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US-based Oklo and the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI) have signed an agreement for land to host two more of Oklo’s Aurora design fast neutron microreactors. Oklo received a site permit in December 2019 from the US Department of Energy to build its first Aurora facility at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

Date: Thursday, 25 May 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newstwo-more-sites-agreed-for-oklo-mmr-10878676

France’s Framatome and US-based Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) are forming a joint venture to manufacture Tri-structural Isotropic (TRISO) particles and USNC’s Fully Ceramic Micro-encapsulated (FCM) fuel. Framatome and USNC have signed a non-binding Heads of Terms Agreement to integrate their complementary resources to bring commercially viable fuel to market for advanced reactor designs.

Date: Wednesday, 01 February 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsfrench-us-joint-venture-targets-commercial-production-of-triso-fuel-10558505

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has accepted an application from X-Energy Reactor Company subsidiary, TRISO-X, for a fuel fabrication facility which will use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). Anticipating the decision, TRISO-X, in October, broke ground and began construction of the facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The TRISO-X Fuel Fabrication Facility (TF3) is expected to create more than 400 jobs and attract investment of approximately $300 million. TF3 is set to be commissioned and operational by 2025.

Date: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-nrc-accepts-triso-xs-application-for-fuel-fabrication-facility-10451681

The former Centrifuge Complex site at Oak Ridge in Tennessee is now ready for industrial development. The complex was one of the final collections of buildings to be demolished last year as workers completed the first-ever cleanup of a former uranium enrichment complex. The footprint of the former facility is earmarked for the construction of a proposed regional airport at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP).

Date: Friday, 10 September 2021
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Former-US-enrichment-site-ready-for-redevelopment

The 1.6 km-long building known as K25 took five years to demolish. Courtesy US DOE. A decades-long effort to clean and transform the former Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant in the US state of Tennessee is complete, resulting in the first-ever removal and remediation of a uranium enrichment complex.

Since cleanup operations began, hundreds of buildings measuring more have been demolished and more than 1.2 million cubic metres of waste –enough to fill up more than 500 Olympic-size swimming pools – have been disposed, including nearly 30,000 truckloads of soil.

This progress has paved the way for the US Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management to transfer more than 500 hectares of land  at the facility, also known as the East Tennessee Technology Park, back to the community for economic development with another 40 hectares set aside for historic preservation.

In the 1940s, the Oak Ridge site produced enriched uranium to power the atomic weaponry that ended World War II.

Date: Friday, 16 October 2020
Original article: nucnet.org/news/decades-long-cleanup-complete-at-gaseous-diffusion-plant-10-4-2020

A decades-long effort to clean and transform the former Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant has been completed, marking the first-ever removal of a uranium enrichment complex, the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) has announced. The site in Tennessee has been transformed into a multi-use industrial park.

Date: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Clean-up-of-US-enrichment-complex-is-completed

GE-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) and the US Department of Energy (DOE) have signed an amendment to their agreement for the sale of depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF6) inventories underpinning plans for a commercial laser enrichment facility at Paducah in Kentucky. Separately, the DOE has formalised how it plans to dispose of any waste depleted uranium oxides from its former gaseous diffusion enrichment plants.

Date: Tuesday, 09 June 2020
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/DOE-amends-agreement-for-UF6-sale,-outlines-dispos

Work began on 23 May to demolish the last two buildings at the US gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment facility at Oak Ridge in Tennessee. Buildings K-131 and K-631, constructed in 1945, are the most contaminated structures still standing on the 890 hectare site, which hosted facilities constructed to support the Manhattan Project. Oak Ridge, which also produced enriched uranium for the commercial nuclear industry from 1945 to 1985, has been undergoing deactivation and decommissioning since the US Department of Energy (DOE) ended uranium enrichment in 1987. The site was then closed and re-named the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). K-131 was built to provide uranium hexafluoride to the uranium enrichment cascade, while K-631 was used to withdraw gaseous depleted uranium from the cascade, convert it to liquid and transfer it into transport cylinders. Demolition has already begun on the five-story K-131, and the two-story K-631 will follow. The buildings, which are connected to one another and have a combined floor space of more than 83,000 square feet, are the most contaminated structures remaining at the site, the DOE Office of Environmental Management (OEM) said. Demolition of the two buildings by Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and clean-up contractor UCOR is scheduled for completion this summer. All demolitions at ETTP are expected to be completed in 2020, when the site will be converted into a multi-use industrial park.  

Date: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsdemolition-of-us-gaseous-diffusion-facilities-begins-7230408

US Centrus Energy Corp (formerly known as USEC) announced on 2 October that it had been awarded a $15 million work authorisation by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) to prepare the K-1600 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for demolition. Centrus has leased K-1600 - the former K-25 site -  from the DOE since 2002 to test and demonstrate its uranium enrichment technology. The company has also been conducting centrifuge manufacturing, engineering and design at its own nearby Technology and Manufacturing Centre (TMC) in south Oak Ridge, at the former Boeing plant.

Date: Friday, 05 October 2018
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-doe-awards-centrus-15m-for-decommissioning-work-6786749