Oak Ridge Today

Attempted murder charge dismissed, woman pleads guilty to aggravated assault

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Treasure Sheitel Threat

Treasure Sheitel Threat

An attempted murder charge was dismissed, and an Oak Ridge woman pleaded guilty to aggravated assault this month.

Treasure Sheitel Threat, 30, had been indicted on charges of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in October 2013. She was accused of stabbing Kingston resident Stanley Wallace in the stomach in his car at the intersection of Robin Lane and Raleigh Road on July 27, 2012, after an argument in Grove Center.

Arrest warrants filed in 2012 said another woman had summoned Threat to Grove Center, but she forgot that Wallace and Threat didn’t like each other. [Read more…]

Learn more about Oak Ridge, bike with a park ranger on Saturday

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Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge

Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge

 

You can join a park ranger for a bike ride down Melton Lake Greenway on Saturday.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge, will present a free program on Saturday, March 25, at 10 a.m. The program will begin at Elza Gate Park, former entry point to the Secret City, and continue down Melton Lake Greenway. Rangers will stop several times along the bike ride to point out the rich history that is found within the Oak Ridge area, a press release said.

Elza Gate Park is located at 101 Oak Ridge Turnpike in east Oak Ridge. If you need directions, maps are available at the National Park desk in the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, or you can call (865) 576-6767. [Read more…]

With WIPP re-opening, DOE Oak Ridge plans to start shipping transuranic waste again

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An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that has been shut down for more than three years after a salt truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. (Photo by DOE Oak Ridge Office)

An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that was shut down for about three years after a salt haul truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. (Photo by DOE Oak Ridge Office)

 

An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that was shut down for about three years after a salt haul truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge.

Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico, according to the DOE Oak Ridge Office.

The shipments to be accepted starting in April will be the first received at the facility since the fire and radiological release in February 2014, WIPP said. There was an official re-opening event on Monday, January 9, with remarks by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and members of the New Mexico congressional delegation.

Since the closure three years ago, Oak Ridge workers have continued processing waste and developed innovative storage solutions until shipping can resume to WIPP, said Ben Williams, spokesperson for the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

Oak Ridge Today last reported on TRU waste in December 2015, when North Wind Solutions took over the operation of the Transuranic Waste Processing Center, which is south of Bethel Valley Road on Highway 95 in southwest Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

DOE addresses high-risk facilities in Oak Ridge

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Excess facilities at Oak Ridge's Y-12 National Security Complex are marked in red. (Image by DOE)

Excess facilities at Oak Ridge’s Y-12 National Security Complex are marked in red. (Image by DOE)

 

A new initiative by the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management is improving safety and preparing two of the federal sites—Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex—for cleanup and modernization, officials said. The initiative is an excess contaminated facilities initiative.

The congressionally funded cleanup initiative was stimulated by a report to Congress by the Governmental Accountability Office. The report noted that the U.S. Department of Energy designated more than 2,300 of its facilities as “excess,” meaning they’re not operating and no longer serve the department’s missions.

“Many of these facilities pose high risk from contamination and deteriorating structural integrities due to their age and the limited resources to maintain them,” the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM, said in a story published January 31.

The Office of Environmental Management said more than a quarter of all DOE’s high-risk excess facilities are in Oak Ridge at either ORNL or Y-12. Y-12 has 90 excess facilities to address while ORNL has more than 200, DOE EM reported. [Read more…]

DOE finishes demolishing another building at ETTP

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Building K-731 at East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge, is pictured above during demolition. (Photo by DOE)

Building K-731 at East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge, is pictured above during demolition. (Photo by DOE)

 

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and its cleanup contractor have finished demolishing another building at East Tennessee Technology Park, or ETTP, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.

The work is part of an effort to advance toward Vision 2020, a goal to complete cleanup at ETTP by 2020 and continue transferring the remaining land to private industry, benefiting the regional economy, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM, said in a story published February 28.

The latest progress involves the removal of Building K-731. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, and cleanup contractor URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, or UCOR, began demolishing Building K-731 on August 30, moments after taking down the final pieces of Building K-27 and fulfilling Vision 2016. That was Oak Ridge’s ambitious goal to be the world’s first to successfully remove all of its former uranium enrichment facilities by the end of 2016. [Read more…]

DOE: Roof repairs lower future cleanup costs at Alpha 4 at Y-12

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Workers perform repairs on Alpha 4’s four-acre roof at Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo by DOE/Y-12)

Workers perform repairs on Alpha 4’s four-acre roof at Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo by DOE/Y-12)

 

By DOE Office of Environmental Management

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management recently finished repairs to an aging Y-12 National Security Complex building as part of an initiative that is designed to improve safety, reduce cleanup costs, lower risks, and stabilize excess facilities that are contaminated and are expected to be demolished.

Maintaining the roofs of aging, contaminated facilities prevents water damage, the greatest threat to rapid deterioration and the spread of contamination. These factors create a more hazardous environment for future demolition crews that must enter the facility, and they increase the cost of cleanup exponentially.

“We are applying lessons we’ve learned from previous cleanup projects,” said Jay Mullis, acting manager of Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM. “Buildings that are neglected cause cleanup to be much more costly and complicated. Performing smaller tasks like this one to maintain facilities will create considerable savings by the time we begin major demolition at Y-12.” [Read more…]

DOE works to remove risks, prepare excess buildings for demolition at ORNL, Y-12

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Workers remove combustible items from the Homogenous Reactor Experiment facility, or Building 7500, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which allowed the building’s heat detection system to be deactivated. (Photo by DOE)

Workers remove combustible items from the Homogenous Reactor Experiment facility, or Building 7500, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which allowed the building’s heat detection system to be deactivated. (Photo by DOE/ORNL)

 

By DOE Office of Environmental Management

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management and its cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge are taking steps to remove risks and help prepare excess facilities for eventual demolition at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Oak Ridge is home to more than 350 excess facilities totaling more than six million square feet. Many of them are several decades old.

