EM Update | Vol. 8, Issue 11 | June 15, 2016
DOE Office of Environmental Management sent this bulletin at 06/15/2016 11:35 AM EDT
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EM Update | Vol. 8, Issue 11 | June 15, 2016
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EM Marks Progress on Facilities, Outlines Safe Startup and Commissioning Plans
Panelists
at the event for the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus included, left to
right, Parsons Senior Vice President and Salt Waste Processing Facility
Project Manager Frank Sheppard, EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary
Mark Whitney, and Bechtel National Inc. Waste Treatment Plant (WTP)
Project Director Peggy McCullough.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Leadership from EM
and its contractors highlighted measurable progress on major cleanup
facilities across the complex and discussed a safe and successful path
forward for startup and commissioning at an event for the House Nuclear
Cleanup Caucus on June 8.
“With construction now complete at the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), the Hanford Direct Feed Low Activity Waste (DFLAW) initiative moving forward, and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)
progressing into cold commissioning, we are working hard and working
together to leverage lessons learned and achieve our shared goal of safe
and successful operations,” EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary
Mark Whitney said.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), who chairs the caucus, voiced support for EM’s cleanup and called it a national effort.
“I’m so proud of the folks in this room: the contractors, the workers,
the affected communities who come together in a strong bipartisan way
to advocate for cleanup of these legacy sites,” Fleischmann said.
“You’re doing a great job. It’s an important job. It’s a federal
obligation. These are sites that need to be cleaned up.” Reps. John
Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) also participated in the
event and shared their support for EM’s cleanup efforts.
Caucus Chairman Rep. Chuck Fleischmann welcomes people attending the event.
Whitney joined Parsons Senior Vice President and Salt Waste Processing
Facility (SWPF) Project Manager Frank Sheppard and Bechtel National
Inc. Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) Project Director Peggy McCullough on a
panel moderated by Energy Facility Contractors Group Board of Directors Chair Billy Morrison that focused on the timely issues of startup and commissioning of key EM facilities.
Sheppard noted that SWPF has entered the testing and commissioning
phase after finishing construction eight months ahead of schedule and
more than $60 million under budget based on the company’s contract
arrangement from June 2013.
Sheppard emphasized that safety is the top priority, and he noted the importance of lessons learned from other projects.
“The top priority for us is to make sure everything we do is done
safely and in order to do that you have to take your experiences from
other places,” he said. “There is a lot of cross-fertilization within
the Department and within the contractor community to make sure we
capture lessons learned and to make sure we start up the facility safely
and efficiently.”
McCullough discussed the benefits of the sequenced startup and
commissioning approach at Hanford’s WTP that will treat tank waste and
transform it into stable glass. The sequenced approach will enable waste
to be treated prior to completion of the entire WTP complex through
DFLAW.
In addition to making glass as soon as 2022 and reducing risks at
Hanford’s tank farms, the DFLAW initiative will reduce operational risks
and add a higher degree of confidence to the tank waste treatment
process at Hanford.
McCullough described Bechtel’s operational readiness review approach
as robust and spoke about lessons learned to be applied to the startup
of DFLAW. In explaining Bechtel’s approach to startup, the project
director said Bechtel will use a progressive testing strategy that
involves moving from the component level to the system level to an
integrated facility test.
Whitney noted progress at WIPP, including significant changes to
safety management programs, and outlined the steps necessary to develop
proficiencies and test capabilities for site workers, equipment, and
processes before restart.
“There has been a tremendous amount of work on recovery and we are
moving forward on that with the plan to resume operations by December of
this year, as long as it is safe to do so.” he said.
The panelists also discussed collaborative efforts across the complex
and the world to study best practices that can be applied at multiple
facilities and ways to prevent or solve challenges experienced in the
past.
The third event for the caucus is scheduled for Sept. 14.
Los Alamos Field Office Installs Additional Safety Measure to Drums
Workers install filtration systems to the RNS drums.
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – EM’s Los Alamos Field Office
and contractor Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS) recently
completed installation of high efficiency particulate air (HEPA)
filtration systems to remediated nitrate salt (RNS) drums.
The HEPA filters will eliminate pressure buildup within the drums, which are located at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). In the unlikely event a filter becomes clogged, a pressure relief disc will operate to release pressure.
“Ensuring RNS drums are in the safest possible configuration is our
top priority. We are confident that this additional layer of defense for
RNS drums will prevent a radiological release similar to what occurred
at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP),” said Doug Hintze, manager of the Los Alamos Field Office.
The procedure for adding the filters was completed in carefully
planned stages, the last of which involved installing the devices to the
lids of the RNS drums over the course of several days.
