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The History of K-25:
The Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge has been recognized as the most significant industrial experiment in history. One of the major structures built was the 44-acre K-25 Building at the K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant located on the western portion of the Oak Ridge, TN site. This K-25 Building has been recognized as a Department of Energy Manhattan Project Signature Facility - a distinction that places it among the eight most important remaining physical evidences of the Manhattan Project era.
K-25 was a huge gamble for General Groves and the Manhattan Project. The building was well along in the construction phase before the most important element in the gaseous diffusion process, the barrier, was perfected. The largest steam powered electrical generating plant in the world was built at the site. It was completed well ahead of the K-25 Building so, General Groves chose to build the S-50 Thermal Diffusion Plant to take advantage of the available large quantity of steam and to gain a small amount of enriched uranium feed material for the Y-12 Alpha calutrons.
The K-25 gaseous diffusion process came on line in early summer 1945 and by the time the war ended, had proven to be a far more economical process for separating uranium 235 from uranium 238 than was the Y-12 calutron process. It operated at 1/20th the cost of the huge and complex Y-12 batch process that required 22,000 people and 1152 calutrons.
The K-25 gaseous diffusion process continued to operate for 20 years as the nation's primary source of weapons grade enriched uranium and served as a major factor in the winning of the Cold War. The K-25 Building was shut down in 1964 after functioning flawlessly for 20 years.
The rest of the K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant operated until the mid 1980's when the remainder of the gaseous diffusion processes were also shut down. Extensive study and preparation resulted in decontaminating some buildings for reindustrialization and demolishing others. Some 200 plus wooden and block buildings have been demolished.
The K-25 Building's North Tower is slated for preservation as a major Heritage Tourism destination site for the Oak Ridge, TN Heritage Tourism Implementation Plan. Included in the destination site is the pre-Manhattan Project community of Wheat, the construction community of Happy Valley and the S-50 Thermal Diffusion Plant site along with the Steam Powered Electrical Generating Plant site.
