Oak Ridge Reservation

The Oak Ridge Reservation was established in 1942 as part of the Manhattan Project. Engineers developed three distinct campuses within the Oak Ridge Reservation, and each pursued a different technology to enrich uranium. In the decades since, each of these campuses—the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12), and East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP)—evolved and conducted different missions for the Department of Energy (DOE). Scientists and engineers purified isotopes, conducted research, built weapons, and created environmental legacies that the program has worked to clean and remove since 1989. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is charged with managing that effort.

The Oak Ridge site is particularly complex because federal mission work is conducted by several major program offices: the DOE Office of Science, the Oak Ridge Environmental Management Program, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Oak Ridge Reservation is located entirely within the municipal boundaries of Oak Ridge. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the former K-25 site are located in Roane County; the Y-12 National Security Complex is located in Anderson County. The large number of stakeholders requires that the local governments work together on issues such as payment in-lieu of taxes (PILT) to ensure that this funding, upon which the local governments rely, is included in the federal budgeting process.

• Emergency preparedness and response; along with risk management programs

• Community outreach

• Environmental clean-up projects

• Oversight on environmental studies and mitigation activities

Anderson County, TN

Roane County, TN

City of Oak Ridge, TN

Cherokee Nation

East Tennessee Economic Council (ETEC)

• Mission: ETEC unites industry, academia and government by convening, communicating, and advocating to drive collaboration and influence regional alignment.

• Contact: Email: info@eteconline.org; Phone: (865) 483-4577

Oak Ridge Reservation Communities Alliance (ORRCA)

• Mission: The purpose of the Oak Ridge Reservation Communities Alliance (ORRCA) is to take an active role with DOE Reservation management and/or contractors relating to the environmental management program for both current and legacy clean-up operations.

• Contact: Ron Woody, ORRCA Chairman – Email: Ron.Woody@roanecountytn.gov

Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board (ORSSAB)

• Mission: The board's mission is to provide informed advice and recommendations concerning site specific issues related to the DOE EM program. To provide unbiased evaluation and recommendations on DOE’s cleanup efforts related to the Oak Ridge site, the Board seeks opportunities for input through collaborative dialogue with the communities surrounding the Oak Ridge Reservation, governmental regulators, and other stakeholders.

• Contact: ORSSAB support office – Email: orssab@orem.doe.gov; Phone: (865) 241-4583

United Cleanup Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR) – Primary cleanup contractor for Oak Ridge Reservation

• UCOR is a partnership of Amentum, Jacobs, and Honeywell

UT-Battelle - Management contractor for Oak Ridge National Laboratory

North Wind Solutions, LLC – Management and operations at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center

Isotek – Responsible for disposition of Uranium-233 from Building 3019 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Federal Government

• U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R)

• U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R)

• U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R) (TN-03)

State Government

• Gov. Bill Lee (R)

• State Sen. Randy McNally (R) (District 5)

• State Sen. Ken Yager (R) (District 12)

• State Rep. Rick Scarbrough (R) (District 33)

• State Rep. Monty Fritts (R) (District 32)

Local Government

• Roane County Executive Ron Woody

• Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch

• Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank

• Oak Ridge City Manager Randy Hemann

Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management

• Phone: (865) 576-0742; Email: OakRidgeEM@orem.doe.gov

City of Oak Ridge Media Contact

• Candice Brown

  • Phone: (865) 425-3546; Email: cbrown@oakridgetn.gov

• Transuranic and Solid Waste Disposition

• Special Nuclear Materials and Spent Nuclear Fuel

• Facility Deactivation and Decommissioning

In March 2024, the Office of Environmental Management released a Strategic Vision for 2024-2034.

Planned Cleanup Scope 2024–2034

Over the next 10 years, OREM expects to make significant progress on cleanup activities at Y-12 and ORNL. These projects will enable important ongoing NNSA and SC missions and eliminate one of the largest remaining security risks at ORNL.

The full Oak Ridge Strategic Vision is available here.

TVA is partnering with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) for the BWRX-300 reactor design, seeking an $800 million grant from the DOE to accelerate the construction of the nation’s first SMR. This project is a collaborative effort involving various industry partners, including GEH, Bechtel for construction, and others, with the goal of establishing a domestic supply chain for advanced nuclear technology. If the grant is awarded, TVA aims to begin commercial operation of the SMR by 2033

Type One Energy plans to locate to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Bull Run Fossil Plant in the Claxton Community, near Oak Ridge, TN, to build Infinity One, a fusion prototype machine intended to showcase the potential of commercial fusion. Project Infinity is the result of a tri-party memorandum of understanding signed in 2023 between TVA, Type One Energy, and the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Type One Energy will establish its headquarters in East Tennessee, creating over 300 high-paying jobs within the next five years. The construction of Infinity One could begin as early as 2025.

Kairos Power has begun construction on one of the first advanced reactors in the country in Oak Ridge with an expected investment of up to $303 million from DOE. The reactor will help inform the development of the Kairos Power’s commercial reactor that could be deployed in the next decade. Hermes will utilize a novel fuel, the TRISO fuel pebble bed design with molten fluoride salt coolant, to demonstrate affordable clean heat production. The project is expected to create more than 55 high-paying, full-time jobs at the former K33 gaseous diffusion plant site in Oak Ridge. The reactor is anticipated to be operational by 2027

Oklo Inc, a nuclear technology company, announced the creation of the Advanced Fuel Center in Oak Ridge, anchored by the nation’s first privately funded nuclear fuel recycling facility. Oklo expects to invest nearly $1.7 billion in the project and to create more than 800 jobs.

