EM Update | Vol. 7, Issue 7 | July 2015

In This Issue:

• SRNL’s Dr. Terry Michalske Named National Lab Director of the Year
• Air Force Veteran Begins New Career at EM
• A Decade of Cleanup Progress at EM’s Idaho Site
• Oak Ridge Moves Closer to Reaching Vision 2016
• Federal-Contractor Partnership Allows Continued Waste Processing in Oak Ridge
• Savannah River Site Takes on Environmental Cleanup Challenge: Coal-Fired Ash
• Excess SRS Assets Boost Area Economies
• Student’s Doctoral Studies Grew from Internship at DOE Laboratory, ORP
• After More Than 20 Years, Hanford’s Soil Vapor Extraction Project Nears Completion

SRNL’s Dr. Terry Michalske Named National Lab Director of the Year

Savannah River National Laboratory Director Dr. Terry Michalski, left, holds his award with EM Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Monica Regalbuto at EM headquarters.

AIKEN, S.C. – The Savannah River National Laboratory’s (SRNL) Dr. Terry Michalske has been selected as National Laboratory Director of the Year by DOE’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU).

   The award was given to Michalske for his work encouraging and promoting small businesses at SRNL, which is EM’s national laboratory.

   “I’ve had the opportunity to work with Terry, and I appreciate his hands-on leadership in SRNL’s support of small businesses,” said OSDBU Director John Hale III. “He uses collaborative approaches to engage small businesses so they can help the laboratory perfect its technologies and processes in the nuclear environment.”

   Hale, who introduced the laboratory director award as a new category this year in OSDBU’s Small Business Program, chose Michalske for the honor. It recognizes successful directors who display leadership and commitment to maximizing small business utilization through policies, procedures, outreach, and the creation of an atmosphere of “small business first” in their organizations.

   “Small businesses are the cornerstone of our nation. As a national laboratory, it is our responsibility to encourage economic development and foster good relationships with our small businesses,” said Michalske. “The real strength of a national laboratory is its people and its partnerships. By joining hands with small business, we are able to have the flexibility and attention necessary for advances in clean energy, national security, and environmental management. These partnerships are vital collaborations where knowledge is shared, relationships are formed, and the mission is accomplished. Without our small business partners, we would not be able to successfully fulfill our role in advancing science for the nation.”

   OSDBU presented the awards at its awards ceremony during the 14th Annual DOE Small Business Forum & Expo in Phoenix in June. Recipients include facility management contractors, small business program managers, and small businesses that demonstrated exceptional performance during fiscal year 2014 and positively supported the Department, its national laboratories, and facilities.

   SRNL is a multi-program applied research and development laboratory for DOE.

Air Force Veteran Begins New Career at EM

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Bart Barnhart was recently named EM’s new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Planning and Budget. Barnhart served in the U.S. Air Force for 34 years and has an extensive background in engineering and project management. Barnhart held numerous leadership positions and commanded squadrons in the United Arab Emirates, Nebraska, Japan, and Iraq. In his role at EM, he manages and coordinates strategic planning and budget support for EM’s cleanup. He recently talked with EM Update about his goals in his new position and the steps EM is taking to improve budgeting and planning.

1. You have worked a considerable amount in project management and budgeting prior to coming to EM. Tell us about that experience.

Air Force engineers have a unique perspective on project management, particularly on the construction side. We’re really experts in it, and we have a huge portfolio of responsibilities, which include the environmental program, construction program management, facilities and infrastructure maintenance, military family housing management, explosive ordnance disposal, disaster preparedness, and fire protection.

2. In what ways do you think that experience will benefit your new role as EM’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Planning and Budget? How will that experience help ensure EM continues to provide the best value for taxpayers?

I am pleased to see that our budget process is very similar to what I used in the Department of Defense (DOD). That is invaluable. It allows me to focus on the DOE specifics of the process, who the key players are, and what they expect from me and my team. The other side is taking input from the field and putting that in the budget.

