A wildlife nature walk featuring observance of the pink lady’s slipper will be conducted from 1:30 until 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 7, on the Oak Ridge Reservation.
This is part of the spring nature walk series offered by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was rescheduled due to rain from a previous date.
Participants will meet at 1:30 p.m. at the North Boundary Greenway along Tennessee Highway 95 located east of the junction with Tennessee Highway 58. [Read more…]
Two more nature walks are scheduled this spring on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation.
They include frog calls and bat monitoring on Friday, May 19, and reptiles and amphibians inventory on Sunday, June 4.
Previous walks included wildflower walks on Saturday, April 15, and Sunday, April 23, and a bird walk on Saturday, April 29.
The May 19 frog calls and bat monitoring event runs from 8 until 10 p.m. as participants will visit some small impounded waterbodies along the Freels Bend causeway to learn how Oak Ridge National Laboratory personnel are monitoring local bat populations and how to identify local frog populations based on calls. Nikki Jones and Kitty McCracken will lead the group along a one-mile level dirt and gravel road. A reliable flashlight is recommended as the walk will occur after sunset, a press release said. The walk is limited to 25, and children are allowed.
A U.S. Department of Energy public bus tour in August 2012. (File DOE photo/Lynn Freeny)
Visitors see Oak Ridge’s past and present
The U.S. Department of Energy’s 2017 Oak Ridge facilities public bus tour began March 3 and continues through November 27. The tour offers visitors a first-hand look at the DOE’s Oak Ridge facilities and provides historical commentary on the transformation of the Oak Ridge Reservation during the past 70 years, a press release said.
The reservation-wide tour is a popular destination for tourists visiting the area, the release said. Since its inception in 1996, the DOE public tour program has attracted more than 40,000 visitors from all 50 states. The three-hour tour allows visitors to see the Oak Ridge Reservation and learn historical facts and updates on the world-class missions underway in Oak Ridge.
The bus tour itinerary includes: [Read more…]
Lamar Alexander
The United States Senate has confirmed former Texas Governor Rick Perry to serve as U.S. energy secretary, and Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, has invited him to Oak Ridge.
The Thursday afternoon vote to confirm Perry was 62 to 37. Alexander was one of the 62 senators voting to confirm Perry. So was Senator Bob Corker, also a Tennessee Republican.
“I’ve known Rick Perry for a long time and am pleased the Senate has voted to confirm him as energy secretary,” Alexander said in a statement. “He appreciates the role the Department of Energy plays in the management and modernization of our nuclear weapons—an important part of the work done at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. He also understands that national laboratories like the Oak Ridge National Laboratory are essential to maintaining our country’s brainpower advantage. I have invited him to come to Tennessee early this year to see firsthand the important work done in Oak Ridge.” [Read more…]
There is a public information session on Wednesday on the U.S. Department of Energy’s proposal to build a new on-site low-level waste disposal facility on the Oak Ridge Reservation.
The public information session is hosted by the Energy, Technology, and Environmental Business Association, or ETEBA. It’s scheduled from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 27, at Pollard Auditorium, which is at 210 Badger Avenue in Oak Ridge. The public is invited.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, has identified four site alternatives for the proposed facility, which is called the Environmental Management Disposal Facility, or EMDF.
“The purpose of this session is to provide the public with information about these four sites in preparation for the formal public comment period that will occur later this year,” a press release said. “Representatives of DOE, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will provide an overview of the site alternatives as well as the regulatory issues and requirements associated with these four sites, and will be on hand to address questions from the public following the presentations.” [Read more…]
A view of Melton Hill Lake near a boat ramp and between two picnic areas at Clark Center Park in south Oak Ridge in July 2014. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The U.S. Department of Energy remains interested in transferring Clark Center Park to Oak Ridge, and the city continues to discuss that possibility with the federal government even though it could be a strain on municipal finances, officials said Tuesday.
The property could be transferred at no cost to the city. But one of the questions raised two years ago about the potential property transfer was whether Oak Ridge could afford to take over the 80-acre park.
That appears to remain a concern. It costs DOE about $300,000 per year to operate the park, which is in south Oak Ridge on Melton Hill Lake.
“Monetarily, it’s difficult for us right now,” Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said Tuesday.
In 2014, there were Oak Ridge City Council meetings and public meetings about the future of the park and the potential transfer to the city. [Read more…]
Y-12 Process Buildings and Mercury Use Area
U.S. Department of Energy officials have released a new plan to address mercury contamination at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee and Savannah River Site in South Carolina. It advocates for research and the development of technologies that could resolve key technical uncertainties with mercury in environmental remediation, the deactivation and decommissioning of facilities, and processing waste in tanks.
