February 2008
Weapons planning in Oak Ridge
Even if the NNSA chooses the preferred alternative on weapons complex tranformation and names Y-12 as the uranium center of excellence, there's no guarantee a new Uranium Processing Facility will be built at Oak Ridge.
According to federal officials at this week's PEIS hearings in Oak Ridge, that decision will be made on whether the UPF "proves to be cost effective." Of course, cost effective in federal parlance could mean almost anything.
Y-12, now and forever?
One more sign that the government is planning on keeping the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in operation for a while:
On March 4th, the Y-12 folks are hosting a media shindig and ceremonial ground-breaking for a $62.5 million upgrade to the plant's potable water system.
Uranium Exposure and Cancer Risk
At my request, Oak Ridge Associated Universities shared a copy of a new epidemiologic study, published in the Health Physics journal.
The title is "Cancer Risk in Nuclear Workers Occupationally Exposed to Uranium -- Emphasis on Internal Exposure."
Playing the Kissinger card
photo/Jeff Adkins
The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance invoked the 2007 essay, "A World Free of Nuclear Weapons," written by Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Sam Nunn and William Perry and published in The Wall Street Journal, as part of the group's push for a "no production" option in government plans for the weapons complex of the future.
Well, the National Nuclear Security Administration wasn't about to let that stand, quickly disseminating copies of letters from Kissinger, et al, in support of the Reliable Replacement Warhead, etc.
Will layoffs be necessary at Y-12?
Today was the last day for salaried employees at Y-12 to file applications for the Voluntary Separation Payment Program, but no word yet on how many people opted for the incentive package to leave the Oak Ridge payroll.
Debbie Shecterle, B&W Y-12's senior vp and human capital chief, recently said the company made the offer in order to avoid layoffs where possible -- trying to maximize the federal dollars budgeted for plant operations. She said the contractor estimated that for every four people who accepted the buy-out package at Y-12, one job would be saved.
Italy's nuclear waste a hot item
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received 289 comments so far on the EnergySolutions application to import up to 20,000 tons of nuclear waste from Italy.
"For one of these licenses, that's a huge number (of comments)," NRC spokesman David McIntyre said this afternoon.
The dregs of classification
Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Local Oversight Committee, got a chuckle out of the recent blog item regarding a speaker at the Integrated Facilities Disposition Project workshop who declared his entire presentation on Y-12 "Official Use Only."
On a more serious note, Gawarecki said, "The LOC thinks that OUO has gone way too far and is inconsistently applied. Our Policy Committee is studying the issue."
Crossing The Blue Line
Well, it ought to be interesting on Aug. 6 or whenever the next protest is staged at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, because the government and its contractors appear to be playing games with The Blue Line that marks the so-called 229 Boundary.
On protest days, crossing The Blue Line makes one subject to arrest and federal charges. Now, however, with completion of Y-12's New Hope Center and the staging of public events there, hordes of people regularly cross The Blue Line without clearance or prior approval.
'You have got to be insane'
Ted Wyka, the presiding federal official at Tuesday's public hearings on weapons complex transformation, laughed when I asked him what he thought when a 9-year-old girl called him insane.
"I don't enjoy being called insane, but I admire the public participation, including some young folks," said Wyka, who has two young kids of his own. "It's a strong statement, but I think I've been called that before by my 5-year-old."
'I wouldn't call it spying'
photo/Michael Patrick
John Whalen (above, shown speaking at Tuesday's Oak Ridge hearing on weapons complex transformation) made a road trip last week to North Augusta, S.C., to see what the folks from the Savannah River Site were doing and saying at their hearings.
Lillie Allred (July 17, 1925 - Feb. 24, 2008)
Lillie and Woody Allred, newly married in 1945
Lillie and Woody Allred, in the summer of 2007 (photo/Clay Owen)
Lillie Allred, a Manhattan Project worker and a wonderful woman, died this week after a 12-year war with cancer. I'll have more on her in my Wednesday column.
No surprise! Oak Ridge wins Science Bowl
Congratulations to the Oak Ridge High team that over the weekend won the Tennessee Science Bowl, defeating 53 other teams. The winning team members were Rowan Crakovmakos, Woody Austin, Ryan Liu, Katherine Xue and Alborz Bejnood. Eddie Anderson was the coach.
