The DOE is responsible for the operation or deactivation of a number of sites that were or are part of the Defense Nuclear Complex. Among these sites are several that are still operational and four closed sites. With the end of the Cold War many of the open sites have changed their mission from production of nuclear materials and weapons to site remediation and research. All but two of these sites have been listed as superfund sites by the EPA and placed on the National priority list. Since they are owned by the Federal Government, the procedure for clean up involves negotiated management plans arrived at by the EPA and DOE. The actual work is conducted by contractors under the oversight of the DOE. Decommissioning will be a long and involved process due to the radioactive waste and contamination at these locations, some of which dates from the Manhattan Project. All of the sites have disposal sites for LLW and several have HLW and/or TRUW. The TRUW is planned to go to WIPP; the HLW will be treated and eventually disposed of at the deep geologic repository; and the LLW will be consolidated to final disposal sites at several of the facilities. Costs for treatment of soil, groundwater and surface water will be borne by the taxpayer, who is the ultimate owner of the facilities.

These facilities were all involved in various parts of the production of nuclear weapons until 1992 when production ended. Some are now involved in disassembly of weapons from the nation’s stockpile or the storage of components or raw materials. Many of the facilities will eventually be phased out as their missions are completed and some may be released for other uses in the future after cleanups are completed Despite the contamination of portions of the site, many of these facilities contain large acreage's of untouched land which are important habitats for native plants and animals some of which are endangered. Portions of several sites are being used for research into threatened and endangered species and may become wildlife management areas or refuges. Several are surrounded or bordered by existing parks or refuges. Taken together the DOE sites represent a huge amount of land, over 2,201,000 acres (not including the Laboratories—Brookhaven National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, N.M. and Ca., Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Pacific NW National Laboratory, Berkeley Lawrence National Laboratory—which will not be considered here); all of it publicly owned. Brief descriptions of several of these sites have been given previously but additional details will be supplied here. All of these sites are under the direction of the Department of Energy and they are known collectively as DOE sites.

Y-12 Site on the Oak Ridge Reservation DOE Photo

The oldest of the DOE sites, Oak Ridge (map), was founded in 1943 during WW II by the Manhattan Project to produce enriched uranium for the first atomic bombs. ORR was called the Clinton Engineer Works until 1948. The site was selected because of several desireable qualities, the nearby population center of Knoxville would be an ideal location to recruit a labor force, the Clinch River provided ample supplies of water, and the TVA electrical supply was available for the huge amounts of electricity that would be needed. General Leslie Groves ordered the acquisition of the land on September 19, 1942 and a War Department directive was issued to condemn the land. The condemnation petition was filed in US District Court for the 56,200 acre site, located in Anderson and Roane counties, on October 6, 1942. About thirty-seven thousand people were displaced beginning on November 15, 1942. The farming communities of Elza, Robertsville, Scarboro, and Wheat disappeared, practically overnight. The original purpose of the Clinton Works was to produce the highly enriched uranium that would be needed for the nuclear bombs being produced by the Manhattan Project. There were at that time two methods under consideration for enriching the percentage of U235, gaseous diffusion and electromagnetic separation. No one had ever utilized either, and there were arguments for both, so both methods were used. The Y-12 plant utilized calutrons for the electromagnetic separation method, and the K-25 plant used gaseous diffusion. A third facility known as X-10 housed a graphite plutonium production reactor and the facilities needed to extract the plutonium from the irradiated fuel. The former X-10 location is currently part of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) portion of the site and has been designated as a Historic Landmark. Union Carbide Corporation became the chief nuclear operator in Oak Ridge in 1947 with the addition of the Y-12 and X-10 Plants to their already existing K-25 Plant contract.

The manufacturing and developmental engineering plant, the Y-12 Plant, occupies an 811 acre site in the Bear Creek Valley, about 2 miles from downtown Oak Ridge. Its approximately 700 buildings contain about 7.6 million square feet of floor space. The plant was built as part of the Manhattan Project to separate uranium isotopes by an electromagnetic process. Construction began at the Y-12 site in February of 1943; by November production had started. Tennessee Eastman was assigned operation of the Y-12 Plant in June 1943. Construction continued on portions of the reservation until 1945. Y-12 employed 22,000 workers during the most active parts of the war years. The electromagnetic isotope separation plant was closed in 1946. After the war Y-12s mission changed to uranium fabrication operations and lithium production. The lithium production cascades were built in large processing buildings previously used for uranium separation. Production started between 1953 and 1955. The United States produced a total of 442.4 metric tons of enriched lithium from 1954 to 1963 for thermonuclear weapons, tritium production, and other purposes.

Lithium-6 is separated from natural lithium by the COLEX (Column exchange) electrochemical process. The basis of this method is the fact that Lithium-6 has a greater affinity for mercury than does Lithium-7. Lithium-6 is the desired product. A lithium-mercury amalgam is first prepared using natural Lithium. Natural lithium contains about 7.5 percent lithium-6, the remainder is lithium-7. The amalgam is agitated with a lithium hydroxide solution, also prepared from natural lithium. Lithium-6 concentrates in the amalgam, and the more common Lithium-7 migrates to the hydroxide. A counter flow of amalgam and hydroxide passes through a cascade of stages until the desired enrichment in Lithium-6 is reached. Lithium is concentrated to either 95.5 percent, 60 percent, or 40 percent lithium-6, leaving depleted lithium which contains only 1 to 4 percent lithium-6. The Lithium-6 product can be separated from the amalgam, and the “tails” fraction of Lithium-7 electrolyzed from the aqueous lithium hydroxide solution. The mercury is recovered and can be reused with fresh feedstock. Almost all lithium produced by the United States was enriched by the Column Exchange process. The Column Exchange facilities ran from 1955 to 1961 producing lithium-6. A small amount of lithium was enriched by the Electro-Exchange process, an electrochemical process that also used a large amount of mercury. The Electro-Exchange Plant was operated from 1953 to 1956. Once concentrated, the lithium-6 was combined with deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen, to form lithium deuteride. Lithium production at Y-12 was terminated in 1963 and from that point was recovered from retired warheads for reuse in new weapons. When the project was discontinued, the plant's role changed to manufacturing, stockpile maintenance, and developmental engineering. 12 metric tons of natural and 8 metric tons of depleted lithium hydroxide monohydrate are stored at the Y-12 Plant.

