EM Update | Vol. 6, Issue 7 | July 2014

DOE Office of Environmental Management sent this bulletin at 07/29/2014 01:23 PM EDT

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In This Issue:

Five-Year Technology Development Plan Targets EM’s Decommissioning Challenges
Professional Association Honors EM Employee with Technical Excellence Award
Workers Prepare to Safely Enter One of Hanford Site’s Most Hazardous Rooms
Hanford Site Workers Meet Performance Goal at Plutonium Finishing Plant
Removing High Explosives from Groundwater
Los Alamos National Laboratory Investigates Fenton Hill to Support Future Land Use
SRS Completes Annual Examinations to Verify Safe Storage of Nuclear Materials
EM Employees Draw Attention to Food Drive with Red, White and Blue Display

Five-Year Technology Development Strategic Plan Targets EM’s Decommissioning Challenges

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Leaders from EM headquarters and field offices and the UK’s Sellafield nuclear site gathered recently to discuss developing technologies needed to address decommissioning challenges across the Cold War cleanup program.

Staff from EM’s Office of Deactivation & Decommissioning (D&D) and Facility Engineering and several senior managers and prime contractors from the Savannah River, West Valley, Idaho, Hanford, and Oak Ridge sites identified key areas for the basis of a five-year technology development strategic plan for D&D:

Improved characterization tools and techniques to better locate, identify, quantify, and map radioactivity levels;
Robotic and remote system development to enable safe D&D, including decontamination of highly contaminated facilities;
Improved decontamination technologies and techniques; and
Use of facility mock-ups to demonstrate, prove, and troubleshoot innovative technologies.

EM’s Office of D&D and Facility Engineering is preparing a five-year strategic plan to include key areas such as robotic and remote system development. EM has employed robots such as Tizzy, shown here, which removed high-level solid radioactive material from underground waste tanks. Photographers and other admirers watch as Tizzy readies for a mission of nuclear waste removal at the Savannah River Site.

The EM team was joined by three senior decommissioning staff members from the Sellafield site who shared lessons learned from their decommissioning program and discussed current technology development and demonstration activities in the UK. Meeting with these representatives helped ensure the proposed EM efforts do not duplicate existing work in the UK.

“This has been an excellent opportunity to network with the staff members who have decommissioning challenges in the field,” Office of D&D and Facility Engineering Director Andrew Szilagyi said. “Their knowledge, experience, and insight will assist my office in developing and implementing a focused, robust, and innovative program to benefit site decommissioning activities in the short- and long-term and result in a more effective cleanup program overall.”

A detailed plan is scheduled to be issued later this year for developing and deploying the technologies needed by the field offices to accomplish safer, faster, and more cost-effective cleanup.

The work proposed in the plan will build on and complement current initiatives, including a review of commercially available remote systems and their applications to current Office of D&D and Facility Engineering needs, and the EM Robot Challenge, an initiative to give robotic companies an opportunity to demonstrate their systems in a number of simulated scenarios representative of actual site conditions.

Professional Association Honors EM Employee with Technical Excellence Award

An association with expertise in project cost and schedule management honored an EM employee with its Technical Excellence Award.

“I was very surprised,” said Dan Melamed, who works as a program analyst in EM’s Office of Strategic Planning and Analysis. “I am very much honored that my colleagues and co-workers selected me for this honor.”

The award is given by the Association of Cost Engineering (AACE International) Technical Board to recognize outstanding technical contributions to the association by an individual in the project and cost management community. Melamed received the award during the association’s 2014 annual meeting in New Orleans.

“It is through such outstanding ability, service, and dedication displayed by our members that AACE International is able to continue to be the strong organization that it is,” according to a news release on Melamed’s award on the association’s website.

Dan Melamed is a program analyst for EM.

