EM Crews Successfully Complete Major Demolition at West Valley; Hanford Workers Prevent Contaminants From Reaching Groundwater; and much more!

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EM Update | Vol. 10, Issue 38 | Sept. 25, 2018

EM Crews Successfully Complete Major Demolition at West Valley
Hanford Workers Prevent Contaminants From Reaching Groundwater
Protecting Workers from Chemical Vapors is Key Focus at Hanford
Oak Ridge SafetyFest Draws 1,200 Participants From 23 States
Hanford Site Public Outreach Program Tops 330 Visitors During Tour Season
Security Contractor's Helicopter Pilots Respond to Wildfire on Savannah River Site
SRS Offers Undergraduates Landscape to Study Radioecology
Savannah River Site Contractors Earn DOE Legacy of Stars Safety Award
EM Nevada Distributes More Than 3,400 Learning Materials

EM Crews Successfully Complete Major Demolition at West Valley

WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – Crews last week successfully completed safe demolition of the 10,000-square-foot vitrification plant once used to solidify thousands of gallons of radioactive waste at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP). The building removal is EM’s largest and most complex environmental cleanup achievement at the West Valley site to date.

“The safe demolition of the Vitrification Facility is an important accomplishment in the progress to decommission the site,” said Bryan Bower, EM’s WVDP director. “For some of our workers, this was a bittersweet accomplishment, as they were here when we constructed the Vitrification Facility decades ago. We applaud the tremendous effort required to safely remove this nuclear facility.”

Scott Anderson, president of cleanup contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley, applauded the workforce for its deliberate planning and execution of critical work.

“Protecting the workforce and the environment were paramount during the demolition process,” Anderson said. “We completed this challenging milestone using lessons learned, and look forward to applying those best practices on future projects.”

Before and after photos of the Vitrification Facility demolition at the West Valley Demonstration Project Site.

Workers removed utilities and equipment, and completed other deactivation work to reduce contamination risks prior to demolition, which began in September 2017.

The 50-foot-tall facility was designed with thick reinforced concrete walls. Using a variety of heavy equipment and specialized tools, workers tore down the building in three phases, including the safe removal of four in-cell coolers weighing 7,188 pounds each, six shield windows, and a 38,000-pound process crane. In the final phase of demolition, crews removed two doors — one weighing 60 tons, the other 100 tons — as well as cranes and other equipment.

From 1996 to 2002, the facility was used to solidify 600,000 gallons of radioactive waste stored at the site. That waste was generated from spent fuel reprocessing at WVDP from 1966 to 1972. EM continues cleanup activities at the site.

-Contributor: Joseph Pillittere

Hanford Workers Prevent Contaminants From Reaching Groundwater

Buddy Cunningham, left, and Marty Doornbos with CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company’s soil and groundwater remediation program review components of a system to prevent uranium from reaching the groundwater and nearby Columbia River.

RICHLAND, Wash. – A significant effort at the Hanford Site will reduce the risk of below-ground uranium reaching the Columbia River.

Workers with EM Richland Operations Office (RL) contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) recently finished injecting a special solution into the ground, using a series of 48 wells across 2.5 acres north of Richland. That’s where underground uranium concentrations remain high after years of plutonium production at Hanford.

Through a process called sequestration, uranium binds with the injected solution, preventing it from reaching the groundwater and Columbia River.

A network of brightly colored hoses supply 48 injection wells with a solution to bind with uranium in the ground on the Hanford Site, preventing the contaminant from reaching groundwater and the nearby Columbia River.

Tanks staged in the 300 Area of the Hanford Site contain a special solution to bind with uranium in the ground, preventing it from reaching the groundwater and nearby Columbia River.

“Our innovative workers are always inventing new ways to make our engineered processes better,” said Bill Barrett, deputy vice president of CHPRC’s soil and groundwater remediation project. “By using the sequestration process, workers saved time, resources, and money.”

Crews scanned the ground to develop a 3-D below-ground picture to see that the solution reached the desired locations and took samples to monitor performance. Workers will continue monitoring and sampling for the next several months.

In addition to getting input from workers, RL consulted the area’s Native American tribes on how best to monitor and evaluate the results of the injections.

“We appreciate the various perspectives we heard as we prepared to start this remedy for contamination in Hanford’s 300 Area,” said RL Federal Project Director Mike Cline. “We modified our approach and the methods we will use to evaluate the effectiveness of the injections as a result of the input we received.”

