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Argonne National Laboratory
The Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) site is approximately 27 miles southwest of downtown Chicago in DuPage County, Illinois. The 1,500 acre ANL site is completely surrounded by the 2,240 acre Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve.
ANL is a large, multiprogram science laboratory that has been involved in research and development activities on behalf of DOE and its predecessors since 1943. ANL’s role is achieving DOE’s science mission and is expected to continue into the foreseeable future.
Additional information regarding ongoing research and future mission projections for ANL may be found respectively on the ANL website (http://www.anl.gov) and within the ANL Ten Year Site Plan, FY 2008-2017.
In the past, contamination of soil and groundwater occurred as a result of accidental spills, past materials management practices, and former waste disposal practices. Contaminants of concern for soil and groundwater included volatile organic compounds, semi-volatile organic compounds, metals, polychlorinated biphenyl compounds, and a variety of radioisotopes. Historic areas of research at ANL included reactor research, which led to the construction and operation of a number of experimental nuclear reactors and associated research facilities that were contaminated with low levels of radioactive materials as a result of normal past operations.
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to access the Argonne National Laboratory Project Baseline Summaries.
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a USDOE Office of Science (SC) owned multi-disciplinary scientific research center located in the center of Suffolk County on Long Island, about 60 miles east of New York City. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) established BNL on the site of the U.S. Army’s former Camp Upton in 1947. The AEC’s objective was to build a regional laboratory that could provide researchers with powerful tools too costly for their home institutions to build and maintain.
BNL was added to New York State’s list of Inactive Hazardous Waste sites in 1980 and to the federal National Priorities List in 1989 as a result of soil, groundwater, and surface water sediment contamination from past operations. A tri-party Federal Facilities Compliance Agreement, also known as the IAG, was subsequently negotiated between the DOE, the United States Environmental Protection Agency Region II, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. This IAG integrates the requirements of Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, the corrective action requirements of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, DOE cleanup authorities under the Atomic Energy Act, and any corresponding New York State regulations. The IAG became effective in 1992.
The EM mission at Brookhaven National Laboratory addresses the accelerated cleanup of contaminated areas. In fiscal year 2005 EM Brookhaven Site Office (BHSO) oversaw the completion of remediation of soils, groundwater and the Peconic River, and placed residual contamination in a safe and stable condition. Critical Decision 4 was approved in FY 2006. Currently sixteen long-term groundwater systems are in place, and are continuously maintained for proper operation. Other required activities include monitoring of three capped landfills and the Peconic River. Ongoing Soil and Groundwater EM Operations and Maintenance (O&M) activities will continue until the EM Mission is complete at the Site at which time all current EM liability will be transferred to the Office of Science (the Site’s landlord).
The EM mission also includes the decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of several surplus nuclear reactor and non-reactor facilities, and the disposal of legacy waste. In fiscal year 2007 the EM BHSO was successful in establishing Performance Measurement Baselines for the D&D of two dormant nuclear reactors and it is planned to complete one project in FY 2010 and the other in FY 2020.
Click here to access the Brookhaven National Laboratory Project Baseline Summaries.
Carlsbad Field Office
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site is located in southeastern New Mexico approximately 26 miles southeast of the city of Carlsbad. The WIPP site is built on a 10,240-acre parcel of land set aside by Public Law 102-579.
The primary mission of the Department of Energy (DOE's) Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) is to protect human health and the environment by operating WIPP for safe disposal of defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste and by establishing an effective system for management of TRU waste from generation to permanent disposal. The WIPP site is essential in the effort to clean-up TRU waste across the EM complex. The WIPP facility is divided into three basic groups; surface structures, shafts, and subsurface structures. The WIPP facility surface structures accommodate the personnel, equipment, and support services required for receipt, preparation, and transfer of TRU waste from the surface to the underground. The surface structures are located in an area of approximately 34 acres within a perimeter security fence. Four vertical shafts extend from the surface to the underground disposal horizon. The disposal horizon is located approximately 2150 feet below the surface in a stable salt formation. The four shafts are the waste shaft, the salt handling shaft, the exhaust shaft, and the air intake shaft. The underground structures consist of the waste disposal, construction, and northern experimental areas. The transportation portion of the program includes a fleet of trailers and Nuclear Regulatory Commission certified transportation packages. CBFO has contracts for transportation services with two carriers. The carriers provide tractors and the drivers, and the government provides the trailers and shipping packages (e.g., TRUPACT-IIs and HalfPacts).
The CBFO is responsible for managing the Nation's TRU waste generated by atomic energy defense activities. The legacy TRU waste consists of about 110,000 cubic meters of Contact Handled TRU waste and about 5,300 cubic meters of Remote Handled TRU waste. More specifically, CBFO is responsible for the national quality assurance program for TRU waste and related audits, activities related to characterization and certification of TRU waste at generator and interim storage sites, TRU waste transportation, packaging and container development as well as disposal of TRU wastes at WIPP. Generally the generator/storage sites are responsible for providing the infrastructure necessary to support characterization and certification activities as well as retrieving and remediating TRU waste that will provide a sufficient backlog to support CBFO’s planned shipping and disposal rates.
