UCOR ships 15,000 loads of waste from K-25

UCOR has shipped 15,000 loads of demolition debris from the K-25 Building at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the company announced last week.

The 15,000 loads represent approximately two million square feet of the deteriorated former gaseous diffusion building, built during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. That square footage is the equivalent of 40 NFL football fields combined.

The material has been sent to the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility in Oak Ridge for permanent disposition.

“Our waste disposition operation is second to none,” says Mark Ferri, who manages K-25 demolition for UCOR. “It’s critical for the D&D organization and the waste management organization to work hand in hand on jobs like this, and our people have done a tremendous job to ship waste as it is created.”

UCOR began demolishing the east wing in August 2011, and that work was completed in July 2012. Demolition of the north end began Oct. 25 and is now more than 50 percent complete. Demolition and shipments have been accomplished safely, with no incidents or accidents.

Uranium enrichment operations at the K-25 site ended several decades ago, and the site is being converted into a massive industrial park that has been renamed Heritage Center.

In addition to deactivating and demolishing the K-25 Building and other facilities at ETTP, UCOR—or URS-CH2M Oak Ridge LLC—is responsible for other specific scopes of work at ETTP, the Y-12 National Security Complex, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.