Fluor Federal Services has installed nine new well monitors to measure the amount of toxic trichloroethene in the groundwater at the Energy Department’s Paducah Site in Kentucky, DOE said.
The nine wells will help DOE prepare for future groundwater treatment at the site, which is contaminated by the toxic industrial solvent used to clean equipment at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant from its construction in the 1950s through the 1990s, the department said in an Oct. 21 press release.
“Data from the new wells will support the project’s next phase, which includes installing an additional 13 monitoring wells, two extraction wells, and a new treatment facility to augment the existing pump-and-treat unit,” DOE said. “The next phase begins when samples from the nine new monitoring wells are assessed.”
DOE and its contractor have already treated 3.6 billion gallons of water at the site, removing more than 4,200 gallons of contamination, according to the press release.
Fluor Federal Services is deactivating the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant under a three-year DOE contract awarded in 2014 and worth roughly $420 million. The plant was last used by Centrus Energy Corp., the former U.S. Enrichment Corp., in 2013.
DOE in July released a final solicitation for a 10-year Paducah cleanup contract, valued between $600 million and $1 billion, including options. The deal would kick in after Fluor Federal Services’ deactivation contract expires on July 22, 2017.
