Former US enrichment site ready for redevelopment

A large concrete slab covering more than 5 acres (2 hectares), left behind after the final buildings were demolished, has now been removed and backfilled by the US Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management's (EM) cleanup contractor UCOR. The site will remain a grassy field until it is redeveloped.

"Removal of these structures was an important step forward in completing ETTP cleanup, and now removal of the slab and restoration of the site is another significant step in transformation of the site into a multi-use industrial park," said James Daffron, Oak Ridge acting ETTP portfolio federal project director.

The Centrifuge Complex before demolition (Image: EM)

Uranium enrichment facilities were first built at the site in the 1940s to produce enriched uranium for defence purposes, under the code name K-25. Later renamed the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the site expanded and began also producing enriched uranium for the commercial nuclear energy industry and also to explore new enrichment technologies. The last of these facilities ceased operation in the mid-1980s.

EM is now working to clean up and transition ETTP to a multi-use industrial park. To date, it has transferred about 1300 acres to the community for economic development, land that now houses 20 private businesses. More than 3000 acres at the site are set aside for conservation, and the site also houses a history centre and a component of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park .