Oak Ridge Today

A first of its kind: UT, ORNL offer ‘big data’ doctorate

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The use of big data—collecting and interpreting vast amounts of information—has rapidly grown in importance across areas ranging from health care to nuclear security.

To help meet that demand, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a first-of-its kind data science and engineering doctoral program, the only one in the United States to pair a university and national laboratory and one of just three such big data doctoral programs in the U.S. overall, a press release said.

The program, which was announced at the spring UT Board of Trustees meeting, hopes to enroll 15 Ph.D. candidates when it begins this fall, with the eventual goal of having 100 students at any given time.

In granting approval for the new program last week, the Tennessee Higher Education Commission noted that it is an answer to its call for the state’s higher education institutions to strengthen graduate-level education and address challenges befitting top research institutions, the press release said. [Read more…]

Design complete for Emergency Operations Center at Y-12

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Y‑12’s new Emergency Operations Center will be built east of the existing Plant Shift Superintendent’s building. (Artist concept courtesy NNSA)

Y‑12’s new Emergency Operations Center will be built east of the existing Plant Shift Superintendent’s building. (Artist concept courtesy NNSA)

 

The final design was completed earlier this year for a new Emergency Operations Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex, officials said.

The project will replace an outdated Manhattan Project-era facility by building a new Plant Shift Superintendent’s facility, a new Technical Support Center, and a new plant Fire Department Alarm Room, Y-12 said. The new facility will replace the current Plant Shift Superintendent’s office and Technical Support Center in Building 9706-2. Y-12 will be able to use the new center as an Emergency Command Center for an operational emergency.

Y-12 said the Emergency Operations Center project team completed the final design package ahead of schedule and under budget.

“Completion of the design marks a major milestone in project progress,” Y-12 said in April 18 newsletter. “Using this completed design package, the project team can complete the balance of the project documentation needed to receive authorization for construction from National Nuclear Security Administration.”

On Wednesday, NNSA spokesperson Steven Wyatt said the existing Plant Shift Superintendent’s office is located in the east end of Y-12 south of the Jack Case Center. That office was built in the 1940s and is obsolete, Wyatt said. [Read more…]

ORNL’s Gibson named SME outstanding young engineer

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Brian T. Gibson (Photo courtesy ORNL)

Brian T. Gibson (Photo courtesy ORNL)

Brian T. Gibson, a postdoctoral research associate at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named one of the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineers for 2017.

Gibson has doctorate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the West Virginia University Institute of Technology, a press release said. He works in the Materials Processing and Joining group in the Materials Science and Technology Division at ORNL.

Before joining ORNL, Gibson studied as a Tennessee Space Grant fellow in the Vanderbilt University Welding Automation Laboratory. His research focuses on technical challenges at the intersection of robotics and materials processing, with specific research interests that include solid-state joining, additive manufacturing, in-process quality monitoring, robotic force control, and signal processing, the press release said.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time, the press release said. For more information, visit http://science.energy.gov/.

deBeauclair named deputy manager at DOE Oak Ridge Office

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Geoffrey G. deBeauclair (Photo courtesy DOE)

Geoffrey G. deBeauclair (Photo courtesy DOE)

 

Geoffrey “Geoff” G. deBeauclair has been named deputy manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office/Integrated Support Center. The appointment was effective May 1, a press release said.

It’s one of DOE’s most diverse field locations, the press release said. As deputy manager, deBeauclair will help Oak Ridge Office Manager Ken Tarcza manage the Oak Ridge Integrated Support Center. That center provides critical mission support services locally and nationally in the areas of personnel, finance, budget, procurement, legal, security and emergency management, and employee health and safety, the press release said.

“He will also be responsible for advancing ORO’s responsibilities for management of the 32,000-acre Oak Ridge Reservation, which will include addressing cross-cutting issues and among major activities, including the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, East Tennessee Technology Park, and Y-12,” the press release said. [Read more…]

Climate scientist, evangelical Christian to give talk in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, May 16

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Katharine Hayhoe (Photo credit: Mark Umstot Photography)

Katharine Hayhoe (Photo credit: Mark Umstot Photography)

 

Katharine Hayhoe, a nationally-recognized climate scientist and evangelical Christian, will give a talk in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, May 16, a press release said.

