On a 44-acre site where once stood the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant, the largest building in the world, there now only remains rolling green hills and the makings of a fresh start. That’s the result of a larger effort by the Department of Energy to clean up over 5,000-acres of land that sat contaminated for nearly 35 years.
DOE officials along with partners in the state and local community gathered at East Tennessee Technology Park Wednesday morning to celebrate the conclusion of that effort. After years of preparation, demolition and cleanup, the department says that the site is now ready to be returned to the community.
“The former uranium enrichment complex is gone, the contaminated soil has been removed and the land has been opened to attract a host of next-generation nuclear companies,” said Candice Robertson, the DOE’s senior advisor in the Office of Environmental Management. “We’re seeing that come to fruition now … what was once a liability is now an asset.”
Demolition of the hundreds of government buildings on the site, including the roughly 5 million square feet of the K-25 plant, began in 2014 and was concluded in 2020. Since then, crews worked to remove over 800,000 tons of soil contaminated by various chemical cleaning agents during the site’s time as a uranium enrichment facility.
So far, 1,764 acres have been sold or apportioned to 25 businesses for the construction of nuclear power plants, engineering facilities or other industrial use properties. According to the DOE, it’s a combined $1.35 billion investment in the region, which will add 1,400 new jobs.
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican of Tennessee’s 3rd congressional district, says that the park will be home to a new ‘nuclear renaissance,’ providing clean energy and bolstering the regional economy.
“We’re not only cleaning up legacy sites – making dirty sites clean – but we’re taking those clean sites now and opening them up for economic revitalization,” Fleischman said. “That means that Oak Ridge will be the site, the focus, of the nuclear renaissance, not only in America, but in the world.”
The inaugural participant of that renaissance is Kairos Power, a California-based nuclear engineering company which announced in 2021 its purchase of 185-acres on the site. On it, they will build a test reactor and engineering facility with the goal to prove the company’s ability to deliver low-cost nuclear heat, in competition with natural gas. They broke ground on the reactor last month, and plan to open it in 2026.
Harriett McCurdy is a local resident and member of the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board. The board is made up of 22 citizens who provide input to the office of environmental management regarding the site’s cleanup efforts. McCurdy is excited about the project and its opportunities for the future.
“I’m a child of a nuclear engineer, and I want to see the beginning of a new nuclear renaissance,” McCurdy said.
Fellow board member Michael Sharp, of Lenoir City, is also excited, but wary of potential runoff contaminating the Clinch River, which flows past his home in Loudon County.
“The big concern for us is water and soil contamination,” Sharp said. “Because everything that runs off from this facility goes into the Clinch River, and that’s a big impact for all of us.”
Besides a new wave of peaceful nuclear development, other uses for the site include a 100-acre apportionment for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which already includes a K-25 history museum which was opened in 2020. A further 3,500 acres will be reserved for the EPA’s conservation efforts.
The land was appropriated by the U.S. government in 1942 as part of the Manhattan Project. Over 1,000 families were evicted from their homes and forced to move away as the Army Corps. of Engineers hastily constructed a site from which uranium could be enriched.
K-25, along with the still-operational Y-12 National Nuclear Security Site, helped produce the first and only atomic bombs deployed by the U.S. in warfare. K-25 operated for 44 years, becoming increasingly obsolete with the emergence of safer and more sophisticated uranium enrichment methods. As a result, it was ultimately shuttered in 1987.
In 1989, the land was placed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program’s list of national priorities, and the 35-year cleanup process began under the supervision of the DOE.
The site has since been credited as the most successful and efficient cleanup project in the DOE and EPA’s history. Now, leaders say it’s ready to move forward.
“I want Oak Ridge to maintain its leadership position as it did in the 40s, as it did throughout our history, and continue to be the leader,” Fleischmann said. “It’s our history, it’s our present, and it will be our future.”
