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"EnergySolutions Inc., as the managing partner for Uranium Disposition Services (UDS), marked the commencement of the initial operation of the DUF6 Conversion Facility at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. EnergySolutions, working closely with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), took control of the project in 2007 to manage the operational reviews and construction, completing the project within budget and ahead of schedule. Working closely with AREVA NP Inc. and Burns and Roe Enterprises, the work involved managing the operational reviews and construction. The facilities will be used to convert DOE inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) into a stable form for beneficial use, re-use and/or disposal."

Officials of the United States Enrichment Corporation's Gaseous Diffusion Plant will travel to Atlanta Jan. 29 for a predecisional enforcement conference with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC announced this week the 10 a.m. conference is in connection with "an apparent violation of NRC requirements associated with the movement of a liquid uranium hexafluoride cylinder." According to the NRC, a plant employee in September found that a cylinder containing liquid uranium hexafluoride had been moved to a storage pad without using either an approved overhead crane or cart as is required by the facility's safety requirements. A follow-up inspection by the NRC found USEC took immediate corrective actions and conducted a "thorough investigation after the event."

The vantage point of the above photograph was roughly the same for Tuesday's ceremony in which workers started knocking down the southwest corner of K-25's west wing. According to info from the Dept. of Energy, the demolition of the half-mile-long west wing should be completed in 2010, with the demolition of the entire U-shaped, mile-long K-25 building accomplished by the end of 2011. Production operations in the K-25 building, where highly enriched uranium was achieved, shut down in the early 1960s. Lower enrichment activities continued at the Oak Ridge gaseous diffusion plant plant until 1985, when the facilities were placed on cold standby and then permanently shut down.

The Department of Energy's Office of Environmental anagement (EM) manages approximately 700,000 metric tons of depleted uranium hexafluoride at the gaseous diffusion plants located near Paducah, Kentucky. and Portsmouth, Ohio. It plans to convert the depleted uranium hexafluoride to a stable material. The conversion process will produce approximately 55 1,000 metric tons of depleted uranium oxide - a relatively stable form that can be handled and disposed of by direct burial or, potentially, used in various materials or products. Over a period of about 13 years, the Department has conducted research which established that the oxide could possibly be used in catalysts, semiconductors, nuclear repository applications and radiation shielding products.

A public health assessment by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry concluded there were "no public health hazards" from airborne releases at the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (also known as the K-25 Site) and the early-era S-50 facility at the Oak Ridge site. The full report is available online and at local libraries. The agency is receiving public comment through Feb. 20. In a release distributed to the news media, the ATSDR said: "The study looked at the atmospheric releases of radioactive and nonradioactive hazardous substances from the K-25/ S-50 facilities between 1944 and 1995 when the facility closed. After evaluating potential chronic and acute exposure to ionizing radiation and uranium releases, ATSDR found those doses were not expected to cause adverse health effects for people living near the ORGDP. The ORGDP is currently known as the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP).

The nation's only provider of enriched uranium for nuclear power plants says it will go ahead with development of a southern Ohio project even though it has been unable to attract financing in the $3.5 billion venture. USEC Inc., based in Bethesda, Md., is developing the American Centrifuge project on the site of a former gaseous diffusion plant in Piketon, about 80 miles east of Cincinnati. The centrifuge technology is considered more efficient for concentrating the fissionable uranium isotope U235.

An energy plan pushing nuclear power is frightening to me and many of my friends and neighbors ("A risky technology," Opposing view, Atomic power debate, Thursday). I live near the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky. It's the only operating uranium-enrichment facility in the USA and has been opened since 1952. It is a monster. More horrible than a monster movie.

Above is a 14-minute video of an interview with sick worker Vina Colley, who was an employee at the Portsmouth/Piketon Ohio uranium enrichment and gaseous diffusion plant, now operated by United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC). Colley details her illnesses, workplace problems, her employment and her efforts to obtain medical help and monetary compensation. She is co-founder of PRESS, the Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security, and part of National Nuclear Workers for Justice. If you have trouble viewing the video, a lower-connection-speed version is viewable on this web page ...

Paducah's gaseous diffusion plant could one day be home to a giant radioactive waste dump. It's one of three plans being considered by the Department of Energy (D.O.E.) and local officials in anticipation of the plants closing over the next few years.

(Paducah Sun, The (KY) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 1--Tearing down the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant would generate enough waste to fill the Paducah Expo Center roughly 100 times, according to the Department of Energy. Dealing with a mountain of radiologically contaminated soil, debris and scrap is essential in planning for the ultimate use of the plant once it closes starting in 2013. Much of the material would come from four huge uranium-enrichment buildings; each of the two largest spans 26 acres and is 80 feet high.

