Government Archives - Page 92 of 322

Trump nominates finance executive for DOE under secretary for science

Posted at 3:08 pm July 12, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Image by U.S. Department of Energy

President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Paul Dabbar of New York, an investment banking executive at J.P. Morgan, to be under secretary for science in the U.S. Department of Energy.

Dabbar is managing director for mergers and acquisitions for J.P. Morgan, and he has more than $400 billion in investment experience across all energy sectors, according to a statement posted by the White House Office of the Press Secretary on Tuesday. Those energy sectors include solar, wind, geothermal, distributed-generation, utility, LNG, pipeline, oil and gas, trading, and energy technology, the statement said. Dabbar has also led the majority of all nuclear transactions.

Before joining J.P. Morgan, Dabbar served as a nuclear submarine officer in Mare Island, California, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and he was deployed to the North Pole, where he conducted environmental research, the statement said.

Dabbar currently serves on the U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management Advisory Board.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Dabbar would succeed Franklin “Lynn” Orr in the post. Orr left the job January 20, Inauguration Day, after serving as DOE’s first under secretary for science and energy. Orr started serving as under secretary on December 17, 2014. [Read more…]

President’s budget would close NOAA lab that has Oak Ridge division

Posted at 12:43 pm July 12, 2017
By John Huotari 4 Comments

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division on South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge is pictured above on Tuesday, July 11, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Note: This story was last updated at 9:20 a.m. July 13.

The Trump administration’s budget request for the next fiscal year would close a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration air research laboratory that has a division in Oak Ridge, according to budget documents posted online.

The budget request for fiscal year 2018, which starts October 1, would close NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory, or ARL, which has headquarters in College Park, Maryland. The Air Resources Laboratory has satellite campuses in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Mercury, Nevada. Those satellite campuses would also close, according to the documents, which were posted by the NOAA Budget Office.

The Oak Ridge campus is on South Illinois Avenue, in a historic building that was once an emergency hospital and then a health department. It now houses the Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, or ATDD. The Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division is one of several field divisions of the Air Resources Laboratory. The ARL in turn is part of NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

There are 33 employees at the Oak Ridge campus, including NOAA and ORAU workers. The primary focus of the ATDD is to maintain NOAA’s Climate Reference Network, a network of weather stations across the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, to monitor climate change.

The Oak Ridge division also works with other NOAA groups that study the formation of tornadoes, using unmanned aerial vehicles to understand tornado formation. It also works with the Air Resources Laboratory headquarters on air quality modeling and forecasting.

The NOAA budget request, which has not been approved by Congress, proposes zeroing out funding and employment at the Air Resources Laboratory, cutting base funding from about $4.7 million and 34 full-time equivalents (FTE) to $0 and zero FTE. President Donald Trump submitted his administration’s budget request to Congress on Tuesday, May 23. [Read more…]

Emerald ash borer could kill most ash trees, cost city about $660,000

Posted at 4:26 pm July 11, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Typical ash tree locations, plus color enhancements—Providence Road. (Images by City of Oak Ridge)

A pest known as the emerald ash borer could kill most ash trees in Oak Ridge, and the cost to treat or remove the trees that pose a threat to the city’s electric system has been estimated at $662,000, officials said.

The emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, is an exotic beetle that was discovered in southeastern Michigan near Detroit in the summer of 2002. The adult beetles nibble on ash foliage but cause little damage. The larvae (the immature stage) feed on the inner bark of ash trees, disrupting the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients.

The City of Oak Ridge said in May that ash trees in Oak Ridge are dead or dying due to the emerald ash borer. Once compromised by the beetle, the city said then, the trees pose a significant hazard to people, property, and power lines.

“The impact of this pest is extreme,” Oak Ridge Electric Director Jack L. Suggs said in a June 27 memo to City Manager Mark Watson. “We expect virtually 100 percent death of all ash trees in the city, with only trees receiving ongoing chemical treatment surviving. Many of these trees will impact our power lines, in addition to other public facilities such as parks and streets.”

A survey of the city’s electric power lines with help from University of Tennessee forestry interns this summer is evaluating the health of the trees and the probability that they might affect the electric system. The work is only about one-third complete, but officials estimate there could be about 1,000 to 1,200 trees that will need to be either treated or removed because of their potential to affect the city’s electric system, Suggs said. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge group sends delegation to Germany to address U.S. nuclear deployment

Posted at 12:03 pm July 11, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Ralph Hutchison

Members of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance will join peace activists from around the world in Büchel, Germany, from July 12-18 in protests at the Büchel Air Base to call for the withdrawal of the 20 U.S. B61 nuclear bombs that are currently deployed there, a press release said.

University of Tennessee student Carmella Cole, an OREPA Board member, and Ralph Hutchison, OREPA coordinator, will join nuclear abolition advocates from the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Belgium for a week of actions culminating in an international day of action on Sunday, July 16, the press release said.

