Demolitions Lead Oak Ridge to Close Another Chapter at ETTP; Idaho Facility's Mission Nears End as Crews Treat Remaining Waste; and much more!

DOE Office of Environmental Management sent this bulletin at 09/10/2019 02:00 PM EDT

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EM Update \| Vol. 11, Issue 35 \| Sept. 10, 2019

Demolitions Lead Oak Ridge to Close Another Chapter at ETTP Idaho Facility's Mission Nears End as Crews Treat Remaining Waste New Treatment Approach Could Accelerate Groundwater Cleanup at Hanford WIPP Kicks Off New Series of Infrastructure Improvements SRS Contractor Wins National Safety Award for Mercury Monitoring Interns Reflect on Rewarding Experiences Working at Idaho Site DOE Employees Donate More Than 50,000 Pounds of Food to People in Need West Valley Workers Receive Impromptu Fire Safety Training Demolitions Lead Oak Ridge to Close Another Chapter at ETTP Demolition on K-131 and K-631 began in May 2019. The buildings were the last of 11 Poplar Creek facilities Oak Ridge crews demolished. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – EM’s latest cleanup progress in Oak Ridge has brought the end of an era at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). With the recent demolition of K-131 and K-631 — watch a video about the project here — there are no longer any buildings that conducted or supported gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment operations at ETTP for the first time since 1943. ETTP, formerly known as the K-25 site or Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, was built as part of the Manhattan Project. During peak operations, the site contained five massive gaseous diffusion plants and numerous support facilities. Those buildings housed operations, as well as workers, to help end World War II and produced highly enriched uranium for national defense and commercial energy production until the site was permanently shuttered in 1987. Eleven of ETTP’s support facilities were housed in an area adjacent to Poplar Creek and known as the Poplar Creek facilities. With the completion of K-131 and K-631, crews have taken down all Poplar Creek facilities since the effort began two years ago. “Completing demolition in this area is a major accomplishment for our program because it eliminates the oldest and most contaminated buildings that remained at ETTP,” said Jay Mullis, manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM). “This is a key milestone towards achieving our vision for the site. This project helps close the chapter on gaseous diffusion and continues the transformation of ETTP into a multi-use industrial park for the community.” Workers remove debris from the sites of the K-131 and K-631 demolitions at the East Tennessee Technology Park. Demolition is complete in the Poplar Creek area at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), eliminating the oldest and most contaminated buildings that remained at ETTP. Next, crews will begin tearing up the Poplar Creek area building slabs to complete cleanup there. Originally, workers in Building K-131 provided purified uranium hexafluoride to the uranium enrichment cascade. Through the years, the building was used for a variety of other purposes until uranium enrichment operations ceased at the site. Workers in the companion Building K-631 withdrew gaseous depleted uranium hexafluoride from the cascade, converted it to liquid, and transferred it to transport cylinders. The five-story K-131 and two-story K-631 had a combined floor space of more than 83,000 square feet. Crews are set to remove the Poplar Creek area building slabs. Once all cleanup is complete, that area and the adjacent footprint of the former Building K-29 will undergo a regulatory approval process to enable the land to be transferred to the community for economic development. “In all, 1,200 acres have already been transferred from government ownership for economic development at ETTP, and this project will help add another 80 acres to that total,” said Ken Rueter, UCOR president and chief executive officer. “Making this land available for redevelopment will continue to stimulate the local economy as the site opens a new chapter in its decades-long history of serving the nation in both wartime and peace.” The removal of buildings at ETTP is another in a long line of landscape changes that have taken 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. The ultimate vision for ETTP is a multi-use industrial park for industry, historic preservation attractions, and conservation areas. -Contributor: Wayne McKinney Back to Top Idaho Facility's Mission Nears End as Crews Treat Remaining Waste The Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project is the collection of gray buildings near the bottom of the photo. IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – The mission of EM’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) is coming to an end as workers are set to finish transuranic (TRU) waste treatment there this fall. The successes of the TRU and low-level waste characterization, treatment, certification, and