Oak Ridge Today

Chinese supercomputer still No. 1, ORNL’s Titan No. 2

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Titan Supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory stayed at No. 2 in a Top 500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers released Monday morning. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

A Chinese supercomputer kept its top ranking, and Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory stayed at No. 2 in a Top 500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers released Monday morning.

The top two spots were unchanged from the semiannual rankings released five months ago in June, when Tianhe-2, a supercomputer developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, bumped Titan from the top spot. The ORNL supercomputer had been named No. 1 one year ago.

The rankings released Monday at the SC13 conference in Denver, Colo., said Tianhe-2 is capable of performing 33.86 petaflops. That’s 33.86 quadrillion calculations per second, on what is known as a Linpack benchmark test.

Titan is a Cray XK7 system that achieved 17.59 petaflops. Titan is one of the most energy-efficient systems on the list, consuming a total of 8.21 megawatts and delivering 2.143 gigaflops per watt, a press release said. [Read more…]

Anderson County rallies in second half without Fox to win 32-27

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Information from Jim Harris/WYSH Radio

CLINTON—Anderson County trailed 21-7 at halftime at home Friday night, but outscored South Doyle 25-6 in the second half, despite being without leading rusher Matt Fox (ankle).

Mavericks quarterback Tyler Hicks picked up the slack, scoring three rushing touchdowns, including the go-ahead score with just over two minutes to play. Hicks finished the second round Class 5A playoff game with 131 yards, including 114 in the second half.

Anderson County (11-1) will host Knox West (11-1) in the state 5A quarterfinal Friday night.

ORNL retiree recalls 1944 hospital bombing in Belgium

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Ernest Shepherd

Ernest Shepherd

Ernest Shepherd attended the Veterans Day ceremony on Monday at Oak Ridge National Laboratory wearing a uniform similar to what he wore in 1944 when the hospital he was working in as a medic in Belgium was hit with a German bomb.

Shepherd—89 years old and an ORNL retiree who treated wounded from the D-Day invasion prior to moving on to Belgium—would earn the Purple Heart for his heroics in the aftermath of the bombing.

“It blew out all the windows in that whole building,” recalled Shepherd, who was on the second floor when the bomb crashed into the hospital and exploded about 300 feet from where he was located. “It killed 29 people. There were between 12 to 15 air personnel killed, and one major who I really liked got killed. I got wounded in the face with shrapnel or flying glass. That’s how I earned the Purple Heart.” [Read more…]

Lecture to focus on whether small reactors can rejuvenate nuclear power

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Kent Williams

Kent Williams

A retired distinguished staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will discuss Thursday evening whether small modular nuclear reactors, such as the one proposed in west Oak Ridge, can rejuvenate nuclear power.

The presentation by Kent Williams starts at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Fellowship Hall at First Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge.

Many people in the nuclear industry say that small modular reactors, or SMRs, are key to a revitalized nuclear industry in the U.S. and overseas because of their projected market, safety, and economic characteristics, a press release said. One SMR plant has been proposed at the former Clinch River Breeder Reactor site in west Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Final milestone in U.S.-Russian partnership converting nuclear warheads into fuel

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Ernest Moniz

Ernest Moniz

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Russia has converted 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium—the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear warheads—and the resulting low enriched uranium, or LEU, has been delivered to the United States, fabricated into nuclear fuel, and used in nuclear power plants to generate nearly 10 percent of all U.S. electricity for the past 15 years, federal officials said.

That’s roughly half of all commercial nuclear energy produced domestically during that period, a U.S. Department of Energy press release said.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced the final LEU shipment on Thursday.

The LEU was derived from Russian weapons-origin highly enriched uranium, or HEU, under the 1993 U.S.-Russia HEU Purchase Agreement, commonly known as the Megatons to Megawatts Program, the press release said. [Read more…]

ORNL: ‘Black Hawk Down’ commander still honors fallen soldiers

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Danny McKnight

Danny McKnight

Danny McKnight’s U.S Army Rangers’ unit was the focus of the movie “Black Hawk Down”—the story of a battle that occurred in Somalia 20 years ago.

McKnight told an audience at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Monday, Veterans Day, that he visits the six graves of men who lost their lives in that battle every five years as he did this past October.