-Contributor: Lynn Tegeler

Protecting Workers from Chemical Vapors is Key Focus at Hanford

Hanford tank farm workers wear specialized protective equipment to protect them from workplace hazards including potential exposure to chemical vapors.

RICHLAND, Wash. – The EM Office of River Protection (ORP) and Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) continue to take actions to protect workers from potential exposure to chemical vapors.

The chemical vapors protection program integrates industrial hygiene best practices with engineering controls, use of personal protection equipment, and robust communications with the workforce before, during and after work is performed. This strategy reinforces Hanford’s rigorous site-wide integrated safety management system to identify industrial hazards and implement worker safety and health protections appropriate for the work.

“Worker involvement is key to this approach,” said Brian Vance, ORP manager. “We are holding regular meetings with workers to foster open dialogue and early identification of safety concerns.”

A public address system speaker installed near a Hanford tank farm helps notify workers and directs them to safety during operational events. The system supplements other communications methods in the tank farms, which include two-way radios and cell phones.

Timely information about Hanford tank vapors and workforce protections is available to workers and stakeholders on a website developed by WRPS. The hanfordvapors.com website provides current and historical data, sampling results, background information, reference materials, and regular industrial hygiene program updates.

A settlement agreement signed last week stays a three-year lawsuit citing concerns about potential health risks posed by vapors vented from mixed hazardous waste stored in underground tanks at Hanford. The suit was filed by the State of Washington, Hanford Challenge, and Local 598 of the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters. The agreement recognizes some of the protective efforts undertaken over the past few years.

ORP and WRPS continue to partner with workers to address respiratory protections, cartridge testing for air-purifying respirators, and the implementation of additional engineered controls and other approaches to tank vapors.

Other actions include testing of systems that reduce vapors or disperse them quickly in an area above workers’ breathing zones. Work is also underway to develop a customized set of hazard controls for each waste-disturbing activity in the tank farms and to complete the design of a monitoring and detection system that could be used in the farms. Public address and event notification systems have also been installed in the tank farms to facilitate immediate notifications to workers.

-Contributor: Rob Roxburgh

Oak Ridge SafetyFest Draws 1,200 Participants From 23 States

CPR training and certification was the focus of one of the 100 free classes at SafetyFest Tennessee.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – More than 1,200 people from 23 states attended this year’s SafetyFest Tennessee to gain valuable safety training they can apply at work and home.

DOE, along with more than 55 business partners and sponsors, offered more than 100 free classes during the weeklong training event.

“Oak Ridge has a robust safety culture, and SafetyFest Tennessee is an outpouring of the importance this community places on the topic,” said Jay Mullis, manager of the DOE Oak Ridge Environmental Management Office. “It’s very encouraging to see a commitment to constant improvement and such a wide acceptance about the impact of safety at work and home.”

Participants traveled from as far away as Utah and New Mexico to attend the classes, which spanned a spectrum of safety and health issues, such as fire safety, injury prevention, first aid, and ladder safety.

Oak Ridge’s top DOE and contractor senior managers take part in a roundtable discussion on a variety of safety-related topics. URS | CH2M Oak Ridge President and CEO Ken Rueter is pictured second from left, speaking.

DOE and local contractor senior managers participated in a roundtable discussion on a range of safety-related topics, including their roles in communicating the importance of a strong safety culture.

“SafetyFest Tennessee is in its seventh year, and I have to believe it has created safer workplaces, homes, and communities,” said Jenny Freeman, who serves on the event’s planning committee. “The event grows each year and is a real asset for our community, which serves as a host for several DOE missions.”

According to course instructor Melissa Smith, who works for EM cleanup contractor URS | CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the training provides insight to topics that usually do not receive a lot of attention, but have a dramatic impact. She pointed to the class “The Impact of Fatigue Due to a Lack of Sleep” she taught as an example.

“Many of us are not getting the sleep we need each night, but we don’t necessarily consider how that affects our ability to operate safely,” she said. “This course was designed to help people understand what risks are involved when we are fatigued and ways to safeguard against risky performance due to the lack of sleep.”

SafetyFest Tennessee featured a live electrical line demonstration.

Several demonstrations were held on topics such as live electrical lines, scaffold displays, and slip simulators.