After the radiological event on Feb. 14, 2014 at WIPP, DOE scientists
from several national laboratories conducted extensive experiments and
modeling studies to determine what caused the RNS drum to breach. These
investigations revealed an incompatible mixture of nitrate salts and an
organic absorbent created conditions that resulted in an exothermic
reaction that led to a drum breach and radiological release.
As part of this research, two additional parameters were determined to
be critical to control an unwanted reaction: temperature and pressure.
The information gained from scientific experiments and associated
research have helped DOE and LANS develop robust measures for safe
storage of the RNS drums located at LANL.
Since the WIPP event, comprehensive measures have been employed to
ensure the RNS drums remain at a safe temperature. Additionally, in the
summer of 2015, LANS installed a supplemental cooling system in the
climate-controlled structure where the RNS drums are stored. The
temperature of the RNS drums are monitored and inspections are conducted
daily.
A plan for the treatment of the RNS drums is being developed. After
the drums are treated, they will be ready for shipment offsite.
Oak Ridge Community Meeting Focused on Enabling Future Missions
OREM
Manager Sue Cange tells attendees about the organization’s budget and
planning process, including its funding levels, commitments, and
near-term priorities.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management
(OREM) recently hosted its annual community workshop, an event intended
to raise awareness about the organization’s budget and planning
process, including its funding levels, commitments, and near-term
priorities.
OREM uses the meetings to inform residents about the local cleanup
program’s ongoing projects, and its future cleanup plans for the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), Y-12 National Security Complex, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The event is open to the public and provides the opportunity for a two-way dialogue with attendees.
“These meetings are valuable to us because they give us a great forum
to share information and engage with community members and local
officials to hear feedback and new perspectives,” OREM Manager Sue Cange
said,
This year’s agenda had an eye toward the future and focused on how the
cleanup program enables the missions at Oak Ridge’s three primary
campuses. Panel members from the site’s major contractors — Consolidated
Nuclear Security, UT-Battelle, and URS | CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) —
discussed the ongoing missions at their respective campuses and how the
environmental cleanup planned or underway will make their visions
possible.
UCOR panelist Steve Dahlgren, who serves as the project manager for
deactivation and decommissioning, environmental remediation, and
closure, said employees are working toward achieving Vision 2016 and
Vision 2020 at ETTP.
These two goals play a pivotal role in the Oak Ridge Reservation’s
landscape and hold significant economic potential. Vision 2016 is EM’s
goal to remove all five of the former uranium enrichment plants at Oak
Ridge by the end of 2016, and Vision 2020 is the goal to complete
cleanup and transfer the site as a private industrial park by 2020.
Left
to right, panelists Lee McGetrick, Jane Nations, and Steve Dahlgren
talk with moderator Ken Rueter about how OREM is enabling future
missions at their respective sites.
Y-12 Site Master Planner Jane Nations said planning is already
underway with OREM to remove the old, contaminated Manhattan Project and
Cold War facilities at Y-12, paving the way for a safer, modern campus
with space for new national security missions.
First, however, OREM announced it is designing and constructing a
mercury treatment facility that will control potential increases in
mercury releases during the demolition of buildings where large amounts
of mercury was used for operations decades ago. The cleanup program will
also need a second onsite disposal facility that offers the capacity
needed for the debris from the demolished facilities.
Lee McGetrick, ORNL’s nuclear infrastructure program manager, talked
about the laboratory’s ongoing advances at the site, whether it’s taking
a leadership role in exploring exascale supercomputing, developing next
generation manufacturing technologies and materials, or conducting
advanced nuclear modeling and simulation.
While ORNL has undergone extensive modernization efforts on the east
and west portions of the campus during the past decade, OREM is needed
to remove contaminated facilities in the older, central campus area.
This valuable real estate would provide the ideal location for future
science and energy missions.
In addition to planning and preparing these facilities for removal,
OREM is processing and shipping waste and materials from ORNL, thereby
improving safety and reducing the current security level required at the
site.
“We’ve made tremendous progress, but there’s much more work to do,”
said Cange. “Fortunately, Oak Ridge’s federal programs and contractors
have an outstanding partnership and worked together to develop a unified
vision and strategy that allows us to accomplish far more.”
Ancillary Building Demolition at Plutonium Finishing Plant Complex 
RICHLAND, Wash.
– Progress toward demolition at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) on
the Hanford Site continued with the safe demolition of a small building
near the main PFP complex this month. The building once housed testing
equipment for water effluent that came from PFP. Overall, 92 buildings
made up the PFP complex, and about 24 remain. EM and contractor CH2M
HILL Plateau Remediation Company are working to safely prepare the
remaining buildings for demolition, including the four main processing
buildings, which involves some of the most hazardous work at the site.
