PIKE COUNTY, Ohio - DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar visited the Portsmouth Site last week to learn more about EM’s cleanup at the former uranium enrichment plant.
Dabbar’s tour began at the 80-acre property recently transferred to the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative, the regional community reuse organization, for economic development. Reindustrialization at the Portsmouth Site kicked off with the property transfer in July.
Dabbar viewed deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) of the massive uranium enrichment process buildings, including the X-333 Building in the initial stages of deactivation and the X-326 Building in the completion stage of deactivation.
From an observation tower, Dabbar saw progress on the construction of the Onsite Waste Disposal Facility, designed to safely contain waste and construction debris from demolition of the process buildings and plant facilities. The cell is scheduled for first waste placement in fiscal year 2021 with demolition debris from the X-326 process building.
“It is a unique opportunity to visibly see how critical the integrated sequencing of the cleanup activities are to the success of EM’s mission," said Joel Bradburne, deputy manager of EM’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office and acting Portsmouth Site lead.
The tour continued at the Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Conversion Facility, one of two plants processing the coproduct of the uranium enrichment process. The conversion process results in the more stable compound of uranium oxide for reuse or disposal, and hydrofluoric acid for recycling to industrial use. The visit concluded with a tour of the American Centrifuge Project facilities.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
