DOE Office of Environmental Management

EM’s Impact Visible in Assistant Secretary White’s Oak Ridge Visit; EM Set to Transfer First Parcel at Portsmouth Site; and Much More!

DOE Office of Environmental Management sent this bulletin at 06/27/2018 10:31 AM EDT

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EM Update \| Vol. 10, Issue 25 \| June 27, 2018

EM’s Impact Visible in Assistant Secretary White’s Oak Ridge Visit Oak Ridge Contractor Earns 92 Percent of Available Fee for First Half of Fiscal 2018 EM Set to Transfer First Parcel at Portsmouth Site Savannah River Site Facility Representative Wins DOE Safety Oversight Award Workers Demolish Building K-633 in Oak Ridge Crews Reduce Risk at Plutonium Finishing Plant Demolition Work Site WVDP Provides Training on Saving Lives in High-Threat Emergencies NWP Hosts Inaugural STEM-Focused Exploration & Imagination Station Day EM’s Impact Visible in Assistant Secretary White’s Oak Ridge Visit EM Assistant Secretary Anne White, second row, third from left, joins Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management early career professionals. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – EM Assistant Secretary Anne White visited the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) last week for the first time in her current role. During a tour, White met the employees responsible for recent project successes and for positioning OREM to achieve major cleanup advances on the horizon. Through the work underway, the Oak Ridge EM program is nearing completion at the East Tennessee Technology Park and laying the groundwork for large-scale projects at the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Throughout her visit, White focused on the most important element of EM’s mission — its people. She started the day with OREM’s senior management team. Later, she attended lunch with early career professionals, where attendees shared their perspectives on topics ranging from EM’s culture to human capital planning and contract reporting requirements. Along the way, White made multiple stops at ORNL for current and planned projects. Employees highlighted the progress underway on the Uranium-233 Disposition Project, which is EM’s highest ongoing priority at ORNL. With the first phase complete, crews are now working on the second phase that will downblend the remaining inventory and complete the project. White toured Building 2026, which is being prepared and retrofitted to conduct the downblending operations. Her tour at ORNL also stopped at Building 3010. The walk-through of this former research reactor provided a firsthand glimpse into the risks and condition of the site’s many old, excess contaminated facilities. This area has received increased attention, and OREM has initiated several meaningful risk reduction projects at ORNL and Y-12 through recent funding from Congress. On the heels of her recent trip to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), White met the workers at a different stage of transuranic waste processing. As she toured the Transuranic Waste Processing Center, she watched workers separating and packing waste to be shipped to WIPP for safe, permanent disposal. On her final stop at Y-12, the Assistant Secretary got an up-close look at the ongoing site preparations for the Mercury Treatment Facility — a crucial piece of infrastructure to enhance safety and open the door for major cleanup at Y-12. Fittingly, the tour ended as White passed the Manhattan Project-era Biology Complex. Funding received this year enables OREM to remove the final six dilapidated buildings that comprised the complex. Its removal will provide clean land for future Y-12 missions — providing a clear example of the value and impact EM is bringing DOE and Oak Ridge to enable future success. -Contributor: Ben Williams Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management Manager Jay Mullis, far right, and URS \| CH2M Oak Ridge employees provide EM Assistant Secretary Anne White, third from right, a tour inside Building 3010 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The former research reactor facility is one of more than two hundred excess, contaminated facilities in Oak Ridge. Field Note from Assistant Secretary White Many thanks to Jay Mullis and the entire Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) team for my tour of the Oak Ridge Reservation. The tour highlighted the site’s outstanding employees along with the impressive cleanup advances OREM is positioned to achieve in the near-term. The day began with a focus on the most important element of EM’s mission — its people. This is a theme that would continue throughout the day. I attended a portion of the East Tennessee Economic Council’s weekly meeting, where I was able to see many key, local stakeholders before meeting with OREM’s senior management team. Later in the day, I also attended lunch with OREM’s early career professionals. It was an insightful exchange with valuable perspectives on topics ranging from EM’s culture to human capital planning and contract reporting requirements. It was great to meet with and hear from Steve Clemmons, Vanna Gaffney, Ryan Hilmes, John Phelps, Cari Mendez-Sanchez, Michael Rigas, Jessica Speed, and Ben Williams. The briefings and tours on this trip were incredibly informative. We met with contractor Pro2Serve about new software known as the “What If” tool. It allows for multiple inputs and variables, such as risks and funding levels, and provides the return-on-investment and milestone compliance for each scenario. This could prove very beneficial and assist EM with its complex planning and prioritization moving ahead. My interest in tools like these is to have all of the EM sites knitted together at the DOE-HQ level without having to make changes to existing systems if possible. This is a concept I am working to implement as part of my effort to manage the EM program with increased rigor, and more like a Fortunate 500 company. We made multiple stops at ORNL. I received a progress update about the Uranium-233 Disposition Project, and was fortunate to see firsthand the work underway to prepare Building 2026 to prepare and retrofit