Oak Ridge Today

Security breach costs B&W Y-12 $12.2 million

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Y-12 National Security Complex

Y-12 National Security Complex (Submitted photo)

B&W Y-12, the company that manages and operates the Y-12 National Security Complex, lost $12.2 million in award fees because of the July 28 security breach, a federal report said.

B&W earned $35.9 million, about 59 percent of its available fee of $60.9 million, the National Nuclear Security Administration said in a fiscal year 2012 performance evaluation of Babcock and Wilcox Technical Services Y-12 LLC.

The company lost 100 percent of its potential security-related fee, and there was also a $10 million “negative overall management fee adjustment,” the NNSA said.

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Report: Oak Ridge police officer assaulted by high school student

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An Oak Ridge High School student allegedly threatened a teacher and punched a police officer trying to escort him out of the cafeteria on Thursday, authorities said.

The student, Christopher Lee Arwood, 18, had allegedly “become disorderly in the school cafeteria and threatened a teacher with violence” at about 11:05 a.m. Thursday, court records said.

Oak Ridge Police Officer Sherrill Selby, who is the school resource officer, tried to intervene and escort Arwood from the cafeteria, which was full of students, an affidavit said.

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Former candidate for governor sworn in as TVA board member

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Michael McWherter

Michael McWherter, former Democratic candidate for governor, was sworn in as a Tennessee Valley Authority board member on Thursday in Nashville. (Photo courtesy of TVA)

A former Democratic candidate for governor became the newest member of the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors on Thursday.

Michael McWherter, of Jackson, Tenn., took the oath of office Thursday in a ceremony in Nashville. His term will expire on May 18, 2016.

McWherter was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on Jan. 1, and he was sworn in by U.S. District Judge Todd J. Campbell of the Middle District of Tennessee during a ceremony at the Estes Kefauver Federal Building and Courthouse.

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Rep. Fleischmann’s staff members visit ORNL

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Rep. Fleischmann Staff Visit ORNL

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason, center, presents a lab overview in the renovated EVEREST Visualization Theater to congressional staff members Alek Vey, second from left, and Tyler Threadgill, second from right. Also pictured are deputy lab director Jeff Smith, left, and U.S. Department of Energy official Johnny Moore. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

 

U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann’s new legislative director, Alek Vey, and his new communications director, Tyler Threadgill, visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory Thursday.

They were joined by Helen Hardin, Fleischmann’s senior policy adviser.

While at the lab, Vey and Threadgill met with lab leadership and toured the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility and newly renovated EVEREST Visualization Theater, Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, High Flux Isotope Reactor, Spallation Neutron Source, Graphite Reactor, and the Building Technologies Research and Integration Center Building Equipment Lab, a statement said.

Comptroller releases report on methamphetamine production in Tennessee

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Methamphetamine production continues in small laboratories in Tennessee and elsewhere around the country in spite of new laws regulating and tracking the sale of pharmacy products used to manufacture the illegal drug.

That is one of the findings of a report released today by the Comptroller’s Offices of Research and Education Accountability about attempts to control access to legal products sold at pharmacies which are later used to create methamphetamine.

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Seminar on contracting certifications for women-owned small businesses

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A Jan. 15 seminar at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce will address government contracting certifications for women-owned businesses.

The free seminar has been organized by the Tennessee Small Business Development Center, and the program will be presented by the University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services.

Previous government contracting experience or attendance in a government contracting seminar is strongly encouraged, a press release said.

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Four ORPD sergeants ask court to order salary increase

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Four veteran Oak Ridge Police Department sergeants, including one who has retired, have asked an Anderson County court to order that their pay be increased to $61,000 per year so they will earn as much as two less-experienced sergeants.

The four sergeants have requested that the pay increase be effective starting Jan. 8, 2012, when they filed a grievance.

They also want the court to overturn or modify a Sept. 7 order from the Oak Ridge Personnel Advisory Board that dismissed their grievance and found no violation of the city’s personnel ordinance.

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WYSH: Inmate’s house destroyed by fire

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Information from WYSH Radio in Clinton

Anderson County investigators are probing the cause of a suspicious Monday night fire that destroyed the house of a man currently serving time in prison on child abuse charges.

The fire at the home on Half Moon Road was reported at around 8 p.m. Monday and extinguished by the Marlow Volunteer Fire Department, which told Anderson County Sheriff’s Department deputies that the house was a total loss.

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WYSH: Medford mobile home catches fire

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Information from WYSH Radio in Clinton

A mobile home in Medford was damaged by a fire early Sunday morning.

The mobile home on Beets Valley Road had been unoccupied for at least three years, according to a report filed by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department, and had no power running to it.

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First home moved for Kroger Marketplace shopping center

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Kroger Marketplace House Moving

The first home was moved Thursday morning from Iris Circle and Robin Lane in central Oak Ridge to make way for a new Kroger Marketplace shopping center near Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue.

The first home was moved Thursday morning to make way for a new Kroger Marketplace shopping center near Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue.

Ten more houses on Robin Lane and Iris Circle are ready to move, and a total of 25 have to be relocated, said Micheal Mills of M&M House Movers in Harrogate. Mills hopes to move them all by March 1.

The small, brown home moved Thursday was taken to a 13-acre farm on Blair Road in Roane County, Mills said. The man who owns the farm has purchased two of the Oak Ridge homes for his family to use on the farm.

The 11-mile drive was expected to take about three hours. The man driving the moving truck Thursday, Sonny Asher of New Way House Moving in Harrogate, which is working with M&M, said each home weighs about 20 to 30 tons.

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Meeting location changed for Roane State mechatronics program on Thursday

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Roane State Community College will host information meetings about its new mechatronics certificate program on Thursday in the Club Room at the Clinton Community Center.

The information sessions will be held at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 6 p.m. Interested students only need to attend one of the sessions.

The meetings had been planned for the Clinton Higher Education and Workforce Training Facility, but they had to be moved because of ongoing construction at the facility.

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D’Agostino, companies celebrate contract award, key step in NNSA transition

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Y-12 National Security Complex

Y-12 National Security Complex (Submitted photo)

Less than two weeks before his retirement, a federal official celebrated the consolidated contract award announced Tuesday, calling it a key element in a long list of decisions and actions designed to reduce redundancies in national nuclear security work and make operations more efficient.

It reflects a change in how the National Nuclear Security Administration does business, NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino said during a Tuesday teleconference. The transition began several years ago.

“We embarked on a journey from an old Cold War nuclear enterprise to a 21st Century nuclear enterprise,” D’Agostino said. “I’m immensely proud of the team.”

The NNSA announced Tuesday that, after months of anticipation and three to four years’ worth of work, Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, or CNS, had won a five-year contract to manage the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas. The company will also manage construction of the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 and, after the first year, could manage tritium operations at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.

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