OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – The Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office announced that cleanup of the Old Salvage Yard at the Y-12 National Security Complex, has started with funding received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The Old Salvage Yard is a seven-acre area containing 1100 containers and piles of legacy waste from past operations.  The yard was used from the 1970s until the mid-1990s.

The funds being used for this project were distributed to the Y-12 National Security Complex contractor as part of the $755 million in Recovery Act funding allocated to the Oak Ridge Office Environmental Management program.  The cleanup of the Old Savage Yard will proceed according to the tested procedures already in use at the Oak Ridge site.

“The Recovery Act funding has given us the opportunity to move forward with the Old Salvage Yard cleanup project,” said Ted Sherry, Y-12 Site Office Manager.  “Each day, we will see clear progress as we remove, remediate, and disposition this material.”

Under the Recovery Act, material in the Salvage Yard will be re-inspected before being shipped for disposal to the Nevada Test Site or placed in the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility.  Within a few months, the Oak Ridge Office expects shipments to average a rate of 7 to 8 loads of material a day for a year.

“This cleanup and demolition is vital to the Department of Energy’s environmental stewardship - reducing the footprint at Y-12 - and it will save taxpayers millions of dollars in the future,” said Sherry.

The Recovery Act is also providing funding to proceed with cleanup work at Y-12’s highest risk facility, Alpha 5 (Building 9201-5), where an estimated one million cubic feet of legacy material will be removed as part of the preparations for the accelerated deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) of the facility.  A third task funded by ARRA will remove material from the second floor of Beta 4 (Building 9204-4) and make progress toward a similar accelerated D&D.
 

B&W Y-12, a limited liability enterprise of the Babcock and Wilcox Company and Bechtel National Inc., operates the Y-12 National Security Complex for the National Nuclear Security Administration.