KNOXVILLE, TENN. – The Department of Energy’s acting manager for nuclear cleanup at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee said here Wednesday that final state and federal authorization are in hand for design and construction of a long-sought onsite low-level hazardous waste landfill.
“We had a major milestone on Friday,” when the state of Tennessee and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed the record of decision for the new Environmental Management Disposal Facility, said DOE’s Laura Wilkerson.
Wilkerson, acting chief of the DOE Office of Environmental Management field office for Oak Ridge, made the remark while speaking at the annual Business Opportunities and Technical Conference, sponsored by the Tennessee-based Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association (ETEBA).
With the state and EPA blessing in hand, design and construction of the facility can move ahead, Wilkerson said. Construction of the first phase should start in 2028 with operation starting in 2029.
The current 2.2 million-cubic-yard landfill, the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, which is now about 85% full, will reach its capacity by the end of the decade, DOE has said. The old one is filled mostly from construction debris from the former K-25 gaseous diffusion plant complex and the new one is needed to accommodate future material disposal from tearing down buildings at the Y-12 Nuclear Security complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Wilkerson reiterated that only low-risk Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) construction waste will go into the new facility, and other waste will be trucked out-of-state.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) and DOE have been pushing approval of the new landfill for years, calling it vital to future national defense and cleanup work at Oak Ridge.
