Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, X-700 Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, 3930 U.S. Route 23 South, Piketon, Pike County, OH. Surveyed as HAER OH-142-V, with a 2,352-word written history.
“The Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility is used for equipment maintenance support for non-radioactive or low-level radioactively contaminated equipment from the diffusion cascade.”
Written record, HAER OH-142-V survey. Machine-read text.
surveyed by the federal HAER program as HAER OH-142-V · the record runs 2352 words · one of 30 surveyed structures published for this county.
Source document Quoted word for word from HAER OH-142-V. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.
Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS), U.S. Route 23 South, Piketon vicinity, Scioto Township, Pike County, Ohio The Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility is located at Ohio State Plane South coordinates at easting ft, northing ft and at Universal Transverse Mercator Zone 17N easting m, northing m. The coordinate represents the approximate center of the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility. This coordinate was obtained on June 19, by plotting its location in EnviroInsite The accuracy of the coordinates is +/- 12 meters. The coordinate datum is North American Datum Date of Construction: Designer/Builder: Peter Kiewit Sons Construction Company Previous Owner: N/A
Source document Quoted word for word from HAER OH-142-V. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.
The Atomic Energy Commission oversaw construction and operation of PORTS until when the Energy Research and Development Administration was established with responsibility for research and development duties from In the U.S. Department of Energy was established, overseeing operations at PORTS.
Source document Quoted word for word from HAER OH-142-V. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.
The Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility is used for equipment maintenance support for non-radioactive or low-level radioactively contaminated equipment from the diffusion cascade. Originally, this facility was used for chemically cleaning and degreasing pipes, fittings, and other materials and for the re-tubing and re-assembling of converters for continued use in the diffusion cascade. Converters, which contain the porous barrier tubes used to diffuse gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF6), were cleaned so that they could be maintained or upgraded. This building is part of PORTS, which was a part of the U.S. Cold War nuclear weapons complex. PORTS primary Cold War era mission was the production of highly enriched uranium by the gaseous diffusion process for defense/military purposes.
Source document Quoted word for word from HAER OH-142-V. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.
Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth LLC photographed the site in August Gray & Pape, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, served as the primary author of the historical narrative and resource descriptions drawing from numerous PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 2) historical records and reports, drawings, photographs and plans. For additional contextual information, see Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, HAER no. OH-142. This Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility HAER was completed in PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 3) Part I.
Historical Information In support of this report, there are three appendices that are provided: Appendix A through C, which consist of survey photographs, historical photographs, and historical drawings, respectively. Construction History of the Converter Shop and Cleaning Facility: Ferro Construction Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio, won the subcontract from Peter Kiewit Sons Construction Company to erect the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, including all underground utility service lines and all related piping. The Ferro Construction Company contract also called for installation of structural steel, cleaning tanks, electric cranes, degreasers, and unit substations.
The Columbus Heating and Ventilating Company, of Columbus, Ohio, furnished and installed the air conditioning system. Ferro Construction Company broke ground on the Facility in March As encountered elsewhere on the plant construction site, the Facility site was plagued with fat clay. "Fat clay" is a term used to describe clay with a high plasticity. Workers encountered it throughout the area during construction. Due to its plasticity, it makes for an unstable foundation. Workers countered this problem by excavating the fat clay until they reached a more solid subsurface. This necessitated infilling with concrete and stable fill material. Test borings were completed at the Facility site to determine how much excavation was required to reach suitable load-bearing soils.
Upon removing the fat clay, workers poured three inches of concrete for subgrade protection. When workers completed the grading and backfilling in November they had excavated cubic yards of earth and deposited cubic yards of backfill. Workers began pouring the structural concrete in mid-March (Appendix B, Figures 3 and 4). By the time they completed the work in December they had poured cubic yards of concrete and placed 402 tons of reinforcing steel. In May the Carl Vestal Steel Erector Company, of Indianapolis, Indiana, began erecting the building s steel frame (Figures 5 and 6). Peter Kiewit Sons Construction Company supplied the tons of structural steel required to complete the Facility.
The Carl Vestal Steel Erector Company completed the work in May Working under subcontract to Ferro Construction Company, the R.E. Forshee Company, Inc., of Cincinnati, Ohio, began work on the roof deck in July Industrial Roof and Sheet Metal Company (location not known) installed roughly squares of roofing material. As work on the roof progressed, Elwin G. Smith Company, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, installed the asbestos siding on the exterior walls. The siding work began in August and ended in January Subcontractors of Ferro Construction Company installed the mechanical and electrical systems concurrently with the building s erection.
Allegheny Electric Company (location not known) performed all electrical work, including lighting, power wiring, substations, switchgear, and control wiring. Wiring work transpired between May and mid-March Columbus Heating and Ventilation Company, of Columbus, Ohio, won the subcontract to install air-conditioning in the re-tubing area. By mid-September workers had installed the cleaning pits within the cleaning area of the Facility (Figure 7). By this time, workers had begun installing siding on the exterior of the building and, by mid-October of much of the building had been enclosed (Figures 8 through From PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No.
OH-142-V (Page 4) September through May workers installed all of the necessary electrical and mechanical work within the building (Figures 11 through Work on the brick chimney commenced in July The Consolidated Chimney Company (location not known) erected the structure. When completed in September the chimney measured 22' in diameter and stood 3'' tall. All work on the Facility was complete by May (Figures 15 and Historical drawings of building plans are provided in Appendix C (Figures 17 through Part II. Site Information Description of the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility: The Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility is located just south of the Process Building and north of the Maintenance and Stores Building.
