Submitted photo
The Roane County Democrats are sponsoring the annual East Tennessee Democrats’ Labor Day Picnic on Monday, September 4.
The picnic is scheduled from 12-3 p.m. at the Roane County Park on Highway 70.
Candidates for office will speak, organizers said. The picnic will include free food and a petting zoo for children.
This press release was submitted by Sherry Paris.
Workers clean 5,700 feet of piping on Alpha 4’s west side at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. Alpha 4 was built in 1944. It was used first for enriching uranium as part of the Manhattan Project and later for thermonuclear weapons production. It was shut down in 1987 and will be demolished. (Photo by U.S. Department of Energy)
Note: This story was last updated at 3:20 p.m. September 4.
The U.S. Department of Energy is responsible for more than 80 percent of the U.S. government’s estimated $450 billion in environmental liabilities, a federal agency said in a report published this year.
The agency, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, added the government’s environmental liabilities to a high-risk list of federal programs and operations in a report published in February.
Total environmental liabilities for the federal government are estimated at $447 billion. DOE is responsible for about $372 billion of them, or 83 percent, according to a fiscal year 2016 estimate, the GAO said.
Most of DOE’s environmental liability is related to nuclear waste cleanup, the GAO said. Fifty percent of it is at two cleanup sites: the Hanford Site in Washington state and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The GAO—an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress—said DOE’s total reported environmental liability has generally increased since 2000. It’s roughly doubled from a low of $176 billion in fiscal year 1997 to the higher estimate of $372 billion in fiscal year 2016.
“In the last six years alone, EM (environmental management) has spent $35 billion, primarily to treat and dispose of nuclear and hazardous waste and construct capital projects to treat the waste, while EM’s portion of the environmental liability has grown over this same time period by over $90 billion, from $163 billion to $257 billion,” the GAO said.
In the past few fiscal years, DOE environmental management has spent about $6 billion per year. The budget request submitted to Congress by President Donald Trump in May asked for $6.5 billion for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, the largest request in a decade.
Oak Ridge has a DOE environmental management program. It received more than $400 million in funding per fiscal year between 2013 and 2016. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management has major cleanup projects at the East Tennessee Technology Park (the former K-25 site), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Y-12 National Security Complex. Cleanup work depends upon funding, but it could continue into the mid-2040s. Although they might be in various stages, projects that are under way now include finishing demolition work at ETTP by 2020, disposing of uranium-233 at ORNL, addressing high-risk excess facilities at ORNL and Y-12, building a Mercury Treatment Facility at Y-12, and shipping transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. [Read more…]
The Anderson County Republican Party will have a Republican Candidates’ Forum in Oak Ridge on Thursday.
The forum is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, September 7, at Anderson County General Sessions Court, Division II, at 101 Bus Terminal Road in Oak Ridge, a press release said.
“The Anderson County Republican Party has elected primaries to welcome growth and opportunity into the party,” the press release said. “Candidates running as a Republican must adhere to the standards and practices of the Republican Party. The Republican Party is an earned label, not a charitable distribution of the representation that it holds. In addition, the Tennessee Republican Party is not a public entity. It is to be revered and respected. The name, logo, reference and (R) belong to the party. Therefore, the state party is required to list the candidate as an approved ‘bona fide Republican.'” [Read more…]
U.S. Department of Justice
KNOXVILLE—On Thursday, Szuhsiung Ho, also known as Allen Ho, 66, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan to serve 24 months in prison and one year of supervised release. Upon his release, he will be supervised by U.S. Probation for one year. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $20,000.
Ho pleaded guilty in January 2017 to conspiracy to unlawfully engage or participate in the production or development of special nuclear material outside the United States, without the required authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy, in violation of the Atomic Energy Act, a press release said.
An April 2016 indictment charged Ho; China General Nuclear Power Company (CGNPC), the largest nuclear power company in China; and Energy Technology International (ETI), a Delaware corporation, with these offenses. At the time of his indictment, Ho was a nuclear engineer, employed as a consultant by CGNPC, and he was also the owner of ETI. CGNPC specialized in the development and manufacture of nuclear reactors and was controlled by China’s State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the press release said. [Read more…]
Pictured above is early construction in 1942 on the K-25 plant in the left background with one of the original homes in the city that became Oak Ridge in the right foreground. (Photo by Ed Westcott courtesy U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office)
The City of Oak Ridge has formed a committee to help coordinate and circulate information about the city’s 75th Anniversary, which begins in September. Mayor Warren Gooch will lead a news conference on Thursday, August 31, where the city will announce plans for a year-long celebration of this milestone anniversary.
Several events are already on the calendar to help kick off the City’s 75th year. The Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association will present a lecture on September 15 titled “The Legacy of Place” by guest speaker Denise Kiernan, author of “The Girls of Atomic City” and “The Last Castle.” The Oak Ridge Fire Department plans to host “Then and Now,” a 1940s-era Fire Prevention Parade along Oak Ridge Turnpike on October 7.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex will celebrate the anniversaries of their respective beginnings as well. The festivities will continue through the end of 2018. Additional events will be announced as they are confirmed, a press release said. [Read more…]
An ash tree is pictured above in Oak Ridge. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)
The Oak Ridge Tree Board is hosting a workshop focused on the impact of the emerald ash borer in the area. The event, scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, August 29, will provide important information regarding the emerald ash borer for property owners, landscapers, and others involved in the maintenance of green spaces, a press release said.
