Oak Ridge Today

Five receive Muddy Boot Awards

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Five people won Muddy Boot Awards this year. In the top row, from left, they are Tom Ballard, David Bradshaw, and Sue Cange. In the bottom row are David Millhorn, left, and Ken Rueter.

Five people won Muddy Boot Awards this year. In the top row, from left, they are Tom Ballard, David Bradshaw, and Sue Cange. In the bottom row are David Millhorn, left, and Ken Rueter.

 

Five people received Muddy Boot Awards this year. They include scientists, business leaders, government officials, and a man who has done a little of everything during his career, a press release said.

Here are the winners of the 2017 Muddy Boot Awards, which are from the the East Tennessee Economic Council:

  • Tom Ballard, who has had three careers—with the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and now Pershing Yoakley and Associates, and still finds time to “spread the gospel of innovation” with his daily Teknovation.biz newsletter.
  • David Bradshaw, another multi-tasker who has worked at the Y-12 National Security Complex, Technology 2020, and most recently Pinnacle Financial Partners, and who has also served as the mayor of Oak Ridge and chairs of dozens of community causes.
  • Sue Cange, whose career with the U.S. Department of Energy saw her rise from a new employee in the environmental management program to the acting head of that same program before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University this fall and who, in many ways over the years, enabled the reindustrialization program at the East Tennessee Technology Park site.
  • David Millhorn, senior vice president of the University of Tennessee and a leader in the revitalization of both the university system and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
  • Ken Rueter, president of URS | CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), a relative newcomer to East Tennessee who brings energy to everything he does, whether it be the environmental stewardship programs at ETTP or his work building hiking and biking trails while supporting the Foothills Land Conservancy and the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.

“The one common trait in these five individuals,” ETEC President Jim Campbell said, “is the passion they bring in their own way to the work they do. Their dedication is infectious, and it makes everyone around them better. Clearly each person has made East Tennessee a better place to work, to play, and to thrive.” [Read more…]

Treatment facility will reduce mercury in creek water, allow cleanup work at Y-12

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The new Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex will help reduce the amount of mercury that gets into East Fork Poplar Creek and allow the demolition of four large buildings where mercury was used to help make nuclear weapons during the Cold War, officials said during a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, Nov. 20, 2017. Part of the back of the Beta 1 building is pictured at back left. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The new Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex will help reduce the amount of mercury that gets into East Fork Poplar Creek and allow the demolition of four large buildings where mercury was used to help make nuclear weapons during the Cold War, officials said during a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, Nov. 20, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 10:45 p.m.

The new Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex will help reduce the amount of mercury that gets into East Fork Poplar Creek and allow the demolition of four large buildings where mercury was used to help make nuclear weapons during the Cold War, officials said Monday.

Mercury contamination is one of the biggest problems remaining from the Cold War, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander said during a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday morning. Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, first announced the new treatment facility at Y-12 more than four years ago.

“In May 2013, I came to Oak Ridge to announce that a new water treatment facility would be built at Y-12 at the head of the East Fork Poplar Creek to prevent mercury that was once used to make nuclear weapons from getting into our waterways,” Alexander said. “That day, I made a personal commitment to address one of the biggest problems we have from the Cold War era—mercury contamination—and help fund a solution. Today, I am proud to see that we are breaking ground on the new water treatment facility.”

Site preparation for the new Mercury Treatment Facility is expected to start this year, with the rest of construction beginning in late 2018. The facility is expected to start operating in late 2022.

The treatment plant will allow workers to demolish four large buildings where mercury, a toxic metal, was once used: Alpha 2, Alpha 4, Alpha 5, and Beta 4. Work on those buildings, mostly on the west side of Y-12, could start by 2024. [Read more…]

DOE names Jay Mullis as new cleanup manager in Oak Ridge

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Jay Mullis

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…]

About 185 acres at Heritage Center transferred to CROET

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The image above showing reindustrialization progress at East Tennessee Technology Park comes from a presentation on Oct. 11, 2017, by Dave Adler by the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. The K-31/K-33 area is the blue area at the top right side of the ETTP site, and Duct Island is the purple/pink area just below it and slightly to the left. The former K-25 Building was in the yellow area at center. The proposed airport is at the bottom right in the blue and purple/pink area along State Route 58.

