Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Facilities Demolition and Disposal Project (Miscellaneous Facilities)

The project objective was to demolish 34 facilities at ORNL totaling approximately 115,902 square feet, which generated over 10,000 cubic yards of industrial, hazardous, and radiologically contaminated demolition debris. Historically, these facilities were used in support of reactor area operations and for various laboratory support activities. The project was divided into four sub-projects to accommodate for the four funding sources: SCLC - Southeast Contaminated Laboratory Complex; GMFC - General Maintenance Facilities Complex; SFC - Small Facilities Complex; and CCLM - Central Campus Legacy Material.

Project Details

We served as the prime contractor to DOE, and were responsible for the planning and execution of all aspects to complete project including project plan development, project controls/reporting, characterization, demolition, management of multiple waste streams, waste handling, transport, and disposal. We managed a full-time work force of 48 personnel including subcontractors. We managed an annual budget of approximately $10M and were responsible for the operation and maintenance of the 34 facilities. All 34 buildings were characterized according to MARSSIM guidelines using a master characterization plan prepared and implemented by our staff. Building components were surveyed and segregated using clearance levels that we specified and were accepted by DOE. Building equipment and material that met clearance levels were recycled into the public domain. Contaminated items were disposed of as radioactive waste.

Demolition of the facilities had to be carefully planned to ensure proper segregation and avoid cross contamination of the multiple waste streams found on this project including: Asbestos Containing Material (ACM) Low Level Waste (LLW); Beryllium/ACM (LLW); construction debris (LLW); ACM including transite (Rad); Be/ACM (Rad); other Be-contaminated material (Rad); building debris and trash (Rad); scrap metal and equipment - recycling; and ACM (Non-Rad).

We were responsible for the development of all project plans, procedures, and policies covering topics ranging from radiation protection to emergency management to nuclear safety. We worked closely with the Department of Energy Laboratory Accreditation Program (DOELAP) to coordinate approved dosimetry plans for this project. We developed and received approval of the DOE O 413.3B Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) within 60 days of contract award (previous contractors had taken six to 14 months to get a PMB approved). Over 163,000 work hours were recorded with zero lost-time accidents.

The project included radiological characterization, abatement, and removal of radioactive and hazardous materials, deactivation of buildings, removal of equipment, demolition of facilities to grade level, and management of multiple waste streams.