Workers from CH2M subcontractor Stillwater drill a groundwater well in the Hanford Site’s 100-N Area.
Several prime contractors performing cleanup work across the EM complex exceeded their goals of subcontracting with small businesses in fiscal 2016, which spans Oct. 1, 2015 to Sept. 30, 2016.
At least nine prime contractors at the Hanford, Savannah River, Oak Ridge, Portsmouth and Paducah sites, and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, went millions of dollars beyond their small business contracting goals. Of their combined estimated $1.080 billion in contracts and purchases in fiscal 2016, about $783 million, or 72 percent, went to small businesses.
CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M) awarded $151 million in contracts and purchases in fiscal 2016. About $129 million, or 85 percent, went to small businesses, exceeding the company’s goal of placing more than 49 percent of all contract work with small businesses.
CH2M has worked with hundreds of small businesses to secure a variety of services, including construction, drilling, professional support and materials. Ojeda Business Ventures and Stillwater are two of CH2M’s small business partners that helped treat more than 2.1 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater, removing more than 180,000 pounds of contaminants in fiscal 2016.
Another CH2M small business partner, Intermech, Inc., supported the effort to move sludge away from the Columbia River by helping remove legacy equipment from a facility to prepare for sludge storage.
“Supporting small business means we not only support DOE’s vision to reduce the Hanford Site cleanup footprint, but we’re putting money back into our own community,” said Tracy Heidelberg, vice president of CH2M Business Services.
CH2M encourages small businesses to visit its supplier website and complete a vendor registration form to become an eligible supplier for future needs.
Small businesses contribute greatly to the success of cleanup and help upgrade and right-size the Hanford Site’s infrastructure. Here, Jared Janosky, a project manager for MSA subcontractor Watts, inspects casing spacers.
Mission Support Alliance (MSA) awarded $167 million in contracts and purchases in fiscal 2016. About $122 million, or 73 percent, went to small businesses, outpacing the company’s goal of placing 50 percent of all contract work with small businesses.
MSA successfully concluded a mentor-protégé relationship with Indian Eyes at the end of fiscal 2016. The local Native American woman-owned small business completed approximately $3.3 million of work scope for MSA that year.
MSA established a mentor-protégé relationship with I-3 Global, a local small business focused on information technology with awards approximately at $6.4 million.
Employees with Claiborne Hauling, a small business supporting UCOR, are pictured with UCOR and DOE officials. Left to right, UCOR Small Business Manager Freda Hopper, DOE Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Director John Hale III, Claiborne employees Jay Proulx and Herb Anders, EM Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Sue Cange and UCOR President Ken Rueter.
URS|CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) awarded more than $147 million in subcontracts and purchases in fiscal 2016, with $121 million, or 83 percent, going to small businesses. These awards exceed the company’s goal of placing 65 percent of all subcontract work with small businesses.
The company relies on small businesses to support cleanup of the East Tennessee Technology Park (the former Oak Ridge K-25 site), Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex.
“UCOR relies on the support of innovative and skilled small businesses to meet our cleanup commitments and milestones,” UCOR President and Project Manager Ken Rueter said. “Their exceptional support has helped us consistently bring in projects ahead of schedule and under budget, saving millions in taxpayer dollars.”
Claiborne Hauling, a small veteran-owned company, has safely delivered about 65,000 tons of aggregate to UCOR. UCOR is committed to fostering a strong safety culture, and Claiborne adheres to special instructions about accessing and driving on UCOR sites safely. Claiborne is responsive with deliveries and resolves issues promptly, according to UCOR.
Among its projects as an SRNS subcontractor, North Wind supports field implementation and regulatory documentation for environmental projects at the Savannah River Site.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the site’s management and operations contractor, awarded about $269 million in contracts and purchases in fiscal 2016, with approximately $177 million, or about 65 percent, going to small businesses, eclipsing the company’s goal of placing 52 percent of all contract work with small businesses.
