Kairos Power has proposed a Hermes test reactor at the Heritage Center, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge. A model of the test reactor is pictured at a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting in Oak Ridge on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was updated at 11:20 a.m. Dec. 1.
A nuclear test reactor proposed in west Oak Ridge could help as the United States tries to lower carbon dioxide emissions and reduce the effects of climate change, supporters said during a public meeting last week.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
A 21-year-old Oak Ridge man was arrested and charged with robbery, kidnapping, and theft after allegedly holding two gas station employees at gunpoint and taking money from a cash register at Rocky Top 76 on Lake City Highway on Monday.
Carlos Hernandez was charged with two counts of aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, theft of $1,000 to $2,500, and tampering with evidence.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory had an October 24 groundbreaking ceremony for the U.S. Stable Isotope Production and Research Center. A design image of the new center is pictured above.
Note: This story was updated at 11 a.m. Nov. 22.
For decades, Oak Ridge made stable isotopes. Those are non-radioactive forms of atoms that can be used in medicine and industry, and for research and national security.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
The Oak Ridge Police Department investigated a deadly hit-and-run crash involving a pedestrian between Brussels Road and Bogola Road on Oak Ridge Turnpike on Tuesday morning, Aug. 11, 2020. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
A 31-year-old man received a two-year sentence and was placed on supervised probation when he pleaded guilty Friday to charges filed after a fatal hit-and-run crash on Oak Ridge Turnpike more than two years ago.
The defendant received credit for time served in jail from August 11, 2020, to June 29, 2021.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
A plumbers and steamfitters union wants to use a former hardware store on Oak Ridge Turnpike for a trade school. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
A plumbers and steamfitters union wants to use a former hardware store for a trade school.
A rezoning for the project was recommended in a voice vote by the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission on Thursday. There was no opposition.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
The Oak Ridge Municipal Building is pictured above on Tuesday evening, May 5, 2020. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Full-time permanent employees of the City of Oak Ridge will earn at least $15 per hour starting in January under a resolution unanimously approved by Oak Ridge City Council on Monday.
Seasonal, part-time, and temporary employees would not be guaranteed this wage.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory will receive $497 million from the Inflation Reduction Act for projects that include nuclear fusion and neutron research, supercomputing, materials science, and radioisotope production. More than half of the money, 52% of it, will be used for U.S. contributions to an international nuclear fusion project.
ORNL’s $497 million is about one-third of the $1.55 billion provided to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science by the Democrat-led Congress under the IRA. President Joe Biden signed the IRA, which included a range of provisions and passed along party lines, into law in August. It provides money for more than 52 DOE projects already in the works.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
Bond has been reduced for a woman charged with murder for the death of her husband in Oak Ridge in 2014.
Bond for Samantha Anne Hendley, 36, was reduced from $1 million to $450,000 in an order issued November 7 by Senior Judge Don R. Ash. If Hendley is able to be released on bond, she is required to wear a global positioning system (GPS) monitoring device, the order said.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
Pictured above at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022, for a project to research using hydrogen in a locomotive at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are, from left, Jim Gamble, vice president of engine and power solutions technology for Wabtec Corporation; Siddiq Khan, technology development manager for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office; Melissa Shurland, program manager in the Office of Research, Development, and Technology in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration; Dean Edwards, ORNL research and development lead; Xin Sun, ORNL associate laboratory director in the Energy Science and Technology Directorate; and Muhsin Ameen, senior research scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was updated at 1 p.m. Nov. 12.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory has started a research project to investigate using hydrogen fuel in a railroad engine to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and help fight climate change. Rail is one of the industries considered challenging to decarbonize along with aviation and shipping.
Researchers at ORNL and Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago will use a large single-cylinder 375-horsepower Wabtec engine that will burn a mixture of hydrogen and diesel fuel, which is what locomotives burn now. Under four-year agreements, the researchers will study things like engine hardware, fuel mixtures, and ignition strategies. Other low-carbon fuels could also be studied.
“We are excited to be a part of this collaboration because it addresses the need to decarbonize the rail industry by advancing hydrogen engine technology for both current and future locomotives,†said Josh Pihl, an ORNL distinguished researcher and group leader for applied catalysis and emissions research. “It is also a perfect example of how a DOE-funded collaboration between industry and national laboratories can accelerate the development and commercialization of technologies to help reduce carbon emissions from transportation.â€
The 15.7-liter engine, larger than a tractor-trailer motor, was recently installed in garage-size research space at the National Transportation Research Center, an ORNL campus in Hardin Valley. ORNL had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the engine research project on Wednesday.
Depleted uranium hexafluoride storage cylinders at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Portsmouth, Ohio, Conversion Facility. (Photo from U.S. Government Accountability Office report)
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates it could cost at least $7.2 billion to convert and dispose of tens of thousands of cylinders of depleted uranium hexafluoride, a dangerous, corrosive waste byproduct of the uranium enrichment process. Some of the waste came from the former K-25 site in Oak Ridge and is now stored in Ohio, but a portion of the converted depleted uranium could eventually be returned to Oak Ridge for use in nuclear weapons.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
If you prefer to send a check, you may do so by mailing one to:
Oak Ridge Today P.O. Box 6064 Oak Ridge, TN 37831
We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.
We also accept donations. You can donate here. A donation of $50 or more will make you eligible for a subscription.
Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support!
