Building K-731 at East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge, is pictured above during demolition. (Photo by DOE)
The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and its cleanup contractor have finished demolishing another building at East Tennessee Technology Park, or ETTP, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.
The work is part of an effort to advance toward Vision 2020, a goal to complete cleanup at ETTP by 2020 and continue transferring the remaining land to private industry, benefiting the regional economy, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM, said in a story published February 28.
The latest progress involves the removal of Building K-731. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, and cleanup contractor URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, or UCOR, began demolishing Building K-731 on August 30, moments after taking down the final pieces of Building K-27 and fulfilling Vision 2016. That was Oak Ridge’s ambitious goal to be the world’s first to successfully remove all of its former uranium enrichment facilities by the end of 2016.
“I’m very proud of the focus and effort shown by our employees and UCOR to maintain the outstanding cleanup momentum happening at ETTP,” OREM Acting Manager Jay Mullis said in the DOE EM story. “K-731’s removal noticeably changes the landscape at the site, and its completion moves us closer toward our ultimate goal of a clean, transferred ETTP.”
Constructed in 1944, Building K-731 powered the K-27 and K-29 process buildings. The facility contained three floors measuring 31,350 square feet each, including two above-ground floors and a basement.
OREM has already demolished hundreds of ETTP facilities as it transforms the site into a private-sector industrial park.
The office has transferred 880 acres of the 2,200-acre site to private entities to date, DOE said.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Workers reduce the size and transport debris from Building K-731’s demolition at East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge. (Photo by DOE)
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