Oak Ridge Today

DOE to transfer 25 acres to CROET

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Heritage Center

The main entrance to the Heritage Center, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge, is pictured above. (Photo courtesy CROET)

The U.S. Department of Energy will transfer 25 acres at East Tennessee Technology Park’s Heritage Center to the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee, and officials have planned a Wednesday afternoon ceremony.

The speakers will include Mark Whitney, manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, and Lawrence Young, CROET president and chief executive officer.

Special guests will include U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and David Klaus, DOE deputy undersecretary for management and performance.

Mason to brief feds on UPF alternatives report today

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Ernest Moniz, Lamar Alexander, Thom Mason, Joe DiPietro, Jimmy Cheek at University of Tennessee

From left are UT President Joe DiPietro, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, and ORNL Director Thom Mason.

Note: This story was last updated at 2:30 p.m.

KNOXVILLE—Federal officials have expressed concerns about increasing cost projections and delayed construction dates for a new Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex, and a so-called Red Team has drafted an alternative approach that could keep the project at $6.5 billion or less—and help workers get out of the aging Building 9212 at Y-12 by 2025.

Thom Mason, the director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, chaired the Red Team, and he is expected to brief federal officials in Washington, D.C., today (Monday) on the team’s report. The report will then go to Congress, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in a media briefing at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center at the University of Tennessee on Friday.

Among the questions that could be answered are which old production buildings at Y-12 should be replaced and which can be refurbished. Y-12 was built to enrich uranium as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II as the United States raced to beat Germany to build the world’s first atomic weapons. [Read more…]

No one injured when part of concrete ceiling falls in Y-12 building

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Y-12 National Security Complex Sign

No one was injured when chunks of concrete weighing up to 20 pounds fell from the ceiling in a roped-off area in a building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in March.

No one was injured when chunks of concrete weighing up to 20 pounds fell from the ceiling in a roped-off area in a building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in March.

That area of Building 9204-2 in Y-12‘s production area had been roped off to restrict worker access. The controlled area has been in place since 2009, said B&W Y-12, the plant’s managing and operating contractor. Access to the area was controlled with marker tape and boundary markers.

When the ceiling fell in that part of the building, large chunks of concrete rebounded into a frequently used walkway and an adjacent welding station, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board reported in the week ending March 21. Workers had used the welding station earlier in the day, the DNFSB said.

B&W Y-12 said chunks of the concrete fell to the floor and struck a portable welding exhaust unit located inside the controlled area. Some small pieces of the concrete also scattered outside of the area. Personnel in a nearby area heard the noise, discovered the problem, and immediately notified the shift manager, per procedures, the contractor said. [Read more…]

Review team develops UPF alternative, sends report to NNSA

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Thom Mason

Thom Mason

The projected cost had passed $10 billion and the completion date pushed back to 2038, so federal officials were looking for an alternative approach for the proposed Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

Earlier this year, the National Nuclear Security Administration asked Thom Mason, Oak Ridge National Laboratory director, to lead a team—a so-called “Red Team”—that would develop an alternative approach.

The team’s task was to find a faster, more efficient solution, NNSA Acting Administrator Bruce Held told a House subcommittee on April 3.

On Tuesday, the deadline for submitting a report, Mason said the team has identified a possible alternative and provided information on how the proposal could be implemented if the NNSA adopts it. The next step will be up to the NNSA. Y-12 is an NNSA site.

The goal is to still allow workers to get out of Y-12’s aging Building 9212 by 2025 and keep the cost within an approved range of $4.2 billion to $6.5 billion, Mason said late Tuesday afternoon, when the report was being polished before transmittal. [Read more…]

NIOSH renews ORAU contract for sick worker program

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Andy Page

Andy Page

Contract could be worth about $150 million over five years

For the second time in about five years, a federal health and safety institute has renewed its contract with Oak Ridge Associated Universities for the support it provides on a sick worker program. The new contract could be worth about $150 million during a five-year period.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health awarded the contract to a team headed by ORAU in Oak Ridge. Under the new contract, ORAU and its partners Dade Moeller and Associates Inc. and MJW Technical Services Inc. will continue to support NIOSH and its work under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, or EEOICPA, a press release said.

Last renewed in 2009, this contract has been managed by ORAU for more than a decade, and this is the second time NIOSH has renewed with ORAU and its partners, the release said. [Read more…]

U.S. House candidate Wamp launches RV tour in Third District

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Weston Wamp RV

Weston Wamp, a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, has launched an RV tour of East Tennessee’s Third District. The campaign visited Oak Ridge on Friday morning.

Weston Wamp, a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, has launched an RV tour of East Tennessee’s Third District. The campaign stopped in Oak Ridge on Friday, the fifth day of the tour.

The recreational vehicle—its exterior painted with red, white, and blue campaign slogans, and blue and green mountain vistas—will serve as a rolling campaign headquarters, hotel, and billboard, Wamp said during a Friday morning stop at Roane State Community College.

“I call it our seven-ton commitment to bringing Congress home,” Wamp said. “I hope that it ends up being iconic.”

