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News & Notes

Expanding Y‑12's reach: Together with five research organizations, Y‑12 opened a first-of-its-kind development office in Huntsville, Ala., to pursue partnerships and synergies with defense and aerospace industries.

2.65 million hours: Despite hundreds of workers completing more than 200 of the most hazardous projects at Y‑12, Construction achieved an extraordinary 5-year and 2.65-million-hours record of no lost-time injuries. Another group, Emergency Services, has had no recordable injuries in 3 years, or 750,000 hours.

47-ton donation: Y‑12 donated two railroad tanker cars used in the plant's construction to the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum. During 1 month in World War II, more than 500 railcars brought in 38 million board ft of lumber, 5 million bricks, and 13,000 windows. In addition to preserving a bit of history, the donation avoided trashing 47 tons of metal.

Going wireless: Y‑12 is implementing a wireless infrastructure that will allow for increased communications. As the first NNSA site to pursue approval to use this type of wireless system, Y‑12 is paving the way for other sites.

Big business, small business: This past spring, Y‑12 received two prestigious awards for small-business contracts: the Eisenhower for manufacturing and the Perkins for women-owned businesses. Y‑12 won out over national competitors and further cemented its lead for small-business contracts in NNSA.

In the can: The ES-3100 nuclear material shipping container features an advanced fire-retardant insulation used at Y‑12 for nearly 10 years. Now that the technology is licensed to Accurate Machine Products, commercial nuclear processing companies and global companies like Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. can purchase the

ES-3100 shipping containers later this year.

Commercial power: Twelve tons of Y‑12's weapons-grade uranium will be down blended to about 220 tons of low-enriched uranium suitable for powering commercial reactors. Nuclear Fuel Services of Erwin, Tenn., will complete the work by 2012.

Summit: U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and four congressmen were among the 450 business and civic leaders at the recent Tennessee Valley Corridor National Summit held at Y‑12. The Summit's five-state region is “the nexus where energy, transportation, manufacturing and national security meet,” according to U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp.

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