Depleted uranium hexafluoride storage cylinders at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Portsmouth, Ohio, Conversion Facility. (Photo from U.S. Government Accountability Office report)
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates it could cost at least $7.2 billion to convert and dispose of tens of thousands of cylinders of depleted uranium hexafluoride, a dangerous, corrosive waste byproduct of the uranium enrichment process. Some of the waste came from the former K-25 site in Oak Ridge and is now stored in Ohio, but a portion of the converted depleted uranium could eventually be returned to Oak Ridge for use in nuclear weapons.
DOE’s Office of Environmental Management has had about 67,000 cylinders of the depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) stored at two conversion facilities in Paducah, Kentucky, and Portsmouth, Ohio. The facilities convert the DUF6 into two primary products, depleted uranium oxide (a more stable chemical form) and hydrofluoric acid, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Depleted uranium hexafluoride storage cylinders at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Portsmouth, Ohio, Conversion Facility. (Photo from U.S. Government Accountability Office report)
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates it could cost at least $7.2 billion to convert and dispose of tens of thousands of cylinders of depleted uranium hexafluoride, a dangerous, corrosive waste byproduct of the uranium enrichment process. Some of the waste came from the former K-25 site in Oak Ridge and is now stored in Ohio, but a portion of the converted depleted uranium could eventually be returned to Oak Ridge for use in nuclear weapons.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
An Oak Ridge Police Department officer was injured in a crash and children were taken to the hospital as a man fled from police on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, authorities said. (File photo by City of Oak Ridge/Oak Ridge Police Department)
An Oak Ridge man received an eight-year sentence Tuesday when he pleaded guilty to seven charges after fleeing from police on South Illinois Avenue four years ago, crashing, and attempting two carjackings in the Panera Bread drive-through.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.Already a member? Great! Thank you! Sign in here.Not a member? No problem! Subscribe here:Basic
If you prefer to send a check, you may do so by mailing one to: Oak Ridge TodayP.O. Box 6064Oak Ridge, TN 37831 We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here. We also accept donations. You can donate here. A donation of $50 or more will make you eligible for a subscription. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support!
An Oak Ridge Police Department officer was injured in a crash and children were taken to the hospital as a man fled from police on South Illinois Avenue around Panera Bread on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, authorities said. (File photo by City of Oak Ridge/Oak Ridge Police Department)
An Oak Ridge man received an eight-year sentence Tuesday when he pleaded guilty to seven charges after fleeing from police on South Illinois Avenue four years ago, crashing, and attempting two carjackings in the Panera Bread drive-through.
Khristoff Deshawn Lee, 29, pleaded guilty in Anderson County Criminal Court Tuesday afternoon to two counts of attempted carjacking, two counts of reckless aggravated assault, reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with a weapon, and evading arrest.
An Oak Ridge Police Department officer was injured in a crash and children were taken to the hospital as a man fled from police on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, authorities said. (File photo by City of Oak Ridge/Oak Ridge Police Department)
An Oak Ridge man received an eight-year sentence Tuesday when he pleaded guilty to seven charges after fleeing from police on South Illinois Avenue four years ago, crashing, and attempting two carjackings in the Panera Bread drive-through.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.Already a member? Great! Thank you! Sign in here.Not a member? No problem! Subscribe here:Basic
If you prefer to send a check, you may do so by mailing one to: Oak Ridge TodayP.O. Box 6064Oak Ridge, TN 37831 We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here. We also accept donations. You can donate here. A donation of $50 or more will make you eligible for a subscription. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support!
At ORNL, the Versatile Test Reactor would have been at a relatively undeveloped site previously considered for other projects about a mile east of the ORNL main campus. It would have required a new hot cell and a facility for post-irradiation examination and the conditioning of spent nuclear fuel for disposal. It would also have used existing facilities at ORNL, including the Irradiated Fuels Examination Laboratory and the Irradiated Material Examination and Testing Facility.
DOE said building the Versatile Test Reactor at either INL or ORNL would have small environmental consequences, but overall, the consequences would be less at the INL site. Among the reasons: A smaller area would be temporarily disturbed and permanently occupied at INL because of the need to build a new hot cell facility at ORNL. Unlike the INL site, the ORNL location abuts wetlands that would have to be managed or avoided under the Clean Water Act and Tennessee regulations. The removal of trees at ORNL would result in the loss of roosting habitat for sensitive bat species. And although small at both locations, the potential radiological impacts would be lower at INL because the Versatile Test Reactor would be farther from the site boundary and population density is lower near INL than ORNL.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
At ORNL, the Versatile Test Reactor would have been at a relatively undeveloped site previously considered for other projects about a mile east of the ORNL main campus. It would have required a new hot cell and a facility for post-irradiation examination and the conditioning of spent nuclear fuel for disposal. It would also have used existing facilities at ORNL, including the Irradiated Fuels Examination Laboratory and the Irradiated Material Examination and Testing Facility.
DOE said building the Versatile Test Reactor at either INL or ORNL would have small environmental consequences, but overall, the consequences would be less at the INL site. Among the reasons: A smaller area would be temporarily disturbed and permanently occupied at INL because of the need to build a new hot cell facility at ORNL. Unlike the INL site, the ORNL location abuts wetlands that would have to be managed or avoided under the Clean Water Act and Tennessee regulations. The removal of trees at ORNL would result in the loss of roosting habitat for sensitive bat species. And although small at both locations, the potential radiological impacts would be lower at INL because the Versatile Test Reactor would be farther from the site boundary and population density is lower near INL than ORNL.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
