Federal officials have taken the first step in treating 2,000 cubic meters of transuranic sludges stored in Melton Valley storage tanks.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management announced it had awarded a contract to CH2M Hill Constructors Inc. for the Sludge Processing Facility Buildouts Project at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center. The center is in west Oak Ridge, south of Bethel Valley Road on Highway 95.
The transuranic waste comes from past operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said Mike Koentop, executive officer of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM. The sludge is stored safely and securely now, but there are regulatory milestones to meet, Koentop said. [Read more…]