Oak Ridge Today

Demolition finished on K-25’s North End

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K-25 North End Demolition

Work crews demolish the last section of the North End of the historic K-25 Building in Oak Ridge on Wednesday. K-25 was built to enrich uranium during World War II and was once the world’s largest building under one roof.

Work crews demolished the last section of the North End of the historic K-25 Building in Oak Ridge on Wednesday morning.

Workers used a giant, orange demolition machine known as a high reach shear to bring down the four-story building, once the world’s largest under one roof. At times, the shear resembled a large dinosaur as its massive black jaws bit into the building’s 67-year-old skeleton.

Reporters, officials, and workers watched on a clear but chilly East Tennessee morning as the high reach shear sliced through vertical steel columns and tugged at horizontal beams. After about 20 minutes, the North End crashed to the ground. So did any dreams of preserving it that might have remained.

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ORAU marks three million safe work hours

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Oak Ridge Associated Universities and its subcontractors have marked a key safety milestone—three million safe work hours without any days away, restricted, or transferred (DART) due to injury.

The accomplishment occurred over a 10-month period, since the corporation’s last DART case in February 2012.

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Y-12 protesters ask court to dismiss sabotage charges

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Transform Now Plowshares

The three anti-nuclear weapons activists pictured above allegedly cut through fences and vandalized a high-security building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and now face federal charges of property destruction, property depredation, and injuring national defense premises. From left to right the three are Michael R. Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed. (Submitted photo)

In one of a series of motions last week, the three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28 asked a federal court to dismiss the new sabotage charges filed against them in December.

Attorneys for the protesters—anti-nuclear weapons activists Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael R. Walli—said the new charges, which could add up to 20 years in prison, are unconstitutional, vindictive, and selective. They said the new charges were brought because the defendants earlier refused to plead guilty to less serious crimes.

In addition, the sabotage charges are rarely applied to civilian conduct and should not have been used in this case because Y-12 is a private contractor site and not a military base, the four attorneys for the protesters said in a motion to dismiss filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on Friday.

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Q&A: John Eschenberg on Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12

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Uranium Processing Facility

The proposed Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Image courtesy of B&W Y-12)

The following is an edited version of a question-and-answer session with John Eschenberg, federal project director for the proposed Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Federal officials said last fall that the UPF could be larger than originally planned to make sure all the building’s equipment fits inside.

Q: What is the status of the UPF redesign?

A: UPF is currently at 66 percent of design completion. Once 90 percent design completion is achieved, we will submit a Critical Decision-2 (CD-2) package to headquarters for approval that will contain the complete cost and schedule baseline for UPF. This process, which involves both an independent cost estimate and an external independent review, will likely take several weeks to complete.

The cost range for UPF is unchanged: $4.2 billion-$6.5 billion.

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State legislators, county mayor tour ORNL

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Kelly Beierschmitt and Terry Frank at ORNL

Kelly Beierschmitt, Oak Ridge National Laboratory associate lab director for neutron sciences, talks with Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank in the target building at the Spallation Neutron Source. (Photos courtesy of ORNL)

Five Tennessee legislators and Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank recently toured Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Frank toured the Spallation Neutron Source, the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors, and the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. She had a briefing from Thom Mason on the modernization of ORNL as well as the lab’s regional economic impact, a lab statement said.

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Y-12: Almost 20 years of recycling makes a big difference

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Thanks to a Y-12 National Security Complex aluminum beverage can recycling program, more than 400 local organizations have received a $200 donation from the company since the program’s inception in 1994. Over the years, more than $81,600 from recycling revenue has been donated.

The most recent recipients are Tabitha’s Table, an ecumenical Oak Ridge food ministry that provides a hot meal weekly; Family Promise of Knoxville, a program for individuals facing homelessness for the first time in their lives; Sunshine Industries, a therapeutic recreation program for handicapped adults who live in Knox County; and People Promoting Animal Welfare, an organization that operates a feline/canine adoption center and spay/neuter clinic in Greenback and offers low-income families affordable sterilization of cats and dogs.

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B&W protests Y-12, Pantex contract award

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Y-12 National Security Complex

The Babcock and Wilcox Company, part of B&W Y-12, is protesting a federal decision to award a consolidated contract to Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC to manage the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

An unsuccessful bidding team led by The Babcock and Wilcox Company is protesting the recent federal decision to award a contract to Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC to manage and operate the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced on Jan. 8 that the consolidated contract had been awarded to Consolidated Nuclear Security, or CNS. That team includes Bechtel National Inc. and Lockheed Martin Services Inc.

The B&W-led team is called Nuclear Production Partners LLC, or NP2.

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DOE awards $182 million security guard contract, WSI ‘disappointed’

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Oak Ridge Federal Building

The Joe L. Evins Federal Building in Oak Ridge, one of the U.S. Department of Energy sites to be guarded under a $182 million protective force services contract announced Thursday.

Federal officials announced Thursday that they have awarded a $182 million contract to protect U.S. Department of Energy sites in Oak Ridge, including the East Tennessee Technology Park, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Joe L. Evins Federal Building, and the rest of the Oak Ridge Reservation, not including the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The five-year contract was awarded to National Strategic Protective Services LLC, or NSPS.

“We are pleased to welcome NSPS as a part of the Department of Energy team in Oak Ridge,” said Larry Kelly, Oak Ridge Office manager. “We evaluated the proposals and it was clear to us that NSPS is the right company for this difficult and important job.”

NSPS will replace WSI Oak Ridge, which has provided protective force services in Oak Ridge since 2000.

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Debriefings today on Y-12/Pantex consolidated contract

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Debriefings scheduled for today were offered to the teams that bid unsuccessfully on a consolidated contract to manage the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

The unsuccessful bidders have up to 10 days to protest the decision to award the five-year contract to Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, or CNS, a team that includes Bechtel National Inc. and Lockheed Martin Services Inc. The contract award was announced Tuesday, Jan. 8.

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Experts recommend federalizing guard forces at DOE nuclear weapons sites, nonprofit says

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Note: This story was updated at 12:42 p.m. Jan. 15.

Three experts have recommended that guard forces be federalized at federal sites where bomb-grade uranium is stored, according to a nonprofit watchdog organization based in Washington, D.C.

Peter Stockton, senior investigator at the Project On Government Oversight, said U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu asked the experts—Norm Augustine, C. Donald Alston, and Richard Meserve—to review the physical security of the entire nuclear weapons complex after the July 28 security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

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MMC, DOE to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day

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Hospital staff members and federal workers and contractors will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day in two separate events on Wednesday, Jan. 16, and Monday, Jan. 21.

The U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office has its annual event Wednesday morning at the American Museum of Science and Energy.

The program is titled “50 Years Later: The Evolution of the Dream.” It’s scheduled from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Wednesday, and it’s open to the public.

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Security breach costs B&W Y-12 $12.2 million

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Y-12 National Security Complex

Y-12 National Security Complex (Submitted photo)

B&W Y-12, the company that manages and operates the Y-12 National Security Complex, lost $12.2 million in award fees because of the July 28 security breach, a federal report said.

B&W earned $35.9 million, about 59 percent of its available fee of $60.9 million, the National Nuclear Security Administration said in a fiscal year 2012 performance evaluation of Babcock and Wilcox Technical Services Y-12 LLC.

The company lost 100 percent of its potential security-related fee, and there was also a $10 million “negative overall management fee adjustment,” the NNSA said.

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