Under Secretary Dabbar Tours Los Alamos Cleanup; West Valley Contractor Receives 80 Percent of Available Award Fee for Six-Month Period; WIPP Becomes Testing Ground for Robot Created by Students; and Much More!

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EM Update | Vol. 10, Issue 21 | May 29, 2018

Under Secretary Dabbar Tours Los Alamos Cleanup, Speaks With Workforce
West Valley Contractor Receives 80 Percent of Available Award Fee
EM Officials Share Cleanup Opportunities With Small Businesses at Outreach Event
Researchers Create Method to Measure Radioactive Element in Hanford Waste
WIPP Becomes Testing Ground for Robot Created by Students
New Hanford System Drives Water Flushing to New Level
Two Paducah Contractors are Repeat Winners of Kentucky Safety Award
EM Helps Oak Ridge Schools Take Next Steps in STEM Education
DOE Idaho Office, EM Contractor Create Interest at STEM Day at Zoo

Under Secretary Dabbar Tours Los Alamos Cleanup, Speaks With Workforce

DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar discusses ongoing legacy cleanup at Los Alamos National Laboratory with EM-LA manager Doug Hintze.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar toured key cleanup sites and met with the EM workforce at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) last week.

Accompanied by Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) Manager Doug Hintze, Dabbar stopped at Technical Area 54, where legacy waste is stored and remediated prior to shipment offsite, and Mortandad Canyon, where an interim measure is underway to arrest the migration of a chromium plume until a final remediation strategy is determined.

N3B Technical Program Manager Danny Katzman, left, provides an update on the Chromium Project interim measure to DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar, center, and Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office Manager Doug Hintze.

Representatives from EM-LA’s cleanup contractor N3B detailed waste storage configurations at Technical Area 54’s Area G and plans to re-cover domes where waste containers are stored. At Mortandad Canyon, Dabbar was briefed on the origin of the chromium plume and progress toward implementing the interim measure, which is operational along the plume’s southern boundary.

At the EM-LA field office, Dabbar participated in discussions on the recent contract transition for the Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup Contract and spoke to employees at an all-hands meeting.

“Site visits like this provide an unparalleled perspective on both the progress that is being made and the remaining challenges we face,” Dabbar told the employees at the meeting. “They also afford me the opportunity to communicate directly with all of you — the men and women who are responsible for EM’s tremendous progress in the field and who call this community home.”

Storage basins at Mortandad Canyon, where EM is implementing an interim measure to arrest the migration of a chromium plume.

Waste storage at Technical Area 54’s Area G.

Dabbar noted the site’s successes that have boosted momentum and propelled the site closer to completing cleanup:

Safe, successful treatment of remediated nitrate salt drums;
Infrastructure for the chromium plume interim measure;
Newly completed transition to a dedicated cleanup contract for legacy waste and management, positioning the workers for continued progress as Los Alamos marks its 75th anniversary this year.

“Knowing the cleanup successes the EM team is achieving here, as well as the possibilities that are ahead for this site and this community, I am incredibly proud to be a part of your team,” Dabbar said.

DOE benefits from the input and ideas the workforce brings to the cleanup, Dabbar noted.

“As we work together, please know that DOE wants to hear from you,” Dabbar said. “I value having the benefit of your input, your ideas, and your good counsel, for no one understands this site and the local priorities better than people like you, who live, work, and raise your families here.”

-Contributor: Steven Horak

West Valley Contractor Receives 80 Percent of Available Award Fee

Crews lower a cooler to the floor as part of Vitrification Facility demolition activities.

WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – EM’s cleanup contactor at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) earned $365,000 of a possible $455,965 award fee for the Aug. 30, 2017-Feb. 28, 2018 performance period, according to a recently released scorecard.

EM noted that CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) met the majority of performance goals and objectives for the period. The contractor received an “excellent” rating for safety, health, and quality management; “very good” for both business administration and project management; and “good” for environmental and regulatory strategy.

“CHBWV continues to have a very successful year,” EM WVDP Site Director Bryan Bower said. “During this last rating period, CHBWV safely completed the removal, packaging, and shipment of four in-cell Vitrification Facility coolers. This particular work evolution was the highest remaining hazard associated with this project, and was a critical path for continuing on with the demolition of this facility.”

