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U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, second from left, a Tennessee Republican, at a Friday morning press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, right; Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, center; and representatives Bill Foster and Dan Lipinski. (Submitted photo)
Lamar Alexander
Note: This story was last updated at 11:25 a.m.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory will have the world’s fastest next-generation supercomputer, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander announced at a Friday morning press conference with U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, said the new computer will provide five times the performance of Titan, the current system, and support advanced scientific and materials research to improve economic and national security.
The “next-generation hybrid supercomputer” will be called Summit, and it will be delivered in 2017, the senator said.
“Once again the world’s fastest computer will be in the United States, and once again it will be at Oak Ridge,†Alexander said. “Supercomputing has helped Tennessee become a center for advanced manufacturing with the arrival of new companies, including several in the auto industry, creating thousands of good-paying jobs. Tennessee can continue to thrive and create many more good jobs with the use of this new supercomputer.†[Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Fire Department responded to a small, intense electrical fire on Thursday morning at Toxco, a company that processes low-level radioactive waste. The fire was in a one-story metal building at the back of the company’s site on Flint Road.
Four workers were evaluated for minor respiratory issues and released after a small, intense electrical fire was reported at a company that repackages low-level radioactive waste in central Oak Ridge on Thursday morning, authorities said.
The fire at Toxco Materials Management Center on Flint Road was reported at about 11:03 a.m. Thursday. It was in a large one-story metal building at the back of the site, said Marty Griffith, Oak Ridge Fire Department battalion chief.
Electrical equipment inside the building was on fire, and the only way to put it out was to disconnect power, which the Oak Ridge Electric Department did, Griffith said. He said the area where the fire occurred is used to repackage waste, and it is fed by 440 volts of electricity.
Once the power was disconnected, firefighters were able to put out the fire with fire extinguishers. [Read more…]
A city board on Thursday ordered the demolition of this building on East Tyrone Road within 30 days. The Magic Wok restaurant, which is in a separate diner on the western side of the building, is not affected.
Note: This story was last updated at 12:55 p.m. Nov. 14.
Despite a plea for another extension, a city board on Thursday ordered that a commercial building on East Tyrone Road be demolished within 30 days. The demolition order does not apply to the popular Magic Wok restaurant, which is in a separate diner on the western side of the building.
The Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals had previously given the building owners more time to develop a repair or demolition plan, including a five-month extension in June. At Thursday’s meeting, board members suggested they hadn’t seen enough work take place since then.
“I’m seeing very little progress,†said board member Joe Lee, who made the motion to demolish within 30 days, which is what the city staff had requested. “This has been an ongoing issue for a decade or more.â€
The city staff said the partially occupied commercial structure has been declared unfit for human occupation or use because of code violations, and a demolition deadline expired Thursday. The staff said the estimated cost of repairs exceeds 50 percent of the building’s value, which is an important benchmark for issuing a demolition order. The staff has said the building is in a state of disrepair, lacks adequate fire and panic exits, and the roof and interior have not been adequately maintained for several years.
The motion to demolish the building at 123 and 135 East Tyrone Road was approved in a 6-0 vote on Thursday. Voting in favor of that motion were Chair Bruce LeForce, Vice Chair Philip Nipper, Secretary Amy Seiber, Lee, and board members Phil Yager and Leonar Vaughen. Board member Aaron Wells was not present. [Read more…]
The Arc Anderson County is hosting a mini-conference on intellectual and developmental disabilities for parents and teachers on Saturday.
The mini-conference is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, November 15, at Roane State Community College in Oak Ridge.
“This is a critical time in the history for our young adults transitioning out of high school,” a press release said. “Big changes are coming from the Department of Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities Services, and parents desperately need information to guide their loved ones through this transition.”
Here are some topics of interest: [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
Updating a story that WYSH Radio brought you last week, officials with the city of Clinton say they are awaiting a response from the Anderson County Mayor’s Office to their response to her request last week for e-mail and other electronic communications involving City Codes Officer Curtis Perez.
Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank requested all e-mails involving Perez and anyone in the County Public Works Office as it pertains to David Crowley, the director of Public Works for Anderson County. Crowley is under indictment for allegedly inspecting five homes without the proper certification, and that case has resulted in turmoil in the Anderson County Courthouse.