“We have been invited to participate in this gathering because of the role the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex (the Y-12 National Security Complex) plays in the refurbishment of U.S. nuclear weapons,” Hutchison said in the press release. “Y-12 is currently making plans for the ‘life extension upgrade’ of the B61-Modification 12. The upgrade will result in a new, more threatening nuclear bomb, which will then be deployed in Büchel over the objections of the German Bundestag, which has voted, overwhelmingly, across all parties, for the removal of NATO nuclear weapons from German soil.” [Read more…]

Broadband working group meets this evening

Posted at 11:52 am July 11, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Anderson County Property Assessor Johnny Alley, left; County Mayor Terry Frank, center; and Deputy Property Assessor Billy Brown look at some of the areas in the Andersonville area lacking broadband service. (Submitted photo)

Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank is asking for interested Anderson County citizens to form a working group in advance of upcoming broadband opportunities made possible by newly passed legislation in Tennessee, a press release said.

Those who are interested can meet on Tuesday, July 11, at 6 p.m.in the conference room at the Anderson County Health Department, 710 North Main Street in Clinton.

Governor Bill Haslam and the Tennessee State Legislature passed the Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act that provides $45 million over three years in grants and tax credits for service providers to assist in making broadband available to unserved homes and businesses, in addition to allowing nonprofit electric cooperatives to provide retail broadband service, the press release said.

Guidance has not yet been released on the grant application process, but in the press release, Frank said she hopes a working group assembled prior to the release of grant guidance could help Anderson County be ready and prepared once grants are released. Frank also hopes the working group will serve as a forum for new ideas regarding connectivity in areas of the county where access is already available. [Read more…]

Negligence lawsuit of up to $10.5 million filed in car-trailer crash

Posted at 5:51 pm July 10, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Car-Trailer-Crash-Emory-Valley-Road-Sept-2-2016-1-Web

The crash between a car and trailer with a skid steer loader on it on Emory Valley Road on Friday evening, Sept. 2, 2016, happened after the trailer came loose from a truck hitch and crossed into an oncoming lane, where it hit the car, authorities said. It took firefighters and rescuers about 55 minutes to free the female driver pinned inside the car, and they used a tow truck to help lift the trailer and loader to take weight off the woman. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

A negligence lawsuit of up to $10.5 million was filed last month after a September 2 crash between a car and a trailer carrying a skid steer loader injured an Oak Ridge woman and pinned her inside her car for almost an hour before rescuers were able to free her and fly her to a trauma center in Knoxville.

Arminda “Mindy” Carter, a nurse who lives in Oak Ridge, was driving west on Emory Valley Road in her 2010 Toyota Camry at about 5:29 p.m. September 2, headed to her job at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, according to the legal complaint, which was filed in Anderson County Circuit Court in Clinton on June 2.

Headed the other way, toward the Oak Ridge Marina, was an eastbound 1994 GMC dump truck driven by Gerald D. Cureton, 71, of Knoxville. He was pulling a trailer with a CASE skid steer loader that weighed about 6,000 pounds, the complaint said.

As the two vehicles approached the intersection of Emory Valley Road and Carnegie Drive in east Oak Ridge, the trailer with the loader on it came off the hitch of the dump truck driven by Cureton, the complaint said.

“Once detached from the dump truck, the trailer and skid steer then crossed into the westbound lane of travel, where it violently collided with the plaintiff’s vehicle (the Camry driven by Carter),” the June 2 lawsuit said. “The trailer and skid steer came to rest on top of the plaintiff’s vehicle, leaving her trapped under its weight for nearly an hour as rescue workers scrambled to free her.”

The trailer carrying the skid steer loader did not have operational brakes or adequate safety chains, a violation of state law, according to the lawsuit. [Read more…]

Emergency preparedness exercise at Bull Run on Wednesday

Posted at 1:51 pm July 10, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Bull Run Fossil Plant in Claxton is pictured above. (File photo)

Emergency responders from state and local agencies will join Tennessee Valley Authority personnel in an emergency preparedness exercise involving the Bull Run Fossil Plant in Claxton on Wednesday, July 12.

The exercise is part of an ongoing series of training drills and exercises at TVA plants across the service area, a press release said.

“The exercise will involve personnel working in multiple locations, including at and near the plant,” the press release said. “Residents may see increased vehicle traffic and may hear on- and off-site sirens briefly activated.”

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Do you appreciate this story or our work in general? If so, please consider a monthly subscription to Oak Ridge Today. See our Subscribe page here. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.

Oak Ridge could set up committee to celebrate its 75th anniversary

Posted at 3:34 pm July 8, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Women enriching uranium in calutrons at Y-12 as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. The 75th anniversary of the city that became Oak Ridge and still includes Y-12 is Sept. 19, 2017. (Photo by Ed Westcott)

The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will consider setting up a committee to celebrate the city’s 75th anniversary.

Oak Ridge’s birthday has been recognized on September 19. That’s because the city that is now Oak Ridge was picked for the top-secret Manhattan Project on September 19, 1942, almost 75 years ago. That was the day that General Leslie Groves approved the acquisition of 59,000 acres of land along the Clinch River for what soon became the Manhattan Project, a federal program to build the world’s first atomic bombs, before Germany could. Oak Ridge was then 90 square miles of East Tennessee farmland. It was the first site for Manhattan Project facilities.