Legacy TRU waste inventory is located at the DOE's five Large Quantity Sites (LQSs) (i.e., Hanford, Savannah River, Idaho, Los Alamos, and Rocky Flats*) and at over 20 Small Quantity Sites (SQSs) throughout the country.
Click here to access the Carlsbad Field Office Project Baseline Summaries.
Energy Technology Engineering Center
The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), owned by the Boeing Company (Boeing), is located atop a range of hills between the populous Simi and San Fernando Valleys, in Ventura County, California, north of Los Angeles. ETEC, the western-most 90 acres of the site located within Administrative Area IV, was leased by DOE and used for research and development activities for DOE Nuclear Energy (NE) Programs.
During the early years of operation, DOE built and operated many facilities at ETEC. When opened in the early 1950s, the site was ideally remote from population centers to enable development of security-sensitive projects. These projects supported research for DOE and its predecessor agencies for nuclear research and energy development projects. The site includes buildings which house test apparatus for large-scale heat transfer and fluid mechanics experiments, mechanical and chemical test facilities, office buildings, and auxiliary support facilities. ETEC has been managed by EM since 1990 after DOE NE concluded its mission. ETEC was declared a surplus facility in 1996. DOE EM’s mission has been to complete site cleanup and closure. As such, the current use of the site is strictly EM-related involving deactivation, decommissioning, and dismantlement activities. As a result of past operations, radioactive and chemical contamination exists in several structures (including the Radioactive Materials Handling Facility) as well as in soil and groundwater.
At its mission peak, ETEC comprised over 270 numbered structures. As ETEC was a test site, facilities were often decommissioned and cleaned, refurbished, and/or demolished as necessary once their mission was achieved. Since the decision to close ETEC in 1996, many facilities have been decontaminated, decommissioned, demolished, and contaminated soils have been removed. Since the inception of EM activities, two major radiological facilities and five sodium facilities have been decontaminated and decommissioned, all the inventory of transuranic (TRU) wastes and large volumes of low-level radiological waste (LLW) and mixed low-level radiological waste (MLLW) have been disposed of off-site, and over 100,000 gallons of sodium metal have been recycled. In addition, numerous uncontaminated support facilities have been demolished per the agreement with the DOE Contract to Boeing. DOE has had a performance-based contract with Boeing for the cleanup and closure of ETEC since 1998, which is due to expire in September 2008. There are no DOE-funded activities at the site besides the EM work.
Click here to access the Energy Technology Engineering Center Project Baseline Summaries.
Idaho EM Cleanup Project
The U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) - Idaho Operations Office Idaho Cleanup Project manages and dispositions radioactive and hazardous wastes and spent nuclear fuel (SNF) that originated from Cold War activities at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site.
Since its establishment in 1949, INL has been involved in the design and testing of fifty-two nuclear reactors and the reprocessing of SNF to recover fissile materials. These activities have resulted in an inventory of high-level, transuranic, mixed low-level, low-level, and hazardous waste which has required management and disposition. The INL Site is also responsible for storing and dispositioning approximately two hundred and fifty metric tons of SNF from multiple sources, including the U.S. Navy, foreign and domestic research reactors, commercial reactors, and DOE-owned fuel.
INL is on the United States Environmental Protection Agency National Priorities List. Environmental remediation activities are underway or have been completed at ten Waste Area Groups encompassing about one hundred operable units, including the Naval Reactors Facility (NRF) and the Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC), formerly known as Argonne National Laboratory-West. (The INL Site Environmental Management Program is not responsible for activities at the NRF or the MFC.)
Major ICP activities include SNF disposition, calcine disposition, and remaining decontamination and decommissioning such as building CPP-601/640 disposition and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act remediation at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex, INTEC, and Operable Unit-10-08. Cleanup work also includes remediation of Tank Farm contaminated soils and of the Subsurface Disposal Area, disposition of sodium-bearing waste, continuation of post-remediation maintenance activities such as groundwater monitoring beyond FY 2012, and preparing key areas of the Site for long term stewardship following completion of cleanup activities.
Click here to access the Idaho Project Baseline Summaries.
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), located in northern New Mexico, is a research facility of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) that is managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security (LANS) LLC.
Since its inception in 1943 (as part of the Manhattan Project), the primary mission of the Laboratory has been focused on high-level science and technology essential to national defense and global security. Many of the activities and operations at LANL have produced solids, liquids, and gases that contain radioactive and/or non-radioactive hazardous materials. Such activities include conducting research and development programs in basic and applied chemistry, biology, and physics; fabricating and testing explosives; cleaning chemically contaminated equipment; and working with radioactive materials. In addition, many of the historic practices for disposing wastes from these activities, although generally accepted at the time, are not in keeping with today’s standards. The resulting legacy waste sites (also known as potential release sites) are found on mesa tops, in canyons, and in the Los Alamos town site. Since environmental management work began in 1989, the number of potential release sites requiring further action has been reduced by 60 percent through active remediation, or by confirming that no action is needed.
