EM Update | Vol. 8, Issue 14 | July 28, 2016

DOE Office of Environmental Management sent this bulletin at 07/28/2016 01:30 PM EDT

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EM Headquarters Completes Reorganization
Workers Complete Highest Hazard Demolition Preparations at Hanford Site
EM Focuses on Potential Business Opportunities with Indian Country at Summits
EM Marks 20 years of Cleanup Success at Hanford Disposal Facility
Hanford Site Facility's 20th Anniversary Marks Career Milestone for Engineer
EM Issues Report Cards to Portsmouth Site Contractors
EM Marks Completion of Facility for Low-Activity Waste Pretreatment System
Workers Continue Progress in Installing Equipment for Vitrification Facility
EM’s Oak Ridge Cleanup Contractor Earns 93 Percent of Available Fee
Testing of Vessel Critical to Hanford Tank Waste Processing Set to Begin This Year
Robotics Students to Test Their Systems on Real EM Cleanup Challenges
Expedited Cleanup Process at Idaho Site Leads to Taxpayer Savings
Hanford Site Staff Participates in State's Largest Earthquake Drill
Portsmouth Site Tour Focuses on Potential Careers for High School Graduates
Groundwater Treatment Resin Saves an Estimated $2 Million More Than Expected
Engineers Share Expertise with 3,000 Students
Savannah River Site Property Assets Go to Other DOE Sites for Key Missions
DOE Officials Celebrate Hanford Site Employee's 35 Years of Service
Contributors

EM Headquarters Completes Reorganization

WASHINGTON, D.C. – EM headquarters is moving forward with a new organizational structure intended to further improve EM’s ability to effectively and efficiently conduct cleanup activities across the DOE complex.

The new structure, finalized in late July, is expected to address inefficiencies such as duplicative processes; disproportionate senior leadership reporting ratios; and a critical lack of clarity in roles, responsibilities and lines of authority.

“The recent reorganization of EM headquarters is intended to place field operations at the center of our organizational structure. This will help further improve our ability to aid the field, where our mission execution occurs,” EM Assistant Secretary Monica Regalbuto said.

The core of the reorganization is the consolidation of EM headquarters’ previous set of seven mission units and mission support offices into three new offices led by a new set of Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretaries.

“These new positions are critical to our plans for clarifying roles and responsibilities and establishing clear lines of authority and accountability,” EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Whitney said.

The new Field Operations Office, led by Stacy Charboneau, oversees the various EM field offices, as well as EM’s technology development efforts; analysis and engineering for major capital projects; and safety, security, and quality assurance programs. Charboneau last served as the Manager of the Richland Operations Office at Hanford, and has more than 20 years of experience managing projects involving nuclear operations, construction, environmental remediation and deactivation and demolition.

The new Regulatory and Policy Affairs Office, led by Frank Marcinowski, supports complex-wide infrastructure management and disposition issues; waste and materials management; and regulatory and stakeholder engagement. Marcinowski last held the positions of acting Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Waste Management in the previous EM headquarters organization. He has more than 27 years of experience ensuring the safe use, management and oversight of radioactive and nuclear materials, and has extensive expertise in environmental policy development and governmental affairs on a national, regional and local level.

The new Corporate Services Office, led by Candice Trummell, oversees acquisition and project management; budget and planning activities; workforce management, information technology and communications. Trummell last served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Deputy Secretary of Energy, and has nearly 15 years of experience managing critical business functions, communications, stakeholder engagement and Congressional relations.

Other significant changes at EM headquarters as a result of the reorganization include:

The creation of a new Chief Engineer Office, which is responsible for providing technical engineering support to sites across the EM complex and guidance on major construction and commissioning activities.
Strengthened alignment of the procurement and project management activities of EM headquarters and EM Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) personnel by integrating contracting and project management support. Ralph Holland will serve as both the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Project Management and Director of EMCBC. Holland was named EMCBC Director in August 2015, and has served in various contracting, supervisory, and management positions within DOE over the last 20 years.
The creation of a new Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) Policy Office, led by Mark Gilbertson. This office is responsible for the development of EM policies related to the management and operation of SRNL. Gilbertson previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Site Restoration in the previous EM headquarters organization, and has previously held a variety of senior-level positions at EM headquarters.

Workers Complete Highest Hazard Demolition Preparations at Hanford Site

Employees in the Americium Recovery Facility remove piping.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Workers at the Hanford Site have reached a significant point in EM’s deactivation work to prepare the Plutonium Finishing Plant’s (PFP) major processing facilities for demolition.

“Level B” suits — the highest level of protection in the form of supplied air and pressurized protective suits — may no longer be required for the remaining deactivation work prior to demolition, as workers have completed the last activities scheduled to use the Level B suits at the plant.

Meanwhile, one of the site’s most hazardous rooms is now a step closer to demolition after workers finished cleaning a major portion of PFP's Americium Recovery Facility.

Used during the Cold War to recover americium, that facility was also called the “McCluskey Room” by workers for Harold McCluskey, who was injured in 1976 when a vessel inside a glove box burst and exposed him to radioactive material. McCluskey, who was 64 at the time, lived for 11 more years and died from unrelated causes. The accident left the room severely contaminated, with workers rarely entering it.

In 2014, EM Richland Operations Office (RL) contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M) began final cleanup of the room after extensive preparations to ensure worker safety. Due to chemical and radiological hazards, workers took the initiative to research and train on the use of Level B suits.

Since 2014, workers using the suits have removed glove boxes and other processing infrastructure from the room and prepared large radiological and chemical tanks for removal during demolition.

