ETTP Transformation Integral to Oak Ridge’s $7.2 Billion Boost to Economy; Demolition of Hanford Guard House Highlights Past, Paves Way for Future; and much more!

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EM Update | Vol. 13, Issue 33 | Aug. 24, 2021

ETTP Transformation Integral to Oak Ridge’s $7.2 Billion Boost to Economy
Hanford Tank Farms Now Connected to Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant
Demolition of Hanford Guard House Highlights Past, Paves Way for Future
Crews Tearing Down Final DOE Buildings at Energy Technology Engineering Center
Hanford Awards Former Contractor $149,000 for 7-Month Evaluation Period

ETTP Transformation Integral to Oak Ridge’s $7.2 Billion Boost to Economy

To facilitate the transition of Oak Ridge’s East Tennessee Technology Park from EM to the community, utilities and infrastructure have been upgraded and transferred, including most electrical power, gas, and sanitary sewer systems.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – A report released last week by the East Tennessee Economic Council shows DOE creates $7.2 billion in economic benefits and high-quality jobs annually for the state’s economy through research, national security, and environmental cleanup missions in Oak Ridge.

Approximately 2,500 Oak Ridge employees focus on advancing EM’s environmental cleanup. Their work is creating new economic opportunities for the community, and nowhere is that more evident that at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). That site is a featured case study in the council’s latest report that examined the impact of DOE’s investment in Tennessee in fiscal 2020.

After nearly two decades of work that removed 500 dilapidated, contaminated structures, EM completed major cleanup at ETTP in 2020. The effort transformed a former enrichment complex that presented a liability to the community into a marketable asset that is attracting new businesses and economic development.

EM has transferred nearly 1,300 acres at ETTP to the community to date for industrial development, including two transfers completed this summer. Both of those most recent transfers preserve areas with historical significance, including one of the site’s main entryways — known as Portal 4. It’s expected to be refurbished and repurposed for new office space.

Large tracts of land, such as the former Centrifuge Complex site at Oak Ridge, pictured, offer ideal locations for industrial development. This tract is part of the location identified for a proposed general aviation airport.

Through EM’s cleanup progress and transfers, ETTP is now a multi-use industrial park home to more than 20 businesses. Those companies will soon be joined by two new developments that will be the biggest at ETTP to date — a demonstration reactor and a medical isotope facility.

Kairos Power, an advanced nuclear engineering company, will invest $100 million and create 55 jobs to deploy a demonstration reactor where a massive enrichment building once stood. The company plans to develop technology to provide carbon-free, affordable energy to the U.S. electricity market.

Coqui Radio Pharmaceuticals Corp. expects to begin operating a medical isotope production facility at ETTP in 2025, adding more than 200 high-paying jobs to the economy.

Planning also continues for a proposed general aviation airport at ETTP for private and corporate airplanes. This addition would provide another key piece of infrastructure to attract major industry. Companies like Coqui would benefit from using the airport to transport time-sensitive products, such as short-lived radioisotopes.

The airport would be located on 200 acres at ETTP that EM is scheduled to transfer to the City of Oak Ridge. If approved, the airport would be built on land that once housed the Centrifuge Complex, one of the tallest and final structures demolished at the site.

An artist’s rendering of East Tennessee Technology Park’s potential as a fully realized multi-use industrial park. EM is working to complete all remaining cleanup at the site and transfer remaining land to the community for beneficial reuse.

As economic development continues at ETTP, EM contractor UCOR is set to remove building slabs and excavate remaining contaminated soil. Those efforts are completing EM’s mission at the site and paving the way for the cleanup program to transfer additional land to the community for beneficial reuse.

“Our cleanup at ETTP has been on a historic scale, and now all of those efforts, in addition to the planning and strategy to reuse the site, are paying dividends,” said Dave Adler, director of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management's quality and mission support division. “The site has become a regional asset with new businesses, educational facilities, and beautiful greenways.”

About 100 acres at ETTP are supporting historic preservation efforts, including a Manhattan Project National Historical Park location and the newly constructed K-25 History Center.