Disposition of legacy wastes is being conducted under the Resource and Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) and under DOE Orders. Cleanup of historic hazardous wastes is being conducted under a Consent Order signed in March 2005 by the Department of Energy (Department), University of California, State of New Mexico Attorney General, and the New Mexico Environment Department. The Consent Order provides requirements and a timetable for environmental cleanup, with stipulated fines and penalties for violations and non-compliance.
Much environmental work has already been accomplished at LANL: retrieval, characterization, repackaging and disposition of legacy wastes and cleanup of major waste sites, including a landfill containing high explosives, a PCB-contaminated area, and plutonium-contaminated sediments where Manhattan-era waste effluents were released. However, substantial work remains to be done, including completing disposition of legacy transuranic (TRU) wastes, particularly below grade retrieval and ultimately shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), and conducting corrective actions for groundwater, remaining landfills (which are some of the largest and most complex sites), and numerous surface waste sites on mesa tops and in canyons spread over LANL (approximately 39 square mile area).
Click here to access the Los Alamos National Laboratory Project Baseline Summaries.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Site 300
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Site 300 is a DOE experimental test facility operated by the Lawrence Livermore National Security, Limited Liability Corporation. The facility is located in the eastern Altamont Hills about 17 miles east of Livermore and 8.5 miles southwest of downtown Tracy, California. The site covers 11 square miles, most of which is in San Joaquin County. The western one sixth of the site is located in Alameda County.
DOE began environmental investigation activities at Site 300 in 1981. Prior to August 1990, investigations of potential chemical contamination at Site 300 were conducted under the oversight of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB). Site 300 was placed in the National Priorities List in August 1990. Since then, all investigations have been conducted in accordance with CERCLA under the oversight of the three supervising regulatory agencies: The US EPA, RWQCB, and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
The LLNL Site 300 Soil and Water Remediation Project is scheduled for EM completion and transfer to NNSA at the end of FY2008 with the exception of the recently characterized Building 812 Firing Table area. The Livermore Site Office Federal Project Director is currently working with NNSA and EM to decide how to handle the CD-4 determination for the remainder of the site, and plan for the Building 812 Firing Table area remediation projected for FY2012 and FY2013.
Click here to access the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Site 300 Project Baseline Summaries.
Miamisburg Closure Project
The Miamisburg Mound plant was built in the late 1940s to support research and development, testing, and production activities for DOE’s defense nuclear weapons complex and energy research programs. The plant’s mission involved production of components, which contained plutonium-238, polonium-210, tritium, and large quantities of high explosives. This mission continued until 1994, when these activities were transferred to other DOE facilities. In 1989, the Mound site was placed on the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List.
Although a final Record of Decision was issued in 1995 for a former Mound landfill, Operable Unit One (OU-1), the City of Miamisburg remained concerned over the potential public health and reuse impacts of the remaining landfill. In response to these concerns, Congress provided $30,000,000 and directed the DOE in November 2005 to take additional remedial actions at OU-1. It was decided to complete the ongoing Miamisburg Closure Contract and to accomplish this additional work under a separate contract.
The Miamisburg Closure Project contractor declared physical completion July 31, 2006, and DOE accepted completion of that scope in March 2007. A task order under an existing Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract was awarded in October 2006 for the OU-1 work.
The OU-1 Project consists of two distinct projects: the OU-1 Project and the Potential Release Site 441 (PRS 441) Project. The primary concern within the OU-1 area consists of residual contamination within a Site Sanitary Landfill that sits on top of an older Historic Waste Disposal Area. Congress has appropriated $30M for this project. The goal of the PRS 441 (rail load out area) Project is to be compliant with the requirements defined by CERCLA as implemented by the Mound 2000 Work Plan. Funding for the PRS 441 Project scope is provided separately from the funding appropriated by Congress for the OU-1 Project scope.
Upon final verification surveys of the PRS 7 work area, DOE will be able to complete the Amended Record of Decision for OU-1. This parcel will then be offered to the Miamisburg Mound Community Improvement Corporation for transfer by the end of FY 09. This will complete the transfer of all remaining parcels of the Mound Plant, except for two areas: Building 126 and adjoining land which will be used by DOE-LM; and a portion of the OU-1 Landfill area having a no-dig institutional control. These areas of the original Mound Site will continue to be owned by the Department of Energy.
Click here to access the Miamisburg Project Baseline Summaries.
Moab UMTRA Project
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project site is approximately three miles northwest of the city of Moab in Grand County, Utah, and includes the former Atlas uranium-ore processing facility. The site is situated on the west bank of the Colorado River at the confluence with Moab Wash. The site encompasses approximately 439 acres, of which approximately 130 acres are covered by the uranium mill-tailings pile. When processing operations ceased in 1984, approximately 16 million tons of uranium tailings and contaminated soil were left on the property.
