DOE Office of Environmental Management

SRS Releases Savannah River Nuclear Solutions Fee Determination Scorecard; Overview of Oak Ridge's Progress Transforming East Tennessee Technology Park into Private-Sector Industrial Park; and much more!

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EM Update \| Vol. 10, Issue 4 \| Jan. 30, 2018

Scorecard: SRS Management, Operations Contractor Receives ‘Excellent’ Rating Oak Ridge EM Clears Way for ETTP Economic Development WTP Expands Startup Testing to Low-Activity Waste Facility, Analytical Laboratory H Canyon’s Flexibility Allows Dissolver Replacement, New Mission Hanford Workers Enter Reactor to Prepare for Cocooning EM’s Portsmouth, Paducah and Idaho Field Sites Join Facebook Scorecard: SRS Management, Operations Contractor Receives ‘Excellent’ Rating A situation briefing for members of the Aiken County Coroner's Office, DOE Inspector General's Office, and the FBI during the 2017 Active Shooter Emergency Preparedness exercise coordinated and conducted by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions Emergency Management. AIKEN, S.C. – The Savannah River Site (SRS) management and operations (M&O) contractor earned an “excellent” rating and nearly $25 million — or 94 percent — of the available award fee for EM work performed from Oct. 1, 2016 through Sept. 30, 2017, according to a recently released scorecard. “Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) displayed growth and improvement in fiscal year 2017,” said DOE-Savannah River Associate Deputy Manager Thomas Johnson, who challenged the company to “continue developing innovative technologies and performing unique operations in a safe and compliant manner.” Each year EM releases information relating to contractor fee payments — earned by completing the work called for in the contracts — to further demonstrate transparency in its cleanup program. Following are SRNS accomplishments for EM during this period: Maintained operations of facilities and executed work safely, with illness and injury rates well below EM established goals. The SRNS total recordable injury case rate was 0.25, compared to the 1.10 goal, and the rate for SRNS days away from work was 0.04, compared to the 0.60 goal. Partnered with local colleges and universities to fill many vacancies with recent graduates from programs tailored to long-term site needs, increasing the efficiency of the hiring process; and Outpaced goals to subcontract with small businesses, including targets for all socio-economic categories, such as women-owned and service disabled veteran owned companies. SRNS President and CEO Stuart MacVean said the scorecard is a great reflection of the quality, innovation, and dedication of the company’s workforce. “We are pleased EM considered our performance to be ‘excellent’ and recognized our growth and improvement during fiscal year 2017,” MacVean said. “We are especially proud of the recognition that SRNS successfully executed ongoing operations safely while displaying a strong safety culture.” DOE-Savannah River noted areas needing improvement: Less than adequate planning and control implementation for asbestos work; Increased technical safety requirement violations and four environmental notices of violations; and Three significant conduct-of-operations events in the nuclear materials stabilization area. View the SRNS EM scorecard here. Back to Top Oak Ridge EM Clears Way for ETTP Economic Development The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management transferred almost 200 acres to the community for redevelopment. The area was once occupied by the massive K-31 and K-33 gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment buildings. It is the largest land transfer at the East Tennessee Technology Park to date. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – A longstanding cleanup goal is now within view at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). Advances by the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) are transforming the former Manhattan Project and Cold War uranium enrichment complex into a private-sector industrial park to benefit the community. OREM and its contractor URS \| CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) are working together to remove old, contaminated structures, clean the soil and water, and enable the transfer of land and infrastructure for reuse and development. Through these efforts, the goal to complete major cleanup at ETTP by 2020 is becoming a reality. “It’s very exciting to witness our vision being realized at ETTP,” OREM Manager Jay Mullis said. “Getting here required an incredible amount of planning and hard work from our employees. While we are still working toward our ultimate goal for the site, our progress is already visible, and it is enhancing safety and creating new economic opportunities for the region.” UniTech Services Group funded the refurbishment of the East Tennessee Technology Park’s barge area to receive and transport shipments using local river systems, adding to the site’s robust offerings and infrastructure. So far, Oak Ridge’s cleanup program has torn down more than 400 facilities that once supported 40 years of uranium enrichment activities, and the list of demolished facilities grows almost monthly. By 2020, workers will have taken down more than 500 facilities with a footprint spanning 113 football fields. Oak Ridge became the first site in the world to successfully remove all of its massive gaseous diffusion buildings. The land these buildings occupied is now available for major industrial development and historic preservation. So far, more than 1,000 acres have been transferred and an additional 800 acres are ready for transfer. OREM has also transferred 14 buildings, emergency services, rail lines, and most of the domestic water supply and sanitary sewer infrastructure, and it completed modifications to most electrical infrastructure, allowing it to be transferred. Visitors who return to the site are amazed at the transformation. Through these changes, companies are seeing significant