Fernald
SITE LOCATION AND SIZE The Fernald Environmental Project (FEMP) encompasses 1,050 acres located in south western Ohio, approximately 18 miles north west of Cincinnati.
Date Established: 1951
MISSION The mission of FEMP is the removal or dispositioning of all site nuclear materials, decommissioning and decontaminating all site buildings and facilities, and returning the site to public use.
Employees: Fifty-six DOE employees; 1,986 contractors (as of September 1996).
Annual Budget: $254.3 million for fiscal year 1996; $266.4 million for fiscal year 1997; and $264.5 million for fiscal year 1998.
Cognizant Secretarial Officer: Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management (EM); principal office EM-423.
Responsible Operations/Area Office: Department of Energy (DOE) Ohio Field Office (OH)/Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP) Office.
Environmental Restoration Management Contractor (ERMC): Fluor Daniel Fernald Inc., (FDF).Subcontractors include IND-COM, Alliance, Fred DeBra Company, R.E. Staver Group, B&J Electric, and Langdon, Babcock and Wilcox.
Fissile Material: Uranium compounds and uranium metal [according to the May 1, 1996, inventory.]; 0.5 million pounds of natural uranium (0.711 percent U-235); 8.7 million pounds of depleted uranium (less than 0.711 percent U-235); 6.8 million pounds of enriched uranium (up to 19.99 percent U-235). Of the enriched uranium, 90 percent is less than 2 percent U-235.
Although the Fernald site no longer produces uranium metal, it stores nuclear materials once used at Fernald and at other DOE sites. The nearly 15,785,000 pounds of uranium, along with contaminated facilities, radioactive and mixed wastes, and thorium, are the site's principal radioactive hazards. The uranium, in various forms, must be consolidated on site or dispositioned to an offsite location to ensure that the material does not adversely impact the successful completion of currently scheduled safe shutdown1, utility reduction, and subsequent facility decontamination and decommissioning programs. Some chemical hazards, such as acids, caustic materials, various industrial chemicals, and process wastes, are also present.
An extensive site waste management program for legacy wastes, components that are being deactivated and decontaminated, and newly generated secondary wastes (e.g,. contaminated clothing) is active at Fernald. During fiscal year 1995, Fernald shipped 722,061 cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste to an offsite disposal site, 4,500 cubic feet of solid mixed waste to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved disposal facility, 41,000 gallons of liquid mixed waste to EPA-approved disposal facilities, and 591,737 pounds of surplus uranium product materials to other users for non-defense-related pur poses. Also in fiscal year 1995, Fernald neutralized and repackaged 200,000 gallons of uranyl nitrate and 6,000 gallons of thorium nitrate. Through November 5, 1996, 1,862 of the 5,600 deteriorated drums of thorium have been overpacked and 274 overpacked containers (approximately 1,600 drums) have been shipped offsite for disposal.
Currently, FEMP has a number of ongoing initiatives affecting waste management:
- The thorium overpacking project, managed by the Waste Programs Management Division, has recently become operational. This project will package degraded thorium waste containers for disposal at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). During the first four months of operation, 424 of the 5,600 deteriorated drums of thorium have been overpacked and 68 overpacked containers shipped offsite for disposal.
- Stored liquid mixed wastes are being blended for offsite shipment by tanker truck to the K-25 Site incinerator for disposal.
- Development of an onsite disposal cell that will accept low-level radioactive wastes generated from a number of remedial ac tions, including building demolition, is progressing.
- Decontamination and decommissioning of Plant 1 are progressing. Debris from these activities, suitable for disposal in the onsite cell, will be stockpiled.
In addition to these projects, FEMP has an extensive monitoring program addressing air, water, and soil environmental quality on and near the site.
There were no active privatization activities at FEMP as of May 1996. However, a feasibility investigation evaluating privatization of activities associated with the remediation of the waste pits is under way.
