EM Update | Vol. 15, Issue 4 | Jan. 31, 2023

• EM's 2023 Priorities Drive Vital Cleanup Progress
• New Apprenticeship School Draws Students to Careers at SRS
• Duo Returns 24 Years Later to Conduct Mapping for EM Nevada Cleanup
• Idaho Treatment Facility Resumes Heat-Up Following Maintenance
• ‘Shadow the President’ Provides Development Opportunities at SRS
• Hanford Contractor Supports Career Pathways to Hanford

EM's 2023 Priorities Drive Vital Cleanup Progress

EM has released its program priorities for calendar year (CY) 2023, covering key cleanup actions, project construction, acquisition and other important activities that will further EM’s critical environmental mission.

“Following another successful year in 2022, we entered 2023 with considerable momentum and a new slate of priorities critical to the EM mission,” EM Senior Advisor William “Ike” White said. “This year’s priorities set the stage for more progress at our sites and we are already fast at work on completing them.”

EM achieved the majority of its priorities for CY 2022, completing challenging work that demonstrates visible and effectual progress as the program focuses on some of its most difficult remaining challenges.

The full set of EM CY 2023 priorities can be accessed here.

New Apprenticeship School Draws Students to Careers at SRS

AIKEN, S.C. – Students attending area technical colleges can now participate in the new Apprenticeship School at the Savannah River Site (SRS) created by EM contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS).

In addition to getting paid, SRS apprentices gain job-related experience, network to obtain job references and test drive occupations of their choosing while pursuing college degrees.

A team of employees from SRNS, the Savannah River National Laboratory and liquid waste contractor Savannah River Mission Completion are working together to quickly grow and enhance the school. Generally, apprentices will be recruited twice each year to start school in January or in the fall.

Aiken and Denmark technical colleges are currently participating in the unique school.

“We’re in the process of developing a program with Augusta Technical College and Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College and recruiting a cohort of students from those colleges for the fall of this year,” said Dorian Newton, the SRNS Apprenticeship School Program manager.

Denmark Technical College Dean of Industrial & Related Technologies Hadi Hamid said their mission is to engage, educate and empower students to impact industry by identifying transformative solutions to complex issues in South Carolina, the nation and the world.

“We achieve this by utilizing a wide range of resources and opportunities, available both inside and outside the classroom,” said Hamid. “The innovative Apprenticeship School concept, developed by SRNS, perfectly aligns with our mission and strategy. It has already generated extensive interest across our campus. We are excited to see the potential of this program fulfilled and are grateful for the investment SRNS continues to make in our small, rural HBCU.”

HBCUs stands for historically Black colleges and universities.

Earlier this month, SRS brought on 106 apprentices who will soon start classes at SRS and Aiken Technical College.

“We are also looking at increasing the number of maintenance mechanics and laboratory technician apprentices at the site sometime this year by partnering with local tech schools to further expand the number of apprentices at SRS,” Newton said. “In fact, the first class of maintenance apprentices recently graduated from our program.”

Adam Smith, an SRNS Apprenticeship School Program lead, offered his perspective on enrolling students in the SRS Apprenticeship School.

“In some ways, this process is similar to recruiting a college football team. We actively meet with high school counselors and students at various types of career fairs, in addition to partnering with county career center personnel,” said Smith. “We want to be proactive towards informing as many high school students as possible regarding all we have to offer in meeting their long-term occupational needs.”

In a significant achievement for SRNS, the U.S. Department of Labor recently approved the SRNS Project Controls Apprenticeship, a first of its kind in the DOE complex and broader U.S.

Click here for more information on the Apprenticeship School at SRS.

-Contributor: DT Townsend

Duo Returns 24 Years Later to Conduct Mapping for EM Nevada Cleanup

LAS VEGAS – Twenty-four years ago, Beth Williams and Jeff Warren performed underground surveying work at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) to help with the eventual shutdown of a facility used in the development of the U.S. space program.

Now, the two senior geophysicists are back at the NNSS. This time, they are doing underground surveying work on behalf of the EM Nevada Program at the Engine Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly (EMAD) Facility.

"It feels like we've come full circle," said Williams.

Williams and Warren took time recently to discuss the labor being conducted at the EMAD site. Constructed in 1965 at a cost of more than $50 million, it was then the largest hot cell in the world. EMAD and Test Cell C (TCC) were part of the Nuclear Rocket Development Station at the NNSS, which supported the development and testing of nuclear rocket engines from 1957 until 1973. Demolition and closure of those two facilities are the ongoing focus of EM Nevada’s current industrial sites mission at the NNSS.

Geophysicist Beth Williams uses paint drops to mark responses from the passive locator.

Geophysicist Jeff Warren pulls an electromagnetic metal detector with a mounted GPS on top.

Williams and Warren began by traversing the area and performing a passive locator survey. Passive locators can detect subsurface objects such as energized electrical lines or buried cables and pipes. Next, Warren used an electromagnetic metal detector with a mounted GPS, tracking responses through many laps over the area.

“With this data, the team will be able to create color-enhanced contour maps that indicate a geographical representation of the underground region,” said EM Nevada Deputy Program Manager Bill Wilborn.

Meanwhile, Williams performed a ground penetrating radar (GPR) mapping of the area. GPR uses radar technology to track anomalies under the surface and the depth and location of underground shapes it encounters. The different methods are designed to create a system of checks and balances, cross-checking findings across multiple devices. The result will be a much deeper understanding of what lies beneath EMAD and surrounding land.

“This is important work,” said Construction Manager Chase Morgan. “This data will help us identify underground utilities, which will help us plan our future work activities.”

