DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar Emphasizes Safety During Hanford Site Visit; Paducah Site Works on Groundwater Contamination 'End Game' Strategy; and Much More!

DOE Office of Environmental Management sent this bulletin at 01/09/2018 11:03 AM EST

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.

EM Update | Vol. 10, Issue 1 | Jan. 9, 2018

DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar Visits Hanford Site
Ralph Holland Reflects on Tenure in EM Update Interview After Recently Retiring
Paducah Site Develops ‘End Game’ Strategy for Groundwater Contamination
ORP Tank Operations Contractor Earns 89 percent of Award Fee in FY 2017
Fourth National Cleanup Workshop Set for Sept. 12-13 in Washington, D.C. Area
WTP Team Takes Step Toward Finishing LAW Facility
Two EM Officials Receive Nation’s Highest Civilian Career Leadership Awards
New Melter at SRS Pours First Canisters of High-Level Waste
‘2017 Year in Review’ Details EM’s Cleanup Progress
Hanford Contractor Explores Virtual Reality to Support Cleanup
SRS Collaboration Leads to Improved Wildlife Monitoring for Deer Hunts

DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar Visits Hanford Site

DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar (center) dons protective clothing prior to entering the air lock of the 324 Building, located about 300 yards west of the Columbia River.

RICHLAND, Wash. – DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar spent his first working days of 2018 at the Hanford Site, emphasizing the importance of safety as he talked with EM officials, toured cleanup projects, and met with labor groups and others in the community.

Dabbar visited three training facilities where workers practice using equipment in a non-hazardous environment before they conduct cleanup work. He also received project updates at the 324 Building, Plutonium Finishing Plant, Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant (PUREX) tunnels, Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), and C Tank Farm.

DOE announced a reorganization last month that put Dabbar in charge of the Department's environmental and legacy management missions, in addition to being the principal advisor on fundamental energy research, energy technologies, and science. He also has direct management of a majority of the Department’s national laboratories and facilities.

Dabbar previously served on the Department's Environmental Management Advisory Board, which provides the Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management with information, advice, and recommendations on issues affecting the EM program, including the Hanford cleanup.

“I was certainly aware of the complexity of Hanford cleanup, but visiting the site and talking to the people directly involved has confirmed the numerous challenges associated with cleaning up legacy waste from the plutonium production era,” Dabbar said. “The workers here are highly skilled and dedicated to making progress, but I've emphasized that progress can’t happen at the sake of safety. Whether demolishing a building at the Plutonium Finishing Plant or constructing a building needed to treat Hanford’s tank waste, every detail has to be planned with the thought of protecting workers, the public and the environment, while getting the job done.”

Under Secretary Paul Dabbar, (middle) and Chief of Staff Kristen Ellis (right) are briefed by Office of River Protection Assistant Manager for the WTP Bill Hamel at the WTP Analytical Laboratory.

Wearing protective clothing, Dabbar entered the 324 Building’s air lock, where workers are removing radioactive debris to enable easier access to the building’s contaminated hot cells once used for research and fabricating fuel rods. The soil under one of the hot cells is so contaminated that conventional excavation methods can't be used, and remote-operated equipment is needed to excavate through the floor to reach the underlying soil.

“The 324 Building, Plutonium Finishing Plant, and PUREX tunnels all demonstrated the importance of completing the cleanup of legacy waste and facilities at Hanford safely and effectively,” Dabbar said. “While a great deal of visible progress has clearly been made by the workers at Hanford, we must remain focused on completing the remaining risks.”

At C Tank Farm, Dabbar talked with the staff about worker safety protections, challenges of retrieving tank waste, and the next steps toward closure of Hanford’s first tank farm. Retrieval work was completed at the farm in late 2017.

Dabbar also discussed the status of WTP construction and transition to startup.

“I was encouraged by the progress at the plant and how many of the systems and facilities needed to begin low-activity tank waste treatment are ready for startup,” he said.