the facility for its upcoming mission to downblend the remaining inventory of material and complete the project. We stopped at Building 3010. The walk-through of this former research reactor gave me a sense of the risks and condition of the site’s many old excess, contaminated facilities. Recently, this has been a major initiative for Oak Ridge, and we are working to develop the most impactful plans to address significant risks at ORNL assuming the Excess Contaminated Facility Initiative funding continues. One of my major objectives as Assistant Secretary is tackling and reducing the significant liabilities that remain in the EM program. We also traveled to the Transuranic Waste Processing Center, where we observed skilled workers actively separating waste and packaging drums for eventual shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). After my previous tour to WIPP, I was happy and proud to meet the men and women at another stage of the process who are helping safely prepare the waste for its permanent disposal. Finally, we traveled to Y-12, where I got an up-close look at the site preparations underway for the Mercury Treatment Facility. This is a crucial piece of infrastructure that will enhance safety in Oak Ridge and open the door for major cleanup at an important national security asset. I was also able to see the Manhattan Project-era Biology Complex. OREM received funding this year to remove the final six buildings there. Its removal will provide clean land for future Y-12 missions — providing a glimpse of the value and impact EM can bring Oak Ridge in the future. -Anne Marie White Back to Top Oak Ridge Contractor Earns 92 Percent of Available Fee for First Half of Fiscal 2018 The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and URS \| CH2M Oak Ridge continue to make progress on the Mercury Treatment Facility site preparations. Crews are working to drill and construct the north retaining wall for the headworks facility related to the project. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – EM’s cleanup contractor at the Oak Ridge site earned more than $6.2 million for its performance from Oct. 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018, amounting to 92 percent of the total award fee available. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) recently issued its six-month fee determination scorecard for URS \| CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) after completing its evaluation of the contractor. Each year, EM releases information relating to contractor fee payments — earned by completing the work called for in the contracts — to further transparency in its cleanup program. According to the scorecard and OREM’s correspondence to UCOR regarding the fee determination: UCOR received a “very good” rating for project management and “high confidence” for cost and schedule during the period. Indicators such as cost and schedule indexes reflect a contract that performs well against a cost and schedule plan. The contractor continues to execute its scope under the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) contract very well. UCOR had advanced multiple projects required to complete the ETTP cleanup and reduced risks associated with OREM operations at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex, including: Identifying a new approach for disposal of a large volume of mixed low-level waste from Building K-1037; UCOR obtained approval to use macro-encapsulation bags that will save more than $400,000; Ceasing operations at the ETTP garage after transitioning to a U.S. General Services Administration leased fleet, allowing Building K-1414 to be demolished earlier than planned and maintaining momentum to achieve Vision 2020; Completing installation of nine new piezometers well ahead of the commitment to regulators; these devices will provide EM and regulators important information about water levels at and around an onsite disposal facility; Exceeding small business subcontracting goals — achieving 80 percent compared to the 65-percent target — with the exception of service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses; Conducting monitoring of groundwater, surface water, sediments, and other elements in accordance with remedial action report comprehensive monitoring plans. While OREM noted UCOR’s significant accomplishments during the period, the office also pointed to opportunities for improvement. OREM noted several issues with work planning and control, hazard awareness, and inadequate recognition of changing conditions. The contractor plans to complete corrective actions — and has finished others — for the nuclear high-hazard operations project and other matters. In December last year, OREM identified a potential decline in the effective implementation of the systems of control covered under the UCOR contractor assurance system, including integrated safety management, and work planning and control. View the scorecard here. -Contributor: David Sheeley Back to Top EM Set to Transfer First Parcel at Portsmouth Site The property EM is transferring to the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative is about 80 open acres in size, located adjacent to Perimeter Road in the southeast portion of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site. PIKETON, Ohio – EM is moving forward to transfer the first parcel of federal property at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant since decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) began at the site in 2011. EM and the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI) will formalize the transfer of the 80-acre parcel at a community event planned for July. The property is located on a former air strip used during the early years of plant operation on the southeast portion of the site, adjacent to Perimeter Road. The transfer follows a rigorous review process that included the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, approval from Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and a 60-day congressional review that ended this week. “From the beginning of the D&D project, the community has made it clear that its desired end