EM Assistant Secretary Tours WIPP, LANL Projects, Meets With Cleanup Workers; Crews Stabilize Hanford Waste Storage Tunnel; and much more!

DOE Office of Environmental Management sent this bulletin at 04/30/2019 04:34 PM EDT

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.

EM Update \| Vol. 11, Issue 17 \| April 30, 2019

EM Assistant Secretary White Tours WIPP, LANL Projects, Meets With Workers Crews Stabilize Hanford Waste Storage Tunnel DOE Names EM Hanford Leader Federal Project Director of the Year EM Sites Clean Up Trash, Focus on Sustainability for Earth Day EM-University Collaboration Leads to Decommissioning of Experimental Reactor Oak Ridge Workers Prepare Centrifuge Complex for Demolition DUF6 Conversion Project Meets Fiscal 2019 Goal Six Months Early WIPP Contractor Earns 86 Percent of Available Fee in Fiscal 2018 Moab Site Recognizes Employees for 10 Years of Waste Removal Savannah River Remediation Brings Teachers into SRS Training Classrooms WVDP Presents Checks to Emergency Services Organizations for Site Support EM Assistant Secretary White Tours WIPP, LANL Projects, Meets With Workers EM Assistant Secretary Anne White joins waste management staff from Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to mark the second shipment of transuranic waste from LANL’s Area G to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant this year. *EM Assistant Secretary Anne White visited the cleanup program's New Mexico sites last week. Following is her report on the trip: I had a wonderful opportunity to take part in a very special celebration last week — the 20th anniversary of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). EM is extremely proud of this facility, the only one of its kind in the U.S. and a critical part of reaching completion of cleanup at sites across the complex. I joined DOE, contractor, congressional, state and community leaders for an anniversary dinner to recognize the incredible accomplishment of opening WIPP and all of its successes over the course of 20 years. I was reminded of my days at DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) prior to 1999, when many thought WIPP would never open. More than 12,000 waste shipments later, WIPP is a testament to the leadership and dedication of numerous individuals on the federal, state, and local levels. It was an honor to be able to say thank you to so many for their invaluable support over the years. It was also very important to me to thank WIPP’s miners and the site’s entire workforce, which make the mission happen every day. Their jobs are certainly not always easy, but day in and day out, they are making sure waste is being moved safely, reducing risks across the complex. Also playing a valuable role is the EM Advisory Board, which was in Carlsbad last week. This independent group brings a breadth of experience to identify best management practices. Most recently, they have been focused on facilitating workforce and community engagement and building a sustainable EM organization. The sustainability of our organization is crucial when you consider the number of employees who will be retiring in the coming years. I call it the “silver tsunami,” and it will greatly impact our ability to complete the work that lies ahead. That’s why I really enjoy meeting with early career professional organizations at our sites. I sat down with a number of WIPP employees who are in the early years of their careers and asked them about the challenges they face and what we can do to better recruit and retain early career professionals in the EM workforce. These discussions are always very informative. I also had the opportunity to see firsthand progress on a number of vital infrastructure projects at WIPP, which include upgrades to electrical, fire suppression, and compressed air systems. Most site infrastructure is now more than 30 years old, and we must ensure that WIPP is able to continue its critical mission in the years to come. Work is also underway on what will be the largest containment fan system in the DOE complex, the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System, which will significantly increase airflow underground and allow for simultaneous mining, waste emplacement, rock bolting and maintenance activities. I saw excavation for the system’s trailer complex utilities, and water lines being laid for its salt reduction facility, which will remove salt dust from the air prior to HEPA filtration. With all of this infrastructure work at the site, it’s clear that WIPP not only has an amazing history to celebrate, but a very bright future ahead. EM Assistant Secretary Anne White meets with early career professionals during a visit to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant last week.* At the conclusion of my WIPP visit, I headed to LANL, a place that holds a great deal of meaning to me. I spent some of my formative years at LANL. I’m always excited to go back and see advancements in EM’s mission — and, if I’m honest, to have a breakfast burrito in Los Alamos. I had the opportunity to meet with EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) Manager Doug Hintze and his focused team. I am extremely excited about the work EM-LA is doing — particularly the early success of the chromium plume interim measure and resumption of transuranic (TRU) waste shipments to WIPP — and their potential going forward. Speaking of waste shipments, my visit to LANL coincided with the second TRU waste shipment from Technical Area 54’s Area G to WIPP completed this year. I was able to meet members of the waste management team for Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, EM-LA’s cleanup contractor, and thank them for their dedication to shipping LANL’s legacy waste offsite safely and securely. I look forward to my next visit to LANL and seeing just how far EM-LA has come in executing its vital mission. I’ll have good memories of my latest trip to New Mexico. Thank you to everyone who made my visits to WIPP and LANL such a success! -Anne Marie White Back to Top Crews Stabilize Hanford Waste Storage Tunnel Hanford Site workers have safely stabilized the 1,688-foot-long Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant Tunnel 2. This large pump truck, with a reach of almost 175 feet, helped place the last of the engineered grout into the tunnel. Since work began last October, the tunnel received nearly 40,000 cubic yards of grout. RICHLAND, Wash. – Workers on the Hanford Site recently stabilized a waste storage tunnel at risk of collapsing. Last week, EM Richland Operations Office (RL) contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) placed the last of nearly 40,000 cubic yards of engineered grout inside the second tunnel adjacent to the Plutonium Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Plant. “Stabilization reduces risk to the Hanford workforce, the public, and the environment,” Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance said. “The team did an excellent job performing this work safely, reducing a potential risk on the site.” Stabilization efforts on PUREX Tunnel 2 started in October 2018, following the successful stabilization of PUREX Tunnel 1. Tunnel 1 partially collapsed in May 2017. Both tunnels contain railcars holding contaminated plutonium processing equipment. About 4,000 truckloads of grout were placed in Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant Tunnel 2. Completion of the project reduces a significant threat on the Hanford Site. The use of engineered grout to stabilize the tunnels will protect workers, the public, and the environment, without preventing future disposition options. With grouting complete, the PUREX tunnels will return to surveillance mode, during which crews will inspect the tunnels’ exterior at least once a year. “I couldn’t be more proud of the workers in the field, support staff across our company, and cooperation of all the site contractors that led to this important work being completed safely,” said Ty Blackford, CHPRC president and CEO. “It took a lot of preparation and day-to-day attention in a hazardous environment to ensure we could make, move, and place thousands of trucks of grout safely while assuring the potential for a radiological release was minimized.” These videos highlight the immense scope of the project and how crews completed stabilization safely. For more information, please visit the PUREX Tunnels information page on Hanford’s website. -Contributor: Destry Henderson Back to Top DOE Names EM Hanford Leader Federal Project Director of the Year DOE Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty presents Mark French, director of the projects and facilities division at EM's Richland Operations Office, with the 2018 Department on Energy Federal Project Director of the Year award at the 2019 DOE Project Management Workshop last week. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Mark French, director of the projects and facilities division at EM’s Richland Operations Office (RL), was named the 2018 Department on Energy Federal Project Director (FPD) of the Year at the 2019 DOE Project Management Workshop last week. It is the first time the award has gone to an FPD at Hanford. French was honored for his role as the FPD for cleanup of Hanford’s expansive Columbia River Corridor, home to former plutonium production reactors, facilities, and waste sites from the Manhattan Project and Cold War; and the design and construction of systems to remove radioactive sludge from an underwater basin along the river. "EM is very proud of Mark for receiving this award. He is a dedicated, accomplished federal project director who has worked hard to get the best value out of our cleanup dollars, maintained focus on our completion mindset, and brought this river corridor project to a finish more than a year ahead of schedule and $69 million dollars under budget," EM Assistant Secretary Anne White said. DOE Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty presented the award to French at the workshop. “I congratulate Mark French of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site on being named Federal Project Director of the Year," Gordon-Hagerty said. "Mark is the kind of dedicated and talented federal project director that deserves this award and our respect. We are lucky to have him, along with his ability to face complex issues and see them through to successful completion,” The projects French oversaw as FPD are among the most lauded and impactful cleanup work completed at Hanford to date. “Mark’s leadership, steady hand, and ability to work through issues are what made a difference on these landmark Hanford cleanup projects,” Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance said. “When our regulators and stakeholders point to tangible, physical cleanup progress at the site, this work to remove structures and contamination from the river corridor is always at the top of their list.” Covering 220 square miles, the River Corridor Cleanup Project (RCCP) was the largest DOE environmental cleanup effort in the country. Almost 350 contaminated facilities were demolished; three full-scale plutonium production reactors were dispositioned; and more than 12 million tons