Crews also used the same suits to cut up and remove PFP's two most contaminated glove boxes.

With those tasks complete, Level B protection is not anticipated to be needed for the rest of PFP’s demolition preparation work.

“The teams that used the Level B suits safely performed some of the most hazardous work not only at Hanford, but across the DOE complex,” said John Silko, RL’s 242-Z project lead. “Completing this work is a significant accomplishment as we continue to prepare the plant for demolition.”

A rendering of the PFP complex. Demolition will start with the 236-Z (Plutonium Reclamation Facility) in green, progress to 242-Z (Americium Recovery Facility) in red, to 234-5Z (main processing building) in blue, and finally to 291-Z, which is the fan house and ventilation stack, in yellow.

Application of fixative inside 242-Z is one of the last steps of demolition preparation for the facility.

What’s next for demolition?

As crews finish PFP demolition preparations, including removal of thousands of feet of contaminated ventilation duct and process piping, they continue to wear protective clothing and breathe filtered air. Removal of nearly all of these systems is necessary to protect workers, the public and the environment during demolition.

“The PFP team has done some amazing work in preparing the building for demolition, and they’ve done so safely,” said Tom Bratvold, CH2M vice president of the Plutonium Finishing Plant Closure Project. “As we focus on beginning demolition itself, our priority remains on working safely, keeping each other safe, so we can reflect with pride on the progress we’re making on this historic project.”

The PFP is the largest, most complex plutonium facility that has ever been deactivated or will be demolished across the EM complex. More than 20 years of demolition preparations are expected to conclude in coming months as demolition begins on the facility.

After coordinating with the Washington Department of Ecology and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, RL has announced a new milestone completion date of Sept. 30, 2017.

EM Focuses on Potential Business Opportunities with Indian Country at Summits

DOE officials served as members of the “In It To Win IT” panel at the Reservation Economic Summit in Tulsa this month. From left to right, EM Acting Small Business Advocate Steve Sylvester, Jack Surash with EM’s Office of Corporate Services, DOE Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) Director John Hale III, OSDBU Deputy Director Drake Russell, Norbert Doyle with EM’s Office of Corporate Services, and EM Consolidated Business Center Small Business Program Manager Anne Marie Bird.

TULSA, Okla. – Expanding outreach to Indian Country companies, EM officials discussed business opportunities in the cleanup program and greater DOE at economic summits this month and in March held by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development (NCAIED).

“DOE’s presence at these economic summits has been enthusiastically received and firmly demonstrates EM’s sincere desire to engage Indian Country at all levels, including the business realm,” EM Tribal Affairs Director Albert Brandt Petrasek said of the events in Tulsa and Las Vegas.

A critical component of the outreach at the most recent summit, EM’s Business Opportunity Forum gave the companies the chance to participate in dialogue and learn the latest news on doing business with the legacy nuclear cleanup program. Usually held at DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C., the quarterly interactive outreach event took place during the four-day Reservation Economic Summit (RES) Oklahoma.

"Our EM participation at the RES Oklahoma provided a wonderful opportunity to build upon EM's continuing outreach efforts to the Indian nations,” said Jack Surash with EM’s Office of Corporate Services. “Not only were we able to learn what capabilities Indian-owned companies may have, but it also allowed for Indian companies to spend time with us, many in a one-on-one matchmaking session, learning what we do and how they may be able to contribute to our environmental cleanup mission."

Jack Surash with EM’s Office of Corporate Services speaks at RES Oklahoma.

Norbert Doyle with EM’s Office of Corporate Services, front table, right side, back, and EM Acting Small Business Advocate Steve Sylvester, front table, right side, front, meet with Indian Country business officials during a business “matchmaking” session at RES Oklahoma.

Officials with the DOE offices of EM and Indian Energy Policy and Programs gather at the National RES in Las Vegas. From left to right, EM Tribal Affairs Director Albert Brandt Petrasek, Norbert Doyle with EM’s Office of Corporate Services, DOE Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs Deputy Director David Conrad and EM Acting Small Business Advocate Steve Sylvester.

As the largest national Indian-specific business organization in the U.S., NCAIED is a non-profit that assists American Indian Tribes and their enterprises with business and economic development. The summit in Tulsa, hosted by the Cherokee Nation, served to increase economic development across Indian Country.

"We are very excited about the DOE's interest in and ongoing relationship with the National Center and our Reservation Economic Summits," NCAIED President and CEO Gary Davis said. "This is particularly true for its Environmental Management program, whose environmental cleanup responsibilities often take place in the heart of Indian Country. Tribes and tribal members are a big part of the story of the United States' nuclear legacy, and just as importantly, its future. We look forward to continued collaboration with DOE as we seek to find solutions to our most pressing energy challenges."

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz with NCAIED Board Member Michelle Holiday, center, and NCAIED President and CEO Gary Davis, far right, at the Secretary's National Tribal Energy Summit in Washington, D.C., in September 2015. Davis and NCAIED played an integral role in the event.

Several of EM’s cleanup sites are located close or adjacent to sovereign Tribal nations and impact Indian lands and resources. Consistent with the Department's American Indian and Alaska Natives Tribal Government Policy, EM maintains cooperative agreements with Tribal nations to enhance their involvement in cleanup decisions while protecting relevant Tribal rights and resources.

The summit in Tulsa offered EM multiple ways to connect with the Indian Country businesses. In addition to leading the forum, EM conducted a “matchmaking” session for the company representatives to meet one-on-one with EM officials, and helped staff a booth at the summit with DOE’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU).