signs of potential at the site, and they are investing in its future. LeMond Composites recently located in the area with plans to begin carbon fiber production this year. Locally-owned MCLinc is renewing its commitment with the construction of a new 30,000-square-foot laboratory facility. UniTech Services Group funded the refurbishment of ETTP’s barge area to receive and transport shipments using local river systems, adding to the site’s existing offerings and infrastructure. Workers will soon complete the removal of approximately 30,000 feet of tie lines, the pipes that once transported enriched uranium between the East Tennessee Technology Park’s facilities. This year, the stage is set for even more. OREM is scheduled to finish demolition of many of ETTP’s remaining structures, including buildings that once supported uranium enrichment operations (Poplar Creek Facilities), a waste incinerator facility (Toxic Substances Control Act Incinerator), and former water treatment facilities (Central Neutralization Facility). The program will also complete the removal of approximately 30,000 feet of tie lines, the pipes that once transported enriched uranium between the site’s facilities. OREM is also beginning construction on the K-25 History Center early this year adjacent to the slab of the former K-25 building, which is now part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. This project fulfills one of the program’s major historic preservation commitments, and it creates a national attraction to share the site’s Manhattan Project and Cold War achievements with visitors. The cleanup program will continue to build on 2017’s progress this year and maintain its path toward completing major cleanup in 2020. - Contributor: Ben Williams Back to Top WTP Expands Startup Testing to Low-Activity Waste Facility, Analytical Laboratory Startup team members (from left) Chad Schrumpf, T.C. Bonham, and Tyson Gandy test the control system in the Analytical Laboratory at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. RICHLAND, Wash. – Workers have begun startup testing at the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant’s (WTP) Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility and the Analytical Laboratory, marking the next step forward in commissioning. WTP contractor Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI) is working toward initating treatment of Hanford’s tank waste in the LAW Facility by the end of December 2021 through the Direct Feed LAW (DFLAW) approach “This is another step on the path to treating waste at Hanford,” said Bill Hamel, EM Office of River Protection Assistant Manager and Federal Project Director for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. “Bechtel continues to make good progress on the WTP.” Critical testing is under way nearly every day. Startup verifies systems are complete and in safe, working order. Testing has begun in three areas at the LAW Facility: Nonradioactive Liquid Waste Disposal (NLD) System of sumps, pumps, pipes, valves, and instruments. The parts are generally in the basement, and include the system’s largest single component, an 18,000-gallon vessel. The NLD also includes floor drains and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning condensate drains throughout the building. Distributed Control System (DCS), consisting of sensors that monitor fluid levels, pressures, temperatures and flow rates everywhere in the LAW Facility. Testing has begun on the first two floors. Electrical Motor Control Centers (MCC), including breakers, switches, and power supplies. Testing has begun on the basement and the first floor, as well as Building 24 switchgear. Startup personnel also began testing on the Analytical Laboratory’s DCS and MCC systems adjacent to the test engineers work station, which includes the temporary control and monitoring room for all testing on the project. The LAW Facility is integral to the DFLAW approach, which uses the LAW Facility, support facilities, and the Analytical Laboratory, 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 EM. When complete, the facility will process and stabilize a portion of the 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste stored at Hanford. - Contributor: Todd Nelson Back to Top H Canyon’s Flexibility Allows Dissolver Replacement, New Mission Using a remote-control crane, operators lower a new dissolver into H Canyon. The dissolver helps process two types of spent nuclear fuel at a time. AIKEN, S.C. – Employees in the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) H Canyon recently replaced one of the facility’s two dissolvers for the first time in a decade, allowing the facility to perform its vital national security mission even faster. H Canyon’s mission is to blend down highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from domestic and foreign research reactor fuel into low enriched uranium (LEU). LEU can be used to make fuel for commercial power reactors and is also less attractive to terrorists than HEU. The first step of the chemical processing that turns the HEU SNF into LEU, dissolving the fuel, is done in large stainless-steel tanks called dissolvers. DOE recently assigned H Canyon the mission to dissolve High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) cores, which are shorter and have a larger circumference than Material Test Reactor fuel, which H Canyon’s two existing dissolvers were designed to accommodate. “This new mission required us to replace one of the dissolvers and reconfigure the other one to accept HFIR,” DOE Nuclear Materials Manager Maxcine Maxted said. “Being able to use two dissolvers for two different types of SNF will allow us to process material more quickly and more efficiently utilize H-Canyon. This reduces liability for the government, reduces long-term costs, and helps make the world safer.” Remote control cranes are used for most maintenance and processing activities in the canyon, protecting workers from radiation. Highly skilled crane operators can do all needed work using video cameras and crane controls