3. How would you describe your management style?

My style is to provide direction to my team and then support them. I make sure that they’ve got the opportunity and the backing they need. If I need to be directive, I can do that. If I need to be more hands off, I know how to do that, too. The ability to adjust to the situation is one of my strong points.

Bart Barnhart, EM's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Planning and Budget

4. How will you integrate your engineering background into your position? Do you feel that having technical skills as well as managerial experience will be an asset to EM’s work? 

I’ve got a lot to learn about DOE and about what our folks do in the field, but my engineering and environmental cleanup background gives us a common platform. When I talk with those people in the field, I’ll be able to better understand their needs and concerns. They’ll teach me the things about nuclear cleanup that I need to understand. As I work here with DOE senior leaders, those experiences will help me prepare and promote a budget that supports our field operations while yielding the best value for our country.

5. Do you have goals to improve budgeting for EM, and make the cleanup more cost effective?

A key component of cost effectiveness is setting defensible priorities and identifying clear planning assumptions. EM has recently enhanced its budgeting processes to include planning years. That’ll help the sites build their budgets for the future. This, in turn, will eventually make our work at the sites and headquarters in the execution and budget years simpler and more efficient.

6. What are your hobbies? What do you like to do for fun outside work?

My wife Alonna and I keep pretty busy. We have three grown boys, so we’re empty nesters now. Spending time with our grandkids is high on the priority list for the future for us to keep busy and have fun as well. We have a couple of cats and they’re pretty entertaining. I’ve been riding motorcycles since I was 15 years old, and still do that as often as I can. I am a private pilot and I get a chance to fly from time to time. I also enjoy scuba diving, softball, and golf. 

A Decade of Cleanup Progress at EM’s Idaho Site

Workers demolish the CPP 601-602 Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Complex at the Idaho Site.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – EM has made significant progress in cleaning up the Idaho Site in the past decade.

   In 2005, CH2M-WG Idaho, LLC (CWI), EM’s main cleanup contractor at the site, began work in the Idaho Cleanup Project. Since then, workers with CWI have decontaminated and decommissioned old reactors, retrieved buried wastes and soil, and remediated groundwater, among other activities.

   That same year, Idaho’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) ramped up operations to prepare and ship legacy transuranic and other waste for off-site disposition to help meet commitments to the state of Idaho.

   “In the past 10 years, DOE and its contractors have conducted a lot of important cleanup work, and dramatic action has been taken to keep our commitments to the state of Idaho and its citizens,” said John (Jack) Zimmerman, DOE-Idaho Deputy Manager for the Idaho Cleanup Project. “Environmental cleanup success has been vital to developing trust among our regulators and stakeholders. That trust is critical to our ability to continue to perform the nuclear energy and national and homeland security research and development which are at the heart of the Idaho National Laboratory’s long-term mission.” 

   A major area of emphasis has been protecting the Snake River Plain Aquifer, a Lake Erie-sized underground water supply for more than 300,000 residents in southeastern Idaho.

   “Without a doubt, the aquifer is in better shape today than 10 years ago,” CWI President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Dieter said.

   At the northern end of the site, workers treated 600 million gallons of water from the aquifer using a pump-and-treat system and bioremediation, in which a food-grade whey is injected into the aquifer to encourage microorganisms to feed on the waste.

   At the site’s south end, workers removed the equivalent of about 32,000 55-gallon barrels of radioactive and hazardous waste from 3.8 acres of the Radioactive Waste Management Complex. They also destroyed 242,000 pounds of vapors from solvents used to clean equipment decades ago.

   “With these two projects, we’re removing the waste source, which is crucial to protecting the aquifer for the long term,” said Dieter.

   CWI also remediated 136 suspected or confirmed waste sites; removed unexploded ordnance left after military gun proofing from 178,100 acres of land; demolished three large spent fuel reprocessing facilities; and demolished 221 facilities and structures, including three reactor vessels. CWI transferred 3,186 spent fuel units to safer dry storage and washed and grouted 11 of 15 underground storage tanks. Seven of those tanks held high-level radioactive liquid waste from historic spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. Work is under way to address the remaining tank waste.