There are portions in every weapon in the U.S. nuclear stockpile that were manufactured at Y-12. The secondary or canned subassembly is one such portion. All of the major parts are made at Y-12. The fusion fuel is deuterium which is used combined with lithium-6 to form lithium deuteride which was produced at Y-12. Two-stage nuclear weapons incorporating a lithium-deuteride-fueled component can deliver greater nuclear yield from a smaller and lighter package than if a pure fission device were used. The depleted uranium-238 casing made at Y-12. The casing not only contains all of the parts but is a highly specialized radiation reflector designed to capture and reflect radiation from the primary and reflect it onto the secondary to create the pressure and heat needed for the fusion explosion. Presently employing over 5,500 people, the Y-12 Plant remains at the center of the nuclear weapons production complex. Y-12 Plant personnel work closely with the nuclear weapon design laboratories to develop components to be tested at the Nevada Test Site. Y12 houses, over 1,200 machine tools worth more than $60 million. The Y-12 Plant has the capability to form parts from enriched and depleted uranium, lithium, beryllium and other materials. These capabilities include special fabrication divisions which can machine rough shapes into the precise configurations needed for nuclear warheads.

Now known as the Y-12 National Security Complex, programs at Y-12 include manufacturing and reworking nuclear weapon components, dismantling nuclear weapon components returned from the national arsenal, serving as the nation's storehouse of special nuclear materials, and providing special production support to other programs. Y-12 serves as the nation's storage depot of highly enriched uranium. The current inventory at Y-12 is 171.9 metric tons of enriched uranium as follows: 3.0 metric tons of low enriched uranium (having assays above .7 percent uranium-235 and less than 20 percent uranium-235 and 168.9 metric tons of highly enriched uranium. The highly enriched uranium is stored in various forms: 136.9 metric tons of metal; 4.2 metric tons of oxide; and 27.8 metric tons in other forms. Some of the programs at the Y-12 facility include: The Nuclear Materials Management and Storage Program receives, stores, protects, and manages strategic and special nuclear materials and provides planning, analysis, and forecasting for national security material requirements. The Weapons Dismantlement and Disposal Program receives, dismantles, and distributes retired weapon components and subassemblies from the stockpile. The Quality Evaluation and Surveillance Program is responsible for evaluation, scheduled maintenance, and testing of weapon components and assemblies to assess the integrity and life expectancy of the stockpile and systematically upgrading the US nuclear arsenal. As part of this function, Employees disassemble MX missile warheads, the W87, replacing aging components. This process is referred to as refurbishment. When completed this project will have extended the useful life of the W87 from the designed 20-30 years to 100-120 years. After the work on the W87 is done, similar upgrades will be performed on the W76 and B61 warheads. The Material Recycle and Recovery Program recycles and recovers highly enriched uranium and lithium-6 materials from process residues, dismantlement operations, and manufacturing processes.

Y-12 is operated by BWXT Y-12 for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). BWX Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of McDermott, Inc. since 1978, was selected as prime contractor to manage and operate DOE's Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant in 2000. BWXT and Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI), combined to form BWXT Y-12 for the purpose of management and operations at Y-2. The five year, $2.5 billion contract, was previously awarded to Lockheed Martin Corporation. Lockheed Martin Corporation made $438 million dollars a year on their contract. BWXT Y-12 stands to do even better, $500 million per year, and possibly an additional $30 to $38 million per year. BWXT is also involved in other DOE sites. It was on the team selected to manage DOE's Idaho National Engineering Laboratory in 1994; in 1995 BWXT was one of the companies selected as a subcontractor at DOE's Rocky Flats Environmental Test Site; in 1996 they were among the companies contracted to manage DOE's Hanford and Savannah River Sites; they are the prime contractor for clean-up of DOE's Mound Site in Ohio as of 1997; in 2000 they were selected as prime contractor to manage and operate DOE's Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas; and they received a contract through the University of California for work at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2001.

Y-12 used millions of pounds of mercury to separate isotopes of lithium associated with past nuclear weapon production at the site. Despite measures to contain spills, an estimated 240,000 pounds of mercury was released into Upper East Fork Poplar Creek between 1950 and the mid 1960s. Overall, an estimated 700,000 pounds of mercury was lost to the environment, while about 1.3 million pounds was unaccounted for through bookkeeping errors. The U.S. Department of Energy announced a new phase of cleanup of mercury residues in the soils, sediments and surface water of the East Fork Poplar Creek at the Y-12 National Security Complex in October of 2002. This phase is scheduled to be completed in approximately 2010 at an projected cost of $38 million.

Between 1951 and 1984, four seepage pits known as the S-3 ponds were used by the Y-12 Plant for the disposal of over 2,700,000 gallons of various liquid wastes consisting of concentrated acids, caustic solutions, mop waters, and byproducts from the uranium recovery processes, including uranium and other heavy metals. These unlined pits, referred to at one time as a "witch's cauldron," were designed to allow liquid either to evaporate or percolate into the ground. The Bone Yard operated from 1943 to 1970 and received acids, coolants, oils, metals, and debris. Accurate records of disposal practices in this site were not kept. Approximately 100,000 tons of undocumented refuse were burned and buried in two unlined trenches in the Burn Yard between 1943 and 1968. The Oil Landfarm Site is located in Bear Creek Valley west of the S-3 ponds. This site occupies twenty seven acres and includes the Oil Landfarm, Bone- Yard, Burn Yard, HazardousChernical Disposal Area, and Sanitary Landfill Number One. Between 1973 and 1982, over one million gallons of liquid oily wastes 19 from the Y-12 Plant were distributed over the surface of the thirteen-acre landfarm and plowed into the ground hoping they would be absorbed into the soil or degraded by microorganisms. In 1979, it was discovered that the oil placed on the land contained PCBs. Other substances present in the oil include beryllium compounds, depleted uranium, and tetrachlorethene. The oil landfarm has been closed and covered with a waterproof cap. In 1951, the AEC began to use the abandoned Kerr Hollow Quarry, located off Bethel Valley Road, as a disposal site for waterreactive materials, potentially explosive materials and empty compressed gas cylinders. Containers would be dropped into the quarry from the surrounding ridge, and security personnel would shoot the containers to release their contents. Kerr Hollow Quarry was used for disposal until November of 1988-34 Records of materials disposed of in Kerr Hollow Quarry in the late 1950's and early 1960's have been lost.