The image above showing reindustrialization progress at East Tennessee Technology Park comes from a presentation on Oct. 11, 2017, by Dave Adler by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. The K-31/K-33 area is the blue area at the top right side of the ETTP site, and Duct Island is the purple/pink area just below it and slightly to the left. The former K-25 Building was in the yellow area at center. The proposed airport is at the bottom right in the blue and purple/pink area on the north side of State Route 58.

 

About 185 acres in the northwest corner of Heritage Center, the former K-25 site, have been transferred to the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee.

CROET is a nonprofit organization that helps find new uses for former U.S. Department of Energy property.

The 185 acres transferred to CROET at Heritage Center are where the K-31 and K-33 buildings used to be. The property transfer was recorded at the Roane County courthouse on October 10, said Lawrence Young, CROET president.

“We hope to be able to attract, over time, larger industrial clients,” Young said Monday.

The parcels are currently vacant, and they have been cleaned up by the U.S. Department of Energy and UCOR, DOE’s cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge. There should not be any impediments to using the parcels as industrial property from an environmental standpoint, Young said. [Read more…]

UCOR awards site prep contract for Mercury Treatment Facility at Y-12

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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)

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)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 2:30 p.m.

UCOR, the federal government’s cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, has awarded a $1.4 million contract to a Knoxville company for early site preparation activities for the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, and the work could start in November.

GEM Technologies of Knoxville will perform the work for the new Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at Y-12, UCOR said in a press release Tuesday.

UCOR is also known as URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC.

Under the contract, GEM Technologies will perform limited demolition of existing abandoned utilities and the extension of new utilities—including electrical power, water, sewer, and storm drains—to the treatment facility sites, the press release said. [Read more…]

Updated: Cange, former Oak Ridge cleanup manager, appointed visiting scholar at Vanderbilt

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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…]

President’s budget: DOE cleanup funding could be up, with benefits for Oak Ridge

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Jay Mullis, front center, acting manager of the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, talks about federal site cleanup work in Oak Ridge during a visit by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, left, on Monday, May 22, 2017. Pictured between Perry and Mullis are U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, both Tennessee Republicans. (Photo by DOE)

Jay Mullis, front center, acting manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, talks about federal site cleanup work in Oak Ridge during a visit by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, left, on Monday, May 22, 2017. Pictured between Perry and Mullis are U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, both Tennessee Republicans. (Photo by DOE)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 4:30 p.m.

Cleanup funding could be up for the U.S. Department of Energy under the budget request from the Trump administration for fiscal year 2018, and there could be benefits for Oak Ridge, according to budget documents.

President Donald Trump submitted his budget request to Congress on Tuesday, May 23. In that request, the DOE Office of Environmental Management, or EM, asked for $6.5 billion, the largest request in a decade. That would be $290 million above fiscal year 2016.

The funding request for Oak Ridge includes $390 million, or $78 million below fiscal year 2016, to continue deactivation and demolition of remaining facilities at East Tennessee Technology Park, continue preparing Building 2026 to support the processing of the remaining U-233 material at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and to support activities for the Mercury Treatment Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex.

It’s not clear whether that $390 million in the funding request includes part of the $225 million in funding requested for high-risk excess contaminated facilities at Y-12 and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. It’s also not clear whether the total funding for Oak Ridge cleanup programs would be up or down, compared to previous years. The DOE public affairs office in Washington, D.C., has not responded to about a dozen budget-related inquiries from Oak Ridge Today since May 23.

Among the highlights of the EM request for Oak Ridge, according to budget documents posted online by DOE and an EM press release: [Read more…]

Site prep could start this year for mercury treatment plant at Y-12

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Y-12 Mercury Treatment Facility

The Mercury Treatment Facility that will be at the east end of Y-12 National Security Complex could start operating in 2022. (Image by David Brown/U.S. Department of Energy)

 

Note: This story was updated at 2 p.m.

Site preparation could start later this year for the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex as the U.S. Department of Energy prepares for demolition and cleanup work at the nuclear weapons plant.

DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, expects to complete demolition and cleanup work at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, in 2020. It will then focus on the large-scale demolition work at Y-12.

Among the Y-12 buildings that could be demolished are Alpha 4, Alpha 5, and Beta 4, all large buildings where mercury, a toxic metal, was once used. The buildings used mercury to separate lithium for nuclear weapons. The lithium separation operations started in 1955 and ended in 1963.

