Environmental cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge site in Tennessee will likely extend past its current schedule, a DOE site official said Wednesday Aug. 13.
During a meeting of the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board (ORSSAB), Roger Petrie, DOE’s Federal Facilities Agreement projects manager at Oak Ridge, said the current schedule has cleanup work going into the 2040s. “I think we are probably going to have to extend that. There are things that are turning out to be harder and need longer term care than we had anticipated,” Petrie said.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management budget justification for fiscal 2026 still lists 2047 as the likely final cleanup. But for a long time, some officials have said it could take longer. Meanwhile residents near the site continue to push for more funding to finish remediation.
Oak Ridge was a key Manhattan Project site in the 1940s. The DOE property is a Superfund site that includes the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Y-12 National Security Complex, and the former K-25 uranium enrichment complex, today the East Tennessee Technology Park. Oak Ridge cleanup addresses mercury, liquid radioactive, transuranic waste, and contaminated soil and facilities.
Oak Ridge’s enacted budget for fiscal 2025 is $695 million, including both the Environmental Management budget and the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund.