EM Update | Vol. 11, Issue 23 | June 18, 2019

• Crews Demolish Largest Standing Structure at Oak Ridge's ETTP
• WIPP Crews Make Substantial Progress in Capital Improvement Projects
• Oak Ridge’s UCOR Earns 95 Percent of Fee for First Half of Fiscal 2019
• EM Oil Transfer Fuels Economic Development in Western Kentucky
• Radiation Protection Manager Committed to Idaho Site Employee Development
• DOE Savannah River, Prime Contractor Partner in Mentor-Protégé Program
• Hanford WTP Awarded Top Certification for Safety and Health Excellence
• Contractor Marks 10 Years Without Injury at Portsmouth Site

Crews Demolish Largest Standing Structure at Oak Ridge's ETTP

Oak Ridge Site workers remove asbestos-containing panels from portions of the K-1037 Building while demolition and debris removal are underway on other sections.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Cleanup of the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) gained headway with the completion of demolition of the K-1037 Building recently — the largest and one of the most challenging facilities still standing there. Watch a video of the demolition here.

Crews began tearing down the building in February and safely completed the project almost four months ahead of schedule.

Built in 1945, the structure grew through the years with additions that brought its square footage to approximately 380,000 square feet. As one of the earliest structures at the site, K-1037 was originally a warehouse, but it was later used to produce barrier material used in the gaseous diffusion process until 1982.

“A lot of work was necessary to prepare this massive facility for demolition,” said Jay Mullis, manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM). “We are very pleased this project was completed safely and ahead of schedule. That allows our program to keep pushing toward successfully achieving the ambitious Vision 2020 goal.”

A view of K-1037 Building site before and after demolition.

OREM cleanup contractor UCOR spent almost two years preparing the facility for safe demolition. K-1037 posed a unique challenge because it contained classified materials. Employees safely removed those materials, and the building was declassified before the teardown began.

Workers cleared away equipment and waste, conducted asbestos abatement, and disconnected all utilities prior to demolition. They also got rid of the building’s asbestos-containing panels.

“The K-1037 project was a truly collaborative effort that involved security, deactivation and demolition, and transportation personnel working together seamlessly to safely and efficiently complete this project,” said Ken Rueter, UCOR president and CEO. “As with many of our cleanup projects, we were able to finish this work ahead of schedule thanks to our skilled, safety-focused workforce, our ability to efficiently remove and dispose of waste onsite, and our exceptional partnership with DOE.”

Workers take asbestos-containing panels off the K-1037 Building as the demolition project commences.

Workers will now begin removing the building’s slab. The site will eventually become a grassy field available for economic development.

Since major cleanup began at ETTP in the late 1990s, OREM has taken down 12 million square feet of buildings and transferred nearly 1,300 acres from government ownership in its goal to convert the site into a privately owned and operated multi-use industrial park.

OREM is working to complete all major building demolitions at ETTP by the end of next year as part of Vision 2020. The area also boasts a 3,000-acre conservation easement, and work is underway to open the K-25 History Center this fall. The center preserves and shares the site’s history during World War II’s Manhattan Project.

-Contributor: Wayne McKinney

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WIPP Crews Make Substantial Progress in Capital Improvement Projects

Sparks fly as Ismael Duarte welds in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) underground. WIPP has several maintenance and fabrication shops carved out of an ancient salt layer. Duarte is the shaft and openings maintenance/underground fabrication welder with Nuclear Waste Partnership, the WIPP management and operations contractor.

CARLSBAD, N.M. – There’s so much infrastructure work happening at EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the view literally changes daily.

Dominating the landscape are the buildings and infrastructure for the $288 million Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS). Key pieces of SSCVS show progress.

The SSCVS is critical to EM’s plans to increase shipments of transuranic waste to WIPP from cleanup sites across the DOE complex.

The SSCVS will significantly increase the airflow of the underground portion of the WIPP facility from 160,000 cubic feet per minute to 540,000 cubic feet per minute. As a result, DOE will be able to perform transuranic waste emplacement activities simultaneously with facility mining and maintenance operations.

The filtered system includes two buildings — a salt reduction building and filter building — powered by six 1,000-horsepower fans.

