Oak Ridge Today

Big 12 Rowing Championship in Oak Ridge this weekend

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The Big 12 Rowing Championship is in Oak Ridge this weekend, Saturday, May 13-Sunday, May 14, 2017. Pictured above is a race during the 2016 SIRA Championship Regatta in Oak Ridge on Sunday, April 17, 2016. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The Big 12 Rowing Championship is in Oak Ridge this weekend.

It’s the third-straight season the Big 12 Rowing Championship will be at Melton Lake Park in Oak Ridge, according to big12sports.com.

“Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia, along with affiliate members Alabama, Old Dominion, and Tennessee will meet May 13-14 to battle for the conference crown,” the website said. [Read more…]

NRC seeks comment on environmental matters at Clinch River Nuclear Site

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The Tennessee Valley Authority has applied for an early site permit that could allow small modular nuclear reactors at the Clinch River Site in west Oak Ridge, possibly as soon as the mid-2020s. Pictured above at a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting on the early site permit on Tuesday, April 12, 2016, is Dan Stout, TVA senior manager, small modular reactors. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission will seek public comments on what environmental matters it should consider during its review of the early site permit application for the Clinch River Nuclear Site in west Oak Ridge.

The NRC will seek the comments during two meetings in Oak Ridge on Monday that are part of the process used to develop an environmental impact statement.

The first meeting is from 1-4 p.m. Monday, May 15, in the Pollard Technology Conference Center Auditorium at 210 Badger Avenue in Oak Ridge. The second meeting is from 6-9 p.m. that same day.

The Tennessee Valley Authority submitted an application last May for the early site permit for small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs, at the Clinch River Site in west Oak Ridge. The early site permit application is for two or more SMRs. The NRC accepted the application for “docketing and detailed technical review” in December.

A specific reactor design has not been selected. TVA has identified parameters for a surrogate nuclear plant, and the NRC will use them to evaluate the site’s suitability for building and operating a new nuclear plant. [Read more…]

At this time, proposed ‘bare-bones’ schools budget does not ask city for more money

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Oak Ridge Schools presented its proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 to the Oak Ridge Board of Education on Tuesday, May 9, 2017.

Oak Ridge Schools presented its proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 to the Oak Ridge Board of Education on Tuesday, May 9, 2017.

 

A “bare-bones” budget proposed by Oak Ridge Schools on Tuesday does not, at this point, ask the City of Oak Ridge for more local funding.

The proposed budget includes step increases that would apply to those who are eligible, but it does not include pay raises. Roughly 59 percent of the staff would receive no increase, school officials said.

There are some new staff positions proposed, including a preschool teacher, a Navy Junior ROTC teacher, and a technology systems administrator. There are also some staff reductions due to enrollment, primarily two full-time equivalent teachers at Oak Ridge High School, reductions done through attrition.

“This is a pretty bare-bones budget,” Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers said Tuesday. It includes minimal new staff, and no major new initiatives. At this point, there is not enough money for raises, Borchers said.

The grand total of new investments has been proposed at $713,075: $355,201 for step increases and $357,784 for new staffing. [Read more…]

Photo: Cell phone tower work

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Work on a cell phone tower near Willow Brook Elementary School on Tuesday, May 9, 2017. (Photo by Julio Culiat)

Work on a cell phone tower near Willow Brook Elementary School on Tuesday, May 9, 2017. (Photo by Julio Culiat)

After loss to Halls, Oak Ridge plays Clinton in elimination game today

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Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today

Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today

 

KARNS—After an 8-0 loss to Halls on Sunday, Oak Ridge will play in a district tournament elimination game today (Monday, May 8).

The season will end for the loser. The winner will move on to play the loser of the Halls-Karns game in the District 3-AAA baseball tournament on Tuesday. The Halls-Karns game is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. today at Karns High School.

The Oak Ridge-Clinton game is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. today at Karns High School.

Oak Ridge (13-15) beat Clinton (13-21) twice during the regular season. The first was an 8-0 win at home on Monday, April 17, and the second was a 5-1 victory at Clinton two days later, on Wednesday, April 19.