“SafetyFest Tennessee gives participants the awareness and tools they need to make safety a key aspect of their everyday lives,” said UCOR’s Libby Gilley, who taught a class on preparing for a safety trained supervisor-construction certification examination. “The event not only changes lives, but it may save a few lives as well.”

-Contributor: Wayne McKinney

Hanford Site Public Outreach Program Tops 330 Visitors During Tour Season

Members of the public view a model of an underground waste storage tank at the Cold Test Facility, one of the stops on this year’s Hanford Site cleanup tour. The facility allows workers to train and test innovative technologies that will later be used to safely remove radioactive waste from storage tanks on the Hanford Site.

RICHLAND, Wash. – More than 330 visitors from across the country checked a Hanford Site visit off their summer bucket lists this year. The tours are part of EM’s outreach program to educate the public about cleanup at the site.

“Folks come out here because they want to know what is going on at Hanford,” said Rich Buel, who oversees the tour program for the EM Richland Operations Office (RL). “These tours are our chance to show cleanup progress and educate an audience that’s eager to learn.”

Mission Support Alliance tour guide Gerry Griffin, right, explains to tour participants how contaminants are removed from groundwater at the 200 West Pump and Treat facility. The groundwater treatment system combines several technologies to remove contaminants before returning treated water to the ground through a network of wells.

The 20 tours offered this year provided visitors the opportunity to look firsthand at environmental cleanup efforts, projects, and facility operations. The tour route included stops at the Cold Test Facility, a scaled version of one of Hanford's 177 underground nuclear waste storage tanks, and the 200 West Pump and Treat facility, one of the largest groundwater treatment facilities in the DOE complex.

Tour participants also received briefings on the sludge removal project and rode the tour bus through the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant construction site.

The tours are facilitated by RL contractor Mission Support Alliance, and online registration for next year’s tour season will begin in the spring.

-Contributor: Kelly Rae

Security Contractor's Helicopter Pilots Respond to Wildfire on Savannah River Site

Butch Richister, left, and Brad Shealy, helicopter pilots with Savannah River Site security contractor Centerra-SRS, were recognized for quickly responding to a wildfire they observed during a routine security overflight on the site.

AIKEN, S.C. – Helicopter pilots Butch Richister and Brad Shealy departed the aviation facility at Savannah River Site (SRS) for a routine security overflight one night this past summer.

After lifting off, the aviators with SRS security contractor Centerra-SRS observed a large plume of smoke in a wooded area on the 310-square-mile site.

“The pilots immediately checked with the SRS Operations Center (SRSOC) to determine if a controlled burn was underway,” said Herbert Craven, the Centerra-SRS chief pilot. “The SRSOC notified the pilots that a planned burn was not in progress and the pilots went into action.”

Richister and Shealy reported the fire size, general location, and grid coordinates to the SRSOC, which alerted the SRS Fire Department. The pilots sent the center live video of the wildfire, which resulted from a lightning strike and had spread across about 11 acres.

“The pilots kept the helicopter flying in a safe location where the fire could be observed and directed the responding Centerra-SRS law enforcement officers and site fire department personnel to the scene,” Craven said. “The helicopter crew linked communications with responding personnel to direct them safely to the fire location and coordinated the firefighters to the best access points to safely contain the blaze.”

Although the primary role of the aviation operations department for Centerra-SRS is to carry out the security mission, it also supports other site tenants — in this case, observing for wildfires on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service.

“This was a textbook example of Centerra, the site fire department, and the SRSOC working effectively and efficiently together, responding to and mitigating a wildfire before it burned a much larger area that could have damaged site property and endangered lives,” Craven said. “The quick response of the pilots to notify the SRSOC and direct responding law enforcement and fire department personnel to the scene ensured the fire could be contained.”

Launched in 1984, the SRS Aviation Program is a five-time recipient of the DOE Aviation Program Award. Centerra-SRS operates two DOE-owned helicopters and supports emergency medical evacuations, forestry and ecological programs, and aerial photography in addition to the security mission.

SRS Offers Undergraduates Landscape to Study Radioecology

Savannah River Ecology Laboratory’s 2018 undergraduate cohort: Front row, Laura Stabler-Tindal, Kaiya Cain, Heaven Tharp, Fredericka Tucker, and Sierra Britt; back row, Christian Moreno Gomez, Ryne Maness, Kristopher Weekes, and Trevaris Brown.

AIKEN, S.C. – With its diverse flora and fauna, the landscape of the Savannah River Site (SRS), provides both an essential and rare opportunity for undergraduate students at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) to receive training in the unique discipline of radioecology.

