EM Update | Vol. 7, Issue 13 | Nov. 25, 2015

In This Issue:

• Project Management Improvements Drive Progress
• EM Executives Share Challenges in Transition from Military to Civilian Sector
• Groundwater Cleanup Measures Save Savannah River Site Millions of Dollars
• In H Canyon’s 60^th Year, Retirees Remember Facility’s Beginnings
• DOE’s Chief Information Officer Visits Savannah River National Laboratory
• Idaho Site D&D Crew Uses Specialized Tools to Cut Apart Massive Tank
• STEM Mentors Reach Nearly 300 Western Kentucky Sixth Graders

Project Management Improvements Drive Progress

At the Idaho site, the Accelerated Retrieval Project VIII was completed in 2013 at a cost of $37 million, $12 million under baseline. The project designed and constructed a retrieval enclosure to excavate and remove 2,657 cubic yards of buried radioactive and organic solvent wastes. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Improving project management has been a top priority of EM’s senior leadership.

   Continued improvement efforts started in 2006 with the management assessment by the National Academy of Public Administration, followed by the DOE Contract and Project Management Root Cause Analysis and Corrective Action Plan in 2008, and several continuous improvement initiatives since then.

   To ensure sustained progress, EM has been establishing annual improvement actions and tracking performance since 2009. As a result, EM has implemented several improvements, including:

• Establishing smaller, more manageable projects;
• Achieving more design maturity prior to the approval of performance baselines;
• Committing funding to execute baselines;
• Increasing staffing resources to support projects;
• Implementing best practices in cost estimation; and
• Providing peer review assistance to projects.

   In fiscal year 2015, EM’s Office of Project Assessment established a new performance metric showing the results of EM management improvements in recent years. The new metric ties project success or failure to the year when EM established the performance baseline, taking into account improvements in front-end planning and project execution. Other Departmental success metrics are based on project completion, regardless of when the performance baselines were created and not clearly showing the trend of improved early planning and baseline development.

   This new measurement shows EM is doing a better job delivering results within approved costs in the world’s largest nuclear cleanup. EM has been 100-percent successful in five of five projects baselined since fiscal year 2011. DOE defines project success as the approved project scope completed within 110 percent of its original baseline cost, which is the scope and cost laid out upon completion of preliminary project design.

   For the EM projects baselined in fiscal years 2004 to 2008, EM had only a 52-percent success rate upon project completion. EM projects baselined after fiscal year 2008 have greatly improved, with 38 of 41 projects with a 93-percent success rate. The original estimated cost for the projects baselined and completed after fiscal year 2008 totaled more than $2.108 billion; the actual project costs upon completion is $1.660 billion, representing a total savings of $448 million. 

EM Executives Share Challenges in Transition from Military to Civilian Sector

Bell speaks during the DOE’s Veterans Day celebration as Anders, center, and Barnhart listen. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two EM senior executives participated as panelists in a special Veterans Day celebration at DOE headquarters.

   Melody C. Bell, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Capital and Corporate Services, and Barton V. Barnhart, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Planning and Budget, represented EM on the panel, which also featured Robert Anders, Chief of Staff with DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

   Barnhart, who retired as a colonel from the U.S. Air Force (USAF), joined EM in 2015 because he wanted to “stay part of something bigger then myself,” he said.

   “I felt like the best place to continue was in the federal service because the people who do this, I think, in my own mind, we want to be part of something that’s more than us, and we can do that, and serve our government and serve our country continually as federal employees in DOE and other agencies as well,” he said.

   Barnhart shared challenges veterans face when transitioning from the military to the civilian workforce. One insight focused on learning to “speak the language” — or getting to know the organizational culture and associated acronyms, which can be both funny and frustrating.

   He also spoke of his experience in leading a military workforce, which is typically comprised of a younger workforce. He remarked how civilian employees, with more experience, require less guidance.

   Bell, a USAF Academy graduate, also joined the federal government after serving as a USAF officer because she wanted to continue to serve her country. She addressed further support for employees who are veterans.

   Drawing on military attributes, such as loyalty of commitment, perseverance and persistence in the execution of mission, and being a lifelong learner of accountability, will ensure veterans are positioned for federal career success, Bell said.

   While Bell referenced great work currently being done in DOE for veterans, particularly in recruitment, she stressed the importance of having mentors for veterans as they transition to the federal workforce.

   Such mentorships are available through affinity groups for veterans, Bell noted. Those organizations are voluntary, employee-driven groups organized around a shared interest, in this case veterans who transition to federal government.

