Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site

The Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site was a nuclear fuel production facility located by the Cimarron River near Crescent, Oklahoma. It was operated by Kerr-McGee Corporation (KMC) from 1965-1975.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]}

History

Some of the byproducts and waste from Kerr-McGee's Uranium and Thorium processing at its Cushing, Oklahoma refinery were transported to Cimarron in the 1960s.^[3]

In 1965 Kerr-McGee got an NRC license to make nuclear fuel at the plant.^[1]

The plant made Uranium Fuel.^[4]

The plant also made mixed Plutonium-Uranium Oxide (MOX) 'driver fuel pins' for use in the Fast Flux Test Facility at the Hanford Site in Washington State. Along with NUMEC, Kerr-McGee made the fuel pins for FFTF cores 1 and 2, between 1973 and 1975. The pins were quality tested by the Plutonium Finishing Plant at Hanford. The method they used to create the MOX was the unusual "coprecipitation of plutonium nitrate and uranium nitrate solution". The plant shut down in 1976. ^[2][5]

In 1983 Kerr-McGee Nuclear split into Quivira Mining Corporation and Sequoyah Fuels Corporation, although both were still owned by Kerr-McGee. Sequoyah got the Cimarron plant. ^[1] Sequoyah was then sold to General Atomics in 1988^[9], but Kerr-McGee kept control of Cimarron under a subsidiary named the Cimarron Corporation. In 2005 Kerr-McGee formed a new subsidiary named Tronox, and it then gained ownership of Cimarron. Tronox was then spun off as an independent company in 2006, a few months before KMC was bought by Anadarko Petroleum. Tronox went bankrupt in 2008/2009, blaming in part the environmental debts it inherited from KMC. Tronox shareholders later sued Anadarko Petroleum (KMC's successor) for having misled investors. ^{[4][6][7][8][10]}

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission license numbers were SNM-928 for the Uranium production and SNM-1174 for the MOX production.^[4]

Silkwood

This was the facility where Karen Silkwood was employed when she died under mysterious circumstances after her union activism and whistleblowing. It is also the place where she was contaminated with plutonium. This happened in 1974.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Cook, Michael. "NOTIFICATION OF THE DECOMMISSIONING OF THE KERR-MCGEE, CIMARRON SITE". http://www.epa.gov/superfund/health/contaminants/radiation/pdfs/kmg_nrc.pdf. Retrieved 2009 10 1. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Lini, D.C. and L. H. Rodgers. "Plutonium Finishing Plant". Hanford / US Govt. http://www.hanford.gov/rl/uploadfiles/FACT_PFP_0606.pdf. Retrieved 2009 20 1. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT KERR-MCGEE REFINERY SITE". Centers for Disease Control. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/kerr/ker_p1.html. Retrieved 2009 10 1. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} "Kerr-McGee - Cimarron". US NRC. 2009 Apr. http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/complex/kerr-mcgee-cimarron-corporation-former-fuel-fabrication-facility.html. Retrieved 2009 10 1. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Lini, D.C. and L. H. Rodgers. "Plutonium Finishing Plant". Hanford / US Govt. http://www.hanford.gov/rl/uploadfiles/FACT_PFP_0606.pdf. Retrieved 2009 20 1. 
6. ^ ^{a b} anadarko.com 2006 aug 10 press release
7. ^ ^{a b} Kerr-McGee Completes Separation of Tronox 2006 Mar 31
8. ^ ^{a b} Jan 13, 2009 The Oklahoman via COMTEX
9. ^ ^{a b} "75 F3d 536 General Atomics v. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission". openjurist.org. 1995 10 17. http://openjurist.org/75/f3d/536/general-atomics-v-united-states-nuclear-regulatory-commission. Retrieved 2009 10 2. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "Shareholder Class Action Filed on Behalf of Purchasers of Tronox, Inc. by the Law Firm of Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check, LLP". PRNewswire / Reuters. 2009. http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS251173+12-Aug-2009+PRN20090812. Retrieved 2009 10 6.