OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its primary cleanup contractor URS|CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) are completing comprehensive remediation and final closure of a former pond at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) site.
Workers recently removed a layer of clean topsoil that had been placed over the area more than 30 years ago, allowing them to address the contaminated soil beneath it. Crews are digging up the soil, classified as low-level radioactive waste, and hauling it to the onsite Environmental Management Waste Management Facility.
When the project at the area known as Exposure Unit 29 is complete in April, Oak Ridge’s EM program will have removed and disposed more than 10,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil from Exposure Unit 29. It equates to approximately 800 truckloads.
“While building demolitions are necessary and often capture the headlines, the men and women in our cleanup program are completing many other critical projects at ETTP to ensure the site is clean, safe, and marketable for its transfer," said OREM Acting Manager Jay Mullis.
This and other remediation efforts are being conducted under guidelines established by the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980. This act addresses uncontrolled releases of hazardous substances from abandoned, non-operating areas like the former pond where contamination resulted from past operations.
The soil remediation efforts at ETTP are helping prepare the site for transfer to the private sector and future commercial industrial use. ETTP is divided into two cleanup regions: Zone 1, a 1,400-acre area outside the main plant, and Zone 2, the 800-acre area that comprises the main plant where former uranium enrichment and support operations were conducted.
OREM’s goal is to complete cleanup at ETTP by the end of 2020. The program has already demolished hundreds of ETTP facilities and transferred 880 acres as it transforms the site into a private-sector industrial park.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
