Oak Ridge Today

Mullis, who led Oak Ridge cleanup, now working at DOE HQ

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Jay Mullis

Jay Mullis, who has led Oak Ridge’s federal cleanup program for more than five years, is now working in U.S. Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Mullis became the acting associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and policy affairs on November 1. He will serve in that position until it is filled. He replaces Mark Gilbertson, who retired from federal service at the end of October.

With Mullis going to Washington, D.C., Laura Wilkerson has been named acting manager for the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM).

As manager of cleanup work in Oak Ridge, Mullis has been responsible for an annual budget of more than $650 million that supports environmental cleanup and stewardship, decontamination and decommissioning, waste processing and management, surveillance and maintenance programs, historic preservation, and procurement and contract functions, according to DOE.

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DOE, state pave way to transfer 3,500 acres

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From left, TWRA Executive Director Bobby Wilson, Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management Acting Manager Laura Wilkerson, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Site Office Manager Johnny Moore sign an agreement that lays the groundwork to transfer more than 3,500 acres of scenic East Tennessee land from the U.S. Department of Energy to the state of Tennessee. (Submitted photo)

More than 3,500 acres of federal land could be transferred to the state of Tennessee, including Clark Center Park and Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement.

The land could be transferred under an agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. The two organizations signed an Agreement in Principle on Wednesday, December 15, that “lays the groundwork to transfer more than 3,500 acres of scenic East Tennessee land to the state,” a press release said.

NNSA purchases LeMond building

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LeMond-Composites-Building-Aug-30-2016-2-Web
The National Nuclear Security Administration has purchased the LeMond Carbon building at Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge. The building is pictured above in August 2016.

Note: This story was updated at 9:45 a.m. Dec. 30 to correct that the NNSA has purchased the LeMond building.

The National Nuclear Security Administration has purchased a building in west Oak Ridge that has been the site of two major industrial announcements, one by CVMR and the other by LeMond Composites. Both projects had promised at least $125 million in investments and hundreds of jobs, but neither has proceeded as expected.

Hubbard named deputy for science, technology at ORNL

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Susan Hubbard has been named deputy for science and technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo credit: Berkeley Lab)

Susan Hubbard, an acclaimed scientific leader and researcher, has been named deputy for science and technology at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Her appointment will be effective March 1.

“Dr. Hubbard brings skilled and passionate leadership that will enable world-leading impact across our portfolio,” ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia said in a press release. “She is a true champion of the DOE mission, the national laboratory system, and our responsibility to leverage powerful user facilities and multidisciplinary teams in the national interest.”

Hubbard joins ORNL from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she most recently served as associate laboratory director of Berkeley Lab’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Area, leading efforts to find solutions to sustainably meet the water, energy, critical mineral, environmental quality, and food needs of a growing population, the press release said. In addition to her current role, she is a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab and a full professor adjunct in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California at Berkeley.

“It is a profound honor and privilege to be named as the deputy for science and technology at ORNL,” Hubbard said. “ORNL has a stunning breadth, depth, and history of transformational fundamental science discoveries, technological advances, and innovative solutions to the most pressing challenges facing our nation. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to help shape the lab’s future and its contributions to the DOE mission.”

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Campbell retiring, Boatner to be new ETEC president

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Jim Campbell

Jim Campbell, president of the East Tennessee Economic Council, is retiring March 31 after serving as president for 26 years. ETEC’s vice president, Tracy Boatner, has been selected to replace him.

The leadership change was announced Friday morning by Buddy Heins, ETEC board chair.

“We thank Jim for his many years of consistent and effective guidance of ETEC,” Heins said in a press release. “The growth and influence of Jim and ETEC in Oak Ridge, East Tennessee, and beyond have been truly remarkable. I, along with the Executive Committee, look forward to Tracy’s leadership of the organization in the months and years to come.”

ETEC members met in person to celebrate the 2020 winners of the Muddy Boot Award and Postma Young Professional Medal, originally awarded virtually last December. Also announced was the date for ETEC’s 2021 Annual Meeting and Awards Celebration, which will be February 4. At this end-of-year celebration, both Campbell and Boatner spoke about the leadership change.

“This has been fun,” Campbell said. “The metamorphoses of this region over the last generation are a wonder, and there are only greater things in store for the Oak Ridge Corridor in the generation to come.”

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NNSA awards Y-12, Pantex contract

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

A contract worth $2.8 billion per year has been awarded to Nuclear Production One LLC to manage and operate the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced the contract award on Monday.

NPOne is a limited liability company that consists of Fluor Federal Services Incorporate and AECOM Energy and Construction, an Amentum company, a press release said.

