Oak Ridge Moves Closer to Vision 2020 as Crews Kick Off Another Demolition

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – As old, unneeded buildings continue to disappear at the Oak Ridge Site’s East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), another will soon be torn down and added to the list — the K-1423 Toll Enrichment Facility.

The 30,817-square-foot building was used to transfer liquefied uranium hexafluoride, from the former gaseous diffusion plant’s uranium enrichment process, into cylinders. Those operations took place from 1969 to 1986.

The building was later used for a variety of other purposes, including addressing radiologically contaminated drums, washing chemically contaminated drums, and storing waste.

“The constant work of our crews is eliminating old infrastructure and shrinking the footprint of the former Manhattan Project and Cold War era complex,” said James Daffron, acting ETTP federal project director for DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM). “Teams are focused on completing major cleanup at the site by 2020, and this is another example of our progress toward that goal.”

This is another in a long line of landscape changes taking place as OREM and cleanup contractor UCOR work toward achieving Vision 2020, the goal to complete major cleanup at ETTP by the end of 2020.

This work is paving the way for OREM’s ultimate vision for the site as a thriving, multi-use industrial park. To date, crews have removed 12 million square feet of aging and contaminated facilities, with only 750,000 square feet remaining.

Additionally, OREM has transferred nearly 1,300 acres of land at the site back to the community for new industrial development and economic growth.

Demolition of the K-1423 Toll Enrichment Facility is scheduled for completion next month.