EM Update | Vol. 13, Issue 10 | March 17, 2021

• EM Kicks Off New Era, Priorities Following Year of Cleanup Success
• Mission and Priorities for 2021 Put EM on Track to Success, Panelists Say
• EM Officials Detail Progress on Major Tank Waste Treatment Projects
• Panelists Focus on COVID-19 Impacts, Lessons Learned, and Future Challenges
• Hanford Team Highlights Risk Reduction, Leadership, DFLAW
• Panel Credits ETEC Success to Outreach, Partnerships
• Oak Ridge, WIPP, Los Alamos, and PPPO Focus on Cleanup Progress
• Panelists Focus on EM STEM Education, Workforce Development Initiatives
• Nicole Nelson-Jean Shares Career Advice With Women of Waste Management
• National Cleanup Workshop Set for Sept. 8-10
• Hanford WTP Contractor Earns 70% of Available Fee in Calendar Year 2020

Editor's Note

This EM Update issue is focused on EM’s participation in the Waste Management Symposia 2021, a major conference of government, international, and industry experts on waste management held March 8-12.

EM Kicks Off New Era, Priorities Following Year of Cleanup Success

Employees follow COVID-19 safety protocols while working at Oak Ridge.

EM’s goals for continued safe progress at its sites and its efforts to strengthen the workforce and build partnerships were undaunted during the past year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The result was a set of 2020 successes that paved the way for a new era with a new set of priorities for the new year, EM leaders said last week at the Waste Management Symposia 2021.

During the conference, EM released its Calendar Year 2021 Mission and Priorities list of planned achievements. EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Todd Shrader said making the priorities public helps keep the program challenged and focused. He said EM deliberately set a high bar for achievement.

Shrader noted that the list includes challenging priorities that EM will work hard to achieve.

“Last year’s list, we made most everything. We didn’t make them all, but we made most of them, and COVID certainly impacted it,” he said.

EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Todd Shrader

The 2020 accomplishments included major progress in liquid waste treatment systems, including beginning operations at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site, completing construction of the facilities supporting the Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste treatment approach at Hanford, and although the goal of startup was not achieved, great progress was made towards starting up the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory Site.

“That is really important from the standpoint of credibility within EM of us showing that, yes, we can follow through on the commitments we have to treat waste,” Shrader said.

Shrader was joined on the annual Hot Topics panel by EM’s three “APDASes” — associate principal deputy assistant secretaries — Nicole Nelson-Jean, Mark Gilbertson, and Dae Chung. They discussed EM efforts in the past year to strengthen the workforce and maintain production while promoting safe telework and remaining connected with stakeholders and contractor partners.

Dae Chung, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Corporate Services

“If you look at the past year, there was a defining test of our ability to adjust and adapt,” said Chung, APDAS for corporate services. “I truly believe our EM colleagues demonstrated an impressive ability to adjust and perform very effectively despite many challenges.”

Chung noted EM conducted a variety of workshops in a virtual environment, as well as virtual peer reviews, site tours, training sessions, site advisory board meetings, and other interactions.

“I don’t think we missed any of those stakeholder engagements during the pandemic,” he said.

Nicole Nelson-Jean, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations

Nelson-Jean, APDAS for field operations, said the situation demanded a focus on teamwork between the sites and headquarters, and they delivered.

“We have a lot of people working around the 16 sites very faithfully to get the job done, but there are several other pieces of that,” she said. “There is the regulatory piece, there is the contractual piece, there is the personnel piece. Over the past year there has been a COVID pandemic that we also had to incorporate into how we do our work and continue to do it safely.

“One of the things I’ve appreciated was how well that collaboration has been done, through leadership of ensuring all those pieces came together.”

Shrader said it perhaps was easier for EM workers to adapt to pandemic safety controls than other agencies since they already are accustomed to the use of contamination control equipment and procedures.

“This is our bread and butter,” Shrader said. “We understand PPE (personal protective equipment), we understand engineering controls.”

Mark Gilbertson, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory and Policy Affairs

Gilbertson, the APDAS for regulatory and policy affairs, said EM is focused on highlighting and expanding its efforts to promote STEM education and workforce diversity, priorities expressed by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. He cited EM’s long relationship with Florida International University, a leading educator of Hispanic students, and EM’s Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program that places interns in research positions.

