The Department of Energy and other agencies said Wednesday nearly half of the 33,000-plus acres at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee are suitable for reuse without any additional cleanup.
Research by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) “show 16,377 of the Oak Ridge Reservation’s 33,069 acres do not require cleanup and are eligible for reuse,” DOE said in a press release.
While DOE will not transfer over the entire clean tract for local reuse, the designation is a big deal, the state and federal agencies said.
EPA placed Oak Ridge on its Superfund National Priorities List in 1989. Over time, DOE has transferred 1,800 acres, mostly remediated land around the former K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant site, to localities for reuse.
The release also said large sections of the federally-owned Oak Ridge Site were never used to support DOE nuclear missions.
“Ensuring communities around our cleanup sites are safe, clean, and prosperous is at the core of our mission,” the head of the Oak Ridge Environmental Management field office, Erik Olds, said in the release. “This clarification is noteworthy because it helps Oak Ridge to continue growing and thriving in the years ahead by providing a more accurate view of the area and simplifying the land transfer process.”
Several nuclear industry projects have been proposed around the Oak Ridge Site.
“A principal goal of the Superfund program is to return contaminated properties to productive use,” said EPA Regional Administrator Kevin McOmber. “EPA looks forward to continued collaboration with DOE and TDEC to clean up additional properties and return them to economically viable community uses.”