Oak Ridge Today

Second annual writing contest under way; scholarships available

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Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Grace Writers of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oak Ridge is featuring its second annual writing contest in memory of two members: Carol Oen and Cleva Marrow, both Oak Ridge writers.

Carol Oen wrote poetry, freelance articles for magazines, and a senior romance novel, “Songs That Remember,” about Alzheimer’s and caregivers. She taught memoir writing for the Oak Ridge Institute of Continued Learning. Cleva Marrow freelanced for The Oak Ridger and The Knoxville News Sentinel.

The contest will consist of three awards:

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Lithium Processing Facility at Y-12 could cost up to $1.65 billion

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Federal officials have approved the need for a new Lithium Production Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex, and in May 2018, they said it could be built on the east side of the 811-acre plant, possibly where the Biology Complex, the brick building at center, is now. The east side of Y-12 is pictured above from Scarboro Road on Sunday, May 20, 2018. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The proposed Lithium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex could cost between $955 million and $1.65 billion, and it could be completed in 2031, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Thursday.

The Lithium Processing Facility could be built where the former Biology Complex is located on the east side of Y-12. That’s the NNSA’s preferred site. The Biology Complex is being prepared for demolition by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.

On Thursday, the NNSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, said it had approved the conceptual design and cost range for the proposed 134,000-square-foot Lithium Processing Facility.

The facility will replace Y-12’s current lithium processing operations, which are located in a World War II-era building. That building, Building 9204-2, or Beta 2, has had materials fall from the ceiling, including chunks of concrete that reportedly weighed up to 200 pounds. The falling materials and concerns about worker safety have been cited by federal officials during congressional hearings in Washington, D.C.

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AC Commission schedules public hearing on TVA request for landfill at Bull Run

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The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bull Run Fossil Plant is pictured above in Claxton on Monday, Aug. 27, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Anderson County Commission has scheduled a public hearing to discuss a request from the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a 60-acre landfill on the Bull Run Fossil Plant site in Claxton.

The hearing is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. Tuesday, February 18, in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse at 100 North Main Street in Clinton.

The proposed new landfill is known Site J, and it has been characterized as a three-cell unit capable of holding eight to nine million cubic yards of coal combustion residuals, according to a public hearing notice.

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Roane State Foundation wins $6,000 grant from CNS Y-12

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Making the grant presentation, from left, are Robert Keen, chair of the Y-12 Employment Investment Advisory Committee; Scott Niermann, executive director of the Roane State Foundation; Teresa Duncan, Roane State vice president of workforce development and director of the college’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus; Meghan Lovelace, committee secretary; Mike McClamroch, East Tennessee Foundation president and CEO; and Amy Wilson, CNS senior director of transformation. (Photo by Roane State Community College)

The Roane State Foundation has won a $6,000 grant from the CNS Y-12 Community Investment Fund to help adult students in the community college’s programs in computer science, cybersecurity, and mechatronics, a press release said.

CNS operates the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, and the contractor established the fund through the East Tennessee Foundation in 2014 as part of its commitment to Oak Ridge and the surrounding communities.

Officials said the grant will fund scholarships to help students pay for industry-recognized certifications. Those certifications are important tools for graduates to pair with their college degree to demonstrate to employers they have the skills and documentations that often allow graduates to earn higher wages when going to work, the press release said.

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Voting rights to be discussed Tuesday

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Katie A. Cahill
Katie A. Cahill

Voting rights will be discussed in Oak Ridge on Tuesday.

The speaker will be Katie A. Cahill, associate director of the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy and director of the Leadership and Governance Program. Cahill has a courtesy post as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Her Tuesday talk will be to the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge. Her talk is titled “Voting Rights, Laws and Trends: A Look Ahead to 2020,” a press release said.

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UT creative writing director to speak at Lunch 4 Literacy in Oak Ridge

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A creative writing director at the University of Tennessee will speak at Lunch 4 Literacy in Oak Ridge in March.

The popular annual event is co-sponsored by the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club and the Altrusa International Club of Oak Ridge. It will be held at Oak Ridge High School at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 24.

This year, the award-winning speaker is Margaret Lazarus Dean, an associate professor and director of creative writing in the Department of English at the University of Tennessee. [Read more…]

Roane State graduate doing climate change research at ORNL

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Rachel Andrews, a graduate of Roane State, is shown in an Oak Ridge National Laboratory lab getting serum bottles ready for an incubation experiment. (Photo courtesy Lynn Freeny/U.S. Department of Energy)

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

A recent Roane State Community College graduate is researching climate change and the microorganisms that contribute to it.

Rachel Andrews, a Morgan County resident who graduated from the community college in May 2019, is an intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She’s doing research with Christopher Schadt in the Biosciences Division at the lab.

