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(For members) NIOSH evaluating another class of Y-12 workers for compensation program

Posted at 2:58 pm April 8, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Federal health and safety officials are evaluating another class of Y-12 employees for a workers compensation program that involves certain illnesses and work at sites that are affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy.

The petition being evaluated now could include all laborers who fabricated or processed uranium between January 1, 1977, and December 31, 1994, in any area at Y-12. The petition was received November 1 and qualified for evaluation on March 25.

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(For members) New lithium building a priority as ceiling materials fall in old one

Posted at 1:50 pm April 6, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A new lithium processing facility that could be built in Oak Ridge is a priority for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which has cited worker safety and materials that have fallen from the ceiling at the old building now used at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

As a priority, the new lithium processing facility is right behind the number one priorities: the production of plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and uranium processing at the Uranium Processing Facility, which is now under construction at Y-12, said Charles Verdon, NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs.

NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty cited the materials that have fallen from the ceiling at the old Y-12 building used for lithium processing, 9204-2, or Beta 2, in her response to questions during a budget hearing with the U.S. House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee on Tuesday.

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(For members) HHS designates class of Y-12 workers to be added to compensation program

Posted at 9:05 pm March 25, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has designated a class of Y-12 employees to be added to a federal worker compensation program that involves certain illnesses and work at sites like Y-12 that are affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy.

The employees who could be added, unless Congress says otherwise, would have worked at Y-12 between January 1, 1958, and December 31, 1976, when the plant was manufacturing nuclear weapons components during the Cold War. They would have had an aggregate total of at least 250 work days. They could have been employees of DOE, its predecessor agencies, or their contractors and subcontractors.

Oak Ridge Today has previously reported that the workers could be added to the compensation program based on exposure to radiation from thorium metal parts and plutonium-241 isotopes.

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(For members) Man sentenced to 35 years in assaults against women

Posted at 2:33 pm March 7, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

CLINTON—A Clinton man was sentenced to 35 years in prison when he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to attempted second-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated assault in a series of assaults that involved four female victims in three cases.

One of the victims, a grandmother in her 70s, was hit in the face with a crowbar and had a fractured skull and teeth knocked out, according to facts cited in Anderson County Criminal Court during the plea agreement hearing in Clinton on Wednesday.

The defendant, Jason Bradley Braden, 30, was ordered to serve 100 percent of his 35-year sentence.

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(For members) MKAA prepares to provide aircraft approach data for Oak Ridge Airport

Posted at 1:00 am February 21, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

ALCOA—If it is identified as a next step, the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority is prepared to provide data and a report to the Federal Aviation Administration about aircraft approach and departure paths at the proposed Oak Ridge Airport.

The MKAA approved an award worth up to $48,000 for the project during a committee meeting and board meeting at McGhee Tyson Airport in Alcoa on Wednesday.

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(For members) Retiring Bull Run, Paradise could save millions, more than $1 billion in ‘lifetime costs’

Posted at 1:49 pm February 18, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The coal-burning Bull Run Fossil Plant in Claxton and Paradise Fossil Plant Unit 3 in Kentucky are not economical to operate, and retiring them will offer a savings of about $320 million and avoid more than $1 billion in capital costs, the Tennessee Valley Authority said Thursday.

The TVA Board of Directors voted 6-1 to close Paradise Unit 3 and unanimously agreed to close Bull Run during a meeting in Chattanooga on Thursday. Paradise could close by December 2020, and Bull Run is expected to close by December 2023.

The Bull Run and Paradise closures will be the first 1,700 megawatts of coal plant retirements of the 2,600 megawatts that could be retired through 2033 under a 2015 integrated resource plan, TVA President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson told the board.

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(For members) NRC finds no significant impact from producing tritium at Watts Bar 2

Posted at 12:12 pm February 13, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced on Monday that there would be no significant impact from producing tritium for nuclear weapons in a second unit at the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant in Rhea County.

The project involves the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

The tritium could be produced in Unit 2 at Watts Bar, which is near Spring City about 45 miles southwest of Oak Ridge.

Tritium, which boosts the yields of nuclear weapons, is already being produced in Watts Bar Unit 1. The Tennessee Valley Authority has been producing tritium there since 2003.

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(For members) DOE could lease space to store elemental mercury

Posted at 1:52 pm February 11, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The U.S. Department of Energy is considering whether to lease space to store elemental mercury from sites across the country.

The facility could store about 1,200 metric tons (1,300 tons) of elemental mercury. The waste has been generated at sites in the United States, mostly at gold mining operations, according to the DOE Office of Environmental Management.

The mercury that could be stored at the leased facility is separate from the 1,200 metric tons of mercury stored at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. The Y-12 mercury, about 2.6 million pounds stored in seamless steel flasks, was acquired for lithium-6 isotope separation operations for thermonuclear weapons.