After joining AACE International in 2004, Melamed served as a local chapter vice-president, president, and past president, helping organize meetings and activities at the local section level in the Washington, D.C. area. He is a member of the Technical Board, which helps write peer-reviewed and edited recommended practices, which are a series of documents that contain information for project and program management for public and private sectors across a wide variety of industries. These documents have been subjected to a rigorous peer review process and published for public use by the Technical Board.

Melamed’s AACE International work is voluntary. “This is work that is done external to my DOE work and work that I have done in my spare time,” said Melamed. “It helps me in my professional understanding.”

Currently, Melamed administers the EM program’s corporate performance measures and milestones. Recently, he was assigned to be the EM headquarters point of contact for the DOE’s Environmental Liability Estimate.

AACE International seeks to teach, exchange information, network, and discuss the major topics of cost engineering such as cost estimating, schedule development, and all aspects of cost management. The organization serves as a clearinghouse of information for project and program management professionals in a variety of disciplines in the public and private sectors.

Workers Prepare to Safely Enter One of Hanford Site’s Most Hazardous Rooms

Trainers help a Plutonium Finishing Plant employee dress in the protective suit.

RICHLAND, Wash. – When workers enter the hazardous, historic McCluskey Room at the Hanford site this summer, they will be safer due to their preparation and involvement in planning and training for the job.

The McCluskey Room is part of the site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant and was used to recover americium during the Cold War. The room is named after Harold McCluskey, who was injured in 1976 when a vessel inside a glove box burst and exposed him to radioactive material. McCluskey was 64 at the time and lived for 11 more years until he died from causes not related to the accident.

Since 2008, EM’s Richland Operations Office and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M HILL) have worked to prepare the plant for demolition by removing much of the equipment and infrastructure inside the building once used for plutonium processing.

“About two-thirds of the Plutonium Finishing Plant is deactivated — cleaned out and ready for demolition,” said Jon Peschong, deputy Assistant Manager for River and Plateau for the Richland Operations Office. “Cleaning out the McCluskey Room will be a major step forward.”

In the room, employees will encounter airborne radioactivity, surface contamination, and poor ventilation. Recognizing the significant hazards, workers traveled last year to a similarly contaminated EM site in Idaho and observed the use of advanced supplied air systems and protective suits, which they recommended for use at the plant. The system and equipment observed at the Idaho site have been in use for approximately nine years. For more details on that information exchange, click here.

Nuclear chemical operator Harold McCluskey in this undated photo.

The force of the 1976 explosion blew windows and gloves from the glove box, leaving the facility heavily contaminated to this day.

Trainers adjust a Plutonium Finishing Plant employee’s harness that carries the respirator, cooling system, and other equipment safely inside the protective suit.

Hanford workers also developed procedures and training tailored for using the equipment at the plant. The equipment includes an abrasion-resistant suit that protects workers from surface contamination and chemicals. Workers will also wear devices for communicating with each other and for monitoring air inside the suit. A dual-purpose air system will provide cool air for breathing and cool air throughout the suit for worker comfort, allowing them to work in the facility for longer periods of time. The suit is pressurized, which helps prevent workers from coming into contact with airborne contaminants.

“The employees involved in selecting the equipment and training on the equipment are some of the most experienced employees at CH2M HILL and at Hanford,” said Mike Swartz, CH2M HILL’s vice president for the Plutonium Finishing Plant Closure Project. “Their involvement in safety has been key as they prepare to enter the McCluskey Room.”

Workers will improve ventilation, remove combustibles, control airborne contamination, and isolate and remove electrical and mechanical items. They will remove processing equipment, such as glove boxes and tanks, to prepare that portion of the plant for demolition.

Watch this video that explains the history of the McCluskey Room and demonstrates the new equipment employees will use when they enter that area.

Hanford Site Workers Meet Challenging Performance Goal at Plutonium Finishing Plant

Workers Meet Performance Goal at Plutonium Finishing Plant

Workers “seal out” a pencil tank that had been cut into smaller segments and prepare it for shipment.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Safely and methodically, piece by piece, workers at the Hanford site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant are surpassing goals for removing hazardous tanks once used in the plutonium production process.

