The greatest challenge for the Environment Management Waste Management Facility (EMWMF) Operations team is safely and compliantly managing landfill wastewater, including 5 to 23 million gallons of contact water per year. Critical infrastructure, such as the four Contact Water Tanks (CWTs) at the site, support this effort. Each CWT has a capacity of 240,000 gallons.…
The Environmental Management Waste Management Facility (EMWMF) Operations team recently upgraded the leachate management system to provide remote monitoring capability. This upgrade supports the existing leachate control system designed to notify crews of conditions such as power outages or high-level alarms for tanks. Workers can now monitor all eight tank levels, the leachate inflow rate,…
UCOR has been awarded the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s 2026 Environment and Energy Award for Environmental Excellence, recognizing the cleanup contractor’s successful deactivation and demolition of the historic Alpha-2 Building at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Ashley Saunders, UCOR chief regulatory officer and environmental strategy lead, accepted the award on behalf of the…
UCOR has earned its seventh consecutive national innovation award, continuing a multi-year record of improving workplace practices while safely advancing environmental cleanup across the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR). UCOR President and Program Manager Jim Blankenhorn accepted the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association’s (VPPPA) Innovation Award at its annual national conference this week. VPPPA, representing 300,000…
The UCOR Nuclear Operations team recently performed sampling of transuranic mixed waste in the Melton Valley Storage Tanks (MVSTs) at Building 7830. This legacy waste, commonly referred to as sludge, was generated through decades of science missions at ORNL. The waste is consolidated and stored in eight below ground tanks surrounded by a concrete vault…
The August episode of Energycast spotlights the 2026 Nuclear Opportunities Workshop, which attracted record breaking attendance from nuclear industry leadership. Governor Bill Lee was also on hand to discuss the innovation and economic growth happening in Oak Ridge. The Energycast team visited the construction site for Triso-X’s nuclear fuel campus, where progress continues on the…
UCOR has officially completed deforesting White Wing Scrapyard (WWSY) and is making massive headway remediating the site’s north boundary as workers began the process of shipping more than 300 bags filled with legacy contaminated soil to the Oak Ridge Reservation Landfills, moving one of Oak Ridge’s most historically contaminated industrial properties a step closer to…
UCOR continues making progress improving the stormwater network at ETTP. Crews removed 15 linear feet of piping from Outfall 148 and recontoured the drainage area on the northeast side of the site near the former Toxic Substances Control Act Incinerator area. Because Outfall 148 previously discharged directly into Mitchell Branch, its footprint removal is a…
UCOR has officially kicked off a comprehensive stormwater improvement project for Mitchell Branch Outfall 190 at ETTP Heritage Center. Work includes excavation, piping removal and replacement, placement of structures, grading, and site restoration. Most recently, crews removed 70 linear feet of obsolete pipe to support the future infrastructure at ETTP. Completing this work is a…
Before: Decades old piping After: New stainless steel piping The ORNL Nuclear Operations team has finished a two-and-a-half-year piping replacement project…