of contaminated debris was moved away from the river. The project began in 2005, and was completed in November 2018. Meanwhile, radioactive sludge removal systems were completed 18 months ahead of the scheduled completion date of February 2020, and at $20 million below the original total project cost of $311 million. “The synergy we developed between federal and contractor teams, combined with the clear mandate we had, helped us find the magic on this work again and again,” French said. “We worked through our fair share of challenges, but there was a universal enthusiasm and commitment from the front line all the way up. I will always be proud to have been a part of changing the landscape at Hanford.” French began with RL as a program manager in 1995. He was responsible for Hanford’s first transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, and also worked on Hanford’s spent nuclear fuel program before becoming the FPD for the solid waste stabilization and disposition project in 2005. He was named the FPD for the RCCP in 2008. -Contributor: Mark Heeter Back to Top EM Sites Clean Up Trash, Focus on Sustainability for Earth Day Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project employees pick up trash at the Moab Site to mark Earth Day. They retrieved items by the Colorado River ranging from plastic foam to a vacuum cleaner. EM sites across the DOE complex marked Earth Day this year through a variety of activities. Following is a roundup of their events on and around Earth Day, held April 22: Workers at EM’s Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project in Utah commemorated Earth Day through a variety of activities, from brainstorming ideas for sustainable work practices to cleaning up garbage. Several employees came up with plans to reduce plastic bottle and paper use. The Moab UMTRA Project will consider implementing the ideas at the site. A group of employees helped with revegetation efforts by picking up trash and planting shrubs in an area away from the site’s mill tailings pile. Several staff members gave presentations to their coworkers on topics such as safely disposing of household hazardous waste and the importance of bees as pollinators. Employees sampled honey from local bees. A local recycling vendor talked with the employees about the types of plastic acceptable for recycling, and offered suggestions for improving recyclables sorting. The Moab Site's technical assistance contractor, S&K Logistics Services, provided employees with reusable bags made of recycled materials. Members of the Seneca Nation of Indians and others in the local community gather for a sunrise ceremony at the West Valley Demonstration Project to celebrate Earth Day. Jun Son, left, and Irene Ayumi participated in Earth Day events held by the Seneca Nation of Indians. At the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, EM and cleanup contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley hosted the Seneca Nation of Indians’ annual Earth Day event that pays tribute to the Cattaraugus Creek. Participants attended a sunrise ceremony before kicking off the “Run, Walk and Paddle” event. “Each step taken today is a prayer for healing for all,” event coordinator Maria Maybee of the Seneca Nation said to the participants. “This event is a reminder that we must work together to protect the environment for it provides everything we need in life. It’s important that this message is never forgotten, for we only have one environment.” Later, participants ate lunch at the Cattaraugus Community Center and gathered for a sunset ceremony at Seneca Nation Beach. Katherine Brown, Centerra-SRS environmental protection specialist, at right, shares information about sanitary waste recycling with Savannah River Site Earth Day Celebration attendees on April 22. At the Savannah River Site (SRS), Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the site’s management and operations contractor, coordinated the annual Savannah River Site Earth Day Celebration. SRNS also set out displays about site environmental efforts at the event. For example, SRS recycled 504 metric tons of waste in 2018; installed roofs that significantly reduce costs associated with cooling buildings; and operated a mix of passive cleanup technologies, such as bioremediation, which relies on feeding naturally occurring microbes found in soil to accelerate cleanup. The Earth Day booth for SRS liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation highlighted how SRS is protecting land in the area where six more saltstone disposal units are scheduled to be built. A look at EM’s sustainability efforts across the DOE complex. EM electronics stewardship activities and savings across the DOE complex in fiscal 2018. -Contributors: Angie Benfield, Colleen Hart, Joseph Pillittere, Honora Thompson Back to Top EM-University Collaboration Leads to Decommissioning of Experimental Reactor Workers remove the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor from its container as part of the decommissioning project. COVE CREEK, Ark. – EM and the University of Arkansas collaborated to successfully complete the decommissioning of a 1960s-era nuclear reactor this month. The Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) was constructed in 1968 with funding from DOE’s predecessor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission. The small nuclear test reactor operated until 1972, and its nuclear fuel and sodium coolant were removed two years later. The reactor was sold to the University of Arkansas in 1975 for calibration and testing of nuclear instrumentation and ceased