Alan Stokes, associate director for the Planning and Execution Division in Oak Ridge’s Environmental Management, or EM, program, said during a panel discussion this month at the 2017 Waste Management Symposium in Phoenix that Oak Ridge has more than a quarter of the “higher-risk” excess facilities in the entire DOE inventory. [Read more…]

Two international events proposed for 75th anniversary of DOE, Oak Ridge

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ORHPA Logo

The Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association has proposed that the U.S. Department of Energy and the City of Oak Ridge host two international events during their 75th anniversary.

The events are: (a) an exhibit on the international scientific progress made during the seven decades since World War II and (b) a remembrance of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with special invitations going to representatives of the 25 countries that suffered the highest casualties during the war, a press release said.

Both the U.S. Department of Energy nuclear complex and the City of Oak Ridge were born in the turbulent year following the Pearl Harbor attack (1942) as part of President Roosevelt’s massive—and super-secret—effort to build the first atomic bomb, the press release said.

“Including these two events in this year’s anniversary would showcase DOE’s important contributions to mankind and enhance international understanding and cooperation,” said Martin McBride, who heads the ORHPA committee on the proposal. “It would also honor all who fell during World War II.” [Read more…]

Man allegedly armed with rifle when police respond pleads to simple assault

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Robert Eugene Foreman

Robert Eugene Foreman

The man allegedly armed with a rifle when the Oak Ridge Police Department responded to a family disturbance on Norton Road in January has pleaded guilty to simple assault.

Robert E. Foreman III, 37, had initially been charged with aggravated assault.

A warrant filed by Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Chris Luethge said police responded to the family disturbance at a home on Norton Road at about 6:19 p.m. Thursday, January 12. Luethge and the victim, ORPD Officer Daniel Freytag, were approaching the front door of the home when Freytag said, “He’s got a rifle,” according to the warrants.

“Officer Freytag stated, through the front door, he saw the defendant, Robert E. Foreman III, who shouted at him angrily and ran into the bedroom and returned with a rifle,” the warrant said. “He stated that the defendant stood in the front door, armed with the rifle, and racked the bolt of the rifle and demanded: ‘Get off my property.'”

Fearing for his life, Freytag began retreating from the front door, seeking cover, “believing he was in immediate danger from the defendant,” the warrant said. [Read more…]

CNS announces employee-directed community grants

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A grant from the CNS Y-12 Community Investment Fund has been awarded to Oak Ridge Schools to provide additional opportunities for at-risk students to engage in reading instruction. (Photo by Y-12)

A grant from the CNS Y-12 Community Investment Fund has been awarded to Oak Ridge Schools to provide additional opportunities for at-risk students to engage in reading instruction. (Photo by Y-12)

 

$125,000 invested in local nonprofits across East Tennessee

Twenty-nine nonprofits from across East Tennessee have received a total of $125,000 in grants from the Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, or CNS, Y-12 Community Investment Fund. The recipients were announced this month at a reception at the New Hope Center at Y-12 National Security Complex.

The CNS Y-12 Community Investment Fund is managed by the East Tennessee Foundation, and it was created in 2014 by CNS. CNS manages and operates the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, where a similar fund is managed by the Amarillo Area Foundation, a press release said.

At Y-12, a committee made up of CNS employees reviewed dozens of grant proposals, conducted staff interviews, and made site visits before recommending funding based on the committee’s four focus areas:  education, senior citizens, veterans, and youth. [Read more…]

TBI seeks public’s help finding missing teen, offers reward

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Elizabeth Thomas Amber Alert

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation continues to seek the public’s help in finding a teenager missing from Middle Tennessee, and the agency is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of the teacher who is suspected of kidnapping her.

“Efforts to locate missing high school freshman Elizabeth Thomas remain active and ongoing as the concern about her relationship with former teacher Tad Cummins—and his intentions for her—only heighten the urgency surrounding this ongoing AMBER Alert in Tennessee and Alabama,” the TBI said Saturday.

Thomas, 15, disappeared on Monday, March 13, and she is believed to have been kidnapped by 50-year-old Tad Cummins, a former teacher at her school in Maury County, Tennessee, the TBI said. Cummins has been added to the state’s “Top 10 Most Wanted” list.

On Tuesday, the school district in Maury County terminated Cummins in the wake of an ongoing investigation into alleged inappropriate contact he had with Thomas at the school earlier this year, the TBI said.

Maury County is south of Nashville. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge home owner shares energy efficiency success story

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MORE2 Logo“I have won the lottery!” That is an emotional response from one Oak Ridge homeowner who recently received a Make Oak Ridge Energy Efficient, or MORE2, home energy makeover.

Ronald Jackson, an Oak Ridge resident for nearly 50 years, said he “could not believe my luck in finding this program.” Jackson, who has lived in his home for 10 years, learned about the MORE2 program from a poster while visiting the Oak Ridge Library and decided it was worth a try to apply. His application was approved, and in recent months, his home has received a new HVAC unit as well as new duct work and insulation—all at no cost to Jackson.

“This program is so wonderful I want to tell everyone about it!” Jackson said in a press release.

The program responsible for his enthusiasm is called MORE2, and it is helping Oak Ridgers lower their home energy use and their electric bills, the press release said. [Read more…]