Oak Ridge Crews Prepare Fission Production Lab for Demolition

Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management crews recently finished characterizing all 21 hot cells at the former Fission Production Development Lab. The hot cells, shown here, have manipulators used to safely handle highly radioactive material inside these heavily shielded rooms when the lab was operational.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) notched a significant cleanup achievement after crews finished characterizing all 21 hot cells at a Cold War facility, a complex task that informs plans to safety remove waste and prepare the structure for demolition.

As part of the characterization work, OREM and cleanup contractor UCOR identified the types and levels of contamination in the former Fission Production Development Lab, known as Building 3517, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

“Completing this phase sets the stage for some much bigger accomplishments,” said Steve Clemmons, OREM’s acting ORNL portfolio federal project director. “This is one of the most difficult facilities we’re responsible for addressing, and it’s eventual removal will be a meaningful risk reduction in ORNL’s central campus area.”

OREM and UCOR’s progress is steadily reducing the number of high-risk excess contaminated facilities at ORNL, clearing away hazards and opening space for researchers to advance innovation and make their next big discovery.

The former Fission Production Development Lab at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is categorized as a high-risk excess contaminated facility due to its condition and contents.

Crews could not enter the hot cells to conduct the characterization work due to the extremely high radiation and contamination levels inside them, a challenge that made the accomplishment especially noteworthy. Hot cells are heavily shielded rooms designed to safely contain highly radioactive material during operations.

Operating from 1958 through 1989, Building 3517 was built to recover large quantities of fission products from waste generated in reactor fuel reprocessing operations. It also supported processing and recovery of other reactor-produced isotopes.

Crews drilled through concrete covers to access each cell, and those openings allowed them to gather remote video footage and perform initial radiological surveys.

The team also created a mobile enclosure that served as a containment area and proved to be incredibly helpful during drilling and data collection. Employees were able to move the enclosure as they progressed from one cell to the next.

“This is an outstanding effort by our workforce to complete investigation and initial characterization of these hot cells,” UCOR ORNL Cleanup Area Project Manager Chad York said. “For this team to execute this high-risk work scope, encountering significant levels of contamination daily, and perform the work without incident speaks volumes to the experience and knowledge this team has.”

Workers set up equipment to remotely enter the hot cells to gather video footage and radiological surveys.

Another Milestone: EM Team Removes ORNL’s Single Largest Source of Legacy Radioactivity

OREM has also successfully removed ORNL’s single largest source of legacy radioactivity material, which was located at Building 3517. A partnership with private industry removed a 500-watt radioisotope thermoelectric generator from storage to be recycled into a source of energy for new power systems used by the U.S. Department of Defense.

-Contributor: Carol Hendrycks