- Contributor: Kristen Holmes

Ralph Holland Reflects on Tenure in EM Update Interview After Recently Retiring

Ralph Holland, who last held the title of EM Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Project Management, retired at the end of 2017 after a 35-year career in federal service. EM Update recently spoke with Holland to look back over his tenure in EM and where the cleanup program stands today in enlisting the best of private industry and managing projects.

EM utilizes contractors to perform the vast majority of its work in the field. Looking back over your tenure, how good of a job do you think the Department does in soliciting and employing the best in private industry to perform the EM mission?

To begin with, it has been my experience that the contractors performing across the EM complex are outstanding problem solvers. DOE draws proposals from, and does business with, most of the nationally recognized leaders in the industry. So, by that standard, EM has done a good job of attracting the industry leaders to our market.

That said, the barriers to entry into the EM market remain a challenge for those who wish to bring related skills and experience to support the EM mission. Finding ways to appropriately credit those skills and experience is something that we talked about many times, and, I would imagine, will continue to be an important area of consideration for EM going forward. This will be particularly important in light of the recent consolidation we’ve seen across multiple segments of the industry.

At the end of the day, who EM attracts, and how successful the resulting contracts are is greatly influenced by a significant number of external variables. Recognizing those variables, or risks, and crafting agreements that fairly and appropriately allocate those risks, will have the long-term benefit of supporting both mission execution and promoting a viable industry base into the future.

Do you feel EM has done a good job of rewarding contractors for strong performance, and for taking action and holding contractors accountable when they do not perform as expected?

Generally, yes. The challenge is in developing contract structures that appropriately account for the risks that are such a major factor in virtually every activity across the EM portfolio.

Looking back with your experience, how do small businesses best fit into the overall EM mission and program? How good of a job do you think EM has done in recruiting and employing small businesses? Are there improvements that could be made?

I don’t think there is a “one size fits all” solution to how small businesses best fit. Rather, the best fit is the role that fits best with the skills, experiences, and aspirations of the small business itself. While I’ve heard on a number of occasions that small businesses’ primary desire is to participate either as a teaming partner or significant subcontractor performing discrete portions of the work scope as a means to grow their business, this isn’t always the case. This is certainly understandable, if that is truly the goal of a particular small business. However, there are a number of very capable small businesses that have been quite successful in the staff augmentation side of the business and wish to continue in that role. This is a perfectly viable business model that has stood the test of time.

The point is that there are many different models in the small business community, and the definition of success varies from one firm to the next. In that context, I do believe that EM has been quite successful in recruiting and employing small businesses across the spectrum. Perhaps the best evidence of this success lies in the fact that, when we consider DOE prime contracts, teaming arrangements, and subcontracts, in a typical year approximately 50 percent of EM’s annual contract spend goes to small businesses. Considering the nature of the EM’s mission, that is a rather impressive result.

Is there room for improvement? As virtually every one of EM’s business partners in industry would be quick to answer, yes, there is always room for improvement. I certainly expect that EM will continue the dialogue with its industry partners, consider the invaluable feedback they provide, and continue to apply lessons learned from the application of that feedback.

Do you think there are any misconceptions about how EM carries out acquisition and procurement? For those who may be looking to do business with the EM program, is there any advice you would give?

Based on the questions I’ve received over the years from industry, I think significant misconceptions remain about how EM conducts procurements. Having been involved in DOE acquisitions for more than 20 years, I can state without reservation that the teams DOE fields to conduct its procurements are staffed with highly skilled professionals who take their duties of impartiality and fairness very seriously. In EM acquisitions, conducting acquisitions that impartially identify the offeror who provides the best solution to addressing the mission need is first and foremost in the minds of every SEB (Source Evaluation Board), SSO (Source Selection Official), and the reviewers at every step of the process. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn’t really understand how the process works.

While I don’t think it’s my place to offer advice, I offer the following comment. The most successful contractors doing work for EM are those who understand that the key to long-term success is offering and delivering value to the Department.

