Monday, March 22, 1999
Fernald finishes 'safe shutdown' phase
Project comes in early, under budget
BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CROSBY TOWNSHIP — Ten years after the last uranium ingot rolled out of Fernald's plants, the site's 2,000 workers and U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson are preparing to celebrate the end of the produc tion era.
Site workers recently cleared the last bits of radioactive dust and caustic acid from the old production machines, dismantled the lines, turned off utility service and left the old plant buildings to demolition crews. The “safe shutdown” work took about 110 people more than seven years to complete.
In his first visit to the Crosby Township facility, Mr. Richardson will be the keynote speaker at an 11:30 a.m. celebration today.
Fernald is the first of 12 major sites in the Department of Energy's (DOE) nationwide Cold War-era nuclear weapons complex to reach safe shutdown. It reached this milestone two years ahead of schedule and $7 million under budget.
“I think there's a sentiment that this is a major hurdle in a major activity at the site. It really brings closure to the production days,” said John Try gier, the DOE's project team leader.
“A lot of people are very proud of the activities and of what they've done. That was hard and a lot of labor-intensive work.”
Yet the festivities will be tinged by a sense of loss for some longtime Fernald employees.
As the final gasp of production that began in 1951 and ended in 1989, the shutdown marks the beginning of the end for one of the area's biggest employers. Crews who worked on the shutdown have been transferred to other cleanup projects at the site, which will be completed in stages over the next nine years.
“That's part of the tough, hard issues we have to deal with. Basically, these guys are working themselves out of a job,” said Lisa Crawford, president of Fernald Residents for
Environmental Safety and Health (FRESH) and a member of the Fernald Community Reuse Organization (CRO). “But they've done a real good job and they should be proud of themselves.”
The CRO is on the verge of approving a community transition plan that outlines proposed job training and economic development programs for the region. It is charged with helping the DOE to offset the financial and social impact of Fernald's closure in 2008.
Between 1997 and 2008, the site's total annual economic impact in Greater Cincinnati will decline by 81 percent, from $735 million to $136 million, according to a study commissioned by the CRO. Direct and indirect employment through the region will decrease from 4,394 in 1997 to 1,629 in 2008. The most dramatic losses will come in 2005.
“As people see progress being made and an end in sight, that gives them more motivation to think about the final impact of the closure,” said Curt Paddock, CRO economic development consultant.
In the short term, DOE and site manager Fluor Daniel Fernald are anxious to keep their trained work force in hand.
“They're a very valuable resource to us, with their lessons learned and their experience” dealing with radioactive and hazardous materials, Mr. Trygier said. “There's plenty of work for them out here.”
During the safe shutdown process that began in October 1991, workers removed more than 700,000 pounds of nuclear material and thousands of gallons of acids and other liquids. Wearing cumbersome protective equipment, they cleared the nooks and crannies of 10 plant buildings. They broke down machinery and split open long lines of air ducts and pipes.
Employees completed more than 250,000 work hours without a serious accident, earning Fluor Daniel's highest safety award.
Some equipment will be reused at Fernald and other government facilities. The waste materials are being divided by content and hazard level and prepared for shipment to dump sites.
The cleanup task was more challenging because DOE officials did not know they were shutting down Fernald production for good when they turned off the machinery in June 1989. The site sat in limbo, believing production might be restarted, until the final order came in June 1991.
“They just hit the switches and shut it down. They left all the stuff in the lines” rather than draining out processing material and residue, Ms. Crawford said. “It was stupid ... and it sure cost us a lot.”
Original safe shutdown projections anticipated that it would be a 25-year, $100 million project, although the scope of work was quickly scaled back and the budget revised. Still, the job was completed under budget, at a cost of $40.8 million.
That accomplishment is being recognized by a wide range of observers, from Mr. Richardson to the DOE's harshest critics.
“We're really glad it's done,” Ms. Crawford said. “We're making great progress, and I think it's important that (Mr. Richardson) come and see that.”
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