Workers install dandelion-shaped arrays atop light poles as part of upgrades to Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s lightning protection system. The arrays fill gaps in the existing system.

Crews have been busy at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), creating trenches for power, water, and sewer to multiple projects. This trench will serve contractor trailers at the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System project east of the WIPP site.

Other major projects at the site and around its perimeter are at full throttle heading into the summer, including the:

• Fabrication assembly building. Components of the SSCVS will be assembled in this pre-engineered building, which has been delivered to the site. Crews have begun excavating for its foundation.
• Salt reduction building, which is the first stop for air coming from the WIPP underground. This facility will use filtering machines and other equipment to knock salt dust and other matter from the air. Underground piping is complete, and subsurface excavation includes an area for a basin to collect a water and salt mixture resulting from the operations.
• Filter building, where air from the salt reduction building goes through progressively finer filters to trap contaminants before exhausting to the outside via a stack. Subsurface excavation for this building is underway.
• Utility shaft, which is the site’s fifth to descend to the 2,150-foot level of WIPP’s underground. Land has been cleared for the project’s work area. The 30-foot diameter shaft, the largest at WIPP, will provide air intake plus a possible third point of access for workers and materials into the WIPP mine. Completion target is August 2022.
• Bypass road, which relocates non-WIPP traffic away from the site and the utility shaft construction zone.
• Lightning protection system. This system, which has prevented a direct strike inside the site’s fence line for the past 30 years, is being upgraded and repaired.
• Fire protection loop. Workers are excavating soil to replace failed valves in advance of adding a new fire water line. The loop will eventually include new tanks for firefighting water, a pump house and pumps, and hydrants.

-Contributor: Roy Neese

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Oak Ridge’s UCOR Earns 95 Percent of Fee for First Half of Fiscal 2019

UCOR crews are currently taking down Building K-631 at the East Tennessee Technology Park at the Oak Ridge Site.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – EM recently awarded its Oak Ridge Site cleanup contractor $12.5 million for its performance from Oct. 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, amounting to 95 percent of the available fee.

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) recently issued its six-month fiscal 2019 fee determination scorecard for UCOR after completing its evaluation of the contractor. 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, the contractor received “excellent” ratings for project management and business systems, and regulatory and stakeholder activity; a “good” rating for operations management; and “high confidence” for cost and schedule incentive.

The contractor had several significant accomplishments:

• Improved worker productivity and reduced the cost of demolishing Building K-1037, the largest remaining facility at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP).
• Implemented an integrated approach to planning and executing building slab removals, with demolitions resulting in significant cost savings and reduced schedule.
• Provided excellent support to keep the scheduled construction of the Mercury Treatment Facility on track by coordinating with other DOE contractors to safely and compliantly complete early site preparation activities for the facility under budget and ahead of schedule.
• Worked closely with DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory to develop more efficient methods for mercury cleanup at former mercury process buildings at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
• Shipped equipment from the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment for size reduction and disposal, meeting a commitment to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation two years ahead of schedule.
• Awarded 81 percent of its subcontracts to small businesses, exceeding a goal of 65 percent.

OREM also noted opportunities for improvements. UCOR selected a vendor that was not able to meet requirements to inspect an exhaust stack at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, delaying the inspection. DOE expressed concern about the timeliness of addressing maintenance issues associated with the gates at the White Oak Dam. Additionally, UCOR continued to experience incidents involving equipment operation related to consistent application of its work planning and control program.

View the fee determination letter and the full scorecard here.

-Contributor: Ben Williams

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EM Oil Transfer Fuels Economic Development in Western Kentucky

A deactivation worker inspects railcars containing insulating oil from the Paducah Site’s C-533 Switchyard as they are prepared to be shipped to a buyer for the Paducah Area Community Reuse Organization.

PADUCAH, Ky. – EM recently transferred ownership of more than 300,000 gallons of electrical insulating oil to the Paducah Area Community Reuse Organization (PACRO) from the Paducah Site’s C-533 Switchyard.

PACRO will use the oil, transported in 12 tank cars, to provide a revenue stream for economic development in the Kentucky counties of McCracken, Ballard, Marshall, and Graves, and Massac County in Illinois.