Geophysicist Beth Williams uses a passive locator device near the Engine Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly Facility at the Nevada National Security Site.

For Warren and Williams, the job was a reunion of sorts. Their work in 1998 took place at the Reactor Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly (R-MAD) Facility, one of more than 1,800 industrial sites on the NNSS that have been successfully brought to closure. They thought back fondly on their R-MAD experience, where they stayed in dormitories and relied on a single phone line to communicate. But they also marveled at how unchanged the land was, preserved through decades of federal stewardship under EM.

“It's like a time capsule,” Williams said.

Geophysical mapping has been completed at TCC, and the team estimated the process would take about two weeks at EMAD.

-Contributor: Grant Johnson

Idaho Treatment Facility Resumes Heat-Up Following Maintenance

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Heat-up of a liquid waste treatment facility has resumed this month in anticipation of beginning radiological operations at the facility at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory Site.

Most recently, EM crews at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) removed a partial obstruction within a line into the Carbon Reduction Reformer, a key treatment vessel in the steam-reforming process. The temperature of the facility was reduced to allow for safe maintenance of the line.

Earlier, crews completed repairs to equipment responsible for a leak of nonradiological material inside one of the facility’s processing cells.

To perform the repairs, welders installed a thick, stainless steel plate over a hole that formed in a valve body inside one of the facility’s two cells where dried, treated material will be transferred to long, stainless steel canisters. The filled canisters will then be placed into concrete vaults for long term storage. A similar valve in the second cell was also modified in the same way as a precaution.

Shortly before the completion of the heat-up process in late December, IWTU operators noticed the nonradiological solids leak during routine inspection of the shielded cell using installed cameras. The leak occurred during a normal purging process, which directs bursts of nitrogen through stainless steel lines to prepare for the transfer of treated simulant. Operators immediately began a normal shutdown of IWTU.

Following the shutdown and cooldown of the facility, investigation of the leak revealed the damaged valve body. Inspections indicated the damage was erosion of the valve body due to the interaction of alumina and nitrogen purges. Alumina, a commonly used material in sandpaper, is introduced into the IWTU’s steam-reforming process to improve the movement, or fluidization, of dried waste material inside the facility’s primary reaction vessel. Inspections extended to other parts of the facility that have similar valves, but no other wear was noted.

Approximately 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid waste from three nearby underground stainless steel storage tanks will be converted to a more stable granular solid. The tanks will then be cleaned and grouted, and the group of tanks will be closed under federal and state regulations. Treated waste will be stored onsite until a national geologic repository is available for permanent disposal of IWTU’s treated waste.

Moving forward, the canister-fill cell lines will be purged for a shorter duration to reduce the likelihood of wear to the valves.

The leak of nonradiological material also allowed engineers to consider how they would respond in case of a similar event during radiological operations. Radiation exposure would be primarily managed by shielding and increasing the distance between the worker and source of radiation. Contamination levels would be controlled though use of containment tents, ventilation and cleanup.

-Contributor: Erik Simpson

‘Shadow the President’ Provides Development Opportunities at SRS

Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) engineer Shanna Xia meets with SRMC President and Program Dave Olson as part of his Shadow the President mentoring program.

Hanford Contractor Supports Career Pathways to Hanford

Hanford Mission Integration Solutions Vice President of Workforce Solutions Julie Lindstrom, far left, and Chief Operations Officer Amy Basche, center left, presented a $150,000 donation to Columbia Basin College representatives President Rebekah Woods, center right, and Vice President of Instruction Michael Lee for a program that helps students find career pathways to the Hanford Site.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Identifying, training and readying the next-generation workforce is important to the continued long-term success of sites across the EM complex, and a contractor at the Hanford Site continues to invest in programs to support this initiative.

EM Richland Operations Office (RL) contractor Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) recently donated $150,000 to Columbia Basin College (CBC) in Pasco, Washington, for the Pathways to Hanford Program.

The program helps students envision a future career at Hanford and provides support, skills training and guidance as they build their career pathway. Participants will explore a variety of careers and skills needed; the contractors’ work and company values; internship programs; and the hiring process.

“Guiding students to the numerous opportunities at Hanford, including STEM careers, is vital,” said Cameron Salony, Hanford Site STEM lead. “Programs like Pathways to Hanford, along with the contractor’s financial support, help local students learn about these opportunities and receive the support they need to join our Hanford team as we continue to achieve cleanup successes.”

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.

At the donation ceremony, Hanford Mission Integration Solutions Chief Operations Officer Amy Basche, who has more than 25 years of experience in her career at the Hanford Site, highlighted the need to train the next-generation workforce to support continued success in site cleanup.

Hanford Mission Integration Solutions Vice President of Workforce Solutions Julie Lindstrom attended Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Washington, and interned at the Hanford Site. Lindstrom says the Pathways to Hanford Program can be both educational and fun.

“HMIS has been an incredible community partner, supporting internships, hosting information sessions on campus and creating opportunities for our students,” said CBC President Rebekah Woods. “This generous donation will allow us to strengthen and diversify the workforce pipeline by helping students go from Hawks (the CBC mascot) to Hanford.”

The contractor’s donation will provide enhanced support for the Pathways to Hanford Program for the next three years. Beginning with an initial group of 15 students, program enhancements will include a range of services and support for students in their first years of the program.

“As a strong supporter of this program from its inception, we wanted to ensure students have the tools and resources they need to enter programs prepared, finish on time and be ready to enter the workforce,” said HMIS Chief Operations Officer Amy Basche. “We know firsthand the importance of partnerships, like this, with our educational institutions, and know this donation will help prepare future generations of Hanford workers.”

-Contributor: Reneé Brooks

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