Richland Operations Office Makes Progress Removing Drums at Hanford Site
Crews process some of the roughly 1,700 drums of waste that have been processed at the 618-10 Burial Ground.
RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s Richland Operations Office
(RL) and cleanup contractor Washington Closure Hanford (WCH) have
excavated and processed the majority of drums at the 618-10 Burial
Ground, one of the Hanford Site’s most hazardous burial grounds.
Since beginning cleanup of the burial ground in April 2011, workers
have dug up and processed about 1,700 drums of waste from the trenches.
The most contaminated drums are lined inside with concrete to shield
high-dose waste material. The drums are treated in a steel box where the
waste material is crushed and mixed with grout and solidified before
being sent to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF), Hanford’s onsite landfill for low-level, radioactive, and chemical mixed waste.
“This is a safe way to process the waste and prepare it for disposal,
and it avoids the cost of storing and deferring treatment of the waste,”
said Mark French, EM federal project director for the River Corridor.
Other drums excavated have contained depleted uranium shavings in oil,
oxide powders, and miscellaneous debris.
Work also continues to remediate 94 buried vertical pipe units that
contain moderate- to high-activity waste. Because part of the trenches
are close to the vertical pipe units, the remaining drums will not be
removed until the vertical pipe unit cleanup is completed. WCH estimates
there could be nearly 300 drums remaining in the trenches.
“We’ve made remarkable progress cleaning up the burial ground thanks
to a team committed to working safely and efficiently on an everyday
basis,” said Scott Sax, WCH president and project manager. “The site is
full of unknown hazards, which require careful, detailed planning and
deliberate execution. I could not be more proud of the entire 618-10
project team and those who have supported the cleanup effort.”
In addition, workers have removed about 350,000 tons of contaminated
soil and other miscellaneous items such as glove boxes and process
equipment. The majority of waste has been disposed of at ERDF.
EM Site Puts Environmental Database Online
Larry McCandless of Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth demonstrates the use of the GIS viewer.
PIKETON, Ohio – Environmental sampling data at EM’s Portsmouth Site is now accessible to the public through an enhanced geographic mapping tool on the Internet.
The tool offers access to information such as publicly available
environmental documents, and groundwater-level and analytical data.
The Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office
(PPPO) Environmental Geographic Analytical Spatial Information System
(PEGASIS) features an external GIS (Geographic Information System) and
analytical data viewer that provides easy access to environmental data
previously attainable only through a formal Freedom of Information Act
request.
PEGASIS can be accessed here.
“PEGASIS promotes open government by allowing users to conveniently
access the system,” said PPPO’s Richard Bonczek. “This information about
the Portsmouth Site can be used for a variety of purposes and EM is
glad to provide this resource to the public.”
The user interface and display tools for PEGASIS were developed with
input from various stakeholders, including EM and its contractors,
regulatory agencies, and members of the public.
Larry McCandless, GIS manager for Portsmouth decontamination &
decommissioning contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth (FBP), said thanks to a
lot of help from site information technology personnel, EM guidance,
and the sample and data management team, FBP has achieved its goal of
helping establish a user friendly tool.
“We hope users of the application find it and the user guides easy and enlightening to use,” McCandless said.
A similar PEGASIS site was developed for EM’s Paducah Site
in Kentucky in 2012, which is maintained by deactivation contractor
Fluor Federal Services, Inc. The Kentucky Research Consortium for Energy
and Environment pioneered the Paducah Data Warehouse system — the
forerunner to PEGASIS — several years ago as part of an EM grant to the
University of Kentucky. Developers incorporated base code from the Paducah system into the Portsmouth Site’s PEGASIS.
Engineers Go Mobile with Tablets, Bring Benefits to Waste Treatment Plant Project
Bechtel employees Jared Thomas (left) and Brian Tyrrell at WTP.
RICHLAND, Wash. – Jared Thomas has been hard to find at his desk lately. And that’s a good thing.
As a field engineer with EM contractor Bechtel National Inc. at the Office of River Protection (ORP) Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), Thomas spends more time working in the facilities under construction thanks to recent deployment of hybrid tablets.
The tablets allow hundreds of WTP engineers, like Thomas, to perform
their work from any safe, Wi-Fi-enabled location at the 65-acre
construction site. The flexibility is saving time, increasing
efficiency, and improving quality at the massive construction project.
“Anything I was doing on my desk workstation I can now do in the
field,” Thomas said. “As a field engineer, spending more time with my
crew allows me to be more efficient in doing my work, more proactive in
identifying issues, and more accessible to answer questions.”
