Jeff Smith
Note: This story was updated at 1:30 p.m.
Jeff Smith, deputy director for operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been nominated to serve on the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors, officials said Thursday.
The nomination by President Donald Trump was announced by the White House.
U.S. senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, both Tennessee Republicans, supported Smith’s nomination in statements on Thursday. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is pictured above. (Photo by ORNL)
The workforce reduction of up to 350 positions at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is expected to decrease personnel costs by about $34 million each year, and the lab expects most of those who apply for voluntary separations from the lab to be of retirement age, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
The workforce reduction, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year, was announced by new ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia in a Tuesday morning email to employees.
“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 in that email.
The lab hopes to reduce its workforce of 4,800 employees by about 7.3 percent (350 positions) using voluntary separations. Involuntary separations will be used if necessary.
On Wednesday, ORNL spokesperson Morgan McCorkle said the lab plans to reduce about 250 overhead positions and 100 research and development jobs. Overhead jobs are those not directly related to research. The research and development staff who will be eligible for voluntary separations are those who charge more than half of their time to overhead accounts or whose program budgets were reduced in fiscal year 2017, McCorkle said.
A specific breakdown of the affected jobs is not yet available. [Read more…]
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…]
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.â€
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.
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…]
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…]
U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, center, a Tennessee Republican, is pictured above with Energy Secretary Rick Perry, left, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility in Hardin Valley on Monday, May 22, 2017. Also pictured is former ORNL Director Thom Mason. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
An appropriations bill approved by a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday rejects the Trump administration’s proposal to cut $919 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science in the fiscal year that starts October 1.
Instead of cutting, the Senate bill would actually increase funding for the Office of Science, boosting it to $5.55 billion in fiscal year 2018. That would be again a record funding level in a regular appropriations bill, according to U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican who often advocates for the federal sites in Oak Ridge and chairs the Senate subcommittee.
Like the Senate this week, the House Appropriations Committee last week also rejected President Donald Trump’s request to cut DOE’s Office of Science.
Unlike the Senate bill, though, the House bill would keep funding flat at $5.39 billion, the same as in the current fiscal year. That level of funding was also a record in a regular appropriations bill, Alexander said in May.
The Office of Science is the nation’s largest supporter of research in the physical sciences.
The president’s budget request, submitted to Congress on May 23, would cut Office of Science funding by about 17 percent, dropping it to $4.47 billion.
Keeping Office of Science funding flat, or even increasing it, could be important to several of the federal sites in Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is an Office of Science lab, and the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, or OSTI, is an Office of Science unit. [Read more…]
Photo by ORNL
Chuck Fleischmann
A House bill approved Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s proposed funding cut of about $900 million for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
Instead of cutting, the House Appropriations Committee bill would keep spending flat for the Office of Science, holding it at $5.39 billion in the next fiscal year, the same as in the current fiscal year.
That could be good news for DOE Office of Science laboratories and offices here, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, or OSTI.
Separately, the House bill recommends a funding increase for the National Nuclear Security Administration. That’s something that the Trump administration had also proposed. The NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within DOE, and its activities include nuclear weapons work, nuclear nonproliferation efforts, and naval reactors. The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is an NNSA site.
“Issues of national and economic security are continually on the forefront of the minds of all Americans,” said U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican whose district includes Oak Ridge. “Last week, the House Appropriations Committee, on which I serve, approved the Fiscal Year 2018 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill. I was proud to help direct additional funding towards the national security programs at Y-12.
“Additionally, funding levels included in this legislation will allow for cleanup of high risk excess facilities at Y-12. This is the first step in a long process, and I want to assure my constituents that I will continue fighting to ensure that Y-12, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and environmental management activities get the funding needed to continue their critical missions.” [Read more…]
Image courtesy of a presentation at Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority General Aviation Committee meeting on Wednesday, March 15, 2017.
A bill approved Wednesday by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee funds the Appalachian Regional Commission, which has provided money for the Oak Ridge Airport project. The legislation does not include money to shut down the commission, as the Trump administration has proposed.
The budget request submitted to Congress by President Donald Trump in May proposed eliminating the Appalachian Regional Commission and other independent agencies, providing funding only for the orderly closure of the agencies. The request would apply to fiscal year 2018, which starts October 1.
The Appalachian Regional Commission, or ARC, is one of several independent agencies that award federal grants for regional development, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget said earlier this year. “The proposed elimination of the regional commissions reflects the need to reduce unnecessary federal spending and streamline the federal government’s role, while encouraging states and localities to partner with the private sector to develop locally tailored solutions to local problems,” the OMB said.