   Overall, EM has completed 99 percent of more than 500 enforceable milestones at the Idaho Site on time or ahead of schedule. 

Workers exhume targeted buried waste from Pit 9 in the Subsurface Disposal Area.

Pit 9 Success

   Another major success achieved at the Idaho Site is the completion of the cleanup of Pit 9, which helped to provide a number of important lessons learned for the overall effort to retrieve buried waste. The Pit 9 remediation project was initiated in the 1990s, and was intended to help demonstrate a “privatization” approach for cleaning up buried waste through the use of a fixed-price contract. The initial subcontractor had planned to use a remote process to dig up the waste in Pit 9 and process it for final disposal, but the work was never completed and the subcontract was ultimately terminated.

   In 2011, crews from CWI retrieved what would ultimately be approximately 700 cubic meters of waste from the one-acre Pit 9 section, which contained materials from the former Rocky Flats site in Colorado buried in the late 1960s. Cleanup of Pit 9 was completed in 2011, nine months ahead of CWI’s schedule and for less than a tenth of the cost of early cleanup estimates that topped $500 million.

An employee swipes a retrieved drum to check for exterior radiological contamination. Of the 65,000 cubic meters of historically managed transuranic waste stored at AMWTP, all but approximately 2,500 cubic meters have been retrieved. What remains to be retrieved are the oldest, most degraded, and challenging drums and boxes that have been stored at the Idaho Site for nearly half a century.

Making Progress on Removing TRU Waste 

   In 2005, DOE took ownership of AMWTP, which is now managed by Idaho Treatment Group, LLC. Since then, an additional 55,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste has been safely and compliantly retrieved, characterized, treated, and shipped by the AMWTP workforce. Innovative techniques, sophisticated equipment, and a professional workforce have made AMWTP a regional waste treatment facility that has received transuranic waste for treatment from 11 other DOE sites.

Oak Ridge Moves Closer to Reaching Vision 2016

EM Acting Assistant Secretary Mark Whitney speaks during the K-31 Building demolition celebration.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – About 70 employees, community leaders, and local officials recently gathered to witness the completion of K-31 Building’s demolition at Oak Ridge’s East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), marking the removal of the fourth of five gaseous diffusion buildings at the former uranium enrichment site. Video of the demolition and event is available here. 

   “It’s about the workforce, the folks that are out there every day in very tough conditions doing high-hazard work. They are doing it better than anybody else, and they are doing it safely so we can have events like today,” said Mark Whitney, acting assistant secretary for EM. “I’m so proud of the workforce, and I feel so lucky that we have this workforce in Oak Ridge working on this very important mission for us as we move forward.”

   Sue Cange, manager of EM’s Oak Ridge Office, noted that demolition of the gaseous diffusion building — one of the most complex aspects of cleanup at the site — helps Oak Ridge advance its ambitious vision to reach a major cleanup milestone.

Workers near completion of the K-31 demolition.

   “This project represents more than just completing another demolition project,” Cange said. “We are closer than ever to meeting our Vision 2016, which is that we will have all of our five gaseous diffusion plant buildings demolished by the end of calendar year 2016.”

   ETTP, formerly known as the K-25 site, was built as part of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s to enrich uranium for the atomic bombs that would end World War II. The site later produced enriched uranium for commercial and defense purposes. Operations ceased in 1985, and the site was permanently shut down in 1987. EM has been working toward completion of the site’s cleanup, which includes demolition of many of the buildings at the site.

   The 750,000-square-foot K-31 Building was built in 1951. As part of a cleanup project in 2005, most of the hazardous materials were removed from the facility, leaving its shell to be demolished. URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR), EM’s cleanup contractor at the site, began demolishing the building last October and completed demolition almost four months ahead of schedule and approximately $4 million under budget.

The last standing remains of K-31 are pulled to the ground.

   “Together as a partnership, we are achieving goals that are transforming this site and creating new possibilities for the future,” said Ken Rueter, UCOR president and project manager. “Vision 2016 is real. I hope this instills another element of confidence in our ability to do that.”

