Dae Chung, associate principal deputy assistant secretary for corporate services, second from left, and other EM officials recently toured the Paducah Site.
Dae Chung, associate principal deputy assistant secretary for corporate services, second from left, and other EM officials recently toured the Paducah Site.

PADUCAH, Ky.EM leaders recently got a firsthand look at cleanup progress being made at the Paducah Site in western Kentucky.

The visit by Dae Chung, associate principal deputy assistant secretary for corporate services, and other EM officials included stops at the C-400 Cleaning Building remediation project, the new Large Item Neutron Assay System (LINAS) and the C-333 Process Building deactivation.

The deactivated C-400 is the largest source of groundwater pollution at the site. LINAS will be used to scan and measure neutron particles emitted from any uranium deposits inside large equipment removed from the C-333 Process Building. C-333 is the first of four process buildings scheduled to undergo future demolition at Paducah. The officials viewed cell-housing demolition in the building in preparation for Material Sizing Area construction.

The group also reviewed ongoing utility optimization efforts to right-size operations for future work, and received progress updates on key milestones from leadership with the Portsmouth/ Paducah Project Office (PPPO) and Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership (FRNP). FRNP is EM’s deactivation and remediation contractor at Paducah.

“We appreciate the opportunity to showcase the efforts of our Paducah team,” said PPPO Manager Joel Bradburne. “Observing unique projects such as the R-114 refrigerant disposal and LINAS provides a better perspective of where they fit into Paducah’s cleanup story.”