The Energy Department is lagging behind schedule for deactivation and demolition of the C-400 complex at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, the DOE Inspector General’s Office said in an audit report released Tuesday.
The 134,000-square-foot C-400 building was chiefly employed to clean equipment used in uranium enrichment at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. A hazardous solvent, trichloroethylene (TCE), was used in the work and today is the source of contaminated plumes under the site.
The facility was retired in 2013. In November 2019 the deactivation process to place the building in a safe and stable status ahead of demolition was already 18 months behind schedule, Assistant Inspector General Jennifer Quinones stated in the report. It was expected to be completed until April of this year.
With the COVID-19-related work slowdown added into the picture, C-400 deactivation is now expected in September, according to the audit, dated June 8.
Delays at C-400 are due in part to problems with the work process of the Energy Department’s remediation contractor at Paducah, Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, the report says, as well as “historic disputes” between DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection that date to 2000.
But the IG’s report stresses there is risk in delaying the building’s demolition until 2025, noting the Energy Department’s 2018 plan for tearing down C-400 cited its degraded condition. Over time there is an increased risk of a building failure, which could occur during severe weather, and contamination release, according to the audit.
The fiscal 2020 budget report for the DOE Office of Environmental Management envisioned completion of demolition of the C-400 cleaning building this year.
In a formal response dated May 8, DOE Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Manager Robert Edwards agreed the contractor needs more robust planning and work processes while DOE needs to “continue ongoing discussions” with stakeholders, including regulators.
While the plumes remain a concern, the concentration of trichloroethylene contaminant in the plume has been reduced between 96% and 97%, Edwards said in the formal DOE reply.
