Dangerously Aging US Nuke Plants Desperately Need Repairs

Department of Energy officials put off $39.4 million worth of maintenance on aging facilities used for enriched uranium processing and storage, a government watchdog reported Tuesday.

Making the situation even more dire at the historic Oak Ridge, Tenn., plant is the fact that a replacement facility won’t be finished until four years after the existing building life-cycles are exhausted, according to the Energy Department’s inspector general (IG). The new complex also won’t support all the necessary functions the old buildings provided.

Officials worry the decaying facilities represent a serious health threat to the plant’s employees and nearby civilians.

The Y-12 facility was established during World War II under the Manhattan Project. It developed the uranium used in the “Little Boy” atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. In the post-war era, Y-12 became an essential link in creating and maintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons that deterred nuclear war for more than four decades.

The rapidly deteriorating Y-12 National Security Complex facilities are crucial to America’s nuclear weapons supply, but they may have to be retired regardless of serious public health worries before the replacement structure is completed, the IG said. (RELATED: Report: Terrorists Could Use Fake Businesses To Buy Radioactive ‘Dirty Bomb’ Materials)

“Y-12 may not be able to continue to meet … mission needs in its existing, aging facilities,” the report said. Officials would halt or slow operations at the facilities to reduce risk, if necessary.

“The structures were built decades ago and do not meet modern nuclear facility design requirements,” the report said. “Production equipment is also aged and has experienced maintenance and reliability issues.”

One 70-year-old complex “has reached the end of its life.” Y-12 officials planned to move some operations to another facility that also “is old and in need of upgrades.”

Both complexes “have significantly and steadily increasing deferred maintenance,” the report said. “[M]ore than $39.4 million in additional funding was required to complete identified deferred maintenance for these facilities.”

Needed maintenance includes repairing fire suppression systems, replacing electrical safety switches and fixing water and steam leaks. The listed repairs and the total costs are likely underestimated due to weaknesses in the maintenance databases.

Y-12 officials planned to construct a new facility by 2019, but it now appears completion won’t come until 2025. The decrepit facilities recently saw some repairs, but those will only reduce risks until 2021 – four years before the new building’s completion.

The old buildings “contain sufficient quantities of radioactive and chemical materials that … would result in significant consequences” if released, the report continued. “However, they do not meet current safety requirements for such facilities.”

“[M]alfunctions of facilities or equipment may also potentially affect personnel and public safety,” the IG wrote, though the watchdog noted that “the inventory of hazardous materials in the … complex was controlled to reduce the consequences of such incidents.”

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