After the request was made last week in Clinton, officials decided to wait for guidance from the University of Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service, or MTAS, as to how to respond, and they placed Perez’s computer into the evidence room at the Clinton Police Department until they received that guidance. The city declined the request for records, saying that it was too vague, but indicated they would provide the desired information when they received a more specific request. [Read more…]
The City of Clinton’s annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony will be held on Friday, November 28—the day after Thanksgiving—at Hoskins Lane Park off of Market Street in downtown Clinton. The celebration will begin at 4:30 p.m. with face painting for children, hot chocolate, and cookies.
Music will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by remarks from Mayor Scott Burton and City Manager Roger Houck, and then the lighting of the city’s traditional Christmas tree.
Clinton’s annual Christmas Parade will be held on Saturday, December 13, at 6 p.m. in downtown Clinton. The grand marshals will be recently retired City Council members Charlie Lyons and Jerry Shattuck.
Information from WYSH Radio
Anderson County Commission Chairman Robert McKamey says he has been in regular contact with a project manager for CSX Railroad, and the repairs planned at the Johnson Gap Road Bridge are still expected to begin before the end of this month.
The bridge has been closed for almost a year and a half after state inspectors determined it was unsafe for travel. Residents and emergency responders have complained bitterly about the extra time that it now takes to get to and from Clinton from that part of Dutch Valley.
Earlier this year, the company gave the county two options for addressing the problem—replacing it at county expense or repairing it at theirs. The County Commission voted to let the company pay for repairing the bridge, and McKamey told WYSH Radio in Clinton that the project is slated to begin sometime in the second half of November and could be completed by the end of the year.
Remotely Operated Vehicles, or ROVS, are one of the tools used by ocean explorers. In this 2005 image, the (ROV) Hercules searches for deep sea fauna. (Photograph courtesy National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce)
Ocean exploration and climate change will be the topics of the next episode of “Classroom Under the Sea,” an online lecture series hosted by two educators living underwater for 73 days.
The live program starts at 1 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, November 13. Viewers can watch at roanestate.edu/classroomunderthesea and on youtube.com/classroomunderthesea.
Biology professor Bruce Cantrell and adjunct professor Jessica Fain from Roane State Community College in East Tennessee are living and working in an underwater habitat—Jules’ Undersea Lodge on Key Largo in the Florida Keys—for 73 days. While in the habitat, Fain and Cantrell are hosting “Classroom Under the Sea,” presented by Roane State and the Marine Resources Development Foundation on Key Largo.
Guests visiting the habitat for the November 13 episode are best-selling author Richard Hyman and filmmaker Andy Pruna Sr. Hyman’s book “Frogmen” describes his journeys with Jacques Cousteau and the crew of the Calypso, a minesweeper that Cousteau converted into a research vessel. [Read more…]
A Thursday evening lecture in Oak Ridge will focus on preventing the invasion of non-native forest pests.
It’s sponsored by the University of Tennessee Arboretum Society and the UT Forest Resources and Education Center, and it’s their last lecture series of 2014. It’s jointly sponsored by Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning and the Tennessee Nature Conservancy, press releases said.
The talk will be given by Martin Wood, Conservation Coordinator with the Tennessee Nature Conservancy. It’s scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Thursday, November 13, in the City Room of Roane State Community College in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
Nick and Pat Imperato are pictured above at a previous Neighborhood Watch pancake breakfast at Applebee’s. (Submitted photo)
Join your neighbors at a Community Pancake Breakfast on Saturday hosted by the Oak Ridge Police Department Community Resource Office and the Oak Ridge Neighborhood Watch Program.
The breakfast is scheduled from 8-10 a.m. Saturday, November 15. The breakfast will be held at Applebee’s at 1213 Oak Ridge Turnpike, and tickets are $5. Tickets are available at the door.
The breakfast offers residents an opportunity to meet Officer Brandan Sharp—the Oak Ridge Police Department’s community resource officer, who serves as a liaison to the Oak Ridge Neighborhood Watch Program—and to learn more about the city’s Neighborhood Watch crime prevention program.
A Tuesday evening forum in Oak Ridge will focus on homelessness in Anderson County.
The free forum is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 18, in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
The forum has been organized by the Trinity Out-Reach Center of Hope, or TORCH, and ORUUC. It will bring together experts from social service agencies and the wider community for a panel discussion to explore how a 10-year plan to help reduce and alleviate homelessness could be effective in Anderson County, a press release said. [Read more…]
