UCOR announced Thursday that it has safely shipped more than 10,000 loads of waste from the K-25 building demolition project at East Tennessee Technology Park.
Workers demolishing the former gaseous diffusion building are close to finishing the facility’s east wing, except for five cells contaminated with technetium-99, a press release said.
“This slow-decaying radioactive material will require further deactivation before demolition begins,” it said.
The K-25 building, shut down in the early 1960s, was a mile-long U-shaped structure covering more than 40 acres. The west wing was demolished by a previous contractor.
UCOR, a partnership between URS and CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, said most of the waste being generated from the demolition project is being disposed of at the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility near the Y-12 National Security Complex. A haul road links ETTP to EMWMF, keeping the shipments off public roadways.
All demolition and waste shipments from the non-technetium part of the east wing should be completed in October, UCOR said. That will leave only the north end, which forms the base of the U shape, as well as the technetium-contaminated part of the east wing standing.
Leo Sain, UCOR president and project manager, said the company has completed the waste shipments with no injuries.
The 10,000-plus shipments have transported more than 78,000 cubic yards of waste for disposal. These wastes include processed steel, asbestos, concrete rubble, compressors, and converters, UCOR said.
UCOR, which took over the ETTP cleanup contract last August, said the project is now ahead of schedule and expected to be completed by the summer of 2014.
UCOR is the U.S. Department of Energy’s environmental management contractor at the Oak Ridge Reservation.
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