A joint venture, APTIM-North Wind Construction, has won a $92 million contract from the Energy Department to build the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the four-year award in a Tuesday press release. The agency received two proposals for the firm-fixed-price contract, but did not release the identity of the other bidder.
The facility will treat mercury-laden water that flows from the Y-12 National Security Complex storm sewer to East Fork Poplar Creek. The facility is important to future remediation at Y-12 as buildings contaminated with mercury are demolished over time.
Along with building the treatment plant, headworks, and transfer pipeline, the vendor will test the systems and turn the facility over to an operating contractor.
Once fully operational, the facility will be able to treat up to 3,000 gallons of water per minute.
“This facility is a central component of our cleanup strategy at Y-12,” Jay Mullis, who heads the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, said in a press release. “We are incredibly grateful for the support we’ve received from Congress that allows us to move forward with construction, and we are excited for the opportunities and progress this project will help us achieve at one of the nation’s most important national security sites.”
Built in the 1940s to enrich uranium for the Manhattan Project, Y-12 also was a key part of Cold War nuclear weapons work. Until the 1960s the facility used thousands of pounds of mercury in its operations. It continues to contribute to U.S. nuclear stockpile stewardship under DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
