PADUCAH, Ky. - EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Jeff Avery recently toured cleanup operations at the Paducah Site where he met with federal site staff, EM and contractor management, and received updates on deactivation and remediation at the site.
Avery was in Paducah as part of the 2023 Energy Communities Alliance Forum where he joined leaders in the energy industry on a panel discussion on leveraging existing infrastructure for future use of EM sites. Avery covered how EM sites are prime locations for clean-energy development with the highly skilled workforce that has supported our missions for decades. Avery also stressed the importance of planning to make the future vision known to the EM workforce so they understand employment opportunities that are likely to be available.
Avery took advantage of the trip to tour the Paducah Site with two primary focus stops at the C-333 Process Building and the C-400 Cleaning Building.
Project personnel discussed deactivation in the C-333 Process Building, the largest building on-site, sitting at approximately 1,100 feet long by 970 feet wide and 83 feet high. The first of four process buildings scheduled to undergo future demolition, the deactivation process has benefited from recent D&D success at the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office’s Portsmouth Site by using shared site knowledge to improve implementation.
At the deactivated C-400 Cleaning Building, Avery was introduced to the biggest environmental concern at the site and the largest source of contamination to the groundwater plume. Paducah is currently undergoing a decision process that will eliminate the source of offsite groundwater contamination. He also visited the Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride facility, where thousands of DUF6 cylinders are being processed for beneficial reuse or disposal.
The following day, Avery met with labor leadership at the site and from Paducah’s Citizen Advisory Board to hear input on upcoming cleanup strategy.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management