OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — The Oak Ridge Airport project may have to relocate, after a recent announcement that an Orano enrichment facility would be built in the city.
Plans for the airport said it would be for private planes, designed to ease the load of air traffic that comes through McGhee-Tyson Airport in Alcoa. The new uranium enrichment facility would be built in the flight path of the airport's proposed location. So, the city said it needed to relocate.
"That's a long process at another start, that we'd have to start over, but we're so excited about the Orano project that we're willing to do that," said Randy Hemann, Oak Ridge's city manager. "While some people look at this and they think, 'Well that's killed the airport project,' that's really not so. In fact, to me, it just shows even more how we're becoming a center for new nuclear development."
Hemann said the city is willing to put the airport project on hold in order to let the Orano Project get its approvals sorted.
"We are willing to put a halt on contracting for final design for the airport while we work through those issues that they might have with their nuclear regulatory approval," he said.
Since the timeline for the airport project was never set in stone, it is unclear how long it may be before Oak Ridge starts welcoming in planes.