Oak Ridge Today

UPF construction could cost more, take longer

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The entrance sign at Y-12 National Security Complex at Bear Creek Road and Scarboro Road is pictured above on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex was supposed to be completed by 2025 for no more than $6.5 billion, but that might no longer be the case.

In the past week, federal officials said construction projects across the country, including UPF, have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain delays, inflation, labor shortages, and increased labor costs. Those factors have led to higher construction costs and longer project timelines, the federal officials said.

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(For members) HHS designates class of Y-12 workers to be added to compensation program

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The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has designated a class of Y-12 employees to be added to a federal worker compensation program that involves certain illnesses and work at sites like Y-12 that are affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy.

The employees who could be added, unless Congress says otherwise, would have worked at Y-12 between January 1, 1958, and December 31, 1976, when the plant was manufacturing nuclear weapons components during the Cold War. They would have had an aggregate total of at least 250 work days. They could have been employees of DOE, its predecessor agencies, or their contractors and subcontractors.

Oak Ridge Today has previously reported that the workers could be added to the compensation program based on exposure to radiation from thorium metal parts and plutonium-241 isotopes.

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Manhattan Project Park staff back at work after government shutdown ends

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The partial government shutdown that started three weeks ago has affected the National Park Service in Oak Ridge. There are no National Park Service staff members or volunteers working at the Park Service desk at the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge, as pictured above on Friday, Jan. 11, 2019. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The partial government shutdown that started Dec. 22, 2018, and ended with a temporary spending measure approved Friday, Jan. 25, 2019, affected the National Park Service in Oak Ridge. During the shutdown, there were no National Park Service staff members or volunteers working at the Park Service desk at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, as pictured above on Friday, Jan. 11, 2019. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Federal employees of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge, are back at work after the partial government shutdown ended Friday.

The shutdown started Saturday, December 22, and it lasted 35 days. It was the longest government shutdown ever.

During the shutdown, there were no National Park Service staff members or volunteers working at the Park Service desk at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. The National Park Service did not monitor or update social media and websites during the shutdown, and it did not provide visitor services at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, including public information. Also, all park programs were canceled.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park said its staff resumed regular operations on Sunday after Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed a short-term continuing resolution that re-opened the government for three weeks. [Read more…]

Trump administration requests more money for DOE, NNSA

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The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 2:50 p.m.

The Trump administration has requested more money for the U.S. Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration than it did last year, but the impact could vary at Oak Ridge’s major federal sites.

The NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency within DOE, would get a big increase of $2.2 billion, compared to spending levels enacted in fiscal year 2017. The boost would raise NNSA funding to $15.1 billion. The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is an NNSA site.

The NNSA proposal is more than $1 billion higher than the $13.9 billion requested by the Trump administration in fiscal year 2018, which was up $1.4 billion over the fiscal year 2016 spending level ($12.5 billion).

Oak Ridge Today reported last year that Y-12’s funding would have been up 25 percent under President Donald Trump’s budget request for the current fiscal year, if Congress had approved the proposed spending levels. [Read more…]

Regular operations resumed at Manhattan Project Park when shutdown ended

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National-Park-Service-Employees

National Park Service employees are pictured above at the American Museum of Science and Energy. (Submitted photo)

 

The three-day federal government shutdown ended Monday, and staff at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge, resumed regular operations, officials said.

Congress passed a short-term spending bill on Monday that will fund the government through February 8, and President Donald Trump signed it Monday night.

On Tuesday, the National Park Service said employees of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park are “happy to be back at work, serving the American people and welcoming visitors to their national parks.”

The Park Service said it appreciated the support of local partners who “stepped up to offer support and continue to serve our visitors over the last few days,” and the NPS thanked the following partners: [Read more…]

Report: Chair of nuclear safety board proposes eliminating it

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Sean Sullivan (Photo credit: DNFSB.gov)

Sean Sullivan (Photo credit: DNFSB.gov)

The chairman of a nuclear safety board that provides recommendations and advice on public health and safety issues at certain federal facilities, including two in Oak Ridge, has proposed eliminating the board, according to an investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.

