EM Update | Vol. 14, Issue 10 | March 15, 2022

• EM Leaders: Future Success Tied to Engagement with Stakeholders, Workforce
• Justice40 Initiative is Key DOE Focus at Waste Management Symposia
• Oak Ridge Reflects on Cleanup Success, Looks to Future
• EM’s Ike White Explores STEM Zone at Waste Management Symposia
• Site Leaders Outline Successes, Challenges With Liquid Waste Treatment Facilities
• EM Plans for WIPP’s Future With New Ventilation, Infrastructure Improvements
• DOE Strategy Remains Successful at PPPO Facilities
• Building Workforce Among Priorities in Los Alamos Cleanup, Panelists Say
• Georgia School Team Wins Savannah River Site Regional Science Bowl

Editor's Note

This EM Update issue is focused on EM’s participation in the 2022 Waste Management Symposia, the nation’s leading gathering of government, international and industry experts on waste management, held March 6-10 in Phoenix.

EM Leaders: Future Success Tied to Engagement with Stakeholders, Workforce

PHOENIX – The future for EM success will be determined as much by engaging with communities and stakeholders as it will in solving technical challenges, program leaders told an audience at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia last week.

“EM knows how to do things,” Chief of Staff Mike Nartker said. “We know how to treat waste. We know how to tear down a building.”

Future success will be tied “more to getting alignment and support around these approaches, and then we can implement them. Alignment is what’s going to be needed tingo solve some of the last major challenges,” he said.

Nartker and the three EM associate principal deputy assistant secretaries, or APDASes, Nicole Nelson-Jean, Jay Mullis and Dae Chung, discussed the program during the popular Hot Topics panel at the conference.

The session was highlighted by the announcement that EM has completed cleanup work at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York following the demolition of the distinctive, 320-foot-tall, red-and-white exhaust stack associated with the former High Flux Beam Reactor at the lab. Completion of activities at Brookhaven leaves EM with 15 active remediation sites, out of 107 when the program was established in 1989.

“The legacy cleanup at Brookhaven is done,” Nartker said. “So that is gone. That is what EM is about, completing work.

“There’s still a lot to go,’’ he added, although EM plans to complete activities at several other locations over the next decade, including at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project in Utah, the Nevada National Security Site, and the Sandia National Laboratories site in New Mexico.

As work proceeds at remaining sites, the challenges ahead are not all necessarily technical, Nartker said.

“The key component of the issues that remain is engagement, with all the constituents of this program, ranging from local communities at the sites, Congress, tribal nations, activist groups,” he said.

Nartker said the administration’s emphasis on environmental justice — of making sure all voices are heard — will be key to obtaining alignment.

“And once that happens, you’ll really unlock what this program can do,” he said.

Jay Mullis, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory and Policy Affairs.

Mullis, APDAS for regulatory and policy affairs, noted that EM “hires a lot of engineers and scientists who know how to solve our technical problems, and typically that’s not the long pole in the tent. But ultimately it’s getting more of the stakeholders in the tent with you.”

Mullis said new initiatives to enhance stakeholder engagement “give us additional tools to reach out to audiences and stakeholders that in the past might have felt neglected.”

Nelson-Jean, APDAS for field operations, said the long-range success hinges on maintaining a quality workforce. She recognized EM field managers as key links.

“The accomplishments we’ve had in the past year is because of these individuals and their contractor partners they work with every day,” Nelson-Jean said. “For us to continue this important work, we have to make sure they not only have the people they need, but their contractor partners also have the people they need.

“None of us are getting any younger,” she continued. “We have wonderful people here at this conference in STEM and in other locations working with us every day that we really have to build up and ensure they are there to support us with the work that we have to do in the future.

“We know how to do this work, but we still have a long way to go,” she said. “With the right people in the right places at the right time, we can go and accomplish the things we need to.”

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

Dae Chung, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Corporate Services.

Chung, APDAS for corporate services, said EM strives for the correct mindset for success.

“If you do the little things right more frequently, the better chance you are going to have to be successful” on larger tasks, he said. For instance, EM’s use of the end-state contracting model to invigorate a completion mindset in setting cleanup tasks and goals brings similar benefits, he said.

“One of the things the end-state contracting model brings to the table is setting up the frame of mind, setting up the right conditions so we can be more successful,” Chung said.

“So I think we have tremendous opportunities in terms of tackling issues, whether technical or any other issue,” he said. “As long as we have that right mindset, we will continue to be successful.”