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(For members) Testimony: Defendant in homicide case had planned to rob man

Posted at 2:41 pm January 24, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

CLINTON—The defendant in a criminal homicide case in Rocky Top in August had planned to rob the 83-year-old man who died because “it would be easy,” according to court testimony Tuesday.

The body of the victim, J.C. Copeland, who has been described as a “sweet old man,” was found partially wrapped in a pink blanket underneath a porch at a mobile home on Jacksboro Avenue on August 31, according to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agent John Hannon. Copeland is believed to have been strangled until he died, according to court records. There was white rope around Copeland’s neck and other parts of his body, including his wrists and ankles, Hannon testified during a preliminary hearing in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton on Tuesday.

Inside Copeland’s home, investigators found a fresh brown stain on the floor near his front door, white strings similar to the material found around his neck, and in one possible sign of a struggle, cigarettes on the floor, according to Hannon’s testimony. An acrylic painted press-on fingernail was found in the living room, Hannon said. It’s similar to the type of press-on fingernail that a woman might wear, Hannon said when questioned by prosecutor Emily Faye Abbott.

Outside the home, Copeland’s vehicle was missing.

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(For members) Five ORPD officers injured in fight with defendant

Posted at 3:46 pm January 10, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Five Oak Ridge Police Department officers were injured in a fight with a defendant on Saturday, a man was held against his will by the defendant, and officers used a Taser on the defendant more than once, police said.

The 39-year-old defendant is now charged with five counts of aggravated assault on an officer and aggravated kidnapping, among other charges.

It’s not the first time the man has been accused of assaulting a police officer. In September, he pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer in a previous case.

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Records: Man shot last week has history of family disputes

Posted at 1:30 am January 2, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Clinton man who was shot during a dispute with his son last week, reportedly over the positioning of a floodlight, has had other disputes with family members, including another one involving a firearm, according to Anderson County court records.

In one of the previous cases, the man who was shot, Terry Lee Crawford, 61, allegedly vandalized his sister’s house with a tractor in October, also because of a floodlight, the court records said. That case is pending in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton.

Before the alleged vandalism this year, Crawford had pleaded guilty to an assault against his sister and another victim in 2015—that case involved a firearm—and to an attempted assault against his son in 2016.

The incidents have involved three homes plus Crawford’s, all on Lee Lane in west Clinton, court records said.

Besides those cases, there is an indictment pending against Crawford for driving under the influence, reckless endangerment, and reckless driving.

It’s not clear what charges might be filed after last week’s shooting. Crawford was taken to the hospital after the shooting. He was booked into the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton on Monday. But affidavits, which include specific charges and brief descriptions of alleged crimes, were not available on Tuesday.

On Thursday, the day after the shooting, the district attorney general’s office called Crawford a “danger to society” and asked that his bond be revoked or increased in two of the previous cases. The motion appears to have been successful, at least for now; Crawford’s bond has been set at $1.7 million, an unusually large bond, and he remained in custody on Tuesday night, according to Anderson County jail records.

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(For members) Y-12 class could be added to worker compensation program based on thorium, Pu-241 exposure

Posted at 6:33 pm December 28, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A new class of Y-12 employees could be added to a federal worker compensation program based on exposure to radiation from thorium metal parts and plutonium-241 isotopes between 1958 and 1976, health officials said.

The worker compensation program involves certain illnesses and work at sites like Y-12 that are affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy.

The program is a result of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, which was enacted in October 2000. The act includes what is known as the Special Exposure Cohort. The new class of Y-12 employees could be part of that Special Exposure Cohort.

That designation would allow eligible claimants to be compensated without the complete reconstruction of a radiation dose or a determination of the probable cause. A covered employee would have to have at least one of 22 specified cancers.

The class of employees being evaluated now would have worked at Y-12 between January 1, 1958, through December 31, 1976, when Y-12 was manufacturing nuclear weapons components during the Cold War. The employees would have had an aggregate total of at least 250 work days, according to a notice published in the Federal Register this month. The class could change, however, based upon the evaluation.

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« Previous Page

(For members) NIOSH evaluating another class of Y-12 workers for compensation program

(For members) New lithium building a priority as ceiling materials fall in old one

(For members) HHS designates class of Y-12 workers to be added to compensation program

(For members) Man sentenced to 35 years in assaults against women

(For members) MKAA prepares to provide aircraft approach data for Oak Ridge Airport

(For members) Retiring Bull Run, Paradise could save millions, more than $1 billion in ‘lifetime costs’

(For members) NRC finds no significant impact from producing tritium at Watts Bar 2

(For members) DOE could lease space to store elemental mercury

(For members) Testimony: Defendant in homicide case had planned to rob man

(For members) Five ORPD officers injured in fight with defendant

Records: Man shot last week has history of family disputes

(For members) Y-12 class could be added to worker compensation program based on thorium, Pu-241 exposure

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