OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Oak Ridge crews took a major step Monday towards tearing down a decades-old facility in the Y-12 National Security Complex.
According to a release from the Office of Environmental Management, the Beta-1 facility was built in 1944 to enrich uranium during World War II. Later, it was converted into laboratory space for fusion-energy technology. It's around 210,000 square feet large, and two stories high.
The Beta-1 facility includes the Fusion Energy Technology Building, the Helium Compressor Building and a steel utility transformer. All three components of the facility will be demolished together, according to the release.
Demolishing the Y-12 facility is not exactly like demolishing any other kind of building. For example, workers first needed to safely get rid of water in the basement due to failed sump pumps. They installed a water treatment system to meet water quality standards and have removed around 2 million gallons of water from the facility.
They also needed to remove contaminants from the building, which included asbestos in the floor along with ceiling tiles and pipes. More than 100 feet of piping contaminated by thorium, a weakly radioactive metal, was also removed.
After taking out water from the basement and deactivating the above-ground portion of the facility, crews just need to deactivate the basement before the entire facility can be demolished.
“We continue to make great progress with the water treatment skid in place and are poised for a successful basement cleanup by fall 2024,” said William Lloyd in the release, a project manager for United Cleanup Oak Ridge.
The Beta-1 facility is set to start demolition in 2026, according to the release.
Next, crews will start demolishing the Alpha-2 facility, another enrichment facility building during the Manhattan Project. It's around 325,000 square feet large, and the project is set to start over the summer.