Justice40 Initiative is Key DOE Focus at Waste Management Symposia

Among the participants of a 2022 Waste Management Symposia panel session focused on EM efforts within the Justice40 Initiative were Nicole Nelson-Jean, EM associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations, and Michael Mikolanis, manager of the EM Los Alamos Field Office.

PHOENIX – The Justice40 Initiative provides a unique opportunity to enhance the way the EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) approaches legacy cleanup decisions, EM-LA Manager Michael Mikolanis said during a panel session at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia last week.

The session focused on EM-LA efforts within Justice40, an initiative to deliver at least 40% of the overall benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities. Selected as one of five DOE pilot programs under the initiative, EM-LA has begun stakeholder engagement efforts for its role in Justice40. Implementing efforts, including executing a stakeholder engagement plan, for the Justice40 Initiative at Los Alamos is an EM 2022 priority.

Chaired by Nicole Nelson-Jean, EM associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations, the session included panelists Mikolanis; Kim Lebak, president of EM-LA cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B); Raymond Martinez, lieutenant governor of the Pueblo de San Ildefonso; and Brooke Baker, field technician for N3B’s waste operations and recent N3B apprentice program graduate.

Panelists discussed Justice40 activities related to EM-LA legacy waste cleanup, community and pueblo engagement, as well as workforce training and development. Mikolanis shared EM-LA’s recent stakeholder outreach on the initiative and discussed future plans.

“EM-LA is actively engaging with stakeholders, pueblos in northern New Mexico, and the public through ongoing listening sessions,” Mikolanis said. “The feedback, values and opinions we receive from this continued dialogue will be incorporated into the strategic vision we are developing to prioritize work scope and end states for legacy cleanup campaigns.”

Pueblo de San Ildefonso members are concerned about the adverse effects from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) legacy pollution created by nuclear weapons production and research during the Manhattan Project and Cold War era. The pueblo is located adjacent to LANL.

“I often explain to the elders in my pueblo that we need to be part of the solution to clean up the land — we want to help and be part of the workforce that is cleaning up the contamination. It is important to play a role in what we want to see for the future,” said Martinez, who is director of the Pueblo de San Ildefonso Department of Environmental and Cultural Preservation.

Workforce training and development will play a critical role in EM-LA’s implementation of Justice40.

“N3B’s workforce development program wholly aligns with the Justice40 Initiative, and it’s exciting to think how we might further collaborate on this federal effort in the future,” Lebak said. “We actively partner with northern New Mexico communities affected by environmental impacts from Los Alamos National Laboratory’s wartime nuclear research and weapons development.”

Lebak noted that 55% of N3B’s workforce development funding benefited economically disadvantaged communities in fiscal 2021.

“We cover tuition costs at local colleges and universities to advance students through the educational pipeline, and we provide on-the-job training so students acquire skills they need to become successful in their jobs” Lebak said. “While participating in the program, students earn a competitive salary and benefits that allow them to prosper in their home communities and bolster local economies.”

Baker shared her experiences from that N3B program and what the opportunity has meant for her from a career and personal perspective.

“It is important to me to clean up the environment and the N3B Nuclear Operator Apprentice Program allowed me to be cross-trained in several areas. This program has given me the opportunity to gain a career along with an education, while also receiving on-the-job training,” said Baker. “I am currently in the process of completing my associate degree at the end of this semester. There are opportunities out there for members of my community to bring structure to life and foster hope for their personal future.”

Watch here to learn more about N3B’s Nuclear Operator Apprenticeship Program.

“One of the biggest challenges we face is getting our younger members to continue their careers by working at the pueblo,” Martinez said. “Training and workforce development programs focused on remediation and reduction of legacy pollution that provide an incentive for our youth to come back to work at the pueblo would create an opportunity for us to fulfill our community vision of protecting and preserving the environment.”

-Contributor: Stephanie Gallagher

Oak Ridge Reflects on Cleanup Success, Looks to Future

Participants in a panel session at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia discuss how environmental cleanup is reshaping the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. From left are panel moderator Mike Nartker, EM chief of staff; Laura Wilkerson, Oak Ridge Office of EM acting manager; Ken Rueter, UCOR president and CEO; Teresa Robbins, National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office manager; Diane McDaniel, senior director of Consolidated Nuclear Security, the Y-12 management and operations contractor; and Johnny Moore, Oak Ridge National Laboratory site office manager.

PHOENIX – Federal and contractor leaders from Oak Ridge gathered with their community partners to highlight recent cleanup successes and discuss the future of the site in a series of panels at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia last week.

Oak Ridge Office of EM (OREM) Acting Manager Laura Wilkerson and UCOR President and CEO Ken Rueter joined the federal managers responsible for overseeing the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to address how environmental cleanup is reshaping Y-12 and ORNL and supporting their expanding missions. Oak Ridge was EM’s featured site at the conference.