EM also designated nearly 3,500 acres for conservation, providing habitat for wildlife and hiking trails, bike paths, canoe launches, and other activities for residents and tourists.

“EM’s commitment and investments to clean this land have enhanced safety and created new opportunities for the community for years to come,” Adler added.

-Contributor: Wayne McKinney

Hanford Tank Farms Now Connected to Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant

Crews with EM tank operations contractor Washington River Protection Solutions and subcontractor Apollo, Inc. fit the final sections of double-walled pipe in place, connecting the Hanford Site tank farms to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Two major facilities critical to the tank waste treatment mission at the Hanford Site are now connected.

A video featuring the transfer line connection can be viewed here.

EM tank operations contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has finished construction of the pipeline that will carry treated waste from a Hanford tank to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) for vitrification, or immobilization in glass.

“This is a significant step forward in our Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Program to treat tank waste,” said Brian Vance, manager of the Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office. “The connection represents another example of this year’s progress and also demonstrates the strong commitment by the Department of Energy and our contractors to safely move our important site mission forward.”

Hanford Site leadership take part in a celebratory filling-in of a trench containing a 3,500-foot piping system that connects a tank farm to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). From left, Tom Fletcher, WTP operations, Office of River Protection (ORP); Val McCain, Vitrification Plant project director, Bechtel National Inc.; Brian Vance, manager, ORP and Richland Operations Office; David Bowen, Nuclear Waste Program manager, Washington State Department of Ecology; John Eschenberg, president and CEO, Washington River Protection Solutions; and Delmar Noyes, Tank Farms Projects, ORP.

With the final sections of double-walled pipe in place, a Hanford Site tank farm is now connected to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). EM tank operations contractor Washington River Protection Solutions has finished construction of the pipeline that will carry treated waste from a tank to WTP for vitrification.

The new 3,500-foot pipe-in-pipe transfer line connects the plant to a double-shell tank in AP Tank Farm that will serve as a holding tank for liquid waste that has been treated by the Tank-Side Cesium Removal System to remove radioactive cesium and solids. Workers installed the cesium removal system next to the AP Tank Farm earlier this year and are conducting readiness reviews prior to starting to treat tank waste early next year.

“For the first time, tank farms are connected to the Vit Plant, providing the avenue for transferring treated tank waste to the plant for vitrification,” said John Eschenberg, WRPS president and CEO. “It’s exciting to be a part of putting the infrastructure in place to facilitate this critical mission.”

During hot commissioning and operations at the plant, the treated waste will be pumped in batches from the double-shell tank directly to the plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility for vitrification and disposal.

“It’s exciting to see the physical connection from the tank farms to the Vit Plant,” said Valerie McCain, WTP project director and senior vice president for Bechtel National Inc., the contractor designing, building, and commissioning the plant. “This final tie-in symbolizes the collaborative spirit at Hanford and how we are all committed to treating waste.”

Bechtel expects to heat up the first of two vitrification melters in the Low-Activity Waste Facility by the end of this calendar year as part of the plant commissioning process. Hanford is preparing to start vitrifying tank waste by the end of calendar year 2023.

-Contributor: Jenna Kochenauer

Demolition of Hanford Guard House Highlights Past, Paves Way for Future

During and after demolition: Crews with EM contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company safely removed a former Plutonium-Uranium Extraction Plant guard house. The work is part of ongoing risk-reduction efforts on Hanford’s Central Plateau. At top is a view of demolition underway, and immediately above shows the teardown completed.

RICHLAND, Wash. – EM Richland Operations Office (RL) contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company (CPCCo) is continuing to reduce risk around the Plutonium-Uranium Extraction Plant – better known as PUREX – on the Hanford Site.

The recent removal of an old guard house that served as a security command center for the plant during site operations was part of that effort. Watch this time lapse video of the guard house demolition.