North Wind, a small business, helped SRNS investigate and treat complex groundwater plumes using proven, innovative technologies. In fiscal 2017, North Wind is scheduled to evaluate human health and ecological risks associated with the Lower Three Runs stream, which releases into the Savannah River.
SRNS awarded a contract to Hebbard Electric to replace circuit breaker switchgears. The small business has performed a variety of electrical contracting work across the site.
The Salt Disposal Unit 6 at the Savannah River Site. SRR subcontractor Freeland Construction Company complete the unit’s exterior wall insulation.
Liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) awarded nearly $91.7 million in contracts and purchases in fiscal 2016, with more than $64.2 million, or about 70 percent, going to small businesses, beating the company’s goal of placing more than 47 percent of all contract work with small businesses.
SRR awarded Freeland Construction Company a contract worth approximately $1.1 million to complete the Salt Disposal Unit (SDU) 6 Exterior Wall Insulation. SDUs are permanent disposal units to contain grouted, decontaminated, low-level salt waste produced from solidification of decontaminated non-hazardous salt waste. SDU 6 is a cylindrical tank 10 times larger than previously constructed SDUs.
Security contractor Centerra awarded more than $8.4 million in contracts and purchases in fiscal 2016, with $7.9 million, or about 94 percent, going to small businesses, surpassing the company’s goal of placing 83 percent of all contract work with small businesses.
Tracy Daniels, an industrial painter with Rizzo Brothers, applies the finish coat of paint to a davit crane at the Paducah DUF6 Conversion facility.
BWXT Conversion Services (BWCS) handles depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities operations at EM’s Paducah, Ky. and Portsmouth, Ohio sites. BWCS awarded $26.6 million in subcontracts in fiscal 2016, with $18.6 million, or 70 percent, going to small businesses, going beyond the company’s goal of placing more than 52 percent of all contract work with small businesses.
Rizzo Brothers provides painting services to BWCS. The small business recently painted the bridge crane steel frame structures and overhead crane components at the Portsmouth and Paducah DUF6 conversion plants.
A Wastren Advantage crew uses a wet-cut circular saw while working in one of more than 60 locations of upgrade work on the sanitary fire and high-pressure water systems at the Portsmouth Site.
Workers from DKM Construction smooth out a new concrete pad being poured near the Main Drive Gate into the Portsmouth Site.
The Portsmouth Site’s decontamination and decommissioning contractor, Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth (FBP), awarded $144.7 million in subcontracts in fiscal 2016, with $87 million, or 60 percent, going to small businesses, exceeding the company’s goal of placing more than 50 percent of all contract work with small businesses.
A recent graduate of the FBP Mentor Protégé Program, Wastren Advantage is a local small business that provides remediation services. DKM Construction is a local small business focused on construction services for FBP. The company contracts with BWCS at the Portsmouth DUF6 conversion facility, and recently waterproof-coated the X-1300 conversion building.
Workers with NFT-EPD, a subcontractor to Nuclear Waste Partnership, attach a lid-lifting fixture to an empty shipping container.
Management and operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership’s (NWP) goal was to place 50 percent of all contract work with small businesses in fiscal 2016. NWP awarded approximately $75 million in subcontracts in fiscal 2016 and exceeded its goal with over $56 million, or 75 percent, being awarded to small businesses.
NFT, a small woman-owned business, participates in a mentor-protégé program with NWP. The NFT-EPD Division in Carlsbad, N.M., provides maintenance and repairs on containers for transporting radioactive waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). As WIPP prepares to resume waste shipments, NFT-EPD works to ensure the fleet of shipping containers is ready.
The small business also provides manufactured items to WIPP and participates in research and development activities benefiting WIPP and waste generator sites throughout the DOE complex.
NWP seeks small business support to further the WIPP mission of providing safe, compliant and efficient characterization, transportation and disposal of defense-related TRU waste. Businesses interested in working with WIPP are encouraged to complete a supplier application.
With small business subcontractor support, NWP is progressing toward resuming WIPP waste emplacement operations.
Earlier this month, heavy equipment began removing portions of the Plutonium Reclamation Facility (PRF), the first of the facility’s four main processing buildings to be demolished.