But an energy and water appropriations bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee in a voice vote on Wednesday does not include money to shut down the ARC.
Instead, the House bill, if approved, would cut ARC funding from $152 million in fiscal year 2017 to $130 million in fiscal year 2018. The Trump administration had proposed $26.6 million, to be used only for the shutdown.
The Oak Ridge Airport project has received $2 million in funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission. That money wouldn’t be affected by the president’s proposal to eliminate the independent agency, an airport spokesperson said in May.
But future project funding could be affected by a decision to close the commission. [Read more…]
Image by U.S. Department of Energy
President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Paul Dabbar of New York, an investment banking executive at J.P. Morgan, to be under secretary for science in the U.S. Department of Energy.
Dabbar is managing director for mergers and acquisitions for J.P. Morgan, and he has more than $400 billion in investment experience across all energy sectors, according to a statement posted by the White House Office of the Press Secretary on Tuesday. Those energy sectors include solar, wind, geothermal, distributed-generation, utility, LNG, pipeline, oil and gas, trading, and energy technology, the statement said. Dabbar has also led the majority of all nuclear transactions.
Before joining J.P. Morgan, Dabbar served as a nuclear submarine officer in Mare Island, California, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and he was deployed to the North Pole, where he conducted environmental research, the statement said.
Dabbar currently serves on the U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management Advisory Board.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Dabbar would succeed Franklin “Lynn” Orr in the post. Orr left the job January 20, Inauguration Day, after serving as DOE’s first under secretary for science and energy. Orr started serving as under secretary on December 17, 2014. [Read more…]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division on South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge is pictured above on Tuesday, July 11, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 9:20 a.m. July 13.
The Trump administration’s budget request for the next fiscal year would close a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration air research laboratory that has a division in Oak Ridge, according to budget documents posted online.
The budget request for fiscal year 2018, which starts October 1, would close NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory, or ARL, which has headquarters in College Park, Maryland. The Air Resources Laboratory has satellite campuses in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Mercury, Nevada. Those satellite campuses would also close, according to the documents, which were posted by the NOAA Budget Office.
The Oak Ridge campus is on South Illinois Avenue, in a historic building that was once an emergency hospital and then a health department. It now houses the Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, or ATDD. The Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division is one of several field divisions of the Air Resources Laboratory. The ARL in turn is part of NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
There are 33 employees at the Oak Ridge campus, including NOAA and ORAU workers. The primary focus of the ATDD is to maintain NOAA’s Climate Reference Network, a network of weather stations across the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, to monitor climate change.
The Oak Ridge division also works with other NOAA groups that study the formation of tornadoes, using unmanned aerial vehicles to understand tornado formation. It also works with the Air Resources Laboratory headquarters on air quality modeling and forecasting.
The NOAA budget request, which has not been approved by Congress, proposes zeroing out funding and employment at the Air Resources Laboratory, cutting base funding from about $4.7 million and 34 full-time equivalents (FTE) to $0 and zero FTE. President Donald Trump submitted his administration’s budget request to Congress on Tuesday, May 23. [Read more…]
Sue Cange, who was then manager of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, is pictured above at the end of demolition of the K-27 Building on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was updated at 12 p.m.
Sue Cange, former head of the federal government’s cleanup program in Oak Ridge, has been appointed as a visiting scholar at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
It’s a two-year appointment as a visiting scholar in civil and environmental engineering that started July 5, Vanderbilt University spokesperson Jim Patterson said. Cange has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental engineering from Vanderbilt University.
Cange remains a paid U.S. Department of Energy employee, Patterson said. At Vanderbilt, she will help to establish a nuclear environmental engineering curriculum and internship program.
Cange is a former manager of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. She had most recently worked at U.S. Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C. In December, she was named principal deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM. She had previously been interim principal deputy assistant secretary, temporarily serving in the role formerly filled by Mark Whitney, who took a job in the private sector. Whitney is also a former manager of the Environmental Management program in Oak Ridge.
In January, Cange became acting assistant secretary for environmental management, the Exchange Monitor reported. She replaced Monica Regalbuto on a temporary basis, at about the time that President Donald Trump was inaugurated. Regalbuto was the Obama administration’s final appointee to the position that oversees DOE’s $6-billion-a-year legacy nuclear cleanup program.
But last week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that James M. Owendoff had been promoted to principal deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Environmental Management, or EM, replacing Cange. Owendoff had served as a senior adviser to the assistant EM secretary since January 2010, DOE said. [Read more…]
