Portsmouth, Paducah Cleanup Enabling U.S. Energy, Manager Says

Portsmouth Paducah Project Office Manager Joel Bradburne speaks to the approximately 200 attendees of the Energy, Technology & Environmental Business Association’s Business Opportunities Exchange last week.

COVINGTON, Ky. — Cleanup progress at the former Portsmouth and Paducah uranium enrichment plants is helping enable new opportunities for local communities to continue advancing U.S. energy and U.S. security goals, Joel Bradburne, manager of the Portsmouth Paducah Project Office (PPPO), said here last week.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) “is not only addressing the legacy of the past, but is enabling U.S. jobs, U.S. energy and U.S. security for today, and for the future. In doing so, EM contributes to the goal our new Energy Secretary Chris Wright has laid out to usher in a new golden era of American energy dominance,” Bradburne told the approximately 200 attendees at the Energy, Technology & Environmental Business Association (ETEBA) Business Opportunities Exchange.

“The communities around the Portsmouth and Paducah sites are primed to be a part of it as we transform liabilities into opportunities for the future,” he added.

Bradburne outlined recent cleanup accomplishments at the two sites. At Portsmouth, EM has safely torn down the first of the site’s three former enrichment process buildings, and is set to begin tearing down the second later this year. At Paducah, 14 excess facilities have come down, including the site’s former fire water tower, which at 300 feet, was the tallest structure at the site. In addition, deactivation work is underway at the first of Paducah’s four former enrichment process buildings to prepare it for eventual demolition. At both sites, EM continues to make progress converting cylinders of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) material from past enrichment operations for safe reuse or disposal.

“The long-standing partnership between EM and the best of American industry is key to the progress we’re making in cleaning up these former uranium enrichment sites and safely managing nuclear waste and materials,” Bradburne said.

A key factor in PPPO’s cleanup progress, according to Bradburne, is the use of a “One PPPO” approach to manage cleanup activities at the two sites as a single integrated enterprise. This has enabled the sharing of lessons learned, and helps drive innovative approaches.

An example of such innovative approaches is PPPO’s “Decision 2029” strategy to help streamline regulatory decision-making for cleanup at Paducah, Bradburne said. This approach, which PPPO is currently working with federal and state regulators, has the potential to cut the number of regulatory decision documents needed from more than 50 to just five.

“More importantly, it has the potential to significantly jumpstart the Paducah cleanup and help empower the surrounding communities as they look to their future,” he said.

-Contributor: Michael Nartker