EM Update | Vol. 12, Issue 5 | Feb. 4, 2020

• Ike White Outlines EM Vision for 2020
• WIPP Miners Finish Shaping New Waste Disposal Panel
• EM Prime Contractors Surpass Fiscal 2019 Small Business Goals
• Hanford Restoring Bee Nesting Habitats
• Moab Wins Award for Eco-Friendly Purchases
• Activities to Teach About Nevada Cleanup on Hand for Educators
• STEM Students Compete to Design Cities in SRS-Managed Event

Ike White Outlines EM Vision for 2020

EM plans a wide range of accomplishments in 2020, including some that have been years in the making and that promise to significantly advance the cleanup mission, EM Senior Advisor Ike White told a key stakeholder audience on Jan. 31.

In remarks to the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA), White said major liquid waste treatment facilities at the Savannah River and Idaho sites are expected to start operations, and the completion of construction supporting Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) treatment at Hanford puts that project only a short distance away from startup.

“This year will see a leap forward in our ability to tackle our largest and one of the most challenging environmental risks — tank waste — with the start of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at Savannah River and the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at Idaho,” White said. “And at Hanford, we will complete construction and continue moving forward with commissioning on DFLAW. This puts the start of actual tank waste treatment at Hanford within reach in just a few years.

“Individually, these capabilities will ramp up our ability to tackle tank waste,” he said. “Collectively, they represent a fundamental shift for EM as we complete these long-running construction projects and focus on waste treatment operations.

“I’ve been part of the DOE enterprise for nearly three decades and I can’t recall the last time any part of DOE stood up such an impressive collection of operational capability in relatively short order,” he said.

EM Senior Advisor Ike White delivers remarks to the annual conference of the Energy Communities Alliance.

White, senior advisor to the Under Secretary for Science overseeing EM, delivered his remarks to the annual conference of ECA, the organization of local governments adjacent to or impacted by DOE activities.

White told the stakeholders EM plans important progress at a number of cleanup sites, including:

• Construction will begin this year on a new utility shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to provide added ventilation and allow greater flexibility for mining operations.
• Oak Ridge will realize the Vision 2020 goal of completing core cleanup at the East Tennessee Technology Park.
• Demolition will be completed at Hanford’s iconic Plutonium Finishing Plant, which produced two-thirds of the plutonium metal used in the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
• Demolition will begin on Building X-326, the first of three massive former uranium enrichment process buildings at the Portsmouth Site.
• Cleanup of the Separations Process Research Unit site will be declared complete and the area returned to the DOE Office of Naval Reactors.
• Seventy locations where the EM Nevada Program completed successful cleanup, including on the Tonopah Test Range, will be transferred to DOE’s Office of Legacy Management for long-term stewardship.
• Demolition will begin on the Main Plant Processing Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, the last remaining major facility on that site.
•  Also in New York, the last cleanup project at the Brookhaven National Laboratory will be completed with the demolition of a former reactor stack.

White said the planned accomplishments not only will reduce environmental risks significantly but also demonstrate EM’s ability to maintain progress, strengthening the case for resources to continue the mission.

“Such results will continue to demonstrate that the government is able to fulfill its commitments to your communities that played such an important role in the security and prosperity of our entire country,” he told the audience.

“Not only will 2020 serve as a milestone year for EM and the Department, but I believe it will start off a decade of significant progress across the program,” White said. “I’m excited about what is to come, and what we will be able to achieve with the talented and dedicated men and women who work throughout the EM program, and the support of the communities we call home.”

WIPP Miners Finish Shaping New Waste Disposal Panel

EM crews prepare the next area where transuranic waste will be emplaced at EM's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. A continuous miner, at left, cuts through salt 2,150 feet beneath the surface.

CARLSBAD, N.M. – EM Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) miners recently reached a milestone when they completed a “rough cut,” shaping the next area where transuranic waste will be emplaced 2,150 feet beneath the surface.

