OAK RIDGE APPROVES FUNDS FOR AIRPORT LAND

The City Council of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, voted to approve the expenditure of $60,000 in legal fees to acquire land owned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) for the construction of a new airport to serve the city. Oak Ridge is Tennessee’s largest city without a general aviation airport.

Jeff Smith, former Deputy Director of Operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as well as Vice-Chair of the nearby Knoxville Airport Authority, is spearheading the project and said his goal is to bring the innovation happening in Oak Ridge to the rest of the country.

Smith highlighted the assets near Oak Ridge including the University of Tennessee and cited the National Laboratory’s importance as a center of technological research excellence under the DoE. He also noted the Y-12 National Security Complex as a premier manufacturing facility also under the DoE’s Nuclear Security Enterprise. Smith says that despite the advances in technology being made, Tennessee is still considered flyover territory for scientists and engineers and wants to see that change.

City Manager Dr. Mark Watson says an airport would also bring a great opportunity for economic development to the city and region. The proposed airport would replace a gaseous diffusion plant used to enrich uranium during the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. The plant was demolished by DoE in 2013.