Cleanup milestone for East Tennessee site

Monday, 2 September 2024

The US Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its cleanup contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR) said the milestone signifies the completion of major fieldwork at the East Tennessee Technology Park. Previously known as K-25 and the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the site was built to process uranium for the Manhattan Project and continued to enrich uranium for defence and commercial purposes until its closure in 1987.

OREM describes the work at East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) as one of the USA's largest environmental cleanup projects. The demolition of over 500 structures was completed in 2020, and since then employees have been removing the foundation slabs and any impacted soil beneath them. More than 554,000 cubic yards (nearly 424,000 cubic metres) of soil have been removed and disposed of, the equivalent of nearly 50,000 dump truck loads.

To date, OREM has transferred more than 1700 acres of land to the community to help attract and generate new economic development for the region, and said it is turning over hundreds more acres in the coming year. Twenty-five private businesses have already located or announced plans to build on these parcels of land, bringing USD1.35 billion in investments while generating some 1400 jobs. Completion of soil remediation at ETTP was one of the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management's priorities for 2024.

One of those businesses, Kairos Power, began construction last month on its Hermes low-power demonstration reactor, the first non-light-water reactor to be permitted in the USA in more than 50 years.

"Our progress has transformed the site from an unusable liability into an economic asset for the Oak Ridge community," OREM Manager Jay Mullis said.

The site is also subject to an historic preservation agreement honouring the thousands of workers at the former complex and the technological and scientific advances that were made there. The K-25 History Center, which contains more than 250 original artefacts, interactive exhibits, and access to nearly 1,000 oral histories from the site’s early workers, was opened in 2020 and construction is also under way on a viewing platform to help visitors understand the size and scope of the site.

Groundwater and surface water remediation are the final remaining cleanup tasks at ETTP, with OREM planning to implement any needed groundwater remedies by 2026.

Then: ETTP before clean-up began (Image: UCOR)
And now: aerial view of ETTP following the completion of all demolition and soil remediation projects at the former uranium enrichment complex (OREM)