The rough cut gives the new disposal area, Panel 8, its shape. Each of WIPP’s eight panels consist of seven rooms that are 33 feet wide, 13 feet tall, and 300 feet long — about the length of a football field.

“Our miners are making great progress in preparing the next transuranic waste disposal area — Panel 8,” said Sean Dunagan, president and project manager for WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership. “I am extremely pleased with our mining team and all they’ve accomplished since resuming mining operations in 2018.”

Mining crews use a highly efficient machine known as a continuous miner to cut through the salt. The machine cuts into the salt rock with a rotating drum, which can be elevated. Standing behind the cutting head, a miner remotely operates the machine, which has the capacity to cut 10 tons of salt per minute. Gathering arms move the salt onto a belt that carries it to a haul truck, for use elsewhere in the underground or to a hoist that carries the salt from 2,150 feet underground to a salt tailings pile on the surface.

Work on Panel 8 began in late 2013, but was interrupted for more than three years after separate fire and radiological events in 2014. Mining resumed in January 2018.

Work on Panel 8 continues. The ribs, or walls, will be widened, and salt will be excavated from the floor to create the necessary height so waste canisters can be stacked in the room. When mining is complete, anticipated for later this year, miners will have extracted more than 155,300 tons of salt. Upcoming work on the ribs and floor will total about 36,000 tons.

Workers installed bolts to stabilize the salt as mining progresses. Once mining is done, crews will install lighting, steel bulkheads, and wire mesh on the walls.

WIPP is the nation’s only deep geologic repository for defense-related transuranic nuclear waste. Mining at WIPP is timed so a disposal panel is only ready when it is needed for waste emplacement. This is because the natural movement of salt causes mined openings to close. Panels are mined slightly larger than the desired size to account for this closure, which is attributed to salt rock movement that will eventually permanently encapsulate the waste.

WIPP’s first six panels have been filled, and waste emplacement is taking place in the seventh. When Panel 7 is full, anticipated in late 2021, it will be sealed and waste emplacement will then move to Panel 8.

EM Prime Contractors Surpass Fiscal 2019 Small Business Goals

A number of prime cleanup contractors across the EM complex exceeded annual goals for subcontracting with small businesses in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2019.

Contractors at the Hanford, Savannah River, Oak Ridge, Idaho, Portsmouth, Paducah, and West Valley Demonstration Project sites went beyond their socioeconomic business goals for small business subcontracting. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, set-asides help small businesses compete for and win federal contracts. Contracts can be set aside for small businesses in certification programs and socioeconomic categories such as women and veteran owned businesses, and HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zones) programs.

CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company contracted with Polestar Technical Services, a woman-owned small business, to help design interim safe storage of reactors at Hanford’s 100-K Area and other special projects. From left are Polestar’s Kathy Miller, managing director; Patty Bailey, project operations director; and Bill Bailey, engineering and technical programs director.

Hanford Site

Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant contractor Bechtel National, Inc. awarded almost $62.5 million in small business contracts in fiscal 2019, accounting for 43 percent of all Bechtel contracts that year, beating its goal of about 40 percent.

“Bechtel has subcontracting goals it must meet during the life of its contract,” said Kelly Brazil, EM Office of River Protection contracting officer and small business program manager. “Bechtel is required to report their achievements against these subcontracting goals for DOE’s review twice each fiscal year.”

Bechtel surpassed goals for all six small business subcategories, including small disadvantaged businesses, women owned businesses, and veteran owned businesses.

Cleanup contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company’s small business subcontracting tally was $96.4 million, outpacing its goal by more than 7 percent.

At Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), more than $137.5 million went to small businesses. The tank operations contractor topped its goal by more than 8 percent with a total of nearly 67 percent of all WRPS subcontracts. WRPS also exceeded goals for women owned and HUBZone subcategories.