“PFP is one of the most hazardous buildings on the Hanford Site, and the safe start to demolition is a history-making achievement for site cleanup, the community and the employees doing the work,” said Tom Teynor, DOE manager for the PFP project.
Shears remove an airlock that once serviced the Plutonium Reclamation Facility. Aerial and ground-based dust suppression equipment will control particulates during demolition.
PFP produced approximately two-thirds of the nation’s plutonium during its 40 years of production, leaving the facility heavily contaminated. After production stopped in 1989, employees stabilized and removed the excess plutonium and took out contaminated processing equipment — necessary work to allow demolition of a significant risk.
EM and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M) have numerous controls in place to ensure a safe and compliant demolition, including extensive dust suppression, air monitoring, site access controls and use of a structural engineer.
A front-end loader places demolition debris into a waste container for disposal at Hanford's regulated landfill.
Prior to demolition, the PFP team hosted a readiness assessment. A team of industry experts reviewed the preparations, procedures, training, equipment, emergency preparedness activities and other aspects of demolition. DOE and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board oversaw the assessment, which commended the PFP workforce for being engaged, committed to safety and actively involved in work planning. The PFP team incorporated recommendations from the assessment in documentation, training records and procedures.
“The PFP workforce is the best in the business,” CH2M PFP Closure Project Vice President Tom Bratvold said. “Their expertise and involvement has enabled tremendous progress on this complicated and challenging project.”
The PRF demolition is expected to take about four months, followed by teardown of the plant’s Americium Recovery Facility, also known as the McCluskey Room, the main processing facility, fan house and ventilation stack.
Workers inspect waste at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – EM’s Transuranic Waste Processing Center recorded an outstanding year by exceeding all of its goals as workers continued to process and prepare Oak Ridge’s inventory of transuranic waste for offsite disposal.
Transuranic waste is one of several types of waste handled by the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM). This particular waste form contains man-made elements heavier than uranium, and it originates from years of defense-related research.
In October, the facility completed its first contract year under North Wind Solutions, a small business. Employees surpassed processing milestones for contact-handled (containing lower radioactivity) and remote-handled (containing higher radioactivity) transuranic waste, achieving 117.5 percent of their contact-handled goal and 110.4 percent of their remote-handled goal.
North Wind’s $123.9 million contract funds more than 200 local jobs.
A worker at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center sorts and processes remote-handled transuranic waste.
OREM and North Wind established these goals, which contribute to OREM meeting milestones with the State of Tennessee.
“We are very pleased with the rate of progress North Wind achieved in their first year,” OREM Acting Manager Jay Mullis said. “This moves us closer to meeting our commitments to the State of Tennessee, and we are making great strides to have our waste ready for disposal when the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant resumes normal operations.”
OREM has overseen repackaging and processing of 95 percent of the site’s inventory of contact-handled waste and 83 percent of its remote-handled waste.
“Exceeding these goals was truly a team effort that involved cooperation with DOE and other contractors for waste characterization and the delivery of waste for processing,” said John Bukowski, North Wind president. “We’re proud of these accomplishments to date, and we look forward to working with DOE as together we target future achievements.”
Constructed in 2003, the center is equipped to handle various types and classifications of waste, including liquid and solid waste streams.
Workers add the geosynthetic layer to the protective mound capping the dirt and coal ash landfill.
AIKEN, S.C. – EM and contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) are making progress cleaning up coal ash generated over decades at the Savannah River Site (SRS).
Workers recently completed the first of two project phases after consolidating 80,000 cubic yards of the ash and dirt into a landfill about 17 football fields in length, creating one highly protected mound.
SRS launched an innovative technology in 2013 that burns forest debris, agricultural waste and scrap lumber to generate steam and power. It replaces a five-story coal-burning powerhouse built in 1952 once capable of generating 75 million watts of power. The site shut down the powerhouse in 2012 and is now cleaning up its coal ash.
