EM Update | Vol. 11, Issue 27 | July 16, 2019

• Los Alamos Interim Measure Shows Progress in Reducing Contaminant Plume
• Idaho Site Safely Resizes, Repackages Challenging Waste Boxes for Disposal
• SRS Protective Force Services Contractor Receives ‘Excellent’ Scorecard Rating
• Upgrades Underway as WIPP Marks 30 Years of Protection From Lightning
• DOE Honors SRS Aviation Program With National Excellence Award
• Engineer Wins Award for Analysis Advancing SRS Waste Disposal

Los Alamos Interim Measure Shows Progress in Reducing Contaminant Plume

Crews installed a monitoring well to help the EM Los Alamos Field Office and cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos better characterize chromium distribution in the eastern edge of the plume.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – The EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) and cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos are seeing positive results from an interim measure to contain and control migration of a contaminant plume in groundwater.

The groundwater extraction, treatment, and injection system has been fully operational for the past year along the southern edge of the plume beneath Sandia and Mortandad canyons near the boundary between DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Pueblo de San Ildefonso.

EM-LA Federal Cleanup Director Cheryl Rodriguez noted that sampling from a monitoring well near that boundary in May 2019 showed a drop in concentrations of the contaminant, hexavalent chromium, from as high as 140 parts per billion to 51.2 parts per billion, just above the state standard of 50 parts per billion.

“The interim measure has enabled us to make tremendous progress toward reducing the footprint of the chromium plume and keeping it within the LANL boundary,” Rodriguez said.

The interim measure infrastructure has been designed to have a minimum visual impact to Mortandad Canyon.

The system works by pumping chromium-contaminated groundwater from the regional aquifer through extraction wells and piping to a centrally-located treatment system to remove chromium from the groundwater, resulting in chromium levels below permitted regulatory standards. The treated water is then pumped to injection wells along the edge of the plume.

The combined extraction and injection shows the interim measure’s effectiveness at lowering chromium concentrations at monitoring wells. Over time, injection of the treated water lowers the chromium concentrations along the edge of the plume and reduces the plume’s size.

A network of 36 monitoring, extraction, and injection wells has been installed in and around the plume, including two monitoring wells that would detect the chromium before it could reach Los Alamos County’s nearest water-supply well. Installed in 2007, these monitoring wells have consistently shown background levels of the chromium — or levels of the chemical that occur normally in the environment.

Infrastructure to support the EM Los Alamos Field Office’s interim measure to control migration of a contaminant plume has been constructed in Mortandad Canyon.

This past spring, crews installed another well to help monitor the interim measure’s performance along the eastern portion of the plume, marking completion of the system’s fourth deep angle-drilled well approximately 1,200 feet through extremely complex geologic forms. Initial sampling results have helped better characterize the distribution of chromium in that portion of the plume.

Full implementation of the interim measure, including extraction and injection along the eastern plume edge, will occur later this year while evaluations of approaches for a final remedy continue.

The chromium contamination resulted from a non-nuclear power plant at LANL. From 1956 to 1972, workers periodically flushed chromium-contaminated water from cooling towers into Sandia Canyon. Chromium was commonly used as a corrosion inhibitor. LANL ceased releasing chromium-contaminated water in 1972.

-Contributor: Steven Horak

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Idaho Site Safely Resizes, Repackages Challenging Waste Boxes for Disposal

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – EM crews at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site have safely finished reducing the size of large, contaminated legacy waste boxes and debris and repackaging them for shipment to permanent disposal facilities.

Workers with EM cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho packaged the size-reduced components for off-site disposal, or processing through EM’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) Treatment Facility at the INL Site prior to disposal.

At AMWTP, crews placed the components in 55-gallon drums that were crushed by the facility’s supercompactor, a giant hydraulic ram capable of exerting 4 million pounds of force. The resulting “pucks” were placed in drums and shipped to EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for permanent disposal.

Ventilation and filtration controls were essential for the last of the 72 waste boxes processed due to their contaminated contents.

The crews processed all 72 waste boxes without incident or injury after developing unique ways to overcome challenges associated with each box.

Initially, the large, complex waste boxes would not fit within the AMWTP facility. They also were primarily contaminated with plutonium-238, a radiological material requiring significant operational and radiological controls.

In response, Fluor Idaho designed, fabricated, and installed radiological containment tents with significant ventilation to allow the waste boxes and their components to be manually size-reduced and packaged for removal from the facility.

“This project had unique industrial hazards with size-reducing wooden boxes that approached 12 feet tall and 15 feet in length. The size of the waste boxes, the unique waste components inside, and the radiological contamination in these boxes was some of the most difficult materials to control,” Fluor Idaho Manager Jason Chapple said. “The combined teamwork was simply outstanding.”

