EM Update | Vol. 14, Issue 36 | Sept. 13, 2022

• EM Updates Cleanup 'By the Numbers'
• Reuse Integral to Cleanup as Savannah River Site Shrinks Legacy Footprint
• EM Launches Reactor Demolition, Marking First at Oak Ridge
• Chief Engineer Encouraged by Idaho Site Waste Treatment Plant Performance
• DOE Awards SRNL $3 Million to Advance Clean Energy Technologies
• Waste Treatment Plant Welcomes New Class of Engineers at Hanford
• Idaho Intern Hopes to Continue Family’s Legacy Following Graduation
• Hanford Site Connects Veterans and Resources
• West Valley Upgrades to New Security Facility as EM Approaches Next Cleanup Stage

EM Updates Cleanup 'By the Numbers'

The Nevada National Security Site "By the Numbers" features facts and figures about cleanup and more.

EM has updated its popular “By the Numbers” feature, which illustrates cleanup progress at EM sites through quick and clear infographics.

Facts and figures on each major EM site, plus the Savannah River National Laboratory, can be found here. Each site page also features a key look forward, in gold lettering, to an anticipated achievement over the next decade, as described in more detail in the Strategic Vision 2022-2032, a blueprint to the program’s anticipated accomplishments over the next decade that will protect the public and environment.

Some tidbits from the new “By the Numbers:”

• 951 facilities, many contaminated, have been demolished at the Hanford Site.
• More than 61,000 cubic meters of managed transuranic and mixed low-level waste at the Idaho National Laboratory Site has been shipped offsite for disposal.
• 40 monitoring, extraction and injection wells have been installed in and around the hexavalent chromium plume at the Los Alamos National Laboratory Site. These wells and associated infrastructure support characterization and migration of the plume via an interim measure.
• More than 12.6 million tons of tailings at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project have been shipped for disposal, amounting to 78% of the total tons.
• 51.9 million cubic feet of low-level waste has been disposed at the Nevada National Security Site radioactive waste disposal facilities since 1961.
• 1,277 acres of land has been transferred to the local community for reuse and economic redevelopment at the Oak Ridge Site.
• 642,599 pounds of waste at the Paducah Site was recycled in 2021, avoiding disposal.
• EM completed the demolition of all remaining DOE-owned buildings at the Energy Technology Engineering Center in 2021.
• More than 977.2 million gallons of groundwater from four onsite plumes have been treated and are currently managed by pump-and-treat and slurry wall technology at the Portsmouth Site.
• More than 4,300 canisters of glassified radioactive waste have been produced at the Defense Waste Processing Facility since it began operations in 1996 at the Savannah River Site.
• 29,000 square feet of building footprint have been demolished at the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center-New York Project Office (formerly the Separations Process Research Unit).
• 71,320 cubic meters of waste have been disposed in the underground mine at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
• More than $5 billion in complex-wide savings for the EM program have been achieved due to innovations developed in the past 10 years at the Savannah River National Laboratory.
• More than seven miles of piping and over 50 tons of vessels and equipment have been removed from predominantly high-hazard areas of the former reprocessing plant at the West Valley Demonstration Project.

Reuse Integral to Cleanup as Savannah River Site Shrinks Legacy Footprint

EM workers dismantle the conveyors of a coal handling system in the Savannah River Site's D Area.

AIKEN, S.C. – EM crews at the Savannah River Site (SRS) recently demolished a former coal handling system whose removal further shrinks the legacy footprint at the 300-square-mile nuclear reservation.

EM workers have achieved an 85% reduction in the SRS operational footprint, a percentage that will grow as workers with EM contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) continue the decommissioning and demolition of facilities in the site’s massive D Area.

“We’re steadily working towards the goal of having all of D Area’s 210 acres returned to its natural state, prepared for industrial use if needed,” said Grady Friday, a subject matter expert with SRNS Area Completion Projects (ACP).

D Area facilities once produced heavy water for nuclear reactors and generated steam and electricity to support much of what was previously known as the Savannah River Plant, which was developed in the 1950s. To date, crews have torn down and removed more than 60 D Area structures.