Safe shutdown has been completed for Plants 1 and 4 and is underway in Plants 2, 3, and 5. FEMP provides a detailed shutdown plan for each area undergoing shutdown. Once safe shut down is completed, the area/facility will be turned over to an outside contractor selected through a competitive bid process.
Former production plant buildings are under going dismantlement or safe shutdown. Plants 7 and 4C, Plant 1 (ore silos), and the fire training facility have been removed from the site. Plant 4 was demolished on August 24, 1996. Plant 7, dismantled in 1994, was the first of 125 major facilities scheduled for decontamination and dismantlement at FEMP.
Decontamination and dismantlement of former production facilities are currently per formed under fixed-price contracts, and focus on Plant 1 and the old boiler plant.
Operable Unit 1 (OU-1)
This area, located west of the production area, contains 569,000 cubic yards of solid and sludge waste and consists of six lined waste storage pits, a burn pit, and a clear well. Large quantities of liquid and solid wastes were generated by various FEMP operations. Solid and slurried wastes from FEMP processes were disposed of in this on- property waste storage area. The basic approach to the remediation of OU-1, per the Record of Decision, is to excavate contami nated waste materials and soils, to dewater, and to transport treated materials in an offsite disposal facility. Once the contaminated materials have been removed from the pit area, the pit area is to be backfilled with clean soil, regraded, and vegetated to prevent pending and future erosion problems or as the grading plan decides.
Operable Unit 2 (OU-2)
During site production, primarily solid wastes were placed in on-property disposal facilities.
These facilities include the solid waste landfill, lime sludge ponds, fly ash disposal areas, and the south field area, a landfill for demolition debris between and adjacent to the flyash areas. The unlined north lime sludge pond is 90 percent full and contains 5,500 cubic yards of sludge from the water treatment operations, boiler plant blowdown, and coal pile storm water runoff.
Operable Unit 3 (OU-3)
The production of uranium metal involved a series of chemical and metallurgical con versions in nine specialized plants that collectively comprise OU-3. OU-3 includes the production area, production-related struc tures, equipment, utilities, drums, tanks, solid waste, waste product, thorium effluent lines, K-65 silo transfer line, waste water treatment facilities, fire training facilities, scrap metal pile, feed stocks, product, and the coal pile. Contaminated ground water (referred to as perched water), contaminated soil, and a variety of debris piles are included in OU-3. Dismantling of the contaminated structures will produce an estimated 270,000 cubic yards of contaminated construction debris.
Building 65 is a warehouse within OU-3 that is being used to store approximately 5,600 drums of thorium materials, which were placed in the warehouse during the 1960s as part of the site's former mission as the repository of thorium materials for the U.S. government. The drums have deteriorated to the point that some material has been released in the building. Material could be released to the environment if further actions are not taken.
Operable Unit 4 (OU-4)
The four large concrete waste storage silos comprising OU-4 were among the first structures constructed at the site. Silos 1 and 2 contain 15,000 cubic yards of high-specific- activity radium-bearing residues resulting from pitchblende refining. There is not enough fissile material in the silos to present a nuclear criticality hazard. A third silo contains metal oxide low-level radioactive dry wastes, and the fourth silo is empty because it was never used.
A Vitrification Pilot Plant with a one ton per day (tpd) capacity is operational will generate engineering data for the full-scale (15 tpd) vitrification facility. Construction of the Vitrification Pilot Plant was scheduled to be finished in August 1995, with operations to begin in 1996; however, the facility is 26 months behind schedule. Campaign 2 of Phase I operations started August 27, 1996, with a scheduled completion date of September 30, 1996. The vitrified output will be packaged and transported to an offsite disposal facility.
The construction of an onsite waste disposal facility is currently budgeted to begin in 1997, with completion, through the capping of the cell, in 2005.
Allegations of poor site management, unsafe practices, and improper financial conduct continue to receive extensive media coverage within the local area. The local community is also concerned about workers retaining their jobs when the cleanup is completed.
