American Recovery and Reinvestment Act workers at the Savannah River Site imploded the 455-foot-tall K Reactor Cooling Tower in May 2010. The project was completed safely and contributed 36.5 square miles to the site’s total footprint reduction.
On August 3, 2013, contractors and the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management successfully completed the explosive demolition of the K-1206-F Fire Water Tower, which for 54 years had been used for fire water supply at the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge Tennessee. The 382 foot tall, 400,000-gallon water tower tank was drained and isolated from the fire water system prior to the estimated 100-ton steel structure being felled after explosive charges were detonated on the over 300-foot long legs of the tank. The successful removal of this tank through the safe and efficient application of controlled explosive demolition continues the ongoing efforts of the Office of Environmental Management to reduce the footprint of surplus structures within the complex thus eliminating costly maintenance and upkeep of structures with no continued mission within DOE. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of the fiscal year 2013.
Deactivation and Decommissioning (D&D) is the process of taking an active/excess/abandoned facility to a final disposition end state. Because of residual radioactivity, other hazardous constituents, and the physical condition of EM’s facilities, D&D presents unique hazards that must be addressed from a safety, programmatic, environmental, and technological standpoint. The general D&D process applies to all facilities across the EM complex. For additional information on the D&D process and a brief explanation of the DOE complex-wide facility D&D work please see the D&D - Project Basics Adobe PDF Document presentation under Special Features.
The Deactivation and Decommissioning (D&D) function within the Office of D&D and Facility Engineering focuses on innovative applications and timely insertion of existing commercially available technologies, processes and hardware to identify and address D&D risks and challenges. The program supports the development of informed facility D&D strategy such as In-Situ Decommissioning, enhanced verifiability of the efficacy of D&D operations, increased productivity and personnel safety of D&D operation, facilitation of acceptable facility end-state, and independent verification.