Aerial view of the K-25 Site DOE Photo

The K-25 Site occupies a 1,700-acre area adjacent to the Clinch River, approximately 13 miles west of Oak Ridge. Originally built to enrich uranium, a majority of the 92 buildings on the site are now inactive since production activities ceased in 1987. The site's mission has changed primarily to environmental management. As the focus for waste storage on the Oak Ridge Reservation, the K-25 Site houses the Toxic Substance Control Act Incinerator and the Centers for Environmental Technology and Waste Management. The K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Oak Ridge operated until l964 producing HEU⁹ HEW=Highly Enriched Uranium, Uranium enriched to above 20 percent of U235 for use in military plutonium production reactors for military use. It then switched to producing LEU⁸ LEW=Low Enriched Uranium, Uranium enriched to approximately 3-5% U235, used as fuel in commercial power reactors. for commercial use until 1985 when reduced demand resulted in the closing of the gaseous diffusion cascades. There are 1.5 metric tons of highly enriched uranium at the K-25 Site. Almost all of the highly enriched uranium present is contained in the K-25 Site Processing Plant, on the internal surfaces of the shutdown processing equipment. The site has been converted into the East Tennessee Technology Park which is operated by Lockheed Martin.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the final original portion of the Oak Ridge Site, built in 1942 and also known as X-10, makes up 2,900 acres of the current 34,513 acre site. It is located in Melton and Bethel Valleys, 10 miles southwest of the City of Oak Ridge. ORNL is operated by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corp. as a contractor to DOE. The lab does research in several areas including energy, environmental quality, national security and science technology.

The plan was to create two atomic weapons--one fueled by plutonium, the other by enriched uranium. Hanford, Washington, was selected as the site for plutonium production, but before large reactors could be built there, a pilot plant was necessary to prove the feasibility of scaling up from laboratory experiments. A secluded, rural area near Clinton, Tennessee, was chosen both for the full-scale production of enriched uranium and for the pilot-scale production of plutonium.

The Graphite Reactor, designed for this second purpose, was built in only 11 months. Its job was to show that plutonium could be extracted from irradiated uranium slugs, and its first major challenge was to produce a self-sustaining chain reaction.

Workers began loading uranium into the reactor during the afternoon of Nov. 3, 1943, and progress was swift. Before dawn on Nov. 4, Enrico Fermi was summoned from a nearby guest house. The reactor ``went critical'' at 5 a.m.; less than two months later, it was producing a third of a ton of irradiated uranium a day. Two months after that, Oak Ridge chemists produced the world's first few grams of plutonium.

A portion of the lab site is the Melton Valley waste management area, a radioactive waste dump originating with Manhattan Project period. The U.S. Department of Energy has begun a major effort to clean up an area of the Oak Ridge Reservation that was used for radioactive waste disposal for over 50 years. The area, known as the Melton Valley Watershed, is the location for a large number of burial grounds, liquid waste seepage pits and trenches, and experimental facilities associated with research and development activities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). These former waste sites are the primary contributors to offsite spread of contaminants. The Melton Valley Watershed Record of Decision was signed by the Department of Energy (DOE), the State of Tennessee, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in September 2000. It calls for most of three Solid Waste Storage Areas (SWSA’s) (4, 5, and 6) to be capped. SWSAs 4 and 5 are the primary contributors to off-site migration of contaminants, and Melton Valley is the source of 90 percent of strontium and tritium discharged from DOE property into the Clinch River.

There are tanks in all three operating portions of the site containing both radioactive and hazardous waste. The groundwater and soil and air at the site are contaminated and it has been listed under CERCLA. A wide variety of chemicals have been detected in water on the reservation; among them: Chromium, Magnesium, Uranium, Cesium, Cobalt, Lead, Mercury, Acetone, 2 Butanone, Strontium, Vanadium, Tolulene, Xylene, Tritium, Boron, Thallium, Aluminum and Lithium. Large quantities of mercury have been found in surface water and soil at the Y-12 Plant. The mercury was used in an exchange process to separate lithium isotopes and spills have contaminated the area.

In addition to the Y12, X10 and Y25 facilities, Oak Ridge also operates facilities in other locations including gaseous diffusion plants at Paducah, KY, and Portsmouth, OH, and the uranium metal processing facility at Weldon Springs, MO, all of which are in the process of environmental cleanup. These facilities will be described separately. Uranium Programs are performed under the Office of Nuclear Fuel Security and Uranium Technology (NFS). This organization is chartered to manage and facilitate the maintenance and disposition of DOE's excess uranium inventories and to develop and implement strategic and tactical plans to ensure an integrated approach for the Department's uranium management activities. The organization is responsible for administering the Lease Agreement/Regulatory Oversight Program with the United States Enrichment Corporation and provides leadership and technical support for the development of advanced uranium enrichment technology. NFS has an established interface with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for nuclear safety related issues. NFS also provides assistance to Environmental Management for the "cold standy" program at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant to ensure an adequate supply of domestic uranium enrichment. Further, the organization manages various electrical and gas contracts serving the Oak Ridge, Paducah, and Portsmouth facilities, as well as comprehensive land management for the Oak Ridge Reservation.

The second of the major Manhattan Project facilities—Hanford’s location was chosen for its isolation, readily available electric power, abundant supply of water, large amount of land, a deep water table, sandy loose soil and no large towns nearby. The initial facilities were built for $230 million from March 1943 to August 1945 by the Army Corps of Engineers and the DuPont Corporation, the site’s first contractor. Its original mission was the production of weapons grade plutonium for use in the Trinity bomb and the Nagasaki bomb. The first reactor, B Reactor, went critical in September 1944; the second, the D Reactor, in December 1944; the third, the F Reactor, February 1945. The first separation plants were batch plants designed to dissolve one batch of slugs at a time. The first, the T Plant in area 200 W. began operations on December 26, 1944. The second, the B Plant in area 200 E. began operations April 1945. The third, the U Plant was constructed during the war but was not needed. Fuel fabrication facilities constructed in the 300 area were operational by July 1944. After the war Hanford had a brief period of slow down which ended in 1947. The period beginning in 1947 saw $350 million in construction at Hanford. H Reactor went critical in October 1949. DH Reactor went critical in October of 1950. The Z Plant for plutonium finishing went on line in July of 1949. A second expansion took place during the Korean War. The Redox Plant or S Plant for continuous extraction of plutonium by reduction-oxidation opened in 1952. C Reactor went critical in November 1952. The U Plant built during W.W.II went on line in July of 1952 to remove uranium from the waste stream for use. The KW Reactor went critical in January of 1955. The KE Reactor went critical in April 1955. In January 1956 the Purex or Plutonium Uranium extraction plant went on line. The N Reactor began production in December of 1963. The reactors began shutting down in 1964, the DR Reactor closed in December of 1964. H Reactor closed in April of 1965. The F Reactor closed in June of 1965. The D Reactor closed in June of 1967. B Reactor closed in February 1968. C Reactor closed in April of 1969. kW Reactor closed in February of 1970. KE Reactor closed in January of 1971. N Reactor was closed in February of 1988.

