PADUCAH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT
History
In August 1950, the U.S. government determined that it would need to double the capacity of domestic fissionable materials production that existed at the Oak Ridge K-25 Plant. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) selected a Plant option consisting of 400 stages modeled after the K-31 facility at Oak Ridge (which would become C-331 at the Paducah Plant) and 480 stages twice the size of the Oak Ridge K-31 stages (which would become C-333 at the Paducah Plant). Based on a decision to disperse the major portions of the new production capacity, eight areas were identified as candidate locations for the Plant, all in the southeastern U.S. From the application of additional criteria, three sites were identified: the Kentucky Ordnance Works (KOW) at Paducah, the Louisiana Ordnance Plant at Shreveport, and the Longhorn Ordnance Works at Marshall, Texas. From these, the AEC approved, on October 18, 1950, the KOW site as the location for the new gaseous diffusion plant.
PGDP construction spanned 1951 through 1956 and was conducted in two phases. Construction of the first phase began January 2, 1951, and included erection of the following process and production facilities: C-331 and C-333, the gaseous diffusion process buildings; C-410/420, UF6 Feed Plant; C-310, Purge and Product Withdrawal Building; C-315, Surge and Waste Building; and C-300, Central Control Building. Authorization to proceed with the second phase of Plant construction was received on July 15, 1952. Two additional enrichment facilities, C-335 and C-337, were added, and construction was completed in 1956.
On January 6, 1951, the Tennessee Valley Authority began construction of the four-unit Shawnee Steam Plant near the Paducah Plant on the Ohio River to provide a portion of the needed electricity. On February 15, 1951, Electric Energy, Incorporated began construction of the Joppa Steam Plant, in Joppa, Illinois, to also provide electricity to PGDP.
Although major construction activities would continue through 1956, Union Carbide began hiring approximately 1,700 permanent Plant workers in 1951. The first process buildings, C-331, C-333, C-310, and C-315, were completed and started operation in September 1952, and the first product was withdrawn in November. PGDP enriches feed material in the form of UF6 gas with approximately 0.7 percent uranium-235 to UF6 with one to three percent uranium-235. The enriched product from PGDP was sent to other DOE sites at Portsmouth or Oak Ridge for further enrichment. Most UF6 feed material came from the depleted tails produced during normal diffusion operations at PGDP and from Oak Ridge and Portsmouth. From 1952 through 1977, UF6 feed material was also produced from uranium trioxide or UO3 (called "yellowcake") at PGDP in Buildings C-410 and C-420; this feed material was supplied by sources such as El Dorado Mining and Refining, Mallinkrodt Chemical Works, and General Chemicals (now Allied Chemical) and comprised less than 10 percent of the UF6 fed to the cascade. From 1953 through 1964 and intermittently from 1968 through 1977, the feed plant also produced UF6 from UO3 from spent reactor fuel processed at the Hanford and Savannah River sites. After 1977, all feed came in the form of UF6 from outside sources such as Oak Ridge, Portsmouth, and Allied Chemical. Carbide and Chemicals Company (which became Union Carbide Corporation Nuclear Division) was named as the original site contractor based on the company's experience with gaseous diffusion operations at Oak Ridge. Carbide operated PGDP for the AEC, and its successor agencies the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) and DOE, until 1984, when they were replaced through a competitive procurement by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.
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