Oak Ridge Today

Moore named AMSE director

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David Moore

David Moore (Photo courtesy ORNL)

David Moore has been named director of the American Museum of Science and Energy. The museum, owned by the U.S. Department of Energy, showcases the history of the Manhattan Project and the current scientific, energy, and national security missions carried out by DOE facilities in Oak Ridge.

Moore will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the museum at 300 South Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge, including exhibits, programs, and community outreach. He has 40 years of experience in public affairs, fundraising, higher education, and museum operations, most recently as president and chief executive officer of the Yanks Air Museum Foundation in California, a press release said.

“The Oak Ridge story is one of the most compelling in the world,” Moore said. “I look forward to helping the Oak Ridge community promote both its history and the fascinating and important work conducted here today.”

Moore joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory in April as a consultant and assumed director’s duties on July 1. ORNL operates AMSE for DOE. [Read more…]

Railroad tracks removed from South Illinois, Emory Valley

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South Illinois Avenue Railroad Track Removal

A work crew from Rogers Group removes unused railroad tracks from South Illinois Avenue just south of Lafayette Drive and Scarboro Road on Saturday night. After the tracks were removed, the railroad crossing was repaved, and the road reopened on Sunday.

 

Note: This story was last updated at 6:30 p.m.

Unused railroad tracks that crossed Briarcliff Avenue, Emory Valley Road, and South Illinois Avenue were removed on Thursday and Saturday night.

Railroad company CSX split the traffic control costs with the city and paid to remove the tracks, Oak Ridge Public Works Director Gary Cinder said. In exchange, the city agreed to repave the roadways as part of street maintenance. The crossing lights were removed as well so that commercial vehicles, including school buses, no longer have to stop at the abandoned crossings and, in the case of school buses and other vehicles that carry children, open and close their doors before proceeding.

The project has been in the works for two years.

“We’re thrilled to finally get to this stage,” Cinder said last week. “It’s been a long time coming.” [Read more…]

URS names new UCOR president, project manager

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Ken Rueter

Ken Rueter

URS Corporation has named new leaders at UCOR in Oak Ridge and SRR at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

Ken Rueter has been named president and project manager of UCOR, a partnership between URS and CH2M Oak Ridge LLC. The URS-led consortium is responsible for the cleanup of the U.S. Department of Energy’s East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, in Oak Ridge.

Rueter will become president and project manager on Aug. 1. He will replace Leo Sain, who will lead the URS Decontamination and Decommissioning and Waste Management Strategic Business Group, which is based in Oak Ridge.

“Ken’s prior leadership in UCOR’s successful deactivation and decommissioning of the K-25 facility will be invaluable as we continue the D&D of the K-27 and K-31 gaseous diffusion facilities,” said Randall A. Wotring, president of federal services for URS. “I am confident he will build on the UCOR team’s recent accomplishments as well as his previous experiences at the East Tennessee Technology Park to ensure we continue to make safe progress for our DOE client.”

In a press release, URS said Rueter has 26 years of experience in the nuclear industry focusing on high-hazard nuclear operations, project management and integration, construction, and risk management. In his new assignment, he will be the senior executive for UCOR responsible for all deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) activities at the East Tennessee Technology Park. He was previously president and project manager of Savannah River Remediation LLC, or SRR, and prior to his role there, he was the chief operating officer for UCOR. [Read more…]

UCOR recognizes eight small businesses at awards breakfast

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Chuck Fleischmann at UCOR Small Business Awards

Chuck Fleischmann at the UCOR Small Business Awards breakfast. (Photo by Lynn Freeny/U.S. Department of Energy)

UCOR presented awards to eight small businesses at its second annual Small Business Awards ceremony at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oak Ridge.

UCOR is a partnership between URS and CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, and it is the U.S. Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor for the Oak Ridge Reservation. The company works with a variety of small businesses to perform cleanup work. During this fiscal year, 80 percent of subcontracted work, totaling $78.2 million, has gone to small businesses, a press release said.

