Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
10/31/2014
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.–While the schedule for downblending some of Oak Ridge’s stockpile of uranium-233 remains uncertain due to delays in disposal of other portions of the material, the site is making progress on preparations for the processing, an Oak Ridge official said here last week. The Department of Energy and the state of Nevada are still working through details on the proposed disposal of a portion of uranium-233 from the Consolidated Edison Uranium Solidification Project, which also makes the timeline uncertain for processing a separate portion of the material. “In terms of the timeframe for the downblending, it really depends on what our schedule is going to be for the CEUSP shipments. As we are on hold for that we are able to devote some of our resources to the planning for the downblending,” DOE Oak Ridge Acting Cleanup Manager Sue Cange said at this year’s Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum. “So I don’t have a schedule that I can share with you right now because it depends on what decision will be made about the CEUSP.”
At issue is the inventory of uranium-233 being stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Building 3019. Due to high costs associated with a previous plan to downblend the entire store of the material for disposal, in 2011 DOE switched plans to only downblend about half the stockpile while shipping the other half to the Nevada National Security Site for direct disposal. However, Nevada officials last year pushed back against the plan and sought more information from DOE and formed a working group to deal with the proposed disposal of the CEUSP material. DOE had originally planned to complete the first CEUSP shipments in 2013, but delays in those shipments have also impacted the downblending, which DOE had previously hoped to begin in 2015 and complete in 2018.
‘The Project is Not at a Complete Standstill’
With shipments on hold for the uranium-233, DOE has been working on planning activities for downblending of the other half of the material at Building 2026, which is located across the street from where the uranium-233 is stored. “We have been making improvements and modifications to a nearby facility that will be utilized for downblending and we are going through the critical decision process for that particular project,” Cange said. This summer DOE also transitioned some uranium-233 as reference material to ORNL that will be used for studies there. “Although we have been on hold with the CEUSP material, we have found other important things to be working on so that the project is not at a complete standstill,” she said.
Ruptured Pipe Floods Building 3019
Meanwhile, in September a buried fire-water supply line burst outside Building 3019 where the uranium-233 is stored, leading to up to two inches of water collecting in the building’s basement, according to a recently released Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board staff report. The line was one of five that broke at ORNL according to “a pressure change in the City of Oak Ridge-delivered water system,” DOE Oak Ridge spokesman Mike Koentop said in a written response.
The leak at 3019 occurred at about 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 17. “A majority of the water flowed out of the building’s south yard and onto the street. Some water and mud flowed into Building 3019, resulting in minor water accumulation in several rooms. Two of the areas where the water accumulated were contamination areas. The water and mud were removed from the contaminated areas using standard radiological control practices and containerized,” Koentop said. “In response to the loss of water to the fire suppression system, a temporary hose was routed from a fire hydrant to a room in Building 3019 to back feed the suppression system. The water line was repaired and the fire suppression system was restored, tested, and declared operational on September 30.”
