Federal officials say over 16,000 acres at Oak Ridge Reservation are suitable for reuse

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Federal officials said roughly half of the Oak Ridge Reservation shows no signs of environmental impacts from past operations.

After a review, the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, working alongside the EPA and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, determined that 16,377 of the site's 33,069 acres don't require a cleanup.

The reservation landed on the EPA's Superfund National Priorities List in 1989, subjecting it to environmental investigation and cleanup. However, officials said large portions of the land were never actually used for DOE operations.

“Ensuring communities around our cleanup sites are safe, clean, and prosperous is at the core of our mission,” OREM Manager Erik Olds said. “This clarification