“For over 40 years, the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas has been the nation’s primary nuclear weapon assembly, disassembly, and life-extension center,” NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby said in the press release. “The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has been strengthening our national security and reducing the global threat from weapons of mass destruction since 1943. I look forward to NPOne helping us accomplish our mission.”

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Granholm learns about ORNL wireless charging, seawater batteries

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U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, second from right, talks about the infrastructure bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden and the Build Back Better Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives during a visit to GRID-C at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021. Also pictured from right are ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia; U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, whose district includes Oak Ridge; and Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory shared their intriguing studies of wireless charging and seawater batteries, among other novel projects, with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm during a tour on Monday.

Granholm was in East Tennessee to highlight the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which passed Congress and was signed into law by President Joe Biden on November 15, and the president’s Build Back Better agenda, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week but hasn’t been approved by the Senate yet.

Ten ORNL scientists among world’s most highly cited researchers

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Submitted photo)

Ten scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory are among the world’s most highly cited researchers, according to a bibliometric analysis conducted by the scientific publication analytics firm Clarivate. 
 
The annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their field through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. These researchers authored publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index. 
 
“Researchers at ORNL are leading the advancement of scientific knowledge in multiple fields,” ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia said in a press release. “This recognition demonstrates that the laboratory and our scientists are engaged in cutting-edge research and development to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.” 
 
The ORNL scientists listed are:

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Summit at ORNL still No. 2 supercomputer

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The Summit supercomputer, an IBM system that is the world’s second-most powerful, is pictured above at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo courtesy Katie Bethea/ORNL)

The Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory remained the fastest system in the United States and the second-most powerful in the world in the biannual TOP500 list released Monday.

Fugaku in Kobe, Japan, remained No. 1, where it has been since June 2020. The 442-petaflop system has been at the top of the list four consecutive times.

General Fusion locating U.S. headquarters in Oak Ridge

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General Fusion Corporation will locate its U.S. headquarters in Oak Ridge as the company advances plans for a commercial pilot plant, Tennessee officials and company executives announced Wednesday.

The headquarters decision was announced Wednesday by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe, and General Fusion Corporation executives.

General Fusion Corporation is based in Vancouver, Canada. The company says fusion could provide a carbon-free power source that would meet the growing global energy demand while fighting climate change.

The U.S.-based subsidiary of General Fusion Incorporated will initially invest $539,000 and create 20 new jobs in Anderson County during the next five years, a press release said. It’s the first private fusion company to establish an office in Tennessee, General Fusion said. The new headquarters in Oak Ridge will be near Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a science and energy lab that is home to the U.S. ITER program. ITER is an experimental fusion device being built in southern France through an international collaboration and planned to be the first such device to produce net energy.

In Oak Ridge, General Fusion said it will collaborate with “world-leading fusion scientists and tap into key engineering talent.”

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Mercury cleanup: COLEX equipment deactivated at Y-12

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Oak Ridge workers remove mercury and mercury-contaminated solids from process pipes in the column exchange, or COLEX, equipment at the Alpha-4 facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Submitted photo)

Crews are nearly finished deactivating the second of three collections of old, mercury-contaminated equipment around the Alpha-4 facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge, a press release said.

The project addresses potential environmental risks and moves the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management a step closer to preparing one of Y-12’s largest high-risk contaminated facilities for demolition, the press release said.

The column exchange, or COLEX, structures are connected to the four-story 500,000-square-foot Alpha-4 building, which was used for uranium separation from 1944 to 1945. Workers finished installing the COLEX equipment in 1955 for lithium separation, a process that required large amounts of mercury. A significant amount of the mercury was lost into the equipment, buildings, and surrounding soils, and its cleanup is one of EM’s top priorities.

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Security professionals at Oak Ridge, Amarillo honored

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Safeguards and Security personnel from Y-12 National Security Complex, the Pantex Plant, and the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Production Office were recently honored with 2020 Nuclear Security Enterprise security awards, a press release said.

The winners included Willis Ray, Dwayne Cunningham, and Ramiro Alaniz from Pantex; Kevin Mattern from Y-12; and Tim Alvarado, Blaine Westlake, and Dan Reeves of NPO.

Alaniz, Alvarado, Cunningham, Mattern, and Reeves were recognized as members of the NNSA 2020 Security Team of the Year. They were among 23 members of the Design Basis Threat Implementation Team, which was made up of contractors and federal personnel from every site in the NSE, plus the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Security Policy, who received this award, the press release said.

The Design Basis Team team finished the most comprehensive analysis of security risk ever completed in support of the U.S. DOE/NNSA mission, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, the release said.

“The team’s work resulted in security analysis that is more consistent, transparent, and understandable than ever before,” it said.

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