“We are excited about those kinds of relationships and we are going to push to expand those,” Gilbertson said. “The secretary and the new administration are very much supportive of STEM activities at our sites.”

At Oak Ridge, the K-1037 Barrier Production Facility was the largest remaining structure at the East Tennessee Technology Park after five uranium enrichment buildings were taken down there. Finishing this demolition project was a key step toward achieving the site’s Vision 2020.

Shrader said the new administration’s value on fostering environmental justice dovetailed with EM priorities.

“In many ways, EM has always been about environmental justice in cleaning up these sites that are near our communities in various parts of the country, returning the sites to a safe configuration so people in the community can use them,” he said.

To Shrader, that is the core of environmental justice.

"We have always had the moral responsibility to do this,” he said.

Mission and Priorities for 2021 Put EM on Track to Success, Panelists Say

EM’s annual Mission and Priorities list sets a clear path to success across the DOE complex, site managers said last week at the Waste Management Symposia 2021.

The Mission and Priorities list “gives real, actionable goals and demonstrates to all stakeholders that EM wants to make progress,” EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Todd Shrader said in leading a panel discussion on the newly released 2021 priorities.

Shrader joined West Valley Demonstration Project Director Bryan Bower, Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management Manager Jay Mullis, Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Manager Robert Edwards, and Carlsbad Field Office Manager Reinhard Knerr for a discussion on how EM sites view the priorities.

“The goals set us up for future viability to successfully fulfill our mission,” Knerr said.

Mullis noted how the Mission and Priorities reach employees across the workforce.

“The headquarters priorities flow into Oak Ridge’s strategic plan, which flows to site plans, then into people’s performance plans, and onto contractor incentives,” he said.

Portsmouth Site workers survey a transite panel from the X-326 uranium enrichment process building. This is one of the many steps taken to ensure a safe demolition. EM's Calendar Year 2021 Mission and Priorities call for transitioning from deactivation to demolition at Building X-326.

In 2021, Oak Ridge’s EM program is scheduled to remove all of the remaining facilities in the former Biology Complex at the Y-12 National Security Complex. This project is eliminating buildings on DOE’s list of high-risk excess contaminated facilities and clearing land for important national security missions.

Crews at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) installed a tilt cab to an excavator, which will enable the operator to view high-reach areas by tilting the cab upward during demolition, improving safety, efficiency, and productivity. Beginning demolition of the Main Plant Process Building at WVDP, the last major facility at the former commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing center, is one of EM's 2021 priorities.

Last year’s Mission and Priorities list was ambitious, and while EM accomplished the bulk of what was planned, it did not meet every goal it set for 2020, Shrader noted. However, if EM had set easy goals, the cleanup program and its sites would not have been challenged — and that wouldn’t benefit the communities near EM sites, he said.

Edwards agreed, saying, “The priorities set the stage for everything else, and they also help us challenge ourselves and keep us from complacency.”

EM’s 2021 Mission and Priorities are equally ambitious, and the site managers serving on the panel agreed they are ready to meet the priorities head-on.

The panelists also reflected on the unforeseen challenges brought by the pandemic in the past year. They agreed that those challenges provided EM sites valuable lessons learned. Edwards said that COVID-19 taught the sites he manages how to do more with less meetings. That’s a lesson that will pay off in the long run and help the sites be more efficient, he said.

-Contributor: Patrick Hefflinger

EM Officials Detail Progress on Major Tank Waste Treatment Projects

 An employee works on the contactor operating deck within the Salt Waste Processing Facility.

EM federal and contractor officials outlined the status of three significant radioactive liquid waste treatment initiatives at the Waste Management Symposia 2021.

One EM site has commenced full-scale operations at a waste treatment facility, while the other two sites have made significant progress in preparing to address tank farm wastes from Cold War-era spent nuclear fuel reprocessing missions.

Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF)

Mike Pittman, Parsons Corporation vice president of nuclear operations, said the Savannah River Site's SWPF began full-scale operations in January 2021 and has processed almost 750,000 gallons of tank waste. It is anticipated the facility will process up to 6 million gallons of waste during the first year of operations.

SWPF is operated by Parsons, which also designed and constructed the facility. Parsons will continue to operate the facility during its first year of operation.

In preparing for radiological operations, Pittman said employees tested the plant with simulant and crews simulated working in a “hot” environment.

“We did a lot of radiological activities before we were actually radiological,” he said.

Jim Folk, assistant manager for waste disposition at the Savannah River Operations Office, said the project benefited from the reuse of existing tank farm infrastructure.

“We really made a focus on reusing infrastructure — repurposing it,” he said. “That was one area that was significant.”

Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU)

A Fluor Idaho employee kneels atop the process gas filter (PGF) at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit.

Fred Hughes, president of EM contractor Fluor Idaho at the Idaho National Laboratory Site, said a host of modifications have been completed at IWTU in advance of the plant embarking on a 50-day confirmatory run using simulant this summer.

The IWTU was constructed to convert 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid waste into a dry, granular solid using a steam-reforming process. The waste will be containerized and stored onsite until a national geologic repository is available for its disposal.

Robotic arms have been added to the plant’s canister fill cells to decontaminate stainless steel product canisters prior to placement in concrete vaults.

Joel Case, IWTU project manager for the DOE Idaho Operations Office, said once the 50-day confirmatory run is complete, the plant will begin operations using a simulant and then introduce an equal mix of simulant and actual waste for two weeks before moving to full-scale radiological operations.

Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW)

Chemist Kay Keltner with EM Office of River Protection contractor Bechtel National, Inc. works inside the Analytical Laboratory at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant to prepare for cold commissioning. The Analytical Laboratory is key to the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste approach, which will be used to treat millions of gallons of waste from Hanford’s underground tanks.

Hanford has completed the Low-Activity Waste Facility, Analytical Laboratory, Effluent Management Facility, and 14 support structures that will be used in the DFLAW approach. The completed facilities are now in the startup, testing, and commissioning phases. The next major step is to heat up large melters that will vitrify the waste, or immobilize it within glass.

DFLAW is a system of interdependent projects and infrastructure improvements, managed and highly integrated as a program, that must operate together to vitrify Hanford tank waste.

Tom Fletcher, EM Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant federal project director for Hanford, said the site has been focusing on production in addition to construction.

”Production of this type hasn’t been done at Hanford in 30 years,” he said. ”We’re focusing on the three ’Ps’ – plant, process, and people.”

Erik Olds, acting EM chief of staff and Office of River Protection DFLAW deputy integration manager, said communication with all interested parties has been essential as construction continues.

”Communicate (your) intent and goals seamlessly,” he said.

Olds said he is now counting down to the project completion in months instead of years.

-Contributor: Erik Simpson

Panelists Focus on COVID-19 Impacts, Lessons Learned, and Future Challenges

Idaho National Laboratory Site Calcine Retrieval Project Design Engineer Derek Allen follows COVID-19 safety protocols while working at the site.

A year ago, EM and the rest of the complex participated in the annual Waste Management Symposia in person. Nobody foresaw that would be the last in-person meeting they would have due to COVID.

That was just one of the observations EM leaders shared at a “COVID-19 Impacts, Lessons Learned and Future Challenges” panel discussion at this year’s Waste Management Symposia, which was held virtually last week because of the global pandemic.

Within days of last year’s event, EM shifted to a maximum telework posture as part of the federal government’s response to the pandemic. Since then, the global pandemic has taken an extraordinary toll throughout the world. There have been more than 29 million cases and more than 530,000 deaths in the U.S. alone.

Despite the pandemic, EM has continued its cleanup mission, in part because of an extraordinary collaboration between organizations within DOE, said Todd Shrader, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for EM, who began his remarks during the panel by discussing the structure of DOE’s COVID response.

“Communication has really been key,” Shrader said. “In fact, over the last year I’ve never seen the Department work better as a whole than we are now.”

One of the key pieces to keeping EM operating effectively, Shrader noted, has been the DOE COVID-19 Coordination Team that includes members from organizations across DOE, including EM.

“That team has really worked hard to coordinate our responses across the Department to ensure we are sending consistent messages, both to our workforce and partnering with our contractors,” he said.