EM’s Richland Operations Office and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M HILL) are performing the delicate work of removing the tanks, which are referred to as “pencil tanks” because of their long, slender shape. Since Oct. 1, 2013, workers have removed 26 pencil tank units, exceeding an annual key performance goal of removing 25 by Sept. 30, 2014. EM sets key performance goals to track cleanup progress. There are 196 pencil tank units total; workers have removed 136 since 2008.

“Removing these heavily contaminated tanks is an important step forward in cleaning out and demolishing the Plutonium Finishing Plant to reduce risk on the Hanford site,” said Bryan Foley, deputy federal project director, Richland Operations Office. “We have a deadline of demolishing all of the buildings that make up the plant by the end of September 2016, and we intend to meet that deadline.”

Workers are removing pencil tank units ranging in size from 3 to 25 feet long to help prepare the Plutonium Finishing Plant for demolition.

The tanks range in size from 3 to 25 feet long and are housed vertically on the walls of a long and tall concrete-reinforced room, or canyon. The canyon is too contaminated to enter for long periods of time, so workers use the building’s original remote-controlled crane to move the tanks from the canyon to a maintenance facility where workers manually cut the tanks up and prepare them for disposal. Crews at the plant are working from the inside out — decontaminating and removing process-related infrastructure like the pencil tanks and glove boxes, or getting them ready for removal during demolition — to make the plant safe for demolition.

“Our team of talented workers has safely prepared more than 70 percent of the Plutonium Finishing Plant for demolition,” said Mike Swartz, CH2M HILL Plutonium Finishing Plant Closure vice president. “Our continued focus on safe and compliant work will allow us to make further progress toward our goal of removing pencil tanks and other hazards from inside the plant so we can reach our goal of demolition in 2016.”

Removing High Explosives from Groundwater

Crews conducted the geophysics study using a machine called the Super Sting to measure the resistivity of the complex underlying geologic strata.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – In an initiative supported by EM, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Corrective Actions Program is addressing high explosive contamination in surface water and groundwater at a location this summer in the forests surrounding the laboratory.

A high explosive called RDX was machined at the site beginning in the 1950s as part of the laboratory’s weapons development mission. Over time, machining effluent discharged at the site resulted in RDX contamination in soil and water.

Contamination was removed from the soil during past cleanup operations, but levels of legacy RDX still exist in surface water and groundwater.

Crews in June began testing to determine how successfully RDX can be removed from groundwater. The test involves pumping water, treating it with activated carbon, and discharging it into the ground. Samples also are taken daily and analyzed internally for RDX.

In addition to the testing, a technical geophysics study was completed in June to determine the conductivity of the ground around the site. Cables with electrodes were run along the ground throughout the area. The electrodes sent current into the ground to measure the resistance of the underlying geological strata, which will help Los Alamos experts determine the extent of perched intermediate groundwater in the contamination zone and where to drill additional monitoring wells.

“We have to identify where the groundwater exists in a complex geologic strata in order to remediate the contamination,” said Project Manager John McCann. “These tests are important steps in characterizing contamination at the site and defining the extent of the deep perched intermediate groundwater zone.”

Los Alamos National Laboratory Investigates Fenton Hill to Support Future Land Use

Sampling locations are on steep, heavily vegetated terrain requiring subcontractor TerranearPMC crews to take hand-augured samples rather than using a drill rig.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – Supporting future land use for the U.S. Forest Service, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Corrective Actions Program (CAP) completed sampling soil at Fenton Hill in the Jemez Mountains this month.

Fenton Hill, known to the laboratory as TA-57, is located on Forest Service property.

DOE historically used the site between 1974 and 1992 for geothermal experiments in an attempt to generate energy using steam produced from pumping water into hot rocks deep in the ground.

Most of the 10 areas of concern on the site were previously addressed. The EM-supported initiative under CAP involves investigating the two remaining areas of concern — a former liquid waste drum pad and a former sanitary waste leach field.

The 2005 Compliance Order on Consent requires investigation of the site so in addition to releasing the property the accelerated investigation is another step toward the laboratory completing two more sites on property no longer used by DOE.

Crews collect samples from the site of the former sanitary waste leach field.

Soil samples will be analyzed to determine if additional work is required at the site.

In addition, with steep hillsides and plush vegetation, the terrain on the site is home to the Jemez Mountain salamander, a species placed on the federal endangered species list in 2013.

Although laboratory work seldom interferes with this species, the laboratory takes precautions to avoid disturbing the salamanders’ habitat just as it does with other endangered species.

Because the site is in the mountains, the laboratory’s project manager worked with the institution’s biology team to carefully assess the area and select sampling locations that would not disturb the salamanders’ habitat.

“The laboratory works closely with property owners to ensure property formerly used by DOE is returned to the property owners in a condition suitable for an agreed upon future land use,” said Historical Properties Completion Campaign Project Manager Todd Haagenstad. “Finishing our work at these sites, while protecting the environment, is a priority and an obligation we take seriously.”

In the coming weeks, the sampling results will be analyzed to determine if additional work is required at the site.

SRS Completes Annual Examinations to Verify Safe Storage of Nuclear Materials

AIKEN, S.C. – The EM program at the Savannah River Site (SRS) recently completed an annual process in K Area that validates the site’s ongoing commitment to maintaining the safety and security of nuclear materials stored there.

The mission of K Area is the receipt and safe storage of nuclear materials. Safe storage is validated through the yearly examination of the containers that hold plutonium-bearing materials, called 3013 containers. The examinations to look for signs of degradation have been performed in each of the past seven years to support EM’s 3013 Surveillance Program. The program set the criteria for stabilizing plutonium-bearing materials at EM facilities to safe and stable forms for packaging and placement in storage with minimal surveillance for up to 50 years.

A container holding plutonium-bearing materials is placed inside an outer container. A number of these containers at SRS go through examinations each year to look for signs of degradation.

Plutonium material arrives in K Area in 3013 containers. To ensure the 3013 standard is met, the Materials Identification and Surveillance working group — comprised of employees from the DOE complex — surveys a number of the containers each year. The containers are placed inside the K Area Interim Surveillance glove box, which allows employees to open the containers to gather samples of the oxide, the container itself, and gasses inside the container. These samples are then sent to EM’s Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), which is part of DOE’s network of national laboratories, for testing and evaluation.

“We are being proactive in making sure the nuclear materials are stored in a safe manner,” K Area Complex Surveillance Program Authority and MIS Representative Beth Hackney said.

The samples from the nine containers examined this year will be analyzed at SRNL for any indication of degradation. The results will allow the working group to ensure the integrity of 3013 containers is maintained.

EM Employees Draw Attention to Food Drive with Red, White and Blue Display

EM, Contractor Employees Gather Food for People in Need

Pictured from left to right in front of the Paducah site’s American Flag display are Mark Duff (LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky, LLC), Christa Dailey (Pro2Serve), Jennifer Woodard (EM Site Lead), and Kelly Layne (LATA KY).

LEXINGTON, Ky. – EM and its contractors at the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) in Lexington and Paducah, Ky. and Portsmouth, Ohio put a patriotic touch on their local efforts as part of the national Feds Feed Families campaign, which runs through Aug. 27. Employees at the three offices fashioned donated items for the food drive into American flag displays in honor of Independence Day. Led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the campaign collects food and personal hygiene items to help restock the shelves of organizations that help less fortunate people. Since the program began in 2009, federal agencies and contractors have donated and collected 24.1 million pounds of food and nonperishable items. The program helps communities in every state. For more information, click here. More photos of the displays from PPPO are below.