EM Update | Vol. 14, Issue 27 | July 12, 2022

• EM Names New Chief of Staff
• Crews Preparing Former Reactors for Demolition at Oak Ridge National Lab
• Idaho Site Progressing Toward Full Operations at Liquid Waste Treatment Plant
• EM Field Leader Talks Opportunities With University Students in Las Vegas
• EM Los Alamos Achieves Key Milestones in Campaign to Determine Closure for Historically Contaminated Sites
• Hanford Site Installing Another Layer of Protection for Groundwater
• WIPP Hosts Community Forum in Santa Fe
• SRS Guides Industry Standard for Environmental Radiological Monitoring at Nuclear Facilities
• Subcontractor Selected to Help Remove Hanford Reactor Basin

EM Names New Chief of Staff

Veteran DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration official Cathy Tullis has been named new EM chief of staff, Senior Advisor for Environmental Management William “Ike” White announced. Tullis currently serves as chief of staff for the Associate Administrator for Management and Budget at NNSA. Her NNSA experience also includes serving in multiple Director positions in the Executive Secretariat, Policy, and Communications and Technology offices. Tullis started her DOE career in the field at Chicago Operations Office and worked three years at NNSA’s Nevada Field Office. She also possesses a background with DOE in safeguards and security where she managed multiple national level security programs.

The EM chief of staff leads the organization’s front office in supporting EM leadership to ensure an effective, efficient and high-performing culture for achieving aggressive cleanup at EM sites.

“Cathy’s organizational, management, technology, and policy skills, along with her considerable experience and knowledge of DOE operations, will aid her in her new role in the EM organization,” White said. Tullis begins her new role on July 17.

Crews Preparing Former Reactors for Demolition at Oak Ridge National Lab

An aerial view of the central campus area at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management will be transforming in the months ahead. Demolition is scheduled to begin on Building 3010 (front right) this fall followed by Building 3005 (back right) later this year. Crews are also conducting cleanup projects in Building 3042 (left).

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its cleanup contractor UCOR are poised to significantly alter the landscape at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the coming months.

Crews are nearing the final stages of deactivation inside two former research reactor facilities – the Bulk Shielding Reactor, known as Building 3010, and the Low Intensity Test Reactor, known as Building 3005. They are also beginning efforts at the Oak Ridge Research Reactor, known as Building 3042.

These structures are located in the heart of ORNL, and their demolition will eliminate risks, clear land for research missions, and enhance access to a component of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

“We have been working toward the demolition plan of 3010 and 3005 since 2018,” said Kent Ridenour, UCOR’s ORNL reactors project manager. “To finally see the end in sight is impressive knowing the accomplishments and the challenges we faced over the last four years, but the craft crews and support groups worked together to make it possible.”

The Bulk Shielding Reactor was built in the 1950s for radiation shielding studies. Crews removed asbestos from the facility and recently filled the 27-foot-deep reactor pool with a concrete mixture to prepare the building for demolition this fall.

Next door, other teams are preparing the Low Intensity Test Reactor for its teardown. The facility started operations as a training reactor in 1951 and ended operations in 1968. Crews have completed characterization, and other pre-demolition activities are now underway to prepare it for demolition later this year.

Crews recently filled the 27-foot-deep reactor pool inside Building 3010 with concrete mixture to prepare the building for demolition this fall.

Crews are actively conducting deactivation efforts inside Building 3005 to enable demolition to begin on this former reactor facility later this year.

“There has been a lot of work involved with getting these facilities ready for demolition,” said Nathan Felosi, OREM’s ORNL portfolio federal project director. “It’s rewarding to see how that work is paving the way for ORNL’s central campus area to look much differently by the end of this year.”

Projects have also started in the nearby Oak Ridge Research Reactor. Constructed in 1955, this isotope production and irradiation facility operated until 1987, and it was defueled in 1989. In recent years, OREM discovered a slow seep from the reactor pool. Workers drained the pool and removed the highly irradiated components.

Crews now are taking additional steps to get the building ready for demolition in the years ahead, including removing hazardous waste.

OREM’s work will continue transforming and reshaping ORNL’s central campus as this facility, along with several nearby former isotope laboratories, are slated for demolition in the upcoming years.

-Contributor: Carol Hendrycks

Idaho Site Progressing Toward Full Operations at Liquid Waste Treatment Plant

A crew inspects the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit’s Process Gas Filter before the current confirmatory run. 