EM recently demolished the former Biology Complex at Y-12 to create space for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Lithium Processing Facility. Other demolition projects opened land for ORNL to construct new laboratory space to conduct quantum sciences, fusion engineering, basic energy sciences, and biological and environmental research.

Wilkerson and Rueter unveiled their Vision 2031, which guides cleanup in Oak Ridge for the next decade. Over the next two years, OREM is scheduled to transfer the Biology Complex footprint for reuse at Y-12 and complete soil cleanup at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). Within five years, OREM is working to complete demolition of former reactors and isotope facilities in the heart of ORNL. Within 10 years, OREM is set to begin operating the Mercury Treatment Facility and is scheduled to complete demolition of large mercury-contaminated buildings at Y-12.

Representatives from OREM, Y-12 and ORNL also described the complex work required to successfully conduct large-scale cleanup activities at Y-12 and ORNL while thousands of employees are working at those sites to support their research and national security missions.

A subsequent session featured representatives from EM headquarters, OREM, EM cleanup contractors, labor unions and universities who focused on workforce development. About 30% of the workforce at Oak Ridge is eligible for retirement in the next 10 years, and finding new talent is a priority to maintain the site’s cleanup momentum.

The panelists described the many programs and initiatives underway to train, hire and retain new employees who will be responsible for advancing EM’s cleanup mission.

In the final Oak Ridge-focused session of the conference, panelists discussed new economic opportunities in Oak Ridge made possible by EM’s environmental cleanup progress, including the transformation of ETTP from a shuttered enrichment site to a private industrial park.

They noted that Oak Ridge launched DOE’s first-ever Reindustrialization Program, which was created to offset local economic declines due to ending uranium enrichment missions at the site. DOE and community leaders envisioned reusing the site to attract new businesses and generate new jobs in the region. Through EM’s historic cleanup at ETTP, all of the old buildings were removed there and nearly 1,300 acres of land were transferred to the community. An additional 650 acres of land are scheduled for transfer to the community by 2024 to provide new economic opportunities.

Large and small businesses have since located at ETTP and invested millions of dollars in new projects and developments. A representative from Kairos Power who participated in the panel session discussed the company’s plans to invest $100 million to deploy a low-power demonstration reactor at ETTP. The project is expected to create 55 jobs.

-Contributor: Ben Williams

EM’s Ike White Explores STEM Zone at Waste Management Symposia

PHOENIX – EM Senior Advisor William “Ike” White visits the STEM Zone exhibit at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia, with Susan Stiger, incoming president of the Waste Management Symposia organization and manager of energy and environment at Bechtel Nuclear Security and Environmental, and George Taylor, special projects vice president, integration at Perma Fix Environmental Services. The symposia supports a variety of programs to encourage students to explore science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Site Leaders Outline Successes, Challenges With Liquid Waste Treatment Facilities

James Folk, assistant manager for waste disposition at the Savannah River Site (SRS), speaks during a panel session at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia. The panelists provided details on their biggest challenges in commissioning, startup and transition to full operations of liquid waste treatment facilities at SRS, the DOE Idaho National Laboratory Site, and the Hanford Site.

Joel Case, manager of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit and Calcine Disposition Project at the DOE Idaho National Laboratory Site.

Joel Case, manager of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) and Calcine Disposition Project at the DOE Idaho National Laboratory Site, discussed the status of the IWTU, which had been processing simulant waste during a confirmatory run before being shut down recently for an equipment inspection.

Once testing is completed, IWTU will convert about 900,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste into a granular solid. Following the completion of waste treatment, the site’s tank farm will be closed. The waste was created during cleanout and decontamination activities following past spent-nuclear-fuel reprocessing operations.

Case also discussed EM’s headway in the Calcine Disposition Project, which will transfer 220 cubic meters of granulated high-level radioactive waste from the first calcine storage bin built onsite to another bin set. The bin set emptied of calcine will then be closed under federal regulations. Calcine is a dried byproduct of the legacy spent-nuclear-fuel reprocessing mission at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center. Crews have fabricated a retrieval system and bin set mock-up, and they continue developing retrieval tools.

Mat Irwin, deputy assistant manager for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site.

Mat Irwin, deputy assistant manager for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site, said the site’s Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) Program has begun treating tank waste this year.

The DFLAW Program is an assembly of several highly interdependent projects and infrastructure that will operate together to vitrify, or immobilize in glass, and safely dispose of millions of gallons of low-activity tank waste.

A cornerstone of the DFLAW Program, the Tank-Side Cesium Removal System began operations earlier this year to remove radioactive cesium and solids from tank waste. The treated waste will be fed directly to the nearby WTP for vitrification when the plant comes online next year.

Irwin said he looks forward to filling the first canister with simulant glass in 2022.

Irwin also noted that EM’s Office of River Protection recently completed retrievals of tank waste from Tank AX-102 in Hanford’s Tank Farms.

The Hanford Site is home to approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive tank waste stored in 177 underground tanks, representing one of DOE’s largest environmental risks and most complex cleanup challenges. The legacy tank waste is a result of nearly five decades of plutonium production that supported the nation’s defense program during World War II and the Cold War.

-Contributor: Erik Simpson

EM Plans for WIPP’s Future With New Ventilation, Infrastructure Improvements

PHOENIX – More than two decades after receiving its first transuranic (TRU) waste shipment, EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is undergoing major upgrades necessary to continue its mission for decades to come, including improvements to aging infrastructure and construction of the new Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS).

Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) Manager Reinhard Knerr outlined current and planned projects for the New Mexico waste repository during the 2022 Waste Management Symposia last week. He was joined on the panel by Sean Dunagan, Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) president and project manager, and Kenneth Princen, assistant manager for the National TRU Program.

Mining crews have completed excavation of more than 120,000 tons of salt to create Panel 8 and are outfitting the panel with the necessary utilities needed for certification by regulators. In the meantime, WIPP waste handlers continue to fill the last available room in Panel 7, which is set to reach capacity in September.

Carlsbad Field Office Manager Reinhard Knerr.

National TRU Program Assistant Manager Kenneth Princen.

Nuclear Waste Partnership President and General Manager Sean Dunagan.

WIPP has received approximately 40% of the TRU waste authorized by the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act and Knerr indicated many more panels will be needed in the future to complete the facility’s disposal mission. Later this year, CBFO will update the supplemental environmental impact statement for WIPP to create additional panels and anticipates releasing the document for public comment at that time.

Knerr outlined CBFO’s priorities for 2022, which include increasing the number of waste shipments received at WIPP, with priority given to Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Idaho National Laboratory Site; and continuing to make progress on the SSCVS, the largest containment fan system in the DOE complex.

To further modernize the facility, WIPP management and operations contractor NWP has installed fiber-optic cable, replaced underground and surface electrical substations and completed other improvements. In 2022, NWP plans to upgrade firewater loops and transition much of the underground fleet from diesel to battery-electric vehicles.

WIPP continues to prepare to resume remote-handled TRU waste shipments in fiscal year 2025, according to Princen. In the meantime, some remote-handled TRU waste will be shipped in new shielded containers once new package designs are approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Knerr said continued support from the local community and elected officials will be critical as WIPP plans for the future.

“Their support has been invaluable to our success,” he said.

-Contributor: Erik Simpson

DOE Strategy Remains Successful at PPPO Facilities

Joel Bradburne, manager of EM’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, speaks during a panel session at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia focused on cleanup progress at the Portsmouth, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky sites, as well as the depleted uranium hexafluoride plants.

PHOENIX – Managers of the EM sites at Portsmouth, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky, provided an update at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia last week on cleanup progress at the two locations, as well as on conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6), a byproduct of uranium processing at both plants.

Joel Bradburne, manager of the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO), said the uranium enrichment decontamination and decommissioning (UED&D) strategy mandated through the 1992 Energy Policy Act remains intact and is succeeding.

“It was 30 years ago that the UED&D strategy was created for the cleanup of the federal government’s gaseous diffusion plants (GDP) at Oak Ridge, Portsmouth and Paducah,” remarked Bradburne. “Things have certainly evolved, but the department’s strategy has survived and is continuing to guide D&D success at PPPO.”

The strategy generally sequenced the cleanup at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, then Portsmouth and Paducah.

EM and contractor site leads presented updates on PPPO projects during the panel session. For Portsmouth, the site is set to complete demolition of the X-326 process building this year, which is an EM priority for 2022; and continue efforts to synchronize waste placement and excavated fill as the site continues to prepare the X-333 and X-330 process buildings for future demolition.

At Paducah, a C-400 Cleaning Building remedial investigation/feasibility study report will go to regulators this year, the first step in a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) decision that will rid the site of the primary source of trichloroethylene (TCE) at the site.

Paducah is set to remove an additional 1 million pounds of R-114, a hazardous refrigerant used in the former uranium enrichment process, another EM priority for this year.