WTP management has been searching to equip employees with a single
remote-computing device that is powerful enough to fully integrate
critical project software and secure enough to operate within stringent
DOE and Bechtel security protocols.
With the hybrid tablet in hand, Thomas submits and signs inspection
records, generates field changes, and documents corrective actions on
the spot. He saves printing costs by pulling up the latest documents,
drawings, and 3-D models electronically. Instant access to the WTP
network ensures quality by allowing him to always pull up the most
current revisions.
He also is connected instantly via webcam and instant messaging. By
firing up the front- or rear-facing camera, Thomas can have real-time
discussions about issue resolution with project employees in Richland,
Reston, Va., or San Francisco.
Bechtel employees, left to right, Micah Hart, Brian Tyrrell, Jared Thomas, and Aaron Rackleff (in background) at WTP.
WTP will be the world’s largest radioactive nuclear waste
vitrification facility and is being designed and constructed by Bechtel
for ORP. When complete, it will vitrify most of the 56 million gallons
of the country’s most complex nuclear waste currently stored in tanks on
the Hanford site.
“I am encouraged to see cutting-edge technology be applied to the
construction of WTP,” ORP WTP Project Assistant Manager Bill Hamel said.
The portable device can function as a laptop through use of a
detachable keyboard or as a standalone tablet with full-touch interface.
It also can perform as a desktop workstation through wireless docking
that connects a keyboard and dual monitor setup.
The technology also has prompted field engineers to further innovate.
Emergent capabilities involving electronic forms, automated reporting,
and use of 360-degree video are enhancing quality and task efficiency.
“The time and budget resources applied to automation will promote
efficient execution of the WTP mission, which will bring us closer to
treating Hanford’s tank waste,” said Mike Costas, Bechtel’s manager of
quality and functions at the WTP project. “Clearly, innovation within
WTP construction is on course.”
Portsmouth Site Breaks Ground For Waste Disposal
PIKETON, Ohio – Work has begun
on a sediment pond at the On-site Waste Disposal Facility (OSWDF) site in the
northeast area of EM’s Portsmouth Site. The OSWDF will be a
state-of-the-art permanent disposal site for materials coming from the
deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) of the former Portsmouth Gaseous
Diffusion Plant. Upon completion, the 100-plus-acre facility will include
multiple layers of constructed and natural liners below and above, with a
grass-covered surface. In 2015, EM selected OSWDF for certain demolition
and environmental remediation waste to be safely disposed of onsite as part of
its record of decision regarding disposition of the bulk of materials generated
from D&D of more than 300 buildings and systems. The first waste
placement is anticipated in late 2019. Shown (from left): EM Portsmouth Site
Director Dr. Vincent Adams, Fluor Government Group Environmental & Nuclear
Business Line Senior Vice President Greg Meyer, Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth (FBP)
Deputy Site Project Director Jeff Stevens, EM Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office
Acting Manager Robert Edwards, FBP Site Project Director Dennis Carr, EM
Portsmouth Site Lead Joel Bradburne, and EM Portsmouth OSWDF Federal Project
Director Johnny Reising.
Two EM Contractors Are Among Fiscal Year 2015 Small Business Award Winners
A
physical security specialist with Wastren-EnergX Mission Support, LLC
conducts a secured-area inspection as part of the contractor’s security
oversight duties at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Site.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two contractors supporting EM cleanup have been recognized with awards from DOE’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization.
Wastren-EnergX Mission Support, LLC (WEMS) was named Small Business of the Year. The firm was a joint venture created by Wastren Advantage, Inc. and EnergX LLC to provide facility support services at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio.
Patrick Marmo, manager of procurement at CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation
Company (CHPRC) in Richland, Wash., was named Federal Management
Contractor Procurement Director of the Year.
Award winners were recognized at the 15th Annual DOE Small Business
Forum & Expo held recently. The complete list of awardees is here.
WEMS incorporated safety, quality, sustainability and security into
its fiscal year 2015 work, resulting in sustained safety performance,
uninterrupted services, an improved infrastructure, solutions to support
the fiscal year site mission goals, and exceeding cost savings goals —
all while promoting and maintaining a strong safety culture and at a
cost significantly under budget, according to its award.
In fiscal year 2015, WEMS performed its work at 11 percent under
budget, totaling $3.1 million. It participated in DOE’s Supply Chain
Management Center (SCMC) program, enabling it to maximize procurement
cost savings. It also successfully implemented “eAuction” and “eCatalog”
tools and utilized SCMC management agreements to exceed strategic
sourcing goals.