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – The Idaho National Laboratory Site continues to make progress toward the start of radiological operations at the plant that will treat roughly 900,000 gallons of liquid waste,

The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) completed its seventh week of steady-state operations treating more than 100,000 gallons of simulant, equivalent to about one-ninth of the liquid sodium-bearing waste (SBW) stored in the site’s tank farm at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC).

Crews with EM contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC) began the radiological operations Contractor Readiness Assessment last week, an important step toward beginning actual radiological operations.

“The plant has operated extremely well during this several-week run,” said IEC Senior Director of Liquid Waste & Fuels Bill Kirby. “Our staff has done an outstanding job managing all facets of the facility. We continue to set performance records weekly.”

Following readiness assessments and completion of testing, the IWTU will shut down to begin a scheduled outage. Equipment and instruments will be examined and repaired/replaced as necessary to ensure optimal performance prior to the commencement of radiological operations.

When fully operational, the IWTU will introduce a small percentage of SBW to simulant, then increase the percentage of waste in increments until 100 percent of the feed is SBW.

The IWTU was constructed to convert 900,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste to a more stable, granular solid. The liquid was generated during the decontamination of vessels and piping following historic spent nuclear fuel reprocessing runs at INTEC.

Once treated, the granulated waste will be stored at the IWTU in stainless steel canisters that are placed in concrete vaults. Ultimately, the waste will be disposed of at a national geologic repository.

-Contributor: Erik Simpson

EM Field Leader Talks Opportunities With University Students in Las Vegas

EM field operations leader Nicole Nelson-Jean promoted potential EM internship and job opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students during a recent visit with student researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Nelson-Jean, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations, was given demonstrations of research aligning with the EM mission by students with UNLV laboratories on Energy and Environmental Materials; Water Resources and Environmental Engineering; and Active Materials and Smart Living, including projects funded by the EM Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program.

Doctoral student Suraj Pochampally explains to Nelson-Jean his research on eco-friendly materials for groundwater remediation.

Alexandrea Washington, a doctoral student, demonstrates a new smart material that she has been studying.

Doctoral student John Faccinto, gives Nelson-Jean a presentation on “Wearable Soft-Robot Systems for Enhanced Worker Capability and Safety.”

EM Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations Nicole Nelson-Jean is surrounded by student researchers and their professor in the Active Materials and Smart Living Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Clockwise from left: Alexandrea Washington; Blake Naccarato; Daniel Fisher; John Faccinto; Professor Kwang Kim; Nazanin Minaian; and Liya Napollion.

EM Los Alamos Achieves Key Milestones in Campaign to Determine Closure for Historically Contaminated Sites

An N3B environmental professional collects soil at a site associated with historical Los Alamos National Laboratory operations to ensure the safety of human and ecological health.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – The EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) recently met key milestones in a cleanup campaign to reevaluate whether certain sites around Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) with historical contamination pose a risk to human or environmental health.

The campaign, known as the Supplemental Investigation Reports, or SIRs, Campaign, is part of the 2016 Consent Order between DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). The consent order guides cleanup of hazardous waste released at LANL before 1999.

Existing data for the campaign’s 222 sites, which have ties to LANL’s Manhattan Project and Cold War operations, were reevaluated under a risk-based approach agreed upon with NMED in 2012. With completion of these key campaign milestones, EM-LA can finalize site closure requests for 168 of the 222 sites. Site closure indicates no unacceptable risk to human or ecological health based on current and reasonably foreseeable land use.

EM-LA cleanup contractor, Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, LLC (N3B), began reevaluating sample results for the sites after being awarded the Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup Contract in April 2018, not long after DOE and NMED agreed to reevaluate the investigation data.

The most recent sites for which sample results underwent reevaluation include areas surrounding underground shafts once used for hydronuclear experiments — an alternative to full-scale nuclear testing banned in 1958 under the Eisenhower administration.

From 1960 to 1961, hydronuclear experiments occurred 50-100 feet below ground in the shafts around Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, now LANL. The experiments involved high explosive compression of fissile materials, such as plutonium and uranium, whose quantity was reduced far below the amount required for a nuclear explosion. The purpose of the experiments was to improve the safety of nuclear weapons.