The ORHS team will represent the state in the National Science Bowl, which will be held in Washington in early May.
Transformation -- A military man's view
Retired Air Force Col. Joseph E. Sutter, who has lived in Knoxville since 1994, said he couldn't attend Tuesday's public hearings on transformation of the nuclear weapons complex. But he submitted comments and passed along a version to me.
I thought I'd make them available here:
Jaguar's running, Kraken's on the way
Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jaguar supercomputer has been revamped with new quad-core processors and a top-end speed exceeding 250 teraflops — 250 trillion calculations per second. That’s more than double the system’s previous peak of 119 teraflops.
Thomas Zacharia, the lab’s computing chief, said the Jaguar — a Cray XT4 supercomputer — is fully operable again after being shut down in late 2007 to reconfigure the machine and install the AMD “Budapest” processors.
The "no production" alternative
The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and other groups are asking the NNSA to consider another alternative for the nuclear weapons complex: no more production. OREPA will hold a press conference Tuesday at the public hearings in Oak Ridge to push that plan.
More on The Next Big Thing
The Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association (ETEBA) has posted on its website some of the presentations and results from a two-day workshop in late January.
More info on nuke complex "transformation"
photo/Michael Patrick
If you've become disoriented and bleary-eyed trying to read and comprehend the government's plans for downsizing and reconfiguring the nuclear weapons complex, you are not alone. The layered options and different alternatives can be confusing.
I did an overview story today, based mostly on Y-12 and Oak Ridge issues. In addition to the plan for the weapons complex, there is a second environmental impact statement being prepared for Y-12, which was mandated when the NNSA proposed a new Uranium Processing Facility at the site.
Here's a Q&A (based on responses from NNSA) on how it fits into the whole shebang:
Continue reading "More info on nuke complex "transformation""
Eeeeeek! Flu hysteria hits Oak Ridge
The flu bug is apparently causing delusions.
Y-12 reported on its internal web site for employees, "By now you may have heard that ORNL and ETTP employees are being required to wear masks when participating in meetings that involve more than three people." The occupational folks said such measures, at this point, were not being recommended at Y-12.
Oddly enough, those measures weren't required at ORNL or ETTP either. It was just a rumor.
Turning Chernobyl into Dollywood?
Glenn Bell, retired machinist from Y-12 and a longtime advocate for sick workers in the nuclear weapons complex, was at Tuesday night's public meeting on K-25 preservation but didn't speak. As he exited the New Hope Center, he said he didn't realize it was going to be such a "cheerleading" event.
In an earlier e-mail regarding plans to turn K-25 into a tourist site, Bell commented: "Call me pessimistic, but isn't this a bit like turning Chernobyl into Dollywood?"
"Reference Man" under attack
Arjun Makhijani and his Institute for Energy and Environmental Research organized a campaign to change the government's use of "Reference Man" on radiation protection standards. The letter sent earlier this week to President Bush had more than 3,000 signers, according to a release from the group.
New safety rep at Y-12
DNFSB announces the move of David Kupferer as new safety rep at Y-12. He was previously at Pantex. The announcement indicates that he will join Don Owen and Todd Davis at Y-12, but a previous report indicated that Davis is bound for Los Alamos.
More retiree numbers
Here is a list of surviving retirees from ORNL, according to the year of their retirement.
These numbers were provided by the lab. I'm not sure if they match up exactly with any of the other stats provided because they're reportedly from a different database. Anyway, I wanted to pass them along.
Preservation & K-25
photo/Amy Smotherman-Burgess
The Dept. of Energy hopes to reach a decision on how to proceed with K-25 and preservation issues by mid- to late-spring, a DOE spokesman said today.
Public affairs chief John Shewairy said agency officials want to give the Site Specific Advisory Board time to review the input from last night's public meeting and other sources, digest the information and perhaps come up with a recommendation on what's best.
Oak Ridge retiree-related stats
Bob Henderson and other Oak Ridge contractor retirees have requested some of the numbers on retirees and stats associated with the pension and other related issues.
