Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant cleanup

KY- A8 | SUNDA Y, FEBRUARY 1 3, 201 1 | THE COURIER-JOURNAL FROM PAGE ONE & NATION | courier-journal.com whil e workers hav e take n stop -gapsteps to redu ce pollut ion threats, onl y a ful l cleanup will protect people and the env ironm ent ove r the long term. The EPA has iden tified near ly 50 seriou s cont ami- nants on or near the plant, incl udin g poll utan ts thatcan caus e liv er , lung,thyroi d and kidn ey damage, as well as cancer. Th e shor t- te rm me a- su res, su ch as ta ki ng a limit ed numbe r of peopl e off theirwate r well s andposting warning signs near a pollut- ed str eam, wer e nev er in- te nde d tobe a per man entso- lution, said Ed Winner, who oversees the cleanup for the Kentucky Division of Waste Management. Probl ems defe rred are pro blems expande d — ex- panded in terms of impact on the environment, risk to the public and costs to the taxpay er, ” Winner said. As I project out in time, my certainty that the public will be protected drops significantly.” Change in purpose Ura nium was enriched for nuclear weapons at the plan t from the earl y 1950s unti l the mid- 196 0s, when the gov ernment deci ded it had acc umu lat ed eno ugh mat eri al fo r the we apons pro gram, said Rein hard M. Kner r, the Energy Depa rt- ment ’s site lead er at Pad u- cah . In the late 197 0s and earl y1980s,the plantwas up- graded to produce a higher grade material for commer- cial reactors, he said. Today, while the government owns the property, it leases operations in a large part of the plant to United St at es Enr ich ment Co rp . The cleanup is in inact ive parts of the plant. While the company can continue to make fuel for as long as it wants, it isn’t clear how long it will. Its contract formassive amoun ts of elec- tric ity from the T ennes see Valley Authority expires in May 2012. The company an- noun ced in Janu ary that it was taking steps to extend operations beyond that, but comp any spok esman Paul Ja co bso n also has sai d its ability to keep running de- pend s on securing a benefi- cial deal. Some 1,1 00 company jobs are at stake. The cleanup at the Padu- cah pla nt beg an in1988 aft er radioactivity and other contamination was found in the drinking water wells of resi- dences near the facility. For years, residents, the En erg y Dep art ment and state regulators fought over the ex ten t of the con tamina - tion and what to do about it, reaching an accord in 1998. Ken tuck y and the Ener gy Depa rtmen t foll owe d with an expe dite d” agre ementin 200 3 tha t establ ish ed the 201 9 cleanup deadline. Bu t wi th the nati onal debtbecomi ng an incr easing focu s in Washing ton, Ken- tucky regulators have been told that promised budg et incr easesfor the clean up are unlikely for the foreseeable future. commissioning Fund, creat- ed by Cong ress in 199 2 to help pay for cleanups at Pa- ducah and two other sites, expired in 2007. That means tection. Also slowed would be theclean up of two, thr ee- mile-long groundwater pollut ionplume s tha t hav e lik e- ly reached the Ohio River , perd ome. Dispo sal opti ons ran ge from putt ing it in a possible mountainous land- fill on plant property, to the more expensi ve choic e of shipping it out of state for disposal. Residents’ concerns The reactions from near- by residents ra ng e from alarm to resignation. We are very concerned we are going to lose all the momentum and all the pro- gre ss we ha vemade ov er the las t cou ple of ye ars ,” sai d Ralph Young, a retired engi- ne er and me mber of the plant’s community advisory tha t the go ver nme nt re- plac ed his well s with trea ted dri nki ng wa te r and ha ve post ed warn ing signs near the creek that flows through his farm. A former community advisory board member, Lamb saidmore dela ys aren ’t a sur- prise. It can be exp ect ed whe n yo u wa it ed toolong to admi t your proble ms, and the n letthe tr eas urydry up ,” he said. Others question whether the federal government has spent money wisely on the project. Energy Department offic ials saidthey hav e spent about $2.1 billi on sinc e 1988 and are abo ut 45 per cen t through their 2019 commitments. Th ey ha ve sp en t so muc h mon ey ,” sai d Mar k Donha m, a south easte rn Illi- nois resident who liv es 16 mi le s fr om th e pl ant and is a former advisory committee chairman. (But) the biggest problems are yet to be ad- dressed. I don’t know what the answer is, but I am not sure that throwing a bunch more money is the answer.” Donha m said he’s espe- ciall y worr ied about con- tamina ted or ra dio act iv e dust blowing into neighbor- in g co mmun it ie s wh en buildings are demolished. Th e En er gy De pa rt- ment’ s most recent annual report for the site describes only minimal poll ution risks to the pub lic . Ther e has been a lot of progress in the last several years,” Murphie said. Eve n so, stat e offic ials say the y can und ers tan d the frustration with the pace of progress. The project is so massi ve, and moun tains of preliminary work needed to be done, they said. In fact, the pro jec t’ s doc ume nts house d in Fra nkfo rt wou ld fill a small moving van. It took years to charac- teri ze thecontamin ationand develop remediation plans,” saidTon y Hatt on, directorof the Ke ntu cky Di vis ion of Wast e Management. Now we ’r e star ti ng to do the work.” So far , tha t’ s inc lud ed demolition of an incinerator and smel te r , re mo val of Bulk of work awaits Still, officials ackno wl- edge that most of the work liesahead andthat there may be more cont amina tion they don’t know about. Amo ngthe wor k ye t tobe done: Decontaminat ion and demol ition of hund reds of struc tures, inclu ding four massi ve buil ding s that cov er more than 100 acre s and are still used by United States Enri chmen t Corp . Winn er ha s de sc ri be d some as among the largest buildings in the wo rld , andthe Ene rgy Dep art ment sai d in 200 7 thattheir remo valand clean - upwouldextendto 2040.Of- ficial s say the cost coul d be about $8.9 billion. Stabilizat ion, disposal or recycling of some 39,000, 14-ton containers of depleted ur ani um hex afl uor ide tha t bla nk et 70 0 acres on the sit e — a sto ckp ile start ed wh en theplantbeganoper a- tion in 1952. That effort recent ly passe d a miles tone wit h co nst ructio n of a fac to- ry that will extract an acid for sale and prepare the ura- niumfor dispo sal as low-lev - el radi oact ive wast e. That wor k ha s a pr ic e ta g of $1.4 billion and may involve thre e crew shifts, wor king24 hour s a da y fo r 25 ye ar s, Knerr said. There’s 50 years of material out there,” he said. Murphie, the Energy De- partment project manager , asked for patience, and sug- gested that federal funding may still come through. The Earth isn’t coming toan end here ,”he sa id . We can’t predict what next year will bring. Congress may fix this problem. ” Rep. Ed Whitf ield, R-1 st Di st ri ct , sa id he wa sn’t aware that fede ral offici als were counting on spending inc re ases thi s dec ade to meet their commitments in Paducah. There is no easy answer to this,” he said, noting that ev erystepof theclea nuphas ta ken muc h lon ger tha n an yo ne ori gin all y sai d it would take. … There has al- wa ysbeenwhatI cou ldcalla shortage of funds.” Rob ert Steu rer, spok esman for Sen. Mitch McCon- nell, the Senate Republican le ad er , sa id hi s boss ha s helped secure about $1 .2 bi llion for the clean up sin ce 200 0 andbelie ve s the fede ral gov ernmen t has a re- sponsibility to the people of McCracken County.” Senat or McConnell re- mains committed to ensur- ing DOE keeps its focus on cle ani ng up the fac ili ty ,” Steurer said. One option that McCon- nell and Whitfield are look- ing into is whether some of the depleted uranium could be re pr oc es sed, ra is ing money for the government to help pay for clean up. A 2008 Government Account- abili ty Offic e repo rt estimated thevalu e of dep let ed ur a- niu m at Pad uca h anda sis ter faci lity in Port smout h, Ohio , at $7 .6 bil lio n, but it sai d Co ngr essmay nee d topass a law allowing its sale. Sen . Ran d Pau l,who cam- paigned for a balanced fed- er al bu dg et in on e ye ar PADUCAH | Short-term pollution measures weren’t intended to be permanent Continued from A1 Photos by Michael Clevenger, The Courier-Journal As I project out in time, my certainty that the public will be protected drops significantly,” said Ed Winner, who coordinates the cleanup of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant for the Kentucky Division of Waste Management. It took years to characterize the contamination and develop remediation plans,” said Tony Hatton, director of the Kentucky Division of Waste Management, who is shown with files on the nuclear fuel factory. Now we’re starting to do the work.” Cleanup status at the plant The Courier-Journal Source: Kentucky Division of Waste Management Completed 15 square miles and 11,000 sampled locations Interim capping on three burial areas 22 inactive facilities (200,000 square feet) 36,000 cubic yards removed 2,700 cubic yards removed Treated 2.5 billion gallons water treated with 15 tons TCE removed 33,500 tons removed 600,000 cubic feet removed Remaining Continues into future Estimated 600,000 cubic yards of buried materials under 72 acres 2.6 to 4.0 million cubic yards of building materials Remove contaminated sediments from five to six miles of creeks Remove 100,000 to 200,000 cubic yards of contaminated soils 5.9 billion gallons contaminated ground water Complete Ongoing as wastes are identified Issue Environmental monitoring Buried waste Decontamination and demolition of buildings, industrial facilities Contaminated creeks, ditches and other surface water. Contaminated soil Contaminated groundwater Contaminated scrap metal Other waste 2,7 00 cub ic yar ds remov ed Rem ove 100 ,00 0 to 200 ,0 00 cubic yards of contaminated soils Contaminated soil PADUCAH PLANT Only functioning uranium- enrichment facility in the U.S. with active operations. Owned by U.S. Department of Energy; leased to United States Enrichment Corp. Located on 3,400 acres about 10 miles west of Paducah Began operations in 1952 Has produced enriched uranium for military and com- mercial purposes. The enriching process increases the proportion of uranium atoms that can be split” by fission to release energy — usually in the form of heat — that can be used to produce electricity. Process can use as much as 3,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 2 million homes. Time: 02-1 2-2011 21: 44 User: mstollhaus PubDate: 02-13-2011 Zone: KY Edition: 1 Page Name: A 8 Color: Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant cleanup

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