Oak Ridge Today

Y-12 site manager, fired security guard could testify at protester trial

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Plowshares Protesters Jury Selection

Anti-nuclear weapons activists Megan Rice, left, and Greg Boertje-Obed are pictured with Michele Naar-Obed after jury selection in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on Monday. Rice and Boertje-Obed and a third defendant, Michael Walli, are on trial this week for vandalizing a uranium storage building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July.

This story was updated at 9 p.m.

KNOXVILLE—A federal official who oversees production work at two nuclear weapons plants and the guard who was fired after the unprecedented security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July could both testify this week during the trial of three anti-nuclear weapons activists accused of vandalizing a uranium storage building.

The federal official, Steven C. Erhart, oversees nuclear production work at Y-12 and the Pantex Site in Amarillo, Texas. He manages the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office, or NPO.

The guard, Kirk Garland, was the first security officer to reach the three anti-nuclear weapons activists, who cut through three fences in a high-security Protected Area at Y-12 before dawn on July 28 and splashed human blood and spray-painted slogans on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, where most of the nation’s bomb-grade uranium is stored. Garland was fired Aug. 10, a few weeks after the intrusion. [Read more…]

Jury selection starts today for Y-12 protesters

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Y-12 Plowshares Protesters

Pictured above are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.

Jury selection starts this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Knoxville for the three anti-nuclear weapons activists accused of breaking into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and vandalizing a uranium storage building.

The jury selection starts at 1:30 p.m. in Courtroom 1A.

The case against Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli starts Tuesday.

Cleanup work shifts to mercury as new Y-12 water treatment plant announced

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Y-12 Water Treatment Plant Announcement

State and federal officials announce a plant to treat mercury-contaminated water at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Pictured from left are Mark Whitney, Robert Martineau, Lamar Alexander, Dave Huizenga, and Stan Meiburg.

Cleanup work in Oak Ridge could shift from radiological contamination to mercury contamination, and a new $120 million water treatment plant at the Y-12 National Security Complex will help reduce mercury as workers tear down four contaminated buildings that were used to make nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s, officials announced Friday.

“This water treatment plant is a major step in addressing one of the biggest problems we have from the Cold War era—mercury once used to make nuclear weapons getting into our waterways,” said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican. He said mercury contamination can cause brain and nervous system damage in people who eat contaminated fish.

Alexander was at Y-12 on Friday along with other federal and state officials to help announce the new water treatment plant, which will be at the head of East Fork Poplar Creek on the south side of Y-12’s main production area. The plant would be connected to a Y-12 storm water system, and it could begin operating in 2019. It would be able to treat 1,500 gallons of mercury-contaminated water per minute. [Read more…]

Judge says prosecution against Y-12 protesters not selective, vindictive

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A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed claims by three anti-nuclear weapons activists who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July that a so-called sabotage charge filed against them in December was the result of vindictive and selective prosecution.

The defendants had asked the U.S. District Court in Knoxville to dismiss that charge, which carries a potential prison sentence of up to 20 years. They alleged government prosecutors sought the new charge because they had earlier refused to plead guilty to less serious charges. [Read more…]

ORNL analysis predicts extreme weather losses could double by 2050

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By Katie Elyce Freeman

U.S. economic losses from extreme weather could at least double by 2050, according to an Oak Ridge National Laboratory analysis published this month in the online edition of the journal Global Environmental Change.

“A side effect of America’s growth has been the tendency to put more people, infrastructure and assets in harm’s way, and when a storm comes through, that increased exposure drives up economic losses,” said author Benjamin Preston, deputy director of ORNL’s Climate Change Science Institute, who studied historical data from more than 3,000 U.S. counties and used predictive modeling in the assessment. Preston works in impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability science, a field devoted to analyzing the effects of climate change on people, governments and industries. [Read more…]

UCOR makes second $20,000 donation to Emory Valley Center

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UCOR Donates to Emory Valley Center

Pictured above from left are Gene Caldwell, Jennifer Enderson, Leo Sain, and Dottie Thompson. (Submitted photo)

UCOR, the federal cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, recently donated a second installment pledge of $20,000 to the Emory Valley Center, a press release said.

In 2010, UCOR pledged to Emory Valley Center fundraising co-chairs Gene Caldwell and Dottie Thompson that it would donate $100,000 during the next five years to help build a new center.

