Oak Ridge Today

Council to discuss DOE funding, support tonight

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Oak Ridge City Council

The Oak Ridge City Council has a special meeting tonight to discuss U.S. Department of Energy support and funding. (File photo/August 2013)

 

The Oak Ridge City Council will discuss U.S. Department of Energy funding and support during a special meeting tonight. It’s described at least in part as an “information-gathering session.”

The special meeting was called by City Council members Trina Baughn and Charlie Hensley. Hensley, in particular, has raised questions about whether DOE is paying its fair share to the city.

Here’s the language outlining tonight’s discussion:

“to discuss and possibly take action on a plan to engage DOE officials with regards to their obligations to the City of Oak Ridge and its citizenry. Let it [the special meeting request] include formally requesting, in writing, a DOE Community Assistance Review as allowed within AECA 1955, PL 84-221, DOE Order 2100.12A, and other supporting legislation, including those self-sufficiency plans dating from 1980 through a Council Resolution and other joint local government collaborative action to include a specific date for a response.”

[Read more…]

Save the Date: Second public meeting on Clark Center Park on Oct. 27

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Clark Center Park Water View

A view of Melton Hill Lake near a boat ramp and between two picnic areas at Clark Center Park in south Oak Ridge.

 

The second public meeting on Clark Center Park will be held during the Oak Ridge City Council work session scheduled for Monday, October 27, at 7 p.m. The meeting will be at the Oak Ridge Municipal Building at 200 South Tulane Avenue.

The first meeting was in August. The 80-acre park could be transferred from the U.S. Department of Energy to the city.

The DOE’s Oak Ridge Office is in the process of reviewing the agency’s land holdings across the Oak Ridge Reservation, including Clark Center Park (formerly known as Carbide Park). [Read more…]

ORISE receives DOE Legacy of Stars safety, health award

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US DOE VPP Legacy of Stars Award

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education has been given a 2014 Legacy of Stars award.

This is the third consecutive time ORISE has received the prestigious designation and only one of 10 such awards granted nationwide in 2014, a press release said. ORISE first achieved this designation in 2008.

The award is presented by the U.S. Department of Energy, and it recognize outstanding safety and health performance.

ORISE is managed for DOE by Oak Ridge Associated Universities. [Read more…]

DOE to begin Building K-31 demolition on Wednesday

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K-31 Transite Panel Removal

Workers began removing transite paneling from the outside of the K-31 Building at East Tennessee Technology Park earlier this year. (May 2014 DOE Photo/Lynn Freeny)

 

The U.S. Department of Energy will start demolishing Building K-31 at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, on Wednesday afternoon, and reporters have been invited to witness the beginning of the work.

The event is meant to provides participants, including senior DOE and contractor leadership, a “firsthand look at the continuing cleanup and transformation at the East Tennessee Technology Park,” a media advisory said.

The K-25 site was built to enrich uranium for atomic bombs during the top-secret Manhattan Project in World War II. It’s been shut down since the mid-1980s, and ETTP is slowly being converted into a large industrial park.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Los Alamos National Lab director to give talk at UT on Oct. 1

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Charles McMillan

Charles McMillan

Charles F. McMillan, nuclear physicist and director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, will give the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy’s annual Distinguished Global Security Lecture on October 1 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

McMillan will speak on “The Timeline of Technology” at 5:30 p.m. in the Toyota Auditorium at the Baker Center, 1640 Cumberland Avenue. The event is free and open to the public.

McMillan’s lecture will look at how innovations from the previous century are being used to solve today’s national and global security, energy, and environmental issues. Then he’ll pose a question to policy makers: “Are we prepared for the policy needed in the 22nd century with the scientific and technical expertise we have today?” [Read more…]

Hitson named OSTI director

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Brian Hitson

Brian A. Hitson

Brian A. Hitson has been appointed director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information in Oak Ridge, officials said this week.

Hitson had been acting director of OSTI since January 12. OSTI’s former longtime director, Walter L. Warnick, retired January 3.

Hitson has held a number of positions at OSTI, most recently serving as associate director for administration and information services. In that position, he was responsible for international information exchanges, archival digitization and preservation, classified and sensitive information, cost-reimbursable product development, and administrative and financial management. [Read more…]

Presidential museum, heritage tourism experts to be featured in AMSE meetings

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Alan Lowe

Alan Lowe

The director of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas will be featured in a community meeting in October on the future of the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge.

During that Thursday, October 9 meeting, Alan Lowe will discuss the process of developing and managing facilities that function as both research libraries and historical museum attractions, a press release said.

