Oak Ridge Today

Chamber’s Christmas Parade is Saturday, Dec. 10

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A photo from a previous Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade. (File photo by Eli Welton)

The annual Christmas Parade in Oak Ridge will be Saturday, December 10.

It’s organized by the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by The Cowperwood Company.

This year’s theme is “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

More than 80 floats are expected to participate in the parade, which is scheduled from 6 p.m. to roughly 8 p.m. The parade route will include Lafayette Road, then Oak Ridge Turnpike. [Read more…]

ORNL center will make isotopes for medicine, research, security

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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.

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Man receives two-year sentence after fatal hit-and-run

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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.

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Union wants to use former hardware store as trade school

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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.

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Marina pedestrian bridge forum on Friday

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From the City of Oak Ridge

The idea of a pedestrian bridge at Melton Lake Park has been talked about for years.

Now, a senior design team comprised of University of Tennessee civil and environmental engineering students wants to know what you think about it. This Volunteer Design Group will be hosting a public forum to further discuss the project at 5 p.m. this Friday, November 18. It’s their second forum.

[Read more…]

City will pay at least $15 per hour for permanent, full-time work

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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.

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NRC seeks public comment about test reactor

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Kairos Hermes test reactor (Image via Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment and will have a public meeting and online seminar Wednesday about issuing a construction permit for a proposed test reactor in Oak Ridge.

The NRC has issued a draft environmental impact statement for the construction permit for a Kairos Hermes Test Reactor. The nuclear reactor would not produce electricity, but it would test Kairos Power’s fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor technology, according to the NRC.

Completed in September, the draft environmental impact statement includes the NRC staff’s preliminary analysis of the environmental impacts of issuing a construction permit to Kairos.

“After weighing the environmental, economic, technical, and other benefits against environmental and other costs, the NRC staff’s preliminary recommendation, unless safety issues mandate otherwise, is that the operating license be issued as requested,” the NRC said in a notice published in the Federal Register.

[Read more…]

ORNL to receive $497 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding 

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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.

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Crews demolish ORNL reactor once used for aircraft nuclear propulsion research

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Demolition began in September 2022 on the Bulk Shielding Reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and it was completed in November. It was the first teardown of a former reactor at the site. (Photo by U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management)

Workers have demolished a nuclear reactor that was built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1950s for studies that were part of the federal aircraft nuclear propulsion program.

It’s the first demolition of a reactor in the ORNL central campus area. The demolition was reported to be completed ahead of schedule.

The Bulk Shielding Reactor, also known as Building 3010, was built in the 1950s for radiation shielding studies as part of the federal aircraft nuclear propulsion program. It included a 27-foot-deep reactor pool filled with water to shield the radioactive components contained in the pool, according to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management. Its mission changed to a general-purpose research reactor in 1963, and it was shut down permanently in 1991.

The reactor was demolished by cleanup contractor UCOR, working for DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM).

[Read more…]

Community Thanksgiving on Nov. 24

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The annual free community Thanksgiving dinner is in Oak Ridge on Thursday, November 24.

“Everyone should have someone to give thanks with on Thanksgiving!” a press release said. “The grassroots annual tradition continues, and this year we are back to in-house dining!”

Everyone is invited, the press release said.

The dinner is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, November 24, at the Historic Grove Theater at 123 Randolph Road in Oak Ridge. No RSVP is required, the press release said.

[Read more…]

Forum today about overturning of Roe v Wade

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Four Oak Ridge and Tennessee organizations are having a forum today (Tuesday, November 1) about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in 1973.

This summer, almost 50 years later, Roe was overturned by the court in a 5-4 vote.

“The over-turn of Roe v. Wade destroyed 50 years of legal precedents—and along with the trigger ban law of the state of Tennessee—placed the health, lives, livelihood, and families of Tennessee women in serious jeopardy,” a press release said. “The physicians and health care providers who have met the needs of these women for decades could now face felony charges. No exceptions are allowed under the law.”

The forum today will feature five female experts, including professors of nursing and medicine, a criminal defense attorney and nonprofit founder, a state senator, and a family nurse practitioner, the press release said.

They will “continue the conversation on the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the trigger ban in Tennessee,” the press release said.

The five women are:

[Read more…]

Street Painting Festival raises $20K for Roane State scholarships

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Sonia Summers won the Best of Show award in the 2022 Street Painting Festival in Jackson Square in October. (Submitted photo)

The 2022 Street Painting Festival this month raised more than $20,000 to help fund scholarships for Roane State Community College students in Anderson County.

The annual festival was hosted by the Noon Rotary Club of Oak Ridge in Historic Jackson Square. The festival blends art, history, and community for a fun event in support of local students, a press release said. More than $300,000 in scholarships issued by the nonprofit Roane State Foundation have been provided since the start of the festival in 1999.

Festival sponsors make a tax-exempt donation to the Foundation, with levels ranging from $5,000 for Platinum down to $100 for Individual. Sponsors’ names are assigned to sidewalk squares upon which the artists paint pictures with chalk.

[Read more…]