Bower noted that CHBWV continues to be ahead of schedule for safely completing a legacy waste milestone.

“Our workforce continues to deactivate the Main Plant Process Building’s most difficult areas in a safe, deliberate, and compliant manner,” Bower said. “This latest award fee reflects CHBWV’s ongoing efforts to complete contract milestones in a safe, effective, and responsive manner.”

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 EM’s performance evaluation for CHBWV:

The safety, health, and quality management rating reflects CHBWV’s lower rates of work-related injury and illness. The contractor’s quality assurance personnel paid excellent attention to detail inspecting containers used to transport Vitrification Facility demolition debris. Employees also made progress in safeguards and security training, responsiveness, communication, and document production. An area that needs improvement is conduct of operations for maintenance of spill response materials.

In the project management area, CHBWC planned well for the initial demolition of the Vitrification Facility and shipments of demolition debris and legacy waste. The contractor’s good planning and use of mockups benefit the Main Plant Process Building deactivation activities.

In the environmental and regulatory compliance section, CHBWV submitted well-organized, good-quality routine reports on time. The contractor provided all necessary backup data to make DOE’s review efficient. However, the scorecard noted two regulatory compliance issues.

Once the site of the first and only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the U.S., WVDP is now an environmental cleanup and waste management project located about 35 miles south of Buffalo. The cleanup is conducted by EM in cooperation with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

View CHBWV’s scorecard here.

-Contributor: David Sheeley

EM Officials Share Cleanup Opportunities With Small Businesses at Outreach Event

HOUSTON – EM officials focused on small business opportunities in the cleanup program and greater DOE at the Department's 17th-annual Small Business Forum & Expo last week.

Each year, the outreach event connects Department representatives with small businesses. At an EM-focused session, small business representatives talked with EM officials and learned the latest news on doing business with the legacy nuclear cleanup program.

Norbert Doyle, EM’s head of contracting activity and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Project Management, provided the status of every major EM procurement under way and EM’s progress in awarding those contracts. Doyle outlined opportunities for contractors to receive information about upcoming procurements and submit their capabilities statements for consideration.

"Our EM participation at the DOE Small Business Forum & Expo provided a wonderful opportunity to build upon EM's continuing outreach efforts to the small businesses,” Doyle said. “Not only were we able to learn what capabilities small businesses may have, but it also allowed for small businesses 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."

The conference offered EM multiple ways to engage small businesses, including an exhibit booth and “matchmaking” session, where business representatives met one-on-one with EM officials.

Representatives from a range of small 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.

-Contributor: Anne Marie Bird

Researchers Create Method to Measure Radioactive Element in Hanford Waste

Shirmir Branch conducts an analysis using the method she developed for measuring non-pertechnetate technetium. The intense luminescence of the sample is shown by the greenish-yellow dots in the inset photograph.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and University of Cincinnati recently developed a method to measure a form of the radioactive element technetium-99 in nuclear waste stored in the underground tanks at the Hanford Site.

The site’s tank waste contains hundreds of chemical components. Technetium is present in the waste in multiple chemical forms with different properties and behaviors during waste processing. The researchers are focused on the non-pertechnetate form of technetium, which is challenging to characterize and quantify under various treatment conditions. The pertechnetate ion is a predominant chemical species containing technetium in nuclear waste. The researchers have begun characterizing other species, known as non-pertechnetate.

It’s important to know how much technetium is in the tanks and have a means to monitor the amounts in the different chemical forms during the cleanup process. Waste is processed through vitrification — a process in which the material is mixed with glass-forming agents, heated, and melted — to produce stable glass logs.

The non-pertechnetate compounds are believed to be bound to certain other waste components and are indistinguishable from other constituents in tank waste using the usual analytical techniques.

Shirmir Branch, pictured, worked on the non-pertechnetate technetium project at the Radiochemical Processing Laboratory at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as part of her graduate studies.

Key to the method developed at PNNL’s Radiochemical Processing Laboratory is a pretreatment solution that converts the hard-to-detect, non-pertechnetate technetium compounds into compounds that glow under intense light. This procedure makes them easily distinguishable from the other tank waste components and the amounts of non-pertechnetate technetium can be determined from the intensity of the glowing light.