The waste boxes were shipped to the INL Site from laboratories at the former Mound Site in Ohio during the Cold War. The boxes contained plutonium-contaminated gloveboxes, large metal objects, such as I-beams and ducting, and other industrial debris. Gloveboxes, which are large stainless-steel structures with several ports containing gloves that allow waste handlers to safely work with radioactive material, were used at Mound to produce components for nuclear weapons and thermoelectric heat sources. Mound supported the nation’s nuclear weapons and energy programs until decommissioning began in 1993.

EM completed cleanup at Mound in 2010. Workers disposed of nearly 20,000 cubic meters of soil and decontamination debris in the cleanup, which focused on a former mixed-waste landfill.

-Contributor: Erik Simpson

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SRS Protective Force Services Contractor Receives ‘Excellent’ Scorecard Rating

Centerra-SRS helicopter pilots and mechanics are certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. They ensure aircraft at the Savannah River Site are prepared to depart from staging areas in accordance with the site's mission and operational needs.

AIKEN, S.C. – Savannah River Site (SRS) protective force services contractor Centerra-SRS earned an overall “excellent” performance rating and about $3.1 million, or 96 percent of the available fee for the DOE evaluation period of Oct. 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019, according to an award fee determination scorecard.

Centerra personnel demonstrated an exceptional level of performance during the evaluation period, executing the SRS security mission effectively and competently, according to the scorecard.

“The Centerra-SRS achievements and accomplishments during this performance rating period demonstrate overall exceptional practices in protection of SRS national security interests and resources,” DOE Savannah River Operations Office Manager Mike Budney said.

Following are some of Centerra’s achievements detailed in the scorecard:

• Law enforcement officers conducted effective traffic enforcement and accident investigations; responded to over 2,400 calls for service; issued just over 1,100 traffic citations and warning tickets; and successfully investigated a theft of government property that resulted in the recovery of items valued at more than $20,000.
• The perimeter protection department safely conducted over 61,000 random vehicle inspections and completed over 260 incident reports involving violations for matters such as site entry and exit requirements.
• Centerra successfully completed an annual firearms safety assessment and was honored by the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce for its workplace injury rate; during the evaluation period, Centerra employees worked 267 days and more than 1 million hours without a lost workday injury.

Centerra was also recently awarded the 2018 Jeff Snow Memorial Aviation Program Award, an excellence award presented annually to the top aviation program across the DOE complex. See the full story on this award in this EM Update.

There were two minor vehicle backing accidents and four "individual single point failures" involving inefficient entry control inspections, inattention to duty, and incorrect barricade arm operations, according to the scorecard. Centerra addressed each deficiency appropriately, and corrective actions were implemented.

View the scorecard here.

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Upgrades Underway as WIPP Marks 30 Years of Protection From Lightning

Workers repair the lightning protection system at EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

CARLSBAD, N.M. – The EM Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s (WIPP) lightning protection system, which has weathered 30 years in the New Mexico desert, is getting needed repairs and upgrades.

The system, designed on a 101-year-old patent from inventor Nikola Tesla, has prevented a direct lightning strike inside WIPP’s fence line for the past 30 years in an area that’s noted for its summer storms.

WIPP subcontractor Duke Electric of Amarillo, Texas, spent about a month stringing new wires, fixing breaks, and positioning upgraded components throughout the lightning protection system.

Eventually, the system will expand to include the new Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System and utility shaft area. Together, these will replace an aging ventilation system and provide sufficient airflow for simultaneous mining, waste emplacement, and maintenance. The utility shaft will also allow for a supplemental hoisting capability.

A crew installs small spline balls atop light poles at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

Lightning Eliminators of Boulder, Colo., provides lightning protection at WIPP and elsewhere across the nation, including DOE's Savannah River Site and nuclear plants.

“The math and the principles haven’t changed,” said Matt Napier, the company’s president, referring to Tesla’s original idea, which included sketches of something looking vaguely like a palm tree.

Today, those “palm trees,” looking down on the WIPP site from its highest points, are dissipation arrays, the most noticeable part of a system that takes many forms.

Two arrays overlook the current ventilation system. Another is near the water supply tanks. Others are atop the air intake shaft and salt hoist. A larger array is on top of the waste hoist building. Wires encircle the site above the fence line, and new small arrays that look like dandelions, called spline balls, top the site’s light poles, filling in coverage gaps.

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant workers added small arrays atop light poles to expand coverage between the lightning protection system’s larger units.

Lightning forms when a path is created between positively charged things on the ground, such as trees, buildings, and people, and the negatively charged bottom of a thunder cell.

The system uses the theory of point discharge, using up to 10,000 individual metal points on the dissipation arrays to create a cloud of positive ions in reaction to the negative charge of the thunder cell. The flood of ions blocks positively charged “streamers” from moving upward to create a lightning path.

If a strike got through, the arrays funnel the charge into a copper grid underlying WIPP.

“The WIPP lightning prevention system has done a remarkable job of protecting the millions of dollars of site infrastructure as well as our most priceless asset, our employees,” said Gene Balsmeier, chief operating officer and deputy project manager for Nuclear Waste Partnership, WIPP’s management and operations contractor.

