June 2, 2015

The Status of Cleanup at the Department of Energy's Paducah Site

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant began operating in 1952, supplying enriched uranium for commercial reactors and military defense reactors activities that resulted in radioactive and hazardous chemical material contamination of the Site.  In 1988, radioactive and volatile organic contamination was found in the drinking water wells of residences near the Paducah Site.  As a result, the Department of Energy (Department) began an environmental remediation program to identify and remove these hazards from the groundwater, as well as to provide an alternate water supply to affected residences.

While we determined that the Department had achieved some of its cleanup goals at the Paducah Site, we noted that progress had been delayed on cleaning up some of the facility's key environmental hazards.  Notably, work on two of the Site's most significant hazards remains to be completed: a remedy for the final phase of the C-400 groundwater cleanup project and remediation plans for the Burial Grounds Operable Unit.

The impact that technical challenges have had on the successful completion of some of the cleanup projects at the Paducah Site was clear.  Furthermore, in recent years, budgetary constraints have adversely affected the Department's ability to achieve some of its cleanup goals.  However, the lack of progress on these two projects was also due, in part, to the inability of the Department to reach a timely agreement with the regulators on cleanup decisions at the Paducah Site.

Topic: Environmental Cleanup