Hanford has been operated by a number of contractors. DuPont was the first contractor from 1942 to August 31, 1946. Full name E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company. From September 1946 to 1965 they were replaced by General Electric Company. GE was replaced in 1965/66 by seven contractors. Battelle Memorial Institute took over environmental monitoring and testing functions in January 1965 to the present. Computer Sciences Co. handled data management from July 1965 to 1975. Hanford Occupational Health Foundation had managed medical services since 1965. Douglas United Nuclear a joint venture of Douglas Aircraft Co. and United Nuclear Corporation operated the reactors and fabricated fuel September 1965 to 1973. Isochem, a joint venture of US Rubber Company and Martin Marietta Corporation managed chemical processing operations from January 1966 to September 1967 and was then replaced by Atlantic Richfield from September 1967 to October 1977, then Rockwell Hanford Inc. from October 1977 to July 1987, then Westinghouse Hanford from July 1987 to current. Westinghouse also manages reactor operations and waste management.

Hanford’s facilities were built in a series of cycles over a period of decades during and after the war. After the war ended there was a two year lull in production then the first of three major expansions began. Two additional reactors were added to the three original ones, the Plutonium Finishing Plant for production of metallic plutonium was completed and the C Plant to develop the new REDOX (Reduction Oxidation) process for separating plutonium. The second expansion began just as the first was ending in 1949. REDOX, C Reactor, seven research laboratories, the Uranium Oxide Plant and the Metal Recovery Plant were built. The third expansion began in 1953 and brought two reactors, the PUREX(Plutonium Reduction Extraction) plant and a scrap recovery plant called RECUPLEX. Peak production occurred between 1956-1964 and along with all time highs in Plutonium production came N Reactor, the Plutonium Reclamation Facility to replace RECUPLEX, and experimental plutonium fuels plants the Plutonium Fuels Pilot Plant and the Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor. At this point there were nine plutonium production reactors in operation at Hanford; the original B, D, and F Reactors; H and DR Reactors from the first expansion; C Reactor from the second expansion; KE and kW Jumbo Reactors from the third expansion. All eight earlier reactors utilized a once through cooling cycle where in water from the Columbia River was run through the core and straight back into the river. N Reactor used a loop cooling system that reused the same water continuously.

Wastes at Hanford were disposed of in a variety of ways. Two settling ponds were in operation until 1974, known as Process Ponds they were connected to the system of process sewers that served all the buildings on the site. The original pond was supplemented by a new larger pond in 1948. Wastes sent to the two ponds over the years include 124 tons of Uranium, 9,800 tons of Sodium and Sodium compounds, 4,100 tons of nitrates and Nitric Acid, 18,000 tons of Nickel, and 2,200 tons of trichloroethylene among other heavy metals and chemicals. The soil and groundwater near the former ponds site is contaminated with all of these substances. In the 300 Area a series of burial grounds were used for solid wastes including high activity fission products and Plutonium. The first of these, 618-8 was used 1943-44 and was accidentally discovered in 1952 while digging holes for light posts. It lies under the current parking lot for 300 Area. The second, 618-1 was used 1945-51. Much of its waste was inadvertently dissolved in nitric acid during a 1965 tank leak. The third, 618-2 was used 1951-54 until the majority of its contents were destroyed in a fire. The fourth, 618-3 was used 1954-55 mainly for disposal of construction debris from remodeling two buildings. The fifth, 618-10 was used 1954-61 and experienced two fires, one in 1955 spread contamination 1,500’ NE of 4.5R/hr. The second fire in 1961 consumed all burnable material in the trench. Sixth, 6618-11 was used 1962-70 for material up to 100 R/hr. Uranium contaminated trash was burned during the 1940s and until 1953 at two burning grounds in the 300 Area. In the early years there was no effort to prevent the release of radioactive gases through the stacks. In 1945 345,000 Ci of Iodine¹³¹ were released for example. Much of the liquid waste containing Plutonium, Uranium, acids and volatile organic solvents was disposed of in cribs to filter it into the soil. Over 400 billion gallons of liquid effluent was disposed of in this way.

There are 177 underground storage tanks for high level waste at Hanford, some of which hold 1 million gallons each. 149 are single shell tanks (ssts) and 28 are double shell tanks (dsts) and together they hold 56 million gallons of HLW. 67 of the single shell tanks leaked. 119 of the SSTs have had all the liquids pumped out into dsts . All that remains in these tanks is the sludge and salt cake. 18 tanks contain Ferocyanide which was added to the waste in the 1950s. For some time there was a concern that these tanks could overheat and explode but this issue has been resolved. A number of the tanks are producing hydrogen which is a flammable and explosive gas. These have been placed on the Flammable Gas Watch List, a total of 53 tanks meet the criteria. Six of the dsts are know to have gas release episodes (GRES) in which the gas trapped in the waste periodically bubbles up violently rather like a burp. GRES or burps produce a plume of flammable gas which temporarily create ignitable concentrations of hydrogen in the headspace of the tank. To minimize the risk of ignition in these tanks due to lightening strikes the risers on the tanks have be grounded and air terminals have been installed on a number of the light poles at the tank farms. Both passive and active venting systems are used to prevent concentrations of hydrogen gas from building up. A percentage of the waste contains reactive organic materials that may also be flammable, particularly nitrates, but there is preliminary data that indicates that the organics tend to degrade into inert products when stored over time at high radiation levels and temperatures such as those in the waste tanks. This may mean that the risk from these organics is lower than previously believed.

