Countdown to Nuclear Ruin at Paducah, Kentucky USA

You really think they're just going to let it go into meltdown?

somebody needs to step up

Call me in as a nuclear con$ultant!

This shit is still ongoing folks. No solution yet.

GLP doesn't give a damn?

well im shocked not..

countng down...warning people who are more concerned with TV shows and beer in the area...

Oh shit. There goes Kentucky & Barkley Lakes. Damn. Just south of me.

So, You do admit you yourself are doing nothing about it, other than merely complain?

Lol.

An American Nuclear Tragedy: A Little Known Nuclear Facility in Paducah, Kentucky

Video

Complete fail by the mainstream media to report on what is actually happening in Paducah, Kentucky:

[link to www.nytimes.com]

[link to www.dailyjournal.net]

Update:

Slow Cooker at Paducah Comes to a Boil

[link to ecowatch.com]


Of greatest safety concern in a dirty power-down is the “slow-cooker” phenomenon, so-called by engineers, though the term itself is considered classified, and workers at the gaseous diffusion sites in Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky have been ordered not to utter it. As a nuclear engineer for the Navy in the early 1950s, Jimmy Carter was assigned to work on gaseous diffusion design and may have contributed to invention of the term.

...

A “slow cooker” is a critical mass of uranium and transuranic elements that forms inside the process equipment of a gaseous diffusion plant due to injudicious operation or a loss of power that causes process gas to crystallize. An undisclosed number of slow-cookers has occurred at the gaseous diffusion plants, mostly at the X-326 high-assay building at Piketon, Ohio, where the Criticality Accident Alarm Safety System (CASS) activated on May 22, causing building evacuation during cleanup, according to reliable informants. Ironically, that was the same day that my post about Paducah closure appeared.

The phenomenon was first theorized by the physicist Edward Teller, father of the American H-Bomb, when he visited Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project. Though the piping in diffusion plants has been designed to prevent any normal critical mass of uranium, as in an atomic bomb, from forming, Teller worried that the combined neutron flux from bringing many hundreds of tons of uranium into relative proximity could yield unanticipated criticality effects.

That possibility has been magnified at Paducah because, in the 1960s and 1970s, recycled uranium containing significant amounts of plutonium, americium and neptunium, was fed into the Paducah diffusion cascade, resulting in worker and environmental exposures that made headlines in the 1980s. Plutonium and other transuranic elements intensify the possibility of critical mass formation, in ways that cannot be entirely predicted because no gaseous diffusion plant contaminated with transuranics has ever been powered down dirty before.

Yes, this is a big science experiment. But hey, kids, don’t try this at home!

My nephew and all his family live there. They had barely heard ANYTHING about this,the consequences,etc...

So what is going on now? My daughter is in Murray.

Here's basically the explanation regarding the possible effects:

Lyn says:
May 28, 2013 at 6:11 pm

So that alleviates some of the concern regarding explosions. What about the likelihood of a release of dangerous gases like uranium hexafluoride, u-235, u-238, aluminum, or anything else used in the cascade. Is this something local residents should be concerned about?

Geoffrey Sea says:
May 29, 2013 at 1:05 pm

Lyn, absolutely, because the seals which are leaking already will only degrade over time. This only one of the Paducah Catch-22s. It is not safe to demolish the facility if the cascade was not thoroughly purged prior to power-down. However, there is no funding for a complete purge. And it is not safe to allow the plant to degrade in an idle state.

I might suggest federal legislation to mandate a residence-exchange program, so that Paducah local fence-line residents obtain title to USEC CEO Welch’s posh mansion in northern Virginia, and Welch is required by law to reside on the fence-line of the Paducah plant. I’m told that Mr. Welch has a private court behind his home, which might serve as partial compensation to Paducah residents suffering from chronic toxic exposures.

Im in Eastern, kentucky...

Where should my tomato plants be?!?!?!?!?!?!

Last Edited by Dr. Acula on 05/31/2013 09:15 PM

Argentenia

The OP has no idea what he is talking about. It will take 60 years to clean up. That is expected. There are already new plants in operation to take up the slack. It was too costly to keep running. The only problem with letting all the techs and engineers go is that it raises the cost of decom'ing.

This is fear mongering. They are not going to just drop their tools and walk away. Read the press release from USEC:

[link to www.usec.com]

USEC will take steps to cease enrichment at the Paducah plant over the next month and to prepare the plant site for return to DOE. USEC expects to continue operations at the site into 2014 in order to manage inventory, continue to meet customer orders and to meet the turnover requirements of its lease with DOE.

We will be working with DOE during the coming months and expect to reach agreement on how to best transition the site. The company and our workforce have unparalleled expertise that should be drawn on. We can provide significant value to the government in making that transition in the most cost-effective and timely manner,” Van Namen said.

USEC expects to begin reducing its workforce at the plant in the coming months. The Company will begin notifying workers as the specifics of the transition activities are defined. USEC anticipates maintaining a workforce at the site into next year to support ongoing operations, perform transition activities and meet regulatory requirements.

Relax.....I have driven past the gates of that plant many times...it is not a nuclear reactor site.. It is a gaseous diffusion operation....meaning, that they are producing nuclear fuel, and there is no chance of any explosion...



Remember, the bombs are never where the fuel for them is created...and that's what you're seeing here...

TOTAL BS - they will safely shut down. Thread fail.

I'm in southwest Kentucky and the only thing the local media has said about it is one little blip on the evening news about workers being laid off. That's it.

Everyone I know is talking about and the repercussions. Scary shit.

Tomato plants in...

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... besides relocation ... you expect anything? ...
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... fires are destroying CA ... twisters are tearing up OK ...
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... hail, flooding, earthquakes, fireballs, not to mention the fed government's failures ... we do have our plates full ...
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... but we'll ad this too ...
.

That is all they ever say, usually have a bit once a week about the workers, especially when they were on strike

I can't wait! nuclear doom is the best doom!