Also Known As: Reactive Metals Inc., National Distillers and Chemical Co. and Bridgeport Brass Co.
Seymour, Connecticut
Time Period: AWE 1962-1964; Residual Radiation 1965-1991; DOE 1992-1993 (remediation)
Facility Type: Atomic Weapons Employer, Department of Energy
Facility Description: From 1962 to 1964, the Bridgeport Brass Company performed contract work at the Seymour site for the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). This work involved developing an extrusion process for natural uranium metal. After 1964, the work was consolidated at the Reactive Metals site in Ohio. Operation of the Seymour site was later taken over by employees and the facility eventually became the Seymour Specialty Wire Company.
Although this site was designated as part of the Formerly Utilized Site Remediation Action Program (FUSRAP) in 1985, remediation only took place during 1992 and 1993. This work was performed under the Bechtel National Inc. umbrella contract or DOE site environmental remediation.
The Seymour, Connecticut, Site (formerly the Seymour Specialty Wire Site) is located in Seymour, Connecticut, at 15 Franklin Street, approximately 50 miles southwest of Hartford, Connecticut. The site comprises 60 acres along the west side of the Naugatuck River off State Route 8 and just north of State Route 67.
Reactive Metals, Inc., a subsidiary of Bridgeport Brass Company, later known as the Seymour Specialty Wire Company, formerly occupied the site. From 1962 to 1964, Reactive Metals, Inc. used one building at the site, the Rufert Building, for developmental extrusion of natural uranium metal under a U.S. Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC) contract and for related activities that included uranium machining, storage of radioactive material, and analytical support. These activities at the site ceased in 1964 when operations were transferred to a Reactive Metals, Inc. facility in Ashtabula, Ohio. Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducted surveys in
1977 and 1980 as part of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). Those surveys identified radioactive contamination in several areas of the Rufert Building that exceeded U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) guidelines for residual contamination on structural surfaces. Characterization of the site also indicated that two small exterior areas were contaminated as well. Uranium and its decay products were the primary contaminants. An additional survey in 1993, conducted to define the boundaries more accurately, limited contamination to the two exterior areas and to six rooms of the Rufert Building. Contamination inside the building was found on the walls, floors, floor drains, expansion joints, overhead beams and trusses, overhead pipes, overhead ducts and fans, and overhead light fixtures.
Remedial action of the Seymour Site was completed in 1993 under an expedited protocol. Approximately 33 cubic yards of contaminated building debris and 4 cubic yards of radioactively contaminated soil were removed from the site. Of the building waste material, 12 cubic yards were classified as low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) and 21 cubic yards as asbestos containing material and LLRW. A total of 37 cubic yards of waste were packaged in ten 55-gallon drums and in 10 transportable boxes and shipped to a licensed disposal facility in Clive, Utah.
See also: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocas/pdfs/tbd/bbrass.pdf