DOE Warning Siren
The public warning sirens that you normally hear in Oak Ridge around noon on the first Wednesday of each month will not be tested today (Wednesday, July 4).
The siren is not being tested today in the areas around the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation because of the Independence Day Holiday.
“However, if an actual emergency were to take place during the Independence Day holiday (July 4), the sirens will be sounded,” a press release said. [Read more…]
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management has awarded Strata-G LLC a contract to perform environmental sampling as part of an effort to build a new disposal facility on the DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation. (Photo courtesy DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management has awarded Strata-G LLC a contract to perform environmental sampling as part of its effort to build a new waste disposal facility on the Oak Ridge Reservation.
Under the contract, valued at about $1 million, the veteran-owned small business is responsible for drilling 16 wells to access groundwater, characterize surface water, and gather soil samples for geotechnical investigations at the Bear Creek Valley site, located on federal land west of the Y-12 National Security Complex, a press release said. That site is known as the Central Bear Creek Valley site.
Information gathered from the environmental sampling activities will be used to determine if the site is suited for future waste disposal operations and to support detailed design for the new disposal facility, known as the Environmental Management Disposal Facility. Fieldwork is scheduled for completion in April, and a final report on the effort will be released later this year, the press release said. [Read more…]
During the federal government shutdown, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park location at the American Museum of Science and Energy on South Tulane Avenue will remain open to the public and continue to provide visitor services, but there will be no visitor services provided by the National Park Service. (Submitted photo)
The federal government shut down this weekend after federal funding expired Friday, and an official outlined the impacts to the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge, on Sunday.
During the shutdown, there will be no visitor services provided by the National Park Service at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, including public information, said Kris Kirby, superintendent of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park in Denver. The Manhattan Project National Historical Park includes Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Because of the federal government shutdown, National Park Service social media and websites are not being monitored or updated and may not reflect current conditions, Kirby said. All park programs have been canceled.
Kirby said national parks will remain as accessible as possible while still following all applicable laws and procedures.
“During this time, the following locations will remain open to the public and continue to provide visitor services,” Kirby said: [Read more…]
The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
With some apparent exceptions, employees at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge will continue working even after the federal government shut down after federal funding expired Friday.
Y-12 posted an announcement after the federal government shut down early Saturday. The announcement said workers at Y-12 and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, are expected to report to work on their next scheduled work day unless they have previously approved leave or have been given formal notice by their management to not report to work.
A few other federal organizations and federal contractors didn’t immediately appear to have posted notices as of early Saturday afternoon, about 12 hours after the shutdown began. Those include Oak Ridge National Laboratory. [Read more…]
David Millhorn
KNOXVILLE—David Millhorn, University of Tennessee senior vice president emeritus and national laboratory relations advisor, died on Monday in Knoxville. Millhorn, who joined UT System Administration in 2005 as vice president for research and economic development, was 72.
In July, Millhorn transitioned to his most recent role with the university after having served as UT senior vice president and vice president for research, outreach, and economic development since 2016 and president of the UT Research Foundation since January 2014.
Two years after Millhorn’s service as a member of the UT president’s staff began in 2005, he took on the additional role of UT executive vice president and served in both that capacity and as vice president for research until 2016, a press release said.
Millhorn oversaw multiple, unprecedented achievements for the university’s research enterprise, the press release said. Among those, UT’s contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to manage Oak Ridge National Laboratory—in partnership with Battelle Memorial Institute of Ohio—earned two five-year extensions, in 2010 and 2015, without having to re-compete. [Read more…]
The planned Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. (Image courtesy UCOR/U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)
A groundbreaking has been scheduled for Monday morning for the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Y-12 operations have historically used large amounts of mercury, and many of the buildings, now in varying states of deterioration, have mercury contamination, a media advisory said.
“The treatment facility will lower existing mercury levels from past releases and will serve as a guard against a potential increase in releases as mercury-contaminated buildings are demolished,” the media advisory said.
Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette will attend the groundbreaking, which is at Y-12 and not open to the public. U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander and U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, both Tennessee Republicans, will also attend the groundbreaking, the media advisory said.
The groundbreaking is being presented by the U.S. Department of Energy and URS|CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, or UCOR, DOE’s cleanup contractor at federal sites in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
Jay Mullis
He’s been the acting manager, and on Wednesday, Jay Mullis was named manager of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. That’s the office that oversees federal cleanup projects at East Tennessee Technology Park, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Y-12 National Security Complex.
Mullis has served as the OREM acting manager since October 2016, and he has served as the deputy manager since February 2015. He has 30 years of federal service, a press release said.
OREM is responsible for environmental cleanup across the 32,400-acre Oak Ridge Reservation, which includes ETTP, ORNL, and Y-12.
