Workers are performing remedial activities at ETTP, which includes removing building slabs, excavating contaminated soil, and removing minor remaining structures. (More information on those remedial actions is available here.) The site has been transformed into a multi-use industrial park, national park, and conservation area. About 1,300 acres of land has been transferred for economic development. The K-25 History Center is now open at the site.
What's Happening Now
The formal plan for the closure of ETTP was presented in early 2022. The webinar of that presentation is provided here.
OVERVIEW OF CLEANUP PROGRESS
Under our previous contract, UCOR achieved the historic first-ever cleanup of a gaseous diffusion plant when the final unneeded building was brought down at East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) in 2020. Remedial actions are now underway at the site. The following information relates to the demolition of ETTP:
Buildings Demolished
MORE THAN 500
Square Feet UCOR has Demolished
7 MILLION
Property Transferred
1,300 Acres
Milestone Dates
0
Construction begins on the K-25 Site
0
s
New gaseous diffusion
building constructed, bringing
the total to 5
0
Uranium enrichment
operations cease
0
Reindustrialization
activities begin
0
Historic cleanup of
ETTP achieved
The Past
ETTP’s origin dates back to the Manhattan Project. The site, previously known as the K-25 Site and the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, was built to process the uranium that would eventually be used to end World War II. Workers there then enriched uranium for defense and commercial purposes until the site was shut down in 1987. UCOR took over cleanup operations at the site in 2011, removing almost 7 million square feet of buildings.
The Future
Commemorative facilities are planned for the newly designated national park site—part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Future plans calls for a viewing facility overlooking the K-25 Building footprint and an equipment room replicating a section of the K-25 Building. More property will be transferred for industrial development as the site becomes an economic and recreational hub.
