Deactivation and decommissioning of the most dangerous building in America

Journal Article · Thu Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1999 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:20005726

Wolf, H C

Building 771 at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) was determined to be the most dangerous building in America as a result of the 1994 Plutonium Working Group Report on Environmental Safety and Health Vulnerabilities Associated with the Department of Energy's Plutonium Storage. Building 771 is an {approximately}200,000-ft{sup 2} multistory facility that experienced many modifications, substantial variation in operations, several major radiological upsets, and numerous other upsets during its operation between 1953 and 1989. The most significant event was a major fire that occurred in 1957. The building currently contains more than 230 glove boxes, 200+ tanks, and more than 8 miles of process piping. The complexity of the systems and their interfaces combined with the problems remaining from previous upsets, including the existence of an infinity room, makes the closure of Building 771 one of the most complex and challenging projects to be faced in the cleanup of former weapons facilities. The project has significantly reduced the quantity of special nuclear material (SNM) since the issuance of the report: Residues have been removed, the vaults have been emptied, hydrogen has been vented from the tanks, the draining of high- and low-level actinide solutions from tanks has been completed, and glove boxes have been cleared to remove potentially desirable material. These activities have lowered the risk, but numerous complex tasks still remain to take the building to its final end point of a slab. The current mission is focused on three major areas of deactivation and decommissioning. The first area of emphasis is the removal of liquid from 38 actinide and nonactinide bearing piping systems by draining and processing the solutions. After the solutions are removed from the system, the associated process piping is cut from the overhead and size-reduced. The second major area of emphasis is the removal of SNM to allow closure of the facility's material access area (MAA). The third area of emphasis is the deactivation and decommissioning of building components.

• OSTI ID: 20005726
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 81; ISSN 0003-018X; ISSN TANSAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
ACTINIDES
DECOMMISSIONING
DECONTAMINATION
DEMOLITION
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
PIPES
RESIDUES
ROCKY FLATS PLANT