The second phase of construction for a new onsite landfill is underway at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the agency said last week.
This phase involves taking down trees, groundwater monitoring and other chores. A minority-owned small business, CTI and Associates, was hired to do a groundwater demonstration study, the site prime contractor, Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), said last week in a press release. The first phase of landfill construction, which includes rerouting Bear Creek Road and Haul Road, should be wrapped up this spring, DOE said in the press release.
DOE and UCOR held a groundbreaking ceremony for the 2.2-million-cubic-yard Environmental Management Disposal Facility in August. It will eventually replace the existing Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, which should be full within four years or so.
The old landfill holds much waste from the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s demolition of structures on the old K-25 gaseous diffusion plant area.
The new landfill is needed for low-level radioactive debris from dismantling mercury-laden buildings at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex, according to DOE.
Construction of the new onsite disposal cell has been called vital to future Oak Ridge environmental remediation by DOE and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), who chairs the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee.
