RICHLAND, Wash. – Workers at the Hanford Site are celebrating another year of significant progress in protecting the Columbia River.
Fiscal year (FY) 2020 marks the sixth consecutive year that Hanford has treated more than 2 billion gallons of groundwater to remove contamination from decades of past operations to produce plutonium for the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
EM Richland Operations Office (RL) and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) have treated an average of 2.4 billion gallons of groundwater a year for the past five years. RL and its contractor expect to reach that goal again when this fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
“Protecting the Columbia River continues to drive our groundwater treatment efforts,” said Mike Cline, RL’s project director for cleanup of soil and groundwater at Hanford. “Over the past decade, we have significantly reduced the areas of contamination near the river.”
In this video, longtime Hanford employees discuss the collaboration, ingenuity, and pride involved in the design, construction, and continuous improvement of Hanford’s groundwater treatment systems over the past decade.
Steve Rust, a nuclear chemical operator for contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company, monitors the performance of the 200 West Pump and Treat Facility from the control room on the Hanford Site. All of Hanford’s six operating pump-and-treat facilities can be monitored onsite and remotely, a capability that enabled groundwater treatment to continue largely uninterrupted this year as the site navigated challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hanford workers operate six treatment systems to remove radioactive and chemical contaminants from groundwater along the Columbia River and an area near the center of the Hanford Site called the Central Plateau. This is where massive chemical processing facilities separated plutonium from fission products from the 1940s through the 1980s and discharged billions of gallons of contaminated liquids to soil disposal sites.
The volume of contaminated groundwater from Hanford’s plutonium production mission hasn’t been the only challenge. This year presented a new challenge with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has limited the number of personnel who can work at the site since March.
Fortunately, the advanced technologies in the treatment facilities made it possible for groundwater treatment to continue largely uninterrupted. Operations managers safely monitor the systems remotely — meeting social distancing requirements while ensuring the plants continue to operate efficiently during the site’s phased remobilization of operations.
“The reliability of Hanford’s treatment systems and the experience of our team has been instrumental in our ability to consistently meet — and typically exceed — our annual treatment goals,” said Bill Barrett, vice president of CHPRC’s soil and groundwater remediation project.
Hanford has treated more than 23 billion gallons of groundwater and removed nearly 600 tons of contaminants since the first groundwater facilities began operating in the mid-1990s. The treatment systems have removed most of the chromium contamination along the Columbia River and hundreds of tons of nitrates on the Central Plateau, as well as other contaminants of concern such as carbon tetrachloride, uranium, and technetium-99.
-Contributor: Dieter Bohrmann
New Ventilation System Increases Safety Margin for Hanford Waste Tank Workers
EM Hanford and tank operations contractor Washington River Protection Solutions installed a new state-of-the-art ventilation system in Hanford’s A Tank Farm. The system features two exhausters with 50-foot-tall stacks that keep chemical vapors from the waste in the tanks away from workers.
RICHLAND, Wash. – EM Hanford and its tank operations contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), have enhanced safety for workers by installing a new exhauster ventilation system above waste tanks.
The system, located in a group of tanks called the A Farm, continuously draws air from the tanks, separates moisture and radioactive particles, and sends filtered air through 50-foot exhauster stacks, well above workers.
After nearly four years of design, fabrication, installation, and testing, EM and WRPS are operating the new system that ventilates the farm’s six waste storage tanks. Each of the tanks, constructed between 1954 and 1955, has a capacity of 1 million gallons.
“This ventilation project is key to protecting workers against hazards associated with managing Hanford’s tank waste,” said Jim Lynch, with EM’s tank farms operations. “It reduces the risk posed by chemical vapors from the tanks during operations that disturb the waste, such as retrieving waste from the tanks.”
A team installed a wide variety of components as part of the A Tank Farm Exhauster Ventilation System Project, including approximately 700 feet of ducting.
The new ventilation system has other benefits, too.
“Active ventilation also increases the margin of safety for workers when we are removing old, highly contaminated pieces of equipment from the tanks,” said Garth Stowe, WRPS project manager. “This clears the way for crews to install new equipment that will be used to retrieve waste. In addition, the ventilation system clears fog that forms in the tanks due to the heat generated by the waste, so operators get a better view when retrieving waste.”
Hanford’s tank ventilation systems also function to prevent the buildup of flammable gas in the tanks. The system features two exhausters with 50-foot-tall stacks; a 50-foot-by-20-foot valve manifold; and approximately 700 feet of ducting, piping, electrical lines, and insulation.