Mission Support Alliance (MSA), which provides much of Hanford’s support services, awarded more than $89 million to small businesses, surpassing its 50-percent goal and finishing the fiscal year with nearly 81 percent of all awards going to small businesses.

Employees with Strativia, a subcontractor to Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), meets with SRNS buyers to discuss development opportunities at the Savannah River Site. From left are Vera Curtis, SRNS; Ken Kelly and Jason Lee, Strativia; and Karen Webster, SRNS.

Savannah River Site (SRS)

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) beat its subcontracting goals in all small businesses categories. The site management and operations contractor awarded just under $500 million in small business subcontracts, or 75 percent of all awards, eclipsing its goal of 52 percent.

“Supplier development is a critical component and a mission enabler for any company,” DOE-Savannah River Deputy Site Manager Thomas Johnson, Jr. said. “Working with small businesses has certainly proven advantageous for SRS and beneficial to DOE in maximizing use of small businesses.”

A key SRNS small business partner is CTI and Associates, a demolition and destruction, remediation, and environmental services contractor helping reduce the SRS cleanup footprint while preparing the site for new missions.

Savannah River Remediation subcontracted with small business Bk All American Company to provide Salt Disposal Unit 7 excavation work at the Savannah River Site.

SRS liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) surpassed its small business subcontracting goal of 58 percent with over 80 percent in small business awards, totaling $102 million. SRR beat goals in multiple small business subcategories, including women owned and HUBZone subcategories.

Local business BK All American Company received a $7 million contract to provide SRR’s Salt Disposal Unit (SDU) 7 excavation work. The SDUs are designed to permanently dispose of the treated decontaminated salt solution removed from the site’s high-level tank waste in the form of saltstone.

David Bowling, left, owner of Linear Path, and Phil Clark work on data automation as part of their services to UCOR, Oak Ridge’s cleanup contractor.

Oak Ridge 

Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management contractor UCOR awarded more than $168 million in subcontracts in fiscal 2019, with $131 million, or 78 percent, going to small businesses. These awards exceeded the company’s goal of placing 65 percent of all subcontract work with small businesses.

UCOR also surpassed its subcontracting goals with small disadvantaged, HUBZone, and women, veteran, and service-disabled veteran owned businesses.

Small businesses provide UCOR services ranging from automating data processes to manufacturing packaging for waste shipments to repairing large demolition machinery. Each is crucial to helping EM and UCOR stay on track to achieve Vision 2020 — the goal to be the first site in the world to successfully complete cleanup of a former enrichment complex later this year.

“Every partner and every role matters for us to successfully achieve EM’s challenging and complex mission,” EM Senior Advisor Ike White said at a small business event at Oak Ridge in August. “Small businesses have been instrumental in getting us to the finish line with Vision 2020, and EM will continue to depend on their services as we transition and begin major cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.”

Small business Linear Path is a software developer that builds applications for storing and mining data. The company developed automated data processes for UCOR that eliminated the need to print thousands of invoices and spreadsheets, which saved money and reduced the square footage required to store those documents.

Idaho Falls small business Holiday Motor Coach transports Fluor Idaho employees to and from work at the Idaho National Laboratory Site.

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site

Cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho beat its goal by 12 percent, awarding more than $69 million to local and regional small businesses. Those companies provided products such as food, bottled water, fuel, clothing, and ice melt, and services such as engineering, radiological protection, safety, computer support, photography, and technical writing and editing.

“We are fortunate to have high-caliber small businesses across Idaho that support the needs of Fluor Idaho and the Idaho Cleanup Project,” said Connie Flohr, acting manager, Idaho Cleanup Project.

One of those companies is service-disabled, veteran owned small business HukariAscendent, whose nuclear safety and engineering specialists support EM’s INL Site cleanup.

An employee with InSolves, a small, locally-owned business providing technical services and specialty manufactured products to Fluor-BWXT at EM’s Portsmouth Site, operates a computer-controlled lathe in Piketon, Ohio.

