Work crews at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky are making progress in building a new 3,500-square-foot emergency operations center at the former gaseous diffusion plant complex, DOE said Tuesday.
The new, more modern center to house emergency management staff and monitor environmental conditions will replace the one set up in 1990 within the C-300 Control Building, a 1950s-era structure, the DOE said in a Tuesday press release.
Construction of the new emergency center started in late summer, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said in a four-minute video on the center described as a large concrete block sturdy enough to withstand severe weather.
In April of last year, the DOE Office of Environmental Management approved a $5.4-million task order for Jacobs-led Four River Nuclear Partnership to construct the facility. The feds said last year the new center should be finished during the first half of 2023.
The new center will include newer software and technology to improve communications and expedite emergency response times, DOE said.
“While our employees take proactive steps to avoid site emergencies, our emergency management team must collaborate with all onsite organizations to plan effective responses to potential hazards,” said Four Rivers program manager Myrna Redfield. The new center should make Paducah better prepared “in the event of a real emergency,” she added in the release.