The contents of each of the tanks need to be determined through sampling and analysis in order to plan for future treatment and disposal. The waste is a complex mixture of radioactive and hazardous components resulting from various production processes in the manufacture of Plutonium. Three entirely different processes were used in Plutonium separation in the history of the site, batch processing at the T and B plants which was augmented by the first of two continuous solvent extraction process, REDOX in 1949. The REDOX process was based upon use of methyl isobutyl ketone or hexane, an organic solvent with a low flashpoint which necessitated building the plant components to explosion proof standards. In addition, the salting agent aluminum nitrate could not be recycled and left the plant as waste. The second continuous solvent extraction process plant, PUREX was completed in 1956 and utilized a number of chemicals in various parts of the process including nitric acid, sodium hydroxide, ammonium fluoride, ammonium nitrate, potassium hydroxide, hydrofluoric acid, tri-butyl phosphate and normal paraffin hydrocarbon. All of these formed part of the waste stream in addition to fission products and small amounts of Uranium, Plutonium, and Neptunium missed by the recovery process. The characterization of the tank wastes has been ongoing for over 10 years and over $260 million has been spent with no real progress. Core samples, headspace gas samples and other means have been used in the attempt to determine the nature of the waste in each of 177 tanks. The site historian has even been assigned to do research in the more than 60,000 pages of records, DuPonts Operating histories of 22 volumes plus introduction, GMED, AEC and DOE records of the site in an attempt to determine which tank was filled at which point from which source.

The Savanna River Site has been involved in the manufacture of components for nuclear weapons since it opened in 1951. There have been five reactors, two chemical separation areas, a target and fuel fabrication facility and a variety of waste pits, basins, tanks and landfills for mixed, low and high level waste. The SRS is 300 square miles, 92,000 acres, of which 10,000 acres is a wetland area. The Savanna River runs along 20 miles of the South West boundary of the site. Nine former disposal areas have been closed, groundwater cleanup and waste vitrification are in progress. Soil and groundwater at SRS contain volatile organic compounds, heavy metals including lead, chromium, mercury and cadmium; and radionuclides including tritium, Uranium, fission products and Plutonium. Extraction and treatment has been used to clean groundwater in several areas of the site. The EPA has listed the site under CERCLA and placed it on the National Priorities List. It has been divided into 86 subsites which have over 400 cleanup areas.

The SRS is operated by Westinghouse Savanna River Company as a contractor for DOE. Currently the site is involved in separation of Plutonium for use in deep space probes, production and reloading of tritium for nuclear warheads, and has a large program for treatment and vitrification of high level waste. The site employs approximately 20,000 persons. There are no permanent residents of the reservation, it is a secured area located 25 miles South East of Augusta, Georgia and 20 miles South of Aiken, South Carolina, in Aiken and Barnwell counties. SRS scientists did a great deal of research into appropriate means of immobilizing the HLW at the site which is alkaline in character and stored in underground tanks of various ages and four types. Two tank farms exist, the F-Area 22 acre site with 22 tanks and the H-Area 45 acre site with 29 tanks. In all they contain approximately 34 million gallons HLW containing about 600 million Curies. All of the tanks were built of carbon steel liners inside concrete vaults. Two styles have what are referred to as annulus pans but are actually more like a second shell 5 feet high around the primary tank, these are Type 1 and 2 tanks. 12 Type 1s were built from 1951-54 and are located 9 ½ feet below grade. 4 Type 2s were built from 1961-64. Types 1 and 2 have forced cooling systems to keep the waste from boiling. 9 of the 1s and 2s have leaked. The newest tanks are the Type 3s which a full double shell tanks and have forced cooling. They were built between 1972-81. None of these have leaked. There are 27 of the Type 3s. There are 8 Type 4s built between 1958-62. They are single shell tanks without cooling. All of the waste in these tanks will be processed on site into stable forms for disposal. Each tank contains waste in three physical forms. It all went in as a liquid, but over the years solid constituents have settled out as sludge at the bottom of the tanks. A portion of the waste remains as a liquid, and floating partially suspended in the liquid is a sort of crust called salt cake which is formed by the sodium and nitrate salts crystallizing out of solution. The sodium is added to the acid waste stream to neutralize it and the nitrates are from nitric acid used to dissolve the fuel for reprocessing. The salt cake is processed into saltstone by the addition of concrete and fly ash to form a solid waste product. The liquid is evaporated to reduce its volume, dissolved solids are removed, and the resultant slurry is sent for vitrification. The solid, stabilized waste forms will eventually be disposed of in the deep geologic repository.

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), formerly Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), formerly the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS) owned by DOE and founded as NRTS by the AEC in 1949 lies on 570,000 acres near Idaho Falls. This is a complex site with a variety of facilities most of which had to do with testing, developing and operating various small nuclear reactors. The Power Burst Facility was originally known as SPERT, an acronym for Special Power Excursion Reactor Tests done in the mid to late 1950’s. All four of the original reactors have been closed and dismantled. The Power Burst Facility has one reactor which was built in 1970 on standby. This reactor was also used to study fuel performance under nonstandard operating conditions.

The Radioactive Waste Management Complex handles TRU and LLW generated at INEEL and elsewhere within the DOE system. TRUW is stored retrievably until it is shipped to the WIPP. LLW is permanently disposed of. RWMC is operated for DOE by Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Co. Lockheed Martin Advanced Environmental Systems also have project contracts there. The RWMC was started in 1952. The Argonne National Laboratory-West is a research facility operated by the University of Chicago under contract to DOE. Currently they are doing research on spent fuel. 84 acres. Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, formerly Idaho Chemical Processing Plant, stores spent fuel, radioactive waste, treats waste and develops waste technology. Prior to discontinuance of reprocessing fuel in 1992 reprocessing was done at the facility. 265 acres. Naval Reactors Facility is operated by Westinghouse for DOE—develops naval propulsion reactors, trained Navy personnel until 1995, and handles Naval spent fuel. 187 acres. Test Area North houses the Contained Test Facility which performed experiments on Loss of coolant accidents in LWE. At this time it is primarily the Specific Manufacturing Capability facility developing and producing armor for the Army. The Technical Support Facility has administrative, maintenance and spent fuel storage, and examination. This facility is storing the damaged core of TM12. The Water Reactor Research Test Facility is also at this site. 220 acres. Additional facilities located at INEEL include the Test Reactor Area, Control Facilities Area, Idaho Falls Offices, National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration and the USGS.