Orano USA has selected Oak Ridge for the site of a new multibillion-dollar uranium enrichment centrifuge facility, representing the single largest investment in Tennessee’s history. The new facility, spanning 750,000 square feet, will become one of the largest uranium enrichment plants in North America. The project will lead to the creation of more than 300 jobs, for which Orano has already started the hiring process. Orano will begin the licensing process with the NRC and anticipates the facility could begin production in the early 2030s

TRISO-X, a subsidiary of X-Energy, is designing a $300 million, 215,000 square-foot fuel production facility in Oak Ridge that will create around 400 permanent jobs and 475 construction jobs. As part of a larger partnership, X-Energy previously opened a pilot-scale nuclear fuel facility in Oak Ridge in 2016 to develop its TRISO-X fuel and support its Xe-100 reactor design

In February 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced its plans to build a Versatile Test Reactor, or VTR. Once built, the research community will be able to leverage VTR’s high neutron flux to test nuclear materials 10 times faster than what is currently capable today.

VTR will:

• Modernize DOE’s essential nuclear energy research and development infrastructure.

• Accelerate the development of advanced nuclear fuels, materials, instrumentation, and sensors.

• Reestablish the United States as a global leader in nuclear science and innovation.

• Support the nation’s goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The VTR project is led by Idaho National Laboratory in partnership with five national laboratories (Argonne, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, and Savannah River) and includes a host of industry and university partners.

Several massive Manhattan Project facilities at Oak Ridge enriched uranium for use in Little Boy, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Today the story of the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge includes historic sites, community centers and museums, and highly-secured nuclear research facilities operated by the US Department of Energy.

Learn more about the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is one of six production facilities in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) Nuclear Security Enterprise. Y-12’s unique emphasis is the processing and storage of uranium and development of technologies associated with those activities. Decades of precision machining experience make Y-12 a production facility with capabilities unequaled nationwide.

Constructed as part of the World War II Manhattan Project, Y-12 provided the enriched uranium for Little Boy, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, to help the United States and its allies end a war that had taken 63 million lives worldwide. Afterward, Y-12 provided lithium separation and key components for the thermonuclear weapons that helped end the Cold War. Y-12’s expertise in machining, handling and protecting radiological materials has made the Oak Ridge site central to the nation’s nuclear security.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Biological and Environmental Systems Science (BESS) Directorate leads convergence research in biology, ecology, engineering, data discovery, physical sciences, and computing to advance U.S. competitiveness in the global bioeconomy and Earth system sustainability.

The Energy Science and Technology Directorate (ESTD) plays a pivotal role in America’s energy transformation into a clean, efficient, flexible, and secure energy future. ORNL’s researchers deliver breakthroughs in energy from generation to distribution and storage to end use in support of Department of Energy missions. ESTD offers a unique culture of entrepreneurship for translating science into solutions for the most critical problems facing society at the nexus of energy and security.

The Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate (FFESD) addresses compelling challenges in fission and fusion energy systems, enabling Oak Ridge National Laboratory to pursue national priorities in current and advanced nuclear research, development, and deployment.

Established in 2020, the Isotope Science and Engineering Directorate is strengthening Oak Ridge National Laboratory's leadership in isotope production and enrichment technology innovation. ISED is guiding the Lab's pursuit of the fundamental science and technology that broadens the application of isotopes for energy, environmental, medical, and national security purposes. These efforts are made possible through the High Flux Isotope Reactor, the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, ORNL's other nuclear facilities, and an assemblage of world-leading scientists and engineers.

ORNL’s scientists work in a collaborative environment to develop composites and alloys to withstand the extreme environments in nuclear and fusion reactors, understand why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe, design new catalysts for clean energy, support the search for new superheavy elements, develop strong lightweight materials for energy-efficient transportation, enable safe high-performance solid-state batteries, advance direct air capture of CO2, develop self-healing polymers for energy-efficient buildings, and advance new materials for quantum sensing and quantum computing.

The National Security Sciences Directorate is rapidly advancing the science of resilience, security, and analytics to solve critical challenges in nuclear security, cybersecurity, and human security. ORNL’s world-leading researchers engage in collaboration across the Laboratory—in areas such as nuclear and chemical sciences, applied materials, advanced manufacturing, biosecurity, transportation, and supercomputing—to protect the nation today while identifying and addressing future threats.

Breakthroughs in medicine, energy, technology, and industry follow advances in the understanding of materials. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is at the US epicenter for one of the most powerful techniques exploring the nature of materials and energy—neutron scattering.

ORNL hosts two of the world’s most powerful sources of neutrons for research: the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). Neutrons have no electrical charge, which allows them to easily and safely pass through a sample, revealing information about the material’s structure and properties.

The Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate (CCSD) oversees Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) immense store of computing power and its talented staff of computational scientists and mathematicians, conducting state-of-the-art research and development in support of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) missions and programs.

The directorate houses the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), home to the world's fastest supercomputer and the first exascale computer, Frontier. ORNL delivered Frontier to advance leadership-class computing for open science. Frontier enables us to address, with greater complexity and higher fidelity, questions concerning who we are, as well as our place on earth and in the universe.