March 31 – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is accelerating environmental cleanup work that will create thousands of jobs across 12 states, including at the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation. At the East Tennessee Technology Park, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 sites, DOE will speed up demolition and disposal of remaining uranium enrichment plant buildings, surplus Manhattan Project-era buildings and highly-contaminated uranium processing buildings, and perform soil remediation to protect area groundwater.  In addition, DOE will accelerate cleanup of the most significant sources of off-site mercury release to East Fork Poplar Creek to prevent further contamination of the area. Congressman Wamp issued the following statement about DOE’s efforts to speed the cleanup:

 

“Accelerating the cleanup at the Oak Ridge Reservation will bring an estimated 1,500 jobs to the area over the next two-and-a-half years, which is considerable during an economic downturn, and will save significant taxpayer dollars in the long run. While environmental cleanup work is crucial to cleaning up our country’s Cold War legacy and it is decades in the process, there are many more years of work ahead. The Integrated Facilities Disposition Project (IFDP) has been one of my highest priorities in Oak Ridge over the last few years. It’s important to all the investments on the Oak Ridge Reservation and is necessary to meet the current missions that are needed to move the country forward.”