Shirmir Branch developed the method for her doctorate research at the University of Cincinnati in the research group of professor William Heineman, and in collaboration with PNNL in the group of Dr. Sam Bryan. She created the procedure using rhenium, which has similar chemical properties to technetium but is not radioactive. When mixed with a specially developed pretreatment solution, the non-pertechnetate rhenium converts to an intensely luminescent complex that can be detected in the presence of other waste constituents, Branch found.

Branch then used that procedure with the non-pertechnetate technetium, and it worked well in tank waste simulant and a real tank waste sample. This technique allows a sample to be pretreated and measured in a few minutes instead of hours or days using other methods.

Branch recently received her doctorate from the University of Cincinnati and works at PNNL, which is working to enhance the sensitivity of this detection method.

-Contributor: Nicholas Machara

WIPP Becomes Testing Ground for Robot Created by Students

Area high school students prepare a robot for testing in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant underground in early May, prior to an international robotics competition.

CARLSBAD, N.M. – Area high school science and engineering students were looking for a real-life way to test the robot they created — in an environment like no other. A deputy project manager with the EM Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) management and operations contractor had the answer.

“When I very first saw the robot, I knew these students had created something special that could be very beneficial to the nuclear industry and in the WIPP underground,” Nuclear Waste Partnership’s (NWP) Tammy Reynolds said. “I think the results speak for themselves.”

Left to right, Carlsbad High School science and engineering students Simon Armijo, Will Baggett, and Spencer Pennypacker test a robot in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant underground in early May in preparation for an international robotics competition. The students designed and built the robot, which they tested for maneuverability and an operable radio system.

Like other EM sites, WIPP is exploring the use of robotics for a variety of applications including monitoring radiological areas, checking conditions in areas of the underground where unstable ground conditions exist, and inspecting shafts leading to the WIPP underground.

The Carlsbad High School (CHS) students tested the robot in WIPP to prepare for the international RoboRAVE competition in Albuquerque, N.M. RoboRAVE is a robotics education program that teaches students and teachers how to design, build, program, and test robots to perform a variety of tasks. The students finished fourth overall in the event held earlier this month.

CHS seniors Simon Armijo and Will Baggett and junior Spencer Pennypacker developed and built the robot. The team, which won the 2017 National Robotics Challenge, is coached by CHS teacher Deborah Haggerton.

“The original intent was to help save soldiers’ lives by sending in the robot for surveillance in dangerous, hostile situations,” Armijo explained.

A robot designed and built by area high school students is tested in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant underground.

An area high school student tests a robot underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in early May.

As part of the RoboRAVE competition, the students produced a marketing video to promote their robot and its capabilities to perform tasks in a variety of industries. Testing the robot in the WIPP underground, which included maneuverability over different terrains in the underground and ensuring the radio control system worked properly, gave the CHS students an advantage over other teams in the competition, Armijo said.

“WIPP may have opened the door to our future,” he said.

Reynolds said NWP wanted to create a great experience for the hardworking, enterprising students.

“They really created an incredible machine, and NWP wanted to celebrate that accomplishment with them as they tested their robot in the WIPP underground,” Reynolds said.

The students and their robot competed against more than 350 teams at RoboRAVE.

When asked if the trip to WIPP was beneficial, Armijo struggled to explain what the tour meant to him and his teammates. “I don’t even know how to explain it,” Armijo said.

-Contributor: Missi Currier

New Hanford System Drives Water Flushing to New Level

Washington River Protection Solutions engineer and project manager Dustin May points out a hookup for hot water in the refurbished AP-801 service water building. The building houses a system that provides flush water to the 11 farms in Hanford’s 200 East after waste transfers.

RICHLAND, Wash. – It’s a modest 12-foot-by-12-foot metal structure that sits just outside of Hanford’s AP Tank Farm, but it plays a key role in ensuring the site’s tank waste is managed safely and efficiently.

The AP-801 service water building houses a system that provides flush water to Hanford’s double-shell tank farms for use after waste transfers, which involve the movement of waste between double-shell tanks through underground piping.

EM Office of River Protection (ORP) Program Manager Richard Valle said the facility plays a significant supporting role in Hanford’s tank waste management efforts even though it doesn’t get a lot of attention.

“These upgrades will enable the system to do its job more efficiently while ensuring the safety of the operators,” Valle said.

