If all goes according to schedule, building K-27, the last of five Cold War-era uranium enrichment plants at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge site in Tennessee, will be torn down Wednesday.
It will mark the first time DOE’s Office of Environmental Management has demolished all of a site’s gaseous diffusion facilities. Five such buildings were built at Oak Ridge to support the World War II-era Manhattan Project. K-27 operated until 1964.
K-27 demolition began in February.
There are also gaseous diffusion plants awaiting decontamination and demolition at DOE’s Paducah and Portsmouth facilities.
CH2M and AECOM are the major partners in UCOR, DOE’s Oak Ridge deactivation and demolition prime. The company’s nine-year, $2.4 billion cleanup contract runs through July 31, 2020. That includes a four-year option that kicked in on Aug. 1.
