The Energy Department has retained Centrus Energy to prepare the K-1600 facility at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee for demolition. The Rockville, Md.-based nuclear fuel supplier has leased the uranium enrichment plant since 2002.
Centrus announced Tuesday it has received a $15 million work authorization for decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of the plant, one of the largest facilities left in the 2,200-acre East Tennessee Technology Park.
The Centrus work, which was scheduled to start Monday and be completed by Sept. 30, 2019, is akin to work the company recently did on its 120-centrifuge demonstration project for its enrichment technology at DOE’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. Centrus shut down an American Centrifuge demonstration plant in 2016 after DOE cut off funding the year before.
The company has also been testing its enrichment technology at K-1600, while designing and building its own facility, the Technology and Manufacturing Center, at Oak Ridge. Tennessee issued the company a license for the new building earlier this year. Centrus owns the new building, which is not located on DOE property.
“As we consolidate our centrifuge work into our own facility, this work authorization for K-1600 allows us to help the Department meet its timetable for returning the East Tennessee Technology Park site to the community for reuse and economic development,” Centrus President and CEO Daniel Poneman said in a press release.
Prior to turning over K-1600 to another contractor for demolition, Centrus will take out and dispose of all the structure’s materials and equipment, and rid the building of radioactive contamination.
Centrus continues to talk with DOE about future use of its domestic uranium enrichment technology for national defense work.
Contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) is remediating the East Tennessee Technology Park under a $2.5 billion DOE contract that expires in 2020. Several tracts of land at the former uranium enrichment site have already been turned over to a community reuse organization for economic development.