DOE also will fully restart the DUF6 conversion plants this year after a COVID-19 shutdown opened up an opportunity for safety and modernization actions.

Building Workforce Among Priorities in Los Alamos Cleanup, Panelists Say

A panel session at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia covered the EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory site. From left are Troy Thomson, Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) environmental remediation program manager; Joe Legare, N3B vice president; and Joe Sena, director of N3B water program oversight. N3B is EM-LA's cleanup contractor.

PHOENIX – Recruiting and retaining employees for critical positions such as radiological controls technicians, engineers, and waste handling and waste processing operators is a top priority for the EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) cleanup contractor, the company’s vice president said during a panel session at the 2022 Waste Management Symposia last week.

Kim Lebak, president of EM-LA cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B), kicked off the panel session with an overview of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) legacy cleanup, which includes remediating contamination, protecting water quality and shipping transuranic waste offsite for disposal.

Kim Lebak, president of EM Los Alamos Field Office cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos.

Joe Legare, N3B vice president, noted that increased competition for resources and the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a challenging job market. N3B’s strategy to build a pipeline of employees committed to environmental cleanup includes competitive salaries, bonus and referral programs, and N3B boot camps and apprentice programs, Legare said.

Troy Thomson, N3B environmental remediation program manager, focused on EM-LA progress to investigate and remediate locations where radioactive and hazardous materials from nuclear weapons production and research during the Manhattan Project and Cold War at LANL were disposed at the site from the 1940s to the 1980s.

Joe Sena, director of the N3B water program oversight, talked about an interim measure being used to control the migration of a hexavalent chromium groundwater plume beneath LANL until a final remedy is determined. Sena also highlighted the EM-LA surface water and stormwater monitoring program, which includes sampling in canyons in the vicinity of LANL, and groundwater monitoring campaigns, which support the collection of approximately 1,329 groundwater samples.

-Contributor: Stephanie Gallagher

Georgia School Team Wins Savannah River Site Regional Science Bowl

A team from Lakeside High School in Evans, Georgia is this year’s DOE Regional Science Bowl Competition champion, overcoming teams from across South Carolina and the greater Augusta, Georgia area.

AIKEN, S.C. – A team from a high school in Evans, Georgia, won the DOE Savannah River Site (SRS) Regional Science Bowl Competition and will advance to the national tournament this spring.

Future scientists, engineers and mathematicians put their knowledge to the test during the regional competition, which attracted 18 teams from across South Carolina and the greater Augusta, Georgia area earlier this year.

Team #1 from Lakeside High School won the regional event and will take part in the National Semi-Finals Virtual Tournament on May 21.

A team from Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics in Hartsville, South Carolina, came in second, followed by a team from Nation Ford High School in Ft. Mill, South Carolina, and a second team from Lakeside High School, respectively.

Teams competed against each other in virtual “rooms” during the regional competition held online. Students raised their hands to answer questions with limited time — similar to the television show “Jeopardy,” where participants face off during a timed period of fast-paced questions and answers.

In the Science Bowl, questions cover a wide range of academic disciplines, including biology, chemistry, energy, math, physics, and earth and space science.

The teams consist of four to five students and a teacher who serves as an advisor and coach. This year’s regional contest involved students from 13 high schools and is the only academic competition of its kind that tests students’ knowledge in all areas of science and is sponsored by a federal agency.

The competition tests the students’ ability to perform quickly and confidently under pressure, according to Kim Mitchell, the lead for the education outreach division at Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the SRS management and operations contractor.

“Practice is always a critical part of their preparation,” she said. “However, teamwork, along with academic performance, makes a difference as to who succeeds.”

SRS is one of only three DOE sites to have participated each year at the regional level since the start of the Science Bowl competition.

“Preparing my students for Science Bowl has been rewarding as it allows me to mentor and connect with them through science outside the classroom,” said Adam Kraft, a chemistry instructor at Westminster Schools of Augusta. “Students benefit from this competition as it allows for them to grow and stretch as they learn and explore new scientific concepts and skills while finding opportunities for the development of teamwork and leadership skills.”

DOE created the National Science Bowl in 1991 to encourage students to excel in mathematics and science and to pursue careers in these fields.

Volunteers from multiple SRS contractors and the community worked as competition officials during the regional event.

“We greatly appreciate the expertise and experience provided by each official,” Mitchell said. “This event could not be held without their support.”

SRS provides a variety of science and literacy programs to reach tens of thousands of students each year. The primary goals of the outreach programs are to enhance interest in science, mathematics, engineering and technology (STEM) and to support improvements in education in the Central Savannah River Area by using the unique resources available at SRS.

-Contributor: DT Townsend

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