Before the Sunday loss to Halls (17-11), the Wildcats had lost once to the Red Devils during the regular season, a 7-2 defeat on Thursday, April 20. [Read more…]

Construction could start this year on K-25 History Center

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K-25 History Center and Equipment Building

An image showing the K-25 History Center on the second floor of the city-owned fire station, right, at East Tennessee Technology Park, with the Equipment Building and Viewing Tower at left. (Graphic by David Brown/U.S. Department of Energy)

 

Construction could start this year on the K-25 History Center at the East Tennessee Technology Park in west Oak Ridge, federal officials said. Plans also call for an Equipment Building and Viewing Tower at the site. Although the projects depend upon funding, the goal is to finish the work by 2019.

The K-25 site was one of three large sites built by the federal government in Oak Ridge during World War II to help make the world’s first atomic weapons as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. The other two sites were X-10, which is now known as Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Y-12, now the Y-12 National Security Complex.

At K-25, the three history-related facilities will have three missions. The History Center will tell the story of the workers. The Equipment Building will focus on the technology. And the Viewing Tower will show visitors the size of the site. All three facilities will be on the south side of the former mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building.

K-25 used a process called gaseous diffusion to enrich uranium for atomic weapons and, later, for commercial nuclear power plants. Officials and contractors have said that K-25 helped win the Cold War. The site is now known as Heritage Center or East Tennessee Technology Park.

Preserving its history is part of a Memorandum of Agreement that was signed in August 2012 and allowed for the complete demolition of K-25, once the world’s largest building under one roof. The historic preservation work is expected to cost about $20 million total. [Read more…]

Eight new Main Street stores could be turned over to retailers by end of June

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Eight new stores at Main Street Oak Ridge could be turned over to retailers by the end of June, a city consultant said Tuesday, May 2, 2017. Under construction above are the new Dick’s Sporting Goods and T.J. Maxx stores. These are the entrances closest to South Illinois Avenue. The U.S. Post Office is to the left, and Walmart is to the right. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 12 p.m.

Eight new stores at Main Street Oak Ridge could be turned over to retailers by the end of June, a city consultant said Tuesday, but the opening dates for the eight new stores haven’t been announced yet.

Ray Evans, retail consultant for the City of Oak Ridge, gave an update on the Main Street Oak Ridge project during a Tuesday morning Rise and Shine event sponsored by the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce at Countryside Tire and Auto Service.

Two buildings with six retailers are scheduled to be delivered to retailers between mid-May and the end of May, Evans said. One building will include the new Dick’s Sporting Goods and T.J. Maxx stores, and another will include Maurice’s, Rack Room Shoes, Rue 21, and Ulta. Workers are preparing to pave the parking lot at Dick’s Sporting Goods and T.J. Maxx, Evans said. [Read more…]

Not clear yet where National Park Service will go when AMSE closes

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An agreement signed Friday, Dec. 30, 2016, by the U.S. Department of Energy and City of Oak Ridge calls for the American Museum of Science and Energy missions to be relocated within about one year to 18,000 square feet of space in a two-story building that once housed a Sears Roebuck store next to JCPenney at Main Street Oak Ridge. It’s not yet clear if the National Park Service, which has shared space with AMSE, will also move into this building. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

It’s not clear yet where the National Park Service will go when the American Museum of Science and Energy building closes at the end of the year, but a federal official said the Park Service will stay in Oak Ridge.

It could relocate to a two-story building that once housed Sears Roebuck at Main Street Oak Ridge, the former Oak Ridge Mall. That’s where the U.S. Department of Energy’s public education and outreach missions, now housed at the American Museum of Science and Energy, are moving.

But the National Park Service hadn’t committed to moving there as of April 17, said Niki Nicholas, site manager of the Oak Ridge unit of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The NPS needs more information, Nicholas said in response to questions after a Monday afternoon presentation to AAUW, or American Association of University Women. (A reader had told Oak Ridge Today of an April 17 letter reportedly sent from the Manhattan Project National Historical Park to federal officials at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which manages AMSE.)

Nicholas said the National Park Service has several options in Oak Ridge, including Main Street Oak Ridge. But she declined to elaborate on the precise number of options, where they might be, or what organizations or businesses might be co-located in those buildings. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge teams take top honors in FIRST Robotics World Festival

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Secret City Wildbots FRC Houston 10 April 22 2017 Agle

The Secret City Wildbots, Team 4265, were underdogs in the quarterfinals, but they survived to the semifinals where they lost to the number one seed in the First Robotics World Championship in Houston on Saturday, April 22, 2017. (Photo by Angi Agle)

 

From Wednesday to Saturday last week, the Master Builders (Team 3132) from Jefferson Middle School and the Secret City Wildbots (Team 4265) from Oak Ridge High School competed in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics World Festival in Houston, Texas.