“Remediation of the former PUREX guard house and other structures is a reminder of Hanford’s former mission as we continue to focus on the progress of the current cleanup effort,” said Bob Nichols, director for CPCCo’s inner area end states group.

Security guards work at the Plutonium-Uranium Extraction Plant guard house during plutonium production operations. The former security checkpoint was recently demolished as part of ongoing risk-reduction activities near the former processing plant.

Security measures at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium-Uranium Extraction Plant once included X-ray machines and scanners, which workers were required to clear before entering the facility.

PUREX was the fifth and final chemical processing facility built at Hanford. Located centrally at the site, the plant operated from 1956 to 1972, and again from 1983 to 1988, to reprocess fuel rods irradiated in Hanford’s reactors. Today, CPCCo crews are focused on risk-reduction activities to prepare the contaminated facility for demolition.

As a key plutonium-producing facility for the national defense effort during the Cold War, PUREX was among the most heavily guarded buildings at Hanford. Workers were required to clear the security checkpoint before entering the facility. Safeguards included a central alarm system, X-ray machines, and bulletproof glass.

The guard house was closed in the early 1990s as Hanford’s mission transitioned from production to cleanup and the remaining plutonium was transferred to the nearby Plutonium Finishing Plant, removing many of the security requirements.

“PUREX was an amazing place to work during the final years of its operations,” said Mike Precechtel, a security guard at the facility from the late 1980s to early ‘90s, and currently a CPCCo employee. “We had an important job, and we did it well. I have a lot of fond memories from there.”

Other ongoing work at PUREX includes characterization of radiological and chemical hazards near and in the facility and asbestos abatement for more than 1,700 feet of old steam lines.

-Contributor: Dieter Bohrmann

Crews Tearing Down Final DOE Buildings at Energy Technology Engineering Center

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. – Crews are in the homestretch of achieving an EM 2021 priority to complete demolition of all DOE-owned buildings at the former Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) site in Ventura County, California. Here, workers use high-reach shears to begin demolition of the Sodium Pump Test Facility (SPTF). Operating from 1974 to 2001, the facility was one of seven liquid metal test facilities at ETEC used for research and development. The SPTF provided space for the development, performance, and verification testing of large sodium pumps. Two adjacent buildings, numbered 4462 and 4463, make up the facility. Building 4462, at right, was constructed in 1972 to test 6,000-gallon-per-minute sodium pumps and was last used in 2001. Building 4463, at left, was built to support the pump tests. ETEC had issued records of decision for demolition of the final 18 DOE-owned buildings at the site. All but the two buildings pictured here have been demolished. Once the last buildings are torn down, DOE intends to continue working with the State of California on final cleanup, including groundwater and soils remediation. ETEC is situated on 90 acres of land leased from the Boeing Corp. within the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. 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.

-Contributor: Stephanie Shewmon

Hanford Awards Former Contractor $149,000 for 7-Month Evaluation Period

A Wastren Advantage, Inc. worker remotely handles tank waste samples through a hot cell in the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site.

RICHLAND, Wash. – EM awarded a former analytical services contractor nearly $149,000, or about 89% of the available award fee, for its work at the Hanford Site during a performance evaluation period of September 2020 to April 2021.

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

Wastren Advantage, Inc. (WAI) provided laboratory analysis and testing services at the 222-S Laboratory in the 200 West area in support of Hanford cleanup. The lab receives, handles, tests, analyzes, and stores samples from numerous projects on the site. WAI workers provided expertise in fields including organic and inorganic chemistry, radiochemistry, and waste management.

WAI received “excellent” ratings for evaluations and proficiency tests, maintaining holding times, business interfaces and efficiency, and contract transition. The company was rated as “very good” for delivery, analytical reporting and data quality, and worker safety and health.

WAI significantly improved laboratory operations by mitigating impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the scorecard. The contractor worked collaboratively with other Hanford site contractors to resolve uncertainties relating to analytical production, provide exceptional support for the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Program, and support a smooth contract transition to an incoming contractor while maintaining continuity of operations.

View the scorecard for WAI here.

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