Sequoyah Fuels Corporation owned and operated a uranium processing plant near Gore, Oklahoma. The company was created in 1983 as a subsidiary of

Kerr-McGee The Kerr-McGee Corporation, founded in 1929, was an American energy company involved in oil exploration, production of crude oil, natural gas, perchlorate and uranium mining and milling in various countries. On June 23, 2006, Anadarko Petroleu ...

. In 1988 it was sold to

General Atomics General Atomics (GA) is an American energy and defense corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, that specializes in research and technology development. This includes physics research in support of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion en ...

Uranium processing plant

The plant is located near

Gore, Oklahoma Gore is a town in western Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, United States. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 977 at the 2010 census, an increase of 15 percent over the figure of 850 record ...

, close to the

Illinois River The Illinois River () is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River at approximately in length. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, the river has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins with the confluence of the Des Plaines ...

and

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States, southeastern and Southwestern United States, southwestern portions of the United States. At a leng ...

. The plant started construction in 1968 and began operation in 1970. It converted

yellowcake uranium Yellowcake (also called urania) is a type of powdered uranium concentrate obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. It is a step in the processing of uranium after it has been mined but before ...

into

uranium hexafluoride Uranium hexafluoride, sometimes called hex, is the inorganic compound with the formula . Uranium hexafluoride is a volatile, white solid that is used in enriching uranium for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Preparation Uranium dioxide is co ...

. In 1987 it started converting

depleted uranium hexafluoride Depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUHF; also referred to as depleted uranium tails, depleted uranium tailings or DUF6) is a byproduct of the processing of uranium hexafluoride into enriched uranium. It is one of the chemical forms of depleted uranium ...

into depleted

uranium tetrafluoride Uranium tetrafluoride is the inorganic compound with the formula UF4. It is a green solid with an insignificant vapor pressure and low solubility in water. Uranium in its tetravalent ( uranous) state is important in various technological process ...

. The plant ceased operation in 1993. A leak and explosion in 1986 left one worker dead and extreme groundwater and

soil contamination Soil contamination, soil pollution, or land pollution as a part of land degradation is caused by the presence of xenobiotic (human-made) chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. It is typically caused by industrial activit ...

across the 600-acre site. See

article for citations The plant was operated under Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation. In 1983 KMNC split into

Quivira Mining Corporation The Quivira Mining Corporation (sometimes spelled Quivera) was a uranium mining company owned by Kerr-McGee. It was established in 1983. In 1983 Quivira became operator of Kerr-McGee's old 1958 uranium mill at Ambrosia Lake, New Mexi ...

and Sequoyah Fuels Corporation. The latter was given control of the plant. In 1988 Sequoyah Fuels Corporation was sold to

. In 2008 a company named International Isotopes said it would buy equipment and intellectual property from the Sequoyah Fuels Corp plant. The equipment would be used in a new location. It would be used for converting

depleted uranium Depleted uranium (DU), also referred to in the past as Q-metal, depletalloy, or D-38, is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope Uranium-235, 235U than natural uranium. The less radioactive and non-fissile Uranium-238, 238U is the m ...

hexafluoride to depleted

The 1986 Sequoyah Corporation Fuels Release in Oklahoma

On January 4, 1986, Sequoyah Fuels Corporation experienced a rupture which killed 26-year-old worker, James Harrison and hospitalized 37 of the 42 onsite workers. The ''

American Journal of Public Health The ''American Journal of Public Health'' is a monthly peer-reviewed public health journal published by the American Public Health Association that covers health policy and public health. The journal was established in 1911 and its stated mission ...

'' describes the plant as having "never fully recovered" from the accident.Doug Brugge, et al, "The Sequoyah Corporation Fuels Release and the Church Rock Spill", ''American Journal of Public Health'', September 2007, Vol, 97, No. 9, pp. 1596–1597. Another accident involving the release of UF₆ occurred in 1992. The plant ceased production operations in 1993 and was decommissioned.

References

External links

New York Times
{{Coord, 35.5024, -95.0830, dim:500_region:US-OK, display=title Nuclear fuel companies Uranium mining in the United States Nuclear technology in the United States Energy companies of the United States Radioactively contaminated areas Mining in Oklahoma Radiation accidents and incidents

Uranium processing plant

The 1986 Sequoyah Corporation Fuels Release in Oklahoma

See also

References

External links