Oak Ridge Today

Guest column: B&W Y-12 improved Y-12, made a big difference in the community

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David Bradshaw

David Bradshaw

By David Bradshaw

It has been almost 14 years since B&W Y-12 LLC took over operation of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

Soon a new contractor will be in charge. Thanks to the work of the B&W Y-12 team and many others, they will inherit a very different and much improved facility.

One only needs to approach Y-12 to see the changes. The first thing you will see is the New Hope Center, built as a public-private partnership and located just outside the secure gates of Y-12 to make sure public access is easy. It has conference space, an outstanding auditorium, and a museum that highlights everything from Y-12’s critical role in the Manhattan Project, to the NASA “moon box” built by Y-12, to Y-12’s role in winning the Cold War. Y-12 had always been a secret place and this space built with the public in mind was a major change.

The modernization process is even more obvious inside the gate. Y-12 completed and opened the new Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. It’s a state of the art building. The new Uranium Processing Facility will be just as impressive with design work well underway. Both facilities allow the U.S. Department of Energy to close down old buildings that date back to the Manhattan Project. With the HEUMF and UPF in place, Y-12 will be far more efficient with operations not only more secure, but centralized in one place instead of being spread out over several locations. [Read more…]

ORNL launches Imaging Institute

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Sergei Kalinin of ORNL Institute for Functional Imaging of Materials

Sergei Kalinin is inaugural director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Institute for Functional Imaging of Materials. (Image credit: Jason Richards, ORNL)

 

By Dawn Levy

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has launched the Institute for Functional Imaging of Materials to accelerate the discovery, design, and deployment of new materials. The institute will meld world-class capabilities in imaging, high-performance computing, materials science, and other scientific disciplines to probe materials. It supports President Obama’s Materials Genome Initiative, which aims to bring new materials to the marketplace.

“Advanced materials are essential to clean energy, national security and global competitiveness,” said ORNL Director Thom Mason. “Key energy technologies like solar cells, superconductors, and batteries all have shortcomings that next-generation materials might overcome.”

By focusing expertise from ORNL’s diverse science portfolio, capabilities in high-performance computing, and success in creating new tools for discovery, the institute promises to speed the arrival of next-generation materials. [Read more…]

Guest column: Oak Ridge—a city teetering—which way will it go?

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Bob Eby

Bob Eby

By Bob Eby

Friday, June 20

This week, I experienced great joy and significant sadness. The joy was being with my daughter and son-in-law as she birthed our first grandchild and we brought her home from the hospital in California. It was because I was with them during this joyous time that I missed last Monday night’s City Council meeting, but I did watch it live through Internet streaming (technology is great!). It was during that time that I felt sadness and disappointment. I realized that this wonderful community I have known for 50 years now balances on a tipping point, to fall on a downward spiral or gradually move forward with a great and dedicated effort toward prosperity. Why do I say this?

Last year, the Board of Education hired a new superintendent who brought with him much energy and a vision to re-establish the Oak Ridge Schools to its premier status as not only the number one school district in the State of Tennessee but also the premier district in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in the country. The Board fully supported the vision, though we were recommending a three-year roll-out, which we felt was more realistic and would allow opportunity to adjust the implementation as we and the staff worked together to achieve our goals.

With their recent action, the City Council not only chose not to support this vision, but they very likely have failed to provide our teachers and associated staff the recognition they so deserve with any funding for their first raise (2 percent) in four years. City Council does plan to provide city-employeed staff with a raise. I think it is only right that all employees of our community receive a raise. All school staff and city employees are equally deserving of this recognition of their value to Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Police watch for speeding, texting, impaired drivers in Operation Drive Safe

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Oak Ridge Police Department Logo

The Oak Ridge Police Department is looking for drivers who are speeding, texting, or driving while impaired in a focused traffic enforcement operation that started June 18 and continues through Labor Day weekend, a press release said.

It’s called Operation Drive Safe, and it will be conducted on Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue. Police are also looking for other traffic-related violations and watching for drivers who do not yield to pedestrians within a crosswalk.

“The Oak Ridge Police Department wants everyone to have a safe summer and share the road whether it’s with another vehicle, cyclist, or pedestrian,” a press release said.

More development possible on South Illinois Avenue

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South Purdue Land Use Plan

The Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission on Thursday will consider amending the Land Use Plan to change the designation on parcels 39 and 40 above from residential to business. The parcels are next to Aldi grocery (Parcel 43 at right) and between South Purdue Avenue (white road center right) and South Illinois Avenue (yellow road at bottom). The Planning Commission could consider rezoning the property in July. The new Weigels gas station and convenience store is off the map to the left on Parcel 41. Potomac Circle is at top left. (Image courtesy State of Tennessee)

 

The Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission on Thursday will consider amending the city’s Land Use Plan to change the designation of more than two acres on busy South Illinois Avenue from residential to business, possibly to allow a small multi-tenant building to be constructed.

The two parcels being considered are sandwiched between two other recent developments—Weigels gas station and convenience store on one side and Aldi grocery on the other—and also near the new Aubrey’s restaurant, Panera Bread, Ole Ben Franklin Motors, and Bojangles’ restaurant.

A Nashville development group has a contract on the property, Oak Ridge Community Development Director Kathryn Baldwin said Monday. [Read more…]

ORNL hires more than 60 UT engineering interns

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UT Co-op Students

University of Tennessee engineering students who are taking part in summer internships at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, more than 60 in all, gather at ORNL. (Photo courtesy UT)

 

Submitted

KNOXVILLE—For more than seven decades, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have forged special connections in a number of key areas, perhaps none stronger than the personnel that the two share.