Former workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon will host a memorial to deceased nuclear industry workers on Memorial Day this year. Advertisement Vina Colley, a former worker at the plant will host the memorial starting at 10:30 a.m. at Campy Oyo in Portsmouth. Organizers in Piketon will join other workers at 14 nuclear sites throughout the country to remember former workers who have died due to illnesses they may have contracted while working at nuclear facilities operated by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Former workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon will host a memorial to deceased nuclear industry workers on Memorial Day this year. Advertisement Vina Colley, a former worker at the plant will host the memorial starting at 10:30 a.m. at Campy Oyo in Portsmouth. Organizers in Piketon will join other workers at 14 nuclear sites throughout the country to remember former workers who have died due to illnesses they may have contracted while working at nuclear facilities operated by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Jun. 22--Tight federal restrictions are discouraging commercial attempts to recycle hundreds of millions of dollars worth of mildly radioactive scrap nickel at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Once the nickel is cleaned, the Department of Energy will allow its use only in reactors and other nuclear applications, said Mike Hargett, president of Chemical Vapour Metal Refining-USA in Union Mills, N.C.

WASHINGTON, June 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy says it has given Restoration Services Inc. a contract for assistance in decommissioning an Ohio nuclear facility. The contract requires the Oak Ridge, Tenn., woman-owned company to provide technical services for the remediation, decontamination and decommissioning of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant at the Energy Department's site in Piketon, Ohio.

After a couple of months of demolition work at the World War II-era K-25 building, federal contractors are ready to dispose of the tons of contaminated rubble that's starting to pile up at the Oak Ridge site. The first shipments to the nuclear landfill are supposed to take place today, according to Dennis Hill of Bechtel Jacobs Co. -- the Dept. of Energy's cleanup manager. "They'll start out with five trucks doing three roundtrips a day," Hill said. That means 15 truckloads of waste will be shipped each day to the landfill seven miles away from K-25 on the DOE Oak Ridge reservation. The landfill,which has multiple liners to protect the environment, is a CERCLA disposal facility known officially as the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility. After things get started and operations get smoothed out, the number of daily waste shipments will pick up significantly. The trucks will follow a route on a specially built "haul road," which keeps the traffic of radioactive waste off public highways. Eventually, about 400,000 cubic yards of waste will be generated by demolition of K-25, which was the nation's first gaseous diffusion plant and at the time of its construction in the early 1940s was the world's largest building under one roof.

The country's sole provider of enriched uranium for nuclear power plants says Exelon Generation Co. has signed a contract valued at nearly $1.2 billion to buy separative work units from its American Centrifuge Plant. Bethesda, Md.-based USEC has been building the plant on the site of a former gaseous diffusion plant about 80 miles east of Cincinnati. The company says Exelon will buy the separative work units to fuel its reactors. Separative work units are a standard measure of processed uranium. USEC Inc. says customers have committed to buying output from the plant valued at more than $3.4 billion.

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon. According to DOE officials the project's estimated cost is $2.5 -$3.2 billion over 10 years. "Based on comments received on the draft RFP, DOE has issued the final RFP to emphasize accelerated D&D completion within an increased funding profile assumption, DOE stated in a released statement about the issuance of the RFP.

As announced at the beginning of the month the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) Project at a price tag of up to $3.2 billion. Now, a DOE official has responded to specific questions posed by the Portsmouth Daily Times concerning the details of the project including the involvement of the immediate community surrounding the Piketon reservation. Would the D&D project mean the dismantling of all buildings and facilities under the project title? Or just cleaning those properties up?

Despite the promise of thousands of jobs in this hard-hit part of Appalachia, some community members are skeptical as Duke Energy considers building a nuclear power plant at a former uranium enrichment plant here. Advertisement "Myself and a few other members are disillusioned and upset," said Lorry Swain, a South Shore, Ky., resident who serves on a 20-member community panel formed last year to give the Department of Energy environmental cleanup advice at the site. She said the panel, created under federal law to increase local input around decisions at the 3,700-acre Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion plant, didn't learn about Duke's proposal until a few days before it was announced on June 18. With a great deal of fanfare, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, U.S. Sen. George Voinovich and Duke Energy Chairman James Rogers announced the formation of the Southern Ohio Clean Energy Park Alliance to pursue development of the Midwest's first nuclear power plant in decades. The plan comes under an Energy Department initiative to convert former government weapons sites to clean-energy alternatives.