PIKETON, Ohio — Crews at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site have completed training on a new fleet of heavy demolition equipment that will be used to tear down the X-333 Process Building, the largest former uranium enrichment facility at the site.
Four operators from Southern Ohio Cleanup Company spent a full day in classroom instruction followed by several days of hands-on field training to learn the new machinery, according to the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. The equipment includes excavators, shear attachments and material handlers built to cut structural steel, pulverize concrete and sort and remove debris. The fleet includes some of the largest shears of their kind, capable of cutting through steel beams with what the department described as unprecedented force.
SOCCo Excavator Operator Craig Barker said the hardest part of the training was learning how many moving parts are built into the shears and understanding their power level, according to the release.
The X-333 Process Building spans 33 acres. Demolition work on the structure began in April 2025 and is expected to continue through 2031. Crews cleared the building’s southwest corner more than a month ahead of schedule in September, and the newly trained equipment fleet is intended to support the next phases of the teardown.
Federal Project Director Christy Brown said the X-333 building held much larger process gas equipment than the X-326 uranium process building, which crews finished demolishing in 2022.
SOCCo Construction Manager Wade Howard said the equipment fleet was designed to be one of a kind for the project.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the U.S. Department of Energy.
