Oak Ridge Today

Science Saturdays attract hundreds of students for lectures, tours

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Science Saturday Tour of Spallation Neutron Source

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Clarina De la Cruz, left, gives a tour of the Spallation Neutron Source to Science Saturday attendees Allison Campbell, Michael Campbell, Krista Barrett, and Joseph Gibbs. (Image courtesy of ORNL)

By Morgan McCorkle

Hundreds of science-minded students bypassed Saturday morning cartoons this semester, opting instead to participate in the first year of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Science Saturdays program.

Open to students in grades 8-12, the program’s free weekend lectures and hands-on activities centered on the science of rainbows, robotics and remote handling, the materials genome, crystals, biofuels, supercomputing, climate change, and more. [Read more…]

Roane State, ORNL, industries train workers in composites, advanced manufacturing

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John Thornton at Carbon Fiber Technology Facility

John Thornton, left, a graduate of Roane State’s Advanced Materials Training and Education Center and an intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility, chats with Roane State President Chris Whaley. (Submitted photos)

John Thornton of Clinton graduated from Roane State Community College’s Advanced Materials Training and Education Center, or AMTEC, a year ago.

Today, he works in one of the most innovative places in the country.

“It’s been an amazing experience,” Thornton said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of this and hopefully develop a career out of it.”

Thornton is one of 13 AMTEC trainees interning at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility. The $35 million plant is a new advanced manufacturing facility designed to reduce the cost of carbon fiber—a critical material for efficient, lightweight vehicles, next-generation wind turbines, and a wide array of other consumer and industrial products. [Read more…]

DOE’s public bus tour begins Monday

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s 2013 Oak Ridge facilities public bus tour begins June 3 and continues through Aug. 30. The tour offers visitors a first-hand look at the DOE’s Oak Ridge facilities and provides historical commentary on the transformation of the Oak Ridge Reservation during the past 70 years.

The reservation-wide tour is a popular destination for tourists visiting the area. Since its inception in 1996, the DOE public tour program has attracted more than 29,000 visitors from all 50 states. The three-hour tour allows visitors to see the reservation and learn historical facts and updates on the world-class missions under way in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Resurfacing of 25 streets starts Saturday

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Resurfacing of parts of 25 Oak Ridge streets is scheduled to start Saturday.

“The project will begin on Wisconsin Avenue with repairs to correct surface and drainage problems, which will be followed by concrete work by city personnel to correct drainage problems,” a press release said. “This project will generally proceed from west to east.” [Read more…]

Peggy’s Irish Festival this evening

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Pat Kane

Award-winning musician Pat Kane will perform at Peggy’s Irish Festival at the Realty Center today.

Peggy’s Irish Festival is this evening from 5 to 9 p.m. at Realty Center on South Tulane Avenue.

The annual festival features Irish music by Pat Kane, two-time winner of the New York City Fleadh Cheoil National Festival of Irish Music.

Realty Center is at 201 S. Tulane Ave.

Appeals court sides with Powell-Clinch utility commissioners

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Information from WYSH Radio

The commissioners of the Powell-Clinch Utility District scored a legal victory last week in their dispute with the state’s Utility Management Review Board when an appeals court overturned a lower court’s ruling that they could be held liable for, and removed from office, for acts that allegedly occurred before a change in state law in 2009.

The issue before the appeals court was to determine if the three commissioners—Charles Oldham, Jerry Shattuck, and Charles Taylor—could be removed from office based on a change in state law that went into effect in June of 2009 which added an amendment that “failing to fulfill the commissioner or commissioners’ fiduciary responsibility in the operation or oversight of the district” would be considered as one of the possible grounds for the removal of utility even if the alleged acts occurred before the amendment went into effect. [Read more…]

TVA, EPA update Roane County on ash cleanup efforts

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Information from WYSH Radio

On Thursday, officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Tennessee Valley Authority updated Roane County residents on the ongoing cleanup efforts from the 2008 coal ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant.

The December 2008 spill dumped more than a billion gallons of coal ash sludge into the Clinch and Emory Rivers and into the surrounding community. What had been 5.4 million cubic yards of sludge is now down to about 70,000 cubic yards—or 14 million gallons—and officials expect to have the rest cleared by the end of June. [Read more…]

Avisco Inc. receives $12 million Bear Creek Road construction contract for UPF project

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Uranium Processing Facility

Pictured above is the proposed Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex, with the administrative area in the front and the fortified section of the building in the rear. (Submitted image)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently announced that it has awarded a $12 million contract to Avisco Inc. of Oak Ridge for road, bridge, and water line work on Bear Creek Road as part of the Uranium Processing Facility project at Y-12 National Security Complex.

The contract is part of the UPF site readiness subproject, a press release said. Avisco will be building about 4,000 feet of two-lane roadway, a bridge, and adjacent potable waterlines in order to prepare the site of the new UPF. Construction will begin in June and is scheduled for completion in September 2014. [Read more…]

Energy secretary to visit ORNL Monday

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Ernest Moniz

Ernest Moniz

He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 97-0 vote on May 16, and on Monday, Ernest Moniz will visit Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the first time as energy secretary.

Moniz will meet with the media at the Spallation Neutron Source.

A former under secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, Moniz was sworn in as the nation’s 13th Secretary of Energy on May 21. [Read more…]

ORHS graduation tonight

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Oak Ridge High School Graduation

The Oak Ridge High School graduation ceremony is at 7 p.m. today at Blankenship Field. (File photo)

The Oak Ridge High School graduation ceremony is at 7 p.m. today at Blankenship Field.

If the ceremony is rained out tonight, it will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at Blankenship Field.

Check the ORHS website for more information.

UPF: World-class engineering problems to work through, but site work has started

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Uranium Processing Facility

Pictured above is the proposed Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex, with the administrative area in the front and the fortified section of the building in the rear. (Submitted image)

There are some “world-class engineering problems” to work through, but site preparation work has started on the giant new Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex, a project official said Thursday.

“We’re finally starting to make some traction,” UPF Federal Project Director John Eschenberg told several hundred people at the two-day Tennessee Valley Corridor National Summit at Y-12’s New Hope Center.

Eschenberg said the site prep work could last 18 months, and it will include work on power distribution and underground water lines as well as moving a section of Bear Creek Road to the north. Three contracts have already been awarded to East Tennessee small businesses. [Read more…]

House leader’s speech emphasizes research, mixes in politics

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Eric Cantor

Eric Cantor

Note: This story was updated at 12:35 p.m.

In his first visit to Oak Ridge, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor paid tribute to the national security and science work that has occurred here dating back to World War II, called for a continued emphasis on research and discovery, and touched on political topics including the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, unemployment, and the nation’s social safety net.

A Virginia Republican, Cantor said the U.S. House of Representatives last week passed the Northern Route Approval Act, allowing the Keystone XL pipeline to be completed. The bill declares that a presidential permit is not required to approve the section of the pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska, which crosses a national border. [Read more…]