Oak Ridge Today

Photo: OS band at ORNL for Veterans Day

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Oliver Springs High School Band at Oak Ridge National Laboratory Nov. 11, 2015

The Oliver Springs High School band marches down Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Central Avenue on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015. (Photo by Rachel Brooks/ORNL)

 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory observed Veterans Day on Wednesday with a parade and concert by the Oliver Springs High School Bobcat Band, among other activities.

Other activities includes a presentation of the colors by the Carson Newman University Color Guard and a keynote speech by Lieutenant General George Fisher, U.S. Army (retired).

Alexander statement on Manhattan Project Park

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Lamar-Alexander-Manhattan-Project-National-Historical-Park-Nov-10-2015

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee addresses a gathering of park supporters and the news media at the South Interior Building in downtown Washington, D.C., on November 10, 2015, where Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz signed a memorandum of agreement which created the 409th park in the National Park System, The Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The park was authorized by Congress in December 2014. It will have three sites in Hanford, Washington, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. NPS Photo by Anthony DeYoung.

 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander on Tuesday was among those celebrating the formal establishment of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Alexander said the Manhattan Project paved the way for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge Corridor, which now attracts “good-paying jobs to the area.”

“Today, we celebrate the Manhattan Project as a unique period in our history,” Alexander said. “But it’s also part of our future because from that effort arose many of the country’s great national laboratories—our secret weapon as we look to the future of keeping our country competitive in the world. I thank Secretary Sally Jewell and Secretary Ernest Moniz and the National Park Service for their work to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.”

Alexander continued: “Almost everyone in the Knoxville area knows something about the Manhattan Project. I was a little boy growing up in Maryville at the time, and I knew people who worked at Oak Ridge—what we called ‘the secret city.’ I didn’t know what they were doing, but today we can see what has come of their work—the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, home to one of the world’s fastest computers and additive manufacturing. The ‘Oak Ridge Corridor’ now symbolizes some of the greatest scientific brainpower in the world. So, for us in the Knoxville area, it is our history—and it is our future.” [Read more…]

Manhattan Project Park formally established in DC ceremony

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Sally-Jewell-Ernest-Moniz-Manhattan-Project-National-Historical-Park-Nov-10-2015-1

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz shortly after they signed a memorandum of agreement and created the 409th park in the National Park System, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The park was authorized by Congress in December 2014. The park will have three sites in Los Alamos, New Mexico; Hanford, Washington; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The ceremony took place at the South Interior Building in Washington, D.C., on November 10, 2015. (NPS Photo by Anthony DeYoung.)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 9 a.m. Nov. 11.

After more than a decade of work, the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Interior formally established the Manhattan Project National Historical Park on Tuesday. The new park, which includes Oak Ridge, commemorates one of the signature scientific achievements of the 20th century. It was formally established when Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz signed a memorandum of agreement, or MOA, in Washington, D.C.

The unique, three-site Manhattan Project National Historical Park includes Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico. It’s the nation’s 409th park.

The Manhattan Project was a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic bombs during World War II—before Germany could. It was an unprecedented national program, a world-changing event that harnessed the atom, and the largest industrial project ever, employing 130,000 people at just the three park sites. Whole cities and gigantic industrial plants were built in just a few short years, and Oak Ridge quickly swelled to a population of 75,000. Plants like the B Reactor at Hanford, the world’s first large-scale plutonium production reactor, were built in 11 months, still considered a marvelous feat today. The Manhattan Project is credited with helping to end World War II through its creation of the two atomic bombs dropped over Japan in August 1945.

During Tuesday’s ceremony, officials said the Manhattan Project was a groundbreaking scientific and engineering achievement that helped end the war, ushered in the nuclear age and new discoveries, and determined how the Cold War would be fought. But it also raised important moral questions about the devastating consequences of nuclear weapons. Officials vowed to tell all sides of the story during the signing ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday morning.

“You can trust us with this story,” National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis said. “We will be fair to all.” [Read more…]

Y-12, ORNL tours offered Nov. 12 to celebrate new Manhattan Project Park

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DOE Public Bus Tour

A previous public bus tour of the U.S. Department of Energy’s facilities in Oak Ridge. (File photo courtesy DOE/Lynn Freeny)

 

Public bus tours will be offered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex on Thursday, November 12, as part of the celebration of the new Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The new park, which is still being set up, includes Oak Ridge.

The special-access tours at ORNL and Y-12 are part of other planned activities in Oak Ridge, and they will include a peek inside Y-12’s Building 9731 and 9204-3 (Beta 3) and ORNL’s historic Graphite Reactor.

Y-12 and Clinton Laboratories—the wartime name for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory—were constructed as part of the Manhattan Project in 1943. The Y-12 Plant provided the Uranium-235 needed for Little Boy, the world’s first nuclear weapon used in warfare. The historic Graphite Reactor at X-10 (now ORNL) proved that plutonium could be produced in a uranium reactor on an industrial scale. These facilities will eventually become a part of the Oak Ridge location of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. [Read more…]

DOE, Interior to sign agreement for Manhattan Project Park on Nov. 10

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K-25 Building Aerial View

Now demolished, the former mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building, pictured above, was once used to enrich uranium for atomic weapons and commercial nuclear power plants. Located in west Oak Ridge, the site could become part of a Manhattan Project National Historical Park. There is a separate effort to preserve the site’s history; that work could be incorporated into the new park. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy)

 

The U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Department of Energy will sign an agreement on Tuesday, November 10, that establishes the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge.

The memorandum of agreement, or MOA, will be signed by federal officials that Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C.

Besides Oak Ridge, the park will include Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Hanford, Washington. [Read more…]

Environmental scientist to discuss radioactive waste management Oct. 26

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Ellen Smith

Ellen Smith

Ellen Smith, environmental scientist and Oak Ridge mayor pro tem, will discuss radioactive waste management on Monday, October 26.

