EM Update | Vol. 13, Issue 23 | June 15, 2021

• Hanford Groundwater Sampling Crews Help Drive Program’s Success
• West Valley Marks Milestone by Removing Final ‘Balance-of-Site’ Facility
• SRS Makes Room for New Spent Nuclear Fuel Dissolving Mission
• Oak Ridge Contractor Hosts Mentorship for Environmental Scholars Interns
• Improvements Pave Way for SWPF Success at Savannah River Site
• Idaho Site’s New Employee Safety Program Evaluates Workplace Risks
• Special HEPA Filters Pass Commissioning Test at Hanford
• SRS Contractor Awards STEM Grants to Elementary School Teachers

Hanford Groundwater Sampling Crews Help Drive Program’s Success

Juan Aguilar with EM contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company collects a groundwater sample from a monitoring well near the Columbia River. Sampling data has shown a significant reduction in contamination along the river over the past decade.

RICHLAND, Wash. – While it’s often the Hanford Site’s six advanced pump-and-treat facilities that get the glory — they’re on track to treat more than 2 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater for the seventh straight year — a field sampling group quietly plays a critical role in the success of the sitewide risk-reduction effort.

Each year, field crews with EM Richland Operations Office contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company (CPCCo) log more than 80,000 miles, collecting up to 25,000 samples of soil and groundwater from hundreds of strategically placed monitoring wells that dot the 580-square-mile Hanford Site.

Detailed data gleaned from analysis of the samples helps gauge the performance of ongoing remediation efforts and supports decision-making to drive efficient, cost-effective groundwater cleanup approaches.

“Groundwater sampling is a key part of our program that doesn’t always get a lot of attention,” said Mike Cline, director of the soil and groundwater division at Hanford. “The quality of information we get from the thousands of collected samples each year is invaluable for evaluating current cleanup methods and planning future remediation efforts.”

A team with EM contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company prepares to collect groundwater samples from a monitoring well near the center of the 580-square-mile Hanford Site. Each year, field crews log more than 80,000 miles visiting about 2,400 wells and collecting up to 25,000 soil and groundwater samples, which are shipped to a laboratory for analysis.

Sampling results indicate the levels of contaminants in plumes — or areas of groundwater contamination — to help determine the effectiveness of pump-and-treat operations and other cleanup methods. Over the past decade, the results highlight a significant reduction in groundwater contamination along the river, particularly of hexavalent chromium, a toxic chemical used as a corrosion inhibitor in Hanford’s reactors during operations.

Placement of the monitoring wells is also determined using modeling data based on sample analyses. Well location is important for understanding groundwater flow to help manage and reduce the plumes.

“Many of our wells and sampling locations are off the beaten path. Our sampling teams are out in all seasons and weather conditions supporting the groundwater program. It can be tough work,” said Kyle Stiles, supervisor for CPCCo’s field sampling operations. “And not only are our field crews good at what they do, but they also do it safely.”

-Contributor: Lynn Tegeler

West Valley Marks Milestone by Removing Final ‘Balance-of-Site’ Facility

A worker pours grout into a well casing prior to its removal at the West Valley Demonstration Project. The project completes the removal of 46 facilities no longer needed for EM’s cleanup at the site.

WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – EM and its cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) recently removed a septic system and well associated with a former one-room schoolhouse demolished in 2007.

The project marks a significant achievement, completing the removal of 46 “balance-of-site” facilities, which are structures no longer needed for EM’s cleanup at the site.

EM WVDP Director Bryan Bower commended the CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) team for its work.

“The CHBWV team completed the last balance-of-site structure safely and in a manner that was protective of the surrounding community as part of our cleanup efforts,” Bower said. “This is a testament to the dedication and commitment of our employees to our cleanup mission.”

Workers used an excavator to remove the concrete septic tank and associated piping, and took out the 37-foot-deep well and piping in five-foot sections. They packaged the waste and shipped it for disposal offsite. The area was graded and reseeded to complete the restoration.

CHBWV President John Rendall said his employees continue to reduce legacy risks at the site in an environmentally sound manner.

“I’m proud to be a part of an organization that prides itself on delivering results in a manner that is safe and protective of the local community and environment,” Rendall said. “Our accomplishments on this project would not be possible without the dedication and skills of our employees, and I look forward to continuing our work together in reducing legacy risks at the site.”

The schoolhouse was once part of the West Valley School District. It closed when the district consolidated and built a new school in the 1930s. The building was later used for training for cleanup operations.

-Contributor: Joseph Pillittere

SRS Makes Room for New Spent Nuclear Fuel Dissolving Mission

A train pushes a container full of old equipment from H Canyon to the Solid Waste Management Facility for disposal at the Savannah River Site. The equipment is being removed to make way for a new H Canyon spent nuclear fuel dissolving campaign.