state for the Portsmouth Site is reuse for economic development,” EM Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Manager Robert Edwards said. “We believe the transfer of Parcel 1 will demonstrate our commitment to making this a reality.” SODI is the designated community reuse organization for the Portsmouth Site. Receiving excessed property from the site for economic development is one the organization’s functions. “We are excited to get this first transfer complete. Having this acreage will allow SODI a real opportunity to recruit projects that will provide jobs to our local citizens,” SODI Executive Director Steve Shepherd said. Back to Top Savannah River Site Facility Representative Wins DOE Safety Oversight Award Matt Moury, DOE Associate Under Secretary for Environment, Health, Safety and Security, right, presents the Facility Representative of the Year Award to Tom Kohler of the Savannah River Site. AIKEN, S.C. – An EM employee recently won DOE’s Facility Representative of the Year Award for 2017 for his superior service in safety oversight of the H-Canyon, a chemical separations facility at the Savannah River Site supporting uranium, plutonium, and spent reactor fuel missions. Using his knowledge of H-Canyon and technical and criticality safety requirements, Tom Kohler safely resolved issues with degraded safety equipment and a potential criticality safety violation. He also provided leadership and support in the disposition of highly enriched material from Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. Building on 25 years of experience in contractor training and qualification, Kohler has provided a variety of expertise, including coauthoring a major portion of a revision to a DOE order on personnel selection, training, qualification, and certification requirements for DOE nuclear facilities, and creating and implementing a continuing training plan for the Department’s facility representatives. Kohler received the award during the 2018 Nuclear and Facility Safety Programs Workshop in Las Vegas. Fifteen facility representatives from across the DOE complex were nominated for the award, including several from EM. DOE created the facility representative position in 1990. Facility representatives are highly trained professionals who provide day-to-day oversight of contractor operations at the Department’s most hazardous facilities. There are approximately 175 facility representatives across the complex providing safety oversight and serving as an on-scene federal presence, monitoring mission accomplishments and worker and public safety. The Department has presented the Facility Representative of the Year Award annually since 1995 to recognize exceptional performance. -Contributor: David Sheeley Back to Top Workers Demolish Building K-633 in Oak Ridge Crews began tearing down Building K-633 in May and completed the project in June. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Oak Ridge’s EM program and its cleanup contractor URS\|CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) recently completed demolition of the K-633 Test Loop Facility. This project eliminates one of the most contaminated remaining buildings at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). Crew began taking down the structure in early May, and they finished removing debris June 14. Building K-633 is the fourth building Oak Ridge’s EM program has removed from ETTP’s Poplar Creek area since last year. Prior to those teardowns, this area contained 11 large buildings and numerous structures built in the 1940s and 1950s to support the site’s former nuclear program and operations. The Poplar Creek area contains the most contaminated facilities left at the site, following the demolition of five massive gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment buildings. One of the four test loops that were part of Building K-633. Equipment operators tear down the 18,100-square-foot contaminated facility located in the Poplar Creek area of the East Tennessee Technology Park. “Significant cleanup efforts are underway in ETTP’s Poplar Creek area,” said Acting ETTP Portfolio Federal Project Director Karen Deacon. “We began demolition last year, and the area already looks drastically different. The latest completion moves us closer to achieving our goal to finish the Poplar Creek area demolitions by the end of next year.” The building consisted of four separate and independent testing loops. The first three loops were built to test and evaluate gaseous diffusion equipment performance under production conditions. The final loop was installed in 1981 to evaluate prototype equipment designed for gas centrifuge enrichment. DOE ultimately shut down the 18,100-square-foot facility in 1984. All of the debris has already been removed from the demolition project. The radiological contaminants in the building were affixed inside piping and equipment using fixatives and foam, allowing for safe demolition of the structure. The goal for EM and UCOR is to transform the old government-owned uranium enrichment complex into a thriving privately owned industrial park. To date, EM has torn down more than 400 facilities and transferred more than 1,000 acres. The next facility slated for demolition at ETTP is the Toxic Substances Control Act Incinerator. That work begins this month. -Contributors: Wayne McKinney, Ben Williams Back to Top Crews Reduce Risk at Plutonium Finishing Plant Demolition Work Site Workers at the Plutonium Finishing Plant guide a large sack containing radioactive waste into a metal container suitable for shipping and storage. RICHLAND, Wash. – Workers have completed a significant risk reduction activity at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) worksite at the Hanford Site to prepare to eventually resume demolition. Crews recently finished packaging the last of 20 large, industrial-strength bags, called “super sacks,” into containers suitable for safe transportation to Hanford’s Central Waste Complex for monitored storage pending final disposition. EM’s Richland Operations Office (RL) expects to finish transporting the containers to the complex by mid-July. Workers helped develop plans and conducted a