In its October 19 report, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity said it had obtained a June 29 letter from Sean Sullivan, the Republican chair of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, to Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.

The center has posted the five-page letter online along with an attached one-page historical summary of the five-member board, which issues weekly reports for U.S. Department of Energy sites that include Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex, among other activities. In his letter, Sullivan said the board is a “relic of the Cold War-era defense establishment.”

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is an independent oversight organization within the executive branch. It was created by Congress in 1988 to provide advice and recommendations to the secretary of energy on public health and safety at the defense nuclear facilities managed by DOE. Those reports are publicly available and posted online, and they have been used by reporters and public interest organizations, among others. The Center for Public Integrity said the DNFSB has helped persuade the federal government to impose tighter safety rules and regulations at most of the eight nuclear weapons sites. [Read more…]

ORNL to reduce workforce by up to 350 by end of year

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Thomas Zacharia

Thomas Zacharia

Note: This story was last updated at 10:50 a.m. Aug. 9.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory will reduce its workforce by up to 350 positions by the end of the calendar year, ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia said in a Tuesday morning email to employees.

The workforce restructuring plan has been proposed by UT-Battelle and approved by the U.S. Department of Energy, Zacharia said. ORNL is DOE’s largest multiprogram science and energy laboratory.

“From time to time, sustaining our work effectively and efficiently requires the most difficult of decisions, which is to reduce our staff in certain areas of the lab,” Zacharia said. “To allow us to provide for our research missions and to allocate resources most productively, the Department of Energy has approved a Workforce Restructuring Plan proposed by UT-Battelle that will reduce ORNL’s workforce by up to 350 positions by the end of the calendar year.”

Zacharia said the reductions will be made primarily among staff who charge to “indirect accounts,” along with some research staff affected by fiscal year 2017 funding who could not be placed elsewhere in the lab.

“By reducing these positions, ORNL will be able to maintain competitive chargeout rates while freeing resources for discretionary investments that will modernize lab infrastructure and maintain core research capabilities in the mission areas assigned to ORNL,” Zacharia said. [Read more…]

Some concern in Oak Ridge as Congress considers repealing Affordable Care Act

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Protesters express their opposition to the health care vote in May by U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Rocky Top post office on May 9, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Protesters express their opposition to the health care vote in May by U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Rocky Top post office on May 9, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The U.S. Senate continued to debate a potential repeal of at least part of the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” on Thursday night. It’s not clear what the Senate will eventually approve.

It’s also not clear what type of agreement the Senate can reach with the U.S. House of Representatives, if the Senate passes a bill. The House has already passed its own bill, the American Health Care Act.

On Thursday night, the Senate debate was focused on a so-called “skinny repeal,” which would roll back parts of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. It would repeal the mandates that most people have health insurance and that large employers cover their employees, but it would leave most of the health law in place, The New York Times reported.

It wasn’t clear if the Republican-controlled Senate had the votes to advance the legislation.

The vote on “skinny repeal” expected tonight comes after Senate Republicans were unable to reach consensus on broader legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and after an earlier repeal bill failed on Wednesday.

The health care debate in the Senate started with a 51-50 vote on Tuesday.

As the health care debate has played out in Congress this year, there has been some concern in Oak Ridge and Anderson County over the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010. It’s considered his signature domestic legislative achievement.

There has also been some concern here over possible Medicaid cuts. [Read more…]

ORNL pursuing two major upgrades at SNS

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An aerial view of the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo by ORNL)

An aerial view of the Spallation Neutron Source on Chestnut Ridge at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo by ORNL)

 

Note: This story was updated at 10:15 a.m. Aug. 1.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is pursuing two major upgrades to its Spallation Neutron Source that would allow new scientific research and could cost more than $1 billion.

The two proposed upgrades are a proton power upgrade and a second target station. The two projects are in different stages of review at the U.S. Department of Energy, ORNL spokesperson Morgan McCorkle said.

The proton power upgrade, or PPU, is being pursued first, and its current cost estimate is a little more than $200 million, McCorkle said. If approved, it would double the power of SNS’s proton beam from 1.4 megawatts to 2.8 megawatts.

