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Advocate Newsletter A publication of the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board – a federally appointed citizens panel providing independent recommendations and advice to DOE’s Environmental Management Program DOE Launches K-25 Virtual Museum Issue 61• January 2016 Th e Department of Energy (DOE) Park, commemorating the work done to Oak Ridge Offi ce of Environmental develop the fi rst atomic weapon. IN THIS ISSUE Management (OREM) launched Th e K-25 Virtual Museum is the K-25 Virtual Museum in accessible at http://www.k-25virtual- Reservation Update. .3 November, one of the stipulations museum.org/. “Th e website is an ORSSAB 20th Anniversary .. 4-5 impressive product that PermaFix Conference Report . .6 will serve to inform an international audience Recent Recommendations. .7 about the incredible ORSSAB to Host Spring EM SSAB work that happened at Chairs’ Meeting . .8 K-25, beginning with the Manhattan Project and continuing through to the cleanup mission we are executing today,” said OREM Manager Sue Cange. “Th e online museum includes a comprehensive of a memorandum of history of Oak Ridge, photographs, agreement for historic interviews with site interpretation at East former workers, a Tennessee Technology Park 3D model of the (ETTP). K-25 Building Th e debut of the and Happy Valley Th ese images online museum coincided with the are of some hutment, among November 10 signing of an agreement of the main other items of between the Departments of Energy pages of the interest.” and the Interior establishing the K-25 Virtual Th e Virtual Manhattan Project National Historical Museum. Museum has (Continued on page 2) Manhattan Project National Historical Park Established On November 10 Energy Secretary Little Boy and Fat Man. Th e weapons of the re-staged photo shot by DOE Ernest Moniz and Interior Secretary were assembled in Los Alamos. photographer Lynn Freeny. Sally Jewell signed a Memorandum of Th e signing of documents by Moniz In Oak Ridge the national park will Agreement establishing the Manhattan and Jewell took place in Washington, include the site of the former K-25 Project National Historical Park. Th e D.C., but there were celebrations in Gaseous Diff usion Building at ETTP, unique three-site park commemorates Oak Ridge as well. A ceremony was the Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge the massive eff ort to build the first held at Oak Ridge High School and National Lab, and two buildings at atomic bomb. Park sites will be a recreation of Ed Westcott’s famous Y-12 National Security Complex Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, N.M., and ‘war ends’ photograph was staged at where uranium was enriched using the Hanford, Wash. the recently renovated Jackson Square. electromagnetic separation process. Oak Ridge enriched uranium and Th is time instead of taking the picture Also eligible for inclusion in the park Hanford plutonium for the fi rst bombs Mr. Westcott was front and center (Continued on page 2) Page 1 K-25 Virtual Museum Debuts (Continued from page 1) several main pages that explain K-25 Historic preservation work at ETTP agreement was signed in 2012 by a and the surrounding area. Th e home is being done independently of the number of signatory and consulting page provides the initial introduction Manhattan Project Park, but will be parties that contained several to K-25 with links to other pages. part of the park. stipulations for historic preservation of Additional main sections include the Eff orts to preserve part of the K-25 the site. Th e Virtual Museum was one K-25 Site Tour and a map of all of the Building were taken in the mid-2000s. of those stipulations. buildings with links explaining Another stipulation was their various functions. the provision of $500,000 by Th e page Life in Happy Valley DOE to be applied toward describes living conditions in the the purchase of the rapidly self-contained community. K-25 deteriorating Guest House was several miles from Oak Ridge in Oak Ridge. Th e Guest so Happy Valley sprang up where House was where many workers could be near their jobs. Manhattan Project VIPs Th e Preservation page describes stayed in the 1940s. in more detail about future It was later renamed the site interpretation, and the Alexander Inn, but fell Oral Histories page has many into disrepair. Using the transcribed interviews with DOE funds it was bought former workers. Th e dining room of the recently renovated Alexander Guest House. and renovated for use as an Th roughout the site are many DOE provided $500,000 toward the purchase of the historic assisted living facility and photographs of work and life structure. After falling into serious disrepair it’s been completely is now called the Alexander associated with K-25. restored and modernized for use as an assisted living facility. Guest House. A ribbon