Hello, I am Nicole Nelson-Jean, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field
Operations at the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management. As the largest
environmental cleanup program in the world, the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental
Management, or EM, is responsible for safely completing cleanup resulting from decades
of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. When EM was first
established in 1989, it was responsible for the cleanup of 107 sites in 35 states. Today,
16 sites remain including the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Site in western Kentucky.
In October 1950, the United States Atomic Energy Commission selected a former World
War II munitions plant in western Kentucky known as the Kentucky Ordnance Works. It was
second of three planned uranium enrichment plants in the United States. The Paducah Gaseous
Diffusion Plant was first used to enrich uranium for military reactors and the nation’s first
nuclear weapons program. Uranium enrichment operations ran continuously for more than
60 years at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The Plant was owned and managed by
the DOE and its predecessors until it was leased to private industry, which continued
uranium enrichment operations until May of 2013. In 1988, contamination was found in
off-site residential wells. It led to extensive studies on the environmental impact from plant
operations. Today, DOE oversees environmental cleanup activities at the site, including
environmental management, waste management, depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion,
and decontamination and demolition. The DOE and its contractors employ more than 1,300
people in the Paducah area. Since the construction began on the plant in 1951, the Paducah site
has become an economic driver in the community. The most recent economic impact formulas suggest
the Department’s operations had an annual impact of over $500 million to the
Commonwealth of Kentucky. With cleanup projected to continue over the next 25 years, the federal
government’s investment into the community will continue, creating professional, technical,
administrative, and craft positions for the next generation of employees at the site.
Today, DOE’s cleanup mission at Paducah involves the deactivation of uranium enrichment
and support facilities, and remediation activities that address legacy contamination at the site.
Over the next 10 years, DOE will focus on optimization and deactivation activities that
right-size the site for future demolition. Lessons learned from deactivation at Paducah’s
sister site in Portsmouth will provide project experiences to further enhance safety aspects
of the project and develop innovative solutions to complex cleanup problems, all while maximizing
cost efficiencies. As deactivation continues, assets no longer a part of the EM’s mission
will be turned over to community partners for beneficial reuse. Additionally, in 2017,
DOE worked with the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
to create a revised cleanup strategy that will concentrate on deactivation, demolition,
and remediation of the C-400 Complex and surrounding area to eliminate the primary source of groundwater
contamination. Cleanup efforts were further expanded at Paducah with the construction
and operation of the Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride, or DUF-6, plant. This plant aims to convert
and dispose over 40,000 cylinders of DUF-6 leftover from 60 years of enrichment operations.
DUF-6 is a coproduct of the uranium enrichment process that operated at the Paducah and Portsmouth
Sites, as well as the gaseous diffusion plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. EM’s cleanup at
Paducah reflects the Department’s commitment to performing and completing the remaining
legacy cleanup work in a safe and efficient manner that is protective of the site workforce,
the public, and the environment. Since the late 1980s, EM’s investment into an aggressive
remediation program in Paducah significantly reduced risks to site workers, the community,
and the environment. In 2014, DOE added the 450+ facilities at the site for deactivation
and demolition. This set the stage for realigning priorities that will fully achieve EM’s
cleanup mission at the site. Paducah’s cleanup future will continue to protect the community
while providing good paying jobs to the surrounding region. With years of cleanup work left, EM’s
collaborative partnering initiatives with local community organizations will proactively
improve cleanup progress, create opportunities for local workforce development, and prepare
the site for a shared future vision.