The Oak Ridge Reservation and Savannah River Site both used mercury in industrial-scale processes. At the Oak Ridge Reservation, large quantities of mercury were used at the Y-12 National Security Complex from the early 1950s until the early 1960s. During the peak period of operations, according to estimates from the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, 700,000 pounds of a total 20 million pounds of mercury that were used were released into the surrounding environment.
Ongoing mercury abatement and remediation efforts at Y-12 that began in the 1980s have decreased overall mercury releases to the environment, the DOE Office of Environmental Management, or EM, said in a May 31 newsletter.
But elevated concentrations remain in certain water, soil, and facilities, federal officials said. [Read more…]
Kenneth R. Tarcza (Photo courtesy DOE Oak Ridge Office)
Kenneth R. Tarcza has been named manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office Integrated Support Center.
The announcement was made Tuesday by DOE’s Office of Science.
Prior to retiring in 2015 as a colonel with the U.S. Army, Tarcza served as the chief of staff for the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command, which executes the vast majority of the Army’s science and technology programs, a press release said. In that role, he was responsible for a broad range of functions—administration, finance, safety, legal, and resource management.
Most recently, he served with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, where he oversaw research on site as well as with academia. [Read more…]
UCOR has announced 20 winners in its Education Mini-Grant Program. Schools in Anderson, Knox, Loudon, Knox, Morgan, and Roane counties were eligible to submit proposals. (Photo submitted by UCOR)
UCOR has announced 20 winners in its Education Mini-Grant Program.
The Mini-Grant Program was designed to recognize and support excellence in teaching by providing funds to assist classroom teachers for specific projects or curricula, focusing primarily on science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, a press release said.
Schools in Anderson, Knox, Loudon, Knox, Morgan, and Roane counties were eligible to submit proposals. Applications were screened and awardees selected using a blind process that prevented members of the selection panel from knowing the names of the teachers or the schools.
The UCOR Mini-Grant committee has selected the following projects for 2016: [Read more…]
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office is starting a controlled burn of a small forestland area on the Oak Ridge Reservation for prescribed burning at the East Tennessee Technology Park and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Beginning Monday, November 16, weather permitting, a controlled burn was expected to take place on approximately four acres south of West Bear Creek Road near the DOE Central Training Facility southeast of ETTP.
The planned burn is being conducted as an effort to reduce the risk of wildfires and will be overseen by the State of Tennessee Division of Forestry, which maintains fire control equipment, certified burn managers, and trained personnel at the burn area with the support of the Oak Ridge Fire Department and the ORNL forester, a press release said.
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Robert Forshay, left, partner alliance manager with Black Box Network Services, and Kevin Hall, manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office, sign a telecommunications contract for the Oak Ridge Federal Integrated Communications Network. (DOE photo/Lynn Freeny)
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Integrated Support Center-Oak Ridge has awarded a $33.4 million telecommunications contract to Mutual Telecom Services Inc., doing business as Black Box Network Services, or Black Box.
Black Box is responsible for providing operations, maintenance, and upgrades to the Oak Ridge Federal Integrated Communications Network at the Oak Ridge Townsite, East Tennessee Technology Park, Y-12 National Security Complex, Office of Secure Transportation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. The Oak Ridge Townsite refers to the Federal Building, Office of Scientific and Technical Information, Building 2714 Complex, and various locations in the local vicinity.
“We are pleased to announce Black Box as the Oak Ridge Reservation’s integrated telecom service provider,” Oak Ridge Office Manager Kevin Hall said. “This selection comes after many months of evaluations by our selection team for this crucial service, and we are excited to have Black Box on board as our new partner.”
The company has more than 30 years of experience supporting U.S. government locations with similar needs and requirements. Black Box is located in Needham, Massachusetts. The contract has a two-year base and three one-year options. A 90-day transition begins on June 1.
Public bus tours of the U.S. Department of Energy’s facilities in Oak Ridge are now offered nine months of the year. (File photo courtesy DOE/Lynn Freeny)
The U.S. Department of Energy’s public bus tour of federal sites in Oak Ridge is now offered to visitors nine months out of the year, versus only summer months as in the past.
This popular tour of the 33,000-acre DOE Oak Ridge Reservation offers visitors a first-hand look at all of the DOE’s Oak Ridge facilities and provides historical commentary on the transformation of the Oak Ridge Reservation during the past 70-plus years.
The reservation-wide tour is a popular attraction for tourists visiting the area. Since its inception in 1996, the DOE public tour program has attracted approximately 35,000 visitors from all 50 states. The three-hour DOE tour allows visitors to see the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation and learn about its rich history and how Oak Ridge became a secret city of 75,000 people with a mission to end World War II. [Read more…]