Sample results from the soil above the shafts and nearby sediment transported by storm water runoff were also recently reevaluated. The shafts themselves, due to their chemical and radionuclide inventory, will undergo a corrective measures evaluation as part of N3B’s program to address LANL’s historical waste disposal areas. These shafts make up what is known as Material Disposal Area AB. 

The land adjacent to the underground shafts houses LANL’s Emergency Response Training Facility — a training center for local, state and federal first responders.

“Based on our sample results against the state’s updated standards — which account for risk to human and ecological health in determining whether remediation of a site is necessary, and which allow us to prioritize remediation projects — neither the soil above the shafts nor the adjacent land pose a risk under current land use,” said Joe English, an environmental contractor for N3B’s Environmental Remediation program.

Since September 2015, 10 reports under the SIRs Campaign have been submitted to NMED detailing whether the level of risk for these sites satisfies applicable standards, or if they need additional investigation and potential remediation. Of the 222 sites, 54 sites need additional work and will be included in other campaigns under the 2016 Consent Order.

-Contributor: Kate Keenan

Hanford Site Installing Another Layer of Protection for Groundwater

Workers install perforated piping on top of a plastic liner that makes up the floor of an evapotranspiration basin at the U Farm at the Hanford Site.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Work by the EM Office of River Protection (ORP) to provide additional groundwater protection at one of the Hanford Site’s groupings of large underground waste tanks is nearing completion.

An evapotranspiration basin being built at U Farm will collect runoff from an asphalt surface barrier to be installed above the tanks. The surface barrier will prevent precipitation from soaking into the ground and reaching deep soil around the tanks, which could mobilize contaminants toward the water table below.

Underground pipes connected to the surface barrier will collect the runoff and disperse it equally across the basin, where it will evaporate and transpire through plants in the basin as they release water vapor to the atmosphere. The bottom and sides of basin are lined with three layers of thick plastic, so the runoff won’t seep into the soil below.

Clean dirt was used to backfill the evapotranspiration basin after piping and plastic liners were installed. Later this year, native plants and grass will be planted in the basin.

A plastic liner covers the floor and sides of the U Farm evapotranspiration basin.

“We have pump-and-treat systems in place to protect groundwater, and these interim surface barriers add another layer of protection for the groundwater and the environment,” said Becky Blackwell, EM ORP program manager.

With the completion of the basin at U Farm, Hanford Site tank operations contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) will have built evapotranspiration basins for four tank farms. According to WRPS construction manager Jeremey White, the U Farm project is running ahead of schedule, thanks to an experienced workforce and applying lessons learned from previous projects.

“We were fortunate to hire a subcontractor that has worked with us on a previous evapotranspiration project,” said White. “There were a few days that weather prevented us from working, but even with those delays we stayed ahead of schedule in large part because more than half of the crew and leadership are experienced with the work.”

Other lessons learned include waiting until the weather cools in the early fall to begin planting the native plants and grasses in the basin. In addition to removing water through transpiration, the vegetation will also stabilize the soil in the basin.

Now that installation of the basin is nearly finished, WRPS and its subcontractors are focusing on preparing U Farm for installation of the asphalt surface barrier. Worker are removing legacy equipment from past operations and installing the piping that will carry runoff to the basin.

The slope of the U Farm will also be changed by adding clean fill dirt to help water flow from the barrier to the basin through collection pipes. This work will prepare the tank farm for installation of the interim surface barrier, which is scheduled to begin next year.

You can see an animated illustration of how the basin works here.

-Contributor: Jenna Kochenauer

WIPP Hosts Community Forum in Santa Fe

Senior leaders from EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) hosted a Community Forum and Open House on July 7 at the Santa Fe Convention Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Carlsbad Field Office Manager Reinhard Knerr, center, and Sean Dunagan, president and project manager for operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership, at right, provided progress updates on WIPP capital asset projects, infrastructure upgrades, the WIPP transportation program, and facility operations. Program moderator Eric Roberts is at left. More than 250 stakeholders attended in person and virtually. Afterwards, WIPP leadership hosted an open house where participants had the opportunity for one-on-one conversations with project leaders and staff.

SRS Guides Industry Standard for Environmental Radiological Monitoring at Nuclear Facilities

A newly formed American Nuclear Society committee, under the leadership of Savannah River Nuclear Solution's (SRNS) Teresa Eddy, is using the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) Environmental Monitoring Program (EMP) as a model to develop a standard for environmental radiological monitoring at nuclear facilities. Eddy, manager of the SRS Environmental Bioassay Laboratory and EMP, is shown working in the field with Jesse Baxley (right), SRNS environmental monitoring lead, and Eric Doman, SRNS EMP Manager.