Shrader also discussed the DOE COVID-19 Workplace Safety Plan, which was released in early March, along with a recent safety pause EM and DOE as a whole implemented across the complex to review and reinforce work precautions.

“We have a very sophisticated and intelligent workforce, so it’s important that we not only talk to them about what we are doing, but why we are doing it,” Shrader said.

Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) Manager Jay Mullis provided a field perspective, including on the vaccine rollout and encouraging employees to take the vaccine.

“Overall, Tennessee is doing a very good job about distributing the vaccine that they do have," Mullis said.

Knowing that many people are worried about side effects from the vaccine, Mullis said he and other leaders shared their own experience with side effects from the vaccine with employees during an OREM safety pause.

“The more we can get folks to take it, I think the better off we’ll be," Mullis said. “We can’t force them, of course, but we can highly encourage them.”

Besides Shrader and Mullis, other panel members included Jim McConnell, Associate Administrator for Safety, Infrastructure and Operations for the National Nuclear Security Administration; Nathan Martin, Director of the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments; Mark Whitney, President of the Amentum Nuclear & Environment Strategic Business Unit; Karen Wiemelt, Director of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.; Sandra Fairchild, Project Services and Support Director for Savannah River Remediation; and Kelly Beierschmitt, Deputy Director of Operations of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Several panel members reflected on recent hopeful developments, such as COVID-19 vaccines now available in increasing numbers. But maintaining vigilance is crucial.

“Things are getting better,” Shrader said. “COVID fatigue has set in, mindsets are moving toward a more hopeful stance. But the fact is people are still dying and this is still a real risk to our workforce.”

EM must stay focused on our COVID safety controls, he added.

Hanford Team Highlights Risk Reduction, Leadership, DFLAW

EM Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance led a Waste Management Symposia 2021 panel with leaders from the site’s major cleanup contractors to discuss transformative leadership during a period of dynamic change.

In the last year, the Hanford team led the site through the challenges of implementing a range of safeguards to ensure the safety and health of the workforce during the pandemic. They successfully transitioned two major contracts, continued to move site culture toward the start of treating low-activity waste, and delivered important progress on cleanup projects across the site.

“Even during a year of unprecedented challenges, the Hanford team demonstrated not only innovation and dedication, but also tenacity and flexibility,” Vance said. “Almost overnight, more than 6,000 employees transitioned from our traditional way of doing work to telework. While no change of that magnitude is ever perfect, the Hanford team worked through issues and corrective actions professionally and constructively while supporting the mission from home.”

Hanford was a featured U.S. site at the symposia, with three panel discussions focused on its work. To kick off the panels, Hanford team leaders discussed their recent cleanup accomplishments and strategies to safely progress activities and projects at Hanford.

“Hanford success has been tied to risk reduction since 1989,” said Brian Stickney, acting deputy manager for the Richland Operations Office. Stickney opened the site’s risk reduction panel by highlighting the significant progress cleaning up the reactor areas along the Columbia River.

Scott Sax, president of Hanford’s Central Plateau Cleanup Company, discussed his company’s plans to place two K Area reactors in interim safe storage — the last two of nine Hanford reactors to be placed into safe storage. Sax also highlighted risk reduction efforts in groundwater treatment and the planned transfer of cesium and strontium capsules to dry storage.

In the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility, concentrated low-activity waste will be mixed with silica and other glass-forming materials and will be fed into the LAW Facility’s two melters and heated to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. The glass mixture will then be poured into stainless steel containers, which are 4 feet in diameter, 7 feet tall, and weigh more than 7 tons. The Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant startup team is currently testing mechanical equipment for the facility’s “bogie,” or cart transport rail system, pictured here.

Startup of the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) treatment — the subject of the final of the three featured site panels — was a chance for Hanford leaders to show their close coordination to prepare the system for operations. The panel demonstrated how an integrated approach was necessary to achieve success in beginning the treatment process and how robust infrastructure and enhanced communications were critical for success.

“With collaboration and communication as the backbone, the DFLAW team is poised to pre-treat tank waste and heat up the world’s largest melter as early as the end of this calendar year,” said Tom Fletcher, the DFLAW program manager. “These two major accomplishments would not be possible without the dedicated and talented workforce who continue to make significant progress despite COVID challenges.”

