Department of Energy - Oak Ridge Reservation

Scarboro Community, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Contacts:

The Oak Ridge Reservation site, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facility, covers 37,000 acres and includes 294 on-site contaminated areas and off-site surface waters including Poplar Creek, the Clinch River and lower Watts Bar Reservoir of the Tennessee River. The site consists of three large industrial facilities: the Oak Ridge National Laboratory or X-10, a research facility that includes nuclear reactors and ongoing energy, chemical, and biological programs; the East Tennessee Technology Park (formerly the K-25 Plant), a former production facility that enriched uranium-235 by gaseous diffusion; and the Y-12 Plant, a production facility that formerly enriched uranium-235 by an electromagnetic process, and currently disassembles nuclear weapon components, processes nuclear materials, and performs other functions that relate to energy and national defense programs. Site operations generated a variety of radioactive, non-radioactive, and mixed (radioactive and non-radioactive) hazardous wastes, most of which were containerized and buried below ground or stored in buildings on site. Leakage from buried waste areas and former-processing facilities has contaminated on-site and off-site soils, surface water, sediments, and groundwater. Site related contaminants above levels of concern could be found in sediment, water, and biota of Popular Creek. The State has advised against consuming fish and coming into contact with water from Poplar Creek, which flows to the Clinch River and ultimately to the Tennessee River. An estimated 43,200 people obtain water from surface water intakes on the Tennessee River along a 118-mile stretch downstream from the site.

DOE commenced initial cleanup activities under a RCRA permit in 1986. The facility was later listed on the NPL, and DOE, EPA, and State of Tennessee enter a Federal Facility Agreement (FFA). Since that time, DOE has initiated approximately 51 response actions under the FFA that address contamination and disposal issues.

More information can be obtained by accessing the EPA Headquarters Office Of Solid Waste/Superfund website. For questions or comments about DOE, e-mail: Federal Facilities Branch Contact

Department of Energy - Oak Ridge Reservation

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