But before that cleanup work can begin, OREM needs the Mercury Treatment Facility. The plant was first announced at a press conference featuring U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, about four years ago, in May 2013.

“This water treatment plant is a major step in addressing one of the biggest problems we have from the Cold War era—mercury once used to make nuclear weapons getting into our waterways,” Alexander said at the time. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management cuts costs by $5.4 million

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Sue Cange, who was manager of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and is now EM principal deputy assistant secretary in Washington, D.C., 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)

 

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, has cut costs by $5.4 million, federal officials said.

OREM is one of several U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management, or EM, sites that reduced costs by more than $100 million in fiscal year 2016, which ended September 30.

The costs were reduced in response to a challenge from EM leaders to free more funding for cleanup, DOE said in a December 29 EM Update electronic newsletter.

The Savannah River Operations Office realized more than $34.1 million in cost reductions, officials said. It was followed by the Richland Operations Office with more than $31.6 million; Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office with more than $16.8 million; Office of River Protection with more than $12.7 million; Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management with $5.4 million; and Idaho Site with more than $4 million.

“Reducing our costs by more than $100 million is a tremendous accomplishment, and we are going to continue to look for ways to work smarter and identify further savings in fiscal year 2017,” EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Sue Cange said. [Read more…]

First of its kind, Oak Ridge’s federal re-industrialization program celebrates 20 years

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east-tennessee-technology-park-2020-rendering-1

A rendering of East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, in 2020, when cleanup there is scheduled for completion. ETTP offers robust infrastructure and multiple parcels spanning hundreds of acres, capable of attracting and supporting large-scale industry, according to DOE. (Photo courtesy DOE)

 

Note: This is an edited version of a story by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management.

A re-industrialization program that was the first of its kind and converts federal property to private-sector use celebrated 20 years this month.

The re-industrialization program was designed to attract new industries and jobs to a former uranium enrichment complex.

Through the program, the U.S. Department of Energy has transferred hundreds of acres to the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee, or CROET, and the City of Oak Ridge to create two private-sector industrial parks, the 1,200-acre Heritage Center and the 1,000-acre Horizon Center.

Heritage Center is at the former K-25 site, which was built during World War II and was once used to enrich uranium in west Oak Ridge. Horizon Center is a few miles east of Heritage Center. [Read more…]

Fleischmann, Belbeck, Pasqua receive Muddy Boot Awards

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randy-mcnally-and-chuck-fleischmann-muddy-boot-award-dec-9-2016-scaled

Tennessee Senator and Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally, left, presents a Muddy Boot Award to U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican, at an East Tennessee Economic Council meeting on Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. (DOE photo by Lynn Freeny)

 

Businessmen Mike Belbeck and Mike Pasqua and U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann were honored Friday with Muddy Boot Awards. The awards from the East Tennessee Economic Council, or ETEC, pay tribute to people who, through their work and activities, build a better community.

Pasqua helped found and grow SAIC’s Oak Ridge offices and later led the transition to Leidos, a press release said. Belbeck is executive vice president for operations of Covenant Health and active in numerous organizations across the region, the release said.

Covenant Health’s Jan McNally, who recruited Belbeck to be her successor as administrator of Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge, presented his award, and Sherry Browder, current chair of ETEC and a former colleague of Pasqua at SAIC, presented that Boot.

Fleischmann returned from Washington to receive his Muddy Boot Award, which was presented by incoming Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally, the press release said.

The Council’s Pat Postma also presented the Postma Young Professional Medal to Wade Creswell, chief executive officer of The Roane Alliance. [Read more…]

DOE names Cange, who worked in Oak Ridge, principal deputy assistant secretary

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Sue Cange, who was 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)

 

Sue Cange, who was an Oak Ridge manager, has been named principal deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM.

EM announced the appointment on Thursday.

Cange had been manager of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. Oak Ridge Today reported in early October that she was moving to Washington, D.C., to become interim principal deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management. She was temporarily serving in the role formerly filled by Mark Whitney, who has taken a job in the private sector. Whitney is also a former manager of the Environmental Management program in Oak Ridge.

“Sue is a trusted and effective leader with a deep understanding of EM’s cleanup mission and passion for advancing our mission,” EM Assistant Secretary Monica Regalbuto said in a press release Thursday. “With a strong track record of leading organizations to complete cleanup work safely and efficiently, she will be integral to our progress.” [Read more…]