Bechtel's Blackout in Tennessee

A major expansion is under way at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge nuclear landfill in Tennessee. In December, Bechtel Jacobs and its subcontractor, ESI, completed installation of a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane on a new cell that adds 465,000 cubic yards of disposal space for low-level radioactive waste and other hazardous materials. The total burial volume is now 1.7 million cubic yards. The project team has referred to the approach as a “blackout,” because the membrane is black.