OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — The demolition site of a major reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is cleaned up. The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental crews completed the cleanup Tuesday, according to a release from the DOE.
Workers finished the teardown of the Low-Intensity Test Reactor and disposed of rubble and debris from the facility last fall. However, the reactor vessel remained on the building’s footprint until it could be shipped for final disposition offsite.
Known as Building 3005, the reactor was built in 1949 as a testing facility that used highly enriched fuel with water as a coolant, according to a release from the DOE. It operated until 1968. Researchers used the reactor in numerous experiments through the years and the core was often reconfigured to perform those experiments.
“Completion of decontamination and transporting the reactor vessel for disposition is a big accomplishment that presented technical difficulties and a unique safety focus to finalize the cleanup at the Building 3005 site,” UCOR Project Manager Greg McGinnis said.
Workers backfilled the pit where the vessel was removed and completed repairs as needed.
“Completing these final tasks are crucial to our ongoing efforts at ORNL,” acting ORNL Portfolio Federal Project Director Jim Daffron said. “Clearing and backfilling this area gives our employees a staging area to support safe and efficient demolition for our next two major projects.”
According to officials, workers are deactivating the Graphite Reactor support facilities and the Oak Ridge Research Reactor, which are adjacent to the footprints of the Low-Intensity Test Reactor and Bulk Shielding Reactor.