ORNL Building 3019-A: the most contaminated building in the world?

The US Department of Energy has a huge stockpile of weapons-grade uranium at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee that they need to do something with. Somewhere along the way, a plan to extract medical radioisotopes got scrapped, and the disposal bill jumped from $128 million when the contract was awarded in 2003 to nearly $380 million now.

Here is a fascinating article about it, with this kicker:

After the down-blending work is completed, Building 3019-A will be decommissioned. That, too, could be a hazardous adventure.

The building once housed operations that chemically processed fuel from the nearby Graphite Reactor. In 1959, a chemical explosion "distributed plutonium contamination throughout the interior and exterior of the building." Although a cleanup project was done at the time, radioactive particles remained behind, and workers painted the walls to prevent the spread of contamination.

In addition to the radioactive hazards, Building 3019-A has uncoated lead shielding, lead paint, polychlorinated biphenyls, asbestos and other hazards. There also is an "underground ventilated bunker" that contains about 4,000 gallons of thorium nitrate solution that's contaminated with U-233.

Stuff like this makes you wonder why states like Tennessee, Kentucky, and South Carolina want to compete for hosting spent nuclear fuel recycling facilities.