EM Update | Vol. 11, Issue 31 | Aug. 13, 2019

• Oak Ridge Moves Closer to Vision 2020 as Crews Kick Off Another Demolition
• SRS Uses Recycled Iron to Treat Contaminated Groundwater
• Mine Experts to Advise WIPP on Worker Safety, Regulatory Compliance
• SRS Team Learns From Radiological Risk Assessment Leader
• Paducah Site Visit Impresses Boys and Girls Club Members
• Safety Training Helps Oak Ridge Employee Save Life Outside Workplace
• EM Nevada Program Introduces New Teachers to ‘Operation Clean Desert’
• Small Businesses Learn About SRS Opportunities at HUBZones Forum
• Hanford Contractor Inspires Workforce of Future Through STEM Education

Oak Ridge Moves Closer to Vision 2020 as Crews Kick Off Another Demolition

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – As old, unneeded buildings continue to disappear at the Oak Ridge Site’s East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), another will soon be torn down and added to the list — the K-1423 Toll Enrichment Facility.

The 30,817-square-foot building was used to transfer liquefied uranium hexafluoride, from the former gaseous diffusion plant’s uranium enrichment process, into cylinders. Those operations took place from 1969 to 1986.

The building was later used for a variety of other purposes, including addressing radiologically contaminated drums, washing chemically contaminated drums, and storing waste.

“The constant work of our crews is eliminating old infrastructure and shrinking the footprint of the former Manhattan Project and Cold War era complex,” said James Daffron, acting ETTP federal project director for DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM). “Teams are focused on completing major cleanup at the site by 2020, and this is another example of our progress toward that goal.”

The K-1423 Toll Enrichment Facility is the latest in a long list of demolitions at the East Tennessee Technology Park. Crews have removed 12 million square feet of aging and contaminated facilities, with only 750,000 square feet remaining to achieve Vision 2020 — the completion of major cleanup — next year.

This is another in a long line of landscape changes taking place as OREM and cleanup contractor UCOR work toward achieving Vision 2020, the goal to complete major cleanup at ETTP by the end of 2020.

This work is paving the way for OREM’s ultimate vision for the site as a thriving, multi-use industrial park. To date, crews have removed 12 million square feet of aging and contaminated facilities, with only 750,000 square feet remaining.

Additionally, OREM has transferred nearly 1,300 acres of land at the site back to the community for new industrial development and economic growth.

Demolition of the K-1423 Toll Enrichment Facility is scheduled for completion next month.

-Contributor: Wayne McKinney

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SRS Uses Recycled Iron to Treat Contaminated Groundwater

AIKEN. S.C. – EM is using 760 tons of iron filings recycled from the automotive industry to treat groundwater contaminated by solvents in a section of an aquifer beneath the Savannah River Site (SRS).

The filings, which are ground-up iron parts from automotive engines, will be mixed with a food-grade, starch-like material and injected into 22 wells, each 12 feet apart. The high-pressure injection creates fractures in the subsurface rock, creating space to be filled by the mixture. Upon completion, a four-inch-thick, water-permeable wall consisting of iron filings will extend to its deepest point approximately 135 feet below the earth's surface.

Groundwater will flow through the 264-foot-long, 23,000-square-foot metal wall, which neutralizes the solvents.

“The contaminated water cascades down through the filings, significantly increasing the amount of contact with the iron. The interaction with the iron breaks down the structure of the contaminants, becoming harmless,” said Philip Prater, senior physical scientist with the Savannah River Operations Office. “And this system is designed to work for decades with little maintenance, as it has in other parts of the country.”

According to Prater, the remedial technology EM and SRS prime contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) are deploying is innovative because it does not involve use of a trench, and it can be installed at greater depths than permeable reactive barriers built at the site in the past. This technology also allows for precision placement, enabling SRS to intercept the contaminated groundwater plume in a narrow zone as it travels along an old, subsurface stream bed channel.

"This is the first time we have experimented with this approach using a subsurface wall to capture and neutralize solvents,” said Mark Amidon, a scientist at EM’s Savannah River National Laboratory. “We are confident that our goals will be fully achieved related to this remarkably cost-effective project at the Savannah River Site’s P Area."

From 1954 to 1984, the site's P Reactor produced tritium and plutonium in support of the nation's Cold War nuclear deterrent. Solvents used at that reactor and waste sites across SRS seeped into the subsurface over time.

"This highly efficient environmental cleanup technology is another asset within the arsenal of environmental restoration tools assembled for use across SRS," said Seth Miller, the SRNS project manager for the groundwater cleanup.

