work has started on a part of a project to double the power of the proton beam in the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
It’s the first construction work at the $1.4 billion SNS since 2006.
The current work is limited to what is known as the klystron gallery. It houses radio-frequency systems. They power the structures that are used to accelerate a negatively-charged hydrogen ion beam in the linear accelerator at SNS.
ORNL has previously said the klystron gallery construction could last about one year.
The work is part of a project called the proton power upgrade, or PPU. It will eventually double the power of the SNS proton beam from 1.4 megawatts to 2.8 megawatts. That could be a seven-year project. The potential cost has previously been estimated at $245 million.
[Read more…]Restaurants were allowed to re-open under certain guidelines in 89 of the state’s 95 counties on Monday, and retail stores can re-open under similar guidelines on Wednesday.
The guidelines include operating at 50 percent capacity and maintaining social distance (generally keeping people at least six feet apart). The state recommends no live music, and restaurant bars should be kept closed. The state also recommends that employees in both industries wear cloth face coverings and that business owners follow federal guidelines for hygiene and workplace sanitation standards for COVID-19.
The 85 counties where restaurants and retail stores can re-open include Anderson and Roane counties.
Many businesses have been closed or operating under changed conditions as Tennessee, like other states and countries, tried to reduce the spread of COVID-19, a contagious respiratory illness that can be deadly.
“Tennesseans pulled together to flatten the curve, and it is time for people to begin to get back to work and back to their businesses,” Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said. “We are pursuing a careful, measured approach to reopening our economy that does not depend on heavy-handed mandates but instead provides practical tools for businesses of all sizes.”
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The Cincinnati Bengals picked former Oak Ridge wide receiver Tee Higgins in the second round of the NFL draft on Friday.
Higgins, a star football and basketball player at Oak Ridge High School, played three years at Clemson University in South Carolina before being drafted into the National Football League in the 33rd pick, the first pick of the second round on Friday.
Higgins, 21, joins Joe Burrow, the number one pick and a quarterback from Louisiana State University, at Cincinnati. Higgins was the second pick for the Bengals.
Higgins (6-4, 215) is tied with NFL stars Sammy Watkins and DeAndre Hopkins for the all-time touchdown record for a Clemson receiver (27). He caught 135 passes for 2,448 yards and 27 touchdowns during his three-year career, according to the Clemson Tigers. He played in two national championship games, winning one, the national championship game against Alabama in 2019. Higgins had three catches for 81 yards and a touchdown in that game.
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As of Tuesday, Anderson County Emergency Medical Services had responded to more than 40 suspected COVID-19 calls since mid-March, Director Nathan Sweet said last week.
As of Tuesday, only one patient transported by Anderson County EMS had tested positive for COVID-19, Sweet said.
The suspected COVID-19 calls have come from across Anderson County: Oak Ridge, Norris, Clinton, Rocky Top, Marlow, Medford—”really just about anywhere in the county,” Sweet said.
The suspected COVID-19 calls are being screened by 911 emergency call centers in Anderson County, Clinton, and Oak Ridge to better prepare emergency responders before they arrive at the call site.
“If they meet any of the screening criteria, our crews are responding in appropriate personal protective equipment as a precaution for safety,” Sweet said.
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Note: This story was last updated at 5:45 p.m.
The number of COVID-19 cases increased by more than 2,000 in Tennessee last week as testing increased by more than 40,000.
The total number of cases passed 7,000, then 8,000, then 9,000 last week. The case count increased by 30 percent in one week. The Tennessee Department of Health reported 9,189 cases on Saturday, up from 7,070 on April 19.
But testing was up even more, a roughly 45 percent increase. The number of tests rose from 97,098 on Sunday, April 19, to 141,406 on Saturday, April 25.
The daily growth rate in the number of new cases had dropped to a low of 2.2 percent on Tuesday, April 21, but it has since increased to more than 5 percent. The number of new cases reported each day had been down to 156, but it’s now over 400.
The increase in the number of tests included more than 11,000 tests reported by the state of Tennessee at free drive-through sites last weekend. It was the largest number of tests in the state over a two-day period, Tennessee Governor Bill said Monday. The testing has been expanded to include patients without traditional COVID-19 symptoms.
Expanding testing capacity is an important step to re-open the state’s economy, Lee said. The governor has announced that he will not extend a stay-at-home order past April 30, and restaurants are able to reopen Monday at 50 percent occupancy and retailers are able to reopen Wednesday at 50 percent occupancy.
The increase in the number of cases in Tennessee has included inmates at a state prison, the Bledsoe County Correctional Complex in Pikeville. The Tennessee Department of Correction reported that 576 inmates tested positive for COVID-19 after a large testing event last weekend, although most didn’t show symptoms, and more than 2,000 people have been tested, according to the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
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The Sew Good Mask Project is a new organization in Oak Ridge formed to coordinate those making cloth masks with the organizations that are requesting them.
The three Rotary Clubs in Oak Ridge are working together to provide funding for the purchase of supplies for the Sew Good Mask Project as well as other much-needed personal protective equipment.
More than 65 volunteers have joined the Sew Good Mask Project since its creation on April 8. More than 1,100 masks have been donated to places including Methodist Medical Center, Emory Valley Center, the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge Senior Center, Summit Medical Group Oak Ridge, Commonwealth Senior Living at Oak Ridge, Diversicare of Oak Ridge, and more, a press release said.
There are many ways to contribute to the project.
“You don’t need to be a sewer to help out,” said Judi Gray, the main force behind the Sew Good Mask Project.
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Charlie the Curious Bear, the Children’s Museum mascot, clowns around with a helper at a past Children’s Museum Gala. (Submitted photo)
The Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge is inviting children to participate in its first coloring contest featuring the Museum’s mascot, Charlie the Curious Bear. Children from one-year-old toddlers through fourth graders are invited to submit entries by April 30.
Families may print the official coloring page from the Children’s Museum’s home page at https://www.childrensmuseumofoakridge.org. Once the page has been colored and the form at the bottom of the page is completed, the original artwork may be mailed to the Children’s Museum at 461 W. Outer Dr., Oak Ridge, TN, 37830. Original artwork is preferred, but entries may also be scanned and emailed to newsy@childrensmuseumofoakridge.org.
