U.S. Department of Energy Archives - Page 159 of 177

Y-12 protesters’ trial rescheduled to May

Posted at 3:38 pm December 10, 2012
By John Huotari 2 Comments

The federal trial against the three protesters accused of sneaking into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and vandalizing a uranium storage building has been reset to May 7.

It had most recently been set for Feb. 26, 2013. But the U.S. Attorneys’ Office said last week that the date would likely change after a federal grand jury in Knoxville returned new three-count indictments against the three defendants—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael R. Walli.

The new indictments, which supersede earlier three-count indictments from August, added a more serious charge of injuring national defense premises. That charge carries a longer prison sentence of up to 20 years.

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Opposed to nuclear weapons work, Y-12 protesters refused to plead guilty

Posted at 12:44 am December 8, 2012
By John Huotari 1 Comment

The Fruit of Justice is Peace Slogan on HEUMF at Y-12

Three anti-nuclear weapons activists who sneaked into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28 allegedly splashed human blood and, quoting Proverbs, sprayed paint on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. The protesters also hammered the building, causing it to chip, and strung up crime scene tape. (Submitted photo)

The three protesters who vandalized a uranium storage building at Y-12 National Security Complex in July said they would not accept a plea deal from the federal government earlier this year, even though prosecutors threatened to charge them with more serious sabotage crimes.

“We chose to exercise our constitutional right to a jury trial and refused to bow down to their threats,” the trio said in a statement released Wednesday. “We remain convinced that making and refurbishing nuclear weapons at Y-12 is both illegal under U.S. and international law, and it is also immoral. Ultimately, we are required to follow the law of love and our consciences.”

Calling themselves Transform Now Plowshares, the three protesters—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli— allegedly cut through fences at Y-12 before dawn on Saturday, July 28, entered a high-security area where deadly force is authorized, and splashed human blood and spray-painted slogans on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, where bomb-grade uranium is stored.

On Tuesday, a federal grand jury in Knoxville returned a new charge against the trio for this summer’s unprecedented intrusion. The new count of injuring national-defense premises carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years, longer than any of the earlier potential penalties.

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Science.gov celebrates 10 years

Posted at 11:06 am December 7, 2012
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A federal science website that offers access to millions of web pages and is hosted by an organization with offices in Oak Ridge celebrates its 10th anniversary this month.

Science.gov was launched in December 2002. It has broken new ground in interagency collaboration, a press release said, and offers access to more than 200 million pages of scientific information, a “one-stop” shop for real-time science data.

It’s hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information, located in Washington, D.C., and Oak Ridge. Science.gov has more than 34 million page views per year, a 45-fold increase from the earliest days, the press release said. It can help users answer a range of scientific questions.

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UT-Battelle Angel Tree delivers clothing, gifts for children in need

Posted at 11:56 pm December 6, 2012
By Oak Ridge National Laboratory Leave a Comment

Team UT-Battelle volunteer Heather Terry sorts Angel Tree gifts donated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory employees. (Submitted photos)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Team UT-Battelle Angel Tree effort delivered clothing and gifts to area community agencies and schools this week. The items will brighten the holiday season for 240 needy children.

The gifts range from bikes to toys to clothes. Employees can also make monetary donations. In fact, members of the Atomic Labor and Trades Council, the laboratory bargaining unit, contributed $500.

The laboratory’s Angel Tree is electronic: Lab staff members can access a web page that offers anonymous selections of children from surrounding counties including Anderson, Roane, Loudon, Morgan, Union, Blount, Campbell and Knox. The donor can then donate a gift based on the child’s age, gender, size and interests provided by the website. As in past years, all 240 of the tree’s virtual “ornaments” were selected.

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DOE recognizes ORAU for Science Bowl support

Posted at 11:39 pm December 6, 2012
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Representatives of Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the U.S. Department of Energy at a recent ceremony recognizing their partnership in the management of a high school science bowl. Among those pictured are DOE Program Manager Greg Mills (center back), ORNL Site Office Manager Johnny Moore (second from left), and ORAU President and CEO Andy Page (third from left). (Submitted photo)

Oak Ridge Associated Universities was recently recognized for its continued support of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Tennessee Science Bowl, an annual competition to encourage high school students to excel in science and math and pursue careers in those fields.

Johnny Moore, DOE’s site office manager at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, presented a commemorative plaque to ORAU for its support of the science bowl.

In a letter to ORAU President and CEO Andy Page, Moore emphasized that coordinating the event—which in 2012 hosted more than 300 students, coaches, and volunteers over a two-day period—was a “huge undertaking and (ORAU) staff performed in an incredible manner to make it happen.”

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Y-12 protesters face new national defense charge, longer prison sentence

Posted at 9:28 am December 5, 2012
By John Huotari 2 Comments

The three anti-nuclear weapons activists pictured above allegedly cut through fences and vandalized a uranium storage 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)

A new federal charge has been added against the three protesters who allegedly cut through fences at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and splashed human blood and spray-painted slogans on a uranium storage building.

A three-count indictment returned against Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli adds a new count of injuring national-defense premises, U.S. Attorney William C. Killian said in a Wednesday morning press release. The new charge carries a longer prison sentence of up to 20 years.

The indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Knoxville on Tuesday supersedes the earlier three-count indictment from August.

The new indictment does not include the earlier trespassing charge. However, it does include the previous charges of property destruction and property depredation. Including all the charges, the protesters, who are opposed to Y-12’s nuclear weapons work, now face jail sentences of up to 35 years and fines of up to $750,000.

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NNSA exceeds nuclear weapons dismantlement goal

Posted at 7:10 pm December 3, 2012
By John Huotari 3 Comments

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced today that it exceeded its goal for dismantling nuclear weapons in the federal fiscal year that ended in September.

In a press release, the NNSA said it had reached 112 percent of its goal, although it didn’t give specific information on the number of dismantled weapons.

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is one of the NNSA sites involved in the dismantlement work.

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ORNL’s Smith, Sokolov elected AAAS fellows

Posted at 5:53 pm December 3, 2012
By Oak Ridge National Laboratory 2 Comments

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers Sean Campbell Smith (left) and Alexei Sokolov, have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

Two researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory—Sean Campbell Smith and Alexei Sokolov—have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Fellow is the highest honor bestowed by the AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.

Smith, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, came to ORNL in 2011 from the University of Queensland in Australia, where he was the director of the Centre for Computational Molecular Science. He was cited by his AAAS peers for “distinguished contributions to the field of computational and theoretical chemistry, including fundamental advances in unimolecular rate theory and exploration of novel functionalities in nanomaterials.”

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ORNL develops lignin-based thermoplastic conversion process

Posted at 9:17 pm November 30, 2012
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Turning lignin, a plant’s structural “glue” and a byproduct of the paper and pulp industry, into something considerably more valuable is driving a research effort headed by Amit Naskar of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

In a cover article published in Green Chemistry, the research team describes a process that ultimately transforms the lignin byproduct into a thermoplastic—a polymer that becomes pliable above a specific temperature. Researchers accomplished this by reconstructing larger lignin molecules either through a chemical reaction with formaldehyde or by washing with methanol. Through these simple chemical processes, they created a crosslinked rubber-like material that can also be processed like plastics.

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After two target failures, user research resumes at SNS this morning

Posted at 9:24 am November 28, 2012
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A mercury target at the Spallation Neutron Source is pictured in the target bay area during a 2009 changeout. A Oak Ridge National Laboratory spokesman said the sloped part of two SNS targets failed in September and October. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

Its mercury targets have failed twice in the past two months, but the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is available for user research again.

The program resumed at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

The $1.4 billion research facility is used to help scientists study material structures and properties.

The failures of its targets 6 and 7 in September and October have been attributed to an apparent failure in a weld joint.

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DOE receives reimbursable work totaling $442 million

Posted at 8:30 am November 26, 2012
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office said last week it had received funding for reimbursable work totaling $442 million during the last fiscal year, which ended in September.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory performed about $232 million of the work, a press release said. The remaining $210 million of the work was conducted at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.

Under its Work for Others program, DOE said, outside entities can use national laboratories to solve problems when the work is related to DOE missions and the entities cannot do the work elsewhere.

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