The Department of Energy considers construction of a new 2.2-million cubic yard landfill at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee vital to cleanup of contaminated sites the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a federal official said Wednesday.
The new onsite landfill will “make sure that we have enough disposal capacity,” for those two complexes, Brian Henry, the federal portfolio cleanup director for Y-12, told a virtual meeting of the Oak Ridge Site-Specific Advisory Board Wednesday.
A DOE draft record of decision is expected in July on the proposed Environmental Management Disposal Facility, designed to handle low-risk construction material from building demolition at Y-12 and at the national laboratory, according to Henry’s presentation during the electronic meeting.
The current 28-acre Environmental Management Waste Management Facility landfill that opened in 2002 is 80% full and will reach its capacity around 2027, according to DOE. The vast majority of the material there comes from demolition of structures at the former K-25 gaseous diffusion plant complex, now the East Tennessee Technology Park, the DOE official said.
Both the existing and planned landfills are regulated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). There remain more than 300 buildings to be torn down at Y-12 and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Henry said.
Both facilities are designed to take low-level radiological waste, or chemical-contaminated soil and demolition debris and equipment, Henry said.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management hopes to open the new landfill in 2026 and have about two years of “overlap” when both are capable of accepting waste, Henry said. “Some of our waste is heavy and needs to be on the floor of the disposal cell,” he added.
The agency said the new facility would be in keeping with DOE policy to dispose of most high-volume, low-radionuclide debris inside DOE complexes while providing off-site disposal for low-volume, higher-radionuclide waste.
During a hearing last week in the U.S. House of Representatives, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) DOE still supports the new on-site landfill, which has been delayed amid various concerns by the state of Tennessee and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Some issues still being resolved by the parties include groundwater and site characterization issues, waste acceptance criteria for the landfill and handling all the mercury from contaminated buildings at Y-12, Henry said.
A couple of advisory board members on Wednesday requested that DOE provide the board with detailed cost figures comparing on-site disposal with the expense of moving CERCLA waste to off-site locations such as EnergySolutions in Utah, Waste Control Specialists in Texas and DOE’s Nevada National Security Site.
