The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and cleanup contractor UCOR are finalists in the 2020 Washington Exec Pinnacle Awards.
Office of Environmental Management
October 20, 2020
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OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and cleanup contractor UCOR are finalists in the 2020 Washington Exec Pinnacle Awards for Government Team Project of the Year.
Winners in the third-annual Pinnacle Awards will be announced at a Nov. 12 virtual event. This program highlights successful executives and businesses saving money and fostering innovation for federal clients.
OREM and UCOR are responsible for environmental cleanup across DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation, and this month, they completed the first-ever cleanup of a former uranium enrichment complex. Through their work, major cleanup at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) was finished $80 million under budget and four years early — avoiding $500 million in costs to taxpayers.
OREM and UCOR were able to safely and efficiently:
- Demolish more than 6.5 million square feet of facilities;
- Transport 108,525 loads of waste over 7 million miles safely;
- Dispose more than 34 million cubic feet of hazardous, radiological, and sanitary waste;
- Remove and dispose of 7,104 loads, or 9,412 cubic yards, of asbestos-containing materials;
- Manage and treat more than 820 million gallons of low-level wastewater; and
- Enable the transfer of hundreds of acres for redevelopment and reuse by private sector.
The acceleration and ultimate completion of cleanup at ETTP has allowed OREM and UCOR to begin ramping up major cleanup at Oak Ridge’s other two sites — the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex. Cleanup at these sites will eliminate hazards, enable modernization, and open land for new missions at two of the nation’s premiere research and national defense sites.
A contributing factor to Oak Ridge’s cleanup success and nomination for this award is its shared governance model. This model promotes a work environment that operates with a high degree of stakeholder engagement among OREM, UCOR, employees, labor unions, subcontractors, regulators, and the community.