Sewage Treatment Plant Cleanup Progressing
WC Monitor
6/19/2015
The Department of Energy-funded cleanup of an Oak Ridge sewage treatment plant is continuing, with no immediate end in sight. The Rarity Ridge facility became contaminated early last year – and possibly even earlier – when radioactive technetium seeped from the K-25 demolition project and ultimately infiltrated the pipelines leading to the city’s wastewater plant.
DOE took financial and technical responsibility for cleaning up the plant, and so far about 65,000 gallons of radioactive sludge has been shipped from the Oak Ridge site to a Permafix treatment facility in Richland, Wash. Anne Smith, a spokeswoman for URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, DOE’s cleanup manager, said the 13th shipment of radioactive sludge left Oak Ridge on June 10.
Smith said radioactivity levels inside the Oak Ridge treatment facility sludge are going down. However, there is no timetable yet for getting the rad contamination down to acceptable levels. Mike Koentop, executive officer of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management in Oak Ridge, earlier said about 20 shipments might be required to get the job done. “We are experiencing a downward trend in the levels of contamination present in the first part of the treatment system at Rarity Ridge,” Smith said. “Overall, the trends are in the right direction.”
Smith did not provide a cost estimate for the total project. “We are not comfortable disclosing cost number, especially before we have completed a task,” she said. “All indications are the costs are trending as planned.”
The contamination problem at the city’s Rarity Ridge Wastewater Treatment Plant was discovered in February 2014.The Tc-99 was associated with a few processing sections of the former K-25 uranium-enrichment site. Some of the radioactive materials in the soil and groundwater at the demolition site reportedly migrated from the immediate area and leaked into pipelines that were connected to the city’s treatment facility on the other side of the Clinch River west of K-25.
PermaFix is responsible for removing the sludge and treating it under a subcontract to UCOR. After the contaminated sludge is treated at PermaFix’s Bulk Processing Unit, the residual ashes are sent to the EnergySolutions facility at Clive, Utah, for disposal.
A Drill That Flirted With a Real Emergency
WC Monitor
6/19/2015
One of the biggest emergency drills of the year at Oak Ridge flirted with a real-time emergency this week, apparently creating some uncertainty about how to proceed and a little uneasiness as well. At about 10:30 a.m. June 16, midway through the five-hour emergency exercise that simulated the response to a tornado, a cleanup worker inside the K-27 building –a former uranium-enrichment facility that’s being prepared for demolition – had a personal monitor for hydrogen fluoride go off and alert employees in the area.
Pre-demolition activities at K-27 were continuing despite the emergency drill taking place nearby at the site, known as the East Tennessee Technology Park, and the two events intermingled – at least for a while. Mike Koentop, executive officer at Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Office in Oak Ridge, confirmed the event but downplayed the significance. He said the concern about a hydrogen fluoride release was dismissed within a short time. K-27 at one time processed uranium hexafluoride in a gaseous form, and hydrogen fluoride is an ongoing concern at the site.
An industrial hygienist reportedly took air samples to check for HF, and six workers who were in the area where the monitor sounded were taken to an on-site medical facility for an evaluation. However, Koentop said the workers were back at work within about 15 minutes. He said procedures call for workers to stop work and back up about 15 feet while an industrial hygienist takes air readings for a possible exposure to hydrogen fluoride.
He said it’s not uncommon for the alarms to activate. “These monitors are really, really sensitive,” Koentop said. Regardless, the HF alert may reportedly had an impact on some of the activities associated with the emergency exercise – which had about 200 participants.
A bus that was loaded with “victims” in the drill was supposed to be headed to a local hospital as part of the exercise. But the bus reportedly was put on hold just in case it was needed to transport real-life victims to the hospital. East Tennessee Technology Park hosts a full-scale emergency exercise every three years, alternating with DOE’s other big facilities in Oak Ridge — the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
