Oak Ridge Today

Y-12 entrances closed due to ‘security situation’

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Y-12 National Security Complex Scarboro Road Entrance

The Scarboro Road entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above. (File photo/March 2014)

Note: This story was last updated at 10 a.m.

All entrances at the Y-12 National Security Complex have been closed due to a “security situation,” officials said Thursday morning.

Y-12 posted the announcement on social media.

“Entrance to the site will not be possible until further notice,” the announcement said.

A press release from the National Nuclear Security Administration said officials at Y-12 are responding to a law enforcement issue that has affected access to Y-12.

“The facility and its employees are safe and secure, and all entrances to the plant are closed,” the release said. [Read more…]

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of atomic bomb book gives lecture Thursday

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Richard Rhodes

Richard Rhodes

Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Making of the Atomic Bomb,” will be the featured speaker at a lecture in Oak Ridge on Thursday.

Rhodes will be the guest at the 18th Annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series on Thursday, October 22, at the American Museum of Science and Energy.

The title of his presentation is “The Light of New Fires: Energy Challenges Yesterday and Today.” This presentation is jointly sponsored as part of Nuclear Science Week in the Knoxville/Oak Ridge area by UT Battelle LLC, the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association, and Friends of ORNL. The event is free of charge and will be held at the American Museum of Science and Energy at 300 South Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Council to consider amending mall plan, inviting DOE to discuss travel practices

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Oak Ridge Mall

The Oak Ridge City Center, which could be redeveloped as a multi-use town center known as Main Street, is pictured above. Also known as the former Oak Ridge Mall, the L-shaped building is at center. The white building at center left is Walmart, and it is not part of the proposed redevelopment. Neither is the white building at center top, the Tinseltown Theater. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was updated at 12:35 p.m.

During a special meeting Tuesday, the Oak Ridge City Council will consider amending the economic impact plan for the redevelopment of the former Oak Ridge Mall. The change is being considered primarily because the master developer has changed.

The amendment to the economic impact plan, which also includes a date change, will be considered a day earlier, on Monday, October 19, by the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board and Anderson County Commission.

The Industrial Development Board has a public hearing and special meeting on the $13 million tax increment financing, or TIF, for the redevelopment and an amendment to the economic impact plan at 3:45 p.m. Monday, October 19, in the Oak Ridge Municipal Building Training Room. The County Commission is expected to consider the amendment in a meeting that starts at 6:30 p.m. Monday in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton. [Read more…]

UT, ORNL host academic-industry meeting on national lab partnerships

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

The University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will host more than 200 university leaders and heads of industry this week at the 21st General Meeting of the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership. UIDP21 will be held October 13-16 at the Hilton Downtown Knoxville and the ORNL campus.

UIDP21, an organization of 140 universities and companies, brings people from academia and industry together to have tactical conversations about innovation and research and development, a press release said.

Given the collaborative research and development relationship UT and ORNL enjoy, the focus of the Knoxville meeting is university-industry-national laboratory partnerships, the release said. Attendees will hear from speakers from seven of the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories, professors, and administrators from several prominent universities, and industry leaders. [Read more…]

Can a robot have a mind? Learn more Tuesday

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On Tuesday, October 13, Friends of ORNL will have a lunch meeting and an interesting program. This month, Bruce MacLennan of the University of Tennessee Electrical and Computer Science Department in Knoxville will speak on the topic “Can a Robot Have a Mind?”

This meeting is open to the public.

The meeting location in Oak Ridge will be at the UT Resource Center (the white-colored building at 1201 Oak Ridge Turnpike (State Highway 95) between Taco Bell and Applebee’s at the intersection of the Turnpike and Rutgers Avenue. Use the canopy entrance at the southwest (back) corner of the building.

The lunch begins at 11:30 a.m., and the presentation is at noon.

ORAU’s Phil Andrews named CFO of Year by Greater Knoxville Business Journal

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Phil Andrews

Phil Andrews

The Greater Knoxville Business Journal named ORAU Vice President and CFO Phil Andrews as 2015 CFO of the Year in its nonprofit/government category.

According to the Greater Knoxville Business Journal website, this designation, presented by the Knoxville Chapter of the Financial Executives International, recognizes chief financial officers from companies in the Greater Knoxville area who have made significant contributions to company growth, leadership and community involvement.

Since joining ORAU in 2007 as vice president of business operations and CFO, Andrews has managed the financial aspects of the organization’s dramatic revenue growth from $230 million in 2007 to nearly $360 million in 2014, representing unprecedented company growth of almost 60 percent, a press release said. The revenue projection for 2015 is $400 million, which will be ORAU’s best year ever. [Read more…]

ORNL, Strangpresse LLC sign additive manufacturing patent license agreement

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ORNL Manufacturing Demonstration Facility Entrance

New additive manufacturing technologies are being explored at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL. The MDF is on Hardin Valley Road in west Knox County. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Strangpresse LLC of Youngstown, Ohio, have signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement on a portfolio of ORNL patents related to large-scale additive manufacturing.

ORNL is leading advances in the production of large-scale 3-D printed materials, refining industrial processes to decrease costs and increase efficiency.