The water-permeable wall is scheduled for completion in November this year.

-Contributor: DT Townsend

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Mine Experts to Advise WIPP on Worker Safety, Regulatory Compliance

CARLSBAD, N.M. – A panel of experts has been assembled to provide periodic reviews and recommendations on the safety and effectiveness of EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) ground control programs and future mine designs.

“We’ve assembled a truly impressive panel of experts to provide us with recommendations in two very crucial areas,” said Bruce Covert, president and project manager of Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP), the WIPP management and operations contractor. “Our team is looking forward to their input, which I know will help us ensure worker safety underground and regulatory compliance at WIPP in the years to come.”

Panel members bring decades of experience and technical expertise in highly-specialized fields, including geological and geotechnical engineering, geophysics, rock mechanics, imaging and sensing technologies, and numerical analysis and modeling.

The panel will make recommendations regarding improved design of disposal panels and drifts, or access routes. It will also review plans for maintenance of core areas of the mine, including identification of ground control alternatives and timeframes by area. Ground control includes the installation and maintenance of long steel bolts and wire mesh into the roof and walls, as the natural movement of salt closes mined openings.

“This panel will be vital in our ongoing efforts to ensure that WIPP remains prepared to fulfill its very important national mission,” said Kevin Donovan, NWP chief of staff.

The panel includes:

• Lee Petersen with Itasca Consulting Group, who has a doctorate in geoengineering;
• Navid Mojtabai, professor and department chair, mineral engineering, New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology, who has a doctorate in mining engineering;
• Priscilla Nelson, department head and professor, mining engineering, Colorado School of Mines, who has a doctorate in civil engineering;
• Gabriel Walton, assistant professor, geology and geological engineering, New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology, who has a doctorate in geomechanics;
• John Kemeny, professor and department head of mining and geological engineering, University of Arizona, who has a doctorate in materials science and mineral engineering;
• John Head, senior associate and board member of mineral industry advisory firm Behre Dolbear. Head has a Bachelor of Science degree in mining engineering and a Master of Business Administration degree;
• George Sturgis, vice president for project development, Hecla Mining.

-Contributor: Victoria Parker

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SRS Team Learns From Radiological Risk Assessment Leader

Savannah River Remediation Environmental Compliance Manager Scott Kirk (right) and members of his environmental compliance team visited leading radiological assessment scientist John Till’s farm in Neeses, South Carolina. From left, Dan Skiff, Leslie Wooten, Grady Britton, Whitney Wright, John Till, Hunter Sonnenberg, Josh King, and Kirk.

AIKEN, S.C. – A Savannah River Site (SRS) team recently visited leading radiological assessment scientist John Till to learn about his approach to environmental safety at EM sites.

Scott Kirk, environmental compliance manager with Savannah River Remediation (SRR), EM’s liquid waste contractor at SRS, brought the environmental compliance team, including two SRR interns and an EM intern, to Till’s farm in Neeses, South Carolina, to learn how risk assessment research is conducted and the relationship to keeping the community safe.

“Methods to explore environmental compliance do not start and end with the front and back cover of a textbook,” Kirk said. “I enjoy getting my team out to interact with experts in the nuclear industry. It was a rare treat to bring my team to Embeford Farm to hear the path Dr. Till has taken throughout his life, through service to his country, to conducting research about nuclear-related incidences and the impact on the public and environment, to then informing the public about the research findings. I respect Dr. Till and the passion we both share for safety in the nuclear industry.”

Many years ago, Till, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral who served in nuclear submarines in the Pacific Ocean during the Cold War, wanted to know where radiological elements go when they get into the environment. His curiosity led to the inception of his company in 1977, Risk Assessment Corporation (RAC).

Throughout the years since RAC was founded, Till has drawn from his formal education, farming, and Navy experience to research answers to unknown consequences associated with the presence of chemicals and radionuclides in the environment. He has partnered with organizations surrounding EM sites to assess potential environmental hazards.

Till’s creative methods to radiation exposure research, such as assessing the public health impacts from human consumption of milk from dairy cows that once grazed in a potentially radiologically contaminated pasture, has led to informed decision-making regarding environmental cleanup around the U.S. and the release of public information for improved transparency.

-Contributor: Ashley Dernberger

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Paducah Site Visit Impresses Boys and Girls Club Members

PADUCAH, Ky. – Young people from the Oscar Cross Boys and Girls Club of Paducah participated in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities during a recent visit to EM’s Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Club members learned about the history of the site and met with site managers and workers to understand various career fields. “The tour opened our members’ minds to career opportunities in our community that some didn’t know existed,” said Neal Clark, the club’s executive director. The visit focused on safety, information technology, engineering, and environmental stewardship. Pictured are club members Jakevion “DJ” Perry, Chris Moore, and Madison Moore participating in an activity about groundwater remediation.