operations in the early 1980s. The university, in collaboration with EM, obtained federal funding to finish the SEFOR facility decommissioning. The decommissioning process began in 2009 with an EM grant to begin characterization and the deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) process. “The Department, the university and contractor EnergySolutions all thought outside the box as part of this collaborative effort, enabling the project to be completed safely, within costs, and on schedule,” EM SEFOR Project Manager Melanie Pearson Hurley said. Experts involved with the deactivation and decommissioning of the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor gather this month for a final public meeting on the project. Left to right, Jared Thompson, Arkansas Department of Health; Mark Cambra, EnergySolutions; John Sauger, EnergySolutions; Mike Johnson, University of Arkansas; Dean Wheeler, EnergySolutions; Melanie Pearson Hurley, EM; Scott Baskett, EnergySolutions; and Mark Walker, EnergySolutions. EM continued to support the university by sending a cost estimation team from its Consolidated Business Center to help develop the D&D scope. D&D of the facility commenced in 2016 and was successfully completed this month on schedule and budget. “We appreciate the commitment the Department of Energy made to fund the decommissioning of the SEFOR test reactor,” said Ken Robuck, president and CEO of EnergySolutions, which was contracted by the university to complete the decommissioning. “I want to thank University of Arkansas officials for this joint effort to complete this project,” Robuck said. “Without their help to secure funding from the DOE, this project would not have been completed on schedule and within the budget allocated for the project.” The Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor is located in south Washington County in Arkansas. A view of the inside of the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor. This final phase of the project, which began in 2017, involved dismantling all above-grade structures; cleanout and removal of all systems, structures, and components from below grade; and removal of the reactor and ancillary equipment. The reactor vessel, equipment, and waste were packaged and shipped to offsite disposal facilities. The property is now void of all radioactive material and native grass seed has been planted there. The 20-megwatt, sodium-cooled reactor near Fayetteville, Arkansas operated by plutonium oxide-uranium oxide fuel as an experiment to obtain data on large-scale commercial sodium-cooled reactors. -Contributor: Lauren Milone Back to Top Oak Ridge Workers Prepare Centrifuge Complex for Demolition Crews are preparing the Centrifuge Complex for demolition at the East Tennessee Technology Park. EM anticipates beginning the teardown in 2020. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Workers are preparing to tear down a complex that will help successfully complete the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management’s (OREM) Vision 2020, an ambitious goal to finish all demolitions at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) by the end of 2020. The K-1200 Centrifuge Complex is comprised of several facilities constructed between 1975 and 1985 and spanning more than 235,000 square feet. The complex was built in stages to develop, test, and demonstrate the ability to enrich uranium using centrifuge technology. The last of these facilities ceased operations in the mid-1980s, and the site was closed in 1987. The complex includes some of the largest and most recognizable structures remaining at ETTP, including the site’s tallest facility, at 180 feet. The Centrifuge Complex includes some of the largest and most recognizable structures remaining at the East Tennessee Technology Park, including a 180-foot-high facility, the site’s tallest structure. To prepare for the teardown, crews are clearing away hazards, which involves removing several hundred centrifuges, utilities, asbestos, and waste. Piping and equipment are being vented, purged, drained, and inspected to prepare the equipment for disposal. Many pieces of equipment will be removed throughout the complex prior to demolition, which is scheduled to begin in 2020. “Preparing such a complex facility for demolition takes precision and thoroughness to ensure that crews do not encounter any safety or environmental concerns when they begin taking it down,” said James Daffron, OREM’s acting ETTP portfolio federal project director. “Removing these structure will be one of the most visible landscape changes we’ve accomplished since we began cleanup at ETTP.” OREM and cleanup contractor UCOR are demolishing unneeded facilities at ETTP and cleaning up the site, which is being converted into a private sector industrial park, national park, and conservation area. Since cleanup began, OREM has torn down more than 400 facilities, transferred nearly 1,300 acres for economic redevelopment, and created a 3,000-acre conservation area for public use. -Contributor: Wayne McKinney Back to Top DUF6 Conversion Project Meets Fiscal 2019 Goal Six Months Early Paducah Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride Conversion Project workers pause for a photo to commemorate the project reaching its 9,000-metric-ton production goal ahead of schedule for fiscal 2019. Left to right, Bobby Ferren, Garry (Mike) Price, Michael (Mike) Foster, Steve Dupree, Pat Croley, Danny Hayes, Jeff Nienaber, Owen Blaisdell, Paul Ertle, Richard Darnall, Michael Daniels, Clevie Edging, and Bart Kimbell. LEXINGTON, Ky. – EM’s project to convert