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No COVID-19 cases reported at Y-12, Pantex

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No confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported at two nuclear weapons production sites in Tennessee and Texas, a federal contractor said Wednesday. The two sites are the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

At Y-12, the contagious respiratory illness has not affected operations or construction projects such as the Uranium Processing Facility, according to Consolidated Nuclear Security, the contractor that manages and operates the two sites.

CNS said it is increasing sanitation efforts, limiting travel and visits, minimizing external visitors, and increasing the use of technology to limit face-to-face contact.

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DOE plans to demolish world’s oldest operating nuclear facility

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Building 3019, the oldest operating nuclear facility in the world, is pictured above at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)

The U.S. Department of Energy plans to demolish the oldest operating nuclear facility in the world.

The cleanup and demolition of Building 3019 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could start sometime around 2030.

But the work won’t start until more than 500 canisters of uranium-233 stored in the building have been processed and removed, possibly by 2025.

More than 70 years old, Building 3019 was built during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. That was a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic bombs.

From 1943-1976, the building was used as a pilot plant to test radiochemical processes before they were used on a large scale at other nuclear facilities.

Now Building 3019 stores the nation’s inventory of uranium-233. Processing and removing that uranium is the top cleanup priority at ORNL because, among other things, storing the highly enriched fissile nuclear material increases security costs and creates nuclear safety issues. The cleanup work is being done by DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and its contractor Isotek.

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With key isotopes depleted, DOE plans production center at ORNL

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The U.S. Department of Energy has proposed an isotope production and research center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that could be important for medical, national security, and research projects.

In a budget request released in February, DOE said its supply of certain key enriched stable isotopes has been depleted, making the United States more dependent upon foreign imports for enriched stable isotopes. Isotopes are forms of an element that have the same number of protons but different number of neutrons in their nuclei.

DOE said the demand for enriched stable isotopes continues to grow substantially, including for the medical, national security, and fundamental research projects.

The new center at ORNL, the U.S. Stable Isotope Production and Research Center, would reduce the nation’s dependence upon foreign countries for those isotopes, DOE said.

DOE approved the mission need for the facility in January 2019. Although the cost range could change, the current project estimate is between $175 million and $298 million.

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Next major decision anticipated for second target station at SNS

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SNS-Second-Target-Station
More than 200 scientists from around the world met from Oct. 27 to 29, 2015, at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to provide input on the scientific instruments that would be installed at a proposed Second Target Station, or STS, pictured above at center right at the Spallation Neutron Source. (File aerial photo and overlay by ORNL)

The next decision about the second target station at the Spallation Neutron Source could be made later this year or in the first quarter of next year, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told a House subcommittee on Thursday. The next decision would include an alternative selection and a cost range.

The $1.4 billion SNS is located on Chestnut Ridge at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It provides neutrons for research.

The second target station has been part of SNS plans for many years. It’s one of two upgrades being pursued at SNS. The other is a proton power upgrade, which is expected to double the power of SNS’s proton beam from 1.4 megawatts to 2.8 megawatts.

The second target station has a current estimated cost range of $800 million to $1.5 billion. The U.S. Department of Energy said the second target is needed more than a decade ago, in January 2009. The second target station would use a narrow proton beam and a compact, rotating, water-cooled tungsten target. It is expected to fill gaps in materials research that require the combined use of intense, cold (longer wavelength) neutrons and instruments that can help analyze complex materials. It could have up to 22 experimental beamlines.

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Demolition started on centrifuge site, largest remaining complex at ETTP

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Workers have begun taking down the second of four sections of the Centrifuge Complex at East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge. Completing this project will move the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management closer to its goal of finishing all major demolitions at ETTP by the end 2020. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management)

Cleanup crews have started tearing down the largest remaining collection of buildings at the former K-25 site, which was built during World War II and enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and power plants through the Cold War.

The demolition work is occurring at the Centrifuge Complex at the K-25 site, now known as East Tennessee Technology Park or Heritage Center. The Centrifuge Complex is on the south side of ETTP. It includes the tall, white buildings visible from Highway 58.

Oak Ridge crews began demolishing the K-1200 section of the Centrifuge Complex in February. It’s the second of four sections.

Deactivation and demolition work in the first section of the complex was recently completed. That portion was a Manhattan Project facility built for research and development in 1944.