That particular bond was on display recently when members of UT’s Office of Professional Practice office visited the facilities at ORNL, meeting more than 60 engineering students involved in summer internships at the lab.

Todd Reeves, director of the office, addressed the College of Engineering students and shared his thoughts about the importance of the work they are doing for ORNL and on leaving a good impression of themselves and their attitude.

“We talked about how special it is for them to be working in such a high-profile facility, and that it was key for them to do their best every day,” Reeves said. “More than that, we encouraged them to be enthusiastic and positive as they went about their work because it shapes the impression their managers have on them.” [Read more…]

Summer menu to begin at Unitarian Universalist free community meal Friday

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Stone Soup Community Meal

From left to right, volunteers Jinx Watson, Beatrice Holt, Todd Sherline, and daughter Poppy prepare for guests at an earlier ORUUC Stone Soup Free Community Meal. The next meal will be served on Friday, June 27. Everyone is welcome. (File photo)

The summer menu will begin at the Stone Soup Ministry free community meal on Friday, June 27, at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church at 1500 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge. Everyone is invited for the homemade meal of pimiento cheese sandwiches, three-bean salad, and melon, a press release said. Dine-in or take-out will be available from 5 to 6 p.m.

The Stone Soup Ministry free community meal is held the last Friday of every month at the same time in the Social Hall of the Church. Food for the free monthly meal is provided by the ORUUC congregation along with financial support from several members of the Oak Ridge community.

For more information about the June 27 meal, call the ORUUC office at (865) 483-6761.

Chinese supercomputer still No. 1, Titan at ORNL remains No. 2

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Jeff Nichols and Titan at ORNL

Jeff Nichols, associate director for computing and computational sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in front of Titan, which was the world’s fastest supercomputer in November 2012 but is now ranked No. 2. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

A Chinese supercomputer kept its No. 1 spot, and Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory stayed at No. 2 in the latest semiannual ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

The Chinese supercomputer, Tianhe-2, was developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, and it’s been in the top spot three times in a row on the Top500 List. Tianhe-2 bumped Titan from the top spot in June 2013.

The Chinese supercomputer performed at 33.86 petaflops—that’s 33.86 quadrillion calculations per second—on a test known as the Linpack benchmark, the press release said. Titan performed at 17.59 petaflops.

There was little change among the ranking of the world’s Top 10 supercomputers in the latest edition of the closely watched list, a press release said. The only new entry was at number 10—a 3.14-petaflop Cray XC30 installed at an undisclosed U.S. government site.

The Top500 list was announced Monday morning. The list is compiled by Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and Martin Meuer of Prometeus, Germany. [Read more…]

Photos: Lavender Festival

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Lavender Festival Overview

The 16th annual Lavender Festival was Saturday in Jackson Square in Oak Ridge. The Oak Ridge FARM Market is in the foreground, and the festival is in the background. (Photos by Ray Smith)

 

The 16th Annual Lavender Festival was on Saturday in Jackson Square in Oak Ridge. The herb fair included more than 100 vendors, exhibits, and demonstrations featuring products and information related to gardening, cooking, health, aromatherapy, and all things herbal. 

Throughout the square, vendors offered live plants, herbs, art, crafts, herbal products, jewelry, baskets, pottery, wooden utensils, and more. Sample foods made with herbs were available, and there was also grilling with herb demonstrations by local chefs.

The Oak Ridge FARM Market was open across the street from the festival, local musicians were featured throughout the day, and children’s activities were available.

Vendors said they were very busy at the well-attended festival on Saturday morning. An afternoon storm dampened the activities, but many festival-goers continued to shop and enjoy the music. [Read more…]

Boy flown to Children’s Hospital after near-drowning at Clark Center Park

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After family members and emergency responders started CPR, a boy who had gone missing while swimming at Clark Center Park in Oak Ridge on Saturday afternoon was flown by medical helicopter to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville, authorities said.

On Sunday afternoon, Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said he didn’t know the current condition of the boy, who might be about eight years old.

The boy had been moved to Intensive Care at Children’s Hospital, Kerley said.

“That’s all we know at the moment,” he said.

The chief said the family had been swimming about 150 feet away from the beach at a picnic area at Clark Center Park when relatives noticed the boy was gone. They started CPR when they found him and called 911. The Oak Ridge police and fire departments responded and continued CPR. Anderson County Emergency Medical Services transported the boy to the Lifestar medical helicopter, which picked up the child at a softball field at the park. [Read more…]

Honors: Roane State students recognized for academic achievements

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Amanda Sproles

Amanda Sproles

Roane State Community College students from the area received recognition for their achievements in the 2013-14 academic year.

Clinton: Adam Jennings, Excellence in Networking; Jeremy Bozeman, Outstanding GIS Student Award; Kevin Stevenson, Academic Achievement Award; Timothy Smith, June Bilbrey Excellence in Nursing Award [Read more…]

Sheriff White has BBQ lunch fundraiser

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Paul White

Paul White

Anderson County Sheriff Paul White will have a barbecue lunch fundraiser on Saturday, June 28, from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Ed Underwood Pavilion on the Anderson County Fairgrounds in Clinton.

White is running for re-election in the Anderson County general election on Aug. 7.