The prime cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee said this week it self-reported the unauthorized work done by two employees at a retired experimental reactor in February 2017, which led to a $120,000 penalty.
URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) is taking corrective actions not just at the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) site but across its enterprise at Oak Ridge, spokeswoman Ashley Hartman said by email.
The facility was retired in the late 1960s after four years of research on the molten salt reactor concept. It has since been defueled. UCOR is responsible, under its $2.7 billion environmental remediation contract at Oak Ridge, for ensuring the reactor site is kept safe and stable as it awaits decommissioning.
But on Feb. 16, 2017, “two operators at the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment took actions without following proper work authorization or procedures,” Hartman said. “Once discovered, UCOR immediately self-reported the event to the Department of Energy (DOE) and began an internal investigation,” she added.
No injury or environmental release resulted from the incident, DOE indicated. The details of the unauthorized work by the operators were not entirely clear in a March 22 consent order reached between UCOR and DOE, or the department’s letter that accompanied the order.
Workers were trying to locate “boundary valves” within the reactive gas removal system area, according to the department. The consent order indicated the exact location of these valves was difficult to determine from the engineering drawings.
The Office of Enforcement within DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments cited the monetary payment and various corrective actions that would be required by the contractor the letter to UCOR President Kenneth Rueter. Among other things, the order requires the contractor to conduct an analysis of its nuclear and high-hazard operations, with an eye toward improving communications with DOE and front-line cleanup operators.
The experimental reactor operated from June 1965 through December 1969 before being retired. The unit was designed to investigate the feasibility of the molten salt reactor concept. After its retirement, DOE eventually removed the reactor fuel from MSRE under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
