Oak Ridge Today

B&W Y-12 names Bill Tindal vice president for production

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Bill Tindal has been named B&W Y-12 vice president for production, effective July 26. He is replacing Joel Duling, who has accepted a position at Nuclear Fuel Services, a subsidiary of Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Operations Group Inc., in Erwin, Tenn.

“Bill is uniquely suited for this role given his production expertise and years of experience,” said B&W Y-12 President and General Manager Chuck Spencer. “Joel has done a great job for Y-12, and we are excited for him and wish him well in his new opportunity.” [Read more…]

ORNL wins six R&D 100 awards

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Da Vinci Fuel-in-Oil Measurement System

The Da Vinci Fuel-in-Oil Measurement System is among the six Oak Ridge National Laboratory technologies recognized with a 2013 R&D 100 award. (Submitted photo)

Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received six R&D 100 awards, presented each year by R&D Magazine in recognition of the year’s most significant technological innovations.

“My sincere congratulations to the winners of this year’s R&D 100 Awards,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “The scientists and engineers who developed these award-winning technologies at the cutting edge facilities across our national labs are keeping Americans at the forefront of the innovation community and assuring our nation’s economic competitiveness and national security.”

The six awards bring ORNL’s total of R&D 100 awards to 179 since their inception in 1963. This year, ORNL scientists and engineers received awards for the following technologies: [Read more…]

NNSA national labs, Y-12 earn 11 R&D 100 awards

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Ernest Moniz

Ernest Moniz

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Four National Nuclear Security Administration sites—Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia national laboratories, along with the Y-12 National Security Site—have received a total of 11 of R&D 100 Awards from R&D Magazine. The 2013 awards recognize a variety of technologies created by researchers, scientists, and engineers from throughout the nuclear security enterprise.

“My sincere congratulations to the winners of this year’s R&D 100 Awards,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “The scientists and engineers who developed these award-winning technologies at the cutting-edge facilities across our national labs are keeping Americans at the forefront of the innovation community and assuring our nation’s economic competitiveness and national security.” [Read more…]

DOE asks for more information on $2 million CROET grant

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The U.S. Department of Energy has requested additional information as it tries to close out a $2 million grant awarded 16 years ago to a nonprofit organization that owns, develops, and manages former DOE property.

The grant was issued in 1997 as part of a larger grant that the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee requested from DOE, said Lawrence Young, CROET president and chief executive officer. Most of the money was used for a high-risk loan program for small businesses. The purpose was to create jobs and promote economic development in East Tennessee, said Mike Koentop, spokesman for the DOE Oak Ridge Office. [Read more…]

UT names solar nanotechnology expert, ORNL deputy as Governor’s Chair

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Ramamoorthy Ramesh

Ramamoorthy Ramesh

KNOXVILLE—Ramamoorthy Ramesh, an authority in the physics of functional materials, has been named the 12th University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair. He has also been appointed as deputy director for science and technology at ORNL.

Ramesh will serve as Governor’s Chair for Nanomaterials Engineering, based in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He began on June 1. [Read more…]

Energy Department announces investments, including at ORNL, for next-generation biofuels

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Ernest Moniz

Ernest Moniz

Submitted

WASHINGTON—Building on President Obama’s newly announced plan to cut carbon pollution, the Energy Department this week announced four research and development projects to bring next-generation biofuels on-line faster and drive down the cost of producing gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels from biomass. The projects—located in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin—represent a $13 million Energy Department investment.

One of the projects selected for negotiation is worth up to $2.1 million and located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. [Read more…]

Advisory board member stays busy with many activities

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Fay Martin With Trophies

Fay Martin displays her award for winning the singles title for women 55 in the 1996 Tennessee State Tennis Open. In the background are just a few of the numerous trophies she has won over the years. (Submitted photo)

Fay Martin is a very busy person. She’s an athlete. She’s a writer. She’s an artist. She’s involved in the community. The multitude of trophies, awards, certificates, and samples of her work proves that she has been doing all of these things for a long time.

She is also a member of the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board, a federally appointed citizens’ panel that provides independent advice and recommendations to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management, or EM, program to clean up portions of the Oak Ridge Reservation. With all she does why would she want to be a member of ORSSAB? “I want to remain involved; to continue to be a helping hand on the board,” she says, “and I think DOE listens to what the board says through the recommendations it makes.” Fay is the vice chair of the board’s Stewardship Committee. [Read more…]

General manager resigns from new DOE security contractor

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Greg McDowell

Greg McDowell

The general manager of the new federal security contractor in Oak Ridge has resigned for personal reasons, the company said in a Friday statement.

Greg McDowell, general manager of National Strategic Protective Services LLC, is a member of the NSPS senior leadership team, and he was instrumental in the successful transition of the U.S. Department of Energy security contract from WSI Oak Ridge to NSPS in March, the statement said. [Read more…]

Four SSAB members finish terms, recognized 
for service

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SSAB Members Recognized

Tom Valunas, Chuck Jensen, and David Martin (left to right) were recognized for their service to the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board by Susan Cange, the board’s deputy designated federal officer, at the June meeting. Not pictured is Jan Hart, who was unable to attend. (Submitted photo)

Four members of the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board were recognized for their service at the June meeting as they completed their terms on the board. Two of them, Chuck Jensen and David Martin, completed three two-year terms and finished their work on the board as the current secretary and chair, respectively. Jan Hart and Tom Valunas each served one term and decided not to apply for second terms.

ORSSAB is a federally appointed citizens’ panel that provides independent advice and recommendations to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management, or EM, program to clean up portions of the Oak Ridge Reservation. [Read more…]

OREPA celebrates world court opinion on nuclear weapons on Sunday at Y-12

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OREPA Spring Demonstration at Y-12

Members of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and supporters gather across from the Y-12 National Security Complex to protest the plant’s proposed Uranium Processing Facility in April. OREPA will read a 1996 world court opinion on nuclear weapons during a Sunday vigil.

An Oak Ridge organization that opposes the nuclear weapons production work at the Y-12 National Security Complex has organized a Sunday reading of a world court opinion on the legality of the use, or threat of use, of nuclear weapons.

Open to the public, the reading will be part of a 5 p.m. weekly Sunday vigil at the main entrance to Y-12 at East Bear Creek and Scarboro roads. [Read more…]

Responding to traffic delays, Y-12 asks for volunteers to start work later beginning July 8

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Y-12 National Security Complex Traffic

Responding to morning traffic delays, particularly at its east entrance on Bear Creek Road, the Y-12 National Security Complex has asked some employees to volunteer to start their work day later after July 8.

Responding to morning traffic delays at its entrances, the Y-12 National Security Complex has asked some employees to volunteer to come into work later in the day starting July 8.

Significant traffic delays have been an issue since a lost driver who did not have a badge or permission to be at Y-12 said she was waved into the nuclear weapons plant on June 6.

Since then, Y-12 officials have said the plant has changed its approach to checking badges at the east and west gates. The more rigorous security checks are “here to stay,” B&W Y-12 General Manager Chuck Spencer said in a June 27 message to employees.

But the new procedures have led to traffic delays, particularly at the east entrance between 5:15 and 6:15 a.m., when vehicles can back up as far as the former Dean Stallings Ford on South Illinois Avenue. [Read more…]

Lecture to focus on translating ORNL technology from lab bench to clinic

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The Friends of ORNL will hold its monthly luncheon lecture meeting on Tuesday, July 9.

This month, Cymbeline Culiat will discuss “Translating an ORNL Technology from Lab Bench to the Clinic: The NELL1 Story.” This meeting is open to the public. [Read more…]