The entire site has been listed under CERCLA and placed on the National Priorities List. An injection well on the site was used to dispose of 17,300 tons of liquid including cooling tower water with chromium, waste solvents, sulfuric acid, radionuclides and laboratory wastes. Hexavalent chromium, acetone, sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid and UOC’s have been found in drinking water wells in the area. Carbon tetrachloride and trichloroethylene have been found in the Snake River Plain Aquifier. The soil is contaminated with heavy metals such as lead and mercury, UOC’s and radionuclides. Due to previous use of the site by DOD explosive residue, shrapnel and unexploded ordinance are on the site. Soil vapor extraction and catalytic oxidation are being used to remove UOC’s from the soil (such as trichloroethene, tetrachloroethene, carbon tetrachloride, 1,2 dichloroethene, dichlorodifloromethan, toluene, chloroform, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, benzene, xylene, ethylbenzene). Soil at several areas was contaminated with radionuclides including Cesium 137, Cobalt 60, Europium 152, Europium 154, Europium 155, Americium 241, Plutonium 234, Plutonium 240, Uranium 234, Uranium 235, Uranium 238 And Strontium 90—all found near the Power Burst Facility. Contaminated soil has been dug up and removed. Over 200 cleanup areas remain.

The Weldon Springs Uranium Feed Materials Plant is on 220 acres of land between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers near St. Louis, Missouri. Weldon Springs Site is located at 7295 Highway 94 South in St. Charles, Missouri, on a portion of the former Weldon Springs Ordinance Works, a 17,000 acre Army facility operated from 1941-45 which produced explosives. A quarry located on the site was used by the Army for limestone to construct the Ordinance Works and then as a dump for TNT and DNT contaminated waste and rubble which they burned. In 1955 the Army transferred some of the property to the AEC who built the Uranium Feed Materials Plant which operated from 1958-66. Mallinckrodt Inc. as contractor for the AEC converted uranium concentrate to uranium metal and uranium tetrafluoride at the plant, storing the wastes from the process in open pools referred to as raffinate pits. From 1963 to 1969 waste was dumped into the 9 acre quarry. The Feed Plant was closed in 1966 and the site was given back to the Army. In 1985 the Army gave it to DOE which renamed it the Weldon Spring Site Remedial Action Project (WSSRAP). Two contractors were chosen to perform the site remediation, MK Ferguson Co. and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. In 1987 The EPA listed the Quarry and in 1989 the remainder of the site was listed. The contractors are removing contaminated soils, 44 plant buildings and waste from the raffinate pits and quarry. A chemical stabilization and solidification plant was constructed to process the uranium waste with cement and fly ash to produce a solid waste produce referred to as grout. This material will be placed in an engineered disposal trench constructed on the site. Two water treatment facilities were built to decontaminate water from the site.

Fernauld Feed Materials Production Center was a 1,050 acre facility near Cincinnati, Ohio produced Uranium metal and cast it in various shapes required for defense purposes. Uranium concentrate was produced and converted to Uranium metal on the site which was cast and machined into parts. The plant operated from 1953 to 1989. Since closure the site, now renamed Fernauld Environmental Management Project, has been undergoing clean up and site remediation. Fernauld was listed by the EPA in 1989. The site was operated by National Lead of Ohio from 1951-1985, by Westinghouse from 1986-1992, and from 1992 on and currently by Fluor Daniel Inc. The former operation of the plant produced large quantities of waste which was dumped into a number of pits on the site, three silos and an effluent line which discharged waste into the Great Miami River. The aquifer beneath the site is contaminated with uranium; the soil is contaminated with Uranium, Mercury, Barium, Thorium, tetrachloroethylene, Arsenic and PCBs. Uranium, Technetium⁹⁹, and hexavalent chromium were detected in the effluent line to the river. The clean up process includes removal of waste from the six pits and three silos, treatment of groundwater, demolition and removal of all buildings, construction of an on site disposal facility, excavation and removal of 2.4 million ft³ of contaminated soil, restoration of the site after completion of cleanup, and shipment of Low Level Waste to a disposal site.

The Monsanto Company was recruited by General Leslie Groves of the Manhattan Project in 1943 to produce Polonium for the atomic bomb. This material was to be used as a neutron source to initiate the chain reaction. No Polonium had ever been produced in measurable quantities and no pure metallic Polonium had ever existed when the Dayton Lab of Monsanto received the assignment. A facility was leased in Dayton in 1943 and work begun. In early 1944 an additional location was leased. Neither was a laboratory, both were residential properties. In 1946 the actual Mound Laboratory was constructed in Miamisburg, Ohio. Polonium processing began there in 1949. The second of the two leased buildings had to be demolished due to contamination, but the first was returned. The current site is on 300 acres and consists of over 100 buildings. Monsanto continued as contractor until 1988 when EG & G Mound Technologies took over. In 1997 Babcock and Wilcox of Ohio became contractor. The aquifer under the lab is contaminated with volatile organic compounds and an air stripper has been built as well as an extraction well. 140,000 gallons of water are treated per day. 20,000 yards³ of soil contaminated with Plutonium²³⁸ has been removed and sent to disposal. Several leach beds were used for disposal of liquid waste containing radionuclides and explosives. A landfill on the site operated from 1948 to 1975 and was used to dispose of solvents, photo processing and plating bath solutions, and paint. The site was listed by the EPA in 1989. Currently the site is being decontaminated for future use as an industrial park.

The Pantex plant is located near Amarillo, Texas, on 9,100 acres owned by DOE with an additional 6,000 acres owned by Texas Tech (which are used for agricultural purposes) included within the site boundary. Pantex is the only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly plant in the U.S. and is operated under contract by Mason and Hanger. Currently the facility is disassembling nuclear weapons and storing the plutonium pits removed from them. The pit is a found object consisting of a central metallic plutonium core enclosed in a non-radioactive sealed outer case. Each warhead of a nuclear missile has its own pit as well as high explosive (HE) parts and computer circuitry. The weapon is taken to one of the explosion proof bays at Pantex where it is inspected for damage and then opened. The disassembly process is done by teams of two workers who work together and make sure that each follows procedure. After the nuclear explosives package is removed, it is taken to a heavily reinforced building known as a Gravel Gertie for disassembly. The cell is designed to minimize blast effects and prevent release of radioactive material in the event the HE detonates. It takes five days to three weeks to disassemble a weapon, depending upon the style.