In the latest D Area cleanup, workers knocked down a coal handling system that fed four massive boilers. The system consisted of hoppers, coal feeders, conveyors, a coal crusher and three support structures.

“Trains, and later trucks, brought in a huge amount of coal each year to D Area when it was operational,” said Friday. “The only way to quickly and effectively transport tons of coal 100 feet up in the air and into that huge powerhouse was on those conveyor belts.”

WATCH TEARDOWN VIDEO: EM crews knock down the Coal Transfer Building in the D Area at the Savannah River Site. The building is part of a coal transfer system workers recently removed.

Following the demolition project, SRS transferred the system’s conveyor belts to the nonprofit Savannah River Community Resource Organization (SRSCRO). Combined, the belts were approximately 2,000 feet long.

Belts of that size and type are in high demand around the country and would almost immediately be offered to a company within nearby counties supported by the SRSCRO, according to Friday.

The belts date back to the 1980s when the coal transfer system was last refurbished.

“Surprisingly, they are still in good condition given their age and constant exposure to the elements,” said Steve Conner, SRNS ACP project manager. “Whenever possible, we do our best to separate recyclable or reusable materials for repurposing from the numerous structures that have been decommissioned and demolished over the years.”

In past Savannah River Site operations, a coal handling system in the site’s D Area delivered coal to the top of the D Area Powerhouse where it was burned to produce power and steam. Workers have demolished the system’s conveyors and associated buildings pictured here in gray. The site provided salvaged conveyor belts to the nonprofit Savannah River Community Resource Organization for beneficial reuse in the community.

Conner noted that the SRSCRO has preserved and transferred a wide variety of items to benefit nearby businesses since the organization’s creation in 1993. They include tools, generators, oil, transformers, railroad tracks and even entire light-duty metal buildings originally assembled using nuts and bolts.

Multiple structures from the coal transfer system plus three small support buildings created nearly 84,000 cubic feet of metal, which has been relocated to a salvage site for recycling.

“We’ve accepted the direction and responsibility to not just level and remove buildings at SRS,” said Conner. “We want to effectively and responsibly do so for the benefit of the environment we live and work in, as well as for those residing in communities surrounding the Savannah River Site. It’s not just a task to safely complete. It’s the right thing to do.”

-Contributor: DT Townsend

EM Launches Reactor Demolition, Marking First at Oak Ridge

Demolition began last week on the Bulk Shielding Reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It marks the first teardown of a former reactor at the site. The project is slated for completion this year.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – For the first time in Oak Ridge history, EM crews have begun demolishing a former reactor facility, reaching another important milestone for cleanup at the site.

EM Oak Ridge cleanup contractor UCOR began tearing down the Bulk Shielding Reactor, also known as Building 3010, at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) last week.

“While this project is not the biggest demolition we’ve undertaken, it carries a lot of significance,” said Laura Wilkerson, acting manager for the Oak Ridge Office of EM. “It is the first removal of a former reactor at ORNL, and it is a signal of much more to come at the site in the immediate future.”

The Bulk Shielding Reactor complex was built in the 1950s for radiation shielding studies as part of the federal Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Program. It included a 27-foot-deep reactor pool filled with water to shield the radioactive components contained in the pool. Its mission changed to a general-purpose research reactor in 1963 and was shut down permanently in 1991.

“A great deal of prep work was necessary to ensure this facility could be demolished safely,” said Dan Macias, UCOR site integration and cleanup manager. “As with all cleanup work we do, safety is the top priority, and crews have been working diligently during the past few years to eliminate hazards and ensure successful demolition of the reactor facility.”

One of the most important pre-demolition activities was removing and disposing of irradiated components from the reactor pool. Once those components were removed, workers drained the 130,000 gallons of the water from the pool and sent it to an onsite treatment facility. Then the pool area was decontaminated and filled with a concrete mixture.

In addition to stabilizing the reactor pool, workers removed various wastes as well as asbestos from the facility.

The reactor was one of more than a dozen research reactors constructed at ORNL over multiple decades. Each contributed to ORNL’s reputation as a world leader in cutting-edge nuclear research and development. The facility is one of 16 inactive research reactors and isotope facilities EM is addressing at ORNL.

