H-frame or H tower transmission towers are pictured at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex off Scarboro Road on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The National Nuclear Security Administration will have an information session on Wednesday about the Y-12 National Security Complex, the Uranium Processing Facility construction project, and the work to replace the electrical substation at Y-12.
The information session was scheduled after Oak Ridge officials raised concerns in November and December about the power lines proposed on top of Pine Ridge as part of the electrical substation project. Pine Ridge separates Y-12 from the center of the city, and Oak Ridge officials have said they had not received adequate notice of the power line project and didn’t know what other options had been considered. They also expressed concerns about the lack of public input and the visual impact of building power lines and installing transmission towers on top of the ridge. As of December, Oak Ridge City Council members said they hadn’t seen a visual representation of what the power lines could look like.
The information session is scheduled for 4-7 p.m. Wednesday, January 24, at the Scarboro Community Center, which is located at 148 Carver Avenue in Oak Ridge, just north of Pine Ridge. Representatives from the NNSA’s Uranium Processing Facility Project Office, the NNSA Production Office, and the Tennessee Valley Authority will be present at the meeting. Attendees will be able to speak with the representatives at information booths from 4-6 p.m. A presentation and question-and-answer session will follow from 6-7 p.m., a press release said.
As reported in December, the NNSA granted a 45-day discussion period for the electrical substation project, which includes logging work on top of Pine Ridge for the power lines and transmission towers. Oak Ridge officials had requested a 30-day delay of the logging work.
The 161-kilovolt power lines will provide electricity to a new electrical substation that will service all of Y-12, but it is being built as a subproject of the Uranium Processing Facility. It would be near UPF on the west side of Y-12. UPF is the largest federal construction project in Tennessee since World War II, and it is expected to be completed by 2025 at a cost of no more than $6.5 billion.
See previous stories here.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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