AIKEN, S.C. – The Savannah River Site’s (SRS) Environmental Monitoring Program has become the framework for a new nationally applied nuclear industry standard.

Teresa Eddy, manager of the environmental monitoring program for SRS contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), leads a diverse group of industry professionals on the American Nuclear Society’s (ANS) Environmental and Siting Consensus Committee.

The committee is using the success of the SRS Environmental Monitoring Program as the basis for the development of the new ANS standard. The SRS program detects and identifies the effects of site operations on the local environment.

The ANS criteria uses performance-based requirements to develop and implement an integrated radiological environmental monitoring program that focuses on ambient air, surface water, groundwater, soil and animal and plant life.

The standards will apply to nuclear power plants, nuclear medicine hospitals, fuel fabrication facilities, fuel reprocessing facilities, radioactive waste disposal facilities, industrial and research facilities handling nuclear waste, DOE, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, state regulatory agencies and consultants in the nuclear industry.

As chairperson, Eddy ensures the committee represents and engages with nuclear facilities across the United States. Eddy, who has served on the committee for four years, is working with two colleagues from SRS – Brittany Owensby (SRNS) and Brooke Stagich (Savannah River National Laboratory) – along with leaders representing ANS, DOE, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Nuclear Energy Institute, Duke Energy, the University of Kansas, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Southern Company, and others. Eddy recently nominated Stagich to co-chair the committee, and ANS subsequently appointed her.

“Working with other organizations that are using nuclear materials ensures a safe collective impact on the environment and community. Radiological environmental monitoring programs and the ANS standard will secure continued success towards meeting and exceeding our goals here and potentially throughout the nation,” Eddy said.

“Both DOE Savannah River Operations Office and SRNS place a strong emphasis and high priority on efficient and effective environmental monitoring programs for both radiological and chemical constituents. We also believe it’s important to share the proven methods and technology used and continually strive to perfect,” she added.

Since its start, ANS has written and approved nearly 150 different standards and multiple versions of these standards. At present, ANS has more than 80 standards that are current American national standards and many others that are considered historical standards.

-Contributor: DT Townsend

Subcontractor Selected to Help Remove Hanford Reactor Basin

Workers with EM contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company stand on grates above 16 feet of water, using long-handled tools to move debris from the floor of the 1.2 million-gallon K West Reactor Basin into underwater bins.

RICHLAND, Wash. – EM Richland Operations Office prime contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company (CPCCo) has awarded a subcontract to continue critical risk-reduction work along the Columbia River at the Hanford Site.

The primary tasks for Richland-based Intermech Inc., include installing a system to pump out 1.2 million gallons of water from the K West Reactor spent fuel storage basin and filling it with a mixture of engineered grout and controlled density fill — similar to concrete — to prepare the structure for removal through demolition.

“Stabilizing and removing the basin are important steps toward cocooning the reactor,” said Kelly Ebert, DOE team lead for cleanup in the K Reactor Area. “Each of these steps also bring us closer to completing cleanup of this reactor area near the river.”

The Intermech contract also includes construction of a mock-up to test the properties of the grout and the pumping methods before filling the basin.

The concrete basin is approximately 130 feet by 65 feet. It was built in the early 1950s to temporarily store irradiated uranium fuel pushed out of the back of the reactor core during plutonium production operations. Contaminated water pumped out of the basin will be transported to Hanford’s Effluent Treatment Facility for processing and disposal.

Workers use underwater cameras as they move sorting bins for washing prior to placing debris in vertical steel tubes, which will be filled with grout and removed during demolition of the grout-filled basin. Debris removal and stabilization is the latest step in the Hanford Site’s multiphase demolition of the reactor’s basin.

Current work on the multiphase project includes characterizing and cutting up debris in the basin, such as contaminated tools and equipment. Workers remotely sort, wash and load the debris into steel tubes, where it will be grouted and removed for disposal during basin demolition.

“Our team has already made tremendous progress to prepare the K West Basin for demolition,” said Zachary Dean, the prime contractor’s fieldwork supervisor. “The next phase of the project puts us on the home stretch to finish the job and ultimately eliminate another risk to the nearby Columbia River.”

-Contributor: Dieter Bohrmann

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