ORP and its tank operations contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) recently completed refurbishing the building, replacing many critical components, and reconfiguring piping to meet operational requirements for preventing water hammer. That occurs when the water is shut off suddenly, bringing the water rushing through the pipe to a quick halt and creating a pressure surge and hammering noise.

The new components include a pressure control valve, backflow preventer, flow meter, flow totalizer, globe valve for throttling flow, and a control panel. The system also features a hookup for hot water. The upgraded system can throttle flow, provide instantaneous flow rates, and record total flow. Installation of the new equipment will extend the service life and increase the accuracy and efficiency of throttling water flow.

Previously, workers used a gate valve to throttle the flow of water to 40 gallons per minute before securing flow to prevent water hammer. A flow totalizer and a stop watch were used to determine flow rates. This required on-the-fly calculations to be performed in the field.

WRPS Project Manager Dustin May credited the entire project team for its work to upgrade the system.

“We had a lot of people contribute,” May said. “EM representatives, WRPS Design Services, Engineering, Safety, Quality Assurance, Environmental, and our construction contractor worked together to make the project a success.”

-Contributor: Mark McKenna

Two Paducah Contractors are Repeat Winners of Kentucky Safety Award

Mid-America Conversion Services (MCS) award presentation, left to right: Jim H. Key, United Steel Workers (USW) Local 550 Vice President-At-Large; Doug Raney, Union Safety Representative; Kentucky Labor Cabinet Secretary Derrick Ramsey; USW Unit Vice President Brad Richards; MCS Maintenance Supervisor Chris Hayden; and Environment, Safety & Health Manager Joe Johnson.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Two prime contractors working at EM’s Paducah Site recently received the Governor’s Safety and Health Award at the Kentucky Labor Cabinet’s 34th annual Safety and Health Conference and Exposition.

This is the second consecutive year the awards for outstanding safety and health performance were presented to Mid-America Conversion Services (MCS), the operations contractor for EM’s Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities, and the Swift & Staley Team (SST), the infrastructure support services contractor for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant site.

“The Department of Energy appreciates the emphasis the Commonwealth of Kentucky places on safety, and the awards that are given,” EM Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Paducah Site Lead Jennifer Woodard said. “Ensuring our workers go home safe and healthy every day is important to us.”

A Mid-America Conversion Services employee moves a Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride cylinder within a Paducah Site storage yard.

MCS achieved 1,197,209 hours and SST worked 814,122 hours without a workplace injury or illness resulting in days away from work through December 2017.

“Without ownership of safety and all the Integrated Safety Management System Principles by each employee, the plant could not achieve nearly three years of excellence in the important safety measure of lost-time injury," said Sherree Shaw, MCS’s Paducah operations transformation manager.

MCS is a joint venture of Atkins Global Nuclear Secured, Westinghouse Government Services, and Fluor Federal Services. MCS began processing DOE’s more than 700,000 metric tons of uranium enrichment byproduct in 2017. The DUF6 Conversion Project is carried out at EM’s specially designed facilities in Ohio and Kentucky and administered in Lexington. The project produces two materials suitable for beneficial reuse and disposal: depleted uranium oxide and hydrofluoric acid. The contractor also safely maintains EM’s DUF6 inventory at the two sites.

Swift & Staley Team (SST) award presentation, left to right: SST Environment, Safety and Health Manager John Hobbs; Kentucky Labor Secretary Derrick Ramsey; and SST United Steel Workers Safety Representative Jason Gilbert.

Swift & Staley Team Heavy Equipment Mechanic Bill Jackson performs maintenance on a Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant firetruck.

Prime contractor SST, which consists of Swift & Staley and major subcontractors North Wind Solutions and Leidos, is responsible for Paducah Site roads and grounds maintenance, janitorial services, safeguards and security program, information technology, radiological monitoring, records management and document control, facilities maintenance, property management, and training. SST has earned the Governor’s Safety and Health Award seven times.

“SST has a strong leadership team and workforce that understand the importance of employee involvement in hazard recognition and injury prevention,” Environment, Safety and Health Manager John Hobbs said. “SST continually strives to maintain and improve a safety culture that supports open communication of hazards and employee involvement in the resolution of those hazards. This award would not be possible without the commitment of each and every SST employee to that objective.”