The coal ash basin cleanup and use of biomass to generate steam and power help the site transition to clean, renewable energy and more sustainable operations.
This cleanup is in the best interest of the environment, SRS and the State of South Carolina, according to SRNS Project Manager Susan Bell.
“This is particularly true given the earthen berms created to make the large, pond-like basins used to store the ash were constructed in the 1950s, a generally accepted practice at the time.”
Several layers make up the protected mound capping the landfill containing coal ash and dirt.
EM, the SRNS project team and their contractor created the mound’s protective cap with two layers of manufactured geosynthetic material, each measuring 827,000 square feet in size, followed by clean soil and grass sod. The layers work together to redirect water away from the mound.
“The key is layers of protection,” Bell said. “Each layer has its own purpose.”
A team of representatives from DOE-Savannah River, SRNS and state and federal environmental regulatory agencies developed the five-year coal ash basin closure plan using proven technology and methods that enabled the site to successfully close other contaminated basins in the past.
“We’re confident our project team will see excellent results in the future because of an insistence on best safety practices, innovative engineering and the use of state-of-the-art materials,” said Bell. “This project is another example of how SRS puts science to work to make the world safer.”
Workers have begun the second phase, which involves safely and efficiently consolidating 335,000 cubic yards of ash into a second mound. This mound also will be capped with two layers of geosynthetic material, a thick earthen cover consisting of fill dirt and grass-covered topsoil.
Since becoming the management and operating contractor at SRS in 2008, SRNS has achieved cleanup of 85 percent of the site’s 310 square miles to industrial standards with verification provided through local and federal regulatory agencies.
Left to right, Douglas Brown, chair of the ASME Standards Committee on Nuclear Quality Assurance; Gustave (Bud) Danielson, senior-level engineer with EM’s Office of the Chief of Nuclear Safety who received the ASME NQA Outstanding Service Medal; Clayton Smith, vice chair of the ASME Board on Nuclear Codes and Standards; and Ralph Hill, chair of the ASME Board on Nuclear Codes and Standards.
“It is with great pleasure that the NQA Committee selected Bud as our first recipient of this award and we have no doubt that he will continue to serve the health and safety needs of the public in matters of nuclear energy for many years to come,” ASME NQA Chair Douglas A. Brown said.
Brown praised Danielson for his outstanding technical contributions, and cited his more than 20 years of NQA Committee service and commitment to a safe, nuclear global community.
“He is being recognized for his active commitment to safe operations in the broader nuclear community through his involvement with IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and his efforts to get the ASME Committee involved in global quality and safety issues,” Brown said. “If it were not for his efforts, ASME NQA would still be watching the expanding global efforts from afar instead of playing a lead role in the quality and management arena in Vienna.”
Danielson is a senior-level general engineer in EM’s Office of the Chief of Nuclear Safety, which oversees EM’s high-hazard nuclear facilities. He accepted the award at the ASME NQA Fall 2016 meeting in Las Vegas. The medal will be presented to an NQA Committee member annually for extraordinary merit in achieving improvements in quality processes within the nuclear industry.
Representing DOE as an NQA Standards Committee voting member since 1995, Danielson has served multiple terms as chair for two subcommittees, and two terms as vice-chair of the Standards Committee. He held a contributing member position on the ASME Board on Nuclear Codes and Standards. He is the inaugural chair of the new Subcommittee on International Activities and a DOE voting member of the ASME Board on Conformity Assessment.
The NQA Committee maintains the American National Standard ASME-NQA-1, Quality Assurance Requirements for Nuclear Facility Applications. The standard is used to develop quality assurance programs for DOE and commercial nuclear facilities worldwide.
A DOE employee of 26 years, Danielson has been instrumental in DOE’s application of ASME-NQA-1 to its nuclear facilities, including those in the EM portfolio. His contributions to NQA-1 served to better address DOE’s nuclear facilities and activities. He is an original author of DOE’s quality assurance requirements (10 CFR 830 and Order O414.1), Integrated Safety Management System and associated guidance. He authored or coauthored other DOE nuclear safety directives and IAEA nuclear safety documents.
