AVAILABILITY OF THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE OAK RIDGE ENHANCED TECHNOLOGY AND TRAINING CENTER (ORETTC) (DOE/EA-2144)
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the availability of this Draft Environmental Assessment (EA), which analyzes the potential impacts of constructing and operating the ORETTC to train first responders and other experts in nuclear operations, safeguards, and emergency response.
[Read more…]AVAILABILITY OF THE FINAL SUPPLEMENT ANALYSIS FOR THE FINAL SITE-WIDE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR THE Y-12 NATIONAL SECURITY COMPLEX (Y-12 SWEIS), EARTHQUAKE ACCIDENT ANALYSIS (DOE/EIS-0387-SA-04)
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the availability of this Final Supplement Analysis (SA), which presents an analysis of the potential impacts of earthquake accidents at the Y-12 site. Based on the SA, NNSA has determined that no further NEPA documentation is required. Copies of the document are available on the DOE NEPA web page at https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeeis-0387-y-12-national-security-complex-site-wide-environmental-impact-statement-oak-ridge.
A project controls manager at the Y-12 National Security Complex has died of health issues related to COVID-19, the nuclear weapons production plant said Tuesday.
The Daily Times has identified the employee as Mark Easterly of Maryville. The newspaper said Easterly was employed by Bechtel for almost 30 years, and he began working at Y-12 as a project controls manager in March.
His death is the first death due to COVID-19 at a National Nuclear Security Administration site. Y-12 is an NNSA site. The NNSA is part of the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Daily Times reported that Easterly’s wife, Brandee, is principal of John Sevier Elementary School in Maryville.
[Read more…]
Note: This story was last updated at 3 p.m. June 24.
A Japanese supercomputer has displaced the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as the world’s most powerful and bumped other U.S. and Chinese machines down one spot on a semiannual list of the fastest systems.
Summit had been ranked the world’s most powerful supercomputer on the semiannual TOP500 list since June 2018. It was bumped to number two when the new TOP500 list was released Monday.
The new top system is installed in Kobe, Japan, and it is named Fugaku. In a high-performance test, it performed at 415.5 petaflops. A petaflop is a quadrillion floating-point operations per second.
Fugaku’s performance was 2.8 times better than Summit’s, according to TOP500. Summit delivered 148.8 petaflops on the high-performance test.
[Read more…]
The UCOR contract to clean up federal sites in Oak Ridge has been extended one year to July 31, 2021, and the consideration of a new cleanup contract won’t be considered until November 2020 at the earliest.
The UCOR contract could be extended one additional year, to July 31, 2022, using two six-month options, depending upon contractor performance and progress.
Before the extension, UCOR’s contract had been scheduled to expire July 31, 2020.
UCOR works on cleanup projects for the U.S. Department of Energy at the East Tennessee Technology Park, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Y-12 National Security Complex. The work includes the demolition of old, contaminated buildings that are no longer used. The cleanup work is called environmental management, or EM.
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A low-level aerial shot of Building 9212 at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
A federal contractor violated nuclear safety requirements at the Y-12 National Security Complex, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The violations are associated with the accumulations of uranium-235 in a glovebox, furnace, and casting line in Building 9212 at Y-12. The equipment is used to recover and process uranium-235, a fissile material that can be used in nuclear weapons and reactors.
The buildup of enriched uranium, discovered after hydraulic lines leaked in a glovebox, exceeded limits established by a safety program meant to help prevent a nuclear chain reaction.
An investigation of the uranium accumulations found weaknesses in five areas, according to the NNSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy and overseas nuclear weapons work at sites like Y-12. Among the deficiencies were procedural compliances, evaluations of process changes, the analyses of causes, the establishment of roles and responsibilities, and the implementation of a program meant to prevent inadvertent accumulations.
“The National Nuclear Security Administration considers these deficiencies to be of high safety significance,” Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty wrote in an April 6 letter. “Although there were no actual consequences to the public, workers, or the environment, these deficiencies eroded the barriers preventing a nuclear criticality and could, if left uncorrected, adversely impact nuclear and worker safety at the Y-12 National Security Complex.”
The letter was sent to Morgan Smith, president and chief executive officer of Consolidated Nuclear Security. CNS manages and operates Y-12, as well as the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, for the NNSA.
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The National Nuclear Security Administration on Wednesday said there were 49 confirmed COVID-19 cases at its sites across the country.
The sites include the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. The NNSA, which oversees work at Y-12, did not say how how many COVID-19 cases there have been among Y-12 employees. The plant is not releasing site-specific numbers of confirmed cases because of operational security concerns, the NNSA said.
Consolidated Nuclear Security, which manages and operates Y-12 for the NNSA, has also declined to say how many COVID-19 cases have been confirmed among Y-12 employees. CNS confirmed the first two cases in March and, when asked about additional cases, would only say that there were several.
