UCOR

Meet Connor Whitson, an accountant in UCOR’s finance department. Conner has been working with UCOR for 3 years. Before UCOR, he worked at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site. Conner is very active in his personal time, running in local triathlons. He was a swimmer in high school and college. Conner also loves spending time with his dog. To learn more about Connor, watch the video: https://youtu.be/UazVjgZEndI

Great news for Oak Ridge! Our UCOR team at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center reached a major cleanup milestone four months ahead of schedule. 🎉

We are safely processing legacy oxide waste stored on the reservation for over 50 years. Because this waste consists of fine radioactive powder, our trained teams use gloveboxes and remote-controlled hot cells to pack it safely.

Beating our goal early means we are removing this legacy material and protecting our local environment much faster. Once we finish, we will ship the processed waste to a permanent disposal facility offsite.

Thank you to our dedicated workforce for keeping safety and progress moving forward! 👏

Read the full story here: https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/oak-ridge-exceeds-first-year-goal-legacy-oxide-waste-processing

Are you following UCOR’s YouTube channel? If not, hop over there to see the latest update (https://youtu.be/2WI2gqCbfpU) on our work to prep the former Isotope Development Lab (Building 3026) at ORNL for demolition. See how we’re using robotics to increase efficiency.

Meet Jay Hocutt, UCOR’s construction and heavy equipment program manager. Jay also oversees our mobile and portable equipment program. Plus he is an active member of our safety committee and heads up our annual Parking Lot Safety Rodeo. Jay has been with UCOR since 2018. A veteran of the U.S. Army, Jay enjoys playing guitar and singing in his non-work hours. To learn more about Jay, watch the video: https://youtu.be/dOleXPDQ7Mg

Help us congratulate Jay Mullis! 🌟 This week, the American Nuclear Society presented Jay, our Senior Vice President of Nuclear and Waste Management Operations, with the Milton Levenson Distinguished Service Award.

This award honors Jay's leadership in cleaning up the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) in Oak Ridge. With UCOR and the Department of Energy, Jay led the first-ever cleanup of a uranium enrichment site safely, ahead of schedule, and under budget.

This project returned over 2,500 acres of clean land to the local community. Now, dozens of advanced nuclear companies use this space to build reactors, create new fuel, and boost clean energy.

Thank you, Jay, and congratulations on this well-deserved honor! 🎉

Our UCOR team at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center is making improvements to support important cleanup work. They’re updating an unused part of the facility to create extra space for current and future waste processing activities. The project began in late February and is expected to wrap up by mid September. Want to see how it’s going? Check out the video: https://youtu.be/Kzsuo881oFg

Congratulations Harold. Well deserved. You have an enormous legacy with everyone involved with cleanup on the Oak Ridge Reservation.

We want to give a huge shout-out to our dedicated UCOR Landfill Operations team! 👏

While many of us enjoyed the holiday weekend, our crews worked round-the-clock to manage heavy rainfall. Thanks to their careful planning before the storms, our team kept operations running smoothly at both local landfills with minimal impact.

Our teams prepared by emptying leachate tanks, fueling equipment, and securing waste areas. When the storm dropped over 3.5 inches of rain, our prepared systems and quick-responding crews handled millions of gallons of water safely and efficiently.

We are proud of our team's commitment to keeping our operations safe and reliable in any weather!
Join us in thanking them in the comments below! 👇

Big news from Oak Ridge! 🎉 Our amazing UCOR crews just wrapped up a huge cleanup job for the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) at the Y-12 National Security Complex. We successfully removed 81 million pounds of old building materials from the demolished Alpha-2 facility – getting rid of 3,500 truckloads of rubble!

What does this mean for Oak Ridge? We've cleared a 2.5-acres of space and are now getting it prepared for important national security infrastructure, helping to modernize the Y-12 site. Demolition wasn’t supposed to wrap up till 2027, and now we are no longer demolishing the building or shipping its waste, we are restoring its former footprint.

This hard work and dedication even earned the Alpha-2 cleanup the Project of the Year Award from The Association of Union Constructors!

We're not stopping there! Next, we'll be safely handling 800,000 pounds of lead removed from the building, and then we'll start tearing down another historical building, Beta-1, this summer.

Read all about this incredible achievement and what's next for Oak Ridge: https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/oak-ridge-removes-81-million-pounds-debris-clearing-alpha-2-footprint