PHOENIX – Federal and contractor leaders from Oak Ridge gathered with their community partners to highlight recent cleanup successes and discuss the future of the site in a series of panels at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia last week.

Oak Ridge Office of EM (OREM) Acting Manager Laura Wilkerson and UCOR President and CEO Ken Rueter joined the federal managers responsible for overseeing the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to address how environmental cleanup is reshaping Y-12 and ORNL and supporting their expanding missions. Oak Ridge was EM’s featured site at the conference.

EM recently demolished the former Biology Complex at Y-12 to create space for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Lithium Processing Facility. Other demolition projects opened land for ORNL to construct new laboratory space to conduct quantum sciences, fusion engineering, basic energy sciences, and biological and environmental research.

Wilkerson and Rueter unveiled their Vision 2031, which guides cleanup in Oak Ridge for the next decade. Over the next two years, OREM is scheduled to transfer the Biology Complex footprint for reuse at Y-12 and complete soil cleanup at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). Within five years, OREM is working to complete demolition of former reactors and isotope facilities in the heart of ORNL. Within 10 years, OREM is set to begin operating the Mercury Treatment Facility and is scheduled to complete demolition of large mercury-contaminated buildings at Y-12.

Representatives from OREM, Y-12 and ORNL also described the complex work required to successfully conduct large-scale cleanup activities at Y-12 and ORNL while thousands of employees are working at those sites to support their research and national security missions.

A subsequent session featured representatives from EM headquarters, OREM, EM cleanup contractors, labor unions and universities who focused on workforce development. About 30% of the workforce at Oak Ridge is eligible for retirement in the next 10 years, and finding new talent is a priority to maintain the site’s cleanup momentum.

The panelists described the many programs and initiatives underway to train, hire and retain new employees who will be responsible for advancing EM’s cleanup mission.

In the final Oak Ridge-focused session of the conference, panelists discussed new economic opportunities in Oak Ridge made possible by EM’s environmental cleanup progress, including the transformation of ETTP from a shuttered enrichment site to a private industrial park.

They noted that Oak Ridge launched DOE’s first-ever Reindustrialization Program, which was created to offset local economic declines due to ending uranium enrichment missions at the site. DOE and community leaders envisioned reusing the site to attract new businesses and generate new jobs in the region. Through EM’s historic cleanup at ETTP, all of the old buildings were removed there and nearly 1,300 acres of land were transferred to the community. An additional 650 acres of land are scheduled for transfer to the community by 2024 to provide new economic opportunities.

Large and small businesses have since located at ETTP and invested millions of dollars in new projects and developments. A representative from Kairos Power who participated in the panel session discussed the company’s plans to invest $100 million to deploy a low-power demonstration reactor at ETTP. The project is expected to create 55 jobs.