October 21, 2014

Paducah Plant Turnover to DOE Complete; Fluor to Begin Deactivation Work

By ExchangeMonitor

The turnover of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant to the Department of Energy and deactivation contractor Fluor was completed yesterday by former plant operator Centrus Energy Corporation, previously known as USEC. Current Paducah cleanup contractor LATA-Kentucky will continue work until the end of its contract in July 2015, after which Fluor will take over remaining cleanup scope. Fluor will employ 400 workers initially and ramp up to 500 employees over the next year, which will be “primarily” former USEC and LATA-Kentucky workers. “Today is a big day for all of those involved in this transition and a significant step forward in the Department’s cleanup mission,” DOE Paducah Site Lead Jennifer Woodard said in a statement yesterday. “For over 60 years this plant has served its purpose of enriching uranium for nuclear defense and energy. Now it is time to begin the process for deactivating the plant and preparing for decontamination and decommissioning.”

Centrus Energy enriched uranium at the plant until mid-2013 and has since worked to shut down operations and prepare for the handoff to DOE. “For more than a decade, United States Enrichment Corporation employees in Paducah operated this plant at record-high levels of productivity in a safe and environmentally responsible manner,” Steve Penrod, vice president of American Centrifuge for Centrus and former general manager at Paducah, said in a statement. “When enrichment ceased in 2013, this same team came together to safely and diligently wind down operations and work closely with DOE to effect a smooth and successful de-lease and return of full control of the site to DOE. I want to thank them and our counterparts at DOE for the tremendous efforts that led to this successful outcome.”

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