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DOE needs more time for K-25 history projects

Posted at 12:08 am February 21, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

An outside view showing the K-25 History Center, Equipment Building, and Viewing Tower at East Tennessee Technology Park in west Oak Ridge. (Image courtesy U.S. Department of Energy)

An image published in October 2017 shows the K-25 History Center, Equipment Building, and Viewing Tower at East Tennessee Technology Park in west Oak Ridge. (Image courtesy U.S. Department of Energy)

 

The U.S. Department of Energy is requesting more time to complete projects to commemorate the historic contributions of the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.

Built during World War II, the K-25 site helped enrich uranium for the first atomic bomb used in wartime as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. The plant continued to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and commercial nuclear power plants after the war, and those who have worked at the site have said it helped win the Cold War.

The history of the site will be honored by preserving the concrete slab of the former K-25 Building, building a Viewing Tower and replica Equipment Building on the south side of the building site, and opening a K-25 History Center on the second floor of the adjacent Oak Ridge Fire Station Number 4.

A historical interpretation agreement was signed in August 2012. But it expires this August. And the roughly $20 million worth of projects won’t be complete by then.

DOE is making “good progress,” but “the reality is we need a little more time,” said Dave Adler, acting deputy manager for DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. Adler and Steve Cooke, K-25 preservation coordinator for DOE, briefly discussed the proposed amendment to the agreement during a Tuesday evening work session with the Oak Ridge City Council. [Read more…]

Filed Under: East Tennessee Technology Park, Front Page News, Government, K-25, Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: 9731, atomic bomb, Beta 3, Clinton Engineer Works, Cold Wr, Dave Adler, DOE, East Tennessee Technology Park, equipment building, gaseous diffusion, Graphite Reactor, Heritage Center, historical interpretation agreement, K-25, K-25 Building, K-25 History Center, K-25 site, Manhattan Project, Manhattan Project National Historical Park, National Historic Preservation Act, National Park Service, nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons, Oak Ridge City Council, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, plutonium production, Steve Cooke, U.S. Department of Energy, UCOR, viewing tower, World War II, X-10, Y-12

Atomic Heritage Foundation launches new audio, visual program on Oak Ridge

Posted at 1:57 pm January 26, 2018
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Bill Wilcox 90th Birthday Party

Oak Ridge City Historian Bill Wilcox, who died in 2013, was a longtime advocate for preserving the city’s history, including parts of its federal facilities. Wilcox is pictured above at his 90th birthday party in the spring of 2013.

 

Submitted

“There was construction going on everywhere you looked,” Bill Wilcox remembered, describing his first impressions of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. “Trucks and people just crawling all over the place, hammers and banging. Wooden structures going up everywhere. Nothing was paved, and there weren’t any sidewalks.”

Wilcox was one of the thousands of people who moved to the new “Secret City” of Oak Ridge to work on the Manhattan Project, the top-secret World War II effort to develop an atomic bomb.

The Atomic Heritage Foundation has launched a new online interpretive program on Oak Ridge with 16 audio/visual vignettes. This beta program is part of AHF’s “Ranger in Your Pocket” series on the Manhattan Project, which focuses on former Manhattan Project sites and features vignettes with eyewitness accounts and expert commentary. AHF welcomes feedback and will improve and expand upon the program over the next year, a press release said.

In September 1942, Manhattan Project director General Leslie Groves designated “Site X,” approximately 59,000 acres of land on the Clinch River in rural eastern Tennessee, as the site for the project’s uranium production facilities. Approximately 3,000 people living in the area in five small farming communities were forced to leave their homes and land with minimal compensation. Construction of a new city began at breakneck speed. By the end of World War II, some 75,000 people would call Oak Ridge home, making it the fifth-largest city in Tennessee. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Community, Front Page News, Government, Nonprofits, Oak Ridge, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: atomic bomb, Atomic Heritage Foundation, Bill Wilcox, calutrons, Clinch River, Colleen Black, Denise Kiernan, electromagnetic separation, enriched uranium, gaseous diffusion, Gladys Evans, Hiroshima, IEEE Foundation, K-25, Leslie Groves, liquid thermal diffusion, Manhattan Project, Mary Lowe Michel, nuclear reactor, Oak Ridge, online interpretive program, Philip Abelson, plutonium production, Ranger in Your Pocket, Ray Stein, S-50, Site X, uranium enrichment, uranium isotopes, uranium production, William S. “Deak” Parsons, World War II, X-10, X-10 Graphite Reactor, Y-12

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Classifieds

Public Notice: NNSA announces no significant impact of Y-12 Development Organization operations at Horizon Center

AVAILABILITY OF THE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE OFFSITE HOUSING OF THE Y-12 DEVELOPMENT … [Read More...]

ADFAC seeks contractors for five homes

Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties (ADFAC) is a non-profit community based agency, … [Read More...]

Public notice: Draft environmental assessment for Y-12 Development Organization at Horizon Center

AVAILABILITY OF THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE OFFSITE HOUSING OF THE Y-12 DEVELOPMENT … [Read More...]

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