Portsmouth, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky sites

The Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office’s prime contractors all exceeded their 50-percent total small business subcontracting goals in fiscal 2019, awarding more than $145 million to smaller firms.

BWXT-Portsmouth, the deactivation and decommissioning contractor at EM’s Portsmouth Site in southern Ohio, awarded approximately $110 million to small businesses, representing 67 percent of its contracting dollars.

Electrical contractors from the Beltline Company have worked on a number of projects as EM’s Paducah Site continues to optimize utilities for the deactivation of the gaseous diffusion plant there. Beltline is a small disadvantaged business based in Paducah, Kentucky.

EM’s Paducah deactivation and remediation contractor, Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, awarded approximately $22 million to small businesses, more than 53 percent of its total.

Mid-America Conversion Services, the operations and maintenance contractor for EM’s Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Conversion Project, awarded $13 million, or 64.5 percent.

West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP)

Cleanup contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley’s small business subcontracting total was just over $27 million, outpacing the contractor’s 55-percent small business subcontracting goal by 12 percent.

Radiation technicians from area small business InTomes survey of the exposed exterior wall of the Main Plant Process Building at EM’s West Valley Demonstration Project Site after the demolition of the Main Plant Office Building.

“Exceeding our small business goals demonstrates WVDP’s commitment to provide opportunities for local companies to assist in our cleanup efforts, while gaining experience working with a federal agency,” EM WVDP Director Bryan Bower said. “It is this experience that can help them grow their business in other federal agencies as well as with state, county, and local governments.”

The site also achieved $809,000 in fiscal 2019 savings by using procurement tools provided by the Supply Chain Management Center, a DOE program that helps EM contractors find better prices for goods and services, and makes the buying process easier, more efficient, and more effective.

-Contributors: Ashley Dernberger, Dylan Nichols, Joseph Pillittere, David Sheeley, Erik Simpson, DT Townsend, Staci West, Ben Williams

Hanford Restoring Bee Nesting Habitats

RICHLAND, Wash. – The EM Richland Operations Office and contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) are implementing measures to support pollinating insects on the Hanford Site, the result of ecological monitoring to help ensure the effects of cleanup on wildlife is minimized.

The measures come after a 2017 study sought the best practices to support pollinators. It identified the common types of bees found at Hanford and the habitats they rely on.

Results from that study were used to develop a pollinator-friendly native plant seed mix, which has been used in more than 120 acres of restoration projects on the site.

Workers with Mission Support Alliance recently installed 20 bee boxes as part of habitat mitigation efforts at the Hanford Site.

The study also identified the need to restore bee nesting habitats in disturbed areas. After a new water line was recently placed across the site’s Central Plateau, crews revegetated disturbed land, and installed 20 bee boxes nearby to provide nesting habitat for leafcutter and mason bees, two bee species common to the site.

“The Department of Energy strives to be an excellent steward of the ecology at Hanford,” said Annabelle Rodriguez with the EM site stewardship division. “When habitats have to be disturbed as part of cleanup work, we perform mitigation actions to benefit the ecology. Installing these bee boxes has allowed us to do just that to ensure we continue to support these important insects at Hanford.”

Bees native to Hanford are typically solitary insects that nest in hollow twigs or wood structures instead of laying eggs in hives. Leafcutter bees are an important pollinator species that helps pollinate the native plants and flowers. Like the well-known honeybee, solitary bees are also experiencing an overall decline in population, so providing these nesting habitats is an important part of species preservation.

Bee boxes at the Hanford Site will support the native bee and native flower populations. Emily Norris, an environmental scientist with Mission Support Alliance’s ecological monitoring and compliance program, is shown at a recently revegetated area near the bee boxes.

The bee boxes are crucial to overall habitat mitigation efforts at Hanford, according to Emily Norris with MSA’s ecological monitoring and compliance program team.

