PHOENIX – EM is preparing old uranium enrichment facilities in Ohio and Kentucky for eventual demolition, Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) officials said here earlier this month.

   They provided an update on deactivation work underway at the Portsmouth and Paducah gaseous diffusion plants during a panel session at the annual Waste Management Conference.

   At the Portsmouth plant in Ohio, EM expects to have Building X-326, one of the site’s three former process buildings, in a “cold and dark” and “criticality incredible” state by September 2017, according to PPPO Portsmouth Site Lead Joel Bradburne. “We’re keeping our shoulder to it,” he said.

   EM and Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the site’s Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) contractor, are scheduled to finish removing old process equipment from X-326 by June 2016, Bradburne said. Deactivation activities are also underway at Buildings X-330 and X-333, the site’s other two former process buildings. “We picked the hardest one first,” he said.

   EM is applying lessons learned from the successful D&D work underway at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee site to work being done at the Portsmouth site, according to Bradburne. Those lessons include the need to maintain the structural integrity of roofs and critical systems; use of enhanced chemical treatment on process gas systems to reduce highly enriched uranium holdup material; development of quality criteria for the non-destructive assay process to ensure the quality of data used for criticality incredible determinations; and creation of a characterization database for process component and deactivation data. 

   At the Paducah plant, EM and Fluor Federal Services, the site’s deactivation contractor, have developed new portable treatment carts to aid in removing uranium deposits from old piping and equipment in the plant’s former process buildings, according to PPPO Paducah Site Lead Jennifer Woodard. Ten carts have been built and delivered, and will be initially used at the C-337 process building to determine their effectiveness, Woodard said. Prior to beginning operations, the contractor and EM will perform operational readiness reviews, she said.

   EM is also removing other types of materials from the former process buildings at the Paducah plant, according to Woodard. More than 350,000 gallons of lube oil have been drained from process equipment to help reduce potential fire hazards. Approximately 200,000 gallons of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) oil and rinse solvent have been drained from transformers located in the process buildings to help lower the fire load for the buildings and prepare the transformers for eventual disposition. Approximately 100,000 gallons of the lube oil were recycled as a rinsing agent for the transformers, resulting in significant cost savings.  

   In addition, 10 tons of fissile waste have been removed from the C-720 building, packaged, and disposed, Woodard said, adding that EM expects to complete the removal of fissile contaminated equipment in the C-409 building this year. By removing fissile material, EM is able to support future footprint reduction and reduce maintenance costs, she said. EM has also begun removing millions of pounds of refrigerant located in the Paducah plant’s process buildings, Woodard said, adding that EM is looking for ways to potentially reuse the material.

   In addition to several completed utility optimization projects, repair and maintenance of facilities — including the recent resurfacing of more than 74 acres of process building roofs — will reduce future hotel costs and allow more dollars to be committed to cleanup activities.