Earlier this year, ASME recognized Danielson with a certificate of acclamation for excellence in forming the society’s Europe International Working Group (IWG), which has grown to include members from Germany, Italy, France, Sweden, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Romania and Czech Republic.
The society honored Danielson for bringing a greater international perspective to work to maintain standards for nuclear quality assurance.
Danielson is laying the groundwork for ASME to create additional IWGs in China and India in 2017, and later in other regions that use NQA-1 to provide items and services to the DOE and global nuclear industry.
Danielson continues to promote DOE and U.S. nuclear safety and quality practices through numerous meetings, consultancies and exchanges with the IAEA community.
Previously, Danielson was honored with a society award for leading a team that helped make the nuclear quality assurance standard reflective of DOE’s nuclear safety regulation, 10 CFR 830. These changes allow for DOE’s contractors and suppliers to achieve full compliance with 10 CFR 830 requirements through implementation of NQA-1.
The auger-grinder is an enclosed metal shaft with blades that break up solid product greater than a half inch in diameter so it can be successfully transferred from IWTU’s primary reaction vessel to vessels that hold the product before it’s added to storage canisters. The auger-grinder is being re-engineered after malfunctioning during prior IWTU waste simulant processing campaigns.
Engineers and operators have completed three simulated waste treatment campaigns at IWTU, converting more than 100,000 gallons of liquid waste simulant to a granular solid. The simulant closely resembles the 900,000 gallons of remaining sodium-bearing waste in the tank farm at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center. That waste is awaiting treatment to allow the eventual closure and grouting of the remaining underground storage tanks.
The IWTU auger-grinder before its redesign.
The IWTU auger-grinder after its redesign.
In recent testing of the second-generation auger-grinder, engineers with Fluor Idaho, EM’s contractor, were able to replicate the conditions that caused the machine to plug and seize during simulant testing. The new design features a modular approach, which allows replacement of the individual components — such as cutting blades, clarifiers and bearings — in the working end without having to replace the entire auger-grinder assembly. The new design also includes multiple sets of varying teeth and blade configurations that will be tested to determine the combination of blades and teeth that best satisfy the performance criteria.
Testing over the next two months will involve placing heating blankets on the auger-grinder to bring it up to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. Steam will be applied to simulate the conditions the auger-grinder experiences during IWTU operations. Testing will also determine whether the openings at the bottom of the auger-grinder allow an adequate flow of converted material to the waste canisters, a problem the previous model experienced during simulant campaigns.
Following testing, the revised auger-grinder will be installed in the plant for the next simulant run. The final version of the auger-grinder for actual plant operations will be fabricated out of a metal alloy to withstand long-term high temperatures and corrosive environments.
WESF represents the largest risk in the DOE complex for a beyond design-basis accident, such as a beyond-expected magnitude earthquake.
RICHLAND, Wash. – EMRichland Operations Office contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M) recently awarded a subcontract to design and fabricate a cask storage system for more than 1,900 highly radioactive cesium and strontium capsules.
The capsules represent a significant portion of the radioactivity present on the Hanford Site. They are stored underwater in pool cells that help keep them cool and provide shielding from radiation in the aging Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility (WESF). The facility has high operating costs and represents one of the DOE complex’s largest risks in accidents such as a beyond-expected magnitude earthquake.
The storage casks support DOE’s plan to reduce risk and cost by transferring the capsules to dry storage until a disposal pathway is available. In the dry storage system, the capsules will be cooled by air and shielded by concrete and steel.
“The crew at WESF is doing a great job maintaining a facility that’s becoming increasingly difficult and costly to operate,” said Connie Simiele, vice president of CH2M’s Waste and Fuels Management Project. “Removing the capsules from WESF and placing them into a dry storage system will reduce the risk and costs for the storage of the capsules.”
The water around the 1,936 cesium and strontium capsules in the WESF pools glows blue in an effect known as the Cherenkov Glow, as the radioactive cesium and strontium decay and lose their radioactivity to become stable atoms.
