OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WATE) — The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge demolished an 'aging, contaminated' building at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The organizations started demolishing Building 3003 in June and recently finished removing debris, clearing 10,000 square feet of space. This space will make it easier to destroy the nearby facilities like the adjacent Buildings 3002 and 3018 in the coming years, UCOR said.

Building 3003 was built in 1943 to provide ventilation for the graphite reactor, an important part of the Manhattan Project. UCOR remarked that demolishing it was especially difficult because of how heavily congested the area was.

“While finishing up deactivation and making our way to demolition start, challenges would arise,

See Full Page