The Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) site is located at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in New York State. SPRU is an inactive pilot plant that was used to research and develop chemical processes to separate plutonium from other radioactive material. As a result of operations, contamination occurred at two buildings and interconnecting pipe tunnels, as well as approximately 30 acres of land where waste containers were managed.
Cleanup activities at SPRU to date have resulted in removal of the nuclear facilities (including the sub-grade building foundations and tank vaults), remediation of land areas, shipment of the resulting waste to the appropriate off-site disposal facilities, and transfer of the areas back to the Office of Naval Reactors. All site physical work finished in summer 2019. A storage facility containing 24 containers of TRU waste remains at the site. This waste was generated from removal of sediments in building sumps and some of the SPRU processing equipment.
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