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Fusion research: ORNL chosen for plasma materials experiment facility

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Scientists use a laser to align the plasma created at the Proto-MPEX (Materials Plasma Exposure Experiment) machine at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo credit: Ted Biewer/ORNL, U.S. Department of Energy)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been chosen as the site of an experimental facility to test materials that would withstand the harsh conditions of the plasmas created in fusion devices, which, researchers hope, could eventually provide carbon-free energy to people around the world.

The proposed facility, the Materials Plasma Exposure Experiment facility, or MPEX, has an estimated cost range between $87 million and $175 million. It would be in an existing facility in an area at ORNL known as the Energy Systems Test Complex.

Fusion devices would use the same reactions that power the sun. Temperatures inside a fusion reactor could reach millions of degrees.

Scientists are studying materials that could withstand the conditions inside fusion reactors by exposing them to prototypical plasma conditions. Plasma, the heated matter created in a fusion device, has high-energy neutrons, electrons, and ions. MPEX would study materials that face the plasma. Finding materials capable of withstanding the harsh environment remains a major hurdle to using fusion to produce energy.

A critical decision for the MPEX facility was completed in early February by the U.S. Department of Energy. ORNL is a DOE Office of Science lab. The critical decision, CD-1, is the second step in the five-step process that DOE uses to manage projects. The CD-1 decision included an alternative selection and a cost range.

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K-25 History Center to feature exhibits, artifacts, galleries

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K-25 History Center (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)


The K-25 History Center in west Oak Ridge will feature exhibits with more than 250 original artifacts and interactive galleries developed with help from almost 1,000 oral histories.

There will be a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the K-25 History Center at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, February 27.

“The K-25 History Center was created to honor the amazing stories of the men and women who helped construct and operate the uranium enrichment complex that altered the global landscape during the Manhattan Project and Cold War,” the U.S. Department of Energy said.

The History Center is housed in 7,500 square feet of space on the second floor of the city-owned fire station at the former K-25 site, now known as Heritage Center. It was developed as part of a 2012 agreement that allowed DOE to demolish the North Tower of the former mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building.

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REAC/TS retains PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre designation

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OAK RIDGE, Tenn.—The Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS) received its redesignation as a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) Collaborating Centre recently.

Collaborating Centres serve as key institutions throughout the world providing relevant expertise and functioning as an extension of the international public health agency’s mission to improve health outcomes for all people.

REAC/TS, located in Oak Ridge, has been a PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre for radiation emergency assistance since 1980. The centres must be redesignated every four years by fulfilling multiple criteria, including: high scientific and technical standing at national and international levels; prominent place in the country’s health, scientific, or educational structures; high quality of scientific and technical leadership; strong working relationships with other institutions in the country and at intercountry, regional and global levels; clear ability, capacity, and readiness to participate in international cooperative activities; a clear technical and geographical relevance of both the institution and its activities to WHO’s program priorities.

REAC/TS Director Dr. Carol Iddins will continue to serve as head of the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre for radiation emergency assistance.

“REAC/TS has been very fortunate to have a strong, long-standing affiliation with the WHO Radiation Emergency Medical Preparedness and Assistance Network (REMPAN) and a close working relationship with Dr. Zhanat Carr, WHO Radiation Program, Department of Public Health and Environment,” Dr. Iddins said. “This relationship is crucially important to already have in place, because we realize when an incident occurs it can affect the global population.”

About REAC/TS
REAC/TS is an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education facility managed by ORAU for the U.S. Department of Energy with the mission to strengthen the medical response to radiological and nuclear incidents. REAC/TS provides 24/7 medical support and deployment to provide emergency medical consultation for incidents involving radioactive materials and ionizing radiation worldwide. REAC/TS also conducts ongoing research into the biological effects of radiation and provides continuing medical education for healthcare providers, other professionals and students. For more information, visit https://orise.orau.gov/reacts/

About ORISE
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is a U.S. Department of Energy asset that is dedicated to enabling critical scientific, research, and health initiatives of the department and its laboratory system by providing world class expertise in STEM workforce development, scientific and technical reviews, and the evaluation of radiation exposure and environmental contamination.

