URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), prime cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, is tearing down the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Incinerator.
The demolition project at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) began June 20 and should be finished this fall, a DOE spokesperson said by email Thursday.
When operations began in the early 1990s, there were no other facilities in the nation capable of incinerating hazardous and radioactive wastes containing PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, according to DOE. It shut down in late 2009 after eliminating more than 35 million pounds of solid and liquid waste.
The act, passed by Congress in 1976, calls upon the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate new and existing chemicals. Among other things, the act bans the manufacture or importation of chemicals not on the TSCA inventory.
“With its mission complete, we are removing the incinerator and continuing toward our goal of completing all of the remaining demolitions at ETTP,” Jay Mullis, manager of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) said in a recent DOE statement.
In 2013, workers put the plant in a safe shutdown mode, and all chemicals were removed from the structure. Pipes and pumps were thoroughly rinsed or removed.
UCOR is charged with remediating the East Tennessee Technology Park, a sprawling property once used for uranium enrichment at Oak Ridge.