In October 2000, Congress and the President approved the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Public Law 106-398 (the Act). The Act stipulated that the license issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the materials at the Moab site be terminated and that title and responsibility for cleanup be transferred to the DOE. Title of the site was transferred to DOE on October 25, 2001. Specifically, the DOE Environmental Management (EM) office in Grand Junction, Colorado, now has primary responsibility for the Moab site.
The DOE EM office in Grand Junction, Colorado, issued the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in July 2005. The final EIS included the preferred alternatives for remediation of the Moab Project site. The Record of Decision (ROD) was issued in September 2005. The ROD details the selected alternatives of active ground-water remediation at the Moab site and off-site disposal of the tailings pile and other contaminated materials at Crescent Junction, Utah. This off-site disposal will remove the contaminated mill tailings and relocate them to Crescent Junction, which is more than 30 miles from the Colorado River. Approval of Critical Decision – 1A (CD-1A), approval of the selected alternative identifying relocation of the Moab tailings and contaminated materials to the Crescent Junction site, was received on August 5, 2005.
The end state for the Moab Project will be achieved after contaminated soil, tailings, vicinity properties, and surface and ground water are remediated. DOE may place some restrictions on re-utilization of the site, depending on how a proposed land use could impact the selected ground-water remedy. The site will then be transferred to the Office of Legacy Management for monitoring and required stewardship. Based on the current funding profile and project technical approach, the current estimate of completion date is 2028.
Click here to access the Moab Project Baseline Summaries.
Nevada Site Office
The Nevada Test Site (NTS) is located approximately 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada and occupies approximately 1,375 square miles. The remote site is one of the largest restricted access areas in the United States and is surrounded by thousands of acres of land withdrawn from the public domain for use as a protected wildlife range and for a military test and training range.
For more than 40 years, the primary mission of the NTS was to conduct tests of both nuclear and conventional explosives in connection with the research and development of nuclear weapons. Atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons was initiated in 1951. Nuclear tests conducted at the NTS after July 1962 were underground. Nuclear testing was suspended in October 1992, although a readiness posture is maintained by Presidential mandate.
Environmental restoration activities began to address environmental liabilities associated with nuclear weapons production and testing. Early restoration efforts were focused on cleaning detonation locales to reuse them for subsequent tests, with the generated debris being disposed through an on-site waste management program. Environmental restoration and waste management activities have been key elements of the Nevada Site Office (NSO) environmental program since the beginning of the nation’s nuclear testing program.
The Environmental Management (EM) program at the NTS (including the Nevada Test and Training Range) consists of the Waste Management (WM) and Environmental Restoration (ER) Projects. The WM Project supports the closure of DOE sites across the United States by maintaining the capability to dispose LLW and mixed low-level waste (MLLW) from approved waste generators. The NTS is designated as a regional disposal site for LLW and a secondary disposal site for MLLW generated as the result of cleanup activities across the DOE Complex. Additionally, the WM Project is responsible for the storage, treatment (as needed), repackaging, and disposition of legacy on-site transuranic (TRU) and mixed transuranic (MTRU) waste.
The mission of the ER Project is to assess and perform appropriate corrective actions at approximately 800 former underground test locations, more than 100 surface or atmospheric test locations, and over 1,000 other industrial-type sites that are the result or by-product of past nuclear testing and support activities. Environmental Restoration activities include the removal and clean closure of surface and near surface contamination where possible; implementation of use restrictions and institutional controls for close-in-place locations to preclude inadvertent contact with contaminants; and establishment of predictive groundwater models and monitoring networks where necessary to ensure contaminated groundwater stays within predicted contaminant boundaries.
Click here to access the Nevada Site Office Project Baseline Summaries.
Oak Ridge
The Oak Ridge Reservation is located in east Tennessee and is comprised of three major facilities: the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP); the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); and the Y- 12 National Security Complex. There are also some private properties that are not located on the Oak Ridge Reservation (the Atomic City Auto Parts Site and the David Witherspoon Sites) that are being cleaned up under the auspices of the Oak Ridge program.
ETTP is approximately 13 miles west of Oak Ridge and occupies approximately 5,000 acres adjacent to the Clinch River. Approximately half of these acres are to be addressed under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). It was originally built as a uranium enrichment facility for defense programs. The majority of the buildings on the site have been inactive since uranium enrichment production ceased in 1985. Cleanup includes environmental remediation, decontamination, decommissioning and demolition of hazardous and radioactively contaminated facilities, as well as, disposition of legacy low, mixed low-level waste. At the end of cleanup ETTP will be available for use as a private-sector industrial park.
ORNL is approximately 5 miles southwest of Oak Ridge and covers 3,300 acres. ORNL currently conducts applied and basic research in energy technologies and the physical and life sciences. Cleanup includes environmental remediation, decontamination, decommissioning and demolition of hazardous and radioactively contaminated facilities, as well as, disposition of legacy low, mixed low-level, and transuranic waste. After cleanup is complete, ORNL will continue to operate as a world-class research facility.