I don't have complete numbers, by any stretch, but here are some I received from ORNL. They were provided by Mark Wagner, the lab's manager of employee benefits.
Alice Murphy leaving ETEBA
Alice Murphy, the executive director of the Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association for the past two years, is leaving for personal and family reasons. She said she probably would continue to do consulting.
ORNL in Guinness Book of Records
The SNS is now "officially" the world's most powerful neutron spallation source.
Below is the letter from Guinness World Records:
Official Use Only: The Madness, Part II
A few weeks ago, I noted a bizarre situation at a cleanup workshop where a Y-12 official declared his entire presentation was "Official Use Only." Foreign nationals were asked to leave the auditorium, and the doors were closed -- even though members of the news media were still in the room.
The explanation was that it would be impossible to do such a presentation without restricting access to the info.
Now, however, the presentation is posted on the World Wide Web.
Cutting Y-12's payroll
B&W offered the voluntary departure package today, and not everyone is thrilled with the offering, which is less than the severance package for those who leave involuntarily (layoffs).
The company reportedly hopes to cut 300 to 400 jobs from the payroll, which currently is about 4,500 employees.
Mayors support Y-12
photo/Michael Patrick
Twelve mayors in East Tennessee sign letter in support of Y-12 missions. That and a couple of other items in my Knox Biz Journal column.
Beware the beryllium
At a recent cleanup workshop, a speaker made reference to finding beryllium in unexpected places at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Jeff Smith, the lab's deputy director for operations, confirmed that's the case.
"We have found more beryllium at this place in some of these older buildings than what we would have expected," Smith said.
The good, the bad and Y-12
Another spill at the Oak Ridge weapons facility. Some good news, too. Here's the link.
Weinberg memorial
photo/Michael Patrick
Community organizations in Oak Ridge are looking for an appropriate way to honor the memory of Alvin Weinberg -- a nuclear pioneer, long-time director of ORNL and an important figure in American science.
Weinberg died in 2006. He was 91 years old.
Is ORNL too expensive?
For whatever reason, it seems like I haven't heard as much complaining recently about overhead costs and such from the lab's scientific staff. UT-Battelle management has typically downplayed those concerns, saying ORNL stacks up very well against other DOE labs when compared on the cost of doing business.
During a recent conversation with Tom Wilbanks, a corporate fellow at ORNL and one of the scientists who contributed to the Nobel Prize-winning work on climate change, I asked him about that.
SNS & Los Alamos: response to allegations
A column I wrote earlier this week, "Was Los Alamos weak link on SNS?" attracted a bit of attention -- including a posting on a blog known as LANL: The Rest of the Story.
An anonymous commenter on the blog said the SNS wasn't the success story it's been built up to be and raised some technical issues about the neutron-producing facilities. I thought they were interesting enough to pursue, and so I asked Ian Anderson -- associate lab director at ORNL and the SNS chief -- to respond to them.
Continue reading "SNS & Los Alamos: response to allegations"
Gordon: nuke waste imports undercut U.S. policy
Congressman Bart Gordon, who chairs the House Science and Technology Committee, is armed with new facts as he goes to bat against the EnergySolutions proposal to import up to 20,000 tons of Italian nuclear waste. See today's story.
Continue reading "Gordon: nuke waste imports undercut U.S. policy"
Los Alamos and the SNS
Albuquerque sage John Fleck and a couple of other colleagues gave me a heads up earlier this week on a GAO report that blasted Los Alamos on multiple fronts, including the New Mexico lab's work on the Spallation Neutron Source.
I wrote about the role in today's column, "Was Los Alamos weak link on SNS?"
W76, RRW and other stuff
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, Ted Sherry, Darrel Kohlhorst (photo/Michael Patrick)
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker made his first visit to Y-12 earlier this week, and I asked him if he had received a briefing on the W76 warhead and the technical issues that have reportedly stalled the warhead's life-extension program.
The bridges of K-25
photo/BJC
Bechtel Jacobs Co. workers are preparing to demolish the northwest "bridge" (above) that connects the west wing of the K-25 building to the North Tower.
The North Tower forms the bottom of the U-shaped building, once used to enrich uranium for bombs, and is the subject of preservation efforts in Oak Ridge.