shipping facility operated by EM and cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho will be highlighted at the National Cleanup Workshop in Alexandria, Virginia this week. The signature piece of equipment at the facility is the supercompactor, which applies four million pounds of force to each 55-gallon drum, reducing it to an approximately 5-inch-thick “puck.” The supercompactor has compacted more than 250,000 55-gallon drums of TRU waste debris during its 16 years of operation. Using compaction, AMWTP has saved more than 6,000 truck shipments that would have been required to send the waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico for permanent disposal. Furthermore, supercompaction has led to more efficient and effective use of available disposal space at WIPP. “Compacting drums allowed for a greater return on investment for each waste shipment sent from Idaho to WIPP,” said Jack Zimmerman, manager of the DOE Idaho Operations Office EM program. "The supercompactor has paid for itself many times over considering the valuable space it has saved at WIPP and the number of truck shipments it has saved the taxpayer." Workers began constructing AMWTP in the late 1990s. The purpose of the facility was to retrieve 65,000 cubic meters of TRU and mixed low-level waste that had been stored on an asphalt pad and covered with soil from 1970 through the 1980s. The supercompactor applies over 4 million pounds of pressure to waste drums, reducing the height of each drum to approximately one-fifth its original size, or 5 inches. From its inception, AMWTP was designed to be a “one-stop shop,” handling all facets of waste disposition in a variety of buildings with highly specialized, remotely operated equipment and automated processes. “AMWTP has some of the most dedicated and skilled employees you’ll find in the entire DOE complex,” Fluor Idaho Program Manager Fred Hughes said. “Many of our employees have spent their entire careers at the facility. Their skill and expertise are the reasons the project has been so successful.” Innovation has been a hallmark of the project from the beginning. AMWTP employees created many inventive processes and specialized tools for use at the facility, including parts for robotic arms, improved protective equipment for workers, and unique handling tools for degraded waste containers being retrieved. Over the years, AMWTP has adjusted to treating extremely challenging waste types, such as high-fissile materials. Crews at the facility recently completed sizing large waste boxes in enclosures designed to capture extremely fine, “flighty” plutonium-238 in AMWTP’s high-efficiency particulate air filters. Just 140 cubic meters of TRU waste debris remains to be treated at AMWTP’s treatment facility. Fluor Idaho estimates that its treatment mission will be complete by October this year. Shipping the treated material offsite for permanent disposal will continue for approximately the next 10 years. -Contributor: Erik Simpson Back to Top New Treatment Approach Could Accelerate Groundwater Cleanup at Hanford RICHLAND, Wash. - A new treatment approach designed to expedite removal of residual chromium deep in the ground near the Columbia River is showing promise at the Hanford Site. In the first phase of a study earlier this summer, pictured here, workers with EM Richland Operations Office contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company saturated about one acre of the desert near two former nuclear reactors with water. Drenching the soil potentially does in several weeks what it takes nature decades to do in a climate that only receives an average of seven inches of precipitation each year: drive residual contamination in the soil column downward to extraction wells in the underlying groundwater. The wells pumped the contaminated groundwater to a nearby treatment facility that removed approximately 18 pounds of chromium. In the next phase of the study, to begin in mid-September and continue for two months, technicians will inject more than 8 million gallons into the leach field to test and validate the process a second time. If the results show the approach is successful, the system may be implemented at other areas along the Columbia River. The chromium contamination resulted from decades of adding an anti-corrosion chemical, sodium dichromate, to cooling water used in Hanford’s plutonium product reactors. -Contributor: Dieter Bohrmann Back to Top WIPP Kicks Off New Series of Infrastructure Improvements A view of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant salt hoist, which will receive an upgrade as part of continuous improvements at the site. CARLSBAD, N.M. – EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is launching six projects as part of a continuing wave of infrastructure improvements at the nation’s only underground transuranic waste repository — from repairs to a hoist for removing mined salt from the underground to additions to a new fire protection system. “There is a lot of infrastructure improvement work going on at WIPP,” said