Work on historic preservation cutting ceremony was held at ETTP has been underway for some Ultimately it was determined the old just a few days before the release of the time, beginning well before steps to building was in no condition to be Virtual Museum and the signing of the establish the Manhattan Project Park. saved. But a fi nal memorandum of national park agreement. Other stipulations to come include the construction of an Equipment Manhattan Project Park Established (Continued from page 1) Building that will be a scale is the recently renovated Alexander representation of the gaseous diff usion Guest House, where VIPs stayed during technology used to enrich uranium. the Manhattan Project. Th e Alexander Th e Equipment Building will have a Guest House is now an assisted living viewing tower that will overlook the facility. mile-long U-shaped footprint of K-25. Technically, the park is open with a Th e second fl oor of the adjacent National Park Service visitor assistant ETTP fi re station will have a museum on duty at the American Museum of Manhattan Project and K-25 of Science and Energy. But there are artifacts and a theater. Th ere will be some details wayside markers around the K-25 that need to be footprint and other locations at ETTP. worked out such Completion of the remaining as joint operating stipulations is dependent on funding. Ed Westcott shot the Full establishment of the Manhattan agreements famous photo above between DOE and in August 1945. Th e Project Park and completion of ETTP the Park Service, photo was recreated as stipulations are some time away, but and how to part of the celebration for now people in the U.S. and around provide access to establishing the the world can log on to learn about points of interest Manhattan Project K-25 and its place in history. within Y-12 and National Historical the lab, which Park. Mr. Westcott is currently require holding the ‘War Ends’ newspaper. visitor badging. Courtesy of Lynn Freeny, DOE photographer. Page 2 Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board January 2016 operated the center since 2010. equipment. Th e switchyard is adjacent Reservation Update North Wind will continue to process to the K-27 Building. Public Input on Proposed New and store transuranic waste on site until Copper, aluminum, and steel from Waste Disposal Facility Provided the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) the yard can be recovered for recycling. in New Mexico reopens. CTI has engaged an Alabama Th ere was a fl urry of activity in the subcontractor, TCI, that specializes in fall by government entities and some Storage Containers Developed electrical recycling. private citizens asking for information to Store Remote-handled Waste related to building a second low-level Deactivation of K-27 Continues waste disposal facility on the Oak Ridge Since WIPP has been shut down, Reservation (ORR). DOE needed way to store remote- Deactivation of the K-27 Building At their respective meetings in handled transuranic waste on site. at ETTP continues, preparing it for November, the Oak Ridge City Council Wastren Advantage designed ‘remote- demolition to begin early in 2016. and the Anderson At the beginning of County Commission December deactivation passed resolutions of the building was more requesting additional than 96 percent complete. details for siting the Workers continue to remove landfi ll as proposed transite paneling on the and consideration of building, but that job is 80 options for off setting percent complete. potential impacts to the community. UCOR Completes DOE’s preferred Work on Oak Ridge location for the Research Reactor proposed EM Disposal Facility DOE’s prime cleanup (EMDF) is just contractor in Oak Ridge, east of the existing UCOR, completed work Environmental on the Oak Ridge Research Management Waste Reactor pool where a leak Management Facility. was discovered last year. In response to Water from the leak, a third draft of a Th is map shows DOE’s preferred location of the proposed new waste disposal estimated at about 100 remedial investigation/ facility to be known as EMDF. It is immediately east of the existing Environmental drops per minute, was feasibility study, the Management Waste Management Facility. collected underneath the Tennessee Department reactor pool and was treated of Environment and Conservation had handled overpacks’ to hold the waste while offi cials decided what to do. a number of comments concerning the and provide protection to workers. UCOR removed some radioactive siting of the facility over a shallow water Companies in Tennessee, Colorado, components that were in the pool. table to allowing disposal of mercury. and Idaho are manufacturing the Th e irradiated metal plates, weighing DOE is working on a fourth draft of the overpacks. about 200 pounds each, were put in an study.
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