The Y- 12 site is approximately two miles southwest of Oak Ridge on 811 acres. The Y- 12 site was originally an uranium processing facility. It currently dismantles nuclear weapons components and serves as one of the nation’s storehouses for special nuclear materials. Cleanup includes environmental remediation, decontamination, decommissioning and demolition of hazardous and radioactively contaminated facilities, as well as, disposition of legacy low and mixed low-level waste. The sanitary landfills for all of the Oak Ridge Reservation are located at Y- 12, along with the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility (a CERCLA disposal facility supporting cleanup). After cleanup is complete, the Y- 12 plant will continue to operate, fulfilling its national security mission.
The cleanup program mission in Oak Ridge will be complete when risks to the public, workers, and the environment at these sites have been safely reduced. These risks include potential exposure to chemical and radiological contamination and industrial hazards resulting from decades of uranium enrichment, research, and nuclear weapons-related operations.
The Oak Ridge cleanup strategy is risk-based and is organized around watersheds that feed the Clinch River. Key Records of Decision under CERCLA been signed for these watersheds. Final Records of Decision will be necessary for all watersheds to deal with the remaining ecological and groundwater concerns.
Cleanup of the Oak Ridge Reservation is primarily governed by three regulatory agreements/compliance orders; the Federal Facility Agreement for the Oak Ridge Reservation, the Oak Ridge Reservation Site Treatment Plan, and the Oak Ridge Reservation Polychlorinated Biphenyl Federal Facilities Compliance Agreement.
Click here to access the Oak Ridge Project Baseline Summaries.
Office of River Protection
The Hanford Site is the largest of the three original defense production sites founded in World War II as part of the Manhattan Project. It is about half the size of the State of Rhode Island, at 586 square miles.
Over its 40 years of operations, the site produced approximately 74 tons of plutonium—nearly two-thirds of all the plutonium recovered for government purposes in the United States. Between 1943 and 1963, nine plutonium production reactors were built along the Columbia River. Plutonium and reusable uranium were separated from irradiated fuel using various chemical precipitation and solvent extraction techniques. The plutonium and uranium was shipped to other DOE sites for eventual use in United States nuclear weapons.
During plutonium production, highly radioactive waste resulting from site operations was piped to underground tanks. In some cases small amounts of radioactive waste, representing small amounts of radioactivity were discharged underground. For example, uncontaminated and slightly contaminated liquids and cooling water were pumped to ditches and ponds. Contaminated water discharged from the reactors was pumped to nearby soil as well as into the Columbia River. Solid waste was buried in shallow trenches or stored inside facilities. The result is more than 1,600 identified waste sites and more than 500 waste facilities at Hanford. Forty percent of the approximately one billion curies of radioactivity within the DOE nuclear weapons complex resides at Hanford. These materials must be dealt with in a safe and protective manner.
In order to more effectively manage the River Protection Project and in response to Section 3139 of the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999, the Secretary of Energy established the Office of River Protection (ORP) at the Hanford Site in the State of Washington as a separate Department of Energy Field Office.
ORP is responsible for the storage, retrieval, treatment, immobilization, and disposal of tank waste and the operation, maintenance, engineering, and construction activities in the 200 Area Tank Farms. These Tank Farms include 177 underground storage tanks (149 Single-shell tanks and 28 Double-shell tanks) that contain approximately 190 million curies in approximately 53 million gallons of chemically hazardous radioactive waste from past processing operations. A multi-year construction project to build a Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) to process and immobilize the tank waste is ongoing. Additional projects are planned for the retrieval, transfer, and treatment of tank waste as well as for the storage and disposal of the WTP’s immobilized waste products.
Click here to access the Office of River Protection Project Baseline Summaries.
Paducah
The Paducah site, comprising approximately 3,400 acres, is located in rural western Kentucky, 15 miles west of Paducah, Kentucky, near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
For approximately 50 years, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) supported the Federal Government and commercial nuclear power missions. Decades of nuclear energy and national security missions left radioactive and chemical contamination. The mission of the site has transitioned from primarily enrichment operations to shared missions with environmental cleanup, waste management, depleted uranium conversion, deactivation and decommissioning, and long-term stewardship.
The original mission at the PGDP was to produce low-assay enriched uranium for further enrichment at other Department of Energy (DOE) sites and then for use as commercial nuclear reactor fuel. In 1993, uranium enrichment operations were turned over to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) in accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Under USEC, production of enriched uranium for use in the United States and abroad continues today. While USEC leases and operates the enrichment program under NRC regulation, the Department owns the physical plant and is responsible for the environmental cleanup. USEC is responsible for the operation and maintenance of all primary process facilities and auxiliary facilities at Paducah.
Since the 1950s, the depleted uranium hexafluoride produced during enrichment operations at the Portsmouth and Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plants (and the East Tennessee Technology Park in Tennessee) has been stored in large steel cylinders at the sites. DOE is currently responsible for the management of approximately 700,000 metric tons of depleted uranium hexafluoride at Paducah and Portsmouth (about 39,000 cylinders at Paducah). DOE awarded a contract and started construction in July 2004 on a depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facility at Paducah, to convert the depleted uranium hexafluoride to a more stable form for reuse or disposal. This facility will operate over the next two decades. DOE is ultimately responsible for the deactivation and decommissioning of the facilities.
