B&W Y-12 recently donated $15,000 to the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, a press release said.
The money will be used to turn the museum’s current space exhibit into a “Rocket Room,” taking children on an imaginary trip to Mars. An existing model rocket at the museum will be refurbished, and new interactive activities will bring outer space to preschoolers and other young children, the release said.
East Tennessee teachers accept more than $36,000 in education grants from Oak Ridge Associated Universities during a ceremony last week. (Photo submitted by ORAU)
Oak Ridge Associated Universities awarded more than $36,000 to about two dozen East Tennessee teachers during a grants ceremony last week.
The grants were used to buy educational materials and equipment such as interactive white boards, iPads, robotics kits, computers, and more. The equipment will help teachers “continue to meet rigorous, state-wide curriculum standards and enhance the learning experience of their students,” a press release said.
The grants were awarded to 23 teachers from 15 schools during the 11th annual ORAU Education Grants ceremony.
The work of a few security guards has been heavily scrutinized and repeatedly criticized since the July 28 security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Last week, the criticism came from members of the U.S. House of Representatives, who also directed their frustration at U.S. Department of Energy officials and the plant’s contractors, calling the security breach “appalling” and an “all-out failure.”
But in recent interviews, a guard and union representative defended the performance of the security police officers at Y-12.
“I did my job exactly the way I’ve been trained for 30 years,” said Kirk Garland, who was the first security guard to reach the three anti-nuclear weapons activists who sneaked into Y-12 before dawn on July 28 and vandalized a building where bomb-grade uranium is stored.
Nine students pursuing master’s degrees in business administration at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville will work at the Y-12 National Security Complex while they complete their studies, thanks to a partnership between the two institutions called the Career Advantage Program, a press release said.
The program participants include six Class of 2013 MBA students: Lee Creviston of Brentwood, Bill Fortunato of Knoxville, Logan Howell of Mascot, Mike Koban of Nashville, Kelcee Ramsey of Oak Ridge, and Nick Tussing of Centennial, Colo.
In addition, three Class of 2012 students are continuing from last year: Chris Hurley of Delbarton, W.Va.; Aaron Jacques of Murfreesboro; and Melissa Tucker of Knoxville, the press release said.
A research team at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will receive $4.1 million during the next five years to study materials used in nuclear fusion reactors.
The funding is part of a larger $11.5 million U.S. Department of Energy project that includes seven other laboratories and universities across the country.
The goal is to help convert nuclear fusion, which promises an “almost limitless supply of clean and safe energy,” into a practical, commercial power source, a UT press release said.
About 1,600 people toured the Oak Ridge Reservation during this summer’s public bus tour, the U.S. Department of Energy announced.
The annual tour of Oak Ridge facilities ended Aug. 31, and it attracted visitors from 40 states, a press release said.
Workers have finished shipping a stockpile of unusual classified, radioactive wastes from the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, federal cleanup contractor UCOR announced last week.
The waste was generated at the K-25 site more than a decade ago, and it was stored in Vault 1X at the K-25 Building, UCOR said. It required off-site disposal.
Workers wrap up the demolition of the K-25 east wing, pictured at left, in this Sept. 5 photo. The north end is in the foreground. (Photo submitted by UCOR)
One month after a historic preservation agreement was signed, a federal cleanup contractor announced Friday that it has completed demolition work on the east wing of the K-25 Building and is preparing to demolish the north end.
Historic preservationists had lobbied for years to save the north end, but its deteriorated condition made that option unfeasible, a press release said.
Daniel Hoag
Two National Nuclear Security Administration officials have been reassigned after the July 28 security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Daniel Hoag has been temporarily reassigned to the Oak Ridge Site Office, NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino said in an Aug. 7 staff memo. Hoag has been deputy manager of the new NNSA Production Office, or NPO, which oversees nuclear production missions at Y-12 in Oak Ridge and the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.
Hoag’s appointment was announced in July, shortly before the security breach. He served as the chief operating officer for Pantex and Y-12, reporting to NPO Manager Steven Erhart in Oak Ridge.
Lawmakers criticized federal officials and contractors during congressional hearings this week on the July 28 security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex, demanding to know who had been fired and who had been responsible for repairing critical cameras that didn’t work.
“This level of intrusion into the perimeter of a highly secure nuclear weapons facility is unprecedented—and it is completely unacceptable,” said Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican who chairs the U.S. House Strategic Forces Subcommittee. “It is outrageous to think that the greatest threat to the American public from weapons of mass destruction may be the incompetence of Department of Energy security.”
Legislators took aim at federal officials and the “mind-boggling incompetence” of contractors. They wanted to know how an 82-year-old nun was able to reach the “Fort Knox” of uranium, a building inside a high-security area at Y-12 surrounded by fences and protected by alarms and cameras—and where deadly force is authorized.
The U.S. House of Representatives has a second hearing this afternoon on this summer’s security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Today’s 2 p.m. hearing is before the House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, and it can be watched live online.
Today’s hearing follows one yesterday by the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. During that hearing, House members called the July 28 security breach at Y-12 “appalling” and an “all-out failure,” and they asked who had been fired and who was responsible for various problems—such as security cameras that didn’t work.
A neutron detector developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could be used by an Indiana-based company for research in a variety of scientific fields, helping, for example, in the development of new drugs.
The neutron detector, the Neutron-Sensitive Anger Camera, has been licensed by PartTec Ltd. of Indiana, an ORNL press release said.