NAC International received the $23 million subcontract that calls for conceptual, preliminary and final design work for the 16 storage casks, with the first cask fabrication beginning in fiscal 2019.
In the 1970s, radioactive isotopes of the chemical elements cesium and strontium were removed from Hanford’s waste tanks to reduce the temperature of the waste inside the tanks.
The Management of the Cesium and Strontium Capsules Project subcontract award is part of CH2M’s continued commitment to meet or exceed its subcontracting goals at Hanford. Since the beginning of its contract in 2008, CH2M has awarded more than $2.4 billion in subcontracts.
RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is combing the world for ways to make the vitrification of nuclear and chemical waste at the Hanford Site quicker, safer, more efficient and less expensive.
ORP glass scientist Albert Kruger is collaborating with other glass scientists and technologists around the world through EM’s International Programs, which facilitates knowledge and technology sharing. These partnerships will continue under EM’s newly formed Technology Development Office (TDO).
“The quality of our nuclear cleanup work, particularly in vitrification processes, will improve as we share and add to the body of knowledge in glass science and engineering,” TDO Director Rodrigo Rimando said. “From glasses formed through natural processes, to ancient glassworks, the knowledge we gain through international collaborations will inform the glassification processes we use to stabilize our highly radioactive waste.”
Rimando continued, “Through Kruger’s technical leadership and with the expertise of DOE’s national labs, such as Savannah River National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), we will continue to actively engage with government organizations, educational and research institutions, and related commercial organizations in countries such as Sweden, England, the Czech Republic and Japan.”
Kruger said EM-funded endeavors have contributed significantly to the science of waste treatment and the results have been published in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals.
“Aside from their contributions to the body of science, these projects advance the information from which the engineers can refine and enhance the efficiency of treatment,” Kruger said. “These improvements translate to savings for the taxpayer.”
One glass research project involves Akita University of Japan and is titled, “Composition Effects on the Thermal Properties of Hanford Glass Melts.” The project could result in more accurately estimated heat management requirements within the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant melter and canister finishing lines, thereby reducing conservatism in design.
Each project partners with at least one DOE national laboratory. Akita University’s U.S. partner, for example, is the Richland, Wash.,-based PNNL.
A research project from Sellafield Ltd. in the United Kingdom titled, “Technetium Chemistry and Coordination Studies,” seeks to add to the technical foundation for “increasing the waste loading in low-activity glass, which can lead to a significant reduction in the glass volume produced.” This could save millions of dollars and cut the time to vitrify Hanford’s low-activity waste (LAW).
One project turned to the past to prepare for Hanford’s future.
ORP partners with PNNL, the Division of Waste Science and Technology, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, and the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Conservation Institute to study ancient glass, ranging from 600 to 2,000 years old, to benchmark and validate accelerated aging tests of ORP’s vitrified LAW.
The glass is found in Swedish hillforts, which are defensive structures located on natural earthen highpoints, and other European locations and has many of the same metal oxides to be used in the glass formula for ORP’s vitrified LAW.
“The hillfort glass work was featured as a cover story of the ‘American Ceramic Society Bulletin,’” said Kruger. “Aside from the accolades for the science it should be remembered that the benefit to the EM mission is the knowledge of how silicate glasses really age over 1,500 to 2,000 years. This knowledge allows us to provide assurance for the protection of the environment by our choice of waste form for treatment of the tank wastes.”
Kruger continued, “Always in the forefront of my work is to incorporate the most relevant technology for cost-effective execution of our mission without disrupting the completion of constructing the baseline design of the treatment facility,” he said. “An important component of our effort to add to the glass body of knowledge and effect impactful baseline changes is subjecting our work to external peer review as part of the professional publication process, for example. This also allows us to freely share our work across the DOE complex and with our international partners.”
Rimando added, “One of EM’s primary products is glass, albeit immobilized and stabilized highly radioactive waste. We have the responsibility to safely deliver high-quality, durable glass that immobilizes highly radioactive waste in a manner that smartly utilizes public funds."