“Specifically, Mullis will oversee environmental cleanup and stewardship, decontamination and decommissioning activities, waste processing and management, surveillance and maintenance programs, historic preservation efforts, and procurement and contract functions,” the press release said. [Read more…]
The fiscal year 2017 Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board is pictured above. (Photo by SSAB)
A federal board has recommended five cleanup priorities for the Oak Ridge Reservation: offsite groundwater monitoring, future waste disposal capacity, the disposal of excess facilities, mercury in East Fork Poplar Creek, and remaining debris at the East Tennessee Technology Park.
The recommendations were made by the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board. That’s a federally appointed citizens’ panel that provides independent advice and recommendations to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.
The recommendations are for the fiscal year 2019 environmental management budget, which begins October 1, 2018.
“ORSSAB has identified five priorities for Oak Ridge Reservation cleanup, and recommends that the FY 2019 Oak Ridge EM program budget request reflect adequate funding to keep these projects going,” the board said. “Also, when additional funds from suitable plus-ups and savings become available, it recommends that these funds be targeted for these projects.”
Here is more information from the SSAB recommendation: [Read more…]
During training, workers removed a type of shipping cask that was expected to be used to transport 403 canisters of uranium-tainted waste from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to Nevada National Security Site northwest of Las Vegas. (File photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy/Office of Environmental Management)
This story was updated at 5 p.m. Aug. 30.
They haven’t agreed on a final budget number, but the Trump administration and the U.S. House and Senate have proposed spending between about $33 million and $52 million in the next fiscal year to continue disposing of uranium-233 waste materials that are stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in a building that is the oldest continuously operating nuclear facility in the U.S. Department of Energy complex.
The uranium-233, or U-233, waste is now stored in secure vaults in Building 3019, which was built in the 1940s at ORNL. Removing the waste could allow ORNL to relax its overall security posture, which will reduce costs, eliminate nuclear safety issues, and make the campus more conducive to collaborative science, according to a U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee report published in July.
Some of the waste is from a 1960s research and development test in New York, and it is being shipped to the Nevada National Security Site, a former nuclear weapons proving ground about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In interviews this summer, DOE officials in Oak Ridge declined to discuss the amount of that waste that has been shipped to Nevada or to say how long the shipments might continue. But they are making progress, said Jay Mullis, acting manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.
Once all of those materials are shipped, the remaining U-233 at ORNL will be treated in “hot cell” facilities across the street from Building 3019, at Building 2026. The DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management owns both buildings.
Mullis said there is other U-233 waste stored in Building 3019, including from glovebox research at ORNL, from reactor plates, and from conglomerate materials. [Read more…]
UCOR presented its 2017 Small Business Awards in a breakfast ceremony in Oak Ridge on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017. Christy Jackiewicz, acting director, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization in Washington, D.C., left, was the guest speaker. Also participating were Jay Mullis, acting manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, center, and Freda Hopper, UCOR small business program manager. (Photo courtesy UCOR)
UCOR on Wednesday presented awards to five small businesses to recognize their “exceptional efforts” in supporting UCOR’s cleanup contract on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation, a press release said.
UCOR, or URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, is a partnership of AECOM and CH2M. The company is responsible for cleaning up East Tennessee Technology Park, a former gaseous diffusion plant that DOE is converting into a private sector industrial park. It also performs cleanup work at other locations on the Oak Ridge Reservation.
“As always, our small business subcontracting work force constantly exceeds expectations, so it is difficult to select just a few to recognize,†said Freda Hopper, UCOR small business program manager. “This year’s winners have shown consistently exceptional performance and reinforce all the reasons we rely so heavily on small businesses for so many functions in our project.â€
The subcontractors were honored at an awards breakfast held in Oak Ridge on Wednesday, August 16, a press release said. Christy Jackiewicz, acting director, DOE Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, was the guest speaker. The ceremony also included comments from Ron Slottke, UCOR project services and support director, and Jay Mullis, acting manager of the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.
Here are the businesses that were recognized: [Read more…]
CH2M, which is based in Colorado, is a partner in UCOR, or URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC. UCOR is the U.S. Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor for the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation, and it is primarily focused on cleanup of East Tennessee Technology Park (the former Oak Ridge K-25 Site), which is pictured above. (Photo by UCOR)
CH2M, which is part of UCOR, the federal cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, is being acquired by Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
The acquisition was announced Wednesday. It’s a a cash-and-stock transaction of about $3.27 billion, including a $2.85 billion purchase and roughly $416 million of CH2M net debt. It’s expected to close in the first quarter of Jacobs’ fiscal year 2018, which ends at the end of 2017.
The two companies are separate until then.
It’s too early to say whether the acquisition would have any effect on the federal contract with UCOR, but the companies said the transaction is about growth, acquiring the expertise of CH2M, and expanding the presence of the combined company.
CH2M, which is based in Colorado, is a partner in UCOR, or URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC. UCOR is the U.S. Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor for the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation, and it is primarily focused on cleanup of East Tennessee Technology Park (the former Oak Ridge K-25 Site). But UCOR also works on cleanup and waste management activities at other Oak Ridge Reservation sites. [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…]
