The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration will have a virtual hiring event on Wednesday, March 31, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
Registration for the event is now open. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged, a press release said, although candidates will have the opportunity to register and submit resumes up until the day of the event.
Registration is available here.
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Note: This story was updated at 7:30 p.m.
Jennifer Granholm, a former Michigan governor, was sworn in as energy secretary on Thursday.
Granholm was the first female governor of Michigan, and she is the second woman to lead the U.S. Department of Energy.
Her swearing-in ceremony on Thursday followed a 64-35 confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate. U.S. senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, both Tennessee Republicans, were among the 35 senators who voted against Granholm’s confirmation.
Granholm is the 16th secretary of energy.
U.S. Department of Energy sites and operations in Oak Ridge include East Tennessee Technology Park; Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Oak Ridge Office; Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management; Office of Scientific and Technical Information; and Y-12 National Security Complex.
[Read more…]Three scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will discuss their work this afternoon on technologies for the Perseverance rover, which uses plutonium-238 produced at the lab and will touch down on Mars on Thursday.
Perseverance is scheduled to make its final descent into Jezero Crater on the surface of Mars on Thursday. It’s the first NASA mission that uses plutonium-238 produced at ORNL.
The plutonium-238 is encased in iridium-alloy cladding, and it is insulated by carbon-bonded carbon fiber. It’s used in the heat source module that fuels Perseverance’s multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator. As the plutonium decays, the heat that is released is converted into electricity, charging the rover’s batteries and powering the onboard advanced imaging and sensor systems. (Learn more about the Mars mission here.)
The online event today featuring the three ORNL scientists is hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, and it is scheduled to start at 3 p.m.
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Joan Bienvenue has been selected as the first executive director of the Oak Ridge Institute at the University of Tennessee.
“The institute was established last year to align the expertise and infrastructure of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the university in support of world-leading research and talent development,” UT said in an announcement to students, faculty, and staff on Tuesday.
As director, Bienvenue will also serve as a vice provost. She will begin her new position on March 8.
She will develop a strategy for establishing new interdisciplinary graduate research in emerging fields, build programs using UT and ORNL’s capabilities, and lead recruitment of faculty, staff, and students, the announcement said.
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The number of nuclear engineering degrees awarded in 2019 were at the highest level since 2016, driven primarily by a significant increase in the number of master’s degrees awarded, a press release said.
In addition, the number of doctorate degrees awarded in 2019 were the second highest level recorded since 1966.
This is according to a study conducted by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education that surveyed 34 U.S. universities with nuclear engineering programs. The report, “Nuclear Engineering Enrollments and Degrees Survey, 2019 Data,” included degrees granted between September 1, 2018, and August 31, 2019, and enrollments for fall 2019.
The number of bachelor’s degrees remained about the same, while the number of master’s degrees increased after a two-year slump, the press release said.
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The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs has awarded ORAU a collaborative research grant to study greenhouse gas emissions in the Arctic. The award is valued at $581,829.
The grant will be used to study local and regional emissions of isotopes of methane and carbon dioxide. Methane and carbon dioxide are two greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases can help raise the Earth’s temperature, changing the climate and causing other significant changes. (Isotopes are different forms of an element that have equal numbers of protons but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.)
In a press release, ORAU said carbon stored in permafrost is increasingly vulnerable to thaw and decomposition by microbes as northern latitudes such as the Arctic continue to warm.
“This decomposition has the potential to lead to large increases in methane and carbon dioxide emissions, both important greenhouse gases,” ORAU said. “Accurate and reliable forecasts of greenhouse gas emissions are critical for the improvement of global models that predict changes to temperature and sea level.”
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The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has a virtual job fair for its laboratories and production sites on Wednesday, January 27.
The NNSA said it wants to hire about 2,000 new employees in 2021.
The virtual job fair is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday. It will include hiring officials from NNSA and its national laboratories, plants, and sites, a press release said. Those include:
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Ross Lynn Freeny, a U.S. Department of Energy photographer who helped document current and historic activities in Oak Ridge, died on January 14. He was 62.
Freeny, a University of Tennessee graduate who lived in Maryville, had been a photographer for DOE since 1992. He taught photography classes at Pellissippi State Community College. He died at Blount Memorial Hospital on January 14. He had battled cancer.
Freeny could often be seen taking photos at DOE events. For example, he took photos at the opening of the K-25 History Center in February 2020.
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Protesters plan to hang a banner at a nuclear weapons production site in Oak Ridge early Friday afternoon that will declare the weapons illegal under a United Nations treaty.
The banner, which will say “Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal,” will be hung on a fence across from the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex on Scarboro Road. The banner will be hung after parts of the international agreement—the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons—are read, organizers said.
Protesters said they also plan to hang a poster of the text of the treaty and 122 yellow “X”s on the fence, one for every nation that voted in favor of the treaty at the United Nations.
“January 22, 2021, will be a historic day for nuclear weapons,” according to a press release from Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, which has organized weekly and annual events opposing nuclear weapons for many years. “On that day, at midnight, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force, establishing in international law a categorical ban on nuclear weapons, seventy-five years after their development and first use.”
[Read more…]The U.S. Department of Energy is starting a series of controlled burns of grassland areas on the Oak Ridge Reservation this week.
The controlled burns could continue through mid-April, depending upon weather. The burns will be on the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Three Bend Area off Pump House and Bull Bluff Roads, and other managed grassland areas off Bethel Valley Road and off Highway 58, a press release said.
The controlled burns will take place at:
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David Lane Mason, a member of the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board and community volunteer, died of COVID-19 complications on Monday. He was 79.
Mason was a former deputy director of environmental management and enrichment facilities at the former K-25 site, and he retired from the United States Enrichment Corporation in 2005 as the director of Centrifuge Engineering and Manufacturing Project, according to his obituary.
As a founding member of the Oak Ridge Rowing Association, Mason helped develop and build the rowing course at Melton Hill Lake, his obituary said. As a member of the Sunset Rotary Club of Oak Ridge, he helped establish the annual Da Vinci Arts and Science Fair for elementary and middle school students, the obituary said.
A nuclear physicist and Oak Ridge resident, Mason died at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville on Monday. He was a community advocate for more than 50 years, his obituary said.
Here is more information about Dave Mason from his obituary:
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Ashley Golden
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education promoted Ashley Golden to director of its health studies program, where she previously served as a group manager and biostatistician.
In her new role, Golden will oversee the health studies program, including organizational strategy and implementation along with the day-to-day operations, a press release said. She also will serve as a subject matter expert for epidemiologic investigations, biostatistical analyses, and interdisciplinary projects in the areas of occupational health, radiation exposure and dosimetry, medical surveillance, public health, and survey analyses.
“We are thrilled for Ashley to take on this new role because of her extensive knowledge and experience in health research, especially in biostatistics,” said Jim Vosburg, director of ORISE. “She has proven herself as a natural leader, and we can’t wait to see how she will continue to energize our health studies program.” [Read more…]