“The sale of this oil, which can be reused or recycled, is a big boost to economic development efforts in western Kentucky,” PACRO Chairperson and Marshall County Judge-Executive Kevin Neal said. “We are fortunate to have a partnership with the Department of Energy that allows us to generate revenue from excess property and equipment for future uses within our five-county organization.”

Paducah Site Lead Jennifer Woodard of EM’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office noted PACRO’s important role in the Paducah Site’s progress.

“We are pleased to partner with PACRO in a mutually beneficial relationship,” Woodard said.

Rodney “Rocket” Wilkens starts a pump to transfer insulating oil from the C-533 Switchyard to a waiting railcar.

Paducah Area Community Reuse Organization Executive Director Scott Darnell, left, and EM Paducah Site strategic planner Buz Smith stand in front of tank cars at the site.

The oil was drained as part of the deactivation of the switchyard. During peak uranium-enrichment operations, four switchyards were required. Power entered the plant through overhead transmission lines from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Shawnee Fossil Plant in McCracken County and the Joppa Steam Plant in Massac County.

Power could be routed through one of more than 90 oil-filled circuit breakers to oil-filled transformers located in the switchyards. Any one of those transformers could handle the total power load of the city of Paducah. The switchyards combined could power a city as large as Nashville, Tennessee.

Power needs at the Paducah Site have reduced significantly since enrichment operations ceased in 2013. A power reconfiguration project completed in 2015 consolidated the plant loads to one switchyard, freeing three switchyards for deactivation. Plans are underway to construct a new substation to allow deactivation of the last original switchyard.

Optimization of utilities at the Paducah Site will continue to be a focus as deactivation and cleanup progresses.

-Contributors: Dylan Nichols, Jessica Vasseur 

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Radiation Protection Manager Committed to Idaho Site Employee Development

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Thirty years ago, Eric Mickelsen, then a young journeyman bricklayer, completed a radiation protection program course at a vocational-technical school where he was laying brick and was quickly hired as a junior radiological control technician at the Hanford Site.

Currently in the twilight of his career, Mickelsen, the Fluor Idaho radiation protection program manager for the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site, is hiring graduates from that same program and school, now a community college. Fluor Idaho is EM’s cleanup contractor at the INL Site.

Mickelsen and his staff are helping ensure employees who are close to retiring mentor the new generation of staff members to carry on the EM mission — a need common across the DOE complex.

“The radiation protection program was a life-changing experience for me,” Mickelsen said. “It has provided an incredible and satisfying career, and now to be in a position to help people get a positive start on their career is exciting as well as fulfilling.”

Eric Mickelsen, Fluor Idaho's radiation protection program manager for the Idaho National Laboratory Site.

Mickelsen oversees a staff of 245 radiation protection professionals with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to protect their coworkers from radiological hazards while performing waste management and environmental cleanup work. Nearly 90 of those employees graduated from what is now called the College of Eastern Idaho Radiation Protection Program.

Mickelsen and his staff regularly make presentations to the program’s classes, provide radiological instruments for demonstrations and student lab use, and support students while preparing them for an on-the-job practicum — a requirement for graduation.

“All of our radiation protection staff members are advocates for their profession and the EM program in general because we believe in the work we do and the people we protect,” Mickelsen said. “It’s important to mentor the next generation of young professionals if we want to see our radiation protection business continue to prosper as well as the nuclear industry as a whole.”

-Contributor: Erik Simpson

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DOE Savannah River, Prime Contractor Partner in Mentor-Protégé Program

S. Richard Hagins, CEO of US&S, a small business subcontractor at the Savannah River Site, signs a mentor-protégé agreement during a Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) Mentor-Protégé Center of Excellence team meeting. Also pictured, front row, from left: Paradio Maith, small business manager at the DOE Savannah River Operations Office; and Melanie Lepard, SRNS manager of maintenance site services. Back row, from left: Janette Robinson, SRNS manager of performance excellence; Lorri Wright, SRNS manager of material and service acquisition; Alex Agyemang, SRNS small business liaison officer; Peter J. Luciano, US&S director of operations; and Cheryl Hartfield, SRNS small business specialist.

AIKEN, S.C. – The DOE Savannah River Operations Office and management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) have partnered to foster five small businesses in the Department’s Mentor-Protégé Program.

