The People In The Room

Each year thousands of people come to visit Oak Ridge. In our last economic impact study, done in 2017, we counted over 50,000 visitors to our science and national security facilities. This figure includes business, education, and science-related visitors. Before COVID, the number of visitors was poised to grow as Heritage Tourism is set to increase with announcements of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, the Oak Ridge History Museum, K-25 History Center, and the renewed American Museum of Science and Energy. It’s going to come back as we re-open our places of work.

A month or so ago, using last year’s Christmas present from my son-in-law, I drove up to the Smokies on a Tuesday morning to meet a fishing guide that was supposed to show me how to fish the mountain streams in the park. It was cold, in the 40s outside, with a brisk wind. I later learned the hard way that the water temperature was 42 degrees. Trout like cold water. Not that cold.

Labor Day week is usually the last few quiet days of summer before we sprint to the years’ end. This week is different, and it’s been hard on us.

This week I re-read two of our nation’s most sacred documents: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. They aren’t long, but they say a lot. Recommended reading for all members of ETEC and really everyone.

Don Maxwell and his young family came to Oak Ridge from Aiken, S.C., in the early 1970s at a time when the newly incorporated city of Oak Ridge was stepping up to a whole new series of challenges. The Atomic Energy Commission was shutting down. In its place would be the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a new strange organization called the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA). ERDA didn’t last long and became the Department of Energy a few years later. How were ORNL, ORAU, and the gaseous diffusion enterprise going to fit into this new picture?

At ETEC’s March Board meeting last Friday, Thomas Zacharia, director of ORNL, representing UT-Battelle, and UCOR chief of staff Joe Aylor, also representing Amentum, told us about several investments their companies are making to improve our community. They are important investments in economic development and education.