EM, OSDBU, and the Department’s Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs were co-sponsors of the Tulsa summit. Officials from EM and OSDBU also participated in the “In It To Win It” interactive panel discussion on DOE’s diverse mission and how businesses can navigate DOE’s overall $24 billion procurement base.

Representatives from a range of Indian Country businesses — from those with experience working for EM to others that had never held contracts with the federal government — sought to learn about the federal procurement process and the variety of business opportunities to support EM’s work in areas such as environmental remediation, liquid waste cleanup, and deactivation and decommissioning.

As EM officials detailed potential opportunities, including subcontracting under three large prime contracts at EM’s Savannah River, Los Alamos and Paducah sites, they learned about the abilities of the Indian Country companies.

“I thoroughly enjoyed working with great folks in Indian Country,” said Norbert Doyle with EM’s Office of Corporate Services. “It’s a classic win-win situation. We have needs, and they have capabilities.”

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EM Marks 20 years of Cleanup Success at Hanford Disposal Facility

ERDF is known as the “hub” of Hanford cleanup.

RICHLAND, Wash. – July marked 20 successful years of environmental cleanup at one of EM’s largest disposal facilities — the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF) on the Hanford Site.

Since disposal operations began in 1996, 18 million tons of contaminated soil, debris and solid wastes from the site’s cleanup activities have been placed in the facility, which is specially engineered with a liner and leachate collection system. ERDF covers 107 acres, roughly the same area as 52 football fields. Its operations have supported the demolition of more than 800 facilities and remediation of 1,300 waste sites.

“ERDF has been and will continue to be a critical component of Hanford’s cleanup,” said Doug Shoop, manager of EM’s Richland Operations Office. “It’s a key part of EM’s overall cleanup strategy at the site in order to remove contaminated material and provide for its safe disposal as to prevent contaminants from reaching groundwater or the Columbia River.”

DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments recently recognized ERDF as a best practice onsite storage model, providing significant reductions in costs, schedule and transportation risks.

In addition to contaminated soil, debris, and solid waste, ERDF receives other hazardous materials, such as mercury, asbestos, beryllium, chromium and lead, which can be treated onsite before disposal. The majority of the waste disposed at ERDF was generated in Hanford’s River Corridor, a 220-square-mile stretch of land that borders the Columbia River. The corridor was home to Hanford’s nine plutonium production reactors, fuel development facilities and hundreds of support structures. Waste from other Hanford projects is also disposed at ERDF, which is currently managed by contractor Washington Closure Hanford (WCH).

“The ongoing success of ERDF operations can be attributed to the efforts of a workforce committed to working efficiently and working safely,” said WCH President Scott Sax. “Their safety performance is truly outstanding.” For example, ERDF truck drivers have logged nearly 30 million safe miles (approximately 1,200 times around the earth) since the facility began operations.

A permanent cap will be placed over the facility when the Hanford cleanup is completed, or ERDF is no longer needed.

Hanford Site Facility's 20th Anniversary Marks Career Milestone for Engineer

Michael Casbon’s first job for Hanford’s ERDF was helping with its conceptual design. This month, he celebrated the 20th anniversary of the facility’s operation as its resident engineer.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Engineer Mike Casbon has watched the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF) grow up.

He helped create the low-level waste disposal facility for EM’s cleanup operations at the Hanford Site, joining the team working on its conceptual design in April 1993. He was the ERDF field engineer when the facility took its first steps, accepting its first truckload of waste on July 1, 1996. And, now, he is proudly celebrating its 20th anniversary, as it has grown to become one of EM’s largest disposal facilities, containing 18 million tons of contaminated soil, debris and solid wastes.

“I have been very blessed to be on this project,” said Casbon, now the resident engineer for EM Richland Operations Office contractor Washington Closure Hanford, which currently operates ERDF. “It’s been a fun and productive project.”

Working with his colleagues over the years has been a highlight for him. He brought his experience as a mining engineer, working in a highly regulated environment, to the conceptual design effort, but he admits he had much to learn about the challenges at Hanford.

“I knew nothing about working with radioactive materials. But I was part of a small and dedicated team that relied on each other. Other people on the team were experts on that. It was a great learning opportunity” he said.

Casbon cited the importance of open, candid and collaborative relationships with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ERDF’s regulator, and EM.

Casbon has enjoyed watching ERDF’s “maturation,” as he described it.

Within six months of operation, the facility was receiving 90 truckloads — at approximately 20 tons each — of waste material a day, meeting initial planning estimates. By 2005, the daily average was around 160 truckloads with single-day peaks of 200 truckloads.

Using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, a major expansion in 2009-2011 provided for new support buildings, equipment and additional labor, which increased the facility’s capacity and efficiency. ERDF hit a peak of more than 800 truckloads in a single day in 2012.

”Watching the operation safely and compliantly dispose of over 18,000 tons per day using three different truck fleets was like watching a three-ring circus. It was amazingly busy while being well under control,” Casbon said.

EM Issues Report Cards to Portsmouth Site Contractors

WEMS technicians Jim Snodgrass (left) and Jim Dixon set pins in security lock cores at the X-720 Lockshop.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – EM has completed evaluations and determined final-period award fees for two prime contracts at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in south-central Ohio.

Scorecards and other information pertaining to these evaluations and more can be found here.