-Contributors: Dylan Nichols, Jessica Vasseur

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Safety Training Helps Oak Ridge Employee Save Life Outside Workplace

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its contractors know the importance of training to ensure safety. Recently, it helped save a life in an unlikely place.

While eating lunch at a local restaurant, Eric Glenn noticed a man choking on his sandwich.

“I just heard a man coughing and he did the choking sign, so I ran over and gave him the Heimlich maneuver six or seven times,” Glenn said.

His efforts removed the airway blockage, and the man was able to return to his seat moments later.

Eric Glenn, a radiological control technician with Isotek, used his training to help save a life on his lunch break.

Glenn was able to act swiftly and effectively because he has training in these situations. Throughout his career, he’s been certified to perform first aid, CPR, and to administer the automated external defibrillator (AED).

Glenn is a radiological control technician at Isotek, OREM’s prime contractor for processing and disposing the site’s inventory of uranium-233.

Safety is essential to performing Isotek's complex work successfully, and the company takes steps to ensure its employees are prepared if anything unexpected happens, offering first aid, CPR, and AED training to its employees.

“He comes in here a few times a week,” Robert McGrath, the restaurant’s general manager, said of the man Glenn helped. “One minute you’re eating a sandwich and the next, you’re fighting for your life.”

The extra training Isotek offered proved helpful beyond the workplace, such as a normal lunch break on a Tuesday. In this case, it helped save a life.

-Contributor: John Gray

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EM Nevada Program Introduces New Teachers to ‘Operation Clean Desert’

LAS VEGAS – Back to school! To support local teachers, the EM Nevada Program “Operation Clean Desert” crew took part in the annual two-day Clark County School District new teacher kickoff event, distributing hundreds of Operation Clean Desert activity books and teacher’s guides. The learning materials are provided to teachers free of charge and educate students on the science of the EM Nevada Program and other missions at the Nevada National Security Site. Kevin Schmidt, communications specialist for Navarro, contractor to the EM Nevada Program, is pictured at the Operation Clean Desert table talking with a local teacher.

-Contributor: Marc Klein

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Small Businesses Learn About SRS Opportunities at HUBZones Forum

AIKEN, S.C. – The Savannah River Site (SRS) recently hosted DOE’s annual forum to share opportunities with local small businesses qualifying for HUBZone certification as well as those already certified. HUBZones are historically underutilized business zones. SRS management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions President and Chief Executive Officer Stuart MacVean, pictured above, welcomed the event attendees and spoke of the need for small business partnerships at SRS. “You are where we get innovations and technology,” he said. Ellen Hansmann, supply chain management manager with SRS liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation, said services from HUBZone businesses are especially valuable in the liquid waste mission. DOE also held a “matchmaking” session in which local suppliers met with buyers and technical experts from government agencies, SRS prime contractors, and small business program managers from DOE's Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. “Those vendors now have a better understanding of our processes and we were able to identify several HUBZone-certified small businesses that could be a match for future opportunities,” said Liz Harris, small business program manager and procurement administrator for SRS security contractor Centerra-SRS.

-Contributor: Katy Alley

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Hanford Contractor Inspires Workforce of Future Through STEM Education

RICHLAND, Wash. – Employees from EM Richland Operations Office contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) volunteer at local schools to support “STEM! Like Me,” part of the Washington State Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) Education Foundation.

The foundation’s mission is to expand high school students’ horizons, demonstrating to students of all ages how fun and interesting STEM education can be, and educating them on the STEM careers in the community.

The MSA volunteers were on hand as students created greeting cards with energy efficient lights and aluminum circuits, viewed demonstrations on transmitting power through the air, and learned how engines use heat to operate. They also gained a better understanding of working in a technical environment.

“I volunteer for STEM! Like Me because I want to help raise awareness and hopefully inspire some of them to pursue a career in engineering,” said Yuriy Dubinets, a mechanical engineer for MSA.

In addition to STEM! Like Me, MSA supports Hanford Engineers Week, Mid-Columbia Regional Science and Engineering Fair, STEM nights at local schools, and other STEM related programs.

"We have the utmost appreciation and admiration for the continued support MSA has provided the Washington State STEM Education Foundation,” said Deb Bowen, executive director for the foundation. “MSA mentors have invested a substantial amount of time into Mid-Columbia youth, and this will positively impact our workforce for years to come.”

-Contributor: Lori Araujo

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