“We are pleased to announce that both teams experienced success in the World Festival,” Oak Ridge Schools said in a press release.

The Jefferson Middle School FIRST LEGO League team, the Master Builders, received trophies for the top awards in the world for first place in robot performance and second place in programming during the FIRST Robotics World Festival in Houston, Texas from April 19-22, 2017. (Submitted photo)

The Jefferson Middle School FIRST LEGO League team, the Master Builders, received trophies for the top awards in the world for first place in robot performance and second place in programming during the FIRST Robotics World Festival in Houston, Texas from April 19-22, 2017. (Submitted photo)

 

The FIRST LEGO League team, The Master Builders from Jefferson Middle School, received trophies for the top awards in the world for first place in robot performance, and second place in programming. There were 108 teams present for FIRST LEGO League at the World Festival from all over the globe, the press release said. [Read more…]

Site prep could start this year for mercury treatment plant at Y-12

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Y-12 Mercury Treatment Facility

The Mercury Treatment Facility that will be at the east end of Y-12 National Security Complex could start operating in 2022. (Image by David Brown/U.S. Department of Energy)

 

Note: This story was updated at 2 p.m.

Site preparation could start later this year for the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex as the U.S. Department of Energy prepares for demolition and cleanup work at the nuclear weapons plant.

DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, expects to complete demolition and cleanup work at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, in 2020. It will then focus on the large-scale demolition work at Y-12.

Among the Y-12 buildings that could be demolished are Alpha 4, Alpha 5, and Beta 4, all large buildings where mercury, a toxic metal, was once used. The buildings used mercury to separate lithium for nuclear weapons. The lithium separation operations started in 1955 and ended in 1963.

But before that cleanup work can begin, OREM needs the Mercury Treatment Facility. The plant was first announced at a press conference featuring U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, about four years ago, in May 2013.

“This water treatment plant is a major step in addressing one of the biggest problems we have from the Cold War era—mercury once used to make nuclear weapons getting into our waterways,” Alexander said at the time. [Read more…]

Current too strong for regatta on Oak Ridge rowing course, forcing cancellation

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The destruction of the Oak Ridge rowing course is pictured above after heavy rains in the past week led to flooding and now strong currents on the Clinch River, causing the cancellation of the Dogwood Regatta on April 29-30, 2017. (Photo courtesy Explore Oak Ridge)

 

The strong current on the Oak Ridge rowing course forced the cancellation of the Dogwood Regatta this weekend, April 29-30, a press release said.

“The rain over the last several days has caused major flooding in the area,” said Sarah McAuliffe, Oak Ridge Rowing Association regatta director. “The current is about 10 times the norm and has done damage to our race course and other infrastructure, but the larger issue is athlete safety. “

The Tennessee Valley Authority and the U.S. Coast Guard have confirmed that the water flow rate will remain too high for safe rowing regatta operations over the weekend, the press release said. [Read more…]

Secret City Wildbots survived to semifinals before loss to No. 1 seed

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The Secret City Wildbots, Team 4265, were underdogs in the quarterfinals, but they survived to the semifinals where they lost to the number one seed in the First Robotics World Championship in Houston on Saturday, April 22, 2017. (Photo by Angi Agle)

The Secret City Wildbots, Team 4265, were underdogs in the quarterfinals, but they survived to the semifinals where they lost to the number one seed in the First Robotics World Championship in Houston on Saturday, April 22, 2017. (Photo by Angi Agle)

 

HOUSTON—The Secret City Wildbots were underdogs in the quarterfinals, but they survived to the semifinals where they lost to the number one seed in the First Robotics World Championship in Houston on Saturday.

Alliance member Team 3824, Hardin Valley RoHawkTics, suffered a drive train failure after the first semifinal round, and was replaced by backup Team 3140, Farragut Flagship.

“Despite a great performance, the alliance fell to the team led by Team 973, the Greybots of Atascadero, California,” Oak Ridge Board of Education member Angi Agle said.

“This is the first time, to my knowledge, that these three teams (Oak Ridge, Hardin Valley, and Farragut) have partnered on the same alliance,” Agle said. “Hopefully, this will open the door to increased collaboration in future years, embodying the FIRST spirit of ‘coopretition.'” [Read more…]