   With the demolition of K-31, only one gaseous diffusion building remains at ETTP — the K-27 Building. UCOR is currently deactivating the 383,000-square-foot facility to prepare it for demolition.

   Under EM’s reindustrialization program, property at ETTP is being transferred to the private sector to make the site an industrial park. Cleanup at the site is paving the way to achieve EM’s goal and creating a safer environment.

Federal-Contractor Partnership Allows Continued Waste Processing in Oak Ridge

Employees at Oak Ridge discuss with EM Acting Assistant Secretary Mark Whitney, upper right, the steps involved in processing remote-handled waste and transporting it to UCOR’s storage facilities. 

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – EM’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and two of its contractors — URS I CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC (UCOR) and Wastren Advantage, Inc. (WAI) — have developed a plan that allows the site to continue processing transuranic waste and maintain its cleanup schedule.

   Oak Ridge’s Transuranic Waste Processing Center was nearing shipment of a large portion of its lower-level radioactive processed waste offsite to EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant before the New Mexico facility suspended shipments last year.

   Although Oak Ridge could not ship the waste, employees at the center continued processing it. They soon finished the inventory of lower-level radioactive waste and began addressing waste streams with higher levels of radioactivity. However, to ensure a safe work environment, there are limits on the amount of radioactive inventory allowed at the facility. With a growing inventory and the limit quickly approaching, EM and its contractors needed a solution to continue operations.

   Together, they designed new containers that encase the normal inner vessel and outer cask packaging for processed transuranic waste, called Removable Lid Canister Overpacks. These overpacks add an additional level of protection and enable safe and secure long-term storage. UCOR has made facilities available for WAI to store the inventory of higher radioactive processed waste away from the center, so work can continue there. 

EM Acting Assistant Secretary Mark Whitney observes new overpacks that enable safe long-term storage for processed remote-handled transuranic waste in Oak Ridge. 

   “EM, UCOR, and WAI have displayed a level of teamwork that is helping us to continue processing some of the highest priority waste onsite,” Sue Cange, manager of EM's Oak Ridge Office, said. “This partnership has kept our cleanup moving forward, and it is saving money by avoiding delays.”

   Treating and processing transuranic waste is an important and substantial component of Oak Ridge’s cleanup portfolio, and its disposition is critical to achieving EM’s mission to protect the public and the environment. 

   “The new overpacks and storage strategy are the latest illustration of the capabilities possible through unified partnership,” said Cange. “This cooperation has led the site to overcome unforeseen obstacles, and it is helping keep employees’ momentum to complete these waste streams.”

Savannah River Site Takes on Another Environmental Cleanup Challenge: Coal-Fired Ash

SRNS environmental engineers Ron Socha (left) and Frank Sappington inspect earth-moving work within a basin containing coal ash.

AIKEN, S.C. – Workers have begun excavating a thick layer of coal ash covering approximately 100 acres of the Savannah River Site (SRS). 

   Approximately 1.3 million cubic yards of coal ash is located in four pond-like basins nearly side by side. The workers, with EM’s management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), are consolidating it into two large mounds safely and efficiently. Each mound will be capped with a thick earthen cover consisting of fill dirt, a synthetic material, and clay to prevent rainwater from reaching the ash beneath.

   This Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act project is a result of a closure plan developed and approved by a team from DOE-Savannah River, and state and federal environmental regulatory agencies. The plan uses successful technology and methods to close contaminated, water-filled basins at SRS. 

   Cleanup of the basins, created in the 1950s, mitigates a potential risk to Savannah River.

   “Protecting and preserving the environment at SRS is always of critical importance to this management team,” said Angelia Adams, with DOE-Savannah River Office.

One of the coal-ash basins is shown before recent remediation efforts.

An artist's rendition displays the basin’s expected end state after completing the first phase of the multi-year project.

   Initial work will involve moving more than 80,000 cubic yards of excavated ash and dirt from one basin to an adjacent ash landfill. 