EM has made progress in removing itself from the GAO’s (Government Accountability Office) biannual high-risk list, but it has not yet fully gotten off the list. How would you assess EM’s work to improve and strengthen project and contract management, and what further work may still be needed?

DOE, and EM specifically, has made great progress in strengthening the areas for improvement identified by the GAO. The processes the Department has put in place for capital asset projects continues to mature and has brought significant improvements to the rigor and consistency in the way by which DOE oversees the management of its capital projects. It’s noteworthy, however, that most of the EM portfolio is not covered by the capital asset order. To bring greater strength and attention to the balance of the portfolio, and in fact, to put management of the entire program under a single policy, EM issued the Cleanup Policy last year.

The work yet to be done is to apply the early lessons learned from implementation of the Cleanup Policy, and adjust where needed. More importantly, it is critical that the entire EM Program internalize the Cleanup Policy and universally adopt it as “the way EM manages its program.”

Will that get EM off the GAO High-Risk List? That’s for others to say. However, getting off the list isn’t really the point. Rather, continuing to improve the way the program is managed and executed has been, and presumably will continue to be, the objective for EM going forward. To that end, external reviews, like the GAO High-Risk List, is healthy for the program and good for the taxpayers because it challenges us to get better.

What’s the one thing you’re most proud of during your tenure in EM?

This is a tough question. I had the opportunity to be a part of any number of specific events that occurred over the past 20 years or so, but great accomplishments in EM are always the result of the combined efforts of a great number of federal and contractor staff. Certainly playing a small role with the closure of Fernald, Mound, and others brought a great sense of accomplishment, participating in numerous major negotiations over the years was always both challenging and rewarding, and helping the EM complex successfully place some $6 billion on contracts in something like six months during the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) days was like nothing else I’ve experienced before or since.

But the one thing? That would have to be the success of the EMCBC (EM Consolidated Business Center). While this is certainly an accomplishment that is shared with a great many people, to have had the opportunity to be involved from the beginning, when the entire CBC consisted of a total of five managers and one extremely efficient and effective executive assistant, and to have watched the CBC grow into what it is today has been a tremendously gratifying experience. We were extremely fortunate to have had great success in attracting a workforce that is professional in every sense of the word, and extremely dedicated to the EM mission. It was a true honor and privilege to have spent the last 13 years helping the CBC develop and mature into the indispensable part of the EM Program it has become.

Lastly, what are you looking forward to most in retirement?

Two things — dialing back the pace a bit and having more time to spend on an almost endless number of projects that have been on hold for far too long.

- Contributor: Michael Nartker

Paducah Site Develops ‘End Game’ Strategy for Groundwater Contamination

The C-400 Cleaning Building is located near the center of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant site.

PADUCAH, Ky. – EM’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) is seizing an opportunity to tackle the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant’s (PGDP) biggest source of groundwater contamination.

Since the leased uranium enrichment facilities at the PGDP returned to DOE, EM has worked to integrate environmental remediation and deactivation and demolition of the GDP facilities to address trichloroethylene (TCE), the site’s largest environmental risk.

The new strategy will accelerate the investigation of all remaining contaminants under and around the C-400 Cleaning Building near the center of the site so EM can remediate the primary source contamination, complete deactivation, and demolish the C-400 building complex.

“Return of the facilities is a game changer for cleanup at the Paducah Site,” said PPPO Manager Robert Edwards. “Not only will we be able to accelerate at the C-400 building, but we can also place an emphasis on characterizing the uranium enrichment process buildings and preparing the process buildings for future demolition.”

TCE, a common industrial degreasing solvent, was used at C-400 to clean parts and equipment in the uranium enrichment process. The solvent went underneath the C-400 building over several decades.

The C-400 city block cleanup has received regulatory approval and will be implemented over the next several years. Cleanup of groundwater contamination has been a high priority since offsite contamination was discovered in residential wells during a 1988 sampling event. Soon after, EM provided residential water and extended municipal water service to affected residents.