There are 13 cells used for disassembly at Pantex. Each is round and has attached staging bays and ramps to the surface. The entire building is below grade with a mound of soil and gravel eleven feet thick over the cell. Doors into the cell are revolving to provide a continuous seal for the cell. Walls throughout are 12 inches thick and reinforced concrete. Once the pit is removed from the weapon assembly and the HE has been removed from the pit, each pit is placed by hand into a stainless steel holding fixture or frame. This fixture is then fitted into an AL-R8 storage container by a technician wearing a lead apron, safety glasses and protective gloves to minimize exposure. The AL-R8 (diagram) consists of an outer carbon steel drum lined with 3” of celotex insulation designed to fit the holding fixture and keep it in place in the center of the drum. Designed by Dow Chemical in the 1960's but there have been problems with using it for long term storage, for which they are not really suitable. Carbon steel is subject to corrosion and rusting, it provides poor radiation shielding, and it is not strong enough to protect the pit from crushing. In addition, the AL-R8 is not sealed, requiring external humidity and temperature control to maintain the pit inside in good condition. The AL-R8's are subject to corrosion due to moisture and chlorides from the internal celotex packing which is made of sugar cane, paper, starch, and wax. There are a couple of thousand corroded AL-R8's at Pantex as a result of these failings.

The AL-R8 container was to be replaced with a multipurpose model called the AT-400A (Photo). Sandia National Laboratory spent $50,000,000.00 developing the design, and five years. It had been determined that there was a need for a container that would be suitable for shipping as well as storage, with improved corrosion resistance and an inert gas fill. To accomplish this Sandia arrived at a design where the outer drum was stainless steel closed by 24 bolts, with 3" of insulation of ceramic fiber and high density foam fits between the outer shell and the ¼” thick stainless steel inner container. The lid was designed with a gas tube which could be used to purge the container of air and backfill it with inert gas. It could then be sealed by crimping and welding. However, there proved to be some problems with the AT-400A. It cost $8,000.00 per unit for one thing, and there were difficulties with the welds. Only about 20 of the 10,000 pits at Pantex have been placed in AT-400A containers DOE to abandon it in favor of a cheaper container that is unsuitable for shipping. DOE thus created a potential choke point in plans to trans-ship the packaged pits for disassembly. As the DNFSB said in August 1999, "DOE's program plan for materials disposition is in peril regarding recycling excess pits into mixed oxide fuel, because there is no container suitable for shipping the pits from the Pantex Plant to the Savannah River Site, and no plans exist for development of such a container".

Each container with its pit inside is taken to a Zone 4 magazine for storage. Two types of magazines are used at Pantex—the Modified Richmond and Steel Arch Construction. There are 18 MR magazines and 42 SAC magazines. They are used to store pits and other components. Magazines are constructed of concrete with walls 1 – 3 feet thick and buried under 3 feet of soil. The doors are 1” thick steel with a series of steel reinforced concrete barriers in front of each set of double doors.

Pantex has a waste management operation that tracks each container with a bar code which indicates what is in the container, where it came from, where it will be disposed of and by whom. A variety of waste are produced including HE, Hazardous Materials, low level waste, mixed waste, and others. The Waste Certification Team insures that all applicable State and Federal laws are complied with and that the appropriate documentation accompanies the waste to its disposal site. Pantex is the only one of the major DOE facilities that isn’t a Superfund Site. They had a tremendous advantage in that they have never produced nuclear materials and they have only done machining of HE not Pu or U.

The Rocky Flat plant is on 6,550 acres, of which all but 384 acres is a buffer zone. It is located near Golden, Colorado. Rocky Flats machined plutonium pits for nuclear weapons from 1952 until it was closed by the FBI and EPA in 1989 for violations of environmental laws. Dow Chemical operated the facility as a contractor until 1975 when they were replaced by Rockwell International. Rocky Flats also produced beryllium and stainless steel machined parts for nuclear weapons and machined uranium components. There are 6.7 metric tons of highly enriched uranium at the Rocky Flats Plant.

The majority of the waste stream is TRUMW with a generally high percentage of pyrophoric waste. Due to this there were over 200 fires on the site during the production period, two of which were major in 1957 and 1979. Rocky Flats is currently storing large quantities of SNM, 12.9 metric tons of plutonium metal and six metric tons of HEU, which has been sitting in temporary packaging for 10 years since the abrupt cessation of operations at the site. The current phase of cleanup requires the stabilization and packaging of 6,600 Kg of plutonium metal and 3200 Kg of plutonium compounds, shipping of plutonium pits and components to Pantex, shipment of plutonium metal and compounds to offsite repositories, the stabilization and packaging of 106,000 Kg of residue materials containing 3100 Kg of plutonium for shipment to WIPP, and the packaging of 6700 Kg of HEU for shipment offsite. The nearly 700 buildings on the site need to be decontaminated and demolished. This portion of the cleanup is estimated to cost $7.3 billion. Mitigation work at the facility affects a large population. Rocky Flats is 16 miles from Denver and 8 miles from Boulder—more than two million people live within 50 miles and 270,000 live within 10 miles. Buildings on the site contain over 14 metric tons of plutonium in multiple sites under deteriorating conditions. “Leaking storage drums, unlined disposal trenches, surface water impoundments, leaky pipelines, leaky underground tanks, and two onsite landfills all contributed to the contamination of soils and groundwater at the site.”

The soil at the site is contaminated with Plutonium, Uranium, Americium and VOC. Groundwater under the site is contaminated with VOC’s and a trench drain has been installed to collect it for treatment on site. Pod 903 Area is the largest area of plutonium contaminated soil and is scheduled to have 50,000 tons of soil excavated and treated. Additional sampling and characterization remains to be accomplished. Clean up of Trench T-1, a 200’ long by 20’ wide by 10’ deep trench used for disposal of uranium from 1954-1982 was completed last summer. The trench was excavated and 170 drums of EU and 1,000 cu. yards of contaminated soil was removed in a complex operation that required special care due to the tendency of uranium compounds to undergo pyrophoric reactions when unearthed.

Building 779, a 65,000 sq. ft. manufacturing building containing a 115 glove box production line used for demonstration size projects is in the process of being decontaminated at this time. As of August, 1998, 47 glove boxes had been disassembled and removed. Used glove boxes contain quantities of plutonium oxide dust known as hold up from years of use. The fine dust covers the interior surfaces and collects in the corners and crevices of the box. This hold up must be collected and stabilized for disposal as it easily becomes airborne. Process water which had been stored onsite since the closing of the plant has been processed into saltcrete which has been shipped to Envirocare in Utah for disposal, altogether 4275 cu. M. were shipped. Pondcrete is produced by combining the residual sludge in the evaporation ponds with concrete to stabilize it. So far 2416 m³ remain to be shipped to Utah. Standard low level waste has been shipped to NTS, 1061 m³ in 1997 and 1636 in 1998. The site was initially listed in 1989.

