DOE: Oak Ridge Cleanup Advances in Fiscal 2026, With More Than 50 Million Pounds of Demolition Waste Managed
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reported on October 20 that its Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and cleanup contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) achieved major cleanup milestones in fiscal year 2026, which ended September 30, logging more than 1.3 million safe hours at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
According to the department, crews managed more than 50 million pounds of waste generated during the deactivation and demolition of legacy Manhattan Project and Cold War-era infrastructure across the Oak Ridge Reservation, at the Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP).
At Y-12, crews tallied more than 300,000 safe hours and removed over 43 million pounds of waste, completing the demolition of the Alpha-2 facility, the site's largest teardown to date, and of the Old Steam Plant, a 13,454-square-foot facility built in 1943. New cutting and isolation technologies used at Alpha-4 and Beta-4 reduced risk and saved more than $20 million. At ORNL, teams completed 375,581 safe hours, advanced demolition on 10 facilities on Isotope Row, and used remote systems that significantly reduced worker radiation exposure across six aging facilities.
At ETTP, crews recorded more than 91,810 safe hours and generated more than 5 million pounds of waste, with work including drainage restoration, outfall management, excess equipment removal and preservation of historic Manhattan Project artifacts. At the White Wing Scrap Yard, a 100-acre former disposal site for contaminated Cold War equipment and debris, workers cleared over 39 acres of land through a specialized Vegetation Management Program. Waste Operations crews recorded more than 117,000 safe hours, managed over 11 million gallons of wastewater from landfills, and the Transuranic Waste Processing Center characterized, prepared and processed more than 97 percent of contact- and remote-handled debris waste.
“The progress across Oak Ridge demonstrates what is possible when safety and mission execution reinforce one another,” OREM Deputy Manager Teresa Robbins said, adding that the work is reducing risk while enabling enduring missions at Y-12 and ORNL. UCOR Executive Vice President and Deputy Program Director Sean Dunagan said the company is accelerating cleanup and taking on increasingly complex work while keeping its people at the center.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Oak Ridge 的 Old Steam Plant 正在拆除。这座13,454平方英尺的设施建于1943年，80多年里曾支持铀作业、燃料测试、维护与仓储。照片：美国能源部（DOE），公共领域／The Old Steam Plant undergoing demolition at Oak Ridge. The 13,454-square-foot facility was built in 1943 and supported uranium operations, fuels testing, maintenance and storage over more than 80 years. Photo: U.S. Department of Energy, public domain