from a crane control room. “This is the first time we have had to replace a dissolver since 2008,” Maxted said. “Many of our crane operators had never seen this done with the cranes, so they learned how to perform the operation safely and efficiently.” The new dissolver took two years to fabricate by an off-site vendor. A large site team that included Savannah River National Laboratory personnel performed startup testing and ensured the dissolver was safe and ready to be placed into the canyon. H Canyon is the nation’s only operating, production-scale, radiologically shielded chemical separations facility. Uranium is recovered from spent nuclear fuel rods through a complex chemical process in which fuels are dissolved and run through solvent extraction cycles that remove impurities in the fuel. The uranium then mixes with natural uranium in a process called “blend down,” and is loaded in shipping containers for shipment off-site. - Contributor: Lindsey MonBarren Back to Top Hanford Workers Enter Reactor to Prepare for Cocooning A team of safety and technical experts recently entered several areas of the 100 K East Reactor to begin the several-year process of planning for cocooning the reactor. RICHLAND, Wash. – Workers at EM’s Hanford Site recently entered the 100 K East Reactor to begin preliminary plans for interim stabilization of the reactor, or cocooning, which will involve building a safe storage enclosure. As part of surveillance and maintenance activities, workers have performed general entries into the reactor every five years, but workers will now enter more often, as part of the work planning process. The photos accompanying this story illustrate a crew’s recent entry to the reactor. “Although the actual construction to cocoon the reactor won’t happen for several years, entering the reactor more regularly will allow workers to gain familiarity with the aging facility and determine how best to design the future enclosure,” said Richland Operations Office Project Director Mark French. A worker looks at reactor components that were once part of an experimental laboratory area. By entering the K East Reactor now, workers can help a planning team understand current conditions and establish future safety controls and work processes. Workers inspect vertical safety rods in the K East Reactor above the reactor core. Control rods were used to regulate plutonium production during the Cold War. As part of surveillance and maintenance activities, workers perform general entries in the K East Reactor every five years. Workers will now enter the reactor more often, as part of the work planning process. Workers use specialized equipment to monitor and document potential contamination. The reactor is one of Hanford’s “sister” reactors. The K East and K West reactors were built side by side in the early 1950s and went into service in 1955. They are located less than 400 yards from the Columbia River and operated for more than 15 years before being shut down in the early 1970s. The K East Reactor operated until 1971. A spent fuel basin attached to the reactor was reactivated and stored irradiated fuel from Cold War operations from another Hanford reactor through 2004. Removal of the irradiated fuel, associated radioactive sludge and debris, and then the basin itself, took place between 2004 and 2009 and was critical to cleanup along the Columbia River. Workers have cocooned six other reactors at Hanford. When a reactor is cocooned, about 80 percent of the buildings and auxiliary structures needed to support the reactor operations are demolished and removed. The remaining 20 percent of the reactor complex, including the reactor core itself, is enclosed in a cement and steel, airtight and watertight structure called a cocoon. It prevents any remaining radiation or contamination from escaping to the environment. - Contributor: Tania Reyes Mills Back to Top EM’s Portsmouth, Paducah and Idaho Field Sites Join Facebook A screenshot of the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Facebook page. WASHINGTON, D.C. – EM continues to expand its presence on Facebook with the recent debut of the Idaho Cleanup Project and Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) pages. The Idaho and PPPO sites joined the social media platform, which already hosts EM headquarters, Savannah River Site (SRS), Richand Operations Office (RL), Office of River Protection, Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, Los Alamos Field Office, Nevada National Security Site, and Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. PPPO's Facebook page provides information about EM cleanup sites in Paducah in western Kentucky and Portsmouth in southern Ohio. Catch up on the progress in groundwater remediation, waste disposal, decontamination, and decommissioning, and other activities. The Idaho page will feature the site’s work in waste retrieval and treatment, packaging and shipment of waste, and provide updates on work at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, and Calcine Retrieval Project. “Like” all of our pages to keep up to date with cleanup progress across the complex, and learn more about the history of our sites, our work, and workforce. Watch for themed hashtags, including #MeetAMachine, #TeardownTuesday, #WildlifeWednesday and #FlashbackFriday. EM also manages a YouTube playlist, sharing footage of cleanup accomplishments across the EM complex. The playlist features more than 70 videos, from an overview of the Savannah River Site's (SRS) mission to a congratulatory message from local, state and federal officials to EM’s Oak Ridge program on completing the removal of all former uranium enrichment buildings at the East Tennessee Technology Park. The playlist includes a video series introducing viewers to individual workers, such as a RL radiological control technician at the Hanford Site. Sign up for EM news here, including communications from SRS, Nevada National Security Site, Hanford, and PPPO. - Contributor: David Sheeley, Leslie Trevethan Back to Top
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