“This new cleanup strategy is a comprehensive approach that takes into account EM’s mission, regulatory agreements, and community input. It allows us to finalize cleanup of the most significant contributor to groundwater contamination,” said Jennifer Woodard, PPPO’s Paducah site lead.

Commercial uranium enrichment-related operations at C-400 limited PPPO’s ability to fully investigate the amount of contamination underneath the building. Those operations ceased in 2013.

In the late 1980s, PPPO began pump-and-treat operations in the northwest and northeast areas of the site to prevent and reduce contamination from spreading. Workers treated nearly 4 billion gallons of water.

A six-phase treatability study was followed by two electrical-resistance heating projects for soils near the C-400 building, and a deep-soil mixing project addressed contamination in the southwest area of the plant. Combined, those projects successfully removed more than 7,500 gallons of TCE.

-Contributor: Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Public Affairs

ORP Tank Operations Contractor Earns 89 percent of Award Fee in FY 2017

Office of River Protection tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions installed a new cover in one of three Liquid Effluent Retention Facility (LERF) Basins in FY 2017. LERF stores wastewater generated by 242-A Evaporator campaigns and other Hanford cleanup activities. The work was one of several project upgrades completed by the contractor last year.

RICHLAND, Wash. – The EM Office of River Protection’s (ORP) tank operations contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), was recently given an overall “very good” rating for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, earning nearly $11.9 million, or 89 percent, of a possible $13.35 million award fee, according to a recently released fee scorecard.

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.

WRPS was recognized for meeting or exceeding most of the award-fee performance criteria. Notable achievements include the development of innovative tools to improve safety and efficiency in the removal of a pump in the tank farms; completion of two evaporator campaigns to create about 525,000 gallons of double-shell tank space; and completion of project upgrades such as the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility basin cover replacement.

The scorecard lists 10 special-emphasis areas, of which WRPS received a “good” rating in one, “very good” ratings in four, and “excellent” ratings in five — including for nuclear safety, safety program implementation, and commissioning support for ORP’s Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste initiative to begin treating a portion of Hanford’s tank waste in December 2021.

WRPS is responsible for safely managing the 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste in 177 underground tanks at the Hanford site and preparing the systems to feed waste to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant for vitrification.

View the scorecard here.

- Contributor: Dieter Bohrmann

Fourth National Cleanup Workshop Set for Sept. 12-13 in Washington, D.C. Area

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Energy Communities Alliance, in cooperation with EM and the Energy Facility Contractors Group, is set to hold the fourth National Cleanup Workshop on Sept. 12-13, 2018, at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center in Alexandria, Va.

The workshop will bring together senior DOE executives and site officials, industry executives, and other stakeholders to discuss EM’s progress on the cleanup of the environmental legacy of the nation’s Manhattan Project and Cold War nuclear weapons program.

More than 600 attendees, including senior Department officials, Congressional leaders, DOE contractors, and state, Tribal and local government leaders, participated in the 2017 workshop — the largest EM-focused gathering in the D.C. area last year.

More information can be found here. Registration for the workshop is not yet open. Check back here for updates.

As the largest environmental cleanup program in the world, EM is charged with the responsibility of cleaning 107 sites across the country, totaling a combined area equal to that of Rhode Island and Delaware.

WTP Team Takes Step Toward Finishing LAW Facility

Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant electricians install wiring inside the Low-Activity Waste facility.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Construction crews closed 2017 by completing a contract milestone nearly four months ahead of schedule — a major step moving Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) team closer to finishing full construction of the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility structure.

WTP contractor Bechtel National Inc. (BNI) achieved the contract milestone for electrical work — specifically bulk cable electrical installations — in the LAW Facility.

“This accomplishment included balancing a complex design, purchasing quality materials to the right specifications, skilled planning to execute the construction work, and quality craftsmanship in the field,” said Brian Reilly, BNI project director for the WTP Project. “This milestone sets the stage for our workforce to meet the LAW physical plant complete contract milestone of June 2018.”