The upgrade would allow new types of research at SNS, and it would increase the number of scientists who can use the facility each year, McCorkle said.

“The PPU will enable experiments that are not currently feasible, such as experiments on smaller or less concentrated samples, and experiments under more extreme environmental conditions,” McCorkle said. “The new scientific capabilities will support research in areas such as soft matter, quantum materials, chemistry, functional materials, and biology. Some examples of everyday products that may be improved by these discoveries include cell phones, batteries, computers, building materials, and drugs.”

The proton power upgrade would also eventually provide the extra power necessary for the proposed second target station, or STS. The design of the second target station is less mature, but the project could cost in the range of $1 billion and include about 300,000 square feet of new buildings, McCorkle said. The second target station would be on the east end of the SNS campus on Chestnut Ridge at ORNL.

[Read more…]

Federal funding of $28 million recommended for Y-12 fire station

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A fire engine is parked in front of the existing fire station at the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo courtesy Y-12)

A fire engine is parked in front of the existing fire station at the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo courtesy Y-12)

 

The Trump administration and congressional appropriations committees have agreed that $28 million in federal funding should be provided for a new fire station at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The current fire station at Y-12 was built in the 1940s, and it is located within the most highly protected area of the nuclear weapons plant and close to the most hazardous operations, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. Y-12 is an NNSA site.

“Seismic, tornado, hazardous material release, and security events could render the fire station inaccessible,” the NNSA said in a budget request submitted to Congress for fiscal year 2018, which starts October 1. (See page 271 here.)

Emergency planning assessments show that many hazardous materials releases would “have a very short travel time” before affecting the fire station, the NNSA said. Also, it’s critical to allow off-duty personnel to access the fire station since they augment the on-duty staff, the NNSA said.

The new fire station would be a single-story building of about 35,000 square feet. It would be located on the east end of Y-12, said Steven Wyatt, spokesperson for the NNSA Production Office in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Y-12‘s Biology Complex would be top priority if excess cleanup funding available

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Y-12 Biology Complex aerial

An aerial view of the Biology Complex at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Plans call for eventually demolishing the complex. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy)

 

If excess funding is available, the federal cleanup program in Oak Ridge has a top priority: the Biology Complex at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The budget request submitted to Congress by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, May 23, included $225 million for high-risk excess contaminated facilities at Y-12 and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

It’s not clear how much of that money might be used in Oak Ridge, if the president’s budget request were approved. Officials said the allocations would be determined by U.S. Department of Energy headquarters.

But the Oak Ridge cleanup program, known as environmental management, has taken steps to ensure that some projects here, such as the planned demolition of Y-12’s Biology Complex, are “in a good position” if money becomes available.

On Friday, Jay Mullis, acting manager for the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or EM, said the Biology Complex would be a primary priority if Y-12 gets some portion of the $225 million proposed by the Trump administration.

“Provided there is excess funding, that would be the building we would go after,” the Oak Ridge EM program said. [Read more…]

NNSA: Y-12 funding would be up 25 percent under president’s budget request

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Y-12 Aerial Photo June 2012

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is pictured above in June 2012. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 4:20 p.m.

Funding for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge would be up about 25 percent under the budget request submitted to Congress in May, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The total funding for Y-12 would be $1.64 billion, the NNSA said. That’s an increase of 25.4 percent over fiscal year 2016.

The budget request for fiscal year 2018, which starts October 1, was submitted by President Donald Trump to Congress on Tuesday, May 23. The NNSA request of $13.9 billion would increase funding by 7.8 percent compared to fiscal year 2017, Administrator Frank G. Klotz said during a teleconference with reporters on May 23.

Trump’s budget request has not yet been approved by Congress, where there has been bipartisan opposition, particularly to the proposed cuts. In Oak Ridge, sites and programs that could be cut include Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which would have a funding reduction of $206 million over two years, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or EERE.

But Y-12, a National Nuclear Security Administration site, could benefit if the president’s budget request were approved by Congress. A House spending bill introduced last week for federal energy and water departments appears to include proposed spending levels for the NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency within DOE, that are similar to what the Trump administration has proposed. [Read more…]