Oak Ridge Today

Community sets up memorial fund to build statue to honor former coach

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Garry Kreis

Garry Kreis

 

By J. Brad Jones

COALFIELD—The people of Coalfield and Oliver Springs have put aside their sports rivalry to come together to honor one of their own.

Garry Kreis, also known as “High Pockets,” played his high school football in Oliver Springs and at the University of Tennessee before becoming a teacher at Norwood Middle School in Anderson County.

In 1979, he became the assistant football coach at Coalfield High School, as well as the head basketball coach and teacher. For the next 28 years, Coach Garry Kreis was Coalfield football. Garry was assistant coach until 1987, when he became the head coach. He continued that role through 2007.

Recently, Garry Kreis was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and was doing very well with that until he received the bad news that the cancer had spread to his brain. Coach Kreis was placed in hospice care on March 14, 2017, where he remains now. However, Garry’s health has been deteriorating rapidly.

The community has begun several projects to honor the memory of Coach Garry Kreis for his continued dedication and support of the Coalfield community. [Read more…]

Secret City Wildbots to compete at Smoky Mountain Regional this week

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The Secret City Wildbots are primed for competition this weekend in the FIRST Robotics “FIRST Steamworks” challenge at Thompson Boling Arena in Knoxville from March 23-25, 2017. (Submitted photo)

The Secret City Wildbots are primed for competition this weekend in the FIRST Robotics “FIRST Steamworks” challenge at Thompson Boling Arena in Knoxville from March 23-25, 2017. (Submitted photo)

 

The Secret City Wildbots are primed for competition this weekend in the FIRST Robotics “FIRST Steamworks” challenge.

This year’s event is scheduled from Thursday, March 23, to Saturday, March 25 at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. It invites teams and their robots to join an adventure club and prepare their airship for flight. Teams were challenged to build their robot for collecting and placing gears on their airship for their pilots (the team’s human player) to populate gear trains to start their airships rotors, scoring fuel (“wiffleballs”) into a low goal or firing them into a high goal of their boiler in order to build up steam pressure, and lastly, climbing a rope to board their airship so they can help their pilots win the race.

The Secret City Wildbots, along with their alliance, were semi-finalists at the Palmetto Regional in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, from March 2-4. [Read more…]

CNS introduces hundreds of girls to engineering

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Chloe Roach from Anderson County Career and Technical Center pedals a bike to generate electricity. (Photo by Y-12)

Chloe Roach from Anderson County Career and Technical Center pedals a bike to generate electricity. (Photo by Y-12)

 

Y-12 National Security Complex shows how STEM skills lead to careers

Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC recently hosted more than 200 female high school students from 15 area schools as part of Introduce a Girl to Engineering. The goal of the event was to inspire girls to consider careers in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, a press release said.

This program was conducted in concert with Girl Day, an initiative founded by DiscoverE and expands CNS’ existing relationships with area schools.

Kristin Waldschlager of CNS Educational Outreach said educating the younger generation about STEM-related opportunities is “critical” for Y-12.

“At Y-12, we have a sense of responsibility to make sure we support the development and growth of future scientists and engineers who could be working here,” Waldschlager said in the press release. [Read more…]

Community listening event in Rocky Top to focus on painkillers, substance abuse, addiction

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Terry-Frank-Aug-15-2016

Terry Frank

A community listening event in Rocky Top in April will focus on painkillers, substance abuse, addiction, and overdoses.

The listening event will be at the Rocky Top Community Center on Monday, April 3, from 6-7:15 p.m. It will be hosted by Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank and concerned citizen Patricia Adkins, a press release said.

“The open invitation event will focus on receiving community comments about opiate abuse, addiction issues, and/or treatment, and any concern surrounding substance abuse issues in the community,” the press release said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdoses now account for more deaths in the U.S. than motor vehicle accidents, with 52 percent attributed to prescription medications. [Read more…]

Breakfast with Legislators is Monday

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McNally-Ragan-Calfee-at-Breakfast-with-Legislators-April-25-2016

The next Breakfast with the Legislators is at the Oak Ridge Civic Center on Monday, March 27, 2017. Pictured above in a breakfast in 2016 are Sen. Randy McNally (now lieutenant governor), Rep. John Ragan, and Rep. Kent Calfee. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The next Breakfast with the Legislators is Monday morning at the Oak Ridge Civic Center. The breakfast is scheduled from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Monday, March 27, in the Social Room of the Oak Ridge Civic Center.

The Civic Center is at 1401 Oak Ridge Turnpike. A light continental breakfast will be provided at no charge. The public is encouraged to attend, a press release said.

Senators Ken Yager and Randy McNally, who is now lieutenant governor, and representatives John Ragan and Kent Calfee have been invited to bring everyone up to date on what’s happening in the Tennessee General Assembly, the press release said. Members of the audience may ask questions and give opinions. [Read more…]

Learn more about Oak Ridge, bike with a park ranger on Saturday

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Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge

Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge

 

You can join a park ranger for a bike ride down Melton Lake Greenway on Saturday.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge, will present a free program on Saturday, March 25, at 10 a.m. The program will begin at Elza Gate Park, former entry point to the Secret City, and continue down Melton Lake Greenway. Rangers will stop several times along the bike ride to point out the rich history that is found within the Oak Ridge area, a press release said.

Elza Gate Park is located at 101 Oak Ridge Turnpike in east Oak Ridge. If you need directions, maps are available at the National Park desk in the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, or you can call (865) 576-6767. [Read more…]

With WIPP re-opening, DOE Oak Ridge plans to start shipping transuranic waste again

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An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that has been shut down for more than three years after a salt truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. (Photo by DOE Oak Ridge Office)

An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that was shut down for about three years after a salt haul truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. (Photo by DOE Oak Ridge Office)

 

An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that was shut down for about three years after a salt haul truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge.

Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico, according to the DOE Oak Ridge Office.

The shipments to be accepted starting in April will be the first received at the facility since the fire and radiological release in February 2014, WIPP said. There was an official re-opening event on Monday, January 9, with remarks by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and members of the New Mexico congressional delegation.

Since the closure three years ago, Oak Ridge workers have continued processing waste and developed innovative storage solutions until shipping can resume to WIPP, said Ben Williams, spokesperson for the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

Oak Ridge Today last reported on TRU waste in December 2015, when North Wind Solutions took over the operation of the Transuranic Waste Processing Center, which is south of Bethel Valley Road on Highway 95 in southwest Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

DOE finishes demolishing another building at ETTP

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Building K-731 at East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge, is pictured above during demolition. (Photo by DOE)

Building K-731 at East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge, is pictured above during demolition. (Photo by DOE)

 

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and its cleanup contractor have finished demolishing another building at East Tennessee Technology Park, or ETTP, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.

The work is part of an effort to advance toward Vision 2020, a goal to complete cleanup at ETTP by 2020 and continue transferring the remaining land to private industry, benefiting the regional economy, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM, said in a story published February 28.

The latest progress involves the removal of Building K-731. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, and cleanup contractor URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, or UCOR, began demolishing Building K-731 on August 30, moments after taking down the final pieces of Building K-27 and fulfilling Vision 2016. That was Oak Ridge’s ambitious goal to be the world’s first to successfully remove all of its former uranium enrichment facilities by the end of 2016. [Read more…]

DOE: Roof repairs lower future cleanup costs at Alpha 4 at Y-12

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Workers perform repairs on Alpha 4’s four-acre roof at Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo by DOE/Y-12)

Workers perform repairs on Alpha 4’s four-acre roof at Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo by DOE/Y-12)

 

By DOE Office of Environmental Management

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management recently finished repairs to an aging Y-12 National Security Complex building as part of an initiative that is designed to improve safety, reduce cleanup costs, lower risks, and stabilize excess facilities that are contaminated and are expected to be demolished.

