THE FINAL DEMISE OF EAST TENNESSEE TECHNOLOGY PARK BUILDING K-33 Health Physics Society Annual Meeting West Palm Beach, Florida June 27, 2011
Building K-33 was constructed in 1954 as the final section of the five-stage uranium enrichment cascade at the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP). The two original building (K-25 and K-27) were used to produce weapons grade highly enriched uranium (HEU). Building K-29, K-31, and K-33 were added to produce low enriched uranium (LEU) for nuclear power plant fuel. During ORGDP operations K-33 produced a peak enrichment of 2.5%. Thousands of tons of reactor tails fed into gaseous diffusion plants in the 1950s and early 1960s introducing some fission products and transuranics. Building K-33 was a two-story, 25-meters (82-feet) tall structure with approximately 30 hectare (64 acres) of floor space. The Operations (first) Floor contained offices, change houses, feed vaporization rooms, and auxiliary equipment to support enrichment operations. The Cell (second) Floor contained the enrichment process equipment and was divided into eight process units (designated K-902-1 through K-902-8). Each unit contained ten cells, and each cell contained eight process stages (diffusers) for a total of 640 enrichment stages. 1985: LEU buildings were taken off-line after the anticipated demand for uranium enrichment failed to materialize. 1987: LEU buildings were placed in permanent shutdown. Process equipment were maintained in a shutdown state. 1997: DOE signed an Action Memorandum for equipment removal and decontamination of Buildings K-29, K-31, K-33; BNFL awarded contract to reindustrialize the buildings under the Three Buildings D&D and Recycle Project. 2002: Equipment removal complete and effort shifts to vacuuming, chemical cleaning, scabbling, etc. 2005: Decontamination efforts in K-33 cease. Building left with significant {sup 99}Tc contamination on metal structures and PCB contamination in concrete. Uranium, transuranics, and fission products also present on building shell. 2009: DOE targets Building K-33 for demolition. 2010: ORAU contracted to characterize Building K-33 for final disposition at the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility (EMWMF) in Oak Ridge. ORAU collected 439 samples from May and June. LATA Sharp started removing transite panels in September. 2011: LATA Sharp began demolition in January and expects the last waste shipment to EMWMF in September. Approximately 237,000 m{sup 3} (310,000 yd{sup 3}, bulked) of waste taken to EMWMF in 23,000 truckloads expected by project completion.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge Inst. for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-06OR23100
- OSTI ID:
- 1034278
- Report Number(s):
- 12-IEAV-0118; TRN: US1200799
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
BNFL
CLEANING
CONTAMINATION
DECONTAMINATION
DEMOLITION
DIFFUSERS
EVAPORATION
FISSION PRODUCTS
GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANTS
ISOTOPE SEPARATION
MANAGEMENT
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
ORGDP
RADIATION PROTECTION
REMOVAL
SHUTDOWN
TARGETS
URANIUM
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES