Page 216 - Beyond Decommissioning

Experience and lessons learned 197

The experience quoted below arises from the nonnuclear sector, but it can be read-
ily exported to large radiological laboratories and radiation research facilities. In
2004, Peace Health bought Sony’s former CD and DVD manufacturing facilities in
Sprongfield, OR, converting the 3-ha facility into laboratory and support area for hos-
pitals and clinics in the region. Peace Health would have paid about three times more if
they had built similar space.
In August 2003 KBI Bio Pharma, Inc., acquired Mitsubishi’s 3.16-ha former semi-
conductor building in Durham, NC, for $15.5 million. The site ceased wafer fabrica-
tion operations in 1998 due to company’s restructuring and has stood empty ever
since. Mitsubishi originally spent $270 million building and equipping the campus
2
in the early 1990s. The former semiconductor plant contains 4700 m of cleanrooms
2
2
and 450 m of laboratories. The complex also includes 12,500 m of office space, as
well as a cafeteria and stores. The buildings came equipped with complementary infra-
structure used both in biopharmaceutical and semiconductor manufacturing, including
systems for producing highly filtered water and air. The Mitsubishi plant had also 0.5
ha of cleanrooms (these are controlled environments that have a low level of pollutants
such as dust, airborne microbes, etc. Cleanrooms vary in size and complexity, and are
used extensively in either semiconductor manufacturing or pharmaceuticals and bio-
tech). It was estimated that in reusing existing facilities rather than building new
spaces, KBI spent half of the money needed. An additional benefit to KBI was an
available workforce that included hundreds of former Mitsubishi staff already trained
to work in a cleanroom environment: as noted elsewhere in this book the availability
of skilled labor is a bonus common to many cases of nuclear redevelopment
(Biopharm, 2005).
A table given in Alchemy (2005) compares typical features of biotechnology vs
semiconductor facilities: this could serve to illustrate the potential for adaptive con-
version of one category of facilities into the other.
A different reuse is given in the following. In Wake County, NC, USA, the con-
version of an office and scientific research facility into a school is a story with four
exemplary ingredients: good timing, smooth teamwork, one prime contractor, and
cooperation among parties. In 1998, the Wake County Public School System
(WCPSS) embarked on the adaptive reuse of the unused American Sterilizer Com-
pany facility. The 1.4-ha complex included an architecturally impressive glass and
granite office building and an adjacent scientific R&D building within a broader
9-ha site. Initially the complex did not look like a school, but the conversion did work.
In 1997, Apex High School was going to be renovated the following year, displacing
800 pupils. Transferring them to other crowded schools was not possible, nor was
using trailers. The American Sterilizer complex fulfilled preliminary criteria for adap-
tive reuse, namely: a new school building was needed promptly; the proposed facility
was well built and well located; and it was available and affordable.
Once a feasibility study confirmed the building’s suitability, the project was put on
a fast track. In Wake County, a typical school construction project takes about two and
one-half years—a year for design, school district approval, and the selection of mul-
tiple contractors; and 1.5 years for execution. Instead, this project had to be finished in
9 months.