“Oppenheimer,” the 2023 movie about J. Robert Oppenheimer, first director of what is now the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was honored as the year’s best movie drama on Jan. 7 at the Golden Globe awards ceremony.
Cillian Murphy, the actor who portrayed the scientist, was named best actor for his performance and Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan was honored as best director. Less than a year before the movie was released, DOE vacated the 1954 revocation of Oppenheimer’s security clearance.
A report on the awards ceremony, broadcast on CBS television, can be found here.
The Los Alamos Historical Society is seeking to raise about $2 million to rehab the house J. Robert Oppenheimer and family lived in during the Manhattan Project, from 1943 to 1945.
Visited in June by the Exchange Monitor, the modest 1929 ranch house situated on Los Alamos’ “Bathtub Row” – they were the only houses in town with tubs, at the time – was still cleared of most furniture for filming scenes in the Christopher Nolan biopic “Oppenheimer.” It is not currently open to the public.
The Oppenheimer house has deteriorated over its 95-year history, foundation work and other repairs needed before it can be opened as a museum. The historical society has owned the 1,200-square-foot house since 2020 and has raised $111,000 through its website at tinyurl.com/2n2h34ht, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.
NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator Frank Rose and Associate Administrator for Defense National Security Lew Monroe recently visited the Nevada National Security Site and Sandia National Laboratories to check out new anti-drone technologies.
“It is clear that the work done at NNSS and Sandia is keeping NNSA at the forefront of security technology,” Rose said in a statement. “These capabilities are applicable across all of NNSA’s sites. We are developing the tools we need not only to counter the UAS of today but also to defend against evolving threats.”
Rose and Monroe began their trip by touring the Nevada Site on December 18, where they witnessed a live demonstration of counter-UAS programs and the latest innovations in air defense for the site. The next day, they toured Sandia’s Albuquerque, N.M., campus.
Sandia National Laboratories injected $4.8 billion into the nation’s economy in fiscal year 2023, up $599 million from the previous year, the lab said in its annual economic impact report.
Sandia added 1,200 new jobs in fiscal 2023, paid $114 million in gross receipts taxes to New Mexico and paid out $1.08 billion to small business suppliers, Sandia said.
“For more than seven decades, Sandia Labs’ dedication to outstanding service has significantly contributed to the national good,” said Director James Peery. “Our collaboration with a wide range of suppliers has been crucial to our achievements. Engaging with small businesses fuels creativity, creates jobs and introduces advancements that enhance the quality of life.”
Battelle Savannah River Alliance has been granted preliminary approval to build a new office for the Savannah River Site in Downtown Aiken, S.C., according to local news outlet Fox54 News Now.
Asiken City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh confirmed to the news station that the Department of Energy gave Savannah River permission to enter a lease with Aiken Corporation for the necessary property, Fox 54 reports. Bedenbaugh told Fox 54 that the office will be built through $20M in plutonium settlement money from the state of South Carolina.
“It will bring approximately 100 employees downtown that will have a good low six-figure salary, so we expect our downtown shops and restaurants to benefit,” said Bedenbaugh. “While all those employees will not be shopping every day, there will be enough added to the mix to where it will help our vibrant downtown economy to become even more vibrant.”
A joint venture of APTIM and North Wind Group failed to properly train laborers on use of a circular saw prior to a November 2022 accident, which caused a worker to lose a finger at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the agency said last week.
“While cutting, a kickback occurred, which caused the saw to move backward and contact the worker’s left index finger, resulting in traumatic injury to their left hand and surgical amputation of their left index finger,” Anthony Pierpoint, said in a Jan. 4 “enforcement letter” to APTIM-North Wind. Pierpoint heads enforcement at DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments.
“Issuance of this letter reflects DOE’s decision to not pursue further enforcement activity” against APTIM-North Wind, according to the letter. The letter cited concerns with the contractors’ hazard training and prevention efforts while working on the new Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge.