Under the agreement, Strangpresse, a Hapco Inc. affiliate, may make, use, or sell the lab’s patented developments of materials, processes and controls that enable the manufacture of parts much larger than current standards.

“We’re very pleased to be joining with ORNL to carry large-scale additive manufacturing technology to the marketplace,” said Strangpresse President Chuck George. “Our leadership team has over 70 years of experience in the thermoplastics extrusion industry, and we see this partnership as a great opportunity to expand this technology.” [Read more…]

Former nuclear physics teacher in OR to be inducted into TN Women’s Hall of Fame

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Elizabeth Rona

Elizabeth Rona

Elizabeth Rona, a former nuclear physics teacher at the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, will be inducted into the Tennessee Women’s Hall of Fame on Monday, October 26.

Before she immigrated to the United States, Rona was the first woman to teach chemistry in any university in Hungary.

Once in the U.S., she was on the frontlines of the discoveries of isotopes and fission, and later contributed to work in the Manhattan project. She later taught on theory and methods of nuclear physics at the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies.

Rona is one of two inductees to be honored posthumously. The ceremony will honor a total of eight women from all three grand divisions of the state (East, Middle, and West), including an astronaut, judge, and civil rights pioneer. [Read more…]

Small businesses invited to participate in DOE national lab vouchers pilot

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ORNL Industry Day Officials Sept. 24, 2015

David Danielson, left, DOE assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, is pictured above with officials at Industry Day at ORNL on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, when a 3D-printed vehicle and building were unveiled. Other officials include ORNL Director Thom Mason; U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann; Johnny Moore, ORNL Site Office manager; and David Milhorn, UT executive vice president. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Small businesses in the clean energy sector are invited to apply for assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories through the department’s new Small Business Vouchers Pilot.

David Danielson, DOE Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or EERE, announced the launch of the pilot website during EERE’s Industry Day event on Wednesday, September 23, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“Small businesses that are developing the new clean energy technologies that are needed to cut carbon pollution and create good-paying American jobs often lack the resources necessary to move their innovative ideas from the laboratory bench to the marketplace,” Danielson said. “The EERE Small Business Vouchers pilot is designed specifically to help small businesses bring next-generation clean energy technologies to the market faster by leveraging the world-class capabilities of our national laboratories to solve small businesses’ most pressing challenges.” [Read more…]

ORAU exceeds $100,000 in annual giving campaign for eighth year in a row

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ORAU 2015 Annual Giving Campaign

The 2015 ORAU Annual Giving Campaign Chair Arlene Garrison, pictured right, Co-Chair Don Hanlon, pictured left, and ORAU President and CEO Andy Page reveal ORAU’s combined giving total of $127,404.42. (Photo courtesy ORAU)

 

For the eighth year in a row, ORAU has broken the $100,000 mark in donations as part of the annual giving campaign for the United Way and Community Shares.

During a concluding ceremony on September 29 in the ORAU Pollard Technology Conference Center, ORAU President and Chief Executive Officer Andy Page announced the 2015 ORAU Annual Giving Campaign total donation amount: $127,404.42.

As part of the total donation, ORAU and its employees pledged $97,835.18 to the United Way and $29,569.24 to Community Shares.

Copyright 2015 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Signing ceremony for Manhattan Project park on Nov. 10 in DC

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Hanford B Reactor

The Hanford B Reactor (Photo courtesy Atomic Heritage Foundation)

 

By Atomic Heritage Foundation

The birthday of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge, is now set for November 10, 2015.

While the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act became law on December 19, 2014, the Act requires that the Departments of Energy and Interior reach an agreement within a year of enactment on their respective roles in implementing the new park. At that time, the park will be officially established.

We understand that the Departments of Energy and the National Park Service leaders are close to an agreement. Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz and Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell are scheduled to have a signing ceremony on Tuesday, November 10, in Washington, D.C.

The Manhattan Project Park Act passed after the National Park Service’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget was in place, so the funds available in 2016 for NPS’s work on the park are limited to $180,000.

NPS Associate Director Victor Knox talked about 2016 as a transitional year for the new park, as the Park Service assumes management and focuses on how best to interpret the story of the Manhattan Project. The Department of Energy and its laboratories have been funding a variety of activities this year and have developed a five-year budget plan for restoring and providing public access to its historic assets. [Read more…]

Radioactive components removed from former reactor at ORNL

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Group Photo Radioactive Components Reactor Pool

Federal and contractor employees who worked on the project to remove irradiated components from a reactor pool gather to watch the transport of the shipment offsite for disposition. (Photo courtesy DOE Office of EM)

 

Water was found seeping from a pool at a former reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory one year ago, and in August, workers removed four irradiated components from the pool that produced about 96 percent of the radiation, federal officials said Thursday.

The four irradiated components weigh about 200 pounds each, said the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM.

Water was found seeping from the reactor pool at the Oak Ridge Research Reactor during a routine inspection in September 2014. The facility, also known as Building 3042, is one of hundreds of Manhattan Project and Cold War-ear structures across the Oak Ridge Reservation monitored by the Oak Ridge Office of EM.

Nuclear research had not been conducted at the facility since 1988, but it still contained the highly irradiated components from those operations. The leak was causing the pool to lose the water that served as a protective, shielding agent for the irradiated components, officials said. [Read more…]