The K-25 Story

[@derekwall200]

they shouldn't have torn it down or even left it neglected like that. that building was a piece of US nuclear history. it's where we got the uranium for the little boy bomb

[@acmefixer1]

Said, "... shouldn't have torn it down..." It was sitting for almost four decades and was structurally unsound, and as it said, one person fell through the concrete. It had to be demolished or the leaking rainwater would have spread radioactive waste all over. It would have been a huge liability.

[@jimphelps5163]

These Oak Ridge PR games leave out a lot. The Gas Diffusion process was led by Harold Urey, who found deuterium in the 30's. Deuterium's health effects would become the most extreme of the health effects cover ups linked to the Manhattan Project. Deuterium's health effects on humanity is nothing short of a colossal holocaust. What is more the gas diffusion process was extremely dangerous due to all the UF-6 gas that if a plane targeted the site the poison gas would kill a huge area with fluorine. It was so energy intensive that it needed lots of coal plants to run the process and that covered the are with toxic metals and acid gases that affected the health of many. The plant was loaded with asbestos, PCBs, as well as transuranics due to recycled uranium from Hanford and so on making the contamination with Tc-99 and plutonium an issue. The plant was not designed for safe take down and the loss of fluorine from the plants severely injured the work force and many in the region/ area. Since the plant was born out of the Urey and the Deuterium cover ups on heath, so were other health effects from the extremely dangerous gas diffusion process also covered up and fluorine health dangers suppressed in like manner with deuterium cover up on cancers, diabetes, heart disease, dementia, mitochondria health and lots more. The K-25 process was the flag ship of massive health cover ups of dangerous materials of the Manhattan Project. The real history of K-25 is one of extreme harm done to workers and management debauchery to hide that damage.

[@nukiepoo]

Meh

[@accousticdecay]

I worked at K-25 and spent a lot of time in that building and many others. This video gives the facts in a nutshell, and is well-presented. Comments criticizing any aspect of K-25, which set forth negative allegations but offer no references and no proof, are to be summarily disregarded. In cases where references are presented, then the references must be reviewed and critically compared with any opposing, scientifically respectable publications. Make them do their homework.

[@mrlaw711]

Joe, they have spent millions cleaning up the soils and contaminants around K-25. They have budget allocated for the ongoing clean up which will not be done for several more years. The government and the various sub-departments of the DOE would not be spending the money. There are a multitude of ongoing clean up processes going on today, and will continue. For example, nearly one million pounds of Mercury and other dangerous substances flowed in the Poplar Creek which feeds in the winding Clinch River system.

[@valrabellkeys9867]

If the building is gone, why is the sirens for K-25(installed likely in the 80s) still tested and used? A lot of them don't even work anymore.

[@Youre_Right]

Valra Bellkeys They are for weather alerts now.

[@Youre_Right]

Y-12 still refurbishes war heads for the department of defense. ORNL is still running. While the amount of nuclear material is nothing compared to its heyday. There is still some really nasty stuff out there.

[@FlyboyEmert58]

Y-12 makes nuclear reactor fuel and medical isotopes too!

[@ShinVega]

Why was it demolished? What if we need more enriched uranium!?!?

[@MaxPower-11]

Gaseous diffusion is obsolete technology which requires enormous amounts of energy. Uranium enrichment today is performed using gas centrifuges instead, a less expensive process which requires much less energy. Also, there is a relatively large surplus of enriched uranium available commercially around the world today.

[@Youre_Right]

It was built in the 40s. Do you really think they are still enriching uranium the way they were back then? It was ridiculously inefficient and they even figured that out pretty early in the process.

[@mikekean8344]

Despite it's fame, from 1945, K-25 was nothing but a hazardous, contaminated, radioactive, albatross. Yes, the Manhattan Project was needed at the time, yes we won the war, etc. etc. etc. However, after 70 odd years the place is still leaking all of that concealed leftover carcinogenic contaminants from back the 1940's. The powers that be, were too busy waving the flag and keeping their little secrets to mention that the entire, glorious "secret city" was in reality a toxic wasteland, still killing it's original inhabitants and their posterity with via radiation and poison initiated cancers and other such medical issues. All that, one time, farmland is now a festering, cesspool full of God only knows what.

[@DecommMan]

Nice.

[@456swagger]

The hazardous waste was "pencil whipped" and vanished like those people in Star Trek who would glitter and vanish in the transporter.

[@macyshiller6411]

Who’s here from Mr Morenos chemistry class

[@gymstar7124]

Apparently only you good job kid knowledge is power keep it up

[@andrewzeman7099]

K-25 was the map designation of the site. It had nothing to do with Kellex or war codes. The same was true for the Y-12 and X-10 sites. I worked there.

[@456swagger]

Yeah right and Grizzly Adams had a beard.

[@michaeldomansky8497]

Exactly. Just like Area51!

[@cat637d]

Sad that such an asset was not kept in a maintained condition. Billions of dollars of investment destroyed. With NO possibility of replacement if needed in the future. such idiocy!

[@Youre_Right]

cat637d K-25 was built in the 40s. I grew up in Oak Ridge and K-25 was run down and hardly being used. Y-12 and X-10(ORNL) are still going strong.

[@Knards]

@@Youre_Right K-25 is now totally gone. Torn down. The processes there were old and no longer needed. You are right about Y-12 and X-10. I live in Clinton

[@MrShobar]

WHY would it be needed "in the future"?

[@acmefixer1]

@@MrShobar "Needed in the future" for enriching uranium for use in nuclear reactors. But gaseous diffusion was obsolete, replaced by centrifuges. Now (2021) there is no future for nuclear power; the old reactors will be decommissioned and replaced with wind and solar.

[@mikekean8344]

Asset? It's a poisonous, radioactive cesspool, for crying out loud!! Everyone of those old sites is a filthy festering wasteland in it's own right. This is all thanks to 1940's era military expediency and the subsequent efforts of that same military to hide the mess they'd left behind for their grandchildren to enjoy.

[@mrlaw711]

A more practical assessment of K-25 and related sites - were you a person with superior knowledge, vision, and wisdom....coming to Earth and visiting the Oak Ridge facilities in eastern Tennessee - your conclusion would be that the place should not have been built in the first place. If the U.S. government and the former workers (many of who were poisoned there) were so proud of the place then why was it all demolished?

[@colenewaltersmusicandother9330]

I have been researching this. I cannot believe how evil it is.