EnergySolutions incident: nuke workers update
Apparently six workers were involved in the Jan. 16 incident at the Oak Ridge waste-processing plant, not just the three previously reported.
One worker who received internal alpha contamination -- with an estimated rad dose of 2.7 rems, more than half the annual limit for nuclear workers -- is still being evaluated and restricted to working in non-rad areas of the plant, according to Mike Johnson, president of EnergySolutions' commercial facilities group.
Continue reading "EnergySolutions incident: nuke workers update"
ITER situation: How bad will it get?
ORNL Director Thom Mason said he doesn't believe the U.S. Congress intended to kill the nation's participation in ITER when it almost zeroed out funding for the international fusion project in the 2008 omnibus budget bill.
"That's why I'm still hopeful we will get back on track," Mason said late this afternoon.
ORAU continues rad-dose evals (for now)
NIOSH apparently is having a difficult time making a decision on the rebid of the dose-reconstruction contract.
Oak Ridge Associated Universities received word this week that its current contract, already extended on multiple occasions, will continue in effect for another six weeks -- through March 28.
'I'm trying to rally the troops'
That's the word from Garry Whitley, president of the Atomic Trades and Labor Council in Oak Ridge. He's trying to get blue-collar workers out in force for the Feb. 26 hearings on "transformation" of the nuclear weapons complex.
"We know Savannah River is five days before us," he said, referring to public hearings scheduled for Feb. 21 in North Augusta.
JIBS ready for action
photo/ORNL
Barry Berven, operations chief for the Biosciences Division at ORNL, gave me a tour the other day of the new Joint Institute for Biological Sciences on the lab's west campus. Construction is essentially complete (with a few minor touches remaining), and a few occupants are already there -- including division director Martin Keller and research stalwart Brian Davison.
Italian waste: follow-up
EnergySolutions exec says the company's Oak Ridge plant has processed somewhere in the range of 1.5 million tons of radioactive metal from foreign sources since 1996. See today's story. Mike Johnson, president of the company's commercial facilities group, said that's 1-2 percent of the total metal recycling amount (about 100 million tons) at the facility on Bear Creek Road.
Also, a notice published in today's Federal Register opens formal comment period on application to bring up to 20,000 tons of Italian rad waste to Oak Ridge under NRC guidelines.
'Delay, deny and hope they die'
Oak Ridge contractor retiree, Robert Henderson, said he believes that must be DOE's strategy regarding a pension increase.
Henderson worked in the central computing organization and retired in 1998 after 36 years of service at the Oak Ridge plants. Here's what he wrote:
The answer is 'Yes'
Following a recent ceremony honoring climate scientists at ORNL, I was engaged in animated conversation with some of the participants -- flapping my arms (as I tend to do) and apparently gabbing in full voice.
Helen Hardin, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp's chief of staff, approached with a brisk pace and a look of annoyance. She asked:
DOE's revised tech-transfer policy
The Dept. of Energy today released a new policy on technology transfer. It's supposed to help move "cutting-edge technology" from DOE labs into the commercial marketplace, but for the life of me I can't tell what's different from what's already taking place at Oak Ridge and other sites.
More Madia
Bill Madia, ex-director of ORNL and PNNL and ex-lab overseer for Battelle who recently came out of short-lived retirement to take a new job at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, has added yet another title to his resume:
Member of the board of directors of the U.S. Enrichment Corp.
Next Big Thing, Part 2
photo/Michael Patrick
I've been calling DOE's proposed cleanup campaign at Y-12 & ORNL "The Next Big Thing," because it would demolish more than 200 buildings and cost as much as $8 billion.
Now there's another big cleanup deal on the horizon -- a follow-on to the work at the East Tennessee Technology Park (the former K-25 uranium-enrichment plant).
UT-Battelle gets straight A's
ORNL contractor gets great report card from the Dept. of Energy. The latest report cards for all DOE science labs are available here. Story is posted at main Knoxnews.com site.
Drag racing at ORNL?
That rumor is not true, according to Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, although an employee of a BJC subcontractor was disciplined for the Jan. 17 "incident."