Ash trees make up a significant percentage of the urban forest in the area and have traditionally been a landscaping staple. Many of these trees in Oak Ridge are already dead or beyond treatment, but a significant number can be saved. At the workshop this evening, experts from around the area will address issues that include the identification of affected ash trees and responses to emerald ash borer infestation, including appropriate treatment. [Read more…]
Craigh Fitzhugh
Craig Fitzhugh, a Democratic candidate for Tennessee governor, is visiting Oak Ridge this evening.
Fitzhugh will have a meet and greet from 7 to 8 p.m. today (Tuesday, August 29) at Razzleberry’s Ice Cream Lab and Café at 223 Jackson Square in Oak Ridge. The event is being sponsored by the Anderson County Democratic Party, a press release said. The public is invited.
“‘People Matter,’ the campaign slogan of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Craig Fitzhugh, ties together the very essence of why he has thrown his hat into the race for governor in 2018,” the press release said. “It connects voter concerns from across the state.”
When asked why he chose “People Matter” as his slogan, Fitzhugh said he’s concerned Tennessee is falling behind, citing education, jobs, infrastructure, and health care, particularly the expansion of Medicaid as top issues, the press release said.
“The problems and the situations that people in North Nashville and south Memphis find themselves in are not much different than those in Ripley, or Columbia or Etowah, or other communities,” Fitzhugh said. “There are things that we can do to give people an opportunity to better their lives.” [Read more…]
Mark O’Gorman
Mark J. O’Gorman, professor of political science at Maryville College, will be the guest speaker at the Monday, August 28, meeting of the Anderson County Democratic Women’s Club. The club will host a pot luck dinner at 6 p.m. in the Club Room of the Clinton Community Center at 101 South Hicks Street in Clinton.
O’Gorman, who coordinates the environmental studies program and is on the college’s sustainability studies faculty, will discuss how reapportionment and redistricting will impact future elections.
He teaches about campaigns and elections, public policy, and environmental politics, a press release said. The professor provides political analysis and was the in-studio analyst for election night 2016 coverage by WUOT-FM. He has written book chapters on the presidential campaigns of presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. [Read more…]
Warren Gooch
Oak Ridge will begin its 75th Anniversary Celebration in September, a press release said.
Oak Ridge Mayor Warren L. Gooch announced Thursday that the city will form a committee to help coordinate and circulate information about the 75th anniversary, the press release said.
The 75th anniversary festivities will begin in September and continue through the end of 2018, the release said.
Among the planned events are a lecture presented by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association on September 15, 2017, titled “The Legacy of Place” by guest speaker Denise Kiernan, author of “The Girls of Atomic City” and “The Last Castle.”
The Oak Ridge Fire Department plans to host “Then and Now,” a 1940s-era Fire Prevention Parade along Oak Ridge Turnpike on October 7, 2017.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex will celebrate the anniversaries of their respective beginnings as well, the press release said. [Read more…]
The agenda has been finalized for the Nuclear Suppliers Workshop in September that will be hosted by the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council and the East Tennessee Economic Council.
On September 6-7, companies interested in being part of the supply chain and searching for manufacturing opportunities around small modular reactors, next generation nuclear technology, nuclear medicine, and national security programs are invited to attend the Nuclear Suppliers Workshop at Pollard Technology Conference Center in Oak Ridge.
Thomas Zacharia, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be the keynote speaker, a press release said. The Tennessee Valley Authority, NuScale Power, Duke Energy, AMS Corporation, Teledyne Brown Engineering, and others will also present. [Read more…]
Anderson County Solid Waste Management and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation are sponsoring a Household Hazardous Waste Collection event on Saturday, September 16.
The collection is scheduled between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Oak Ridge Central Services Complex located at 100 Woodbury Lane (behind the Hobby Lobby shopping center). This is a state-sponsored household hazardous waste event and is open to all residents of Tennessee, a press release said.
Household hazardous waste is considered anything that is generated in the household that has a hazardous property. Examples include household disinfectants, drain cleaners, adhesives, pesticides, old gasoline, and pool chemicals. A material is considered hazardous if it is flammable, corrosive, toxic, or reactive with heat or contact with metals, the press release said. [Read more…]
A previous Memory Magic scrapbook event at the Oak Ridge Civic Center. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)
The Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department is sponsoring the 12th Annual Memory Magic scrapbook event at the Oak Ridge Civic Center on Friday, September 22, and Saturday, September 23.
The event will include vendors and a large crop area, but there is limited seating, a press release said. Online registration is under way and will continue through Wednesday, September 20. Walk-in registration is also available during business hours at the Civic Center front desk.
The crop area will open at 8 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. each day. Participants will receive a crop space, an event tote, light snacks during the evening hours, and tickets for prize drawings, the press release said. The cost to crop is $30 for one day or $50 for both days. [Read more…]
