In May 2013, the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), a publicly held company that had leased the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) facilities for enrichment operations for the 20 years following the Energy Policy Act of 1992, made the decision to cease enrichment and returned the leased facilities to DOE. DOE and USEC completed the transition and return of the sites process buildings and other facilities in October 2014. Since deactivation activities began, optimization of the site's infrastructure, such as the consolidation of the site’s four switchyards and replacement of its large coal-fired steam plant, continues to ensure the changing needs of the site are being met while reducing future operations and maintenance costs.
When deactivating a process building, there are key priorities Paducah follows. Protecting the workforce, public and environment are the main focuses. The Paducah Site complies with regulations and requirements and allocates decommissioning work to reduce risk. In addition, fulfilling commitments to stakeholders and facilitating low-cost surveillance and maintenance after a facility is deactivated is essential.
Deactivation work on the C-333 Process Building continues with a focus on the safe removal and segmentation of its large components. In addition, PPPO is planning to begin the deactivation of another former enrichment process building, C-331. D&R activities will continue on surplus ancillary facilities, such as former cooling towers, helping to ensure a stable, highly trained and qualified workforce remains available.