Big reviews at Y-12
The oxide conversion facility at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant could be restarted by month's end, depending on the outcome of "readiness reviews" by the plant's contractor (B&W Technical Services) and federal overseers at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Oxide conversion is a key part of Y-12's enriched-uranium processing capability. The process converts uranium oxide to uranium tetrafluoride (green salt), which later goes through a reduction process to create enriched uranium metal.
Storm passes -- ORNL reactor restarts
The lab's High Flux Isotope Reactor returned to action today for the first time since Jan. 11, when it was shut down for maintenance and refueling.
Ron Crone, director of ORNL's Research Reactors Division, said operators delayed the restart this morning for about two hours in order for strong strorms in the area to pass.
Wamp's goal
photo/J. Miles Cary
U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp hopes to "climb the ladder" to become lead Republican on the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee in next session of Congress. See today's column on how he plans to use his influence.
Hypothetical hirings at ORNL
Lab Director Thom Mason said if the Bush budget for 2009 were approved as is, ORNL probably would acquire enough new work to hire about 200 new staff members. The current employment is about 4,200.
Wackenhut scores 94
Security police officers undergo firearms certification (photo Joe Howell)
Wackenhut Services' first evaluation under its new contract with the Dept. of Energy's Oak Ridge office resulted in a performance score of 94 (out of 100), a "good" rating" and a total fee of $993,298.49.
That was out of a total fee pool of about $1.036 million, according to DOE spokesman John Shewairy. The evaluation period was from June 4 to November 30, and the contract covers security operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Federal Office Building and other facilities.
Dials leaving Y-12
George Dials, 62, the president of B&W Y-12, is moving to a new corporate position and will be replaced at the Y-12 helm by Darrel Kohlhorst, 60, currently the senior VP and chief operating officer. More information is available on the main page at Knoxnews.com.
Corker's coming
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker's office announced today that he plans to tour the Y-12 facilities Feb. 11. The advisory noted that the first-term Republican senator supports the government's transformation plans for the Oak Ridge weapons facility and plans to get an update during the visit.
Nuke showdown Feb. 26
That's when the NNSA will host Oak Ridge public hearings on "transformation" of the nuclear weapons complex.
You would expect the hearings to attract folks with different views of nuclear weapons and the Oak Ridge work, and you'd be right.
ORNL's Atomic Cafe
photo/Joe Howell
The food was bad, the ambience was worse, and now it turns out the place was radioactive.
Yes, a lab official confirmed that a few hot spots were found during the recent demolition of ORNL's old cafeteria, and the radioactive debris will have to be buried as low-level nuclear waste.
Dirk Van Hosen, an environmental manager at ORNL, said radioactive "fallout" from the early operations at the Oak Ridge lab had contaminated the cafeteria's roof and infiltrated parts of the air-handling system.
ORAU extension -- again
ORAU President Ron Townsend last week said he still hadn't heard from NIOSH regarding the contract competition for dose reconstruction, so he indicated another extension of the current contract was almost surely forthcoming.
The current contract held by Oak Ridge Associated Universities and its partners (MJW Corp. and Dade Moeller & Associates) is due to run out Feb. 15.
When scientists talk . . .
Earlier this week, I was at an event honoring five ORNL scientists who contributed to the Nobel Prize-winning work on global climate change.
Given some of the latest projections -- that suggest change is occurring so quickly it may not be possible to avoid dire consequences -- I asked the scientists if they ever sat around among themselves and asked: Should we have spoken out sooner? Louder?
OUO Madness
Undoubtedly the strangest thing at this week's workshop on DOE's massive cleanup program (called the Integrated Facilities Disposition Project) was the sudden pronouncement by a Y-12 official that his entire presentation was Official Use Only.
Foreign nationals were asked to leave the room, and the doors in Pollard Auditorium were closed, although apparently not locked. That might have been a fire code violation.
Nuke mishap: update
The initial round of bioassays reportedly was good news for three workers contaminated Jan. 16 at the EnergySolutions waste-processing plant in Oak Ridge.
Frank Munger will be covering the Dept. of Energy's Oak Ridge facilities and other things nuclear. The blog will include random thoughts and opinions, behind-the-scenes tidbits, and expanded coverage and analysis of Oak Ridge news. 