The Department of Energy has received approval from the state of Tennessee to proceed with demolition of two Manhattan Project-era buildings at the Biology Complex within the Y-12 National Security Complex at the Oak Ridge Reservation.
Representatives from DOE and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) confirmed this week the state has given the green light for tear down of Buildings 9207 and 9210 at Y-12. Oak Ridge Today reported Saturday the Tennessee Historical Commission signed off on the demolition in December. The Historical Commission is administratively attached to TDEC.
The two buildings, completed in the 1940s, were part of a large chemical processing area. First built for recovery of uranium for the nuclear weapons program, the Biology Complex structures later became home to DOE’s research on the genetic effects of radiation. The Energy Department has said buildings within the complex once housed more individuals with doctorate degrees than anywhere in the world.
The Historical Commission must comment on the effect federal undertakings have on the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. “We needed that approval to move forward,” a DOE spokesperson said by telephone Monday. He subsequently added Y-12 did a historic preservation plan in the early 2000s.
The commission is satisfied with the efforts made by DOE to mitigate the loss of the historic properties, Executive Director and State Historic Preservation Officer Patrick McIntyre Jr. said in a Friday email.
Both buildings are considered high-risk due to radiological, chemical, and physical hazards, according to DOE presentations posted online.
URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the Energy Department’s prime cleanup contractor at Oak Ridge, will perform the deactivation and pre-demolition work for the project. Actual teardown is due to begin in late 2020 by the as-yet-to decided successor prime contractor. The work should wrap up the next year, according to DOE.
The Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management previously received $125 million in multiyear funding for demolition of the full Biology Complex. Building 9207, which actually includes four structures, and 9210 are the last Biology Complex facilities set to come down. Six structures have already been demolished, the DOE spokesperson said.
The office and UCOR in spring 2018 finished site characterization that showed the decades-old Biology Complex buildings had significant concentrations of asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Two noncontaminated structures were demolished last year, with work on other facilities scheduled to begin this summer.
The National Nuclear Security Administration, which own the Y-12 site and manages its active nuclear-weapon missions, plans to use the facility for a future lithium processing. Lithium is a source for tritium in nuclear weapons; tritium increases the yield of nuclear explosions.
“We are in the early stages of planning for the Lithium Processing Facility that is needed to replace the aging and obsolete 9204-2 building,” an NNSA spokesperson wrote in an email Friday. “We are reviewing options for constructing a new Lithium facility in the eastern portion of the Y-12 site, including the area of the Biology Complex. However, no decisions have been made at this time.”
