PADUCAH, Ky. - One of two new raw water pumps EM workers recently installed at the Paducah Site’s water treatment facility has reduced energy consumption for pumping water by approximately 63% and lowered water usage by about 1 million gallons per day.
“These upgrades to our system will serve the Paducah Site for years to come," Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Manager Joel Bradburne said. “Our mission at Paducah is still in its early stages, and adapting our systems to more environmentally friendly processes and equipment have many benefits for the site’s future."
Since its construction, the Paducah Site has drawn raw water from the Ohio River, using one of the large pumps to move that water to the water treatment plant. The water treatment plant was designed to provide the site with approximately 30 million gallons of water per day. Since operations ceased at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant about a decade ago, EM and site contractors are optimizing systems to adjust to the site’s current needs of about 1 million gallons of water per day.
“I am proud of the team effort that went into selecting the optimized pump and ensuring it was installed and operational with no interruption to the water supply at the Paducah Site," said Myrna Redfield, program manager with Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, EM's deactivation and remediation contractor at the Paducah Site.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management