[Read more…]AVAILABILITY OF THE DRAFT SUPPLEMENT ANALYSIS FOR THE FINAL SITE-WIDE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR THE Y-12 NATIONAL SECURITY COMPLEX (Y-12 SWEIS), EARTHQUAKE ACCIDENT ANALYSIS (DOE/EIS-0387-SA-04)
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the availability of this Draft Supplement Analysis (SA), which presents an analysis of the potential impacts of earthquake accidents at the Y-12 site.
Based on the SA, NNSA will determine whether the Y-12 SWEIS (DOE/EIS-087) should be supplemented, a new SWEIS is warranted, or if no further NEPA documentation is required. NNSA invites the public to review and submit comments on the Draft SA.
Copies of the document are available for public review on the NNSA NEPA web page (https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-nepa-reading-room) under “Open for Public Comment.”
Public comments on the Draft SA should be submitted no later than May 11, 2020. Comments may be submitted via regular mail to: Ms. Terri Slack, Attn: 2020 Draft SA, P.O. Box 2050, Oak Ridge, TN 37831; or by email: [email protected] Comments will not be accepted over the telephone.
Note: This story was updated at 11:45 a.m. April 8.
Several employees at the Y-12 National Security Complex have tested positive for COVID-19, the contagious respiratory illness that can be deadly, but the contractor that manages and operates the nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge declined Wednesday to say how many employees are infected.
Oak Ridge Today has reported on two Y-12 employees who were diagnosed with COVID-19 last week. Since then, the news website has received reports that other employees have also tested positive, possibly six total (including the two already reported). But Y-12 said it could not comment on the total number of cases, and the site did not comment on the condition of those employees.
“As of Wednesday, April 1, 2020, several employees at Y-12 have tested positive for COVID-19,” according to a response to questions from Consolidated Nuclear Security, the federal contractor that manages and operates Y-12 as well as the Pantex Plant northeast of Amarillo, Texas.
“Employees who tested positive and those who have been in contact with affected employees are self-isolating per the CDC’s guidelines,” CNS said. “In cases where employees are from the same organization, everyone working in affected buildings may be sent home as a precaution while the areas are sanitized.”
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The proposed Lithium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex could cost between $955 million and $1.65 billion, and it could be completed in 2031, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Thursday.
The Lithium Processing Facility could be built where the former Biology Complex is located on the east side of Y-12. That’s the NNSA’s preferred site. The Biology Complex is being prepared for demolition by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
On Thursday, the NNSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, said it had approved the conceptual design and cost range for the proposed 134,000-square-foot Lithium Processing Facility.
The facility will replace Y-12’s current lithium processing operations, which are located in a World War II-era building. That building, Building 9204-2, or Beta 2, has had materials fall from the ceiling, including chunks of concrete that reportedly weighed up to 200 pounds. The falling materials and concerns about worker safety have been cited by federal officials during congressional hearings in Washington, D.C.
[Read more…]The U.S. Department of Energy still has the two most powerful supercomputers in the world, including Summit at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, according to a semiannual list released Monday.
It’s the fourth time in the past two years that Summit, an IBM-built supercomputer, has been number one on the TOP500 list of of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
The United States displaced China at the top of the list last year, in June. Two years ago, in November 2017, China had the top two systems in the world.
Summit debuted at number one in June 2018. That was the first time since 2012 that the United States had the most powerful supercomputer in the world. Summit retained the top spot in November 2018 and again in June 2019.
The Sierra supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, climbed to number two from number three in November 2018. It remained at number two on the June list and again on the list released Monday, meaning it’s been number two on three versions of the list in the past two years.
Summit and Sierra are both IBM-built supercomputers that use Power9 central processing units (CPUs) and NVIDIA Tesla V100 graphics processing units (GPUs).
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Workers are making significant progress removing asbestos and other hazardous waste from the Biology Complex at the Y-12 National Security Complex in a deactivation project that’s more than 60 percent complete, the U.S. Department of Energy said this week.
The work prepares the Biology Complex for demolition, possibly next year. The Biology Complex was originally built to recover uranium from process streams. It was later used for DOE’s research on the genetic effects of radiation from the late 1940s. When they operated, the facilities once had more people with doctorates than anywhere in the world, according to DOE.
Asbestos abatement teams from UCOR are working inside the six-story 9207 Facility and the three-story 9210 Facility. The first building is 256,600 square feet, and the second is 64,700 square feet.
“This project paves the way for EM (Environmental Management) to begin demolishing remaining buildings that comprise the Biology Complex next year,” the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management said in an “EM Update” newsletter on Tuesday.
[Read more…]