“Small business has played an integral part in our success,” said Matt Marston, UCOR chief operating officer. “We’ve received excellent support from numerous small businesses. While it is difficult to select just a few to honor, we are pleased to recognize these particular companies who have excelled in their support of our work during the past year.”

The small business award categories and winners are: [Read more…]

DOE advisory board welcomes new student representatives

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Aditya Chourey and Claire Rowcliffe

Aditya Chourey of Oak Ridge High School and Claire Rowcliffe of Hardin Valley Academy, are the new student representatives to the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board for Fiscal Year 2014-15. (Submitted photo)

 

The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board welcomed two new student representatives, Aditya Chourey and Claire Rowcliffe, at its May meeting. They will serve on the board through April 2015.

ORSSAB is a federally chartered citizens’ panel that provides recommendations to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

“We’re very happy to welcome two new student representatives to the board,” said Dave Adler, the board’s DOE alternate deputy designated federal officer, as he introduced the students to the board. “Thank you for coming to work with us for a year. It’s great you’ll be taking the time from your high school schedules to be part of the board.” [Read more…]

DOE’s Oak Ridge Office names safety, technical services manager

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Mildred López-Ferré

Mildred López-Ferré (DOE photo/Lynn Freeny)

Mildred López-Ferré has been named deputy assistant manager for safety and technical services at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office.

In this position, López-Ferré will be responsible for leading the development and execution of the requirements and guidelines for environment safety and health and quality assurance for ORO and for multiple DOE site offices nationwide under the purview of the department’s Office of Science Integrated Support Center.

López-Ferré will assist ORO in all aspects of the Integrated Safety Management System, or ISMS, to ensure that DOE operations provide adequate protection to employees, the general public, the environment, and DOE property, effectively and efficiently, a press release said.

López-Ferré began her career at the DOE-ORO in 1991 as a program manager in the former Environmental Restoration Division. Since that time, she has held several leadership positions at ORO, including team leader for Y-12 National Security Complex projects, and ORO federal project director responsible for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 environmental management operations. She has also served as special projects manager in the ORO Manager’s Office, and most recently special projects assistant for the assistant manager for safety and technical services within the DOE Oak Ridge Office. [Read more…]

ORNL awarded $2.75 million for fuel cell research

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

DOE’s ARPA-E announces 13 new projects at New York Energy Week

New York, N.Y.—ARPA-E Acting Director Cheryl Martin has announced $33 million in funding for 13 new projects aimed at developing transformational fuel cell technologies for low-cost distributed power generation.

The funding was announced Thursday at New York Energy Week. ARPA-E is Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy in the U.S. Department of Energy.

The projects, which are funded through ARPA-E’s new Reliable Electricity Based on Electrochemical Systems, or REBELS, program, are focused on improving grid stability, balancing intermittent renewable technologies, and reducing CO2 emissions using electrochemical distributed power generation systems, a press release said.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory received $2.75 million for a project titled “Nanocomposite Electrodes for a Solid Acid Fuel Cell Stack.” [Read more…]

NNSA dedicates nation’s largest federal wind farm

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Pantex Wind Farm

The National Nuclear Security Administration dedicated the nation’s largest federally owned wind farm on Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas. The NNSA also oversees work at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. (Photos courtesy NNSA)

 

Pantex wind farm complete

Retired Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz, the new administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration, dedicated the nation’s largest federally owned wind farm Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

Klotz, who is also the U.S. Department of Energy’s under secretary for nuclear security, was joined at the ceremony by Kevin Knobloch, DOE’s chief of staff; NNSA Production Office (NPO) Manager Steven Erhart; Siemens Government Technologies President and Chief Executive Officer Judy Marksl and Texas Tech University Associate Vice Chancellor Russell Thomasson.

