OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WATE) — The U.S. Department of Energy has completed the demolition of a former Manhattan Project-era uranium enrichment building, Alpha-2, to clean up and create space for modernization at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Officials with the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) shared progress on efforts to transform and modernize the complex.
“It enables modernization. It opens up space for NNSA to be able to build facilities that they will need for the weapons mission,” said OREM manager Erik Olds.
The facility covered 2.5 acres at Y-12. OREM and its contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) are conducting projects at the national security complex to clear away old facilities to make way for this modernization.
“It provides a blueprint that we can use because as we work our way through the Y-12 campus, we’ll be tearing down a lot more buildings and facilities,” said Olds. “And it gives us a little bit of a blueprint, if you will, for how we can do these faster, more efficiently and more safely in the future.”
While Alpha-2 may now be an empty plot of land, the National Nuclear Security Administration sees it as an opportunity, as these demolitions allow them to recapitalize the space and use it for future weapons projects.
“These are weapon programs for our nation, these are material modernization programs, and again, the work we do for our great Navy,” said NNSA Y-12 Field Office Manager Mary Helen Hitson.
Hitson said this demolition completion comes at a critical time.
“We have quick and urgent plans for that because we have a need to accelerate our missions, which is absolutely critical and vital to the national security of the U.S.,” she said.
And Alpha-2 is just the start. OREM is planning to demolish around 70 more legacy facilities at Y-12, with the next work to begin this summer.
“More these facilities will reach the end of their operational lifetimes. So, in a sense will always probably have some facilities or work ahead that will need to continue, tearing them down so we can continue to make way for new facilities in the future,” said Olds.
OREM and UCOR are also the same groups that helped remove over 500 DOE facilities to make room for the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge, where two private companies have plans to build a new uranium enrichment facility and fuel recycling facility in the area.
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