In addition to Vance, Stickney, Sax, and Fletcher, Hanford team members who served on the panels included Office of River Protection Deputy Manager Ben Harp; Hanford Chief Financial Officer Greg Jones; Hanford Communications Director Carrie Meyer; Assistant Manager for Tank Farms Delmar Noyes; Assistant Manager for Technical and Regulatory Support Glyn Trenchard; Assistant Manager for River and Plateau Bill Hamel; Assistant Manager for Mission Support Jeff Frey; Washington River Protection Solutions President John Eschenberg; Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) President Bob Wilkinson; HMIS Chief Operations Officer Amy Basche; and Hanford Vitrification Plant Project Director Valerie McCain.

-Contributor: Cameron Hardy

Panel Credits ETEC Success to Outreach, Partnerships

Earlier this year, EM workers knocked down the 13th of 18 DOE-owned buildings at the Energy Technology Engineering Center.

Cleanup success at the Energy Technology and Engineering Center (ETEC ) in California is due in large part to the site’s outreach to the community and its nurturing of key partnerships, Federal Project Director John Jones said at the Waste Management Symposia 2021.

Jones said the site took determined steps to educate the public about its history, its natural features, and the steps EM was taking to thoroughly characterize the site and develop an environmental impact statement (EIS) to inform cleanup decisions.

Actions included outreach to neighbors and area residents, local service clubs, former site workers, and Native Americans who consider the area sacred. Jones said he recruited John Cherry, a noted hydrology expert, to conduct a class for the community on groundwater.

Further, the site held workshops as it was forming its EIS. Former site workers were invited back for tours. Native Americans were invited to write a chapter on their history for the EIS, and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians became a cooperating agency in the cleanup.

“We started a public effort parallel with the technical work we were doing,” Jones said during a panel discussion at the virtual conference where ETEC was a featured site. “We did intensive stakeholder meetings. We were meeting weekly with the community, with the regulators, with Boeing, the landowner. We held various seminars, town halls. We were meeting with people one on one. We did newsletters, posters.

“What this did was personalize to the community that we were listening to them,” Jones said. “It really helped us.”

Before-and-after photos of EM’s cleanup at the Energy Technology Engineering Center’s Radioactive Materials Handling Facility. In early November, workers safely and successfully tore down the last of 10 buildings at the facility.

Covering only 90 acres leased from the Boeing Corp., within the Santa Susana Field Laboratory on a rugged hilltop between the San Fernando and Simi valleys outside Los Angeles, ETEC nonetheless came with big challenges, Jones said. The site once was nestled amidst farmland; today, more than a million people live nearby including a number of organizations with energetic interests in the cleanup.

ETEC personnel conducted testing of miniature nuclear reactors and researched liquid metals in the 1950s and 1960s. Most site activities ceased in the late 1980s and cleanup ensued but was halted following a judicial ruling in 2007 that prompted DOE to undertake an EIS.

Field workers gathered more than 10,000 samples that were analyzed for more than 200 radiological and chemical components. Jones said the extensive sampling helped build further credibility.

The site also formed partnerships with state and federal agencies as it advanced cleanup plans, Jones said.

ETEC has issued records of decision for demolition of the final 18 DOE-owned buildings at the site, and for groundwater remediation. All but five buildings have been demolished, with the remainder expected to be down by the end of the year.

Oak Ridge, WIPP, Los Alamos, and PPPO Focus on Cleanup Progress

EM sites provided updates on their cleanup progress during individual sessions at Waste Management Symposia 2021.

Oak Ridge

Leaders from DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM), cleanup contractor UCOR, and the Oak Ridge community highlighted the approaches that led to Oak Ridge’s historic cleanup success last year and a new chapter of transformation on the horizon during a session at the Waste Management Symposia 2021.

OREM Manager Jay Mullis covered the cleanup progress that has occurred since last year’s symposia, with the most significant achievement being the completion of core cleanup at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). It was DOE’s largest-ever completed deactivation and demolition project and the first removal of a former enrichment site in the world. Mullis also shared a preview of the major EM projects underway at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12).

