BWX Technologies: makes more than Navy stuff

 

 

Last updated: October 29, 2013

Lynchburg, Va.

This site handled (or was contaminated by) uranium, according to government records. See below for more details.
 

Other names: Babcock and Wilcox Co. ● Note: The summary above has been automatically generated from details below.

                                   

Government Assessments
 

“Babcock and Wilcox Company's Nuclear Facilities Plant in Lynchburg, VA, performed work for a variety of AEC and DOE projects. Babcock and Wilcox Company's Nuclear Facilities Plant in Lynchburg, VA, participated in the AEC's Oxide Pellet Fabrication Program, which was managed by the New York Operations Office.

 Records indicate that shipments of enriched uranium were made to and from the Fernald facility during the years 1968-1972. The company also recovered highly enriched uranium from weapons scrap received from the DOE's Oak Ridge facility between 1985 and 1996.

In 1997 the Babcock & Wilcox Company facility in Lynchburg, VA became the BWX Technologies facility. From 1998 to 2000, the company fulfilled a contract for the recovery of enriched uranium from scrap materials containing beryllium.

The Lynchburg plant also participated in a DOE-sponsored program called Project Sapphire, under which the plant had responsibility from 1995 to 2001 for downblending enriched uranium obtained from the government of Kazakhstan.”
 

Source: Department of Energy via NIOSH

Radioactive Materials / Other Materials of Interest

• uranium

Source: Department of Energy "Considered Sites" database and/or other government records. Note: May not be an exhaustive list; Department of Energy records focus on "primary" materials handled while under contract with its predecessor agencies.

           

FUSRAP* Status: Status unclear

*Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. Source: Department of Energy

NIOSH* 2011 Evaluation: Potential exists for significant residual radiation (from 1960 to 1967, from 1973 to 1984, and from 2002 to time of study) 

       

“The documentation available for this evaluation is insufficient to rule out the period between 1960-1967, or the period after 1972. There was no available documentation describing the materials, processes and/or objectives of the enriched uranium shipments between Babcock & Wilcox and NLO (Fernald) during the 1968 through 1972 period.”

“There is no documentation that anything other than routine cleaning was ever performed at this facility, as it appears to have remained and is currently operational. Contamination spread from AWE related activities is currently not distinguishable from non-related contamination.”
 

*National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Source: Report on Residual Radioactive and Beryllium Contamination at Atomic Weapons Employer Facilities and Beryllium Vendor Facilities (Aug. 2011), Appendix A-2.

 

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, as part of a federal program to compensate individuals for health damage from work in the atomics-weapons industry, analyzes information about scores of sites around the country. It looks for evidence that a site engaged in activities that might have exposed workers to harmful amounts of weapons-related radiation. If such a situation is found, the agency looks for evidence that the site was either satisfactorily cleaned up or that the risk of significant residual contamination was low.

 

If NIOSH can't find evidence of either, it lists the site as having a potential for such contamination. However, agency officials say, this designation doesn't mean a health threat exists. It merely means that based on available evidence NIOSH can't rule out such a threat.

   

Locations

The Journal has attempted to locate current owners for each site. Their responses are included when available. Address (may be historical):1570 Mount Athos Road    Current occupant/owner:

Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Operations Group, Inc.

Current occupant/owner comment:

A Babcock & Wilcox spokesman didn't have any comment.

http://projects.wsj.com/waste-lands/state/UT/