“The boxes were installed next to a recently revegetated site to help increase the abundance of the seeded native flowers,” Norris said. “By supporting pollinators, we’re benefiting all species at Hanford that rely on their services: plants, animals, and more.”

-Contributor: Renee Brooks

Moab Wins Award for Eco-Friendly Purchases

MOAB, Utah – DOE recently recognized EM’s Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project for excellence in “green purchasing,” procuring products with leading, verifiable sustainability attributes.

“Our project sits along the Colorado River and is adjacent to Arches National Park. Therefore, it’s especially important to us to be as mindful as possible when it comes to the project’s environmental impact, and we work hard to reduce it wherever we can,” Moab UMTRA Project Federal Cleanup Director Russell McCallister said. “We are very proud to receive this award as it reflects our focus on environmental stewardship and effectiveness managing our resources economically.”

The DOE GreenBuy Award Program honored EM’s Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project for sustainable purchases such as Parry's Penstemon, a native, drought tolerant flower that reduces water consumption. The Moab Project is planting the water-efficient flowers as part of revegetation efforts.

A close-up view of the water-efficient Parry's Penstemon flowers planted by EM’s Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project.

The Department’s GreenBuy Award Program’s priority products list helps DOE sites pinpoint products that, for example, lower health and environmental impacts and reduce waste management costs.

Federal agencies are required to buy goods that are energy and water efficient and made from biobased or recycled content material. The award program recognizes DOE sites that go beyond those requirements.

Sites can qualify for GreenBuy awards at gold, silver, and bronze levels based on their purchase volume in the priority products list categories. The Moab Project achieved the Silver Award for meeting the goals of a minimum of six products in at least three categories. Among the sustainable products purchased by the Moab Project are water-efficient plants for revegetation efforts and sustainable cell phones for employees.

The last time the Moab Project won a GreenBuy award was in 2013. For more information on the awards, and a list of DOE winners, click here.

-Contributor: Honora Thompson

Activities to Teach About Nevada Cleanup on Hand for Educators

LAS VEGAS – The EM Nevada Program shared its Operation Clean Desert learning materials with educators at the Nevada State Science Teachers Association conference held Feb. 1 at Rancho High School in Las Vegas. The free materials, including classroom activities, recount the history of the Nevada National Security Site, and discuss the science on how the public and environment are safe from the effects of the site’s historical nuclear testing. Above, Kevin Schmidt, an employee with EM Nevada Program contractor Navarro, talks to teachers about how Operation Clean Desert materials can be used in classrooms.

STEM Students Compete to Design Cities in SRS-Managed Event

This year’s winning team in the Future City Regional Competition included, from left, eighth-graders Hailey Meteraud, Marissa Wetzel, and Taylor Talavera from Merriwether Middle School in North Augusta, South Carolina. Here, the team makes its presentation to the judges during the final round. The judges include, from left, Daren Timmons, provost and executive vice chancellor of academic affairs, the University of South Carolina Aiken; Dennis Carr, executive vice president and chief operations officer, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS); and Chris Harkins, SRNS chief engineer.

From left, Seventh-graders Cody Goldschmidt, Aaron Arnold, and Alex Trippi from Kennedy Middle School in Aiken, South Carolina guide judges Marissa Reigel and Robert Wilson from the organization Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness through their model city during the recent daylong Future City Regional Competition at the University of South Carolina Aiken.

The top team — from Merriwether Middle School — received an all-expense-paid trip to compete in the Future City Competition National Finals in Washington, D.C., Feb. 15-19.

Each year, Future City student teams are presented new design challenges, encouraging interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. This year, they were asked to create a system to maintain a reliable supply of clean drinking water in the “Clean Water: Tap into Tomorrow” challenge.

Merriwether Middle School eighth-grader Marisa Wetzel said she enjoys the teamwork and public speaking aspects of this annual competition.

“I’ve never talked in front of a lot of people before. It’s been very helpful,” Wetzel said.

-Contributor: DT Townsend

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