For Immediate Release
Contact: Wayne McKinney
wayne.mckinney@ettp.doe.gov
(865) 576-6284
Oak Ridge, Tenn., August 1, 2012 – After one year as the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE)
cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, URS | CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) has made tremendous
progress in safely cleaning up DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation.
UCOR’s most high-profile project, demolition of the K-25 Building at East Tennessee
Technology Park (ETTP), has been ahead of schedule, and demolition of the east wing is nearing
completion, with the exception of five process cells needing further deactivation. UCOR has
shipped more than 10,000 loads of K-25 demolition debris for disposal.
“We have a great system in place to complete the K-25 Building demolition,” said Mark Ferri,
K-25 Project Manager. “Our waste-hauling personnel works in conjunction with the demolition
crew to quickly and efficiently remove the demolition debris and haul it for disposal. Disposing
of the debris as it is generated avoids having massive piles of waste that must be addressed
later.”
Most of the K-25 waste is being shipped to the Environmental Management Waste Management
Facility (EMWMF), DOE’s above-grade waste disposal facility located in East Bear Creek
Valley. UCOR manages the facility for DOE.
“We have made great progress on the K-25 Building,” said Leo Sain, UCOR President and
Project Manager. “We look forward to having the entire project completed in 2014.”
UCOR also completed cleanup of the K-1070-B Burial Ground, a 6.5-acre, 60-year-old landfill
located near the K-25 Building. It was used from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s to dispose of
items such as equipment, materials, parts, and drums. Most of this waste was disposed of at
EMWMF.
In ETTP’s Poplar Creek area, UCOR placed six facilities into a “cold and dark” status, which
involved removing all hazardous energy sources. Utilities were isolated, mains were cut, and
thorough investigations were conducted to ensure that all conduits and pipes that go into or out of the
facilities were accounted for before the buildings could be deemed cold and dark.
UCOR has begun mobilizing to demolish the K-27 Building, a sister facility to K-25 that is in a
severely deteriorated condition. DOE had authorized UCOR to begin work on the building two years
early because of this deterioration. Characterization activities, including nondestructive assay
sampling of process gas piping and equipment, are under way.
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While most of UCOR’s work is centered on ETTP, the company is performing cleanup work at other
Oak Ridge Reservation sites. At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), UCOR removed the
site’s largest source of groundwater contamination, Tank W-1A. The 4,000-gallon tank,
commissioned in 1951, collected and stored liquid wastes from radiochemical separations and highradiation
analytical facilities at ORNL. The tank was removed from service and emptied in 1986
when significant levels of soil and groundwater contamination were traced to the area surrounding it.
In addition to removing the tank, UCOR also removed the contaminated soil surrounding it.
“DOE has been contending with Tank W-1A for several years,” Sain said. “UCOR is proud to have
finally removed this major source of contamination, making the environment safer for those who
work at the site.”
Other UCOR achievements during the year include the following:
• Donated more than $370,000 to local educational and charitable organizations
• Safely operated EMWMF, which just celebrated its 10th year of operations
• Removed numerous piles of debris and containers at ETTP, ORNL, and the Y-12 National
Security Complex
• Received DOE certification for its Earned Value Management System, a set of tools, systems,
and processes for managing projects
• Reconciled and aligned the Oak Ridge cleanup contract as it relates to how it was bid and the
actual work that UCOR will be performing—a process that has historically taken at least a
couple of years at other sites
“Most importantly, UCOR was able to maintain an excellent safety record while performing
some very complex and potentially hazardous work,” Sain said. “Our employees have done a
stellar job of looking out not only for their well-being, but the well being of their coworkers.
Maintaining an excellent safety record can be difficult doing the type of work we do, but our
employees have kept a constant focus on performing work safely.”