Since 2015, SREL has offered undergraduates a 10–week research program on the site to study the effects of radioactive elements in the environment.

The students are trained in the safe handling of radioactive contaminants prior to investigating their effects in animals, plants, soil, and wetlands. These students also can investigate the environmental impact of other contaminants such as mercury and copper.

The program’s focus on radioecology and its location on a DOE site set it apart from other National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) Programs around the country. SREL has the distinction of being the only entity in the world to offer training in radioecology at the undergraduate level.

The program recruits approximately 10 students annually from colleges and universities around the country.

Although the program is still fairly new, Tracey Tuberville, associate research scientist at SREL and the program’s co-advisor, said it has netted significant results. After the first cohort completed the program in the summer of 2015, NSF invited a member of that group, Joshua King, to present his findings at its national symposium.

The program has a 100-percent completion rate. Of the 30 students who have completed the program, 14 are employed in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and nine are enrolled in graduate school in STEM fields. The remaining students continue their undergraduate studies with plans to pursue STEM careers.

Kyle Brown, an alumnus from the 2016 cohort and a current graduate student at SREL, said the significant biodiversity of snakes on the SRS and SREL’s well-known history studying amphibians and reptiles on the site attracted him to the program.

A research unit of the University of Georgia, SREL began undergraduate education on the SRS in 1967. More than 700 students completed the program prior to the NSF REU in radioecology program.

Savannah River Site Contractors Earn DOE Legacy of Stars Safety Award

Savannah River Remediation Environmental, Safety, and Health Programs Manager Kevin Smith, right, accepts the Voluntary Protection Program Legacy of Stars Award from DOE Office of Worker Safety and Health Assistance Director Brad Davy.

AIKEN, S.C. – Two prime contractors at EM’s Savannah River Site (SRS) earned the Legacy of Stars award at the 34th annual National Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association (VPPPA) Symposium held recently in Nashville, Tennessee.

It was the third time both liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) and management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) received the award. Both companies have been recognized as DOE Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) sites each year since their SRS contracts began, SRR in 2009 and SRNS in 2008.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions employees accept the Voluntary Protection Program Legacy of Stars Award from DOE Office of Worker Safety and Health Assistance Director Brad Davy.

Michael Budney, DOE-Savannah River manager, said SRR and SRNS employees should feel honored for consistently being recognized with VPP safety awards.

“It is important to advance the missions at the Savannah River Site,” Budney said. “It is even more important to do so safely. Congratulations to both teams for earning the DOE VPP Legacy of Stars award.”

The DOE VPP Legacy of Stars award distinguishes a company that has excelled in outreach and mentoring and has demonstrated sustained excellence in worker safety and health. The award is given to sites that have earned the VPP Star of Excellence for three consecutive years. SRR and SRNS have earned that award each year of their contracts for maintaining a total recordable case rate of injuries 75 percent lower than the industry average. Companies at SRS meet the criteria each year by demonstrating the five elements of VPP: management leadership, employee involvement, worksite analysis, hazard prevention and control, and safety and health training.

The VPPPA is a nonprofit organization working for safety, health, and environmental excellence through cooperative efforts among labor, management, and government. Several DOE project sites across the nation are members of the organization.

-Contributors: Angie Benfield, Colleen Hart

EM Nevada Distributes More Than 3,400 Learning Materials

Nevada Site-Specific Advisory Board Administrator Barb Ulmer delivers the EM Nevada Program’s learning materials to James Cashman Middle School in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS – In a public outreach success, the EM Nevada Program gave out 3,400 free activity books and lesson plans to teachers, students, and parents just in time for the 2018-2019 school year.

The Operation Clean Desert team attended a new teacher kickoff event for Clark County School District last month.

The learning materials are part of Operation Clean Desert, a set of activities in which children learn about ongoing efforts to address environmental challenges, such as contaminated groundwater and radioactive waste disposal, at the Nevada National Security Site. The lesson plan includes an activity book, teacher’s guide, and interactive computer game. More than 33,000 students have participated in Operation Clean Desert, featuring the characters Dr. Proton and Adam the Atom. For more information, click here.

Additional books are being produced for teachers in the district.

Request free copies of the activity book and teacher’s guide by emailing EMNV@emcbc.doe.gov or calling (702) 295-3521.

-Contributor: Christy Morris

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