The mission of the NPO is to ensure the safe, secure, and cost-effective operation of the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

The NNSA said Pantex will now be powered largely by the Pantex Renewable Energy Project, or PREP, an 11.5-megawatt, five-turbine wind farm that has been under construction since August on 1,500 acres of DOE-owned land adjacent to the Pantex Plant. [Read more…]

IIa wins major U.S. Patent and Trademark Office contract

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Information International Associates

Pictured above is the headquarters of Information International Associates on Union Valley Road in Oak Ridge.

Five-year contract could be worth $135 million

Information International Associates, or IIa, has been awarded a major 100-person, multi-year contract with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to provide a wide range of information technology support, a press release said.

The USPTO is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, and it is an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Its mission is “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writing and discoveries” and to support the federal registration of trademarks.

“IIa continues to grow and to be recognized as a leader in IT services,” said IIa owner and Chief Executive Officer Bonnie C. Carroll. “In the past year alone, we have been awarded multiple new IT contracts in addition to our ongoing support to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information operations in Oak Ridge and at DOE Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and our contracts for IT infrastructure at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Maryland.”

In September 2013, II was awarded a U.S. Department of Defense contract to operate the DoD Homeland Defense and Security Information Analysis Center. In January 2014, IIa won a major, basic ordering agreement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to provide a wide range of IT support to the laboratory during the next five years. [Read more…]

Guest column: Tax hike will hurt city’s ability to recruit DOE workers

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The Oak Ridge Schools are requesting a substantial property tax increase to fund items they see as essential to their future.

Yet an Oak Ridge tax hike will markedly reduce our city’s ability to recruit new U.S. Department of Energy workers. According to the latest DOE report, Anderson County is losing over $300,000 per week to Knox County in DOE payroll. That loss rate is increasing, and a tax hike would make this serious problem worse.

Unfortunately, our city has a DOE “isolation fence” around it. In most cases, new workers are sent by the DOE system directly to Knox County—mainly to Farragut. And as a result, their important housing decisions are made without talking to an Oak Ridge realtor. They never get an opportunity to find out how wonderful it is to live here.

The new Kroger store won’t affect this uneven playing field. A property tax hike (of any size) will simply make the problem worse—giving Farragut an even greater advantage over us. [Read more…]

Rollow promoted to director of ORAU’s Project Management Office

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Kathy Rollow

Kathy Rollow

New director brings more than 15 years of project management expertise

Oak Ridge Associated Universities has named Kathy R. Rollow director of its Project Management Office. In this position, Rollow will establish policy and maintain full operational responsibility for the office, facilitating best practices and serving as the catalyst for organizational and cultural implementation of project management principles, a press release said.

Rollow has more than 15 years of experience managing technical and programmatic activities involving multiple concurrent projects at several locations, working with construction support and environmental restoration studies as well as remedial action projects under CERCLA or the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.

Previously, Rollow worked with ORAU’s Independent Environmental Assessment and Verification Program, serving as a program lead for health physics and radiological surveys. In 2009, Rollow began directing a large-scale site characterization project for the U.S. Department of Energy, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The project focused on detailing the nature and volume of contaminants to ensure appropriate cleanup and demolition of the site. She implemented project plans, schedules, briefings and budgets, recommended change orders, and tracked resources for DOE Oak Ridge facilities—a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency CERCLA Superfund site.  [Read more…]

DOE public bus tour begins June 2

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DOE Public Bus Tour

A U.S. Department of Energy public bus tour in August 2012. (DOE photo/Lynn Freeny)

Visitors see Oak Ridge’s past and present

The U.S. Department of Energy’s 2014 Oak Ridge facilities public bus tour begins June 2 and continues through August 29. 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 attraction for tourists visiting the area. Since its inception in 1996, the DOE public tour program has attracted more than 30,000 visitors from all 50 states. The three-hour tour allows visitors to see the Oak Ridge Reservation and learn about its history. It also provides participants a chance to find out about the world-class missions underway in Oak Ridge.

Bus stops include: [Read more…]