Addressing Excess Contaminated Facilities and Mercury Cleanup At the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation - 18408

Conference · Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018

OSTI ID:22977707

Slottke, Ron ^[1]

---

1. UCOR Project Services and Support Manager, URS-CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, East Tennessee Technology Park, P.O. Box 4699, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 (United States)

The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its prime cleanup contractor, URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR) are executing an aggressive program of cleanup and risk reduction in excess contaminated facilities on the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR). Across the complex, DOE has designated more than 2,300 of its facilities 'excess'. Excess means 'nonoperational' and refers to a facility for which DOE no longer has a mission need. Many of these facilities pose high risk to workers and/or the environment. Delayed cleanup increases risk as well as cost. OREM and UCOR initiated a Working Group on Excess Facilities to identify and prioritize activities that are needed to enhance worker safety, minimize further degradation of the facilities, and reduce the environmental risk. Six Excess Contaminated Facilities projects on the ORR were identified as priorities. Three of the projects are located at ORNL - the Building 7500 Homogenous Reactor Experiment, the Building 3026 Radioisotope Development Laboratory and Buildings 3028/3029 Isotope Facilities. At Y-12, priority excess facilities include the Column Exchange Equipment (COLEX), the Alpha-4 Lithium Enrichment Facility and the Biology Complex Research Facilities. Work on these projects is aimed at stabilization of degraded higher risk facilities, characterization of conditions and hazards, removal of hazardous materials and placement of the facility in the lowest risk condition possible pending demolition. At the same time, DOE and UCOR are preparing to undertake a comprehensive program to remediate the presence of mercury in the water stemming from historical operations at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Over decades of operations, mercury migrated into the environment. Deteriorating conditions of large post-operation mercury-use buildings may be contributing to additional releases. Mercury cleanup is a high priority for Y-12 and the Oak Ridge Reservation. UCOR is completing the final design on a new Mercury Treatment Facility with construction expected to begin in late 2017. When constructed the treatment facility will reduce the amount of mercury in local waters, lower environmental contamination levels and serve as a guard against future releases. (author)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22977707
• Report Number(s): INIS-US-20-WM-18408; TRN: US21V0336017752
• Resource Relation: Conference: WM2018: 44. Annual Waste Management Conference, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 18-22 Mar 2018; Other Information: Country of input: France; Available online at: https://www.xcdsystem.com/wmsym/2018/index.html
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
CONTAMINATION
DECONTAMINATION
DEMOLITION
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
HEALTH HAZARDS
ION EXCHANGE
ISOTOPE PRODUCTION
ISOTOPE SEPARATION PLANTS
MERCURY
MINIMIZATION
OAK RIDGE RESERVATION
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
ORNL
RADIATION PROTECTION
REMEDIAL ACTION
STABILIZATION
WASTE PROCESSING
WATER POLLUTION
Y-12 PLANT