By the time President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized the Manhattan Project on December 28, 1942, work on the East Tennessee site where the first production facilities were to be built was already under way.

Oak Ridge became the home of two uranium enrichment plants (K-25 and Y-12), a liquid thermal diffusion plant (S-50), and a pilot plutonium production reactor (X-10 Graphite Reactor). Groves approved Oak Ridge as the site for the pilot plutonium plant and the uranium enrichment plant in 1942. Manhattan Project engineers had to quickly build a town to accommodate 30,000 workers—as well as build the enormously complex plants. [Read more…]

Council to consider contract to convert former railroad into greenway

Posted at 2:42 pm July 8, 2017
By John Huotari 6 Comments

The former CSX railway is pictured near Jefferson Middle School in central Oak Ridge on Dec. 30, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will consider a $1.5 million contract with the Tennessee Department of Transportation that would allow a former railroad to be converted into a greenway.

The so-called Rails to Trails project would convert about 4.85 miles of unused CSX railroad into a pedestrian and bicycle trail.

The former railroad starts at Elza Gate Park at Melton Lake Drive in east Oak Ridge, runs past the Emory Heights neighborhood and Jefferson Middle School, crosses Emory Valley Road near Hank’s Market, and then continues through the Hendrix Creek neighborhood along Lafayette Drive before ending near South Illinois Avenue, Scarboro Road, and the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) approved $1.224 million for the project in October 2016 through the Transportation Alternative Program, or TAP. There is a local match of $306,000. The combined funding from the TAP award and the local match is $1.53 million.

In an interview after the grant was awarded, Ellen Zavisca, senior transportation planner for the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization, said it’s federal funds disbursed in the area specifically for projects that provide safe places for bicycle and pedestrian projects. [Read more…]

President’s budget: DOE cleanup funding could be up, with benefits for Oak Ridge

Posted at 2:05 pm July 6, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Jay Mullis, front center, acting manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, talks about federal site cleanup work in Oak Ridge during a visit by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, left, on Monday, May 22, 2017. Pictured between Perry and Mullis are U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, both Tennessee Republicans. (Photo by DOE)

Note: This story was last updated at 4:30 p.m.

Cleanup funding could be up for the U.S. Department of Energy under the budget request from the Trump administration for fiscal year 2018, and there could be benefits for Oak Ridge, according to budget documents.

President Donald Trump submitted his budget request to Congress on Tuesday, May 23. In that request, the DOE Office of Environmental Management, or EM, asked for $6.5 billion, the largest request in a decade. That would be $290 million above fiscal year 2016.

The funding request for Oak Ridge includes $390 million, or $78 million below fiscal year 2016, to continue deactivation and demolition of remaining facilities at East Tennessee Technology Park, continue preparing Building 2026 to support the processing of the remaining U-233 material at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and to support activities for the Mercury Treatment Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex.

It’s not clear whether that $390 million in the funding request includes part of the $225 million in funding requested for high-risk excess contaminated facilities at Y-12 and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. It’s also not clear whether the total funding for Oak Ridge cleanup programs would be up or down, compared to previous years. The DOE public affairs office in Washington, D.C., has not responded to about a dozen budget-related inquiries from Oak Ridge Today since May 23.

Among the highlights of the EM request for Oak Ridge, according to budget documents posted online by DOE and an EM press release: [Read more…]

Reminder: Oak Ridge has fireworks tonight in A.K. Bissell Park

Posted at 11:43 am July 4, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge

A reminder: The City of Oak Ridge is once again sponsoring a fireworks show to celebrate Independence Day. The display will be held in Alvin K. Bissell Park on Tuesday, July 4, and it is scheduled to begin at dark, around 9:45 p.m.

The Oak Ridge Community Band, now in its 73rd year, will perform prior to the fireworks. The concert is free, but donations are accepted by the band to help cover the cost of equipment and other expenses. The music is expected to begin at 7:30 p.m.

Anyone planning to attend is advised to bring a lawn chair or blanket for outdoor seating. A safety zone will be established by the Oak Ridge Fire Department. Please sit only in the designated areas.

What: Independence Day Concert and Fireworks Display [Read more…]

While here in May, Secretary Perry made his first visit to UPF

Posted at 12:49 pm July 3, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Pictured above from left are Uranium Processing Facility Federal Project Director Dale Christenson, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, Secretary Rick Perry, Rep. Chuck Fleischman, and UPF Project Director Brian Reilly. (Photo by NNSA)

Note: This story was originally published by the National Nuclear Security Administration on May 24.

While he visited Oak Ridge in May, new Energy Secretary Rick Perry made his first visit to the planned Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex, a project that has been described as the single largest government investment in Tennessee since World War II.

Perry visited the UPF project with U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander and Representative Chuck Fleischmann, both Tennessee Republicans, and UPF Federal Project Director Dale Christenson and UPF Project Director Brian Reilly.

Christenson and Reilly provided an update on the project’s progress and discussed key upcoming milestones, including achieving 90 percent design by September 2017, the National Nuclear Security Administration said in a post published May 24. Y-12 is an NNSA site. [Read more…]

« Previous Page