Bruce Covert, president and project manager of Nuclear Waste Partnership, WIPP’s management and operations contractor. “These projects are great examples of how the community, elected officials, Congress and the Department of Energy are working together to ensure WIPP can safely perform its mission for years to come. We are extremely thankful for the support.” Workers dig a trench for a new fire suppression loop at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The projects include: Salt hoist repairs: The 2,300-horsepower salt hoist is the only means of hoisting mined salt from the underground, and it is a secondary source of intake air for the underground ventilation system. It also exhausts air for the supplemental ventilation system, and is a route for power, control, and communications cables from the surface to the underground. Originally built in the mid-1920s, the hoist’s headframe will be stripped, structurally inspected, and recoated. Fire loop, phase four: As part of a new fire protection system, workers will construct new electrical panels and alarms in site buildings. In other project phases, crews will build new water lines and a larger fire water tank on the northeast corner of the site. Compressed air line: Compressed air controls airlock doors and is used in other ways in the WIPP underground. The line will run from the compressed air generation building, to the new backup compressed air facility in the middle of WIPP, to the waste hoist building. The 1,100-foot line then runs down the waste hoist shaft, 2,150 feet into the WIPP underground. Information technology infrastructure upgrades: This work upgrades the site’s central monitoring room that tracks all of the site’s key systems, including underground air and gas monitoring alarms, the ventilation system, the underground miner radio tracking system, and the operation that tracks waste delivery trucks inbound to WIPP from throughout the nation. Fabrication of substations 1 and 3: Electrical energy from an electric utility substation adjacent to the site is critical to WIPP’s mission. Substations at WIPP “step down” the 13,800 volts provided by the utility into usable voltages for site equipment. Substations 1 and 3 have operated for between 25 and 30 years, and are requiring increased maintenance and costs to remain fully operational to meet the mission need of ensuring continuous underground ventilation and providing power to other critical loads. Underground substation replacement: Crews will replace one underground substation. WIPP substations are fed from the surface, and power lights and equipment such as continuous miners and charging stations for all-electric load-haul-dump machines. -Contributor: Roy Neese Back to Top SRS Contractor Wins National Safety Award for Mercury Monitoring Savannah River Remediation (SRR) President and Project Manager Tom Foster, right, and SRR Senior Industrial Hygienist Alex Brown view a system that monitors air quality for potentially dangerous mercury vapors at the Savannah River Site Effluent Treatment Facility. SRR received a national safety award for its efforts using the system. AIKEN, S.C. – EM’s liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) has won a national safety award for its efforts to protect workers from mercury vapors. The Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association (VPPPA) award recognizes Savannah River Remediation's (SRR) innovative work in worker safety. VPPPA provides a network for companies and worksites striving for occupational safety and health excellence, including DOE’s Voluntary Protection Programs. Mercury and mercury vapor can be found at SRS as a byproduct of processing nuclear materials for national defense, medical programs, space missions, and research. In 2018, SRR’s industrial hygiene team installed air sampling units to sample and monitor mercury levels as part of a pilot project. The units simultaneously sample air quality for mercury vapors at eight separate locations across the site’s Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF), providing nearly real-time results for each environment every 25 minutes. Previously, the facility relied solely on hand-held detection devices carried by workers. Jim Folk, DOE-Savannah River assistant manager for waste disposition, said DOE views employee safety as the most important part of any job. “Across the entire Savannah River Site, employee safety is of special importance,” Folk said. “Each individual within the liquid waste program performs a significant task, helping us accomplish our overall mission of properly and safely disposing of waste.” Patricia Allen, SRR’s environmental safety, health, quality assurance, and contractor assurance director, said SRR values worker safety. “We intentionally set the sensor levels low, so that the alarm will sound even if only a faint vapor is detected,” Allen said. “This award from VPPPA recognizes our determination to help our workers safely return home from the job every day.” Allen says the system’s monitors have already demonstrated their value in