In February 2019, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and Westinghouse Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF) entered into a Consent Agreement (CA) to comprehensively assess the source, nature, and extent of environmental impacts from current and historical operations.
Since 2019, Westinghouse has completed several projects to eliminate potential sources of environmental impact, e.g., use of perchloroethylene (PERC), storage of materials in sealand containers, removal of old and obsolete equipment on the facility roof, as well as the elimination of the nickel-plating room.
The plating room was a small space in the mechanical area operable unit part of the process where metal straps were nickel-plated. The use of the plating room required the use of various chemicals that also needed to be stored on site.
In July 2018, prior to the CA, we began outsourcing production operations for strap nickel plating to a third party that specializes in electroplating for medical, automotive, aerospace, RF & microwave, and military industries. By outsourcing the nickel-plating room operation, the environmental risk from mechanical area operations was significantly reduced.
The elimination of the plating process has improved safety, environmental, and production results.
Safety issues eliminated:
Environmental issues eliminated:
Production improvements:
The production operations in the plating room were shut down and fully decommissioned. This is just one of the many projects we are undertaking at the plant in our continued efforts to upgrade our processes as we move toward lean manufacturing. The completion of this project also reinforces our commitment to improving employee safety and becoming more environmentally sound and better stewards of our community.
