Sandia National Laboratories

DOE-STD-1128-98

Guide of Good Practices for Occupational Radiological Protection in Plutonium Facilities

1500 being disassembled per year. Some weapons assembly is continuing, but on a relatively small

scale. Large quantities of plutonium pits are normally in interim storage at the site.

B.11 ROCKY FLATS ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY SITE

The mission of the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (originally the Rocky Flats Plant)

has changed from production of nuclear weapons components to radioactive material storage,

environmental restoration, and waste management.

Plutonium activities at the site were limited to chemical and mechanical processing of plutonium

and did not include plutonium production. Processing, recovering, machining, and fabricating

involved primarily four buildings: 991, 707, 771, and 776/777. Two buildings, 559 and 779, were

used for laboratory analysis and research. Building 371 was built as a replacement for 771 but has

not been reliably utilized in that capacity. It does have analytical laboratory capability and a large

storage area for plutonium.

-- Building 991 is the oldest building involved in plutonium activities. However, it has recently

been used only for storage and shipping/receiving of complete plutonium components (pits) to

and from Pantex.

-- Building 707 was used for the fabrication and assembly of nuclear weapons components. This

involved melting, blending, casting, machining, fabricating, and assembling plutonium

components. Building 776 had been used for these operations until 1969.

-- Building 771 was used for chemical recovery and processing of plutonium to produce usable

product material.

-- Building 776/777 was used for disassembly of returned components from the field. This

building also performed electrorefining for the separation of americium from plutonium.

-- Building 559 was used as an analytical laboratory to support weapons component production,

i.e., quality control, quality assurance, and other laboratory activities.

-- Building 779, also a laboratory facility, provided chemical and metallurgical research and

development.

The plutonium facilities at Rocky Flats have had several major contamination incidents involving

plutonium fires. Since plutonium pits were the primary plutonium product shipped from the site, all

other plutonium metal was considered in process and not packaged for long-term storage.

Relatively large quantities of plutonium metal and oxides are located in process lines and in storage

locations.

B.12 SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES

The Sandia National Laboratories engages in the following activities:

-- nuclear weapons research, development, and testing;

-- explosives testing involving radioactive materials;

-- accelerator-based nuclear physics research, materials testing, and applied technologies;

B-4