K-25

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K-25 is a former Uranium Enrichment facility located on the southwestern end of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory reservation, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The code name "K-25" was a combination of the "K" from the Kellex Corporation, the initial contractors of the plant, and a World War II-era code designation for uranium-235.^[1][2]

Begun in June 1943 and completed in early 1945 at a cost of $512 million (equivalent to $6.2 billion in 2009 dollars^[3]), the K-25 plant employed 12,000 workers. The U-shaped K-25 building measured half a mile by 1,000 feet (over 2,000,000 sq. ft. (609,600 m²). Construction began before completion of the design for the process. Due to construction needs at K-25 and elsewhere on the reservation, the town of Oak Ridge, originally designed for 13,000 people, grew to 50,000 by summer 1944. The people needed for the construction of K-25 lived near by, in a community that came to be known as Happy Valley. Built by the Army in 1943, Happy Valley was a temporary community that housed 15,000 people in trailer homes. ^[4]

The K-25 plant used the gaseous diffusion method to enrich uranium by separating uranium-235 from uranium-238. Based on the principle that molecules of a lighter isotope would pass through a porous barrier more readily than molecules of a heavier one, gaseous diffusion produced through myriads of repetitions a gas increasingly rich in uranium-235 as the heavier uranium-238 was separated out in a system of cascades. Although producing minute amounts of final product measured in grams, gaseous diffusion required a massive facility to house the thousands of cascades and consumed enormous amounts of electric power.

Gaseous diffusion was one of three isotope separation processes that provided uranium-235 for the Hiroshima weapon (Little Boy) - the other two being electromagnetic separation and liquid thermal diffusion. All of the plants were located on the Oak Ridge reservation. The Y-12 electromagnetic separation plant was located about eight miles (13 km) northeast of the K-25 plant. The S-50 liquid thermal diffusion plant, using convection to separate the isotopes in thousands of tall columns, was built next to the K-25 power plant, which provided the necessary steam. Much less efficient than K-25, the S-50 plant was torn down after the war. Gaseous diffusion was the only uranium enrichment process used during the Cold War. K-25 was the prototype for later Oak Ridge plants and those at Paducah, Kentucky and Portsmouth, Ohio. Uranium enrichment operations at K-25 ceased in 1987.^[5]

The United States Department of Energy contracted with Bechtel Jacobs to dismantle and demolish the K-25 facility. The work under the current contract is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011, though additional cleanup work is expected to continue beyond that time.^[6][7]

[edit] See also

• Sandia National Laboratory
• Y-12 National Security Complex

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• The Manhattan Project: Making the Atomic Bomb
• Site X A map of Manhattan Project Era Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
• Atomic Heritage Foundation Preservation Efforts at K-25
• Google Maps K-25 on Google Maps
• Historic photos of K25 by Ed Westcott

Coordinates: 35°55′56″N 84°23′42″W / 35.93222°N 84.395°W / 35.93222; -84.395