Secretary Perry Tours Nevada Site, Talks With Employees in All-Hands Meeting; EM's Oak Ridge Contractor Sets New Bar for Small Business Contracting; and Much More!

DOE Office of Environmental Management sent this bulletin at 08/28/2018 02:13 PM EDT

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EM Update \| Vol. 10, Issue 34 \| Aug. 28, 2018

Secretary Perry Tours Nevada Site, Talks With Employees in All-Hands Meeting EM's Oak Ridge Contractor Sets New Bar for Small Business Contracting SRS Employs Novel Engineering Approaches to Increase Efficiency, Safety Portsmouth Site Workers Evaluate ’Bionic’ Vests for Overhead Work Savannah River National Lab Engineer Continues STEM Education Support Pushing the Depth of Understanding on Hanford Soil Contamination EM Hanford Site Office Passes Water Utilities to Pacific Northwest National Lab Secretary Perry Tours Nevada Site, Talks With Employees in All-Hands Meeting LAS VEGAS – Energy Secretary Rick Perry recently toured the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) and addressed federal and contractor staff in an all-hands meeting, including staffers from EM's Nevada Program. During the meeting, Perry answered questions from employees and highlighted the progress and future of the NNSS missions. EM's Oak Ridge Contractor Sets New Bar for Small Business Contracting Christy Jackiewicz, deputy director for DOE’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, speaks at URS\|CH2M Oak Ridge’s (UCOR) 2018 small business awards program. Also pictured, left to right: Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management Manager Jay Mullis, UCOR Project Services and Support Manager Ron Slottke, UCOR Supply Chain Manager Tim Melberg, and UCOR Small Business Manager Freda Hopper. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Small businesses are crucial to EM's missions. The commitment to this belief from DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its contractor URS\|CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) is on full display as the company has spent nearly $1 billion of its $2.9 billion EM contract on small businesses locally and throughout the country. Earlier this year, UCOR celebrated a milestone when the company surpassed the $2 billion mark on its contract. And during UCOR’s annual small business awards program this month, speakers noted nearly half of those $2 billion in funds has gone to small businesses. Since the UCOR contract was awarded in 2011, the company has subcontracted more than $1 billion of its work, and $800 million of that total went to small businesses. On hand for this year’s program were Christy Jackiewicz, deputy director for DOE’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, Jay Mullis, the OREM manager, and UCOR’s senior management and employees. “I applaud UCOR for their commitment to small businesses and consistently identifying opportunities where they can assist and advance the important cleanup mission in Oak Ridge,” said Mullis. “UCOR has obviously found the right formula as we continue making progress while completing our projects below estimates and ahead of schedule.” PacTec Inc. of Clinton, Louisiana, was named URS\|CH2M Oak Ridge’s (UCOR) 2018 Small Business of the Year. Left to right: UCOR Project Services and Support Manager Ron Slottke, Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management Manager Jay Mullis, PacTec Inc. Director of Nuclear Sales Bill Smart, DOE Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Deputy Director Christy Jackiewicz, and UCOR Small Business Manager Freda Hopper. Small businesses provide services to UCOR ranging from administrative and professional support to technical, engineering and construction management, transportation, and waste management services. UCOR, a joint venture partnership between AECOM and Jacobs, launched the small business awards program in 2012, soon after being awarded the environmental cleanup contract for the East Tennessee Technology Park. Winners are selected based on exceptional performance that contributes to cleanup accomplishments. Criteria include developing creative and unique solutions, exhibiting extraordinary customer service, making gains in productivity and efficiency, and coming up with innovative ideas that lead to cost, time, or resource savings. This year’s winners are: PacTec, Inc. (Clinton, Louisiana) - Small Business of the Year ExpoQuip, Inc. (Knoxville, Tennessee) - Small Disadvantaged Business of the Year Street Legal Industries (Oak Ridge, Tennessee) - HUBZone Small Business of the Year Hubbard Trucking, Inc. (Barbourville, Kentucky) - Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year Banda Group International (Chandler, Arizona) - Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year LB Services (Oliver Springs, Tennessee) - Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year OREM funds 2,000 local jobs through contracts like UCOR, and its operations create more than 6,000 additional jobs in Tennessee. A new report shows the full economic impact of DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation on the state of Tennessee. The report examines job creation, state gross domestic product growth, private-sector procurements, payroll disbursement, state and local tax contributions, community development, and the ripple effects of this spending. -Contributor: Ben Williams Back to Top SRS Employs Novel Engineering Approaches to Increase Efficiency, Safety At the core of the Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) Engineering Leadership Development Program (ELDP) is an investment in technical engineering and operational training. Participants complete