The LAW vitrification facility includes more than 1.1 million linear feet of electrical raceway, cables, and wiring. That’s enough combined electrical infrastructure to span 840 laps around an Olympic-sized track or about 210 miles.

“Completing the electrical cable work is significant,” said Bill Hamel, WTP Federal Project Director for ORP. “The milestone for bulk cable installation, referred to as ‘wire pulls,’ required BNI to complete installation of all scheduled power, control, instrumentation, and fiber optic cables, including all cable tray and raceway systems.”

The LAW Facility is integral to the Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste approach, intended to begin treatment of the low-level waste from Hanford tank waste in December 2021. This approach uses the LAW Facility, support facilities, and the Analytical Laboratory, which are slated to be finished in advance of completion of the entire WTP. This allows waste vitrification as soon as possible, and provides valuable experience for WTP operations when the plant is complete.

Bechtel is designing, constructing, and commissioning the world’s largest radioactive waste treatment plant for DOE. When complete, the facility will process and stabilize a portion of the 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste stored at Hanford.

-Contributor: George Rangel

Two EM Officials Receive Nation’s Highest Civilian Career Leadership Awards

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two senior career executives in EM — a headquarters official and field site manager each with 27 years of federal service — received 2017 meritorious service Presidential Rank Awards, a top U.S. civilian career leadership recognition.

The U.S. President recognizes a small percentage of the members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) for outstanding achievements in public service each year. In 2017, Stacy Charboneau, EM Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Field Operations, and Todd Shrader, Manager of EM’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO), received the Meritorious Rank Award, given for sustained accomplishment. Only 5 percent of career SES or SES equivalents receive the award.

A DOE employee of 22 years, Charboneau joined EM’s Richland Operations Office (RL) in 1994, becoming the first woman to qualify as a Hanford Site Facility Representative. A year later, Charboneau was selected as the Hanford Facility Representative of the Year for DOE, and later led the Hanford Facility Representative Program.

She went on to become the Engineering and Construction Manager for the Spent Fuel Project, leading projects to remove 2,100 metric tons of spent fuel from the aging K Basins.

Later, as the Federal Project Director for the Plutonium Finishing Plant, she led the project to complete plutonium stabilization and transition to demolition preparation.

As RL’s River Corridor Federal Project Director, Charboneau kicked off what became one of the most successful cleanup projects in DOE history: demolition of over 500 facilities and remediation of 1,200 waste sites at seven reactor sites in the 220-square-mile area of Hanford along the Columbia River. RL completed the River Corridor Closure Contract at $260 million under cost.

In 2008, Charboneau was promoted to the SES, as the Assistant Manager and Federal Project Director of the Tank Farms Project with EM’s Office of River Protection (ORP). She was then promoted to ORP’s Deputy Manager and Chief Operating Officer in 2011.

Charboneau returned to RL in 2013, and was promoted to Manager the next year. She is the first woman to ever serve in this position, and was responsible for the leadership and management of 260 federal staff, providing direction and oversight to over 4,000 contractors at the 586-square-mile site.

At EM headquarters, Charboneau was instrumental in developing and implementing an organization focused on field mission execution to improve EM’s ability to effectively conduct cleanup across the DOE complex.

Stacy Charboneau, EM Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary

Todd Shrader, Manager of EM’s Carlsbad Field Office

Shrader is a DOE employee of 19 years. After working as a civilian at the Department of Defense, he joined RL’s Waste Management Division, where he held a variety of roles including the Hanford Site TRU Program Manager, and led RL’s National Transuranic Waste Program efforts.

Shrader then moved to ORP, where he spearheaded efforts to resolve key technical issues related to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). He then transitioned to the Yucca Mountain Project, eventually assuming the role of Project Manager for License Defense. Later, he worked for the Office of Loan Programs, supervising technical reviews of renewable energy projects.