“It reminds me of how special they were and still are to me,” said McKnight, a 28.5-year veteran of the Rangers and author of the book “Streets of Mogidishu—Leadership at Its Best” that recounts the battle of Oct. 3-4, 1993. “I want people to know about it because I want people to understand that’s what we need to do. I never want to forget them. I don’t care if they’ve been gone 50 years. As long as I can walk, talk and breathe every five years, they’ll see me. I know they see me.”

Three hundred people recently attended the unit’s first reunion in 20 years in October when they met in Dallas. [Read more…]

Sound Company celebrates ‘Greatest Hits’ this weekend

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Sound Company Children's Performing Choir

The Sound Company Children’s Choir is pictured above in a previous performance. (File photo)

Sound Company, Oak Ridge’s Children’s Performing Choir, will present a unique choral performance entitled “Just Sing!” this weekend, a press release said.

The Saturday show features The Nashville Singers. It will start at 5:30 p.m. at the Historic Grove Theater at High Places Church.

The Sunday show begins at 3 p.m.

Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students and seniors.

The “Just Sing!” shows will include these songs: [Read more…]

Open house offers information on Affordable Care Act on Saturday

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ACA Volunteer Jim Nelson

Affordable Care Act Volunteer Jim Nelson is pictured above. (Submitted photo)

An open house to provide information about the Affordable Care Act, sometimes called “Obamacare,” will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday at Grace Lutheran Church in Woodland.

Anyone who is interested in learning more about the new health care act is invited to attend this educational event, especially those who need to get health insurance in the new marketplace. Those attending will be able to access both printed information and computers to get online resources, a press release said.

Community volunteers, including some experienced with the Tennessee Health Care Coalition, will be present to make sure their neighbors have access to affordable, quality health care, and accurate information about the ACA, the release said. [Read more…]

Public Defender Marshall seeks re-election in 2014

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Tom Marshall

Tom Marshall

Anderson County Public Defender Tom Marshall has announced that he will seek re-election to a fourth eight-year term in 2014.

Marshall has served as Anderson County public defender since 1989, and he is also an adjunct law professor at Roane State Community College.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina School Of Law, Marshall was appointed Anderson County public defender by Gov. Ned McWherter in 1989, a press release said. He was then elected by Anderson County voters in 1990 and re-elected in 1998 and 2006. [Read more…]

Officials celebrate conversion of historic hotel to assisted living center

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Alexander Inn Groundbreaking

Local, state, and federal officials join volunteers and nonprofit and business executives for a groundbreaking ceremony at the historic Alexander Inn on Thursday.

Top military leaders and scientists once stayed at this historic two-story hotel in the heart of Oak Ridge, and now it’s being converted into an assisted living center.

The $5.5 million renovation of the Alexander Inn at Jackson Square started in July, the culmination of a years-long preservation effort. It could be complete by mid-2014, said Rick Dover, manager of Family Pride Corp., the company converting the hotel.

The Guest House Senior Living at the Alexander Inn will have 62 rooms, including a 17-room memory care wing.

The hotel was built during the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic bombs during World War II. Guests who once stayed there included Gen. Leslie Groves, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, and physicists J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi. [Read more…]

More blasting at Kroger Marketplace site on Friday, Monday

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Kroger Marketplace Building Construction

More blasting at the Kroger Marketplace shopping center site is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday and Monday. Police officers will stop traffic on Illinois Avenue and Oak Ridge Turnpike for about three to five minutes during the blasts.

More blasting at the Kroger Marketplace shopping center site is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday and Monday.

Police officers will stop traffic on Illinois Avenue and Oak Ridge Turnpike for about three to five minutes during the blasts.

During the blasting, Illinois Avenue traffic will be blocked from Robertsville Road to Oak Ridge Turnpike, and Oak Ridge Turnpike traffic will be blocked from the Illinois/Turnpike intersection east to Robertsville Road.

There was also blasting at the site in October. [Read more…]

Weigel’s has ribbon-cutting Tuesday

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Weigel's on South Illinois Avenue

The Weigel’s on South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge has a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday.

The new Weigel’s store on South Illinois Avenue will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Tuesday.

The new Weigel’s convenience store and gas station is at 417 S. Illinois Ave. in Oak Ridge.

It’s one in a series of relatively new businesses recently completed or under construction in or near the Woodland neighborhood along South Illinois Avenue. Others include an Aldi grocery, Panera Bread and Aubrey’s restaurant, and a Bojangle’s restaurant.