   “To date, the management of this project has been right on schedule with the site prep work successfully achieved and the relocation of ash in progress,” SRNS Environmental Compliance and Area Completion Director Chris Bergren said. “We expect the high level of productivity and dedication to safety to continue all the way through the completion of this project, about three years from now.”

   The protective cap for the first mound is expected to require nearly 87,000 cubic yards of new, clean soil. In all, enough ash, clay and dirt will be moved to fill about 17,000 average-sized dump trucks. When complete, the top of this mound will be as long as 17 football fields, end to end.

   After completing the first mound, SRNS will consolidate ash from the remaining basins, forming a second large mound with a protective cap.

   Construction of the ash basins was required to collect and control the watery, ash-laden solutions produced as a by-product at the coal-powered D-Area powerhouse located a short distance from the basins. Special sluice lines, or pipes, carried the environmentally hazardous fluid to the basins.

   For decades, a large percentage of the steam and power needed to operate SRS facilities was produced by that powerhouse, which is now closed for eventual demolition.

Excess SRS Assets Boost Area Economies

Transformers from this former, coal-powered facility at SRS are being recycled through the site’s partnership with SRSCRO.

AIKEN, S.C. – One person’s trash is another’s treasure, but at the Savannah River Site (SRS), unneeded equipment and excess materials benefit the region.

   DOE, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) — EM’s management and operations contractor at the site — and the SRS Community Reuse Organization (SRSCRO), a non-profit organization, are working together to recycle the equipment and materials to benefit Aiken, Allendale, and Barnwell counties in South Carolina, and Richmond and Columbia counties in Georgia.

   The surplus items include office equipment, electrical turbines, diesel-powered pumps, and fire engines, and they generate approximately $400,000 a year for SRSCRO programs.

   “The SRSCRO strengthens local business and industry, which in turn creates jobs that fuel and grow the financial health of the entire region,” DOE-Savannah River Community Assistance Program Manager Parodio Maith said.

Eight power transformers (one shown above) were removed from an SRS powerhouse. A large amount of oil, which is a valuable commodity, was collected from each transformer.

SRNS personnel observe subcontractor workers as they remove an industrial electrical transformer from a now-closed powerhouse.

   Proceeds from the SRS partnership help SRSCRO to sponsor workforce education initiatives, such as the Nuclear Workforce Initiative; prepare studies and reports, such as the SRS Economic Impact Study & Regional Workforce Study; host public forums and community exchanges; and conduct meetings at the local, state and federal level on SRS community issues.

   Last year, SRSCRO disbursed $1 million for infrastructure improvement projects, such as construction work and land purchases for industrial parks.

   SRNS is currently working with SRSCRO to remove and dispose of dozens of aged trailers formerly used as temporary SRS offices. SRSCRO is removing the trailers at no cost to taxpayers. In return, the organization receives assets, such as transformers from a now-closed power plant at SRS.

   It costs SRS up to $45,000 to dispose of a trailer, so the site saves money by recycling.

   “The time and manpower needed to safely and efficiently remove utilities, uninstall support infrastructure, demolish and transport a trailer to a landfill is costly,” SRNS Site Services Program Manager Andy Albenesius said. “Just with this latest initiative, the program has achieved nearly $300,000 in cost avoidance for SRS.”

   SRSCRO was originally created as the Savannah River Regional Diversification Initiative in 1993 to promote economic development and address changes at SRS resulting from downsizing at the end of the Cold War.

Student’s Doctoral Studies Grew from Internship at DOE Laboratory, Office of River Protection

RICHLAND, Wash. – EM consistently attracts new talent through its intern program, reaching into high schools and colleges to identify and recruit the next generation of employees.

   Jose Marcial was introduced to EM’s Office of River Protection (ORP) operations as a Kiona-Benton City High School student in 2009. Although he was an intern at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, ORP provided work scope for him. He continued to work at the site as an intern in college, and he may return as an employee after he obtains his doctorate in material science and engineering.

   Marcial discovered his interest in those studies while interning at ORP and the laboratory, which is part of DOE’s network of national laboratories.