Primarily noted for the 928 nuclear bomb tests conducted there between 1945 and 1992 and previously the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range, the Nevada Test Site was established in January of 1951. The first series of nuclear tests began the same month the site opened. A base camp called Mercury, a post office, Camp Desert Rock Army Camp and a variety of other facilities were constructed on the site. There are three test locations at the site, Frenchman Flats, Yucca Flats and Jackass Flats, each a closed basin valley. A complex known as the Device Assembly Facility was constructed at the NTS in the 1980’s. It was originally designed to be what its name indicates, an assembly point for nuclear devices to be tested at the site. The DAF is similar to the facilities at Pantex, it is also underground covered by a minimum of 5’ of soil and designed to be blast proof in the event of an accident. There are five assembly cells, four high bays, three assembly bays, five staging bays, a component testing lab and auxiliary facilities. The assembly cells are designed to be resistant to blast effects and not perpetuate any accidental detonation of HE. There is also a Hazardous Materials Spill Center on the site that is used for live training in Haz Mat for fire departments and industrial teams. A Big Explosives Experimental Facility (BEEF) is used by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for test firing shaped charges. This facility is located in two underground bunkers with two foot thick reinforced concrete walls. One is used as a control bunker and a gravel test bed with high speed camera, x-ray and diagnostic systems are located in the second bunker. A facility called VIA Experimental Facility is located in an underground mined set of shafts used for testing HE. There are two vertical shafts 962 feet deep with a series of 1,460 foot horizontal shafts extending from them. Via is involved in testing the dynamic properties of aging nuclear materials and HE in the nation’s nuclear weapon stockpiles.

NTS has rather large amounts of radioactive contamination as a result of nearly 50 years of nuclear testing. DOE estimates 300 million Ci from underground testing is spread through millions of m³ of soil. 300 square miles of groundwater under NTS is contaminated with an estimated 112 million Ci. In addition to testing activities there are two LLW management sites at NRS which have received an estimated 20 million ft³ of LLW, only 46% of which was generated at the site. A small amount of TRUW is retrievably stored on asphalt pads at the Radioactive Waste Management Site and will be shipped to WIPP. For the most part, however, NRS complies with all environmental protection laws and regulations. There is a continuing problem of Pu contaminated dust being resuspended by traffic on the site and small amounts of detectable tritium in the air under certain weather conditions, but not in significant quantities. Monitoring of air and water are continuously conducted on the site and at the boundary fences. The Area 5 Radioactive Waste Site is on 732 acres of which 92 acres is actively used for waste disposal in shallow trenches 15-30 feet deep. As each trench is filled it is covered with 8 feet of soil and an engineered cap. High activity waste including Class C and GTTC LLW is disposed of in 120 foot deep shafts that are filled to 70 feet with waste then backfilled with soil. Approved DOE waste generators who comply wit NTS Waste acceptance Criteria are allowed to dispose of LLW at the site. In 1996 16 generators shipped 7,293 m³ of waste containing 7,692 Ci to the site for disposal. The Area 3 Radioactive Waste Management Site disposes of bulky debris and equipment as well as bulk packaged LLW from off site in subsidence craters from underground nuclear tests. These craters range from 49 feet to 78 feet deep and are filled with alternating layers of waste and 3 feet of clean fill. U-3ax and U-3at craters are in use currently. In 1996 four generators shipped 7,033 m³ of waste containing 5.75 Ci for disposal. Material from the Mound Plant is stored in 28 steel cargo containers at the Strategic Materials Storage Yard. The cargo containers are on an asphalt pad surrounded by a fence and consists of residue from processing Uranium ore at Mound.

The Paducah Plant was built in 1950 on the former site of the Kentucky Ordinance Works and went online in 1952. The Portsmouth Plant was built in 1952 on 4,000 acres of land and went on line in 1954. Both were government owned and operated by contractors, Paducah by Union Carbide then known as Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Company until 1984 when they were replaced by Martin Marietta Energy Systems; and Portsmouth by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company until 1986 when they were replaced by Martin Marietta Energy Systems. Both plants were taken over by the United States Enrichment Corporation formed by the US government in 1995 who contracts with Martin Marietta for operation of the plants. In 1995 Lockheed and Martin Marietta merged and formed Lockheed Martin Utility Services to operate the enrichment plants. Originally both plants produces Highly Enriched Uranium for defense purposes, but in the 1960s they switched to producing Low Enriched Uranium for commercial nuclear power plant fuel purposes. Both plants work together in this, the Paducah plant enriches the Uranium to 2.75% then ships it to Portsmouth and they enrich it to 5%. These are the only two Gaseous Diffusion Plants in the US and produce all low enriched uranium required for use in the countries nuclear power plants. The Paducah Plant was listed by the EPA in 1994. The 1,350 acre site is contaminated with VOCs, PCBs and radionuclides. DOE is responsible for clean up at the site. The DOE also has a large inventory of DUF6¹⁰ Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride, the remaining product after the enrichment process has been performed by gaseous diffusion material with 56,000, 198,000 and 450,000 metric tons currently stored at its facilities in Tennessee, Ohio, and Kentucky respectively.

On August 29, 2002 the Department of Energy (DOE) announced the competitive selection of Uranium Disposition Services, LLC to design, build, and operate facilities in Paducah, Kentucky and Portsmouth, Ohio to convert the government's inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) for disposal and/or reuse. The conversion plants will convert the DUF6 material to triuranium octoxide (U3O8 ) a more stable form. The contractor will also be responsible for maintaining the depleted uranium and product inventories and transporting depleted uranium from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to the Portsmouth, Ohio, plant for conversion. Uranium Disposition Services, which was formed specifically to bid on this new contract, was formed by Framatome ANP Inc., Duratek Federal Services Inc., and Burns and Roe Enterprises Inc. The estimated value of the contract is $558 million. The contract is consistent with Public Law 107-206 recently enacted by Congress mandating the construction of the two facilities. Design, construction and operation of the facilities will be subject to appropriations of funds from Congress. Five companies submitted proposals. There are 23.0 metric tons of highly enriched uranium at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The material is stored and processed as uranium hexafluoride (UF6), and other compounds including fluorides, and oxides.