identifying potential process, equipment, and ventilation improvements. Using the information provided by the monitors, employees can troubleshoot, helping ETF to engineer a more targeted solution and effectively reducing facility downtime, lowering potential radiation exposure to employees, and reducing the impact on projects at the facility. -Contributor: Jim Beasley Back to Top Interns Reflect on Rewarding Experiences Working at Idaho Site Daniel Walker works on an assignment at Idaho State University. While a Fluor Idaho intern, Walker responded to the information technology needs of computer users and even developed an app. IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Daniel Walker is a non-traditional college student who enrolled at Idaho State University (ISU) a decade after graduating from high school. He was among the 20 students who recently completed their summer internships at Fluor Idaho, EM’s Idaho National Laboratory Site cleanup contractor. Many of the interns expressed interest in returning to the site, possibly in full-time permanent positions. “To be able to come here for two months during the internship and make an impact was really rewarding,” Walker said. Supporting Fluor Idaho’s information management (IM) group, Walker learned about implementing core IM concepts in a real-world environment. He fielded software change requests, worked on a database, developed an app, and supported many other IM functions. Rocio Rojas and Kalie Giles, ISU students who interned in Fluor Idaho’s transuranic waste program, updated acceptable knowledge (AK) documents and added new ones to the database. Those documents note the waste types and volumes inside the waste drums, ensuring their contents comply with the EM Waste Isolation Pilot Plant waste acceptance criteria. “Having accurate AK information for the waste being shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is crucial for ensuring compliance with the facility’s waste acceptance criteria and for audit purposes,” Rojas said. Rojas and Giles said they enjoyed their internships. “We had a wonderful time this summer and learned so much,” Giles said. -Contributor: Erik Simpson Back to Top DOE Employees Donate More Than 50,000 Pounds of Food to People in Need The results are in, and DOE employees donated a total of 50,744 pounds of food to people in need through the 2019 Feds Feed Families Food Drive this summer. “I feel the agency did a tremendous job — in a very short window — to come together and help fight food insecurity across this nation,” said Melody Bell, EM’s acting deputy assistant secretary for resource management. Bell volunteered to serve as chair of this year’s DOE Feds Feed Families drive, which EM led on behalf of the Department. “We stepped up to partner with the champions across the DOE complex,” Bell said. “The total donations show the commitment and compassion people in this agency have for those in need.” Summer can be especially difficult for some families because their children don’t have access to free breakfasts and lunches provided by schools during the school year. The drive ended late last month. Pictured from left are EM Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) employees Martin Navarrete, Dennis Miehls, Norma Castaneda, and Dan Standiford, at the Carlsbad Community Kitchen, one of two organizations that received about 640 pounds of food donated by CBFO employees as part of the Feds Feed Families campaign. Back to Top West Valley Workers Receive Impromptu Fire Safety Training John Rendall, deputy general manager with CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley, uses a fire extinguisher simulator to put out a mock fire at EM’s West Valley Demonstration Project. WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – EM and its cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project recently held unannounced safety exercises for employees using a fire extinguisher training simulator. Representatives from CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley’s (CHBWV) training and emergency management departments drove around the site asking employees to participate in a simulated fire scenario at random. Workers described actions they would take in the event of a fire, using the simulator to extinguish a vehicle fire. “The use of the simulator gives practical hands-on training to our workforce versus the traditional methods of videos and discussion-based training,” said Kevin Murray, CHBWV’s emergency preparedness manager and captain of the West Valley Volunteer Hose Company. The employees tested their knowledge and abilities gained from general employee training, daily safety sharing, mentoring, and required reading. “In emergency situations, you always fall back to your training,” Murray said. “Now these employees have training that they can fall back on and hopefully will be better prepared to deal with an emergency situation. In the end, training is all about learning, practicing, and applying.” -Contributor: Joseph Pillittere Back to Top
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