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K-31 Demolition: 200 acres now available for development at ETTP

Posted at 1:09 pm July 2, 2015
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

K-31 Demolition

The last section of the K-31 Building at East Tennessee Technology Park was demolished on Friday, June 26. It’s the fourth of five buildings to be demolished where gaseous diffusion was once used to enrich uranium. (Photo by Lynn Freeny/DOE) 

 

Demolition now complete on four of five gaseous diffusion buildings

Demolition of the large K-31 Building in west Oak Ridge means that 200 acres of flat land are now available for industrial development at East Tennessee Technology Park, officials said.

“It’s the largest parcel of land available at ETTP,” said Sue Cange, manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

Infrastructure is already in place, including water, sewer, roads, and electricity, Cange said. Also, ETTP is close to Interstate 40, a short rail line, and possibly an airport. (There are plans to build an airport at the site, which is also known as Heritage Center.)

K-31 is the fourth of five gaseous diffusion buildings demolished at ETTP. The site, which has also been known as K-25 and Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, was built during the Manhattan Project in World War II as part of a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic bombs. Officials say it helped to win the Cold War, enriching uranium for commercial nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons.

But operations ended in 1985, and the site was permanently shut down in 1987. DOE then began cleanup operations and—with the help of contractors, a nonprofit organization, and others–is converting it into a large private industrial park. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business, DOE, East Tennessee Technology Park, Oak Ridge, Slider, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: cleanup contractor, Cold War, demolition, DOE, East Tennessee Technology Park, Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, ETTP, gaseous diffusion, Heritage Center, industrial development, industrial park, Jeff Tucker, K-25, K-25 Building, K-27, K-27 Building, K-29, K-31, K-31 Building, K-33, Ken Rueter, Manhattan Project, Mark Whitney, Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge Office, Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, Oak Ridge Reservation, Sue Cange, U.S. Department of Energy, World War II

2014 Election: Commission candidates talk ouster, taxes

Posted at 10:45 pm July 31, 2014
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

During a forum earlier this month, a half-dozen Oak Ridge candidates running for Anderson County Commission said they support the county’s law director, the defendant in a controversial ouster suit, while four others said they are reserving judgement.

A few candidates said the county’s property tax rate ought to be lowered, while others argued that officials have done a good job of holding the rate as low as possible.

Several agreed that the county needs to work on attracting more jobs, affordable housing, and retail.

All five of the incumbents seeking re-election in Oak Ridge’s three County Commission districts face challengers in the August 7 election. Voters will elect two commissioners in each district.

The most crowded race is District 7, where incumbent Jerry Creasey is seeking re-election but Commissioner John Shuey is not. There are six candidates in that race. Besides Creasey, they include Jimmy Bouchard, Mike Marsh, Denny Phillips, Kevin Rice, and Theresa Scott.

District 7 includes the Glenwood, Highland View, and Pine Valley voting precincts in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Filed Under: 2014 Election, 2014 Election, Anderson County, Government, Slider, Top Stories Tagged With: Anderson County Commission, Anthony Allen, August 7 election, businesses, candidates, City Hall, Denny Phillips, District 6, District 7, District 8, Emory Valley, Glenwood, Hendrix Creek, Highland View, housing, industrial development, Jay Yeager, Jerry Creasey, Jimmy Bouchard, jobs, Joey Anderson, John Shuey, Kevin Rice, law director, Mike Marsh, Myra Mansfield, Myron Iwanski, Oak Ridge, ouster suit, Pine Valley, property tax rate, retail, Robertsville, Robin Biloski, Steve Mead, Terry Frank, Theresa Scott, West Hills, Whitey Hitchcock, Woodland

Record-breaker: SNS operates at full power—1.4 megawatts—for users for first time

Posted at 4:43 am July 8, 2014
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

ORNL SNS Full Power

The accelerator-based pulse neutron source at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source operated steadily for users at the maximum design power of 1.4 megawatts on June 26. (Photo credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL)

 

The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory operated steadily at its full design power of 1.4 megawatts for researchers for the first time on June 26.

“We’re producing neutrons now at this intensity for user experiments,” spokesman Bill Cabage said in a telephone interview last week.

The $1.4 billion SNS is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility built on a ridge top at ORNL. It uses a linear proton accelerator and mercury target to provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. The proton beam hits the mercury target, knocking off neutrons from liquid mercury atoms. The neutrons, which are used to study materials from superconductors to biological systems, are then channeled down 16 instrument beam lines, where neutron spectrometers produce data revealing the structures and dynamics of molecules and atoms.

The SNS has been used for experiments since it started producing neutrons in April 2006, but at lower power. Researchers wanted to eventually get to full power, even if that had to be done gradually during the past eight years.

“They didn’t want to have a lot of disruption playing with it,” Cabage said. “They wanted to keep it reliable for users.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Slider, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: 1.4 megawatts, Bill Cabage, Biological and Soft Matter Division, Center for Structural and Molecular Biology, full design power, full power, industrial development, jet-flow target, Kevin Jones, liquid mercury, mercury target, neutron beams, neutrons, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Paul Langan, proton accelerator, pulsed neutron beams, Research Accelerators Division, Scientific Research, SNS, Spallation Neutron Source, target, Target 9, U.S. Department of Energy

Guest column: H.M.S. Carbon Fiber

Posted at 12:51 pm June 2, 2013
By Oak Ridge Today Guest Columns 1 Comment

By Leslie Agron and Pat Fain

Anyone a Gilbert and Sullivan fan?

“When I was a lad I served a term / As office boy to an attorney’s firm. /
I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor, / And I polished up the handle of the big front door.” (HMS Pinafore)

So, how does this go in Oak Ridge? Perhaps: Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility will revolutionize the choice of materials used in manufacturing. Major manufactures, such as auto companies, will be falling over themselves soon to locate here, so as to capitalize on the technical information to be transferred from ORNL (possibly, but it might be a few years out yet). They will all want sites in Horizon Center, next to the ORNL demonstration facility, to be closest to the technology (maybe, but remember that Nissan found a Middle Tennessee location adequate for transfer of battery technology they consider vital to their future).

Carbon fiber manufacturing is a high energy-utilizing process. ORNL’s demonstration facility could take most of the 10-megawatt energy capacity at Horizon Center (true, but Horizon Center was designed as a commercial park, not as an industrial park). So we need a large project to bring 20 megawatts of additional electrical capacity into Horizon Center right away to meet this pressing need (hmm…has there been someone knocking at our doors lately that they have not been telling us about? What we seem to need right now is an incremental project to put in a lesser amount of power, especially at peak load times, so that the one or two parcels we might sell soon at Horizon Center will have adequate power available—else they are correct that nothing might sell). [Read more…]

Filed Under: Guest Columns Tagged With: Carbon Fiber Technology Facility, electrical capacity, energy, Gilbert and Sullivan, Heritage Center, HMS Carbon Fiber, HMS Pinafore, Horizon Center, industrial development, kilowatts, land, Leslie Agron, megawatts, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pat Fain, power, power lines, solar facility, solar power, Tennessee Valley Authority, TVA

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Classifieds

Public Notice: NNSA announces no significant impact of Y-12 Development Organization operations at Horizon Center

AVAILABILITY OF THE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE OFFSITE HOUSING OF THE Y-12 DEVELOPMENT … [Read More...]

ADFAC seeks contractors for five homes

Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties (ADFAC) is a non-profit community based agency, … [Read More...]

Public notice: Draft environmental assessment for Y-12 Development Organization at Horizon Center

AVAILABILITY OF THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE OFFSITE HOUSING OF THE Y-12 DEVELOPMENT … [Read More...]

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