SRNS engineers George Blount and Jeff Thibault inspect equipment used to remove low-level groundwater contamination.
AIKEN, S.C. – EM and contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) are using 60 acres of trees as a living, sustainable remediation system to remove low-level contamination from groundwater at the Savannah River Site (SRS).
Workers created a small pond in the path of the slow-moving groundwater contaminated with tritium. The groundwater continuously seeps into the pond, which serves as a short-term holding basin.
An inexpensive irrigation system safely removes the water almost daily. More than 120 million gallons — about 10 million a year — have passed through it. The U.S. Forest Service-Savannah River designed and installed the system and continues to operate and maintain it in partnership with SRNS.
This innovative process generates no waste, reduces remediation costs, and advances the site’s goal of conducting sustainable remediation protective of the environment and human health.
“We use an extensive above-ground system of plastic pipes and sprinkler heads to irrigate the 60 acres with water pumped from the pond,” SRNS Geologist Gerald Blount said. “It’s man working with nature and, in this case, using thousands of trees to safely absorb the radioactively-tainted water, naturally evaporating it to the atmosphere.”
Most of the water evaporates when it is sprayed into the air or as it lies on the forest’s ground cover, releasing the hydrogen-based contaminant into the air. The remaining water is used by the trees and plants, ensuring a healthy ecosystem without the potential for drought.
“We know that the levels of tritium we’re seeing here do not represent an ecological issue. It does not biologically accumulate, and the energy associated with tritium is not going to create any kind of negative effects on the plants and animals in the area,” said Blount. “Multiple studies have confirmed this. In fact, the trees and animals receiving the irrigated water are flourishing.”
While some radioactive particles last for hundreds of years, the half-life for tritium is 12.3 years. After a little more than 12 years, half of the nuclear activity is gone.
“Photosynthesis and the fact that this particular nuclide quickly moves through the vegetation along with water means the trees can be harvested and sold for lumber after one or two years without irrigation,” Blount said.
The small amount of tritium released into the air with each irrigation cycle is negligible considering it is dispersed into the enormous volume of air that makes up the earth’s atmosphere.
Blount noted that the area’s tritium levels after irrigation are so low that SRNS workers can safely move about the irrigated area as needed without protective clothing.
“This economic and highly effective system uses properties of nature to prevent this contaminated water from reaching SRS waterways,” said Phillip Prater, DOE manager, Infrastructure and Area Completion Division.
RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s Richland Operations Office contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) recently developed and launched a new training platform that shares lessons learned, company policies, procedure changes and other essential information with all workers.
The new platform establishes a single, site-wide required reading program — an important requirement for conduct of operations and other aspects of training — for the estimated 5,500 contractors at the Hanford Site, replacing several duplicate processes, significantly improving functionality and potentially saving thousands of dollars.
Site-wide standardization eliminates the need for maintenance of multiple programs. The new automated application reduces the workload of required reading coordinators and the need for retraining as companies and employees change over time.
MSA, which is responsible for innovating and fielding programs and processes for use by all site contractors, collaborated with site contractors Washington River Protection Services (WRPS) and CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M) to develop an improved software application to deliver and track required assignments. The application manages those assignments, primarily reading but could include other types of training, for MSA, CH2M, WRPS and Wastren employees and their subcontractors. It also sends out automatic notifications, tracks completion of assignments and generates assignment completion records.
“This collaboration was important because it merged multiple file types and included hyperlinks to specific reference materials,” said Scott Boynton, MSA’s contingency operations director. “This feature was key in making the new application simple and flexible.”
“Working with the MSA team has been a pleasure,” said Deborah Smuck-Houck, senior tech advisor for WRPS. “The team’s professional, patient and inclusive method in creating the application has been the cornerstone of its success. This new application allows for a consistent approach for the contractors to implement DOE’s Conduct of Operations.”
Other benefits of the application include simplifying the creation and management of predefined required reading assignment groups; providing automated notifications of assignments and status to employees and management; and creating customized reports and formal electronic records for the Integrated Document Management System.