The free talk is hosted by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge and the Climate Change Science Institute at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Seats are limited.

Hayhoe’s presentation is titled “Climate for Change.” It’s scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, at the Pollard Technology Conference Center at 210 Badger Avenue in Oak Ridge.

Hayhoe is both a distinguished climate scientist and an evangelical Christian, the press release said. An atmospheric scientist, her research focuses on developing and applying high-resolution climate projections to understand what climate change means for society.

Hayhoe has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people and one of Foreign Policy’s 100 leading global thinkers, and she was recently named one of Fortune’s world’s greatest leaders, the press release said. She is a professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. [Read more…]

Pink lady’s slipper nature walk scheduled for Sunday, May 7

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A wildlife nature walk featuring observance of the pink lady’s slipper will be conducted from 1:30 until 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 7, on the Oak Ridge Reservation.

This is part of the spring nature walk series offered by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was rescheduled due to rain from a previous date.

Participants will meet at 1:30 p.m. at the North Boundary Greenway along Tennessee Highway 95 located east of the junction with Tennessee Highway 58. [Read more…]

Construction could start this year on K-25 History Center

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K-25 History Center and Equipment Building

An image showing the K-25 History Center on the second floor of the city-owned fire station, right, at East Tennessee Technology Park, with the Equipment Building and Viewing Tower at left. (Graphic by David Brown/U.S. Department of Energy)

 

Construction could start this year on the K-25 History Center at the East Tennessee Technology Park in west Oak Ridge, federal officials said. Plans also call for an Equipment Building and Viewing Tower at the site. Although the projects depend upon funding, the goal is to finish the work by 2019.

The K-25 site was one of three large sites built by the federal government in Oak Ridge during World War II to help make the world’s first atomic weapons as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. The other two sites were X-10, which is now known as Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Y-12, now the Y-12 National Security Complex.

At K-25, the three history-related facilities will have three missions. The History Center will tell the story of the workers. The Equipment Building will focus on the technology. And the Viewing Tower will show visitors the size of the site. All three facilities will be on the south side of the former mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building.

K-25 used a process called gaseous diffusion to enrich uranium for atomic weapons and, later, for commercial nuclear power plants. Officials and contractors have said that K-25 helped win the Cold War. The site is now known as Heritage Center or East Tennessee Technology Park.

Preserving its history is part of a Memorandum of Agreement that was signed in August 2012 and allowed for the complete demolition of K-25, once the world’s largest building under one roof. The historic preservation work is expected to cost about $20 million total. [Read more…]

Not clear yet where National Park Service will go when AMSE closes

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former-sears-roebuck-co-oak-ridge-jan-2-2017-web

An agreement signed Friday, Dec. 30, 2016, by the U.S. Department of Energy and City of Oak Ridge calls for the American Museum of Science and Energy missions to be relocated within about one year to 18,000 square feet of space in a two-story building that once housed a Sears Roebuck store next to JCPenney at Main Street Oak Ridge. It’s not yet clear if the National Park Service, which has shared space with AMSE, will also move into this building. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

It’s not clear yet where the National Park Service will go when the American Museum of Science and Energy building closes at the end of the year, but a federal official said the Park Service will stay in Oak Ridge.

It could relocate to a two-story building that once housed Sears Roebuck at Main Street Oak Ridge, the former Oak Ridge Mall. That’s where the U.S. Department of Energy’s public education and outreach missions, now housed at the American Museum of Science and Energy, are moving.

But the National Park Service hadn’t committed to moving there as of April 17, said Niki Nicholas, site manager of the Oak Ridge unit of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The NPS needs more information, Nicholas said in response to questions after a Monday afternoon presentation to AAUW, or American Association of University Women. (A reader had told Oak Ridge Today of an April 17 letter reportedly sent from the Manhattan Project National Historical Park to federal officials at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which manages AMSE.)

Nicholas said the National Park Service has several options in Oak Ridge, including Main Street Oak Ridge. But she declined to elaborate on the precise number of options, where they might be, or what organizations or businesses might be co-located in those buildings. [Read more…]

Two spring nature walks remain on Oak Ridge Reservation

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Two more nature walks are scheduled this spring on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation.

