...for the reactors to avoid corrosion of aluminum and other metals in them. The mixture below grade also must be highly flowable, in some cases lighter than water, to ensure it will encase the reactor.

Chuck Fiala, project manager for Baker Concrete, Monroe, Ohio, says the radiological component is the biggest challenge. All 110 firm workers at the site had to complete a demanding 40-hour radiation worker class. Bulky full-body radiation gear slows the pace for workers pouring concrete in the reactors, he says. Crews spends no more than 90 minutes at a time inside the reactor.

At a third reactor, the smaller Heavy Water Test Components Reactor, crews will remove all above-grade materials and the reactor core before filling its below-grade portions with grout and concrete.

One of the most high-profile jobs at SRS funded by stimulus money was the May 25 implosion of the K-reactor cooling tower, the second-largest cooling tower ever demolished in the U.S.

The $8-million job, also performed by CDI, brought down 24,000 tons of concrete with 1,000 pounds of explosives. The demolition went so well that the concrete was knocked off the rebar, allowing 800 tons of rebar to be recycled. “It was icing on the cake,” says Dewitt Beeler, SRNS K-reactor demolition manager.

Doug Loizeaux, president of CDI, says the implosions of the reactor stacks and tower were relatively standard work. A few years ago, when CDI did its first DOE implosion, the agency had an “innate fear of explosives,” he says. DOE now understands the risks are less than those to workers spending months around a possibly contaminated site, according to Loizeaux. CDI recently signed a contract with DOE to fell similar towers at the Hanford site, he says. Funk says removing the cooling tower will save the government in costly structure upkeep.

In addition to accelerating work that will reduce the overall costs to American taxpayers, the Savannah River Site projects, which has employed 2,200 people at peak, will employ about 1,200 workers through the middle of next year.

“We picked the projects that we thought would give us the biggest boost in hiring people,” Giusti says. When the stimulus work is completed, it’s expected that many of the workers, with their newly polished radiation safety skills, will earn jobs at one of the new nuclear plants being built or planned nearby in Georgia or South Carolina, he adds.