DOE/ORO/2327 Oak Ridge Reservation Annual Site Environmental ...

Oak Ridge Reservation
Fig. 5.1. Location of ORNL within the ORR and its relationship to other local
DOE facilities.
The TWPC, managed by WAI for DOE, is located on the western boundary of ORNL on about 5 ha
of land adjacent to the Melton Valley Storage Tanks along State Route 95. In late 2009, Wastren
Advantage Inc. (WAI) was awarded the contract to operate the TWPC. Until this award the TWPC was
operated by EnergX. The TWPC’s mission is to receive TRU wastes for processing, treatment,
repackaging, and shipment to designated facilities for final disposal. The TWPC consists of the Waste
Processing Facility, the Personnel Building, and numerous support buildings and storage areas. The
TWPC began processing supernatant liquid from the Melton Valley Storage Tanks in 2002, the contacthandled
debris waste in December 2005, and the remote-handled debris waste in May 2008.
In March 2007, Isotek Systems, LLC (Isotek) assumed responsibility for surveillance and
maintenance activities at the Building 3019 Complex at ORNL. DOE awarded the contract to Isotek to
accomplish the following principal objectives:
• process, downblend, and package the DOE inventory of 233 U (and the 715 gallons of 233 Ucontaminated
thorium nitrate stored in Tank P-24) to eliminate the need for safeguards, security, and
nuclear criticality controls, and to render these materials suitable for safe disposition;
• remove the 233 U material from the Building 3019 Complex;
• transport the downblended material to one or more licensed disposal facilities; and
• place the Building 3019 Complex in safe and stable shutdown condition.
During CY 2009, Isotek continued to manage the Building 3019 Complex in a surveillance and
maintenance mode and design the facilities and operations needed to accomplish the above objectives.
Isotek also completed demolition of Buildings 3074 and 3136. In CY 2009, an environmental assessment
for the U-233 Material Downblending and Disposition Project was completed, and a Finding of No
Significant Impact under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process was issued in January
2010.
UT-Battelle performs air and water quality monitoring for the 3019 facility and for the TWPC, and
the discussions in the chapter include the results for the Isotek and WAI operations at ORNL.
Approximately 5 ha in the central portion of the ORNL has been leased to Halcyon, LLC, a
subsidiary of the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET) for development into the
Oak Ridge Science and Technology Park (ORSTP). The ORSTP will provide space for private companies
doing research at ORNL, partner universities, start-up companies built around ORNL technologies, and
5-2 Oak Ridge National Laboratory