OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Crews are continuing work to build a new Y-12 facility meant to clean mercury out of an on-site creek and help limit the amount of mercury released as Cold War-era buildings are torn down.
According to a release from the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management, workers put up some new structural steel at a treatment plant after they installed three sludge-settling tanks for the new Mercury Treatment Facility. The new tanks have capacities of around 36,000 gallons, standing around 38 feet tall and 15 feet wide.
Once complete, the new facility will capture water flowing from a creek on the west end of Y-12 and store excess stormwater during rainfall. The facility will remove grit, before pumping the water to a treatment plant on the other side of Y-12. The facility and plant will be connected by a half-mile-long pipeline, forming the Mercury Treatment Facility.
While the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management works to clean up old structures in the area and crews continue installing the new Mercury Treatment Facility, a release said GEM Technologies is also helping workers. A release said they still need to install 760 pieces of steel weighing a total of around 175 tons.
The new facility will help the environmental management office reduce mercury levels and start large-scale cleanup efforts at Y-12. Once operational, Y-12 will be better able to control the amount of mercury released while demolishing Cold War-era buildings and addressing concerns in the soil beneath them.
The facility will process up to 3,000 gallons of water per minute and have around 2 million gallons of storage to contain stormwater, according to a release.
