Oak Ridge

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Oak Ridge,

city (1990 pop. 27,310), Anderson and Roane counties, E Tenn., on Black Oak Ridge and the Clinch River; founded by the U.S. government 1942, inc. as an independent city 1959. For years Oak Ridge was used by the federal government to pursue activities in the fields of atomic energy and nuclear physics. The site was chosen (1942) for what was called the Clinton Engineer Works, and the city was built to house the workers who developed the uranium-235 and plutonium-239 for the atomic bomb. The community's existence was kept secret from most of the country until the summer of 1945. The project was under the control of the Atomic Energy CommissionAtomic Energy Commission
(AEC), former U.S. government commission created by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 and charged with the development and control of the U.S. atomic energy program following World War II.
..... Click the link for more information. , but the city has since (1955–59) been turned over to its residents. The former Clinton National Laboratory for nuclear research became (1948) the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In the 1990s the federal government began decontaminating and leasing much of the complex to private industry, and one section was renamed the East Tennessee Technology Park. The Oak Ridge Associated Universities, a consortium of many educational institutions, manages the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. Tourist attractions include the American Museum of Atomic Energy, a nearby nuclear graphite reactor, and an arboretum.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Oak Ridge

a city in the southern United States, in Tennessee. Situated on the Clinch River, a tributary of the Tennessee River. Population, 28,000 (1970). Located just west of Knoxville, Oak Ridge is a major center of the atomic industry in the United States and a leading center for research on the uses of atomic energy. A uranium (²³⁵U) production plant, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies are located in the city.

References in periodicals archive ?

Three years later, he returned to Oak Ridge National Laboratory with a dual appointment in instrumentation and methodologies to detect and monitor exposure to environmental toxicants and the routine operation of the facility's clinical laboratory.

2004 honorary degree awarded to Carl A. Burtis by Purdue University

Containment was of great concern in the original Manhattan Project to deal with radiologic hazards, and in the Oak Ridge centrifuge project (34) to contain infectious agents.

Global screening for human viral pathogens. (Perspectives)

U S West operates and maintains the telephone switching system at ETTP and other sites on the 36,000-acre Oak Ridge Reservation.

Cold War hot spot

In addition to cancers, "these exposures also can cause neurological problems," says Jackie Kittrell, a lawyer with the American Environmental Health Studies Project, an Oak Ridge organization that represents workers who have suffered heavy metal exposure and radiation poisoning while on the job.

Nuclear spoons: hot metal may find its way to your dinner table

Woodie Howe, president, Norman division, will also head the Oak Ridge operation.

Coors Ceramics to build in Tennessee

Oak Ridge Financial also has hired two managing directors to create a Structured Finance Group providing structured products solutions, portfolio sales, warehouse funding and securitization funding to specialty finance firms.

Oak Ridge Financial adds execs to expand investment banking

Hundreds of people work day and night to make sure the Oak Ridge facilities run like clockwork.

Government's secret town is uncovered in 'Atomic City Girls'

Global Banking News-January 7, 2016--Bank of Oak Ridge announces leadership change

Bank of Oak Ridge announces leadership change

SOMETIME IN 1945, A COWORKER LEANED OVER TO Shirley Woods and said, "Think of it Shirley, someday we'll drop an atom bomb and destroy a whole city!" Woods was shocked at these words, which were clearly a break in the secrecy chain of Oak Ridge. She also doubted their veracity.

The big secret of Oak Ridge, Tennessee: not even the residents knew the ultimate goal of their wartime jobs--until the Enola Gay dropped the bomb on Hiroshima

Department of Energy (DOE) reports it plans to ship radioactive material from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to Nevada for burial starting in January--despite objections from state officials and citizen organizations.

DOE to ship radioactive material from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to Nevada

Breaking through a fundamental barrier to physics-based simulation of wireless networks, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Networcsim LLC, both of Oak Ridge, Tenn., have completed a simulation package for making site-specific predictions of radio signal strength throughout geometrically complex environments like city blocks.