They are investigating methane production in peat, which is formed by the partial decomposition of plants in wet, acidic conditions of bogs. Scientists say methane gas is one of the major contributors to a warming planet.

“We study the methanogens that live in peatland soil,” Andrews said in an emailed response to questions about her research. She said these microorganisms produce quite a bit of methane and carbon dioxide, also identified as a culprit in climate change.

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ASAP of Anderson seeking stuffed animals to help kids in Juvenile Court

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Juvenile Court running low on stuffed toys to comfort children

ASAP of Anderson is seeking stuffed animal donations for children involved in the Anderson County Juvenile Court system.

“Stuffed animals are offered as a comfort item in a juvenile court setting for children who have been separated from their parents or guardians,” a press release said. “The animals provide a sense of warmth and reassurance in a potentially stressful setting.”

Juvenile Court Judge Brian J. Hunt said: “Coming to court can be frightening for children. Receiving a stuffed animal can alleviate anxiety and stress and lets children know they are in a safe place.”

ASAP of Anderson has partnered with Juvenile Court after learning their stuffed animal supply has been running low, as no child should have to go without a feeling of support during a hard time, the press release said.

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‘Brain Food’ pantry opens at Roane State’s Oak Ridge campus

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Brain Food Pantry Roane State 1
Sue Byrne, third from right, cuts the ribbon for the new Brain Food pantry, located in Roane State Community College’s Coffey/McNally Building in Oak Ridge. She is the assistant project manager for the First Presbyterian Church of Oak Ridge’s partnership to help stock the campus’s pantry. From left are Scott Niermann, executive director of the Roane State Foundation; Kristie Hopwood, agency relations coordinator for Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee; Kara Allen, an assistant manager of the Kroger Store in Oak Ridge; Melissa Eads, corporate affairs manager for the Kroger Nashville Division; Byrne; Karen Brunner, vice president of Roane State Institutional Effectiveness and Research; and Roane State President Chris Whaley. (Photo courtesy Roane State)

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

It’s a vexing, persistent problem nationally: food insecurity issues experienced by many college students. Roane State Community College is again doing something about it.

That’s the message delivered by Chris Whaley, president of the community college, during the formal opening of the Brain Food Pantry on the college’s Oak Ridge campus.

Some 40 percent of college students nationwide “struggle with hunger,” Whaley told the crowd attending the ribbon-cutting in the former Anderson Grille in the campus’s Coffey/McNally Building.

Making sure students—and their families—have proper and adequate nutrition “is as much a part of student success as what happens in the classroom,” said Karen Brunner, the college’s vice president of institutional effectiveness and research.

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UT professor with joint appointment at ORNL receives $1.7 million award

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David Mandrus
David Mandrus

A materials science professor in the University of Tennessee’s Tickle College of Engineering has received a five-year $1.7 million award from a leading scientific foundation for research in the emerging field of quantum materials.

David Mandrus, the Jerry and Kay Henry Endowed Professor, has a joint appointment at UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Mandrus’s work has been cited thousands of times, and he has earned several notable accolades for his part in advancing materials science, a press release said. In recognition of his work, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has named him an Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems  (EPiQS) Materials Synthesis Investigator.

“I’m honored to have again been selected by the Moore Foundation as someone whose work they have chosen to recognize,” Mandrus said. “Their support will help me further explore ideas and concepts related to quantum materials and the opportunities they make possible.”

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Grammy winner Edgar Meyer, son George to perform in Oak Ridge

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Edgar Meyer and George Meyer
Edgar Meyer and George Meyer

Father and son Edgar and George Meyer, a Grammy-winning bassist and a violinist, will perform in Oak Ridge in February.

The Meyers perform original compositions for violin and double bass duo alongside traditional fiddle tunes, a press release said.

At the heart of the program in Oak Ridge will be their new co-written duo, co-commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest and Bravo! Vail in 2019, the press release said.

The concert will be sponsored by the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association, and it will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, February 17, at the First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge. Tickets for adults are $35 in advance or $40 at the door. Tickets for youths 18 and under are $15.

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Breakfast with Legislators this morning

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The Oak Ridge League of Women Voters will hold its first Breakfast with the Legislators event of the year on Monday, January 27. The meeting will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in the Social Room of the Oak Ridge Civic Center, 1403 Oak Ridge Turnpike. A free continental breakfast will be served.

Tennessee senators Randy McNally and Ken Yager and representatives John Ragan and Kent Calfee have been invited to speak about the legislative outlook for this session of the Tennessee General Assembly, and respond to questions and hear opinions from the audience, a press release said. The public is invited to attend.

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