Last days of K-25: Demolition activities scheduled to resume at Oak Ridge

The demolition of the K-25 uranium-enrichment facility continues in a recent photograph. Allen Schubert, chief spokesman for URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, DOE's cleanup manager in Oak Ridge, said almost 25,000 cubic yards of waste will be generated by demolition of the last six-unit part of the building.

OAK RIDGE -- Demolition of the last section of K-25, an important part of U.S. nuclear history and once the world's largest building, will begin this week.

Mark Whitney, the U.S. Department of Energy's cleanup chief in Oak Ridge, last week said the demolition activities are scheduled to resume on or before today.

Demolition work at K-25 has been on hold for a few months while workers sampled and prepared the last remaining section, which comprises 6 of the original 54 units that processed uranium for use in atomic bombs and nuclear reactors.

This section of the building was segregated and saved for last because some of the equipment is contaminated with technetium-99, a slow-decaying radioactive material that poses special concerns -- especially if released into the environment. The strategy was to avoid cross-contaminating other areas of K-25 during the demolition project and isolate the waste materials and equipment bearing Tc-99, which will be disposed of separately.

Lots of waste

According to Allen Schubert, a spokesman for URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), DOE's cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, the demolition of the remaining units of K-25's East Wing will generate an estimated 22,378 cubic yards of waste. More than 90 percent of the waste will be transported to DOE's Oak Ridge landfill, which is designated for hazardous and radioactive waste from Superfund projects.

The rest of the waste, about 2,085 cubic yards, apparently will have too much Tc-99 to qualify for the Oak Ridge facility and will be shipped to the Nevada National Security Site for disposal.

Schubert said demolition of the K-25 building should be completed by the end of February. Some other related structures, including a retaining wall along the side of the East Wing, will be torn down by sometime in April, he said.

"By mid-June all building debris and wastes will be gone," Schubert said.

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Last days of K-25: Demolition activities scheduled to resume at Oak Ridge