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is located inside the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In his role as director, Lowe oversees millions of presidential records as well as exhibits related to the important issues and events of the Bush Administration, a press release said. [Read more…]

Energy Secretary Moniz showcases national labs on the Hill

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Ernest Moniz

Ernest Moniz

Lab Day demonstrations highlight labs’ contribution to U.S. competitiveness and innovation

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WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz last week joined Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and Senator Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican, for National Lab Day on the Hill. The event highlighted several notable research projects from across the national laboratory system.

Senators Durbin and Risch also formally launched the Senate National Laboratory Caucus, which aims to increase awareness of the reach of the national labs as leaders in developing new breakthrough technologies and discoveries to address some of our nation’s most pressing challenges.

“The national labs continue to advance science, clean energy, and nuclear security in this country, as they have for decades,” Moniz said. “The labs also provide essential capabilities for university and industrial researchers—nearly 30,000 per year—and advance technology frontiers, such as high performance computing and advanced manufacturing.” [Read more…]

Top White House official confirmed as DOE deputy secretary

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Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall (Photo courtesy Stanford University)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday, September 18, as the U.S. Department of Energy’s deputy secretary.

“Liz’s confirmation comes at a historic time in our nation’s energy evolution,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said. “She joins us with deep expertise in the department’s nuclear security mission, including both nuclear weapons and countering proliferation. Her extensive public service and recent responsibilities on the White House national security team position her to contribute to the department’s energy and security missions in a major way, both domestically and internationally. I thank the Senate for their attention to Liz’s nomination, and look forward to working closely with her as a key, trusted colleague.”

President Barack Obama nominated Sherwood-Randall in July.

As deputy secretary, Sherwood-Randall will support Moniz in the management and operation of the Department of Energy. [Read more…]

High Flux Isotope Reactor at ORNL named Nuclear Historic Landmark

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High Flux Isotope Reactor at ORNL

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)

 

The High Flux Isotope Reactor, or HFIR, now in its 48th year of providing neutrons for research and isotope production at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been designated a Nuclear Historic Landmark by the American Nuclear Society.

“This designation from the ANS recognizes HFIR’s role in the history of the nuclear age, but it also speaks to the excellence of its design and operation,” ORNL Director Thom Mason said. “HFIR remains one of the world’s most capable reactor-based neutron science, radioisotope production, and materials irradiation facilities, and we expect that to continue for many years.”

The designation was proposed by the ANS honors and awards committee and approved on initial ballot by the board of directors.

“The ANS Nuclear Historic Landmark signifies that a nuclear facility has played an important role in nuclear science and engineering,” ANS President Michaele C. Brady Raap said. “HFIR, with its preeminent role in isotope production and neutron science, certainly meets that criteria.”

The reactor was conceived in the late 1950s as a production reactor to meet anticipated demand for transuranic isotopes (“heavy” elements such as plutonium and curium). HFIR today is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility and one of the world’s sole sources of the radioisotope californium-252, used in industry and medicine. ORNL is a DOE lab. [Read more…]

Assessment team to visit DOE disposal facility, meet with community

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Three members of the consulting team selected to conduct a community impact assessment of the U.S. Department of Energy’s proposed Environmental Management Disposal Facility will visit Oak Ridge on Monday and Tuesday, September 8 and 9. The purpose of the visit is to tour the existing disposal facility and the site of the proposed EMDF, to gather information, and to meet with local stakeholders, a press release said.

The team members are Karl Kalbacher, project manager and director of environment, economics and grant services for The Ferguson Group in Washington, D.C.; Mark Rockel, principal consultant for ENVIRON International Corporation; and Jason Miller, principal of ENVIRON International Corporation.

The team will be available to meet community stakeholders on both days: [Read more…]

DOE appoints new member to advisory board

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Wanfang Zhou

Wanfang Zhou

The U.S. Department of Energy has appointed Wanfang Zhou to the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board. Zhou was appointed to a two-year term on the federally chartered citizens’ panel that provides independent advice and recommendations to DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for the cleanup of the Oak Ridge Reservation.

Zhou, a Knoxville resident, is a hydrogeologist with ERT Inc., a company that provides information technology, cybersecurity, program support, and engineering and environmental services to federal and state government agencies.

He received his doctorate in water resources and environmental engineering from the University of London’s Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine. He is a certified professional geologist by the American Institute of Professional Geologists and a registered professional geologist in five southern states. [Read more…]