The Energy Department is lagging behind schedule for deactivation and demolition of the C-400 complex at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, the DOE Inspector General’s Office said in an audit report released Tuesday.
The 134,000-square-foot C-400 building was chiefly employed to clean equipment used in uranium enrichment at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. A hazardous solvent, trichloroethylene (TCE), was used in the work and today is the source of contaminated plumes under the building that extend offs-site.
The facility was retired in 2013. Some deactivation began shortly after a memorandum was signed between state and federal agencies. That process was already 18 months behind schedule by November 2019, Assistant Inspector General Jennifer Quinones stated in the report. At that point was not expected to be completed until April of this year.
With the COVID-19-related work slowdown added into the picture, C-400 deactivation is now expected in September, according to the audit, dated June 8.
Delays at C-400 are due in part to problems with the work process of the Energy Department’s remediation contractor at Paducah, Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, the report says, as well as “historic disputes” between DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection that date to 2000.
Work was delayed 15 weeks in 2018, from January until April, due to a “pipe cutting incident that released the corrosive gas hydrogen fluoride,” according to the audit. The Energy Department halted deactivation and directed Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership to draft a corrective action plan to address its work processes.
But parts of the cleanup were again delayed for about a year due to disputes between the Energy Department and its regulators over decisions on the C-400 building. While Kentucky approved of DOE’s demolition plan, the EPA raised concerns about filling the building’s basement with a cement-type mixture called “flowable fill” during deactivation and the tear-down to slab.
The audit did not specify the nature of the EPA concerns, but DOE said that flowable fill was approved by regulators in other building demolitions at Paducah.
This disagreement between DOE and its Paducah Site regulators is not isolated, the inspector general said, adding the parties have had an acrimonious relationship for over two decades.
The Government Accountability Office cited the sour relationship and its detrimental impact on cleanup in a 2004 report, “and we found in 2015 that the same issues were still occurring,” according to the IG.
After originally expecting to tear down the building in fiscal 2019, the federal agency now expects to start demolition in 2025
But the IG’s report stresses there is risk in delaying demolition for five years, noting the Energy Department’s 2018 demolition plan cited C-400’s degraded condition. Over time there is an increased risk of a building failure, which could occur during severe weather, and contamination release, according to the audit.
In a formal response dated May 8, DOE Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Manager Robert Edwards agreed the contractor needs more robust planning and work processes, and that the Energy Department needs to “continue ongoing discussions” with its stakeholders. The meetings will give stakeholders the opportunity to ask questions and provide input, he added.
While the plumes remain a concern, the concentration of trichloroethylene contaminant in the plumes has been reduced between 96% and 97%, Edwards stated.
Four Rivers, which employs about 850 people at the site, declined to comment on the contents of the IG report. The Energy Department could not be reached for further comment.
Four Rivers has a five-year, $1.4 billion contract that runs through June 2022 and calls for deactivation and remediation operations across the Paducah Site.