“We believe in the importance of the work done to help so many people at Emory Valley Center,” UCOR President Leo Sain said in the press release. [Read more…]

ORAU Communications and Marketing wins public relations awards

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Oak Ridge Associated Universities won eight first-place awards, two second-place awards, and three third-place awards at a recent public relations awards ceremony, a press release said.

The ceremony was hosted April 25 by the Public Relations Society of America Volunteer Chapter.

ORAU Communications and Marketing won awards in the following categories and projects: [Read more…]

Y-12 protesters can’t use necessity, Nuremberg defenses at Tuesday trial

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Y-12 Plowshares Protesters

Pictured above are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.

The three protesters accused of sneaking into the Y-12 National Security Complex and vandalizing a uranium storage building in July will not be able to argue during their trial next week that they violated federal laws in order to achieve a greater good, a judge said.

It’s what is known as a necessity defense, and it only applies in rare situations, U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar said in an opinion and order filed Tuesday. It allows a defendant to avoid a conviction even when the government has proven all the elements of an offense.

Thapar said the three anti-nuclear weapons activists—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli—did not have any evidence to establish three of the four required elements of the necessity defense, including a “reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury due to a present, imminent, and unlawful threat.”

[Read more…]

CNS will offer more details on proposed cost savings at Y-12, Pantex

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The team that won the $22.8 billion contract in January to manage two nuclear weapons facilities in Tennessee and Texas will provide more details on how it proposes to save $3.27 billion during the next decade, a company spokesman said Monday.

Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, or CNS, won the contract to manage and operate the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

But the two losing teams filed protests, and in a decision announced Monday, the U.S. Government Accountability Office upheld parts of the protests. The GAO raised questions about whether the National Nuclear Security Administration, which announced the contract award to CNS on Jan. 8, had properly evaluated the costs savings proposed by bidders. [Read more…]

B&W says it’s pleased with federal decision on Y-12, Pantex contract protests

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Y-12 National Security Complex

The Babcock and Wilcox Co., the lead management and operating contractor at the Y-12 National Security Complex, said it was pleased with a federal decision Monday upholding protests of a five-year consolidated contract to manage Y-12 and the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

One of the two teams that lost a bid to manage two nuclear weapons facilities in Tennessee and Texas said it was pleased by a federal decision announced Monday that upheld protests of the five-year contract, which was awarded in January.

The decision by the U.S. Government Accountability Office also recommended that the procurement be re-opened.

The contract is reported to have a total value of $22 billion, and it was awarded to Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, or CNS, a team that includes Bechtel National Inc. and Lockheed Martin Services Inc. [Read more…]

Parts of Y-12, Pantex contract protests upheld; GAO says procurement should be re-opened

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Y-12 National Security Complex

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has upheld parts of two protests filed over the January award of a five-year contract to manage and operate the Y-12 National Security Complex, pictured above, and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas. (Submitted photo)

A federal agency has upheld parts of two protests challenging a five-year contract to manage two nuclear weapons plants in Tennessee and Texas.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office also recommended re-opening the contract procurement, raising questions about the status of the $22.8 billion contract awarded to Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, or CNS, in January. CNS was one of three bidding teams who competed for the contract to manage and operate the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

At the heart of the GAO decision, announced Monday, were questions about proposed savings. In particular, the agency seemed to question whether the National Nuclear Security Administration, which awarded the consolidated contract to CNS on Jan. 8, had properly evaluated the expected savings.

“NNSA failed to follow the publicly stated solicitation criteria, which provided that the agency would evaluate the feasibility and size of each offeror’s proposed cost savings resulting from the consolidation of the management and operation of these sites,” Ralph O. White, GAO managing associate general counsel for procurement law, said in a statement released Monday afternoon. [Read more…]

Hardin Valley Academy senior wins four-year UT-Battelle scholarship

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Meredith Graves UT-Battelle Scholarship

Meredith Graves, a senior at Hardin Valley Academy and winner of the 2013 UT-Battelle Scholarship, is pictured above with Thom Mason, Oak Ridge National Laboratory director. (Submitted photo)

Meredith Graves, a senior at Hardin Valley Academy, is the recipient of the 2013 UT-Battelle Scholarship to the University of Tennessee.

The four-year, $20,000 scholarship, presented annually to a graduating senior with a parent who works at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is awarded annually to an outstanding student who plans to study science, engineering, or mathematics at the University of Tennessee.

Graves, daughter of Van and René Graves of Knoxville, has already been accepted into the University of Tennessee’s Bachelor of Architecture program, where she hopes to apply her interest in STEM-related fields to the design of energy efficient and environmentally friendly structures. [Read more…]