U.S. Department of Energy Archives - Page 2 of 148

NNSA deploying systems to counter drones, including at Y-12

Posted at 11:09 pm November 19, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The counter-unmanned aircraft system installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to enforce the federally designated no-drone zone. (Photo courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration)

The National Nuclear Security Administration is deploying systems that will counter drones at four sites that house special nuclear materials, including the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

Deployed by the Office of Defense Nuclear Security, the systems are designed to mitigate any malicious aerial intruders at NNSA sites. They will have the capability to detect, identify, track, and intercept unsanctioned and suspicious drones, the NNSA said Monday.

One system has already been deployed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

“We needed a system to counter threats ranging from on-site disruption by protestors to intelligence gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance of NNSA sites, plants, and labs,” said Lewis Monroe III, director of security operations and programmatic planning. [Read more…]

(For members) New DOE security contractor will take over in December

Posted at 2:27 pm November 19, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

After a protest was denied this month, a new security contractor will take over protecting U.S. Department of Energy sites in Oak Ridge at the end of December.

The contract could be worth close to $66 million and be in place for five years.

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Updated: DOE to investigate possible weaknesses in nuclear criticality controls at Y-12

Posted at 1:10 am November 18, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Note: This story was updated with a statement from CNS at 11:50 a.m. Nov. 19.

The U.S. Department of Energy has notified Consolidated Nuclear Security that it intends to investigate possible weaknesses in nuclear criticality controls at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments’ Office of Enforcement notified CNS, which manages and operates Y-12, of its intent to investigate on Tuesday. The Office of Enforcement intends to investigate potential noncompliances with DOE nuclear safety program requirements, according to a summary of the notice published online.

The potential nuclear criticality control weaknesses were identified at Y-12 between May 2017 and May 2018, the notice said.

Nuclear criticality occurs when nuclear fuel is capable of sustaining a fission chain reaction. [Read more…]

Y-12 employees support East Tennessee through grants program

Posted at 12:24 pm November 17, 2018
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC presented grants totaling $125,000 to 22 nonprofits in eight East Tennessee counties on Thursday evening, Nov. 15, 2018, at New Hope Center. The focus areas for the grants this year were historical and cultural preservation and mental health and substance abuse. (Photo courtesy CNS Y-12)

Submitted

Grants totaling $125,000 focus on mental health and substance abuse, and on historic and cultural preservation

There is no better time to lend a helping hand than now as the holidays approach.

Local residents needing help with mental health and substance abuse and organizations focused on historic and cultural preservation will soon get more assistance thanks to the employees of Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC.

CNS manages and operates the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Y-12 has three missions: maintaining the U.S nuclear deterrent, reducing global nuclear threats, and fueling the nuclear U.S. Navy. [Read more…]

SSAB to hear about DOE work to ensure sufficient waste disposal capacity

Posted at 12:40 am November 14, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board on Wednesday will hear about work by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management to ensure there is sufficient waste disposal capacity to complete future cleanup work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex.

DOE is considering a new landfill known as the Environmental Management Disposal Facility. It could be built in central Bear Creek Valley west of Y-12. There was a public meeting to discuss the project at the New Hope Center at Y-12 on Wednesday, November 7.

The existing landfill, the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility west of Y-12, is about three-quarters full, and it is expected to fill up in the early 2020s after cleanup work is complete at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site. [Read more…]

Supercomputers: Summit at ORNL still number one

Posted at 11:29 am November 12, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Summit supercomputer was named number one on the TOP500 List, a semiannual ranking of the world’s fastest computing systems on Monday, June 25, 2018. (Photo credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Summit supercomputer was again named number one on the TOP500 List, a semiannual ranking of the world’s fastest computing systems on Monday, Nov. 12, 2018. (Photo credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy)

The 200-petaflop Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory stayed at number one on the semiannual TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers released Monday.

The Sierra supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, climbed to number two from number three. That means the United States now has the top two systems in the world, a position that China held a year ago.

Summit, a water-cooled IBM-built supercomputer, debuted at number one on the TOP500 list in June. That was the first time since 2012 that the United States had the most powerful supercomputer in the world. The earlier top system, Titan, a Cray machine, is also located at ONRL. ORNL and LLNL are both U.S. Department of Energy laboratories.

Officials celebrated the launch of Summit in a ceremony attended by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on June 8. The supercomputer is capable of 200 petaflops, or 200,000 trillion calculations per second. That makes it about about eight times more powerful than Titan, its predecessor.