ORISE is managed by ORAU, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and federal contractor, for DOE’s Office of Science. For more information on ORISE, visit https://orise.orau.gov/
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science

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About 600 experiments affected by HFIR shutdown

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The High Flux Isotope Reactor vessel at Oak Ridge National Laboratory resides in a pool of water illuminated by the blue glow of the Cherenkov radiation effect. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

About 600 experiments and roughly 500 users were affected by the nearly year-long shutdown of the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the lab said Thursday.

HFIR, which is used for research and isotope production, restarted October 29, 2019. It had been shut down since November 13, 2018, after an elevated radiation level was detected in the reactor’s primary cooling system.

Reactors users who had approved proposals when HFIR was shut down have been running those experiments since it restarted in the fall, according to a response to questions provided by ORNL spokesperson Morgan McCorkle on Thursday. The backlog is expected to be completed by the spring.

The shutdown did not affect the production of plutonium-238, but it did delay the production and distribution of some medical and industrial isotopes, the lab’s response said.

[Read more…]

Proposed power lines at Horizon Center to be discussed Tuesday

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Virginia Dale
Virginia Dale

The power lines proposed at Horizon Center will be discussed during a Tuesday lunch in Oak Ridge.

The project, advocated by Oak Ridge officials for industrial development, has raised concerns among environmentalists and people who use the city’s greenways.

The guest speaker at Lunch with the League on Tuesday, January 7, will be Virginia Dale. Dale is a corporate fellow emeritus with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she worked in the Environmental Sciences Division. She is currently a researcher in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at the University of Tennessee, a press release said. Dale has been the author of 11 books and more than 250 published articles.

Her presentation on Tuesday will focus on the city’s recent action to seek authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy to build an electric transmission line along the DOE patrol road on the boundary between the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement and the Horizon Center industrial park, or by cutting through other “natural areas,” the press release said. These “natural areas” are identified in mitigation conditions required for a federal finding of no significant impact, which allowed the subsequent development of the Horizon Center, the press release said.

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For members: DOE investigating fuel element performance after elevated radiation found at HFIR

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High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The High Flux Isotope Reactor is pictured above at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

The U.S. Department of Energy is investigating fuel element performance in the High Flux Isotope Reactor, which is used for research and isotope production at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, after elevated radiation levels were found in the cooling system last year, possibly due to a pinhole leak.

The investigation of potential noncompliances with DOE nuclear safety program requirements was announced this month by the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments’ Office of Enforcement. The office notified UT-Battelle LLC, ORNL’s managing and operating contractor, and BWXT Nuclear Operations Group Inc. of Lynchburg, Virginia, on December 5. BWXT manufactured components that were involved.

ORNL has said the slightly elevated reading in the primary cooling system was well below alarm levels, and there was no impact to the public, the environment, or workers, and the reactor was not damaged or compromised.

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Updated: TerraPower, Isotek extracting cancer treatment materials from U-233 at ORNL

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DOE EM ORNL Pumping Uranyl Nitrate Solution into Resin Columns
TerraPower, a company that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped launch in 2006, is working with Isotek Systems LLC, a federal cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, to extract rare isotopes from nuclear materials for cancer treatment and research. Pictured above is a uranyl nitrate solution being pumped into resin columns. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)

Note: This story was last updated at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 25.

A company that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped launch in 2006 is working with a federal cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge to extract rare isotopes from nuclear materials for cancer treatment research.

The project will significantly increase the number of cancer treatment doses available each year, federal officials and company executives said Friday. It will help remove highly enriched fissile nuclear material from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and save taxpayers an estimated $90 million, the officials and executives said. And it will recycle an isotope that would otherwise be “irretrievably lost” as the nuclear material, uranium-233, is converted into a disposal-ready form.

The U.S. Department of Energy, Isotek Systems LLC, and TerraPower celebrated with an announcement of the project in Oak Ridge on Friday morning.

TerraPower, which is based in Bellevue, Washington, where Gates is chairman, is particularly interested in actinium-225. That isotope can be extracted from thorium-229. The thorium will be removed from the fissile material, the uranium-233 stored at ORNL, by the federal cleanup contractor, Isotek.

The unique agreement, a public-private partnership, is expected to allow TerraPower the ability to make 100 times more actinium-225-based cancer treatment doses per year than the 4,000 doses that are currently available worldwide. TerraPower could first offer actinium-225 in late 2020, company executives said.

[Read more…]

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