Shrader returned to EM as Director of the Office of Waste Treatment Plant and Tank Farm Projects at EM headquarters, where he helped create a strategy to treat Hanford’s radioactive tank waste at least 15 years before WTP’s scheduled completion, allowing for accelerated risk reduction. The team that developed this strategy won a Secretary of Energy Honor Award for the WTP Strategic Realignment.

Since 2015, Shrader has served as the CBFO Manager, leading the recovery of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the nation’s only permanent geologic repository for disposal of nuclear waste. He oversees a staff of 60 federal employees and over 1,000 contractor personnel, with an annual budget of more than $300 million.

During this time, WIPP completed recovery activities and all required actions in a settlement agreement with New Mexico as a result of the events that suspended emplacement operations in 2014. With the reopening of the facility in January 2017, waste emplacement and shipping restarted, and efforts continue to fully recover the facility to pre-event conditions.

- Contributor: David Sheeley

New Melter at SRS Pours First Canisters of High-Level Waste

Melter 3 enters the Defense Waste Processing Facility in July 2017. It poured its first canister of vitrified high-level radioactive waste Dec. 29.

AIKEN, S.C. – A new melter at Savannah River Site (SRS) — only the third in the 20-year history of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) — recently poured its first canisters of vitrified radioactive waste.

On Dec. 29, Melter 3 completed a half-filled canister left from Melter 2 operations, then poured a full canister of vitrified waste Jan. 1. It has since poured six more canisters.

Known as the heart of DWPF, the 75-ton teapot-shaped vessel treats high-level radioactive liquid waste stored in SRS waste tanks by blending it with a borosilicate glass, or “frit,” to form a molten glass mixture, a process known as vitrification. The mixture is poured into stainless steel canisters stored onsite until a permanent disposal facility is identified.

“Stabilizing and safely storing highly radioactive waste is an important part of the Department of Energy’s mission to remediate the Cold War-era liquid waste at SRS,” said DOE SRS Manager Jack Craig. “The new melter allows us to continue this important mission.”

An infrared photo of a canister being filled with radioactive waste on Jan. 1.

SRS liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) installed Melter 3 when Melter 2 reached the end of its operational life last year after a record 14 years in operation, pouring 2,819 canisters, or 10.8 million pounds of glass.

Installing Melter 3 into DWPF was a complex task that took several months to complete. Hundreds of actions were taken to prepare the new melter to pour glass, including the fabrication and installation of dozens of electrical and process jumpers connecting the melter to the facility. Workers completed extensive testing of melter-related components and supporting systems in conjunction with rigorous assessments of the work performed to ensure safe, compliant melter startup.

Melter replacements are built into the overall SRS Liquid Waste System Plan, meaning there have been no production impacts to the liquid waste lifecycle due to this outage, said SRR President and Project Manager Tom Foster.

“SRR really optimized this system outage to replace the melter,” Foster said. “We saw it as an opportunity to focus on other critical facility upgrades while we integrated the schedule of a separate planned outage to tie in the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) into our current liquid waste facilities.”

SWPF, which is undergoing testing and commissioning, will process low-level salt waste accounting for more than 90 percent of waste in the SRS Tank Farms.

DWPF remains in an outage to finish facility upgrades and implement updated safety documents. Upgrades include maintenance in the chemical process cells, electrical and steam system maintenance, and other internal equipment improvements. Underlying those upgrades and new melter operations is the Documented Safety Analysis, which provides the technical basis for ensuring safe, compliant operations of DWPF and other facilities. Other SRS liquid waste facilities also remain in an outage to continue system upgrades and maintenance.

- Contributor: Colleen Hart

‘2017 Year in Review’ Details EM’s Cleanup Progress

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In late December, EM published its 2017 Year in Review, outlining cleanup achievements across the DOE complex throughout the calendar year. The publication highlights major accomplishments at each EM site and at EM headquarters, from the resumption of waste emplacement at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to the completion of cleanup activities at Hanford’s 618-10 burial ground. Learn more about the Year in Review here and access it directly here.

