November 01, 2024

Oak Ridge kicked off property transfer process for Orano, manager says

By Sarah Salem

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Orano-USA has started the property transfer and licensing process for its planned uranium enrichment plant at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, the site’s top federal cleanup official said here Wednesday.

Orano-USA announced in September that Oak Ridge was its “preferred site” for its uranium enrichment plant that it would build using state funding and Department of Energy land.

“We’ve kicked the property transfer process off, but… that’s a very lengthy process,” John (Jay) Mullis, manager of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, told the ExchangeMonitor here Wednesday after he spoke at a panel during the Energy Technology and Environmental Business Association’s 25th annual Business Opportunities and Technical Conference.

“So they’ve needed to get in there while we still own the property and do some geotech work and things like that,” Mullins said.

Mullis also said that Orano and Oak Ridge National Laboratory signed a real estate license to give Orano access to Oak Ridge’s SSP-2 site.

“That will give them now pretty free access to the areas they need to have access to,” Mullis added.

The facility would be 750,000 square feet and employ about 300 people in Roane County, Tenn., according to the original press release from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

An Orano spokesperson told the Exchange Monitor in an email in September that there was no timeline for building the facility as of Wednesday.

Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor
Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor brings you timely, accurate news and information on the activities of the U.S. Nuclear Security Administration, including weapons complex, weapons dismantlement, nuclear deterrence, the weapons laboratories and nonproliferation.
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NEW: Via public records request, I’ve been able to confirm reporting today that a warrant has been issued for DOE deputy asst. secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition Sam Brinton for another luggage theft, this time at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid airport. (cc: @EMPublications)

DOE spent fuel lead Brinton accused of second luggage theft.



by @BenjaminSWeiss, confirming today's reports with warrant from Las Vegas Metro PD.

Waste has been Emplaced! 🚮

We have finally begun emplacing defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in Panel 8 of #WIPP.

Read more about the waste emplacement here: https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20221123-2.asp

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