The Department is committed to the cleanup of the PGDP to industrial standards for the portion of the site currently supporting the site’s mission, and to recreational standards for the remainder of the site. Limited land areas will require institutional controls following remediation. Excess buildings at Paducah that are not being leased are being assessed for reuse by the Department and will be scheduled for demolition if they are not suitable for reuse. Equipment and material removed from buildings will be decontaminated, reused, or recycled to the extent practicable.
Click here to access the Paducah Project Baseline Summaries.
Pantex
The Pantex Plant is located in the Texas Panhandle, approximately 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, Texas. Pantex was established in 1942 to build conventional munitions in support of World War II. Pantex was deactivated in 1945 and sold to Texas Technical University. In 1951 the Plant was reclaimed for use by the Atomic Energy Commission to build nuclear weapons. Pantex continues with an active mission to support the nuclear weapons stockpile for the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration.
Historical waste management operations at the Pantex plant have resulted in contamination of the soils and the groundwater. Primarily High Explosives, metals, and solvents exist in the soil located in the main operational areas and Burning Ground at the Pantex Plant. The perched groundwater contaminant plume has migrated past the Plant boundaries and onto adjacent landowner’s property to the southeast. The lower Ogallala Aquifer is the primary water supply for Pantex and the area landowners. Located immediately north of the Pantex property boundary is a well field in the Ogallala Aquifer that supplies a portion of the water supply to the cities of Amarillo and Panhandle. Contamination in the perched groundwater has the potential to leach deeper if appropriate corrective measures are not implemented to mitigate the risk.
Starting in the late 1980’s, DOE EM began funding the ER Program at Pantex. This Program investigates historical release sites, as well as potential contamination sites, and performs corrective actions to mitigate future releases, risks to human health and the environment. Corrective actions are implemented using a risk-based corrective action approach that is consistent with applicable state and federal regulatory requirements.
In 1989, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Facility Assessment of the Pantex Plant that identified 252 potential release sites, and resulted in an Environmental Protection Agency Order stipulating response measures for these release sites.
In 2008, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) approved the Corrective Measure Study/Feasibility Study and EPA approved all of the Human Health Risk Assessments, the Ecological Risk Assessment, and the corrective Measure study/Feasibility Study. Both agencies approved the Proposed Plan for public notice and distribution. Public comments on the proposed remedies were recently received, along with comments from EPA’s National Remedy Review Board.
Click here to access the Pantex Project Baseline Summaries.
Portsmouth
The Portsmouth site is located approximately 75 miles south of Columbus, Ohio in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. For approximately 50 years, the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Portsmouth, Ohio supported the Federal Government and commercial nuclear power missions.
Construction of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant began in late 1952 with a mission to increase the national production of enriched uranium and maintain the nation’s superiority in the development and use of nuclear energy. The first enrichment diffusion cells went on line in September 1954, and the facility was fully operational in March 1956. Both government and commercials uses required the enriched uranium.
In the mid-1980s, the facilities and equipment required for the next generation of enrichment facility technology, the Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant (GCEP), were constructed and installed at Portsmouth. However, the project was terminated in1985, before going into full production, due to a significant reduction in the worldwide market for enriched material. In 2004, the United States Enrichment Corporation selected the Portsmouth site as the location for deployment of a commercial centrifuge plant. As a result, the United States Enrichment Corporation identified a number of buildings and areas that are or will be transitioning to the Department of Energy (DOE) under the terms of the lease agreement.
The Department maintained the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant facilities in cold standby from 2001 to 2005. In 2005, the facilities were transitioned to cold shutdown, and decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant were initiated. In FY 2007, the Department formally established the approach to be taken to implement D&D activities and cleanup of the site.
Five decades of uranium enrichment operations resulted in the Department’s inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride. A contract was awarded in August 2002 to design, build, and initially operate two facilities (Paducah, KY and Portsmouth, OH) to convert the depleted uranium hexafluoride. The Project’s mission is to provide for the conversion of the depleted uranium hexafluoride to a more stable chemical form (uranium oxide) suitable for beneficial reuse and/or disposal. The construction and operation of these plants was mandated by Congress (Public Laws 105-204 and 107-206), and construction began in 2004.
The Department is committed to clean up of the Portsmouth site to industrial standards. Limited land areas will require institutional controls following remediation. Equipment and material removed from buildings will be decontaminated, reused, or recycled to the extent practicable.
Click here to access the Portsmouth Project Baseline Summaries.
Richland Operations Office
The Richland Operations Office manages cleanup of the Hanford Site, with the exception of the reprocessing waste tank farms (managed by the Office of River Protection), and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (managed by the Office of Science, Pacific Northwest Site Office). Located in southeastern Washington State, the 1,533 square kilometer (586 square mile) site contains the Central Plateau, the River Corridor, and the Fast Flux Test Facility and a large area of natural-habitat buffer zone.
