MACTEC Project to Dismantle 10 Highly Contaminated DOE Buildings Achieves First Milestone.

Business Editors/Environmental & Energy Writers

OAK RIDGE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 2000

MACTEC, Inc., under a $4.9 million contract with Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC to dismantle 10 buildings at the U.S. Department of Energy's East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), accomplished its first major project milestone.

As part of the Main Plant Decontamination and Dismantlement (D&D) project, MACTEC, headquartered in Denver, Colo., has completed the removal of asbestos from ETTP building K-1301, which is contaminated with both radioactive and hazardous materials. The milestone was completed two days ahead of schedule and without any recordable accidents or safety violations.

"The facility posed a unique challenge since it is contaminated with mixed waste that contains both radioactive and hazardous components," said MACTEC Project Manager Doug Dypolt. "The completion of this milestone is an important step in the cleanup of the East Tennessee Technology Park."

The overall project calls for MACTEC to provide comprehensive D&D work for each of the 10 highly contaminated process buildings within the reindustrialized area of the ETTP, thereby addressing the legacy hazards remaining from processing radioactive materials in support of the Cold War effort.

MACTEC's responsibilities under the contract include work such as sampling, radiological surveying, decontamination, characterization, equipment removal, dismantlement, demolition, packaging, certification, transportation, and disposal of all waste and debris generated to provide a turnkey D&D project at the ETTP site.

Along with removing asbestos, the project, to be completed by the summer of 2002, also includes the removal of mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), beryllium, fluorine and an assortment of radiological contaminates including transuranics and other various radioactive and hazardous contaminates that exist throughout the structures.

The scope of the work also includes the development and implementation of a radiological safety program to release materials and structures from highly contaminated areas. Extensive programs have been established to dismantle each structure in a safe and controlled manner to maintain worker exposure as low as reasonably achievable and without disruption to neighboring operations.

With 77 offices, 2,300 employees around the country, and annual revenues of $325 million, MACTEC was ranked seventh among the top 100 DOE contractors nationwide. A July, 2000 issue of Engineering News-Record ranked MACTEC 10th in nuclear waste management and fourth in the top 20 all-environmental firms.