mockup in a contamination-free environment to practice packaging the large sacks prior to commencing activity. The sacks, and other containerized waste, comprise about 90 percent of the transuranic-contaminated material left at the partially demolished facility. Since March, crews have shipped about 100 containers of previously packaged low-level or transuranic waste from the PFP to the complex. “Moving this material from PFP into a monitored storage facility will significantly reduce the amount of hazardous material at the Plutonium Finishing Plant and the risk to workers and the public,” RL Manager Doug Shoop said. The shipment of waste is part of stabilization activities that have occurred since PFP demolition stopped in December 2017 following a spread of low-level radioactive contamination. Other stabilization activities underway at the plant include routinely applying fixatives to prevent contamination from spreading, and regular radiological surveys of the plant’s footprint. Crews are also setting up new radiological boundaries to support stabilization work and future demolition activities. Workers are also planning for the eventual resumption of demolition, once DOE is confident it is safe to resume. “We’re taking the time to do this safely and to do the job right,” said Kelly Wooley, acting vice president of the PFP closure project at CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company, RL’s cleanup contractor. “I appreciate the workers for their involvement in planning for this work.” -Contributor: Destry Henderson Back to Top WVDP Provides Training on Saving Lives in High-Threat Emergencies Participants in a training for high-threat emergencies practice using tourniquets. WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – EM and its cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) recently conducted first responder training on lifesaving interventions in the event of emergencies such as active shooter situations. CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) Safeguards and Security Manager David Schuman held the tactical emergency casualty care training for WVDP security officers and fire and emergency management personnel throughout Cattaraugus County, where WVDP is located. Schuman shared best practices on readily deployable lifesaving interventions and point-of-wounding care in high-threat emergency responses. About 30 people took part in the training at the West Valley Volunteer Hose Company Firemen’s Memorial Hall, including 22 who work at WVDP. “You can never overplan for emergencies,” Schuman said. “To be prepared in our field, one must take advantage of beneficial training opportunities like this. You must always be learning what’s new in the field that could help prevent incidents, protect workers, and save lives.” Trainees listen to instruction from Cattaraugus County Public Safety/Emergency Services Medical Director Dr. Brian Walters on the use of tourniquets to help stop the flow of blood in the event of a high-threat emergency. Participants learned about the phases of care in a high-threat environment, how to care for patients at or near the point of wounding, and the roles and integration of emergency services in active shooter responses. Trainees administered first aid to wounded victims in an active shooter scenario. This included the use of tourniquets, bandages for severe bleeding, and dressings to treat penetrating chest wounds. Research shows that the sooner personnel can give first aid after an active shooter incident, the better the chances are for recovery and survival. “While the focus of our training was on response to aggressive deadly behavior events, these are techniques and skills the security officers can use in their daily jobs and workplace injuries as well,” Cattaraugus County Public Safety/Emergency Services Medical Director Dr. Brian Walters said. -Contributor: Joseph Pillittere Back to Top NWP Hosts Inaugural STEM-Focused Exploration & Imagination Station Day Carlsbad students who participated in Exploration & Imagination Station Day held by the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's management and operations contractor. CARLSBAD, N.M. – Gifted and talented students in fifth- through eighth-grade participated in Exploration & Imagination Station Day to expand their interest and knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum and job opportunities. Nuclear Waste Partnership, LLC, in Carlsbad, New Mexico, the management and operations contractor for EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), sponsored the event that brought Carlsbad Municipal School (CMS) students together for STEM-focused activities. Interactive stations included opportunities like WIPP 101 information sessions, slime making, and Rube Goldberg invention activities. “NWP’s professionals allowed students to see the exciting and fun parts of STEM while still learning valuable lessons about STEM-related careers,” CMS Assistant Superintendent Kelli Barta said. “Partnerships between CMS and NWP are invaluable to our students because the students can engage with STEM leaders.” Nuclear Waste Partnership’s Bobby St. John explains how transuranic waste is transported from the surface to 2,150 feet underground into an ancient salt formation for permanent disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The event included 11-science related stations that kept over 60 students engaged with hands-on activities throughout the day. “As volunteers, we learn just as much from the students as they do from us,” said NWP’s Khush Ghadiali, who heads the WIPP Speakers Bureau Program. “The students are willing to engage, think out of the box, and participate. NWP is proud to sponsor events like this and encourage their love for science.” Barta said events like Exploration & Imagination Station Day opens students’ eyes to the possibility of STEM-related jobs and new, innovative careers of the future. “We may not know all of the jobs of tomorrow, but we do know that events like this will allow for creative, exciting opportunities for our students,” Barta said. -Contributor: Missi Courier Back to Top
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