Westinghouse may begin demolition of plant this year

 

Aug 11 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Tim Rowden St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Westinghouse Electric Co. could begin demolishing buildings at the company's closed nuclear fuel-processing plant in Hematite before the end of the year.

Westinghouse is in the process of identifying contaminants at the plant property off Highway P as part of a planned decommissioning of the facility.

The company acquired the Hematite plant in 2000 and closed it in 2001 to consolidate operations in South Carolina.

Since then, the company has been working with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to develop a plan to clean up the property and decommission the facility.

The DNR and the attorney general's office recently entered into a consent decree with Westinghouse for work at the plant site. The decree requires Westinghouse to do studies and response work consistent with federal regulations and states that Westinghouse will reimburse the state for its costs to oversee the process.

Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. opened the plant in 1956 to fill military contracts. The plant later was used to manufacture nuclear fuel-rod assemblies for power plants.

Kevin Hayes, an environmental manager for Westinghouse, says the company is removing equipment from the plant and securing the licenses and permits necessary to demolish the buildings.

"If everything goes smoothly, hopefully we'll see buildings come down later this year," Hayes said.

Hayes said the buildings have to be removed for officials to accurately characterize the plant site and determine the next step in the cleanup process.

"The buildings represent an interference to the contamination below," he said.

Hayes says the plan is to tear the buildings down to the concrete foundations to more accurately determine what, if any, contamination is located beneath the concrete slabs.

Westinghouse owns 228 acres in Hematite, only about seven of which were used in the plant's operations.

The property includes 39 documented, unlined waste-burial pits on the plant site and two unlined evaporation ponds. Both practices were common in the early years of the plant's operation.

The DNR is seeking public comment on the consent decree through. Copies are available at the Festus Public Library, 222 North Mill Street in Festus, or at the Westinghouse plant, located off Highway P in Hematite.