cleanup Archives - Oak Ridge Today

Cleanup work shifts to mercury as new Y-12 water treatment plant announced

May 3, 2013 By John Huotari Leave a Comment

State and federal officials announce a plant to treat mercury-contaminated water at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Pictured from left are Mark Whitney, Robert Martineau, Lamar Alexander, Dave Huizenga, and Stan Meiburg.

Cleanup work in Oak Ridge could shift from radiological contamination to mercury contamination, and a new $120 million water treatment plant at the Y-12 National Security Complex will help reduce mercury as workers tear down four contaminated buildings that were used to make nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s, officials announced Friday.

“This water treatment plant is a major step in addressing one of the biggest problems we have from the Cold War era—mercury once used to make nuclear weapons getting into our waterways,” said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican. He said mercury contamination can cause brain and nervous system damage in people who eat contaminated fish.

Alexander was at Y-12 on Friday along with other federal and state officials to help announce the new water treatment plant, which will be at the head of East Fork Poplar Creek on the south side of Y-12′s main production area. The plant would be connected to a Y-12 storm water system, and it could begin operating in 2019. It would be able to treat 1,500 gallons of mercury-contaminated water per minute. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge Office, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12 National Security Complex Tagged With: cleanup, David Huizenga, East Fork Poplar Creek, environmental cleanup, environmental management, impaired waterways, Lamar Alexander, lithium, Mark Whitney, mercury, mercury contamination, mercury-contaminated water, nuclear weapons, Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge Office, Oak Ridge Reservation, radiological contamination, remediation, Robert J. Martineau Jr., Stan Meiburg, Susan Cange, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, U.S. Department of Energy, water quality, water treatment plant, Y-12 National Security Complex

DOE Environmental Management has public meeting to discuss cleanup funding, strategy

April 18, 2013 By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Mark Whitney

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or EM, is holding a public meeting to discuss the program’s fiscal year 2015 budget and cleanup priorities. The workshop, featuring Oak Ridge’s senior EM leadership, is scheduled from 4-6 p.m. April 23 at Pollard Auditorium.

“As taxpayer stewards, I think these public meetings are a responsible practice that increase transparency and explain our decision process,” said Mark Whitney, Oak Ridge’s Environmental Management manager. “These meetings also provide a forum for residents and stakeholders to voice their opinions, suggestions, and concerns about our vision.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: East Tennessee Technology Park, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Office, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12 National Security Complex Tagged With: budget, cleanup, DOE, East Tennessee Technology Park, environmental management, funding, Mark Whitney, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12 National Security Complex

Alexander questions energy secretary nominee about Oak Ridge mercury cleanup

April 10, 2013 By John Huotari 2 Comments

Lamar Alexander

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander on Tuesday questioned energy secretary nominee Ernest Moniz on whether the cleanup of mercury contamination in Oak Ridge would be a priority under his leadership, a press release said.

“One of the biggest cleanup problems we have from the Cold War era is mercury contamination of waterways in Oak Ridge,” said Alexander, a Tennessee Republican.

The release said Alexander also asked Moniz to support a planned water treatment facility.

Alexander was referring to about 200,000 gallons of mercury that arrived at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge during the 1950s and 1960s, when the United States was developing nuclear weapons as a defense against the Soviet Union. Alexander said it will cost billions of dollars to clean it up. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Federal, Government, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12 National Security Complex Tagged With: cleanup, Cold War, East Fork Poplar Creek, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, energy secretary nominee, Lamar Alexander, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, mercury, mercury contamination, nuclear weapons, Oak Ridge, physicist, secretary, Steven Chu, U.S. Department of Energy, water treatment plant, waterways, Y-12 National Security Complex

Guest column: Questions remain on Oak Ridge cleanup funding

March 22, 2013 By Oak Ridge Today Guest Columns Leave a Comment

David Martin

By David Martin, Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board chair

There is great uncertainty on what the looming federal budget cuts will be and what effect they will have on funding for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management, or EM, program at the Oak Ridge Reservation. We can be confident that budget cuts are coming. It is going to take a coordinated effort on the part of the DOE-Oak Ridge EM, regulators, and stakeholders to minimize the impact on current and future remediation projects, and on the men and women who carry out this work.

Right now DOE-EM is operating on a temporary six-month budget. This budget covers just the first half of Fiscal Year 2013 and is based on half of the FY 2012 budget. We should know soon how changes in the federal budget affect Oak Ridge EM for the second half of 2013. This still leaves the 2014 budget in question. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Guest Columns, Oak Ridge Office, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: budget cuts, cleanup, cleanup funding, David Martin, DOE, DOE-EM, EM, environmental management, federal budget, Oak Ridge Reservation, Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board, ORR, ORSSAB, SSAB, U.S. Department of Energy

Letter: Thanks Mayor Frank for ‘standing up’ for Anderson County people

March 1, 2013 By Oak Ridge Today Letters 3 Comments

To the Editor:

I just wanted to thank Mayor Terry Frank for standing up for the people of Anderson County.

Mayor Frank has been in office since September 2012, and she stepped into a very dysfunctional, unorganized “business” that needs a lot of cleanup and reorganization.

Norris Lake cleanup scheduled

February 11, 2013 By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Information from WYSH Radio

Volunteers from Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger, and Union Counties are needed for a Norris Lake cleanup on Saturday, March 23, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

During past cleanups, volunteers have collected and properly disposed of typical household trash, tires, couches, televisions, kitchen appliances, and construction materials including siding and shingles. All of these items would have been in Norris Lake if not for these volunteers.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Community, Recreation, Top Stories Tagged With: cleanup, Norris Lake, volunteers

McMillan named federal project director for ORNL cleanup

September 21, 2012 By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Bill McMillan

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management has named Bill McMillan as its new federal project director for cleanup at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

As federal project director, McMillan oversees cleanup, decontamination, decommissioning, waste storage, and disposal operations at the site, a press release said.

UCOR announces last shipment of unusual K-25 wastes

September 16, 2012 By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Workers have finished shipping a stockpile of unusual classified, radioactive wastes from the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, federal cleanup contractor UCOR announced last week.

The waste was generated at the K-25 site more than a decade ago, and it was stored in Vault 1X at the K-25 Building, UCOR said. It required off-site disposal.

UCOR and steel workers union approve four-year contract

August 11, 2012 By John Huotari 2 Comments

A steel workers union has approved a new four-year contract with UCOR, the U.S. Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, for work at the former K-25 site.

The agreement between UCOR and the United Steel Workers Local No. 9-288 of Oak Ridge includes a 2 percent wage increase in each of the next four years and benefit changes similar to those announced for non-union employees earlier this year, a press release said.