the nation’s inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) to a more stable oxide form for subsequent reuse or disposal has reached its fiscal year production target for 2019 six months ahead of schedule. Mid-America Conversion Services (MCS), which operates and maintains EM’s DUF6 conversion and storage facilities in southern Ohio and western Kentucky, recently surpassed its goal of processing 9,000 metric tons of the material in fiscal 2019. "MCS has demonstrated a sustained commitment to safe and compliant operations at all levels within the organization while achieving this milestone, which is definitely something to be proud of,” said Zak Lafontaine of EM’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, EM’s facility representative for the Portsmouth DUF6 plant. Mid-America Conversion Services’ Bill Bowen, right foreground, driving, and Phil Gullett escort straddle-carrier driver Ron Rinehart outside the Portsmouth Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facility as he moves the DUF6 cylinder that would put the project over its fiscal year production goal six months ahead of schedule. Nathan Maynard, an operations technician with Mid-America Conversion Services, moves the Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) storage cylinder at the Portsmouth DUF6 conversion facility. The productive first two quarters of fiscal 2019 follow a successful restart of all seven conversion lines to simultaneous operation following several pauses for safety and maintenance purposes. Over three years, the project completed numerous facility and process improvements at both the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (GDP) site in Ohio and EM’s other former GDP site at Paducah, Kentucky. Company officials attributed its recent success to a focus on maintaining a strong nuclear safety culture, and a commitment to the integrated safety management system in its conduct of operations and work practices across the sites. "The efforts of our United Steel Workers, the support organizations, and our management ranks are laser-focused on safe operations,” said Fred Jackson, MCS’s chief operating officer and chief engineer. “The entire MCS team's formality, rigor, and discipline every day are evident in this tremendous accomplishment.” Commissioned in 2011, EM’s conversion facilities are addressing more than 840,000 metric tons of DUF6 stored in 67,000 cylinders at both plant sites. MCS has been responsible for the facilities since commencing its contract in February 2017. Back to Top WIPP Contractor Earns 86 Percent of Available Fee in Fiscal 2018 Nuclear Waste Partnership’s efforts in waste characterization and improvements in waste emplacement activities led to an increase in weekly shipments from four to 10. CARLSBAD, N.M. – The EM Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) prime contractor earned nearly $10.8 million, or 86 percent, of the available award fee for fiscal 2018, according to a recently released scorecard from EM’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO). CBFO Manager Todd Shrader said he considered Nuclear Waste Partnership’s (NWP) performance in five areas of the fiscal 2018 performance evaluation measurement plan in determining the fee award. “Nuclear Waste Partnership continues its strong performance in key contract areas, including mission performance and cost control,” Shrader said. “We are also very pleased with NWP’s FY18 achievements in areas such as infrastructure projects, ground control, mining, and waste emplacement.” NWP's subjective ratings in those contract areas include: “very good” for mission performance “very good” for regulatory compliance “very good” for management performance “good” for safety and health performance “excellent” for cost control NWP performed strongly in waste characterization activities, improved transuranic waste emplacement processes that resulted in an increase in weekly shipments from four to 10, exceeded community commitments, and achieved effective cost savings and cost avoidance. The contractor also surpassed its small business goals, including those for disadvantaged- and woman-owned businesses. Areas for improvement included concerns with NWP’s industrial hygiene program, which led to potential heat stress events that required medical care for workers. The scorecard also noted inadequate planning for air quality improvements in the WIPP underground and an increasing maintenance backlog. NWP earned the majority of its fee — more than $8 million — for objective criteria, or performance based incentives, such as infrastructure projects, ground control, mining, and remote-handled waste planning; Panel 8 mining; improving work conditions in radiological areas, transuranic waste emplacement. View NWP’s scorecard for its fiscal 2018 fee here. Back to Top Moab Site Recognizes Employees for 10 Years of Waste Removal MOAB, Utah – EM’s Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project recently marked 10 years of shipping uranium mill tailings to a disposal site. On April 20, 2009, the first train carrying mill tailings departed the Moab Site in southern Utah. Ten years later, more than 9.5 million tons of the estimated 16 million tons of tailings have been shipped to the project’s Crescent Junction disposal cell. “I want to take the opportunity to thank each and every employee for their commitment and hard work,” EM Federal Cleanup Director Russell McCallister said. “We will continue to focus on safety, environmental stewardship, and moving the project forward.” North Wind Portage, the project’s remedial action contractor, provided