For more than 40 years, plutonium for the nation’s nuclear defense program was produced at the Hanford Site. As a result, areas within the site’s boundaries are contaminated by chemical or radioactive waste making the Hanford Site the largest environmental restoration effort in the nation. Peak production years were reached in the 1960s when nine production reactors were in operation along the Columbia River. The last reactor to be shutdown was the N-Reactor and its spent fuel (originally stored in the K-Basins) has been relocated to dry storage on the Central Plateau. Soil and groundwater contamination from past operations resulted in placement of the site on the National Priorities (Superfund) List.
The specifics, priorities, and milestones associated with the cleanup program are addressed in a 1989 Hanford Federal Facilities Agreement and Consent Order known as the Tri-Party Agreement. Parties to the agreement are the DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Washington State Department of Ecology.
Click here to access the Richland Operations Office Project Baseline Summaries.
Sandia Site Office
Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico (SNL/NM) is located on Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) in central New Mexico. SNL/NM is a government-owned contractor-operated facility owned by the Department of Energy/ National Nuclear Safety Administration (DOE/NNSA) and managed by the Sandia Site Office (SSO). KAFB is a 51,559-acre military installation, including 20,486 acres withdrawn from the Cibola National Forest through an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). KAFB and SNL/NM are located adjacent to the City of Albuquerque, which borders KAFB on its north, northeast, west, and southwest boundaries. The total area of DOE/ NNSA-owned property that is dedicated to SNL/NM facilities and operations is approximately 8,585 acres. Sandia conducts operations within 2,841 acres of that land. An additional 5,817 acres in remote areas are provided to DOE through land use agreements with the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and Isleta Pueblo Indian reservation. An additional 9,000 acres serve as a buffer zone near the southwest boundary of KAFB.
SNL/NM began operations in 1945 as part of the Manhattan Project, which produced the first nuclear weapon. In 1949, President Harry Truman wrote American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) Corporation offering the company “an opportunity to render an exceptional service in the national interest” by managing Sandia Corporation. Sandia Corporation is the contractor that operates SNL/NM for the DOE/NNSA. AT&T managed Sandia Corporation for 44 years. Today, Sandia Corporation is managed by Lockheed Martin Corporation.
The Environmental Management (EM) Program at SSO consists of a single Environmental Restoration (ER) Project at SNL/NM. Many of the processes used in carrying out SNL's mission involve the use of hazardous and radioactive materials. The ER Project is chartered with the assessment and, if necessary, the remediation of sites that were formerly used for operations such as testing and disposal. This assessment began formally in 1984 for SNL/NM, when DOE's Albuquerque Operations Office (DOE/AL) initiated the Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Response Program (CEARP) to identify, assess, and remediate potentially hazardous waste sites. A similar assessment was conducted by the EPA Region VI in April 1987 during the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Facility Assessment. These programs ultimately defined a working inventory of Solid Waste Management Units (SWMUs) to be investigated during the course of the ER Project at SNL/NM. Today there are a total of 268 legacy sites and 3 Groundwater Areas of Concern (GW AOCs) that are required to meet the corrective action requirements to remediate environmental releases under RCRA and the New Mexico Environment Department Compliance Order on Consent. Three of the legacy sites are considered “deferred active mission” sites that pose a future cleanup liability.
Click here to access the Sandia Site Office Project Baseline Summaries.
Savannah River
Savannah River Site (SRS) encompasses over 310 square miles and is located near Aiken, South Carolina. The site was built in the 1950’s to provide nuclear materials in support of the Cold War effort. Eighteen unique areas supported the operation of five reactors, two separation facilities, a heavy water production facility, a fuel rod manufacturing facility, liquid and solid waste storage and treatment facilities as well as general support facilities and office buildings. About 10% of the total land area is used for administration and the operations. The remaining 90% is comprised of upland forest (73%), wetlands (22%) and roadways (5%). Although there are continuing and new production missions at the SRS, the majority of the site mission is Environmental Cleanup. As cleanup activities are completed, continuing operations will be concentrated to the site central core area. The land surrounding the central core area will provide a protective buffer. SRS is managed by contractors and oversight is provided by DOE Savannah River Operations Office.
The EM mission completion goal at SRS is to permanently dispose of all Environmental Management (EM) nuclear material and waste, decommission all EM facilities, and remediate all SRS inactive waste units. The vast majority of EM nuclear material and waste will be permanently removed from SRS and dispositioned offsite. At completion, all inactive waste units will be remediated by employing an Area-by-Area completion strategy and any contaminated groundwater will be remediated, undergoing remediation, or monitored to ensure protection of human health and the environment. Areas for which waste will remain will be under institutional controls, comprised of access restrictions, inspections, maintenance, and monitoring. Concurrently with Area completion, all EM facilities will be decommissioned, except when the facility will be re-used to support other long-range federal missions at SRS, or designated for historical preservation or re-use for economic development.