AIKEN, S.C. – EM contractor employees at the Savannah River Site (SRS) are preparing for an upcoming campaign to dissolve stainless-steel-clad spent nuclear fuel by installing a new dissolver and an additional double-sized tank for dissolved material storage.

Workers with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) are making room for the new equipment by disposing of old equipment at the H Canyon Chemical Separations Facility.

“The upcoming dissolving campaign will add a third electrolytic dissolver to the complement of equipment already in use in the canyon and will provide the capability to dissolve stainless-steel fuel,” SRNS Senior Vice President of Environmental Management Operations Wyatt Clark said. “The current chemical dissolvers are designed to dissolve aluminum-clad fuel, so they are not adequate to support the upcoming mission.”

A significant deactivation and removal campaign is underway to prepare for the mission. Crews at H Canyon recently finished removing the first of three shipments of legacy equipment to make room for this new campaign.

“When H Canyon equipment needs to be replaced, the old equipment is placed in a large, engineered container called a burial box, using the canyon remote cranes,” SRNS EM Operations Project Manager Richard Brown said. “Once that box is full, we secure the package, verify it is free of any radioactive contamination, and transfer it to the SRS Solid Waste Management Facility for disposal.”

To minimize the number of burial boxes required to remove old equipment, SRNS purchased a special cutting tool and a grapple system. These tools will be used to remotely reduce the size of large equipment to maximize the amount of equipment loaded into a burial box.

“We will be better protecting our workers through the use of this equipment since the material will be cut remotely instead of in person by employees,” said Brown. “While this equipment was specifically purchased for the upcoming dissolving campaign, we will be able to utilize it for future missions as well.”

Preparations for the new campaign also include preparing and calibrating the double-sized tank and new dissolver with the use of a bladder tank and pump system. The use of the bladder tank and pump system speeds up the calibration process by pumping water versus using a domestic water hose to fill the 50- and 150-gallon prover tanks, which are vessels used to add a specific volume of water to the tanks being calibrated. Once a calibration run is complete, the water is pumped from the vessel back to the bladder tank, using recycled water instead of fresh water for each of the four minimum calibration runs per vessel.

The stainless-steel-clad fuel is currently stored in SRS’s K Area and will be shipped to the canyon for processing. Once the fuel is dissolved in the electrolytic dissolver, the resulting solution will be transferred to the liquid waste tank farms. The material will then be transferred to the Defense Waste Processing Facility where it will be converted into a solid glass form and placed in an SRS facility for interim storage.

Spent nuclear fuel is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor. The spent nuclear fuel from the site’s former production reactors, and from foreign and domestic research reactor programs, is safely stored in an underwater storage facility in L Area, called a disassembly basin.

Most spent nuclear fuel stored in L Basin is covered, or clad, in aluminum and then placed in aluminum bundles. However, a small portion of the fuel there is housed in aluminum bundles but clad in stainless steel or zirconium alloy, a type of metal known for its hardness and corrosion resistance.

-Contributor: Lindsey MonBarren

Oak Ridge Contractor Hosts Mentorship for Environmental Scholars Interns

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Developing a diverse workforce is vital to achieving Oak Ridge’s ambitious cleanup goals in the years ahead.

EM cleanup contractor UCOR conducts college internships each year to attract and retain the next generation of talent. This year, the company is expanding its internship program by hosting interns from the Mentorship for Environmental Scholars (MES) Program for the first time.

Looking to inspire interest among a diverse group of students, UCOR joins other DOE locations — including the Savannah River and Hanford sites and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory — to host MES interns.

UCOR’s MES interns arrived last week to begin learning and supporting projects in engineering, reindustrialization, and communications and community outreach. The students include:

• Jordan Washington, a civil engineering major at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University.
• Sierra Generette, a graduate of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University with a bachelor’s degree in natural resources and conservation. She also received a certification in waste management from the university.
• McKenzie Taylor, a computer informational systems major at Savannah State University in Georgia.

The MES Program is a paid summer internship that provides underrepresented college students exposure research in the areas of environmental science, environmental justice, and environmental policy.

The program recruits qualified undergraduates from historically Black colleges, tribal colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and other minority-serving institutions for extensive training that will direct them toward employment in various research and management positions within DOE. To qualify for the MES Program, applicants must be pursuing a degree in a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)-related field such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, or environmental science.

“Even though UCOR completed major cleanup at the East Tennessee Technology Park as part of Vision 2020, we realize that much more cleanup will be required here in Oak Ridge and across the nation,” UCOR President and CEO Ken Rueter said. “Because of that continuing need for workers, we are committed to cultivating the next generation of cleanup workers.”