short-term projects in a variety of facilities and processes across the site. SRNS engineering mentor Glynn Dyer (left) describes the Savannah River Site H-Canyon chemical separations process to engineers Lisa Lee and Jae Choi. AIKEN, S.C. – EM and the Savannah River Site (SRS) management and operations contractor are using new engineering approaches to improve operations, increase efficiency, and make the site safer. Over the last several years, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) leaders have challenged its engineering group to create efficiencies. “The engineering group will always be the technical conscience of our organization,” SRNS President Stuart MacVean said. “What we are doing is using that technical conscience to drive the site to improve performance, constantly looking for areas where we are being overly conservative or living to controls that aren’t improving safety. It’s really having an impact.” Some of the biggest results have come from the contractor's Nuclear and Criticality Safety Group (N&CS), which is charged with identifying and evaluating hazards that could result in radiological or chemical releases, and determining the necessary controls. N&CS staff recently updated the safety analysis of operations in the Tritium Extraction Facility, which was facing additional costs of more than $1.6 million for designing and fabricating new furnace covers while accommodating a significant increase in tritium extraction operations. The new analysis concluded a decades-old scenario driving the need for new furnace covers — which involved a crane failure that would damage a furnace and cause a hydrogen explosion — was not credible, avoiding the need for new furnace covers. The engineering organization’s approach to securing a reliable supply of nuclear-grade parts and components for its facilities has also proven effective. As the number of nuclear-qualified suppliers has dwindled, employees with nuclear construction projects and facilities in need of replacement parts have had to individually qualify many of the parts they need through a process known as commercial grade dedication. SRNS has worked to streamline this often-lengthy qualification process through novel partnerships with key vendors like Caterpillar, which supplies replacement parts for safety-related engines at SRS. The partnership with Caterpillar, which began last year, gives SRNS access to the company’s quality program and production facilities to allow SRNS to survey and take credit for the vendor’s quality processes, which dramatically reduces the time and effort needed to qualify each part. The partnership with Caterpillar — a first for the company and DOE — nearly eliminates the testing and inspections that SRNS previously completed for each part. SRNS officials said they have made strides in developing the next generation of leaders and ensuring a culture of continuous improvement is maintained. Foremost among those efforts is the SRNS Engineering Leadership Development Program (ELDP), a six-month program in which newly hired college graduates learn about the site and its missions, and experience challenging assignments. In fiscal year 2018, 75 new engineers have been hired through the program. and since the advent of the ELDP in 2012, more than 250 engineers have participated in the program, and retention continues to be above 95 percent. -Contributor: Martin Schneider Back to Top Portsmouth Site Workers Evaluate ’Bionic’ Vests for Overhead Work Portsmouth Non-Destructive Assay Technician Damon Horn, left, demonstrates how the lift assist of the exoskeletal device helps hold his arms in position. PIKETON, Ohio – No, Damon Horn is not the “Six-Million-Dollar Man.” He doesn’t even try to imitate actor Lee Majors’s 1970s science fiction TV character. But Horn and some of his colleagues are testing bionic support equipment to improve worker safety, performance, and stamina on non-destructive assay (NDA) work at EM’s Portsmouth Site. NDA at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant entails measuring the quantities of uranium deposits that remain from enrichment operations in dozens of miles of process pipes. Working with deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth’s (FBP) Occupational Safety and Health division, the FBP NDA techs are evaluating the use of exoskeletal devices. The gear support the upper body for workers in waste management and decommissioning operations. Worn much like a backpack, the devices are used for overhead work to relieve stress on muscles and joints. They weigh just 9.5 pounds and are spring-activated, relieving up to 15 pounds of pressure from the shoulders and spine when a worker’s arms are raised. NDA techs spend hours each day working with tools at odd angles with their arms raised, taxing the body over time. “We are always interested in looking at appropriate technological advancements that can have a real-world impact on worker safety and project efficiency,” said Joel Bradburne, deputy manager for EM’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. “This is not a toy that is just fun to play with, but is instead a viable piece of equipment that we are evaluating to see if it can truly augment endurance and prevent injuries.” -Contributor: April Greene Back to Top Savannah River National Lab Engineer Continues STEM Education Support Robin Brigmon, Savannah River National Laboratory senior fellow engineer, has served as a valuable contributor to the South Carolina Academy of Science for more than a decade. AIKEN, S.C. – When he served as a judge for the 91st annual meeting of the South Carolina Academy of Science (SCAS) this summer, Robin Brigmon, a senior