The former Portsmouth Infrastructure Support Services Contractor, Wastren-EnergX Mission Support LLC (WEMS), was given its final-period evaluation under the contract that expired April 24, 2016. WEMS was rated “excellent” overall, earning a total of $977,425, or 96 percent of the amount of fee available. WEMS earned high marks for “excellent” mission support and maintenance services, as well as quality and timeliness of deliverables. The contractor’s security program support was rated “very good.” Among many achievements, EM noted, WEMS received the DOE Voluntary Protection Program award five consecutive years, and was the Fiscal Year 2015 DOE Complex-wide Small Business of the Year.

Infrastructure support services include facilities and maintenance, fleet and property management, computing, telecommunication, cyber security, records management and document control, safeguards and security, environmental safety and health, and training.

Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth workers lower process gas equipment as part of the X-326 process building deactivation.

The site’s current deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) contractor, Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth (FBP), recently received its final-period award fee determination under the original contract period that expired March 28, 2016. Evaluations are continuing since the Department exercised its option to modify and extend the period of performance for up to 30 months.

FBP was rated “satisfactory” for the period, earning a total of $6.82 million, or approximately 28 percent of the fee available. This rating included performance and management of the contract and the D&D project. The contractor’s marks were “good” for its performance of environmental, safety, health and quality requirements. This corresponds to $2.27 million, or approximately 60 percent of the amount available in the category. The remaining $4.55 million was earned for certain performance-based incentives, some of which were not fully completed. The evaluation resulted in earnings of 20 to 25 percent of the amounts available in those categories.

EM said that FBP has taken definitive steps to address difficulties with work control and planning, project scheduling, and with meeting milestones. Many environmental, safety, health and quality issues were noted.

EM also said that FBP excelled in its work advancing the On-Site Waste Disposal Facility, as well as its waste management and waste shipping efforts. The contractor was also credited with successfully managing EM’s uranium barter program that helps fund the site cleanup efforts. FBP completed a significant amount of important deactivation work to prepare the site’s first massive process building to a safe and demolition-ready state.

Services provided under FBP’s contract that began in 2011 include demolition and disposal of plant and related facilities, waste management and environmental remediation.

The Portsmouth Site enriched uranium for national defense purposes starting in the early 1950s, and later enriched uranium for nuclear energy production until 2001. EM’s cleanup program at the site commenced in 1989.

EM Marks Completion of Facility for Low-Activity Waste Pretreatment System

Officials mark the completion of construction of the Engineered Scale Test Facility during a ribbon-cutting ceremony July 20.

RICHLAND, Wash. – The EM Office of River Protection (ORP) completed construction of a new facility designed to validate the technology and systems of the Low-Activity Waste Pretreatment System (LAWPS) on July 17.

The Engineered Scale Test Facility will now move into its start-up phase.

“This is really setting us up for success at WTP,” ORP Manager Kevin Smith said of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. “There is no doubt this integration piece can make it all work.”

The facility, in north Richland, will integrate the filtration and ion exchange systems for LAWPS, and confirm the technologies involved for the LAWPS facility, which is a key part of ORP’s plan to start vitrifying low-activity waste — or turning it into a stable glass form for final disposition — as soon as 2022.

The LAWPS facility design is approximately 40 percent complete. It will pretreat liquid waste from the Hanford tank farms, removing solid particles and radioactive cesium, before sending the treated waste stream to the Low-Activity Waste facility for vitrification.

The removed solids and cesium will be returned to the tanks for future vitrification at the High-Level Waste Facility.

Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), ORP’s tank farms contractor, contracted Mid-Columbia Engineering and AVANTech to build the Engineered Scale Test Facility and a full-scale ion exchange facility in Columbia, S.C.

Work on the two test facilities began in November 2015.

“Seven months ago this was a field of tumbleweeds,” explained Terri Marts, senior vice president of research and engineering services for AECOM, during the ribbon cutting for the scale test facility July 20. WRPS is a limited liability corporation owned by AECOM and Atkins.

Workers Continue Progress in Installing Equipment for Vitrification Facility

A section of the thermal catalytic oxidizer is lowered into the LAW facility.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Workers recently completed installing two of the last major pieces of equipment for the EM Office of River Protection’s Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Vitrification Facility at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP).

Installation of the thermal catalytic oxidizer and ammonia dilution skid is a major element in completing construction of the LAW facility.

Critical to the safe treatment of waste, the 60-ton thermal catalytic oxidizer and 7-ton ammonia dilution skid are part of the system that will remove toxic contaminants from the low-activity radioactive waste glass melter exhaust.

Called the off-gas system, it is needed to ensure the exhaust meets regulatory requirements for release to the environment.

“The fabrication, delivery and installation of the significant pieces of off-gas equipment are the culmination of several years of hard work from a team of engineering, procurement and construction professionals and marks a significant milestone toward completing the LAW Facility,” said Scott Neubauer, Bechtel National, Inc.’s LAW area project manager. Bechtel is ORP’s contractor for WTP.

Ionex Research Corp. fabricated and tested the thermal catalytic oxidizer and ammonia dilution skid in its facilities in Lafayette, Colo.

The caustic scrubber, the final piece of the off-gas system and last major piece of equipment to be installed in the LAW, will be received later this year.

The off-gas system will convert volatile organic compounds to carbon dioxide and water vapor, convert nitric oxide to hydrogen and oxygen, remove acidic gases from the exhaust and cool the exhaust before releasing it through the stack.

When the LAW facility is operational, it will convert into glass more than half of the liquid, low-activity radioactive waste removed from Hanford’s 177 underground tanks. The treatment process is called vitrification and involves mixing the waste with glass-forming materials and heating them in a melter to 2,100 degrees F.

The molten glass will be poured into containers, where it will be allowed to cool, immobilizing the waste in solid glass, and sent to an engineered landfill for disposal.

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EM’s Oak Ridge Cleanup Contractor Earns 93 Percent of Available Fee

UCOR’s K-27 Building demolition project, pictured here, is ahead of schedule with actual costs projected to be less than planned, according to OREM’s correspondence regarding the contractor’s fee determination.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – EM’s cleanup contractor at the Oak Ridge site earned nearly $3.6 million for its performance from Oct. 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016, amounting to 93 percent of the total award fee available.

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) recently issued its six-month fee determination scorecard for URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR) after completing its evaluation of the contractor.

Each year, EM releases information relating to contractor fee payments — earned by completing the work called for in the contracts — to further transparency in its cleanup program.

According to the scorecard and OREM’s correspondence to UCOR regarding the fee determination:

UCOR received a “very good” rating for project management and “high confidence” for cost and schedule during the six-month period. Indicators such as cost and schedule indexes reflect a contract that is performing well against a cost and schedule plan.

The contractor continues to execute its scope under the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) contract very well and to provide outstanding support to ongoing reindustrialization efforts at ETTP.

At that site, the K-27 demolition and waste removal began ahead of schedule and the project’s actual costs are projected to be less than planned.

“I am extremely pleased with UCOR’s overall performance, as well as the careful and thorough oversight being provided by our federal staff,” said Sue Cange, manager of the Oak Ridge EM program. “EM and UCOR have developed and maintained a quality partnership, and that has led to projects being consistently delivered under budget and ahead of schedule.”

The K-27 demolition project is proceeding at a rate that will support OREM’s Vision 2016 objective. Vision 2016 calls for the removal of all five large gaseous diffusion buildings from ETTP by year’s end. K-27 is the last of the five buildings.

UCOR continues to work to maintain and improve its safety culture. During the performance period, the company established a Human Performance Improvement Practitioners group and “Mission Possible: Zero” initiatives and strengthened its industrial hygiene program. UCOR and its subcontractors also performed over 5.5 million work hours without a lost-time injury.

The contractor also continued recycling initiatives that have resulted in reduced disposal volumes and cost savings. UCOR received regulatory approval to recycle 250,000 pounds of scrap metal and 8,000 pounds of reusable materials and transferred reusable shipping containers to other sites for use and cost savings rather than disposal.

While OREM noted UCOR’s significant accomplishments during the six-month period, the office also pointed to opportunities for improvement.

For example, the contractor experienced multiple electrical safety issues, and OREM noted deficiencies in the surveillance and inspection rigor for operations outside of the major deactivation and demolition efforts during the period. Job hazard analysis, work planning and control, and work execution are areas that warrant ongoing focus.

View the scorecard here.

Testing of Vessel Critical to Hanford Tank Waste Processing Set to Begin This Year

The 65-ton vessel arrives in Richland.

RICHLAND, Wash. – A 65-ton vessel critical to determining the safe mixing and processing of radioactive waste at EM’s Office of River Protection Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) arrived here this month.

Testing will be conducted on the vessel to determine mixing performance using nonradioactive materials that are simulants of the actual waste stream. Proper mixing is required to safely process and treat the waste at WTP’s Pretreatment Facility.

The test vessel is a full-scale prototype of several vessels expected to be used to process liquid radioactive waste containing solids. EM contractor Bechtel National is building WTP. When complete, the plant will vitrify most of the 56 million gallons of the country’s most complex nuclear waste currently stored in tanks on the Hanford Site.

The vessel was barged up the Columbia River from Vancouver, Wash. Greenberry Industrial fabricated the vessel at its manufacturing facilities in Vancouver and Corvallis, Ore. It will be loaded into the Full-Scale Vessel Test Facility in Richland through the roof and placed in a specially designed test stand. Reassembling the test stand and completing preparations for testing will take several months. The year-long testing program is expected to begin in late 2016.

Testing Process

Critical to mixing performance are the pulse-jet mixers inside the vessel. They work much like turkey basters — withdrawing fluid and expelling it — mixing vessel contents in the process.

Testing is being conducted to confirm the mixers and associated control systems meet their mixing functions. Hanford’s radioactive liquid tank waste has a wide-range of chemical and physical characteristics that present unique challenges in mixing tank waste.

To conduct the tests, non-radioactive fluid and particulate material, simulating the Hanford tank waste, will be added to the vessel. Once this simulated waste is added, the vessel’s operating weight will be 310 tons.

Previous tests using a smaller vessel confirmed that control equipment can reliably operate the mixers. The new vessel will be used to test the equipment at full scale.

The 35-foot high by 16-foot diameter stainless steel test vessel has a volume of 22,000 gallons, equivalent to 2.5 tanker trucks.

Test results will be used to support technical decisions that have slowed construction on the Pretreatment Facility.

Robotics Students to Test Their Systems on Real EM Cleanup Challenges

AIKEN, S.C. – For some students pursuing graduate degrees in robotics, the final exam could involve helping EM solve some of its toughest problems.

Under a new EM-funded Robotics Traineeship Program, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) will work with Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to design the curriculum for five graduate students each year and help apply their research toward real-world EM needs.

As early as this fall, the selected students could begin deploying robotic solutions — first in mockups and then in actual facilities — at SRNL and the Savannah River Site. Based at CMU in Pittsburgh, the two-year program will partner with DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state.

“Our whole intent here is to develop robotics expertise that can help DOE with their future cleanup mission and also reduce risk to the nuclear facility worker,” said Luke Reid, SRNL manager of mechanical systems and custom equipment development. “The challenges that DOE faces cannot be met without remote capability in many cases. CMU is one of the premier robotics universities in the country and it’s a tremendous opportunity to collaborate with students and faculty of this caliber. This partnership aligns very well with SRNL’s Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative initiative, which includes advanced robotics as one of its focus areas.”

SRNL developed this robot to inspect the H-Canyon air tunnel at SRS.

This robot developed by SRNL operates in the H-Canyon air tunnel.

A robot developed by SRNL conducts radiological surveys.

The students will collaborate with SRNL to establish a research program that addresses real problems.

Potential areas of study include glove box and hot cell robotics, autonomous robotics in difficult-to-navigate environments, and automated or mobile systems to collect samples and data for nuclear assessment and deactivation and decommissioning.

SRNL has a long history in robotics for use in environmental management and high-hazard conditions. The laboratory recently deployed robots to successfully inspect the H-Canyon air exhaust tunnel, which could provide a scenario for testing the robotic systems being developed by the CMU students.

“We will be starting out in a simulated environment, but then taking it to a real radiological and hazardous environment for testing is our intent for each of these students and their robotic systems,” said SRNL researcher Eric Kriikku.

Expedited Cleanup Process at Idaho Site Leads to Taxpayer Savings

Workers excavate contaminated material at the French drains site.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – A streamlined process to remediate contaminated areas at DOE’s 890-square-mile Idaho Site has benefitted the Environmental Restoration (ER) Program and taxpayers in general.

EM contractor Fluor Idaho recently cleaned up a contaminated site using a streamlined remediation process from a 2009 Record of Decision (ROD) signed by the DOE, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state of Idaho. That ROD allowed the ER program to use removal and disposal cleanup remedies from previous and similarly contaminated soil sites.

Before that approach was adopted, DOE, EPA, and the state of Idaho conducted lengthy Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), or Superfund, environmental investigations of newly discovered contaminated sites that spanned months or even years. Such lengthy investigations and the subsequent paperwork could cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

“The plug-in approach allows the agencies to determine if newly discovered sites fit within the parameters of OU 10-08 Record of Decision and expedite a CERCLA response action if necessary,” said ER Project Manager Val Kimbro. “The process is quick and ultimately saves DOE time and money.”

Excavation occurs around the northern shallow injection well.

Employees collect samples from the bottom section of the drain pipe.

The latest project — the second to use the plug-in approach since 2009 — involved the remediation of two shallow French drains and surrounding soil at the Advanced Test Reactor Complex at the Idaho Site. The ER program determined that historic releases of liquids containing cesium, cobalt and lead from the Engineering Test Reactor Air Intake Building French drains contaminated as much as 100 cubic yards of nearby soil. Cleanup at the French drain sites was necessary to bring the areas into compliance with environmental cleanup levels agreed to in a previous record of decision.

Contaminated soil was exhumed and transported to the Idaho CERCLA Disposal Facility — an approved onsite landfill — for permanent disposal. Both French drains were filled with concrete grout and capped.

The total cost of the French drain cleanup was less than $365,000. The project was completed in about two weeks this past month.

“Project personnel from Construction Management, Radiological Control and Waste Generator Services were phenomenal and contributed significantly to the remediation going smoothly and it being done safely,” Kimbro said.

The plug-in approach was used at the Idaho Site in 2013 for an area that contained lead-contaminated soil presumably from paint stripped with a bead-blasting process similar to sand blasting. About 50 cubic yards of material were removed at a cost of less than $250,000.

Hanford Site Staff Participates in State's Largest Earthquake Drill

Left to right, Bill Edwards, Nicole Zawadzki, Steve Gunnink and Bill Eaton, from the Volpentest HAMMER Federal Training Center, were participants in the Cascadia Rising 2016 Exercise.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Staff members from EM’s Richland Operations Office Volpentest Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response (HAMMER) Federal Training Center facility recently participated in what is being called the largest earthquake drill of any kind in Washington state history.

The Cascadia Rising 2016 Exercise was designed to test the ability of government agencies and state and local response centers in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, Canada, to coordinate joint-interagency disaster operations in response to a catastrophic magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. More than 6,000 first responders, military personnel and emergency management crews participated in the exercise.

The Hanford Site facility’s participation in the training exercise comes on the heels of emergency preparedness events at EM’s West Valley Demonstration Project, Savannah River Site (SRS), and Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in recent months. The SRS exercise also involved a mock earthquake, which led to a radioactive waste spill, injuries and a dam failure.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a tectonic plate that stretches from British Columbia to California. More than 10 million people reside in the direct impact zone, which covers 140,000 square miles.

“We tried to simulate, to the greatest extent possible, the challenges, issues, and stressors of a Level-1 catastrophic earthquake disaster,” said Nicole Zawadzki, with HAMMER Emergency Services Training & Programs. “To see all of the agencies come together in a time of great tragedy and catastrophic damage was quite remarkable.”

This image shows the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ), a 90,000 square mile plate that moves across the floor of the Juan de Fuca plate. Over the past two decades, researchers have confirmed that the CSZ area has experienced 40 massive earthquakes in the past 10,000 years.

In addition to assisting with writing a portion of the exercise scenario, Zawadzki and her staff support the DOE’s energy response team tasked with the response mission for the energy sector, named Emergency Support Function #12. The team is made up of responders from across the DOE complex who support the Federal Emergency Management Agency and provide technical assistance and energy-sector expertise during incidents requiring a coordinated federal response.