UCOR’s summer internship program pairs college students from across the nation with mentors. UCOR has hired several participants of the program after graduation, and they are advancing cleanup efforts at the site.

-Contributor: Shannon Potter

Improvements Pave Way for SWPF Success at Savannah River Site

AIKEN, S.C. – EM has reduced the amount of time to qualify a salt waste batch at the Savannah River Site (SRS), enabling a steady stream of the material to the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF).

This past January, SWPF contractor Parsons Corp. began the first year of operating the facility, which is designed to process up to 9 million gallons of salt waste per year.

Processing 6 million gallons of SRS tank waste in 2021 is an EM priority. To support this priority, SRS liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) collaborated with the Savannah River National Laboratory to improve processes to expedite the preparation and qualification of salt solution to support processing at these rates. These improvements led to qualifying the latest batch to feed SWPF, known as Salt Batch 3, in a record seven weeks compared to previous batches that took up to six months.

Compiling and qualifying a 1-million-gallon salt batch is a complex process. Improvements made throughout the batch qualification process included streamlining the required salt sample receipt, analysis, data review, and report. This led to expanded use of computer modeling and automated calculations using the sample analysis data, and development and deployment of an electronic approval process. Salt Batch 3 was also the first salt batch to be compiled and qualified in SRR’s newest salt waste blend tank, Tank 41.

SRR President and Project Manager Phil Breidenbach said he is confident in the abilities of SRR and Parsons to advance tank waste processing toward the goal of tank closure at SRS.

“The strong relationships formed over the common goal of eliminating radioactive liquid waste stored in aging waste tanks motivates the team to overcome challenges,” Breidenbach said. “We carefully evaluated the salt batch compilation and qualification procedures and made many changes to streamline the process.”

Once salt waste is received at SWPF, it is treated to remove the high-activity radionuclides. The high-activity stream is transferred to the Defense Waste Processing Facility, where it is converted into a glass form and poured into 10-foot-tall stainless steel canisters, where the glass solidifies. The decontaminated salt solution stream is transferred from SWPF to the Saltstone Production Facility for processing into saltstone and permanent disposal in Saltstone Disposal Units.

SWPF Project Manager Mike Pittman is pleased with the site coordination involved with SWPF, and proud his employees are stepping up to execute the cleanup mission safely.

“Parsons and SRR share a close relationship because we work toward the same goal of eliminating the legacy high-level tank waste to make our environment and community infinitely safer,” Pittman said. “I am proud our team has prevailed through complex construction and startup operations to get to the point of processing radioactive liquid waste.”

DOE-Savannah River Assistant Manager for Waste Disposition Jim Folk said not only does reducing the time to prepare and qualify a salt batch facilitate schedule improvements, but the use of innovative processes and electronic capabilities increases efficiency and safety.

“It takes many people performing many different tasks to prepare and qualify feed for SWPF processing,” Folk said. “At DOE, we are pleased when processes are streamlined by eliminating unnecessary steps, reducing the need for human interaction, and increasing confidence in the safe processing of the salt waste to support DOE’s mission.”

-Contributor: Ashley Dernberger

Idaho Site’s New Employee Safety Program Evaluates Workplace Risks

A new safety program launched by EM contractor Fluor Idaho benefits all Idaho Cleanup Project employees, including those who transfer spent nuclear fuel from wet to dry storage, as shown here.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – EM and its cleanup contractor at the DOE Idaho National Laboratory Site have implemented an innovative safety program to help workers evaluate workplace risks.

Fluor Idaho brought the personal risk evaluation process (PREP) training to the Idaho Cleanup Project workforce this spring. Both Fluor Idaho senior management and union leadership agreed the training would help promote employee participation in evaluating their workplaces and mitigating potential safety hazards.

PREP goes further than most safety training programs that teach employees to look for hazards. It instructs them to recognize energies present, determine what hazards they may pose, and mitigate those risks. By doing that, workers are more likely to understand the risks present.

Two energies are unavoidable and constant — human energy and gravity. Other energies — electrical, cold and heat, pressure, biological, radiation, noise, object in motion, and chemical — can be managed, and exposure to them can be reduced.

“PREP differs from other safety programs by engaging employees, and in particular, their decision-making skills, in every step of the work process,” Fluor Idaho Environmental, Safety, and Health Director Kliss McNeel said. “By implementing PREP in conjunction with our other employee-owned safety programs, directors and union leaders felt that it would add an additional level of protection for our employees at both in-town and site facilities.”

