MSC helps Y-12 rid of 10-year problem

And, in addition to disposing of the materials, the program also produced cost savings of more than $600,000 associated with managing the storage and decontamination efforts at the plant.

Included in the materials MSC removed were an assortment of vehicles, heavy equipment and miscellaneous pieces and parts material that had accumulated during a period of about 10 years.

Organizers report that the amount of materials had grown because top priorities for the required decontamination operations have long been focused on keeping essential equipment in operation, and excess and salvage equipment had been placed farther down the list. As a result, few equipment items had been decontaminated for resale.

Benefits and improvements over past disposal operations include eliminating the traditional disposal method of characterizing and decontaminating equipment, then either returning usable items to service or selling them through property sales. The decontamination and characterization procedure had proven to be both slow and costly and was additionally impeded by the fact that employees have not often been free to leave the essential equipment to prepare the backlog for resale.

Although both internal and external property reviews had cited the backlog as unacceptable,
funding issues had restricted the success of corrective actions.

Program estimates suggest that at the average yearly rate, it would have taken about seven years to decontaminate the materials that MSC has now removed.

Under the contract (signed in July 1997) MSC agreed to purchase and decontaminate the equipment, and Y-12 would reimburse the net decontamination costs for some $500,000—significantly less than the $1.1 million required for the former process.

MSC had characterized and removed more than 250 pieces of equipment from the Y-12 area workers call the "bone yard" by November 1997. To date 43 truckloads—totaling about 600 tons—of surplus contaminated equipment have been removed.

The bone yard, so named for the appearance of the vehicle and heavy equipment storage area located on the east end of the plant adjacent to the garage area, is actually protected within a radioactive-controlled boundary.

"Both contaminated and potentially contaminated materials were stored at the bone yard, and roped off, until we could determine the best way to dispose of the material," Charles Noe explained.

"The contract with MSC is the most significant disposition of contaminated property I have seen in the last 15 years at this plant," said Noe, who is manager of the vehicle fleet at Y-12.

Once MSC has decontaminated the material, it will be either smelted or crushed for scrap metal or resold.

The next phase of the project will address disposal of a like amount of construction property and will focus decontamination efforts on Y-12, ORNL and MK-Ferguson materials.—Courtney Russell