Decommissioning successes at Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site
Building 779, a cluster of 13 buildings located at Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS), was originally constructed in the early 1960s. The building was used to perform research and development associated with the nuclear weapons programs. The primary contaminants were plutonium and uranium, and these contaminants were dispersed throughout the facility. In 1998, Building 779 was selected to be the first plutonium facility at RFETS to be decommissioned. After extensive training, fieldwork was initiated with a single crew of 14 workers. Dismantling of the facility started with the removal and disposition of excess property. Today, thousands of pieces of property have been dispositioned and either recycled or disposed of as radioactive waste. The second facility at RFETS to begin D and D is Building 771. This facility was selected because of its extreme complexity and the desire to accelerate the RFETS closure to 2006. Building 771 is a 200,000-ft{sup 2}, 10-structure, multistory facility with more than 230 glove boxes and 8 miles of plutonium processing piping. Building 771 was used for processing plutonium and actinides between 1953 and 1989. The facility experienced many modifications, substantial variation in operations, and several upsets resulting in radiological contamination over its 40-yr operating history. The most significant event was a major fire in 1957. The 1994 Plutonium Working Group Report on Environmental Safety and Health Vulnerabilities Associated with the Department of Energy's Plutonium Storage determined that Building 771 was the most dangerous building in America. Since the report was issued, a significant quantity of special nuclear material (SNM) has been removed, hydrogen has been vented, and the draining of high- and low-level solutions from tanks has been completed. Although these activities have lowered the risk, numerous complex tasks still remain to take the building to its final end point of a slab. Three major areas of deactivation and decommissioning activities are currently ongoing in the 771 Closure Project: the removal of radioactive liquid from piping systems and the removal of the associated process piping, removal of SNM to allow closure of the facility's material access area (MAA), and deactivation and decommissioning of building components. Crews and managers from Building 779 have been assigned to Building 771. This will enhance the transfer of knowledge to current Building 771 employees and capitalize on lessons learned from dismantling Building 779.
- OSTI ID:
- 20005725
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Vol. 81; Conference: American Nuclear Society 1999 Winter Meeting, Long Beach, CA (US), 11/14/1999--11/18/1999; Other Information: PBD: 1999; ISSN 0003-018X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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