Besides being the most powerful, Summit has been described as the world’s smartest supercomputer, a machine that can learn. As big as two tennis courts, Summit has 4,608 compute servers. Each has two 22-core IBM Power9 central processing units (CPUs) and six NVIDIA Tesla V100 graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerators. That’s more than 9,000 conventional processors and nearly 28,000 graphics processors, or about 37,000 total. [Read more…]

DOE Oak Ridge has Veterans Day program on Thursday

Posted at 2:26 pm November 7, 2018
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

James L. Campbell

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office will host a Veterans Day program on Thursday in honor of the courageous men and women who serve and have served in our nation’s armed forces, a press release said.

The program is scheduled between 10-11 a.m. Thursday, November 8, in the American Museum of Science and Energy Auditorium at 115 Main Street East in Oak Ridge. The new museum is near JCPenney.

The program will include keynote speaker Lieutenant General James L. Campbell, who is retired from the U.S. Army. He will share his thoughts on “Sacrifices of Service,” the press release said. [Read more…]

Tonight: Public meeting on DOE landfill

Posted at 11:52 am November 7, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

There is a public meeting about the Environmental Management Disposal Facility in Oak Ridge tonight (Wednesday, November 7).

The meeting is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. in the New Hope Center auditorium at the Y-12 National Security Complex on Scarboro Road. Presentations are expected to begin around 6:30 p.m., and a question and comment period could start around 7:15 p.m. [Read more…]

CORRE has annual meeting Monday

Posted at 8:47 am October 29, 2018
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

The Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees has its annual meeting today (Monday, October 29).

The meeting is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. at the Pollard Technology Conference Center at 210 Badger Avenue in Oak Ridge.

CORRE is an organization of retirees that works to improve the welfare of all former employees and surviving spouses of the various managing contractors of U.S. Department of Energy facilities in Oak Ridge, a press release said.

On the agenda for the Monday afternoon meeting are reports on 2018 activities, election of board members and officers, and a report to the CORRE membership from President Bob Hightower. [Read more…]

Power of Synergy Space Symposium at New Hope Center this week

Posted at 1:22 pm October 22, 2018
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

John Rather and Dean Hartley examine same-scale globes of the Earth, Moon, and Mars. (Submitted photo)

A Power of Synergy Space Symposium will be at New Hope Center in Oak Ridge this week.

The symposium will include leaders from NASA, U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y-12 National Security Complex, industry, and academia, a press release said.

The Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop will be hosting the unique symposium in order to promote safe, fast, and affordable human development of the solar system, the press release said. The speakers will discuss and advocate breakthrough technologies to enable routine transportation to permanent colonies on the moon and the first human trips to Mars within a decade.

More information about the symposium can be found on the website at https://tviw.us/tviw-symposium-on-the-power-of-synergy/. Registration is also available on the website; the fee includes breaks, lunches, and receptions, the press release said.

Here is more information from the press release: [Read more…]

ORNL demonstrates 120-kilowatt wireless charging for vehicles

Posted at 3:22 pm October 21, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Researchers demonstrated a 120-kilowatt wireless power transfer at the National Transportation Research Center, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. From left to right above are ORNL’s Saeed Anwar, Burak Ozpineci, Gui-Jia Su, and David Smith; DOE Vehicle Technology Program’s Lee Slezak; and ORNL’s Veda Galigekere, Omer Onar, and Jason Pries. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

By Stephanie Seay/ORNL

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated a 120-kilowatt wireless charging system for vehicles—providing six times the power of previous ORNL technology and a big step toward charging times that rival the speed and convenience of a gas station fill-up.

The wireless system transfers 120 kilowatts of power with 97 percent efficiency, which is comparable to conventional, wired high-power fast chargers. In the laboratory demonstration, power was transferred across a six-inch air gap between two magnetic coils and charged a battery pack.

ORNL researchers created and demonstrated the world’s first 20-kilowatt wireless charging system, which is being modified for applications such as commercial delivery trucks.

“It was important to maintain the same or smaller footprint as the previous demonstration to encourage commercial adoption,” said project lead Veda Galigekere of ORNL’s Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Group. [Read more…]

Y-12 approved for B61-12 weapons work

Posted at 11:14 am October 21, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Image from U.S. Government Accountability Office report in May 2018 on B61-12 Nuclear Bomb.

Image from U.S. Government Accountability Office report in May 2018 on the B61-12 nuclear bomb.

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge has been approved to produce a major component of a nuclear bomb known as the B61-12.

The approval was the final step to authorize the manufacturing and delivery of the first production unit of a component called the canned subassembly. It’s scheduled for March 2019, according to Y-12. A canned subassembly is the second stage of a modern thermonuclear weapon, and it is part of the nuclear explosives package.

The Y-12 work is part of the B61-12 Life Extension Program, which will consolidate four versions of the bomb into one. The bombs could be carried on B-2A bomber aircraft and F-15Es, several types of F-16s, and PA-200 fighters, and in the future, F-35s and B-21s.