The site operations contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex is finishing decontamination in Building 9995 after a furnace there blew open and spewed uranium in late May.
The muffle furnace in Y-12’s Analytical Chemistry Facility partially exploded after an unexpected reaction, contaminating nearby space and equipment, but neither injuring nor contaminating any personnel, a spokesperson for Consolidated Nuclear Security wrote in a Tuesday email.
“This area was promptly cordoned off and contained by Radiation Control,” the company spokesperson stated. “The area will be completely decontaminated this week. The buffer area adjacent to the equipment was contaminated; it will be completely decontaminated this week.”
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) disclosed the incident in a report last week.
The furnace, which was broken and will be replaced, was not used in weapons production.
According to the DNFSB, one chemist was working near the muffle furnace when it blew, but was not harmed after the equipment ejected glass vials filled with uranium, along with laboratory waste containing organic epoxies and lithium compounds.
Muffle furnaces heat materials to a very high temperatures. At Y-12, the furnaces separate uranium from other materials for reuse or analysis.
Building 9995 was built in 1957 and renovated most recently in 2016. In its laboratories, personnel analyze the purity of uranium intended for use in nuclear weapons and naval reactors, and analyze soil and groundwater samples that might be contaminated by the site’s uranium operations.
Y-12 will continue to rely on the building for analytical chemistry work into the 2040s; unlike other key Y-12 uranium facilities, Building 9995 will not be replaced by the Uranium Processing Facility now being built at the site.
The Uranium Processing Facility will be finished by December 2025 at a cost of no more than $6.5 billion, the NNSA says.
Consolidated Nuclear Security is a Bechtel National-led team that includes Northrop Grumman, SOC, and subcontractor Booz Allen Hamilton.
