July 13, 2011
The Department of Energy's K-25 Building Decontamination and Decommissioning Project
The East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), formerly the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, began operation during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project. As the Department of Energy's missions changed, operations at the Plant ceased and the Department began a massive environmental remediation effort with completion anticipated in 2016. In 2001, the Department estimated that it would decontaminate and decommission (D&D) – a process which readies a building for demolition – both the K-25 building and its sister facility, the K-27 building, at a cost of $460 million. In 2002, the Department developed a plan to accelerate closure of ETTP, including a revised end date of 2008. The Department emphasized that risk reduction was a key factor for accelerating closure, noting that the K-25 and K-27 buildings posed some of the most serious environmental and safety risks at the site.
Topic: Environmental Cleanup