   “I thought, this is pretty cool, and decided to enroll in Washington State University’s material science undergraduate program,” says Marcial, now in his second year of doctoral studies at the university.

   In his internship, Marcial worked with Dr. Pavel Herma, then a senior scientist at the laboratory, and glass scientist Albert Kruger of ORP. Both professionals mentored Marcial. 

Once a high school intern who completed work at ORP, Jose Marcial is now pursuing a doctorate in material science and engineering.

   “The internship experience was great because I didn’t have any engineering background and I was able to learn a lot of complex calculation skills, how to prepare spreadsheets, and how to write scientific documents. I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to do X-ray diffraction work, which is really important as a materials scientist,” he said. “The skills I learned then, I use every day now.”

   When Marcial finishes his dissertation, he hopes to return to Hanford to work in the cleanup program. However, he has other goals as well.

   “I would like to teach,” Marcial said, “I had a great experience as a high school student and I think if more students received opportunities like I had, they would be very successful in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. I hope later in my career I can get involved with teaching or being part of that process at the high school or early college level.”

   This summer, Marcial is attending a university workshop in Brazil to learn more about non-crystalline material — critical knowledge for turning nuclear waste into a glass form for permanent disposal.

   Kruger worked with his laboratory partners to help interns navigate an array of professional opportunities. He says internships are important for more than academic success.

   “Internships aren’t just good for students, they’re also good for the companies that take the time to hire, evaluate, and provide guidance to young men and women who are preparing for college,” Kruger said. “Internships provide access for students to get an inside look at high-tech STEM-based jobs and gives us, as employers, a chance to mentor talented students who can help carry on the work of cleaning up the Hanford Site. I assume it to be part my mission to attract the next generation to pick up the baton as we go out the door. Any opportunity I can provide youngsters to try is in our best interest.”

   Kruger, who continues to mentor Marcial, ensured the intern his contributions were valuable to ORP’s efforts and encouraged him to attend professional meetings.

   “The first one he attended, he came home with the ‘Most Outstanding Student Poster’ award for the meeting,” Kruger said. “That’s a tough thing to do in a very competitive academic environment.”

After More Than 20 Years Operating, Hanford’s Soil Vapor Extraction Project Nears Completion

RICHLAND, Wash. – Hanford workers are fast approaching the successful completion of a long-term cleanup project.

   The soil vapor extraction (SVE) system near the Plutonium Finishing Plant has nearly completed its mission of removing carbon tetrachloride and methylene chloride from the soil.

   “Ninety-one percent of the 80,000 kilograms of carbon tetrachloride that have been removed to date were removed in the first five years of operation,” said Mark Byrnes, project manager for contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company. “The last 18 years have been spent removing that last nine percent, but that’s typical of this method. As contamination is removed from the soil, the concentrations go down and the time necessary to remove additional contaminants increases.”

The soil vapor extraction trailer is shown near Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant.

   SVE works by extracting contaminant vapors from the soil through a series of vacuums. Carbon tetrachloride and methylene chloride soil vapor concentrations in all of the SVE wells are below the federally mandated cleanup levels.

   Currently, an endpoint evaluation for the SVE system is being reviewed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The system can be shut down once EPA concurs that the treatment is no longer needed, a successful end to a long-term Hanford cleanup project.

   Carbon tetrachloride was used in the mixtures to recover plutonium from the plant’s liquid waste from 1955 to 1973. These mixtures were then discharged to trenches near the plant. Methylene chloride is a byproduct of the carbon tetrachloride degrading in the soil.

Contributors

Rosaire Bushey, Hanford Site

Lana Cox, Savannah River National Laboratory

Rick Dale, Idaho Site

Cameron Jenkins, EM Headquarters

Danielle Miller, Idaho Site

Mike Nartker, EM Headquarters

David Sheeley, EM Headquarters

Erik Simpson, Idaho Site

DT Townsend, Savannah River Site

Ben Williams, Oak Ridge Site

Kurt Workman, Hanford Site