The removal and offsite disposition of EM nuclear material and waste will significantly reduce risk at SRS. Any remaining hazards will be orders of magnitude less in quantity. Risk to onsite and offsite receptors will be reduced to an acceptable risk level that is protective of human health and the environment and consistent with environmental laws and regulations.
Click here to access the Savannah River Project Baseline Summaries.
Separations Process Research Unit Disposition Project
The Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) is located within the currently operating 170-acre Naval Reactor’s (NR) Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna, New York, near Schenectady. The Mohawk River forms the northern boundary of this site. General Electric’s Global Research Center is to the west, and a closed municipal landfill and small town park is to the east. A residential area is located to the south (across the street) from the laboratory.
The SPRU Project includes the following nuclear facilities; Building H2 (including tanks within the building), Building G2, and interconnecting pipe tunnels, totaling about 50,000 square feet. The facilities were a pilot plant to research the process to separate plutonium from irradiated matrices. The facilities and process systems were flushed and drained after operations ceased in 1953; however, radioactive contamination remains in process piping and on floors, walls, and ceilings. Groundwater and soil immediately adjacent to the facilities are contaminated. In addition, about thirty acres of land including a former railroad staging area and an area known as the North Field were impacted by spills and leaks from radioactive waste containers that were temporarily stored in these areas. The Mohawk River also is slightly contaminated with radioactivity from past SPRU operations, although agreement has been reached with the State of New York that no cleanup will be needed there.
The approved mission of the SPRU project is to disposition the facilities and land to achieve U.S Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management project completion including transfer of all property back to NR for continued mission use by 2014. Portions of the SPRU disposition project will be regulated under a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Corrective Action Permit now under negotiation with NYSDEC. While a project schedule will be submitted as part of the final permit, no enforceable milestones are currently in place.
Click here to access the Separations Process Research Unit Project Baseline Summaries.
Stanford Linear Accelerator
The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) site occupies 426 acres of Stanford property in San Mateo County outside of Menlo Park, south of San Francisco, California. SLAC is currently leased to DOE and is sited approximately 2 miles west of the main campus.
Since its construction in the 1960s, state-of-the-art electron accelerators and related experimental facilities for use in high-energy physics and synchrotron radiation research have been designed, constructed, and operated at SLAC. The main research facilities currently include the LINAC, the Positron-Electron Project (PEP) storage ring, the Stanford Positron-Electron Asymmetric Ring (SPEAR), the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC; currently inactive), and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL). These research activities are planned to continue into the foreseeable future with the planned construction of the Linear Coherent Light Source being the next major research project.
Historically, research and support operations at SLAC included the storage and use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), metals, petroleum hydrocarbons (e.g., gasoline, diesel fuel, oil, and grease), and other hazardous materials. The generation of radiation has also induced radioactivity (tritium) in local areas of soil and groundwater at the facility. The Office of Science (SC) is responsible for managing the tritium operable unit of the project.
The Project mission is to continue to conduct necessary actions at the Investigation Areas and Miscellaneous Soil Sites for which EM is responsible including the remediation of impacted soil, implementation of necessary long-term groundwater remediation remedies, and transfer of responsibility for long-term operation and maintenance of necessary groundwater treatment systems to the SC. This will allow DOE to meet ongoing obligations as defined in the DOE lease agreement with Stanford University (April 26, 1962), comply with the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Francisco Bay Area Region (RWQCB) site cleanup requirement Order (RWQCB, 2005) and achieve Project completion.
Click here to access the Stanford Linear Accelerator Project Baseline Summaries.
West Valley Demonstration Project
The West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) is a unique operation within the Department of Energy. It came into being through the West Valley Demonstration Project Act of 1980. The Act requires that the Department is responsible for solidifying the high-level waste, disposing of waste created by the solidification, and decommissioning the facilities used in the process. The land and facilities are not owned by the Department. Rather, the project premises are the property of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and represents only 200 acres of the larger Western New York Service Center, which is approximately 3,300 acres, also owned by NYSERDA. After DOE's responsibilities under the Act are complete, the Act requires that the premises be returned to New York State. Until that time, the Act requires New York State to pay 10 percent of the Project costs, and the Department pays the remaining 90 percent.
Located about 40 miles south of Buffalo, the WVDP occupies the site of the only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing facility to have operated in the United States. During commercial operations of the site in the late sixties and early seventies, approximately 640 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel was reprocessed. Reprocessing operations were halted between 1972 and 1976 to support facility modifications, but operations never resumed. When DOE became responsible for the site in 1980, approximately 600,000 gallons of liquid high level waste (HLW) were stored in two single shelled, carbon steel underground tanks.
Since then, DOE has performed waste disposition, decontamination, deactivation, and disposition of facilities, and infrastructure/landlord activities. To date, the site has solidified over 600,000 gallons of HLW into 275 canisters and shipped over 1,000,000 cubic feet of low level waste (LLW).
Click here to access the West Valley Project Baseline Summaries.