lunch to employees as a way to thank them and commemorate the progress. A comparison of the Moab Site in 2009 (at top) versus 2018 shows progress in reducing the mill tailings pile along with the removal of the evaporation pond and the addition of drying beds for tailings. Containers loaded with mill tailings at the Moab Site are shipped by train about 30 miles north to the Crescent Junction disposal cell. There, they are transferred to trucks and taken to the disposal cell dumping area. The tailings are emptied into the cell and the containers are then loaded back onto the railcars and returned to the Moab Site. When complete, the rectangular cell will be about a mile long by 2,400 feet wide. It’s being excavated in phases. -Contributor: Honora Thompson Back to Top Savannah River Remediation Brings Teachers into SRS Training Classrooms Savannah River Remediation has hired former teachers to aid in its training program. From left are Carissa Smith, Erin Smith, and Rachel Williams. AIKEN, S.C. – Some of the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) newest training instructors are former teachers from the local school system. Three state-licensed teachers were hired to support the influx of new production operators — more than 160 over the last year — going through Savannah River Remediation’s (SRR) operator fundamentals training program. SRR is EM’s liquid waste contractor at SRS. Erin Smith, Rachel Williams, and Carissa Smith are serving in familiar roles as SRR trainers with jobs akin to those of a homeroom teacher. These trainers have primary responsibility for all aspects of facilitating the production operators’ fundamentals training. Their duties include classroom management, such as trainee attendance accounting, assistance with developing classroom materials, grading quizzes and exams, and proctoring exams. Erin Smith taught math and science for 17 years at two area middle schools before joining SRR. “One similarity between being a teacher in school and a trainer at SRR is the end goal of learning,” she said. “In both situations, we have objectives, and it is my job to facilitate the learning to the students in school and the operators at SRR. In both situations I want to ensure that all leave with the proper understanding of these objectives to go on to the next step in the process. For the operators at SRR, that next step is systems training.” Williams taught for four years at area elementary schools. In many ways, her job as a school teacher and as an SRR trainer are similar. “We develop lessons based on learning objectives and teach the students or trainees what they need to know to be successful in their jobs,” Williams said. “Also, as a teacher or trainer, we incorporate the latest technology in as many lessons as possible.” Carissa Smith was a teacher at North Augusta High School for six years. To her, the biggest difference from teaching in a public school classroom and at SRR is the focus on nuclear safety culture. “Preserving and maintaining the nuclear safety culture established at SRR is a top goal in our lessons,” she said. “At every phase of the instructional design process, we factor in safety and how our actions can affect the outcome of the people and world around us.” Patricia Allen, director of SRR’s environmental safety, health, and quality assurance, and contractor assurance, is committed to bringing new people and new technology into the learning environment. “Adding former, experienced teachers to the training team has been beneficial for the operator fundamentals training program, and we are seeing positive results,” Allen said. “We have been able to implement new classroom practices and approaches thanks to the invaluable strategic insight our new employees bring. Since many of our production operator trainees have not been in a classroom environment for several years, the relevant experience that these instructors provide is tremendous.” -Contributor: Colleen Hart Back to Top WVDP Presents Checks to Emergency Services Organizations for Site Support WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – Representatives from EM, cleanup contractor CH2MHILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV), and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) recently presented checks to Bertrand Chaffee Hospital, Mercy Flight, and the West Valley Fire District 1 on behalf of the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP). The fire district received $70,000 and the hospital and the emergency air ambulance organization received $5,000 apiece. “All three organizations take part in joint emergency planning and on-site drills to ensure readiness at a moment’s notice,” EM WVDP Director Bryan Bower said. “The Department appreciates their continued commitment and effort to protect the health and safety of our workforce.” EM and CHBWV conduct cleanup at the site in cooperation with NYSERDA. Left to right: Bryan Bower, EM WVDP director; Scott Anderson, CHBWV president and general manager; John Rendall, CHBWV deputy general manager; Ken Whitham, CHBWV vice president of environmental, health, safety, and quality; Kevin Murray, CHBWV emergency management specialist and WVVHC captain; Dave Schuman, CHBWV safeguards and security manager; Paul Bembia, NYSERDA director; Shawn Lafferty, West Valley Fire District #1 Board chair; Craig Rieman, EM WVDP deputy director; and John Patti, West Valley Volunteer Hose Company (WVVHC) first assistant chief. -Contributor: Joe Pillittere Back to Top
Follow EM on Twitter at: @EMAssistantSec Like EM on Facebook at : https://www.facebook.com/DOEEnvironmentalManagement