   “One of the things I’d like to see, and encourage us to do more, is mentorship through affinity groups that we have here — active veterans affinity groups. We should use that to leverage and help with cultural transitions, and make sure there are mentors for the veterans coming in,” she said.

Passive Groundwater Cleanup Measures Save Savannah River Site Millions of Dollars

SRNS operators Stanley Creech (left) and Paul Dobson monitor the injection of silver chloride into an aquifer at SRS.

AIKEN, S.C. – The EM program at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is successfully treating contaminated groundwater using passive, natural cleanup measures that have reduced remediation costs by millions of dollars.

   Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), EM’s management and operations contractor at SRS, employs innovative methods to harness natural processes within the site’s underground water system to isolate and clean up hazardous waste.

   From the 1950s to 1980s, SRS produced nuclear materials for national defense. As a result, a portion of the groundwater in the site’s F Area became more acidic, containing small amounts of radioactive tritium, uranium, strontium-90, and iodine-129.

   In recent years, increased use of simple, multi-phased passive cleanup measures — a move away from the highly mechanized pump-and-treat facilities — has reduced the migration of these contaminants away from the affected aquifer and lowered remedial costs from $1 million a month to approximately $1 million a year.

   “SRNS and Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL, EM’s national laboratory) are working together to find innovate remedial solutions at the Savannah River Site that are protective, technically feasible, safe, and cost effective,” DOE-Savannah River/Infrastructure and Area Completion Division Physical Scientist Phillip Prater said.

   Employing more sustainable remediation approaches helps the EM complex achieve its remediation objectives, reach its sustainability goals, and reduce overall cleanup costs.

   One of the passive measures at SRS injects silver chloride, a non-traditional environmental cleanup material, into the contaminated groundwater beneath SRS to treat the radioactive iodine-129. This cleanup material is typically used to create photographic paper and as an antidote for mercury poisoning.

   “Finely milled silver chloride particles, reduced to about one-quarter micron in size, are injected with water into the aquifer, and are extremely effective at capturing the iodine-129,” said Gerald Blount, SRNS geologist. “In essence, working with Savannah River National Laboratory scientists, we’ve found that over a short time period the silver chloride can permanently bind the hazardous iodine-129 as silver iodide because of its strong natural chemical affinity.”

   Blount noted that the results of a recent test indicate a significant decrease in the hazard posed by iodine-129 where silver chloride was injected into the aquifer beneath the F Area, a chemical separations area at SRS.

   “This is the first time submicron silver chloride has been used for this purpose,” said Blount.  “The results of this full-scale test created a 30- to 50-percent reduction in the iodine-129 contaminant normally found in water samples taken at the test site. Next, we’ll inject an equivalent amount and measure again the level of effectiveness. Our goal is to eventually inject enough silver chloride in the right locations to remove most of the iodine-129 from the groundwater.”

   Blount said the periodic injection campaigns in the aquifer require little power, have no significant operation or maintenance cost, and generate no waste.

   “As a result, cost savings are significant and continue to grow,” he said. 

In H Canyon’s 60^th Year, Retirees Remember Facility’s Beginnings and Challenging Careers

H Canyon retirees enjoy the 60-year celebration of the facility. From left: Bill Whitlock, Jack Lowery, Bob Hanvey, George Blackburn, Jr., Zack Patrick, Alan Gregory, Frank Loudermilk, Jr., Bob Womack and Don Johnson. 

AIKEN, S.C. – Everything changes, including government nuclear facilities.

   Just ask Bill Whitlock and George Blackburn, Jr., two retirees from Savannah River Site’s (SRS) H Canyon. Both men shared fond memories of their careers after attending the H Canyon 60-year celebration.

   Whitlock began work at SRS in February 1955 during the canyon construction. It’s called a canyon because its interior resembles one, with processing areas that appear like a gorge in a deep valley between steeply vertical cliffs.

   He is one of the few people who can say he's been in the “hot side” of the canyon before operations began. He helped calibrate the tanks, and later helped with the startup of the first uranium cycle process to separate a uranium solution into an individual stream for further processing in H Canyon. 

   “We had a lot of good times working in the canyon,” Whitlock said. “We used to go into other facilities, like in P Area, and joke that we didn’t know what a coffee machine was because we never had time to drink it. We worked hard, but we really enjoyed it.”

