A local wish list for speeding cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky headed the agenda as Paducah Chamber of Commerce representatives visited federal officials in Washington, D.C. yesterday and today.
“During this two-day trip, we will meet with Members of Congress, federal officials and key federal agencies to share details on what’s important to our region’s business community and ensure our voice is heard,” the local chamber said online of its 2021 DC Fly-In.
During the event, sponsored in part by Paducah-based Swift & Staley, the landlord services contractor at the federal site, locals presented their federal priorities for DOE and other agencies in the greater Paducah area, said chamber president Sandra Wilson in a Tuesday email.
The list includes completion of deactivation at the C-333 Process Building, one of the four large process buildings at the former enrichment complex. The document also said early this year Mid-America Conversion Services and other Paducah contractors shipped six processed depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) oxide cylinders or uranium oxide in modified railcars to the Waste Control Specialists site in Texas as part of a pilot project.
“Currently, there are 3,800 cylinders converted and ready for transport. Conversion and disposal of the approximately 46,000 cylinders on site will be a multiple-decades-long project,” the Paducah Chamber of Commerce document went on to say.
“Cleanup [of the former uranium enrichment complex] is now projected for 2065,” the Paducah chamber document says. “Our community continues to strive for completion before this date.”