Mark Brown, EM deputy manager at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory Site, and Kliss McNeel, Fluor Idaho environmental, safety, and health director, attend the 2019 Safety Culture Fall Workshop where personal risk evaluation process training was first discussed with an EM audience.

Whether it is a boiler building at a nuclear facility — with electrical, pressure, and noise energies — or a print shop — with objects-in-motion, electrical, and chemical energies — each presents potential hazards and risks to employees.

Recognizing that employees add energy to every situation and can control that energy is key to keeping safe.

“Changing conditions at the jobsite and worker distractions pose a potential safety risk,” McNeel said. “Under PREP and our existing workplace procedures, employees can initiate a stop-work to reevaluate the potential hazard.”

McNeel said employee feedback on the new training has been very positive.

“Employees like the active engagement aspect of PREP,” she said.

-Contributor: Erik Simpson

Special HEPA Filters Pass Commissioning Test at Hanford

RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) Analytical Laboratory team has completed a commissioning test of a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration system that uses a new filter design that exceeds nuclear industry standards and requirements.

Finishing the test was a prerequisite for the laboratory team to begin using scientific equipment with radioactive materials, which is required for operations.

“The plant team and Mississippi State University (MSU) have collaborated successfully throughout the design, installation, and multiple types of stringent tests of these special filters,” said Mat Irwin, Office of River Protection deputy assistant manager for the plant. “These filters have exceeded all standards required for HEPA filtration, and now we’re confident the overall system is ready for operations.”

HEPA filters are critical to the nuclear industry for their ability to filter airborne contaminants from ventilation and exhaust systems in accordance with state and federal requirements. The filters will also be used in the plant’s Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility, which is where large melters will immobilize Hanford tank waste in glass when operations begin.

“It was definitely a project-wide effort to safely carry out the tests,” said Jeffrey Peterson, a field test manager with Waste Treatment Completion Company, a subcontractor to WTP prime contractor Bechtel National, Inc. “The team included maintenance crews, commissioning technicians, on-site MSU experts, and test engineers making this important step toward melter heatup and ultimate operations possible.”

Banks of housings make up the high-efficiency particulate air filtration system inside Hanford’s Analytical Laboratory. Each housing contains four filters.

For testing, the team saturated each HEPA filter with an aerosol spray to simulate potential radioactive contamination, passed air through the filters, and collected and analyzed air samples on the other side to ensure the filters captured the simulant as designed. During future operations, air from the laboratory will flow through the HEPA filters before reaching the building’s environmental exhaust system, where it will then be sampled to ensure it meets Washington State Department of Health standards.

Each HEPA filter weighs more than 70 pounds and is used in multiple banks of four filters, called housings. In total, the laboratory commissioning team tested 128 filters to verify each one was installed correctly, sealed, functioned properly, and met operational air flow requirements. The filters are constructed of fragile fiberglass sheets resembling paper, which are pleated and installed in a filter pack, similar to a thick furnace filter.

The filters, designed by Bechtel and Porvair Filtration Group, are relatively new to the nuclear industry. Previous testing conducted at MSU demonstrated these filters are at least five times stronger than standard HEPA filters and exceed plant-specific standards and codes set by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Previous code compliance testing at MSU, Underwriters Laboratories, and the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center validated the filter performance.

Commissioning tests ensure utilities, equipment, and process systems are integrated and ready to support future plant operations. There are approximately 65 commissioning test packages, incorporating over 250 individual objectives, that span the plant’s LAW Facility, Analytical Laboratory, Effluent Management Facility, and Balance of Facilities.

The plant will vitrify, or immobilize in glass, tank waste as part of Hanford’s Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste program. The program is a system of interdependent projects and infrastructure improvements, managed and highly integrated, that must operate together to vitrify the waste. During vitrification, the nuclear waste and glass-forming materials are mixed and heated up to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit inside one of two large melters in the LAW Facility, then poured into stainless steel containers for safe storage.

Information on the commissioning process, including a loss-of-power test and melter heatup, is available on the Journey to Melter Heatup website.

The plant facilities can be viewed using the self-guided Hanford Virtual Tour.

-Contributor: George Rangel

SRS Contractor Awards STEM Grants to Elementary School Teachers

Savannah River Remediation (SRR) President and Project Manager Phil Breidenbach, first row, right, and SRR Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Project Manager Mark Schmitz, first row, left, awarded SRR Students/Teachers Achieving Results (STAR) grants to elementary school teachers from Aiken, Allendale, Columbia, Richmond, and Edgefield counties at a recent reception in Aiken, South Carolina. The 2021 SRR STAR grants totaled over $15,000 to help advance science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum in elementary school classrooms. Most of the teachers who won grants are pictured here behind Breidenbach and Schmitz.

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