UCOR President and CEO Ken Rueter highlighted the strategies that led the contractor to achieve the world-first accomplishment under budget and ahead of schedule. His presentation focused on the innovations and partnerships that made ETTP’s cleanup possible. Rueter noted that those innovations and partnerships are leading to new successes at ORNL and Y-12.

The Oak Ridge session also included two panels. The first featured representatives from OREM, UCOR, and the community who discussed EM’s unique approach at ETTP that converted a contaminated enrichment complex into a community asset that is attracting new businesses and providing opportunities for the region through economic development, tourism, and recreation.

The second panel featured federal and contractor managers who explored the complexities of moving a large workforce from an EM-owned site — ETTP — to ORNL and Y-12, where DOE has important ongoing research and national security mission. Panelists also detailed the transformation and modernization EM will enable at those sites in the years ahead.

-Ben Williams

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

Workers pour concrete for what is known as a mud mat at the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System’s New Filter Building. The concrete mat will be used to place the building slab on grade formwork. The 55,000-square-foot building's filters will be the final stop for air exhausted from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant underground repository.

EM’s WIPP is poised for a huge leap forward in 2021 and beyond.

WIPP slowed, but did not stop, operations during the COVID-19 pandemic and is laying the groundwork to rebound in the years ahead, participants in a panel focused on WIPP updates said during the Waste Management Symposia 2021.

The panelists included EM Carlsbad Field Office Manager Reinhard Knerr and Nuclear Waste Partnership President and Project Manager Sean Dunagan.

“The safety of the people and the safety of the mine are our No. 1 focus,” Dunagan said.

The facility outside Carlsbad, New Mexico is the nation’s only deep geologic underground repository for defense-generated transuranic (TRU) waste.

WIPP is processing up to five TRU waste shipments per week during the pandemic; that number is expected to increase to 17 per week by 2025.

Two capital projects and more than a dozen infrastructure improvement projects, including a new fire protection system, will upgrade the 30-year-old facility to continue its critical national mission.

The Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System will advance repository airflow from 170,000 cubic feet per minute to 540,000 cubic feet per minute; the utility shaft will be the primary air intake and have hoisting capability as WIPP begins mining new panels to the west.

Los Alamos

N3B employees prepare transuranic waste drums at Area G for transportation to the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Radioassay and Nondestructive Testing facility.

A panel at the Waste Management Symposia 2021 highlighted EM’s successes in legacy cleanup and waste management at EM’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) site in northern New Mexico.

The panel featured several subject-matter experts from N3B, the EM Los Alamos Field Office’s (EM-LA) cleanup contractor.

N3B President Glenn Morgan discussed key accomplishments since the start of N3B’s Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup Contract with EM-LA in 2018, including significant progress controlling the migration of the hexavalent chromium groundwater plume, commencing transuranic (TRU) shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) three years ahead of schedule, and starting comingled EM and National Nuclear Securing Administration (NNSA) TRU shipments from NNSA’s Radioassay and Nondestructive Testing facility at LANL. The latter effort will lead to increased efficiency in shipping waste offsite from LANL.

N3B Vice President Joe Legare addressed the site’s response to COVID-19, including a Resumption Operations Center and an Operational Excellence Initiative training for workers whose jobs were not suited to telework during the pandemic.

The panelists discussed Technical Area 21’s Building 257 — the last remaining building to be demolished at the technical area — and shared lessons learned applicable to EM sites across the complex.

Groundwater remediation discussions centered on a chromium interim measure, which uses a pump-and-treat system to control the hexavalent chromium plume’s migration, and data that will support EM-LA as it determines a final remedy for groundwater remediation.

Panelist also detailed how EM-LA and N3B approach TRU waste retrievals, processing, and disposition, including unique and challenging waste types at LANL.

N3B also focused on how the Technical Working Group — a monthly discussion with stakeholders on technical issues related to legacy cleanup — has maintained momentum during the pandemic, benefiting stakeholders and EM’s legacy cleanup mission at LANL.

-Contributor: Estevan Lujan

Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO)

This remotely captured photograph shows Portsmouth Site workers snipping the bolts near the top of the X-326 Process Building prior to removal of a transite-siding panel. Structural demolition of the building begins this year.

