Displaying items by tag: oak ridge environmental legacy
Contractors finish scraping remnants of war industry at former K-25 site in Oak Ridge
Aerial view of the East Tennessee Technology Park in August 2024 following the completion of all demolition and soil remediation projects at the former uranium enrichment complex by DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and contractor UCOR. Department of Energy
Final remediation could add spark to regional technology and alternative-energy industry
OAK RIDGE — Workers finished clearing more than a million tons of nuclear-contaminated soil from a long-toxic site in the Atomic City dating to the World War II and Cold War eras.
While the site was established to enriched uranium for the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima toward the end of WWII, its future may lie in solar power and peaceful use of nuclear technology. The cleanup also ties into broader questions and controversies about storage of wastes from other Oak Ridge sites.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) removed and disposed of more than 554,000 cubic yards of soil, equaling nearly 50,000 dump truck loads, according to OREM.
“Today is a significant and meaningful step toward completing our ultimate mission at the East Tennessee Technology Park,” said OREM Manager Jay Mullis. “Our progress has transformed the site from an unusable liability into an economic asset for the Oak Ridge community.”
Ed Blandford, Kairos Chief Technology Officer, chats with Oak Ridge Environmental Management’s Ben Williams after an event celebrating the cleanup of radioactive soils at Oak Ridge’s K-25 site. Ben Pounds/Hellbender PressDOE agrees to $42m in Oak Ridge environmental reparations
Moviegoers are seen outside a postwar screening of a film at Grove Theater chronicling Oak Ridge’s role in the development of nuclear weapons and energy. Department of Energy Photograph Collection/Oak Ridge Public Library
Public/private grants will fund natural resource preservation and enhancement in East Tennessee
OAK RIDGE — The U.S. Department of Energy signed a $42 million agreement as part of the Natural Resources Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) process for impacts from its historic operations on the Oak Ridge Reservation.
Contamination released from the Oak Ridge Reservation negatively impacted natural resources and services depending on those resources in the region. The goal of the NRDAR process is to restore natural resources and replace natural resource services equivalent to what was lost.
A trustee council comprised of representatives from the state of Tennessee through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) as the lead state agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tennessee Valley Authority and DOE evaluated how natural resources were injured and developed a Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan. That document was finalized in December 2022 after accepting public comments.
All funds from the $42 million agreement will be deposited into an account held by the state to fund grants to organizations and public entities for a wide range of local projects that either enhance the area’s natural resources or provide nature and recreational opportunities.