UCOR Moving Forward K-31, K-27 Demolition Efforts
WC Monitor
4/24/2015
URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) has made significant progress in demolishing the K-31 Building and expects to complete the job – including the removal of the big building’s concrete pad – by November, several months ahead of schedule. More and more of the Department of Energy cleanup contractor’s priority and resources appear to be shifting to the pre-demolition preparations at K-27, the last of the behemoth uranium-enrichment facilities that still has its processing equipment in place and the whole complement of uranium deposits and associated hazards.
K-31 is a 750,000-square-foot shell of the building with the equipment removed years ago. Because of that, the demolition is moving quickly. According to UCOR spokeswoman Anne Smith, the demolition work is now 80 percent complete. Meanwhile, about 70 percent of the pre-demolition work at K-27 has reportedly been accomplished. The prep at K-27 includes injecting foam into the old processing equipment to stabilize the uranium deposits and keep the radioactive and chemical hazards from spreading during the cleanup operations and waste removal. Smith said about 130 skilled and trained crew members are working on the K-31 demolition project, and about 270 are working at K-27.
Some lessons learned from problems encountered during the years-long demolition of K-25 — including the accidental spread of radioactive technetium, which seeped into a nearby sewage treatment facility — have been applied to current and future projects. At the K-31 site, cleanup workers are using a so-called “pack as you go” strategy, Smith said. The demolition activities are spaced out to allow time for debris removal, the UCOR spokeswoman said. That strategy reportedly limits the amount of contaminated debris that’s exposed to rain and other weather conditions and minimizes the environmental risks, she said.