“UCOR is proud to be part of another significant cleanup milestone on the Oak Ridge Reservation,” said Ken Rueter, UCOR president and CEO. “From completing the first-ever cleanup of a gaseous diffusion plant to this notable milestone, the landscape at the Oak Ridge Reservation is changing dramatically, providing essential land for continuing federal missions and economic development. We look forward to continuing cleanup progress at ORNL and across the reservation.”

Crews will complete demolition on the facility this year before transitioning to the teardown of the nearby Low Intensity Test Reactor, known as Building 3005.

-Contributor: Carol Hendrycks

Chief Engineer Encouraged by Idaho Site Waste Treatment Plant Performance

Personnel perform measurements to ensure correct seating of a process gas filter bundle prior to the start of a recently completed confirmatory run of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the DOE Idaho National Laboratory Site.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Following a record-breaking simulant run at EM’s Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) earlier this summer, engineers are inspecting reaction vessels and other equipment of the liquid waste treatment facility before initiating radiological operations at the DOE Idaho National Laboratory Site, scheduled for this fall.

Joe Giebel, chief engineer for EM contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC), said he was pleased with the performance of IWTU as the facility operated continually for 62 days and converted approximately 137,000 gallons of liquid simulant to a granular solid — a record for the facility.

Of principal interest was the performance of the process gas filter (PGF), which filters gases from the Denitration Mineralization Reformer (DMR) — IWTU’s primary reaction vessel — through 18 filter bundles comprised of 342 individual filters. In prior demonstration runs, the PGF elements became restricted with corrosion products from the metallic filter degradation, causing limited operation of the IWTU or complete shutdown of the facility due to a rise in differential pressure.

For the most recent confirmatory run, engineers replaced the sintered metal filters with ceramic filters. Based on prior pilot plant testing at Hazen Research in Colorado, ceramic filters performed much better than their previous sintered-metal counterparts.

“The ceramic filters performed exceptionally well during the confirmatory run,” said Giebel. “Operators and engineers closely monitored filter performance throughout the 62-day run. The differential pressure across the filter bank remained stable and predictable.”

Based on the performance of the PGF for nine weeks, engineers believe the ceramic filters may not require replacing during the entire 900,000-gallon sodium-bearing waste treatment run.

Independent readiness verification assessments were conducted last month, a crucial step before moving toward radiological operations. The federal readiness assessment identified seven findings, some of which IEC had already identified and had been working to resolve.

“It’s exciting to see the project reach this point,” said Giebel. “The plant has never operated with a greater degree of reliability.”

The facility was constructed to process 900,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste into dry granular solids that will be packaged in stainless steel canisters and stored in concrete vaults. The waste was generated during decontamination activities following spent nuclear fuel reprocessing.

-Contributor: Erik Simpson

DOE Awards SRNL $3 Million to Advance Clean Energy Technologies

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) Principal Scientist Patrick Ward is leading a new collaborative research effort funded by a $3 million award from the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences. An SRNL employee of more than 10 years, Ward began his career at the laboratory as a graduate intern and transitioned to a postdoctoral fellow. His area of expertise is in energy storage and conversion. Ward has developed an array of hydrogen storage materials, thermochemical energy storage material and novel photovoltaic and battery concepts.

AIKEN, S.C. – A national laboratory at the Savannah River Site that supports advancements in the EM cleanup mission has been awarded $3 million to further fundamental research capable of enabling new pathways for hydrogen storage and production technologies.

The award to Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences within the DOE Office of Science is part of the Department’s recent announcement of awarding $540 million for university- and national laboratory-led research into clean energy technologies and low-carbon manufacturing to transform energy production and cut emissions.

SRNL’s collaborative research effort is led by laboratory researcher Patrick Ward, Ph.D.; Yury Gogotsi, Ph.D., of Drexel University in Philadelphia; Kah Chun Lau, Ph.D., of California State University, Northridge; and Paul Weiss, Ph.D., of University of California, Los Angeles.

“The team will explore the fundamental nature of hydrogen interactions with MXene materials to gain foundational insight into how to develop advanced materials for hydrogen storage and production,” Ward said. “By understanding the underlying behavior of hydrogen in these systems, materials can be strategically designed to possess the desired properties needed to advance clean energy technologies.”