Hanford Contractor Explores Virtual Reality to Support Cleanup

Lee McGregor, Washington River Protection Solutions, uses a virtual reality headset as part of a training exercise. The computer screen in the background also displays the images he is viewing in the headset.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Virtual reality (VR) is becoming more real and less virtual at one of EM’s Office of River Protection contractors.

The computer-generated technology that immerses users in a simulated environment made its debut at Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), the Hanford tank operations contractor, as part of a training session late last year.

“We’re doing a lot of things with the VR technology,” said Lloyd Keith, the WRPS Human Performance Improvement manager. “It’s an opportunity to enhance familiarity with P&IDs (piping and instrumentation diagrams), looking at a real system and, at the same time, explore the possibilities of the software to use in the field…to maybe save having to do entrances, save dose, save exposure.”

Participants in the training session used a VR headset in an exercise that involved finding a problem hidden somewhere within a maze of piping physically located several miles away from the training location.

Simple head and eye movements allowed the trainees to move visually through the piping setup as if they were walking through the facility. By focusing on specific icons placed within the 3-D image, users could jump to a different location or “pop up” additional detail, like a piping system drawing.

“Everything is just like you’re there,” Keith said, referring to the images participants were viewing. “We can send one person in (to a work area), take some pictures…and you can weave them together to make this 3-D environment that then any number of people can use.”

The interactive images can be saved and posted on an intranet website for viewing without a VR headset.

First-time user Lee McGregor found it quite realistic.

“When you’re sitting in the chair, it’s almost like you’re there. You almost want to start walking,” he said. McGregor was one of nine trainees, comprised of craft workers, managers, and a safety representative.

Keith added, “We’re always trying to keep the training activities fresh and trying to keep new things coming in for people to use to learn in different ways. Everybody learns differently. These activities are really about making you feel, because if you feel, you will never forget.”

- Contributor: Rob Roxburgh

SRS Collaboration Leads to Improved Wildlife Monitoring for Deer Hunts

Adam Pennington sits in a blind during a Savannah River Site Wounded Warrior deer hunt.

AIKEN, S.C. – EM’s national laboratory and the management and operations contractor at Savannah River Site (SRS) developed an innovative system to better monitor wildlife for contamination during the site’s deer hunts.

The system designed by Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) counts trace amounts of radionuclides in harvested deer.

SRNS personnel check every animal harvested from the hunts for radionuclide concentrations, specifically cesium-137, to ensure hunter safety and collect sampling data. Although that isotope is easily detected using traditional monitoring methods, its concentrations in wildlife have significantly decreased over time, making measurements more challenging to quantify using traditional systems.

“We are excited to launch the new monitoring system at the SRS Deer Hunts this year. The teamwork between SRNS and SRNL proved to yield another technological advancement that allows SRS to continue to protect human health and the environment,” said Karen Vangelas, the SRNS Wildlife Program lead.

Since 1965, thousands of hunters have helped minimize accidents on site roadways and maintain a healthy deer population. They’ve harvested more than 36,000 animals — deer, hogs, and turkeys — since the SRS Deer Hunt Program’s inception. SRS also conducts a deer hunt for Wounded Warriors and people who are mobility impaired.

After the team refined the new prototype, SRNL created computer models of wildlife containing trace amounts of cesium-137 and compared them to actual wildlife measurements to test the new system. Laboratory tests confirmed the system was 20 times more sensitive than the previous monitoring system and accurately recorded the trace amount of radionuclide contamination placed in a simulated deer.

SRNL designed graphical screens that simplify the monitoring process and improve communication between the system and the system’s operator. The lab enabled the system for quick and safe setup in the field, and configured it to self-check results of each reading to ensure accuracy.

SRNL is seeking a patent for the system, and the team is sharing the system’s capabilities with other DOE sites.

- Contributor: Angie Benfield

Like EM on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DOEEnvironmentalManagement