The RV will make stops at events ranging from baseball games to pancake breakfasts in cities from Athens and Sweetwater in the south to Oneida and Oliver Springs in the north. The campaign will spend three nights a week on the road, generally staying outside of the Chattanooga area, where Wamp lives. The goal is to stay in virtually every incorporated town before the Aug. 7 primary. [Read more…]

Headrick announces second run for Congress in Third District

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Mary Headrick

Mary Headrick

Mary Headrick, a retired physician who lives in Maynardville, recently announced a second run for Congress in Tennessee’s Third District.

Headrick is a Democrat who also ran in 2012 but lost to the incumbent, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican who was first elected in 2010.

“All the people, especially the working families and retirees of District 3, deserve representation,” Headrick said in a press release. “They are not getting it. Special wealthy and corporate interests hold the power and benefits while the middle class shrinks and democracy falters. Too few people control too much money and power, and they are grabbing more by ‘buying’ a Congress that will pass laws and regulations to enhance their personal profit at the expense of the rest of us. I will defend our economy, jobs, Social Security, Medicare, public education.” [Read more…]

If elected, Wamp could become youngest member of Congress

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Weston Wamp and Verrner Anderson

Weston Wamp, right, a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, talks to Verner Anderson, who volunteered for the first campaign of Wamp’s father, Zach Wamp, in 1994.

If elected this year, Weston Wamp could become the youngest member of Congress. The Chattanooga Republican turns 27 this month.

If elected, he would return the East Tennessee seat to a member of the Wamp family. His father, Zach Wamp, held the seat for 16 years, from 1994-2010.

Wamp tried to unseat the incumbent, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, once before, in 2012. He wasn’t successful. Now, he’s trying again.

“Tennessee’s Third District deserves better representation,” Wamp said during a recent interview in Oak Ridge. “At the very least, they deserve a choice at the ballot box.”

Wamp suggested Fleischmann’s record could hurt the two-term congressman. Wamp said many federal employees and U.S. Department of Energy contractors are not pleased with Fleischmann’s performance, especially after a high-profile budget vote that led to a partial government shutdown in October. [Read more…]

Environmentalists, others to challenge Fleischmann, Duncan on global warming

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Volunteers have organized two press conferences today (Thursday) to challenge Tennessee congressmen John Duncan and Chuck Fleischmann to accept and then work to stop human-caused climate change, a press release said.

The first press conference is at 11 a.m. Thursday at Duncan’s Knoxville office at the Howard H. Baker Jr. U.S. Courthouse. The second is at 2 p.m. in front of the Bull Run Fossil Plant in Claxton.

The press release said the press conferences will include prominent business people, clergy, a fossil fuel technologist, a child advocate, environmentalists, educators, and students. [Read more…]

ORNL, Ohio company work together on new large-scale 3-D printing system

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ORNL and Cincinnati Inc. CRADA

From left are David Danielson, DOE assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy; Johnny Moore; DOE site office manager, Andy Jamison, Cincinnati Inc. CEO; and U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann. (ORNL photo/Jason Richards)

Technology seeks to provide new capabilities for auto, aerospace, other U.S. industries

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is partnering with Cincinnati Inc., a manufacturer of high quality machine tools located in Harrison, Ohio, to develop a large-scale polymer additive manufacturing (3-D printing) system.

The partnership aims to accelerate the commercialization of a new additive manufacturing machine that can print large polymer parts faster and more cheaply than current technologies. The partnership agreement supports the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative to increase the efficiency of the U.S. manufacturing sector and ensure that innovative clean energy technologies continue to be developed in America.

ORNL is a DOE lab. [Read more…]

Weston Wamp announces congressional campaign leadership

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Weston Wamp

Weston Wamp

Weston Wamp, a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Tennessee’s Third District, announced the first members of his campaign staff and leadership team this week.

The group includes three notable Chattanooga entrepreneurs as well as a former staffer for the incumbent, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, and a 25-year veteran of the Chattanooga Police Department, a press release said.

“I’m honored that people of this caliber have joined my campaign for Congress,” Wamp said. “Our campaign team spans three generations, but shares a passion for seeing Washington work to serve the people again. The Congress does not have to be an embarrassment to our country. We deserve much better representation, and with this team I believe we are on our way to a winning campaign and an opportunity to set a higher standard than the current congressman.” [Read more…]

Rep. Fleischmann keeps key subcommittee assignments

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U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann

Chuck Fleischmann

U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann has retained seats on all three of his House Appropriations subcommittees, including the Energy and Water Subcommittee, which is important to work in Tennessee’s Third District, a press release said.

The congressman said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers announced the subcommittee assignments on Wednesday.

“I take my role as an appropriator very seriously and am thrilled to continue my membership on the Homeland Security, Labor Health and Human Services, and Energy and Water subcommittees,” said Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican whose district includes Oak Ridge. “We made great progress over the past year, and I look forward to continuing my fight for responsible spending levels. As Tennessee’s sole House appropriator, I will continue to keep the needs of the state in mind throughout all of my work on the committee.” [Read more…]