Teresa Frady, president of the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee, is the Spotlight Interview guest on this week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report podcast, which covers U.S. Department of Energy environmental management activities around the nation.
Hosted by Michael Butler, the episode is available on all podcast platforms and can be accessed at www.gonefissionpodcast.com, a press release said.
Frady shared with Butler’s listeners CROET’s mission to help DOE transition underused assets such as land, buildingsm and equipment to private sector companies at the East Tennessee Technology Park, also known as the Heritage Center. She recently replaced Lawrence Young, who had served as CROET’s president and chief executive officer since its founding in 1995.
“Our partnership with DOE in transferring federal land helps the region with creation of quality jobs but also adds the property to Roane County and City of Oak Ridge tax rolls,” she said in the press release. “This helps the communities and saves the federal government money since DOE no longer has to maintain those assets.”
In her new management role, Frady plans to build on the vision that was established for CROET when the organization was founded in 1995. “I want to finalize the remaining property transfers from DOE to get those properties into the hands of the private sector for redevelopment,” she said. “My emphasis in the near term is to continue working with our current clients to help them be successful as part of the Heritage Center.”
In 2017, CROET was established by the State of Tennessee as park manager of ETTP/Heritage Center and is overseeing the multi-use industrial park composed of former federal land transferred to the Oak Ridge community by DOE. To date, DOE has transferred approximately 1,300 acres of federal land to CROET following complete environmental remediation and state, federal, and Congressional review and approval.
Frady said a lot of companies find the location very attractive. “It’s on the outskirts of the City of Oak Ridge on a major highway and in close proximity to Interstates 40 and 75,” she said. “Most areas of the site have infrastructure already in place or very nearby, so that’s a plus. There’s also rail access that connects to the site.”
Progress is being made in attracting new industry to the former gaseous diffusion site, the press release said. Two companies, Kairos Power and Coqui Pharma, recently announced plans to locate at the park and plan to invest a total of $600 million and create dozens of new jobs. Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation recently announced its acquisition of a facility at Heritage Center to site its Pilot Fuel Manufacturing Facility and at least three additional companies have shown interest in locating at the Park.
The Gone Fission Nuclear Report covers the latest developments in environmental cleanup across the DOE complex. DOE is now engaged in the largest environmental remediation program in history, cleaning up nuclear production sites across the U.S. that were used to support national security missions for 75 years.
“Some of the work on these sites dates back to the super-secret Manhattan Project, a national priority to develop the first atomic bomb that helped end World War II,” Butler said. “Cleanup of these sites is a multi-decade effort, requiring thousands of trained professionals and highly skilled crafts people with budgets in the billions of dollars.”
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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