   With its start in 1955, H Canyon is now the only large-scale, remotely operated chemical separations plant operating in the U.S. For nearly 40 years, workers separated plutonium and recovered uranium-235 and neptunium-237 from irradiated, aluminum-clad, enriched-uranium fuel tubes from site weapons production reactors and from domestic and foreign research reactors.

   The end of the Cold War in 1991 meant H Canyon was no longer needed to produce weapons-grade nuclear materials. Since then, workers have stabilized nuclear materials, supporting environmental cleanup and the disposition of weapons-grade nuclear material.

   Whitlock said H Canyon looks quite different now than in its early days.

   “Everything is computerized and there are so many buildings around the canyon. When I was an operator, I ran the crane sitting inside of a box suspended over the canyon. It got to where I could tell where the crane was because of how it sounded on the track. You don’t get that kind of experience there anymore,” he said. 

   Whitlock said he was not afraid or nervous to work inside the canyon.

   “I had a knack to it, somehow. It came easy to me. Now I look back and wonder how in the world I did that,” he said.

   Blackburn’s career at SRS started in 1953, the day after he left the Army. He was originally assigned to do administrative work, but asked to work as a security guard instead. After a few months, he was evaluated by his captain, who advised him to go into production.

   Blackburn joined the staff at H Canyon right before operations began there. He was one of the first operators to produce a plutonium button in HB Line. Located on top of H Canyon, the HB Line was built in the 1980s to support the production of plutonium-238, a power source for the nation’s deep space exploration program, and to recover legacy materials stored in H Canyon.

   As Blackburn’s career progressed, he was given more responsibility. He served on an international committee to determine a disposition path for the leftover plutonium after the Cold War. He was chosen to go to the Princeton Management School for Engineering Excellence by E.I Du Pont de Nemours & Company, the company that built SRS and operated it for 40 years.

   “I enjoyed every minute of it. I was blessed to work with some good people. If you treat people well, you have the pick of the litter. One of my supervisors stressed that we treat each other like family, and I believe that,” Blackburn said. 

   He attributes his success to his supervisors and his personal motivation and passion for learning.

   “I wanted to learn all the procedures, and all the jobs, and was the first person who was able to do that. Once I learned a process, I looked for ways to improve it,” he said. 

   Blackburn’s advice for current and future employees is to tell the truth. 

   “We have to be truthful in our business,” he said. “You can’t exaggerate or pass the buck. When I was a supervisor, if you lied, I couldn’t help you. But if you told the truth, I would stick with you to the very end.”

DOE’s Chief Information Officer Visits Savannah River National Laboratory

From left to right, SRNL Director Dr. Terry Michalske, University of South Carolina Aiken Chancellor Dr. Sandra Jordan, and DOE CIO Michael Johnson.

AIKEN, S.C. – DOE Chief Information Officer (CIO) Michael Johnson joined several other Department officials this month for a visit to Savannah River National Laboratory, EM’s only national laboratory.

   Johnson met with Savannah River Site (SRS) Manager Jack Craig and his staff during his visit, which was part of a complex-wide tour of the Department’s national laboratories. 

   EM Office of Corporate Information Technology Director Jeanne Beard invited Johnson, National Nuclear Security Administration CIO Wayne Jones, DOE Office of Science CIO Vasilios Kountouris, and DOE Office of Chief Financial Officer Assistant Deputy Penny Mefford to SRNL. 

   On the first day of his visit, Johnson viewed SRNL Engineering's 3-D Visualization capabilities, and heard presentations on cyber research and partnering opportunities with the South Carolina National Guard and other organizations. Johnson spoke at the University of South Carolina-Aiken Scholar Research Workshop. He provided an overview of DOE, focusing on ongoing cyber security efforts in the U.S.

   Johnson talked about the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and the growing need for computer and cyber specialists among college graduates. He focused on the importance of responding to evolving threats, protecting transformative science and technology, and securing the nation’s prosperity. He noted that DOE and its national laboratories are at the forefront of federal efforts to enhance the reliability, security, and resiliency of the nation’s energy, economic, and environmental infrastructure. In his closing remarks, he again emphasized the importance of today’s graduates and their role in the nation’s future.

   The second day of the visit included a tour of the SRNL Hydrogen Center of Excellence and the Environmental Materials Research Laboratory at the Aiken County Research Campus. The next tour stop was the main SRNL campus for an overview of atmospheric technologies and a presentation on national security modeling. The day ended with a discussion on current environmental restoration activities.

Idaho Site D&D Crew Uses Specialized Tools to Cut Apart Massive Tank in Demolition Project

A worker employs a thermal lance to cut apart a massive tank so it can be removed from a building slated for demolition at the Idaho Site's Materials and Fuels Complex. 