fellow engineer with EM's Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), continued more than a decade of advancing the state’s scientific community. As a volunteer and leader with SCAS, Brigmon has dedicated countless hours encouraging the scientific knowledge of students and faculty and strengthening science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in the state. The SCAS meeting this summer brought more than 500 students together for demonstrations and presentations. As a judge, Brigmon followed the same criteria used for peer reviewed journals. This includes evaluating for originality, experimental design, clarity, results, and conclusions. “Every year the quality of papers improves,” Brigmon said. “I am very pleased to see the progress these students make year after year.” Brigmon served as SCAS president in 2012 and his responsibilities included overseeing budgets, collaborating with university and industrial partners, and assisting with award and judging committees. He was also instrumental in bringing the SCAS annual meeting to the University of South Carolina Aiken in 2012 and linking it with the scientific capabilities of SRNL. “I continue volunteering and supporting SCAS because it is a rewarding way to help South Carolina college, high school, and middle school students in STEM education,” Brigmon said. “When you see the excitement of the students as they give their presentations and they explain their results, it is clear they are learning.” Brigmon’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. “Robin has been instrumental in connecting Savannah River National Lab with SCAS,” said John Kaup, executive director, SC Junior Academy of Science. “Even after his presidential succession ended he continued to be a part of the academies, giving support and mentoring.” -Contributor: Jamacia Jimerson Back to Top Pushing the Depth of Understanding on Hanford Soil Contamination Direct push technology is helping EM’s Office of River Protection gain a better understanding of the contamination around and underneath Hanford tanks. RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s Office of River Protection (ORP) and tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) go to great lengths to learn more about the nature and extent of contamination around and beneath Hanford’s waste storage tanks. Most recently, a project team went about 285 feet. That was the depth of a vertical hole near Tank A-104 created with a technology known as direct push. It is the first of 10 holes near tanks A-104 and A-105 to be completed during a campaign that will run into 2019. The holes are drilled to varying depths. The direct push technology involves pushing 4-foot sections of hollow tubes into the ground with a hydraulic hammer. During the current campaign, two holes will be pushed in five locations about 5 feet apart. The first push is driven to full depth and logged using geophysical instruments. The instruments take radiation and soil moisture readings, and also help determine the sampling locations for the second push. The second push is used to collect soil samples at selected depths. To collect a sample, the team uses a special drive tip. When the target depth is reached, the tip is released and the drill string driven ahead. Samples are captured inside the drill string, pulled to the surface, and sent for laboratory analysis. “The information we obtain through the direct push campaign will help support tank retrievals and tank farm closure documentation,” said Jan Bovier, ORP tank closure project manager. -Contributor: Mark McKenna Back to Top EM Hanford Site Office Passes Water Utilities to Pacific Northwest National Lab Members of the team that completed the water utility services operations transfer, from left: Mike Winkel of Mission Support Alliance, and Sanjay Sanan and Kirk Heaton of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. RICHLAND, Wash. – EM crews have demolished more than 200 facilities in the Hanford Site’s 300 Area that once used water utility services. All but one EM facility — the 324 Building — are gone from the 300 Area, prompting EM Richland Operations Office (RL) and contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) to further reduce their footprint by transferring water utility services to DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which operates research and development facilities in that area. “As the primary user of the water systems in the 300 Area, it made sense for us to take over operations,” said Sanjay Sanan, 300 Area core team building manager with PNNL. “Working closely with MSA helped us become familiar with the systems and was instrumental in this transition.” The transition benefited MSA and PNNL, said Sharee Dickinson, director of the RL Infrastructure & Services Division. “I want to thank both teams for making this a smooth transition,” Dickinson said. “This is a perfect example of different organizations coming together to accomplish a common goal — good work by all involved.” Mike Winkel, MSA project manager, noted PNNL’s eagerness to learn what it takes to operate a water system. “We were able to provide the necessary support and expertise to help set them up for success,” Winkel said. “We appreciate the partnership with PNNL.” Before completing the transition, MSA repaired and upgraded several key utility services, including a pump station that provides all potable water and fire protection. During the plutonium production era, Hanford’s 300 Area was home to fuel manufacturing operations, and experimental and laboratory facilities. -Contributor: Renee Brooks Back to Top
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