Maintaining the roofs of aging, contaminated facilities prevents water damage, the greatest threat to rapid deterioration and the spread of contamination. These factors create a more hazardous environment for future demolition crews that must enter the facility, and they increase the cost of cleanup exponentially.

“We are applying lessons we’ve learned from previous cleanup projects,” said Jay Mullis, acting manager of Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM. “Buildings that are neglected cause cleanup to be much more costly and complicated. Performing smaller tasks like this one to maintain facilities will create considerable savings by the time we begin major demolition at Y-12.” [Read more…]

DOE works to remove risks, prepare excess buildings for demolition at ORNL, Y-12

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Workers remove combustible items from the Homogenous Reactor Experiment facility, or Building 7500, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which allowed the building’s heat detection system to be deactivated. (Photo by DOE)

Workers remove combustible items from the Homogenous Reactor Experiment facility, or Building 7500, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which allowed the building’s heat detection system to be deactivated. (Photo by DOE/ORNL)

 

By DOE Office of Environmental Management

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management and its cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge are taking steps to remove risks and help prepare excess facilities for eventual demolition at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Oak Ridge is home to more than 350 excess facilities totaling more than six million square feet. Many of them are several decades old.

Alan Stokes, associate director for the Planning and Execution Division in Oak Ridge’s Environmental Management, or EM, program, said during a panel discussion this month at the 2017 Waste Management Symposium in Phoenix that Oak Ridge has more than a quarter of the “higher-risk” excess facilities in the entire DOE inventory. [Read more…]

Two international events proposed for 75th anniversary of DOE, Oak Ridge

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ORHPA Logo

The Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association has proposed that the U.S. Department of Energy and the City of Oak Ridge host two international events during their 75th anniversary.

The events are: (a) an exhibit on the international scientific progress made during the seven decades since World War II and (b) a remembrance of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with special invitations going to representatives of the 25 countries that suffered the highest casualties during the war, a press release said.

Both the U.S. Department of Energy nuclear complex and the City of Oak Ridge were born in the turbulent year following the Pearl Harbor attack (1942) as part of President Roosevelt’s massive—and super-secret—effort to build the first atomic bomb, the press release said.

“Including these two events in this year’s anniversary would showcase DOE’s important contributions to mankind and enhance international understanding and cooperation,” said Martin McBride, who heads the ORHPA committee on the proposal. “It would also honor all who fell during World War II.” [Read more…]

Oak Ridge wins Taxslayer Border Classic soccer tournament

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The Oak Ridge Wildcats won the championship game 1-0 over Lowndes High School from Valdosta, Georgia, during the Taxslayer Border Classic Soccer Invitational in Augusta, Georgia, on Saturday, March 18, 2017. (Photo submitted by Cathy Lawless)

The Oak Ridge Wildcats won the championship game 1-0 over Lowndes High School from Valdosta, Georgia, during the Taxslayer Border Classic Soccer Invitational in Augusta, Georgia, on Saturday, March 18, 2017. (Photo submitted by Cathy Lawless)

 

By Jeff Trombly

The Oak Ridge Wildcats traveled to Augusta, Georgia, this past week to participate in the Taxslayer Border Classic Soccer Invitational hosted by Greenbrier High School.

The 36-team tournament was held over three days and included teams from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Oak Ridge High School was the only team from Tennessee in this year’s tournament.

The Wildcats won their first match against a very talented Walton High School team from suburban Atlanta 4-3 in a penalty kick tie-breaker. There was a 1-1 draw during regular time, when Carson McGhee scored for Oak Ridge. McGhee, a junior, scored when he slammed home a rebound from a corner kick by senior Austin Vinyard.

Oak Ridge junior goalkeeper Austyn Lincoln saved two Walton penalty kicks in the tie-breaker to lead the Wildcats to victory. [Read more…]