EM Portsmouth Site Lead Jeff Bettinger opened his panel presentation at the Waste Management Symposia 2021 with news that transite-siding removal has begun to prepare for structural demolition of the X-326 uranium-enrichment process building.

Lessons learned from the preparations to remove the massive building at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio also are benefitting Portsmouth’s X-333 building deactivation as well as work at the Paducah, Kentucky site, Bettinger added.

PPPO is looking to bring down four of 10 sections at X-326 this year, with much of the resulting debris placed in the newly constructed Portsmouth On-Site Waste Disposal Facility (OSWDF). Advanced run-off treatment systems are in place for both the building and OSWDF, and additional air-monitoring stations are operational around the site.

Soil from groundwater plumes will serve as fill material for the lined disposal cells. After plume removal, the underlying land could be returned to the community. Finally, 200 more acres will be transferred to the local community this year. Added to the 80 acres transferred in 2018, this will represent 10% of the site’s footprint set aside for economic diversification.

“It’s an exciting time at Portsmouth,” Bettinger said. “We have a very intense and unified strategic focus.”

Meanwhile, the Paducah Site will tear down its last electrical switchyard from production years. A new substation now provides the site’s 12 hourly megawatts. This right-sizing from the previous 3,000 megawatt-per-hour infrastructure is one of many efforts to reduce surveillance and maintenance costs, said Site Lead Jennifer Woodard. Some of the material from these projects goes to support regional economic development efforts. Also underway at Paducah is the disposition offsite of 1.5 million pounds of refrigerant.

Speaking for PPPO’s Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Conversion Project, Program Manager Zak Lafontaine described recent upgrades to improve plant safety and reliability. The improvements were made safely at both the Portsmouth and Paducah DUF6 facilities, Lafontaine said.

-Contributors: Donnie Locke, Brad Mitzelfelt

Panelists Focus on EM STEM Education, Workforce Development Initiatives

Savannah River Operations Office Engineer Joel Maul talks with students at Diamond Lakes Elementary School in Hephzibah, Georgia during a visit after several weeks of correspondence with the students.

EM is committed to promoting science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) initiatives and developing the inclusive nuclear workforce of the future, panelists said during the Waste Management Symposia 2021.

The Global STEM Initiatives Panel covered issues including diversity and inclusion, nurturing interest through STEM programs, and the unique challenges and opportunities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nicole Nelson-Jean, EM Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations, said EM seeks to employ a workforce that is not only diverse, but inclusive of the perspectives brought by people of varying backgrounds.

“It is really important that we cast the net wide and ensure that we are deliberate when we do it,” Nelson-Jean said. “That’s where you get a diverse and inclusive workforce for better decision-making and, ultimately, better results.”

EM manages and participates in partnerships and programs encouraging interest in STEM. Six national laboratories participate in the Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program, managed by the Savannah River National Laboratory. The program trains scientists and engineers in addition to deploying technologies that specifically contribute to the EM mission, and Nelson-Jean said the program “serves as a pipeline for diverse talent.”

EM supports university programs and partnerships, such as the DOE-Florida International University Science and Technology Workforce Development Program and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s partnership with the University of Tennessee. Additionally, EM contributes $3 million directly to STEM education each year.

Fostering STEM education and employment pipelines is critical to EM, particularly in the face of projected workforce gaps. Kristen Ellis, Senior Advisor for STEM and Talent Acquisition, said that only 8% of the government-wide workforce is under the age of 30, and within EM headquarters, less than 15% of the workforce is under 40.

“We need to be prepared,” Ellis said. “We need to identify which positions don’t have successors...and how we are growing the next generation.”

Ellis also identified opportunities in the transition to virtual work and learning due to COVID-19, such as increased flexibility in job recruiting and interest in online materials like DOE STEM Rising.

“As we continue to gain lessons learned from the pandemic, we will continue to look at how to make these programs more vibrant and appealing to future students, while recognizing that we have to do outreach to all students and make sure we don’t leave anyone behind,” Ellis said.

