News Sentinel reporter Bob Fowler has the story today on Knoxnews.com about the Department of Energy’s next step in divesting itself of the American Museum of Science & Energy. DOE has been trying to get rid of it for many years without great success.
Category Archives: AMSE
Safety Forum on Wednesday
A Community Safety Forum will be held Wednesday morning at the American Museum of Science and Energy, beginning at 8 a.m.
The two-hour forum is sponsored by the Oak Ridge Business Safety Partnership, a coalition of government agencies, contractors, labor unions and other parties in the community.
The theme of Wednesday’s event is “Safety Culture: It’s a Community Thing.” Continue reading
March 24 lecture: ‘Big Bang to Black Holes’
Nancy Grace Roman, former chief of NASA’s Astronomy and Relativity Programs in the Office of Space Science, will be the guest speaker March 24 as part of the annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series. Her lecture is entitled, “The Evolution of the Universe from the Big Bang to Black Holes.”
The event is sponsored by Friends of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the American Association of University Women. The event will be held at the American Museum of Science and Energy, 300 S. Tulane Ave., in Oak Ridge. it is free and open to the public. The lecture begins at 6 p.m. There will be reception beforehand, beginning at 5:30. Continue reading
African delegation visits Oak Ridge (1960)
Premier Ahmadu Bello and a delegation from the Northern Region of Nigeria visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other sites, including the American Museum of Atomic Energy, during their July 22, 1960 trip to Oak Ridge. (Department of Energy archives/Ed Westcott photo)
Farragut wins Middle School Science Bowl
The winning team, from left, Kevin Wang, Prajwal Jagadish, Caden Farley, Aditya Bal, Luke Kronzer and Coach Mary Sue Pruitt.
A team from Farragut Middle School won the sixth annual Tennessee Middle School Science Bowl over the weekend and will get an expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. for the national competition (April 28-May 2) sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The school also got $750. Continue reading
Richard Rhodes draws a crowd
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Richard Rhodes, left, poses with Y-12 historian Ray Smith before Rhodes’ lecture Thursday evening at the American Museum of Science & Energy. Earlier in the day, Rhodes toured Oak Ridge National Laboratory and saw the historic Graphite Reactor, the Spallation Neutron Source and the lab’s stable of supercomputers, including Titan — the nation’s most powerful computer for science. He also had lunch with ORNL Director Thom Mason, and they reportedly had great talks about the energy past and future, sort of bleeding into the Rhodes lecture topic. Rhodes in the afternoon visited Y-12 and got a tour of the historic Beta-3 calutrons. In the photgraph below, it’s easy to see that Rhodes attracted a full-house for his talk, “The Light of New Fires: Energy Challenges Yesterday and Today,” a run-up prep for a new book.
Sort of a Miley Cyrus moment before Miley Cyrus
A visitor at the American Museum of Science and Energy has an iconic hair-raising experience with the museum’s Van de Graaff accelerator on Feb. 18, 1982. (Department of Energy archives/Frank Hoffman photo)
If you want to purchase Steve Gibbs’ book
Former security official Steve Gibbs’ new book, “Behind the Blue Line: Protecting Our Nuclear Weapons Complex,” is available in paperback at $20. Gibbs is still developing his book plans, but he has a book signing planned Sept. 20, 1-5 p.m., at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge.
Gibbs can also be contacted via mail at P.O. Box 6412, Oak Ridge, Tn., 37831 or via email at SCGibbs@iCloud.com.
The 340-page book is subtitled, “My History in Oak Ridge from Guard to Senior Management.”
A sunny day at the atomic museum
The American Museum of Atomic Energy was opened in 1949 in an old building that was used as a cafeteria during the World War II Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge. The museum changed to its current location (on Tulane Avenue) in 1975 and three years later changed its name to the American Museum of Science and Energy. This photograph was taken in 1958. (Department of Energy archives/Ed Westcott photo)
‘Small World’ at Oak Ridge museum
The American Museum of Science & Energy is hosting the annual exhibit of award-winning micrographs from the Nikon Small World competition. The exhibit will be at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge museum through Sept. 13. For more information, check out the museum website. Continue reading
Three Dog Night, Marshall Tucker Band at Secret City Festival
Three Dog Night and the Marhsall Tucker Band will be featured entertainers at this year’s Secret City Festival, June 12-13, in Oak Ridge.
Y-12 restricts public access to New Hope Center; cites ‘overall threat’ of terrorism
Public access has been shut down at Y-12’s New Hope Center, which houses a history museum and other facilities.
The National Nuclear Security Administration has restricted access to New Hope Center — the most publicly available part of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant — because of what a spokesman characterized of the “overall threat” of terrorism that currently exists at government facilities.
The center houses the plant’s visitor center and a history museum, as well as an auditorium that’s used for a number of public events. New Hope Center also includes offices and labs and is home base for a number of Y-12 employees.
Steven Wyatt, a federal spokesman at Y-12, confirmed that the doors are now locked during business hours, requiring an employee badge in order to enter or approval for a previously scheduled event — such as a Friday event to be hosted by Cold War Patriots or a Y-12 tour planned for June 12 as part of the Secret City Festival. Continue reading
I’m back
After a week’s vacation, etc., I’m back at work this a.m. and trying to catch up on a few things. Thanks to those who inquired about my well-being or whereabouts.