Smith will be the featured speaker at the luncheon meeting of AAUW (American Association of University Women). The meeting starts at 11:30 a.m. Monday at First Presbyterian Church in Room 102 of the Activities Building.

Smith’s talk is scheduled to start at noon. [Read more…]

UT, ORNL host academic-industry meeting on national lab partnerships

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

The University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will host more than 200 university leaders and heads of industry this week at the 21st General Meeting of the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership. UIDP21 will be held October 13-16 at the Hilton Downtown Knoxville and the ORNL campus.

UIDP21, an organization of 140 universities and companies, brings people from academia and industry together to have tactical conversations about innovation and research and development, a press release said.

Given the collaborative research and development relationship UT and ORNL enjoy, the focus of the Knoxville meeting is university-industry-national laboratory partnerships, the release said. Attendees will hear from speakers from seven of the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories, professors, and administrators from several prominent universities, and industry leaders. [Read more…]

ORNL, Strangpresse LLC sign additive manufacturing patent license agreement

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ORNL Manufacturing Demonstration Facility Entrance

New additive manufacturing technologies are being explored at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL. The MDF is on Hardin Valley Road in west Knox County. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Strangpresse LLC of Youngstown, Ohio, have signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement on a portfolio of ORNL patents related to large-scale additive manufacturing.

ORNL is leading advances in the production of large-scale 3-D printed materials, refining industrial processes to decrease costs and increase efficiency.

Under the agreement, Strangpresse, a Hapco Inc. affiliate, may make, use, or sell the lab’s patented developments of materials, processes and controls that enable the manufacture of parts much larger than current standards.

“We’re very pleased to be joining with ORNL to carry large-scale additive manufacturing technology to the marketplace,” said Strangpresse President Chuck George. “Our leadership team has over 70 years of experience in the thermoplastics extrusion industry, and we see this partnership as a great opportunity to expand this technology.” [Read more…]

Small businesses invited to participate in DOE national lab vouchers pilot

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ORNL Industry Day Officials Sept. 24, 2015

David Danielson, left, DOE assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, is pictured above with officials at Industry Day at ORNL on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, when a 3D-printed vehicle and building were unveiled. Other officials include ORNL Director Thom Mason; U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann; Johnny Moore, ORNL Site Office manager; and David Milhorn, UT executive vice president. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Small businesses in the clean energy sector are invited to apply for assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories through the department’s new Small Business Vouchers Pilot.

David Danielson, DOE Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or EERE, announced the launch of the pilot website during EERE’s Industry Day event on Wednesday, September 23, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“Small businesses that are developing the new clean energy technologies that are needed to cut carbon pollution and create good-paying American jobs often lack the resources necessary to move their innovative ideas from the laboratory bench to the marketplace,” Danielson said. “The EERE Small Business Vouchers pilot is designed specifically to help small businesses bring next-generation clean energy technologies to the market faster by leveraging the world-class capabilities of our national laboratories to solve small businesses’ most pressing challenges.” [Read more…]

Radioactive components removed from former reactor at ORNL

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Group Photo Radioactive Components Reactor Pool

Federal and contractor employees who worked on the project to remove irradiated components from a reactor pool gather to watch the transport of the shipment offsite for disposition. (Photo courtesy DOE Office of EM)

 

Water was found seeping from a pool at a former reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory one year ago, and in August, workers removed four irradiated components from the pool that produced about 96 percent of the radiation, federal officials said Thursday.

The four irradiated components weigh about 200 pounds each, said the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM.

Water was found seeping from the reactor pool at the Oak Ridge Research Reactor during a routine inspection in September 2014. The facility, also known as Building 3042, is one of hundreds of Manhattan Project and Cold War-ear structures across the Oak Ridge Reservation monitored by the Oak Ridge Office of EM.

Nuclear research had not been conducted at the facility since 1988, but it still contained the highly irradiated components from those operations. The leak was causing the pool to lose the water that served as a protective, shielding agent for the irradiated components, officials said. [Read more…]

ORNL: Car, building are 3D-printed, can power each other

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ORNL 3D-Printed House and Vehicle on Sept. 24, 2015

A 3D-printed vehicle and building that were part of a nine-month research demonstration project were unveiled on Industry Day at ORNL on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015. The natural gas-powered car and solar-powered building can provide electricity to each other. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

A car and house built using large-scale 3D printers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory can provide power to each other, and they’re part of a project designed to answer “what if” questions that could lead to innovations in building and car construction and energy use, storage, and consumption, researchers and officials said Wednesday.

The 210-square-foot house—it’s a solar-powered building—and the printed utility vehicle—officials affectionately call it a PUV—were printed at ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility on Hardin Valley Road.

They were unveiled at ORNL on Wednesday during the lab’s first-ever Industry Day. The building and PUV are part of a project called the Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy, or AMIE, demonstration.

Additive manufacturing is the process used to build something one layer at a time. One of the most well-known examples is the Shelby Cobra car 3-D printed on a large-scale polymer printer at the MDF. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden admired that vehicle—and joked about taking it for a spin—during a trip to East Tennessee in January. [Read more…]

ORNL research demo combines clean energy, 3-D printed building, vehicle

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ORNL AMIE

Oak Ridge National Laboratory will unveil a research demonstration next week that combines clean energy technologies into a 3-D printed building and vehicle to showcase a new approach to energy use, storage, and consumption.

The unveiling of the Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy, or AMIE, demonstration is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. Wednesday, September 23, at ORNL.

The demonstration will be exhibited at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industry Day event as a model for energy efficient systems that link buildings, vehicles, and the grid.

A rendering of the demo is included above.

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