This kind of interagency collaboration and expertise in safety training has led HAMMER to be honored as a best practice by the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments.

“Electrical energy and fuel infrastructure are key components within the recovery and restoration efforts,” said Steve Gunnink, with HAMMER Emergency Services Training & Programs. “Working with federal, state, and local governments, we all learned a great deal about how to better prepare and respond together in the Pacific Northwest.”

The need for the exercise grew from scientific research indicating the Pacific Northwest region will eventually experience a catastrophic earthquake.

Through partnership with the DOE Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability, HAMMER is developing a report with recommendations on how the response team can improve.

Portsmouth Site Tour Focuses on Potential Careers for High School Graduates

A teachers group organized by the Buckeye Hills Career Center prepares for a driving tour of the Portsmouth Site.

PIKETON, Ohio – Twenty-seven area high school teachers recently visited EM’s Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Site as part of a training program in career counseling.

The program allows southern Ohio teachers to interact with local employers to identify jobs for area high school graduates and what skills and education those jobs will require.

The Buckeye Hills Career Center organized the trip. The center includes a vocational school and adult education center offering a wide variety of career and technical programs. Buckeye Hills was able to organize the journey as the pilot school for a new state-funded program in career counseling designed to build awareness of career clusters and career plans available to area students.

"EM and Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth (FBP) are pleased to have this opportunity to work with the local community to ‎ provide them with information about the wide variety of skills we need for the decontamination and decommissioning project," said EM Federal Deactivation & Decommissioning Project Director Jud Lilly. "We have a lot of work to do here, and a lot of it does not require a college degree."

Area teachers talk with officials at the Portsmouth Site about employment needs in surrounding southern Ohio communities.

The teachers took a driving tour of the former gaseous diffusion plant and had discussions with members of the management for FBP, EM’s cleanup contractor at the site. They also talked with staff involved in environmental remediation, environmental safety, health and quality, human resources, and construction of the On-Site Waste Disposal Facility. The discussions focused on job positions at the site with growing demand in the next 5 to 10 years and their educational and technical requirements.

“Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth provided a powerful message promoting skilled craft and technical employment opportunities to our surrounding counties’ educators who will stimulate students forward thinking of jobs that do not necessarily require a four-year degree,” said Jamie Conway, training and career development coordinator for Buckeye Hills. “The feedback from the teachers reflected the message was inspiring and eye opening.”

According to FBP Senior Human Resources Manager Bess Evans, the company is actively forming relationships with southern Ohio academic facilities. FBP also works with Pike County Career Technology Center, and has partnered with Pike and Scioto county vocational schools to create training programs for trades, including electrical and welding.

Groundwater Treatment Resin Saves an Estimated $2 Million More Than Expected

Annual efficiency three times higher than original estimates

There are four groundwater treatment facilities located along the Columbia River at the Hanford Site including the HX Pump and Treat Facility as seen above. All groundwater treatment facilities are using the newer resin.

RICHLAND, Wash. – In 2010, workers with EM’s Richland Operations Office (RL) and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) at the Hanford Site began using a new type of resin — a material used to remove contamination from groundwater — in its treatment facilities to improve efficiencies and lower operating costs.

At that time, replacing an older resin with the new resin was expected to reduce operating costs by approximately $1 million per year. Planners now estimate the annual cost reduction is approximately $3 million per year, triple the original estimate.

“Our goal is to treat groundwater to protect human health and the environment, especially the Columbia River,” said Michael Cline, director of the RL Soil and Groundwater Division. “This enhancement is allowing us to achieve our cleanup goals in a more cost-effective way.”

The resin is used to strip a toxic chemical, hexavalent chromium, from groundwater pumped from areas near the river, which runs through the site in southeast Washington state. The systems are treating contamination that resulted from the operation of Hanford’s plutonium production reactors during the Cold War.

The older resin used in multiple treatment facilities needed changing approximately 100 times a year to ensure contaminated water flowing through the resin was cleaned to treatment standards.

“Using this resin reduces the starts and stops enhancing groundwater treatment efficiency, because it only needs to be changed out about every three years, compared to the old resin, which needed to be changed about every three weeks,” said RL Soil and Groundwater Division project lead Jim Hanson.

A new resin introduced to groundwater treatment facilities along the Columbia River beginning in 2010 is helping DOE avoid $3 million in costs annually.

The new resin can hold more contamination, lasts longer, and workers do not have to replace the resin as often. CH2M estimates more than 2,200 resin changes have been avoided since switching to the newer treatment resin.

“This is huge for groundwater cleanup at Hanford, and we’ve managed to save time and manpower with this new resin,” said Dean Neshem, with CHPRC. Neshem is in a team of engineers that transitioned groundwater treatment systems along the river to the new resin.

“Our workforce is consistently coming up with ways to enhance our groundwater treatment program and because of our great team, we are treating record amounts of contaminated groundwater at the Hanford Site,” said Karen Wiemelt, vice president of CHPRC’s Soil and Groundwater Remediation Project.

An additional benefit is the resin can be disposed of onsite at Hanford’s engineered landfill, the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. This eliminates additional potential hazards and costs associated with preparation and shipment of the resin to an offsite facility for regeneration, which was required with the previously used resin.