-Contributor: Roy Neese

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DOE Honors SRS Aviation Program With National Excellence Award

AIKEN, S.C. – DOE recently honored the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) aviation department with an excellence award, presented annually to the top program across the DOE complex.

DOE Office of Aviation Management (OAM) Director Glen Wattman presented the 2018 Jeff Snow Memorial Aviation Program Award to SRS protective force services contractor Centerra-SRS, which operates the site’s aviation program.

“The Centerra-SRS aviation operations department is to be commended for its high level of proficiency and operational readiness,” DOE-Savannah River Operations Office Manager Mike Budney said.

OAM recognized Centerra for excellence, innovation, and compliance in management and administration, operations, maintenance, training, and safety.

Todd Hatfield, manager of the SRS aviation operations department, and Herb Craven, the department’s chief pilot, accepted the award on behalf of SRS at the 26th Annual Aviation Management and Safety Training Seminar in Denver, Colo.

The DOE-Savannah River Operations Office provides oversight and policy direction for its aviation program, and Centerra operates and maintains two DOE Airbus BK-117 aircraft.

The SRS Aviation Program was initiated by Centerra, formerly known as Wackenhut, in 1984, a year after the contractor assumed security responsibilities at the 310-square-mile SRS.

“I’m very pleased to see our aviation program again honored with this award,” Centerra General Manager Mark Bolton said. “The helicopters significantly enhance our security, tactical, and operational capabilities at SRS, and it is paramount that we maintain and operate the aircraft with a focus on safety and compliance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, DOE policy, and company procedures. This recognition as the top aviation program in the complex is a testament that the team continues to meet that challenge.”

The highly-trained helicopter pilots and mechanics, certified by the FAA, ensure the aircraft are prepared to depart from staging areas in accordance with mission and operational needs. The department primarily works in a paramilitary role, but the helicopter pilots also provide other services, including site patrol, emergency response, medical evacuations, forestry and ecological support, and site photography.

OAM presented the Jeff Snow Aviation Program Memorial Award to the SRS team in 2012, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2003, and 2002. The award is named in honor of Snow, who served as a helicopter pilot and aviation manager at SRS until his death following an illness in July 2000.

In 2012, Centerra also earned the U.S. General Services Administration Fed Fleet Aviation Award for operating an outstanding flight program supporting the SRS security mission. The SRS aviation program has won the DOE Aviation Safety Award seven times and earned the Helicopter Association International Annual Operator Safety Award for 17 consecutive years.

-Contributor: Rob Davis

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Engineer Wins Award for Analysis Advancing SRS Waste Disposal

AIKEN, S.C. – EM’s liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site recently honored one of its employees for his analysis that will help measure environmental risk in disposing low-level radioactive salt waste.

Savannah River Remediation Principal Engineer Steve Hommel also received the Superior Paper Award at the 2019 Waste Management Symposia (WMS) for his analysis of the correlations between key radionuclides at the Saltstone Disposal Facility (SDF).

WMS provides a forum for discussing solutions to the management and disposition of radioactive waste and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. The organization established the Superior Paper Award to recognize authors for distinguished contributions to the advancement of radioactive material management.

Hommel is the subject-matter expert for the SDF performance assessment, which is used to perform analyses to understand the risks associated with the long-term disposal of waste at the SDF.

Hommel’s analysis quantifies the relationship between the concentrations of soluble iodine-129 and technetium-99 with concentrations of cesium-137. This analysis improves predictions in the assumed SDF disposal inventories, resulting in improved predictions of future environmental risk. This analysis reduced overestimation in assumed disposal inventories, or conservative assumptions. Hommel did this by improving upon previous attempts to mathematically define the correlations between the radionuclides.

“Computer models are only as good as their inputs,” Hommel said. “While conservative assumptions are useful for demonstrating and defending compliance, they don’t always provide the most accurate representation of the future.”

Savannah River Remediation Principal Engineer Steve Hommel presents his research at the 2019 Waste Management Symposia.

Hommel’s analyses will be beneficial for years to come.

“With better modeling inputs, we can do a better job of identifying and mitigating risks to future members of the public,” he said.

The SDF assessment will be a useful tool to better inform decisions related to SDF disposal.

“Steve did a tremendous job of leveraging decades of sample data in a way that provides present day value and improves the accuracy of our inventory basis for our environmental modeling,” said Patricia Suggs, DOE-Savannah River senior program manager for salt processing.

Hommel expects his analysis approach can be repeated in the future to improve the precision of inventory estimates at SRR facilities and other sites throughout the DOE complex.

“I learned a lot while developing this analysis, and I’m looking forward to finding other applications for it at SRR,” Hommel said. “There was a lot of detailed work that went into this paper, and I’m honored to have been recognized for it.”

-Contributor: Stephanie Justice

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