They include frog calls and bat monitoring on Friday, May 19, and reptiles and amphibians inventory on Sunday, June 4.

Previous walks included wildflower walks on Saturday, April 15, and Sunday, April 23, and a bird walk on Saturday, April 29.

The May 19 frog calls and bat monitoring event runs from 8 until 10 p.m. as participants will visit some small impounded waterbodies along the Freels Bend causeway to learn how Oak Ridge National Laboratory personnel are monitoring local bat populations and how to identify local frog populations based on calls. Nikki Jones and Kitty McCracken will lead the group along a one-mile level dirt and gravel road. A reliable flashlight is recommended as the walk will occur after sunset, a press release said. The walk is limited to 25, and children are allowed.

[Read more…]

Preparing for demolition, DOE identifies contaminants at Y-12’s Biology Complex

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Y-12 Biology Complex aerial

An aerial view of the Biology Complex at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Plans call for eventually demolishing the complex. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy)

 

Biology Complex at Y-12 once housed more individuals with doctorates than anywhere else in the world

The U.S. Department of Energy and its cleanup contractor finished characterizing the Biology Complex at the Y-12 National Security Complex this month, identifying contaminants before demolishing and disposing of the buildings.

The characterization work was done by DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and its contractor, URS | CH2M, or UCOR.

DOE said it was crucial to get crews into the complex before the working environment became too hazardous.

“Already, team members could not enter a building due to a failed roof,” the Department of Energy said in a story published online on Thursday. “Elsewhere, exterior tiles have fallen from the façade, and asbestos and other material present risks to workers due to roof leaks.”

Jay Mullis, acting manager for the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, said the completion of the characterization work sets up the cleanup program to demolish Y-12’s Biology Complex when funds become available. [Read more…]

Site prep could start this year for mercury treatment plant at Y-12

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Y-12 Mercury Treatment Facility

The Mercury Treatment Facility that will be at the east end of Y-12 National Security Complex could start operating in 2022. (Image by David Brown/U.S. Department of Energy)

 

Note: This story was updated at 2 p.m.

Site preparation could start later this year for the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex as the U.S. Department of Energy prepares for demolition and cleanup work at the nuclear weapons plant.

DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, expects to complete demolition and cleanup work at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, in 2020. It will then focus on the large-scale demolition work at Y-12.

Among the Y-12 buildings that could be demolished are Alpha 4, Alpha 5, and Beta 4, all large buildings where mercury, a toxic metal, was once used. The buildings used mercury to separate lithium for nuclear weapons. The lithium separation operations started in 1955 and ended in 1963.

But before that cleanup work can begin, OREM needs the Mercury Treatment Facility. The plant was first announced at a press conference featuring U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, about four years ago, in May 2013.

“This water treatment plant is a major step in addressing one of the biggest problems we have from the Cold War era—mercury once used to make nuclear weapons getting into our waterways,” Alexander said at the time. [Read more…]

STEM Stories inspires budding scientists, mathematicians

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Erin Webb, agricultural engineer at ORNL, answers a question from a student at ORAU Stem Stories on Thursday, April 20, 2017. (Photo by ORAU)

Erin Webb, agricultural engineer at ORNL, answers a question from a student at ORAU STEM Stories on Thursday, April 20, 2017. (Photo by ORAU)

 

Real-life scientists discuss their work, share advice with students interested in pursuing STEM careers

Be kind and show up every day.

That’s the advice Erin Webb, an agricultural engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory gave to young people during ORAU’s second STEM Stories event on Thursday, April 20. STEM Stories gives students interested in STEM careers the opportunity to learn from and interact with scientists working in the region.

Webb works in bioenergy, specifically focused on finding solutions for transporting and storing large quantities of biomass like feedstocks for commercial use so it can be converted to energy. She was joined by Jibo Sanyal, a computer scientist at ORNL whose work focuses on geo-computing, which he described as using computers to solve problems like long-term weather concerns, the resilience of environments and more.

Webb told the 30 students and their parents gathered for the event that while STEM careers are all about math and science, they should never forget to factor in the people they work with. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. [Read more…]