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – The EM program and its main cleanup contractor at the Idaho site successfully tackled a formidable project by slicing a 48-foot-long, 103,000-pound steam drum tank into three manageable pieces for removal. 

   The tank is located on the third floor of a boiler building where heat exchangers used heated sodium from the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) to produce steam to drive a turbine and generate electricity. The building is located in the site’s Materials and Fuels Complex. EBR-II, which has been decommissioned, was used for testing materials and design concepts to improve reactor safety.           

   The deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) crew from cleanup contractor CH2M-WG Idaho, LLC, (CWI) began demolishing the boiler building Oct. 1. The project is scheduled to take four months.                     

   The crew’s heavy equipment was incapable of lifting the large tank, requiring engineers and planners to find a workaround to cut up the tank that was 4½ feet in diameter with carbon steel walls nearly 3 inches thick.

   The crew first used a diamond saw to cut the tank’s outer sheet, but it couldn’t break all the way through its interior.

   The crew was able to cut through the tank’s shell by using a super-hot tool that heats and melts steel in the presence of pressurized oxygen to create the high temperatures required for cutting.

   CWI D&D Director Troy Donahue praised the crew for its success despite obstacles.

   “They continue to maintain a sterling reputation for safety, innovation, and efficiency,” he said.

   Crew members in the room wore respirators due to hazardous fumes caused by the cutting. Workers modified the building’s ventilation to help remove the smoke. Due to the extreme heat and slag produced by the cutting process, fire watches were posted on three levels. 

   “For the time being, the three tank sections remain on the third floor, but plans call for removing interferences around the tank, cutting the floor and dropping the sections into the basement, where they will remain,” Donahue said.

STEM Mentors Reach Nearly 300 Western Kentucky Sixth Graders

David Curry (far right) teaches Ayden Mowery, Jake Miller, and Bella Presson (left to right) at Ballard County Middle School to read a pH strip to test water.  

PADUCAH, Ky. – EM is reaching out to public middle schools in the City of Paducah and McCracken and Ballard counties to encourage local students to study science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

   Volunteers from the Fluor Paducah Deactivation Project, in cooperation with EM’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO), give local sixth-grade classes a practical science lesson on groundwater, sampling, and aquifers, and discuss possible future careers with them.  

   “STEM is about problem solving,” said Jennifer Woodard, PPPO’s Paducah site lead. “The site offers many career opportunities in science, computers, engineering, accounting, purchasing, and human resources. The lessons, courses, and classes that students take in middle school, especially STEM-related ones, can translate into marketable and sustainable life skills.”

Ken Davis (left) works with Maddie Miller (right), Reidland Middle School, to model groundwater sampling.

   The interactive groundwater model is a table-top design that shows city, industrial, and rural conditions to illustrate how hydrogeologists sample and simulate groundwater conditions. The presenters are actual geologists, laboratory personnel, and business professionals at the site. Some students — wearing personal protective equipment like safety glasses and rubber gloves — use a pipette, beaker, pH strips, and a pH meter to help sample liquids to compare and understand impurities.

   Students also view an aquifer model that illustrates the underground layers of water-bearing, permeable rock, gravel, sand, or silt from which groundwater can be extracted. The lesson simulates characteristics of an aquifer and shows students how dye that is introduced into the water is dispersed by groundwater movement.

Top view of the interactive groundwater model that is used to illustrate how hydrogeologists sample and test groundwater conditions.

   “The model of the town and letting the students take water samples helped them learn about the pH scale, the water cycle, and the importance of clean water,” said Allyson Calhoun, sixth grade science teacher at Lone Oak Middle School. “The students really enjoyed it and learned practical applications of science.”

   EM and its contractors also engage students through other educational outreach programs such as the annual DOE National Science Bowl, for which regional competitions will be held Feb. 5 and 19, 2016 for Western Kentucky middle and high schools, respectively.

   PPPO and its EM contractors also support the Western Kentucky Regional Science Fair, local school career fairs, and a summer internship program for college students. 

Contributors

Steve Christmas, Paducah Site 

Eric Cochran, EM Headquarters

Mary Harris, Savannah River National Laboratory

Rodney Lehman, EM Headquarters

Danielle Miller, Idaho Site

Lindsey MonBarren, Savannah River Site

Joceline Nahigian, EM Headquarters

David Sheeley, EM Headquarters

Erik Simpson, Idaho Site

DT Townsend, Savannah River Site