The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) have completed major fieldwork at the East Tennessee Technology Park. This will allow DOE to transfer the remaining federally owned parcels of land at the site to the community for beneficial reuse.
The event highlighted crews finishing excavation of all the contaminated soil at the former Manhattan Project and Cold War-era uranium enrichment complex previously known as the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, or K-25 Site. That work involved removing and disposing more than 554,000 cubic yards of soil, almost 50,000 dump truck loads.
“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.”
OREM and UCOR previously completed building demolitions at the site in 2020. That involved tearing down more than 500 structures with a combined footprint that could span 225 football fields. Since then, employees have been removing the foundation slabs and any impacted soil beneath them.
To date, OREM has transferred more than 1,700 acres to the community to help attract and generate new economic development for the region, and it is transferring hundreds more acres in the coming year. Twenty-five private businesses have located or announced plans to build on these parcels, bringing in $1.35bn in investments and generating an anticipated 1,400 jobs.