MXenes are a class of two-dimensional inorganic compounds, consisting of layers of transition metal carbides, nitrides or carbonitrides.

The SRNL-led fundamental research supports underpinning aspects of the three DOE Energy Earthshots to set goals for improvements in clean energy technologies. This research is particularly suited for addressing the Hydrogen Shot initiative, which seeks to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1 per 1 kilogram in 1 decade ("1 1 1") and unlock new markets for hydrogen.

Managed and operated by contractor Battelle Savannah River Alliance, SRNL is a DOE multi-program research and development center that provides solutions to the nation’s environmental, nuclear security, nuclear materials management, and energy manufacturing challenges.

Waste Treatment Plant Welcomes New Class of Engineers at Hanford

RICHLAND, Wash. – The Hanford Site Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) recently welcomed a new class of engineers to support the needs of the WTP Plant Engineering Department.

The new engineers are WTP’s first-ever class of rotational engineers, or early-career and entry-level engineers who rotate assigned roles every six months.

“Developing better engineers with diverse experience and a robust understanding of plant engineering benefits the project,” said Rick Holmes, WTP site director and general manager for subcontractor Waste Treatment Completion Company. “The new engineers will help balance organizational needs and the growth of our department.”

The rotational engineering program provides plant engineering support that encompasses a wide array of engineering fields. The rotational engineers will be given assignments based on organizational priority, plant engineering needs and engineer preference. During their time in the two-year program, the engineers will rotate through four different engineering roles and will be offered permanent positions after completing the program.

Idaho Intern Hopes to Continue Family’s Legacy Following Graduation

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – A former EM intern is hoping to parlay her experience at the DOE Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site this past summer into a full-time career, joining her parents in the profession of industrial hygiene.

During her summer internship, Eliza Nims-Langlois, a 23-year-old student at Idaho State University (ISU) in Pocatello, supported the environmental program of EM contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC), where her mother works.

The intern was tasked with inventorying paint, oil and chemical supplies of EM facilities and buildings both in Idaho Falls and at the 890-square-mile INL Site.

While performing a complete physical inventory of materials often used daily by employees supporting EM, Nims-Langlois and the team of environmental professionals processed a lot of paints, lubricants and oils. If something needed to be barcoded, they labeled it and used a bar-code reader to enter it into a computer inventory.

“I was surprised how old some of these things are,” Nims-Langlois said. “The oldest thing I found was from 1996, before I was born!”

EM contractors at the INL Site are required to keep an inventory of all paints, lubricants, oils and chemicals onsite. The environmental program that Nims-Langlois supported is responsible for electronically cataloging thousands of items.

The catalog is accessible to employees who may need items in the inventory, such as a can of paint or degreaser. Employees can exchange chemicals through the program, which provides advice on nonhazardous chemicals to use in place of hazardous chemicals.

Nims-Langlois said her internship was rewarding and her colleagues were supportive.

“Everybody was really welcoming, and when I had questions, they were happy to answer them,” she said.

Nims-Langlois is a senior majoring in biology with an emphasis in biomedicine. She returned to ISU this fall to complete her Bachelor of Science degree, after which she plans to attend Montana Technological University in Butte, Montana, to pursue a Master of Science degree in industrial hygiene. Ironically, both of her parents, Debra Nims with IEC, and Mark Langlois, are industrial hygienists.

Nims-Langlois said she’s interested in that profession because an industrial hygienist ensures workers are protected while they execute sometimes challenging functions that require respirators or working in confined spaces.

In her spare time, Nims-Langlois enjoys hiking and reading both fiction and recent scientific articles. She also plays the fantasy board game Dungeons & Dragons.

Nims-Langlois said she intends to support EM when she graduates and follow in the footsteps of her parents who both have extensive experience with the cleanup program.

-Contributor: Erik Simpson

Hanford Site Connects Veterans and Resources

West Valley Upgrades to New Security Facility as EM Approaches Next Cleanup Stage

EM crews build a new security guard house at the West Valley Demonstration Project.

Like EM on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/DOEEnvironmentalManagement

Follow EM on Twitter: @EMcleanup