The contractor identified and acquired excess electronic property from
other government agencies, avoiding $96,000 in costs. It also improved
workforce ergonomics by using a $30,000 Ohio Bureau of Worker’s
Compensation grant to contact an ergonomist to evaluate work scopes, and
buy equipment for records management and shipping and receiving.
“We want to thank EM and the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office for a
partnering relationship of open communication, respect, and trust,” said
Damon Detillion, project manager for WEMS and now current
infrastructure contractor Portsmouth Mission Alliance, LLC. “The WEMS
employees, who accepted the responsibility to work safely while
proactively serving the customer, are very deserving of this prestigious
award.”
Marmo implemented several noteworthy practices, including supporting a
CHPRC initiative to select small business construction firms with
quality assurance programs. As a result CHPRC’s construction
subcontracting is now performed primarily by small businesses.
Marmo also orchestrated the qualification of a woman-owned small
business to be included in a pool of eligible well-drilling companies.
As a result, awards to woman-owned small businesses increased by 72
percent, or $9.6 million, in fiscal year 2015.
“The successful candidate has displayed leadership and commitment to
maximizing small businesses utilization through policies, procedures,
outreach, and creating an atmosphere of “small business first”
throughout their organization,” according to the award announcement.
Savannah River Remediation’s Interns Arrive
This
year's Savannah River Remediation summer interns have arrived. The 42
interns include (front row; left to right) Casey Rhodes, Logan Tihey,
Jonathan Townsend, A’jay Jones, Victoria Truelove, Ximena Vasquez,
Christopher York, Brandon Byers, Tu Nguyen, Tristen Fields, Zoe Wesley,
Briana Young, Meredith Williamson, Robert Morgan, Jennifer Herbert, and
Keaton Thurmond; and (back row; left to right) Eric Patterson, Jake
Mellon, Tom Hampton, Lee Girardeau, Eddie Dernar, Michael Harris, Paul
Jackson, Greg Head, Vondray Sanford, DJ Roberts, Christopher Turner,
Hunter Norris, Brock Metzger, Constance Kinney, Taylor Schneider, and
Michael Jaffe. Brad Lloyd, Curtis Wilson, Raven Woods, Belinda Owusu,
Alton Turner, Jabril McKevie, Stuart Ralston, Austin Long, John Kolbeck,
and David Webb are not pictured.
AIKEN, S.C. – Through its summer internship program, EM's liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site has gained 42 interns eager to gain hands-on experience in fields ranging from engineering to law.
The Savannah River Remediation (SRR) interns represent schools from
around the South East, including the University of South Carolina,
Clemson University, the University of Georgia, Georgia Institute of
Technology, Georgia Southern, Florida State University, the University
of Alabama, Tuskegee University, University of Tennessee-Knoxville,
Aiken Technical College, Augusta University, Mars Hill University, and
Meredith College.
However, SRR internships are not exclusive to the South, employing
students from as far away as Excelsior College in New York, the
University of Illinois, the University of Akron in Ohio, and the
Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Taylor Schneider, a mechanical engineering major from Clemson
University, said that she hopes to gain real-world experience while
working with the Salt Waste Processing Facility Integration Team this
summer.
“The reason I accepted an internship at SRR was because I no longer
wanted to only see a pump as something drawn on a piece of paper, but
actually as a tangible machine that I could interact with,” she said.
In addition to students from the full spectrum of engineering
disciplines, this year’s interns are working toward degrees in programs
such as business, information technology, emergency management,
statistics, and communications.
SRR summer interns will also have the opportunity to give back to the
local community and support organizations such as the United Way.
Allison Brown, summer intern program coordinator, said SRR not only
supports the nuclear industry, but also the local community.
“Our interns are encouraged to embrace and uphold SRR’s community
values in order to gain the full experience of working with our
company,” Brown said.
Of the 42 interns, six are involved in the school-to-work program,
which promotes work-based learning in occupational areas that may be
pursued as future careers. Three SRR interns are participating in DOE’s
Mentorship for Environmental Scholars, a program that provides exposure
to laboratory research in the computer and environmental sciences to
college students.
Contributors
Peter Bengtson, Hanford Site
Destry Henderson, Hanford Site
Steven Horak, Los Alamos Field Office
Ian Klei, Hanford Site
Brad Mitzelfelt, Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office
Michael Nartker, EM Headquarters
David Sheeley, EM Headquarters
Michelle Teeters, Portsmouth Site
Stephan Tetreault, EM Headquarters
Keaton Thurmond, Savannah River Site
Ben Williams, Oak Ridge Site
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