Engineers Share Expertise with 3,000 Students

Kyle Smith, principal of Paul Knox Middle School in North Augusta, S.C., left, joins students and SRNS engineer Buford Beavers, center, in a hands-on experiment involving a jar, rubber band, paper clips, and a metal nut. The demonstration of how centrifugal force affects gravitational pull was part of this year’s SRS Teach-Ins Program.

AIKEN, S.C. – Dozens of engineers, scientists and technicians from Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor recently shared their expertise with more than 3,000 students in “Teach-In” presentations at 29 area middle schools.

Teach-Ins promote the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) literacy through interactive demonstrations and informative discussions to give students a broader understanding of the field of engineering.

“The benefits of partnership with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) and Teach-Ins extend well beyond this educational outreach,” Aiken County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Sean Alford said. “Having scientists and engineers on our school campuses provides real-world application to classroom studies and inspires student interest in STEM fields. It’s this type of partnership that will enhance our district’s ability to produce a viable workforce for our community’s unique needs of highly scientific and technically skilled future employees.”

Since the outreach program’s start in 2008, more than 15,000 students regionally have benefited from the efforts of hundreds of Teach-In volunteers. The Teach-Ins are managed by SRNS education outreach personnel for the DOE Savannah River Operations Office.

“It’s always a special moment for me when you can see the wheels turning in these young adults, and the connection is made related to what we’re trying to reveal to them through our hands-on demonstrations,” said Buford Beavers, an SRNS manager, engineer and Teach-In volunteer. “It’s rewarding, which is why I return to help with this program.”

The demonstrations were conducted in conjunction with National Engineers Week, a project of DiscoverE (formerly National Engineers Week Foundation), which celebrates the contributions of engineers.

“I’m very grateful for the SRNS participants, for the planners, for all of those working together to help bring learning to life for my students,” said Yashonda Goodwin, a science teacher at Paul Knox Middle School.

“To sum up the value of the Teach-In program, I would use the word relevance,” Goodwin said. “My students need to know it’s not just me as a teacher saying this is important. The relevance of these demonstrations related to life outside of school is important for the kids to see.”

EM and SRNS provide a variety of science, engineering and literacy outreach programs to tens of thousands of students each year.

“These programs are part of a broader effort to address workforce sustainment needs that exist at SRS and throughout the DOE complex,” said SRNS President and CEO Carol Johnson. “We recognize that in many ways our future lies in the hands of these young people.”

Savannah River Site Property Assets Go to Other DOE Sites for Key Missions

Workers prepare an X-ray machine for removal from E Area.

AIKEN, S.C. – EM transferred equipment used to characterize transuranic (TRU) waste at the Savannah River Site to other DOE sites for use, saving approximately $5.7 million in taxpayer dollars and reducing waste.

The equipment included a large X-ray machine and its related pieces, and two radiation counters used for waste characterization done through non-destructive assay (NDA), which measures the types and quantity of radioactivity.

“This equipment is no longer needed for site missions. It is being removed from E Area to free up the space for low-level waste disposal,” DOE Waste Disposal Program Lead Dan Ferguson said. “The equipment is free for release, which means it was never contaminated with radioactive materials.”

The X-ray equipment will be sent to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., for use in technology development to improve the lifetime of roadways, scan cargo for homeland security and irradiate medical products and food for sterilization. The equipment can also be used to perform inspections in commercial operations such as casting, power, aerospace, chemical, petro-chemical and automotive industries.

A radiation technician at SRS measures radiation levels on the outside of a radioactive source for the non-destructive assay counters going to Idaho National Laboratory.

The radiation counters went to Idaho National Laboratory to help finish the site’s legacy TRU waste mission.

“TRU waste consists of items normally found within an industrial setting that have become contaminated with long-lived radioisotopes, such as plutonium,” Ferguson said. “Tools, protective clothing, containers, rags and other debris would be typical examples. The legacy TRU waste was left behind after the Cold War missions ended. SRS has finished its legacy TRU waste mission, with the remaining legacy TRU waste packaged, characterized and ready to be shipped upon the reopening of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).”

This equipment will be used to help characterize the types and quantities of radionuclides present in materials without having to physically sample or disturb the source materials. This is necessary to make sure that the materials in TRU waste containers meet WIPP criteria.

Ferguson said that SRS continues to be a steward of taxpayer dollars.

“The reuse of this equipment is an example of our commitment to reduce waste,” he said. “If this equipment had not found reuse, it might have ended up being disposed here at the site as waste.”

DOE Officials Celebrate Hanford Site Employee's 35 Years of Service

RICHLAND, Wash. – Bruce Cameron with Hanford’s Patrol Training Academy, center, is hanging his hat after 35 years of service. To honor Cameron and celebrate his retirement, Glenn Podonsky, DOE’s director of Independent Enterprise Assessments, left, and Doug Shoop, manager for EM’s Richland Operations Office, highlighted accomplishments from Cameron’s career. Podonsky noted Cameron’s support in helping the Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response (HAMMER) Federal Training Facility become “the best agency to work for.”

Contributors

Lori Araujo, Hanford Site

Destry Henderson, Hanford Site

Jerry Holloway, Hanford Site

Danielle Miller, Idaho Site

Brad Mitzelfelt, Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office

Lindsey MonBarren, Savannah River Site

Michael Nartker, EM Headquarters

Tania Reyes-Mills, Hanford Site

Martin Schneider, Savannah River Site

Elizabeth Scott, Portsmouth Site

David Sheeley, EM Headquarters

Erik Simpson, Idaho Site

Michelle Teeters, Portsmouth Site

DT Townsend, Savannah River Site

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