-Contributors: Kearney Ackermann, Tammy Courtney

EM Helps Oak Ridge Schools Take Next Steps in STEM Education

Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management employees listen and give tips to third-graders presenting their “Schools around the World” project.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Local third-grade students shared their research about animals, climates, and cultures from assigned countries to employees visiting from the DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) last week.

The presentations from the Linden Elementary School students were part of a project-based learning approach used in the Oak Ridge School District’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) curriculum.

“One thing that’s been missing was reaching out and involving other people outside the school system to get feedback to students,” said Elementary Curriculum and Technology Integration Coach Michael Carvella, who helps lead STEM in the district’s four elementary schools. “Bringing in employees from the Department of Energy is great for these kids. They are getting real feedback from people in the work world, and people who work in the STEM fields.”

OREM Manager Jay Mullis noted the significant role community involvement plays in OREM’s mission.

“We emphasize its importance and work to identify opportunities where we can reach out and forge new connections,” Mullis said. “STEM provides that perfect fit, where we have something valuable to offer and also have the ability to engage and help equip the next generation of problem solvers.”

Students eagerly wait their turn to share what they’ve learned.

Students spent weeks researching, writing, developing presentations, and practicing public speaking.

Volunteers from OREM benefitted from the exchange, as they interacted with students in one of the nation’s preeminent school districts. Oak Ridge is the first district in Tennessee and only the second in the country to have every elementary, middle, and high school fully STEM-accredited and certified.

For their “Schools around the World” project, the students spent the past several weeks researching, writing persuasively, developing presentations, and practicing public speaking.

“We can tell the impact these teachers are having,” OREM Acting Deputy Manager Dave Adler said. “It’s pretty remarkable to see what these third-graders were able to accomplish, and we were happy to play a role by being an audience and giving them some tips that could help them as they continue their education and move into their careers.”

Carvella noted that in many cases, the jobs the students will have in the future aren't available yet.

“We don’t know what they’ll be asked to do, but we are working to prepare them for whatever they may need,” he said.

-Contributor: Ben Williams

DOE Idaho Office, EM Contractor Create Interest at STEM Day at Zoo

Students learned about six simple types of machines at the Fluor Idaho learning station. At left, students from Westside Elementary School examine a block-and-tackle model to demonstrate how loads can be easily lifted. At right, Fluor Idaho Chief Engineer Joe Giebel answers questions from the students.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Employees with the DOE Idaho Operations Office and EM cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho joined other volunteers to teach some 1,500 elementary school students about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) at an event at the local zoo.

“This year’s STEM Day at the Zoo really had something for everyone,” Fluor Idaho Chief Engineer and STEM volunteer Joe Giebel said. “There was a good mix of topics ranging from electricity generation, genetics, and the importance of protecting the environment. Of course, the booths that included hands-on activities were the most popular with the children.”

In addition to STEM Day at the Zoo, Fluor Idaho relies on the use of the Museum of Idaho to promote student interest in events involving robotics, architecture, and the current exhibit Steampunk, which highlights steam-powered gadgets.

Educators such as Jill Rehfield, a second-grade teacher, said her students had been looking forward to the experience for weeks.

“It’s their favorite event of the year,” Rehfield said. “As a teacher, this is an outstanding way to bring my learning targets to life as my students can experience firsthand situations that I can’t replicate in the classroom.”

This year’s event focused on the environment and featured 20 learning stations. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality discussed the movement of water and the importance of the Snake River Plain Aquifer, which underlies the Idaho National Laboratory site and is used by more than 300,000 residents in southeastern Idaho for municipal purposes, agriculture, and drinking water.

Students work with one of several simple machines on display at Fluor Idaho's learning station.

Staff at the Idaho Falls Zoo discussed the importance of properly disposing of plastic to ensure the material isn’t discarded in the environment, later to ensnare animals. Students also assumed the role of engineer as they used aluminum foil to design boats that can still float when loaded with weight.

STEM Day also covered subjects such as chromatography, photosynthesis, electricity, physics, mechanical engineering, and hydrology. This year, the program added art.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have community minded organizations such as DOE and Fluor Idaho here to help support these important learning events,” Idaho Falls Zoo Education Curator Sunny Katseanes said. “It is challenging for any one institution or organization to put on these types of events, but working together we help enhance and improve the educational opportunities for students in eastern Idaho.”

-Contributors: Rick Dale, Erik Simpson

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