The DOE program encourages prime contractors such as SRNS to help small businesses enhance their capabilities to perform contracts and subcontracts for DOE and other federal agencies.

In September 2018, SRNS launched its Mentor-Protégé Center of Excellence as the next phase in the Savannah River Site (SRS) plan to develop and manage a program dedicated to growing small business partners across the site.

"SRNS is committed to the development of our partners. The Mentor-Protégé Center of Excellence is a major step towards making our good companies great," said Alex Agyemang, manager of SRNS small business programs and supplier partnering. "We are committed to leading the way in small business advocacy."

The center provides space for small businesses to share best practices and lessons learned, and helps them focus on strengths, promote growth, cultivate new skills, and expand capabilities.

So far, 11 protégé companies have graduated from the SRNS Mentor-Protégé Program, which generally runs for two years with the option to participate for additional years. The five small businesses currently in the program each have different work specialties: UDR Consulting for staffing, ML Builders for construction, Strativia for information technology, US&S for facility management, and CTI and Associates for decontamination and decommissioning.

US&S, a facility maintenance and support service provider based in Greenville, South Carolina, represents protégé interests to SRNS in the mentor-protégé center at SRS.

S. Richard Hagins, CEO of US&S, described the SRNS Mentor-Protégé Program as unique and believes US&S is seeing success from participating in it.

"The Center of Excellence provides us a strong linkage to both SRNS and the DOE Small Business Office. It provides an avenue for mentoring and development with SRNS and DOE SBO leadership, but also gives us the feel of a board of directors with the other protégés," Hagins said.

Bruce Easterson, SRNS senior vice president, chief engineer, and nuclear safety officer, said SRNS considers its small businesses suppliers as partners with an important role in the success of the cleanup mission.

"Due to the importance of our mission, everything we do has to be done right. We don't compromise quality or integrity. We have a moral and ethical obligation to complete the mission and we take that seriously," Easterson said. "Small businesses are an important part of our value stream. If they succeed, we succeed. We believe in the success of the mentor-protégé program. It's not just good for business, it is good for the community."

-Contributor: Katy Alley

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Hanford WTP Awarded Top Certification for Safety and Health Excellence

RICHLAND, Wash. – For the third consecutive time, Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) has earned DOE’s highest certification for excellence in occupational and health protection.

The EM Office of River Protection WTP workforce was first awarded Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star status in 2010, and was recertified in 2014 and this year. Contractors whose programs meet requirements for outstanding safety and health programs receive this recognition.

“Our workforce takes great pride in this award,” said Valerie McCain, principal vice president and WTP project director at Bechtel National, Inc., ORP’s WTP Project contractor. “VPP Star status is another validation that our project and our subcontractor, Waste Treatment Completion Company, demonstrate that safety is a core value to the project’s culture. A positive safety culture is important as we move forward to finish Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste construction and startup testing, and move into the commissioning phase.”

Earlier this year, a VPP team from DOE headquarters conducted a WTP site review to gauge employee and management involvement in safety programs. The team noted several positive attributes of the jobsite’s culture and worker-safety programs, including management observations, culture and safety committees, and stop-work authority. The review team also noted that management expectations are communicated effectively and there is a trusting and respectful environment among workers and management.

“Building and sustaining a positive safety culture is a continuous journey,” said Tom Fletcher, ORP’s WTP federal project director. “It’s encouraging to see the level of involvement employees have in WTP worker-owned safety programs, and VPP Star status is another example of their engagement in workplace safety.”

DOE’s VPP was established in 1994 and mirrors the Occupational Health and Safety Administration VPP. DOE VPP participation is open to contractors employed at DOE facilities. The program includes expanded criteria because of the unique hazards and complexity of work at these facilities.

-Contributor: George Rangel

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Contractor Marks 10 Years Without Injury at Portsmouth Site

PIKETON, Ohio – RSI EnTech (RSI), the environmental technical services contractor at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, recently marked 10 injury-free years. That’s more than 1.25 million work hours without a recordable illness or injury among the 60 employees at the site, according to RSI program director Bob Winegar. Oak Ridge, Tennessee-based RSI provides regulatory strategy, field operations, project controls, technical services and other support at the Pike County site.

-Contributor: Rick Greene

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