-Contributor: Rachel Palmour

Nicole Nelson-Jean Shares Career Advice With Women of Waste Management

Nicole Nelson-Jean, EM Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations, participated in the Women of Waste Management program at the Waste Management Symposia 2021. Panelists talked about their careers and offered guidance to students and early-career professionals in the program sponsored by the Fluor Corporation. Nelson-Jean’s advice: “You can go as far as you want to go, and do any job or any particular thing that you would like to do in your career. I would not want anyone to set their limitations to someone else’s standards. I never set limitations on myself. I would say, talk to as many people as you can about their own journeys. I was always open to possibilities in my career and did not pigeonhole myself to any particular job. I would tell anyone to always be open because people always want to work with people who are willing to say yes, willing to do something new, to get a little bit uncomfortable. Sometimes to be able to move to the next step you have to get a little bit uncomfortable.” Other featured panelists were Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, former Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration; and Cheryl Cabbil, Amentum senior vice president, operations. Jan Preston, Fluor Corporation senior director, operations, served as moderator.

National Cleanup Workshop Set for Sept. 8-10

Top EM officials and leaders from cleanup communities will headline the 2021 National Cleanup Workshop that will be held Sept. 8-10 in Alexandria, Virginia.

Speakers will include William “Ike” White, Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management; Todd Shrader, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management; and other officials from EM headquarters and field sites.

Participants also will include Ron Woody, county executive of Roane County, Tennessee, Brent Gerry, mayor of the City of West Richland, Washington, and Rebecca Casper, mayor of the City of Idaho Falls, Idaho.

The annual National Cleanup Workshop brings together DOE executives, industry leaders, national and local elected officials, and other stakeholders to discuss DOE's progress on the cleanup of the environmental legacy of the nation's Manhattan Project and Cold War nuclear weapons program.

This year’s program theme is “Capitalizing on a New Era to Build on Cleanup Successes.”

Topics to be discussed will include new EM initiatives; the path toward initiating tank waste treatment at Hanford; opportunities for small business subcontracting; implementation of the End-State Contracting Model; infrastructure priorities across the EM complex; progress on radioactive waste tank closure; lessons learned from operations during COVID; planning for the workforce of the future; and building on D&D successes to further reduce risk and site footprints.

The Energy Communities Alliance sponsors the workshop in cooperation with EM and the Energy Facility Contractors Group. More information will be forthcoming. Check EM’s 2021 National Cleanup Workshop website for updates.

Hanford WTP Contractor Earns 70% of Available Fee in Calendar Year 2020

Workers at Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant manipulate an empty container that will be filled with waste immobilized in glass when the plant begins treating Hanford’s tank waste following commissioning of facilities.

RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s Office of River Protection contractor for the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI), has earned $5.54 million, or 70.4% of the available award fee of $7.87 million for the performance evaluation period of calendar year 2020.

EM releases information relating to contractor fee payments — earned by completing work called for in the contracts — to further transparency in its cleanup program.

BNI’s performance was evaluated against six criteria incentives. Of the six criteria, BNI received one “excellent,” one “very good,” and four “good” ratings. The overall rating was “good.”

BNI’s achievements included completing the turnover of all systems in the WTP Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility and Effluent Management Facility (EMF) from construction to startup testing prior to a Dec. 31, 2020 milestone for completing the work in the Hanford Consent Decree. Those facilities will support the site’s Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) program to begin treating radioactive waste from large underground tanks. Startup testing is the phase between construction and commissioning. Commissioning is the phase between startup testing and facility operations.

The high-pressure steam system at the Hanford Site’s Low-Activity Waste Facility was recently activated. During full operations, these aboveground pipe racks will deliver steam 24/7 to the facility where tank waste will be immobilized in glass.

The work at WTP to complete construction of all facilities required for DFLAW operations was done safely and on time despite the unprecedented challenges presented by reduced operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, and BNI ensured effective safety controls were in place that protected the health and safety of the workforce.

Additional examples of BNI achievements in 2020 include approval of chemical safety management and nuclear material maintenance programs, as well as updates to the plant’s commissioning plan. BNI also completed the Analytical Laboratory readiness-to-operate performance milestone and validated implementation of safety management programs through an executive safety review board. That laboratory, which is part of WTP, is where technicians and chemists will analyze approximately 3,000 samples of tank waste each year to support DFLAW operations.

Areas for improvement for BNI include implementing corrective actions, resolving issues to mitigate single-point failures, and maturing the plant operations culture.

View the 2020 scorecard for BNI here.

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