Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/22/2015
Kurion has received a contract to design a water treatment system for the decommissioning of the Cimarron uranium fuel fabrication facility, located near Guthrie, Okla., the company announced this week. As part of the project, Kurion will leverage its Ion Specific Media technology to remove radioactive contaminants from groundwater, similar to the process the company is using at the Fukushima-Daiichi cleanup site. Kurion plans to develop a system with a modular approach so it can move in and out of the existing facilities at the Cimarron site. “Kurion’s modular, skid-based systems dramatically change the cost structure and treatment schedule for nuclear waste remediation,” Kurion CEO Bill Gallo said in a statement. “This approach has proven to be effective at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in a radioactive environment – this experience gives us a technological edge over the largest players in nuclear waste management.”
The Cimarron decommissioning contract represents the first announced emergence of Kurion’s technology into the U.S. commercial market. The company has had some successes internationally with its work at the Fukushima as well as some work with the Department of Energy at its Hanford site, but this marks a new market for the company. “This groundwater treatment project is a natural application for the systems Kurion has successfully deployed at Fukushima,” Gallo said. “Furthermore, it represents an entirely new market segment for the company and creates a new opportunity to accelerate Kurion’s growth. For example, today the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is responsible for overseeing the decommissioning of 101 sites, including Cimarron.” Environmental Properties Management is the Trustee for the Cimarron Environmental Response Trust, which owns the site, while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality are the beneficiaries of the Trust and jointly regulate the cleanup of the site, the company said.
Contamination of shallow groundwater at the Cimarron site occurred across approximately 200 acres of the 700 acre site. According to Kurion, multiple extraction wells will pump groundwater from shallow soil and bedrock to one of two separate water treatment systems. One treatment system will remove uranium and will treat water at a flow rate ranging from 100 to 150 gallons per minute, and a second system will treat water for the removal of uranium and nitrates at a rate of 400 to 500 gallons per minute. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Kurion did say it envisions the system after going through design, fabrication, and testing phases to run for about 10 years, with the option of Kurion operating the technology.
