North Wind Construction recently won a four-year U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contract to build a mercury treatment facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The work will be performed under a joint venture between North Wind and APTIM, an engineering, construction and maintenance firm.
Y-12 was built in the 1940s for the purpose of enriching uranium for the first atomic bombs and continues to contribute to U.S. nuclear stockpile stewardship under DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. The new treatment facility will treat mercury-laden water that flows from Y-12’s storm sewer to East Fork Poplar Creek. The facility is important to future remediation at Y-12 as buildings contaminated with mercury are demolished over time.
Along with building the treatment plant, headworks and transfer pipeline, the vendor will test the systems and turn the facility over to an operating contractor. Once fully operational, the facility will be able to treat up to 3,000 gallons of water per minute.