The Facility was used for chemically cleaning and degreasing pipes, fittings, and other materials prior to re-tubing and re-assembling converters for continued use in the diffusion cascade. Converters, which contain the porous barrier tubes used to diffuse gaseous UF6, were cleaned so that they could be maintained or upgraded. The Facility is a one-story building that measures wide by long and stands 37' high and provides a floor area of approximately square feet (Appendix A, Figures 1 and 2). The Facility consists of two, parallel, steel-framed structures with flat roofs. Like a number of other buildings around the plant site, the lower 8' of the side walls consist of concrete block. The concrete block portion of the end walls is slightly taller.
The remainder of the walls above the concrete block consists of corrugated asbestos cement panels over steel framing. The building s designers specified concrete block as a means of withstanding daily abuse and because concrete block is also easier to clean. The building is divided down its length by a full-height steel frame and asbestos panel partition. The east side of the divide consists of a two-bay wide cleaning area. It features ten cleaning pits along the east side of the bay. The west side consists of a three-bay shop and re-tubing area. The two areas are separated by a transverse partition, with the shop area located on the south side of the building and the re- tubing area located to the north.
The south-central portion of the tubing area features a mezzanine that was used for tube storage. Each of the bays contain a mezzanine transformer room adjacent the end walls. The Facility is serviced by a railroad spur at the south end of the building. A gantry crane, which straddles the spur, facilitated the loading and unloading of converters. Like many of the buildings on the plant site, the Facility was designed to withstand an earthquake of 2.0 percent gravity, which was slightly less than what was specified by the Pacific Coast Building Code for a Zone 1 Earthquake Area. The 70' tall brick stack meets the Pacific Coast Building Code. The cleaning tanks in the east half of the building are no longer in use.
The tanks were arranged to provide a sequence for cleaning process support systems. Each of the eight tanks measure 8' wide by 45' long by 10' deep. The tanks were filled with fluid to a depth of eight and-a-half feet. One tank was filled with warm water, one with alkali, two with trioxide, one with cold water, one with chromic acid, one with ammonium hydroxide, and one with hot water. Heated jet streams, external heat exchangers, and submerged coils provided the necessary heating as required by specific operations. Process support system pipes were cleaned by immersion within the various vats. Ventilation was provided by a series of PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No.
OH-142-V (Page 5) eight fans, all located in a line along the east wall of the building. The fans forced fumes from the cleaning process up through a 70' tall, brick stack. The stack is located near the center of the east wall. A pair of trichloroethylene vapor degreaser tanks is located at the south end of the cleaning tanks. The degreaser tanks are about the same shape and size as the eight cleaning tanks. The trichloroethylene is stored in a gallon tank next to the degreasers. The trichloroethylene was delivered to the Facility via railroad tank cars. PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 6) Part III. Sources of Information Department of Energy. The Role of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Cold War History.
Piketon, OH: U.S. Department of Energy, Department of Energy. Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Report for the Process Buildings and Complex Facilities Decontamination and Decommissioning Evaluation Project at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Piketon, Ohio, DOE/PPPO/03-0245&D3. Piketon, OH: U.S. Department of Energy, Department of Energy. National Historic Preservation Act Section 110 Survey of Architectural Properties at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Scioto and Seal Townships, Piketon, Ohio, DOE/PPPO/03-0147&D1. Piketon, OH: U.S. Department of Energy, January Giffels & Vallet, Inc. Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Portsmouth, Ohio, Project History and Completion Report (Redacted). Washington, U.S.
Atomic Energy Commission, PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 7) Appendix A: Survey Photographs Figure 1: Location and Orientation of Exterior Photograph (2) PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 8) Figure 2: South Side of the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, August Facing Northwest PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No.
OH-142-V (Page 9) Appendix B: Historical Photographs Figure 3: Excavation and Foundation Work for the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, March Figure 4: Steel Frame Erection for the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, May PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 10) Figure 5: Excavation and Foundation Work for the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, May Figure 6: Steel Frame Erection for the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, Looking Northeast, July PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No.
OH-142-V (Page 11) Figure 7: Cleaning Tank Installation for the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, September Figure 8: Construction Photograph of the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, Looking Southeast, September PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 12) Figure 9: Construction Photograph of the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, Looking Northwest, October Figure 10: Cleaning Tank Area Inside the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, Looking South, October PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No.
OH-142-V (Page 13) Figure 11: Interior View of the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, December Figure 12: Interior View of the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, February PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 14) Figure 13: Interior View of the Re-Tubing Area of the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, March Figure 14: Interior View of the Re-Tubing Area of the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, May PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No.
OH-142-V (Page 15) Figure 15: The Water Ionization Facility for the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility and the Decontamination Facility, June Figure 16: Interior View of the Converter Shop and Chemical Cleaning Facility, June PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 16) Appendix C: Historical Drawings Figure 17: Area C Floor Plan PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 17) Figure 18: Area B Floor Plan PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 18) Figure 19: Area A Floor Plan PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No.
OH-142-V (Page 19) Figure 20: First Floor Plan PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 20) Figure 21: Exterior Elevations PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 21) Figure 22: First Floor Plan PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 22) Figure 23: First Floor Plan PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 23) Figure 24: Plot Plan and Index PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT, CONVERTER SHOP AND CHEMICAL CLEANING FACILITY HAER No. OH-142-V (Page 24) Figure 25: Building Plan
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The federal surveyors worked through Piketon building by building. These are the other structures they measured and filed a report on, longest report first.
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