“The whole construction team did an amazing job,” Stowe said. “Assembling a system like this with air bottles on your back, inside a small tank farm with different elevations and other work going on around you, is a tremendous accomplishment. And, most important, the team completed all work safely.”
-Contributor: Mark McKenna
Crews Knock Down 8 of 10 Buildings, Making Headway in ETEC Cleanup
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. – EM crews recently took down the eighth of 10 buildings set for demolition at the Radioactive Materials Handling Facility (RMHF) at the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) in Ventura County. The latest teardown, pictured here, marks continued progress since workers resumed active cleanup at the former nuclear and liquid metals research site in July. Removing the RMHF facilities, a set of 10 buildings constructed in 1959 and used for the processing, packaging, and shipment of radioactive and mixed hazardous wastes during site operations that ended in 1988, will reduce potential risk of release of hazardous substances due to wildfires or erosion from severe storms. Activities are being conducted under a 2020 agreement between the DOE and the State of California, and in adherence to safety practices recommended to protect workers from exposure to the coronavirus. Debris from the cleanup is being transported outside the State of California for disposal at licensed commercial disposal facilities. ETEC, located in Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, served as a premier research facility from the 1950s until the end of active operations. Since the 1980s, more than 250 structures on the site have been demolished and removed. After workers finish demolishing the remaining RMHF complex buildings, only eight DOE structures will remain.
EM Enlists Additional Idaho Site Facility for Sludge Drum Repackaging
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – EM and its cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site are doubling efforts to treat and repackage drums of radioactive sludge waste generated during the Cold War.
The treatment facility at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), which processed the last of AMWTP’s transuranic debris waste last fall, will be used to treat the remaining transuranic sludge waste, joining another INL Site facility where crews are treating similar sludges.
Workers recently began opening drums and treating sludge waste at the AMWTP facility. Crews use robotic arms to open the drums and pour their contents into stainless steel troughs. If liquids are present in the waste, crews add an absorbent before repackaging the material into new waste drums.
The waste being treated was generated during weapons production primarily at the former Rocky Flats Plant near Denver, and was sent to the INL Site until the 1980s. The waste contains oils and radioactive constituents.
AMWTP’s boxlines are suited for this type of work because workers operate the robotic arms from an adjacent room using viewing windows. Boxlines are huge concrete and metal hot cells that protect workers from coming into contact with the waste. The boxlines are under negative pressure with all air filtered through high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters to capture contaminants.
“We’ve successfully treated challenging waste streams in these boxlines throughout our mission,” Fluor Idaho Waste Management Director Bryan Breffle said. “It made sense to take advantage of the treatment facility to add additional capabilities to our sludge repackaging work scope while continuing the treatment of similar sludges at the nearby Accelerated Retrieval Project (ARP) VII facility.”
EM and Fluor Idaho began using the ARP VII facility last year to open, treat, and repackage sludge wastes. The ARP VII facility, complete with HEPA filtration, was most recently used to reduce the size of large, contaminated legacy waste boxes and debris prior to repackaging them for shipment to permanent disposal facilities.
-Contributor: Erik Simpson
West Valley Prepares for Major Facility Demolition
AIKEN, S.C. – EM and the management and operations contractor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) have successfully removed sludge containing silver from an industrial wastewater tank.
The silver-bearing sludge at SRS will be shipped to the DOE Business Center for Precious Metals Sales and Recovery to be reclaimed, with proceeds going to the U.S. Treasury. Precious metals reclamation is the recycling and recovery of elements such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from hazardous waste.
For many years, workers at SRS developed photo film in a process that generated industrial wastewater containing silver nitrate. The wastewater passed through ion-exchange equipment to remove the silver before being discharged into the tank.
“Some of the precious metal still made it to the tank and over the years has accumulated to a significant amount,” said Ted Millings, with the environmental compliance division at Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS). “Fast forward to the age of digital photography. Now this tank that’s regulated through the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) no longer serves a purpose.”
Millings said appropriate safety measures were followed during removal of the sludge. After workers emptied the contents of the tank and cleaned it, a camera was lowered into the vessel to verify that no sludge remained and that the floor and walls of the tank remained intact.
“It was at this point that we filled the tank with grout, which has properties similar to concrete,” said Andrew MacMillan, project lead for SRNS area completion projects.
MacMillan noted that the sludge removal project will allow SRS to avoid the cost of managing and disposing of the sludge as hazardous waste.
“Helping to ensure the proceeds from the reclaimed precious metal goes to the U.S. Treasury is important; however, protecting our environment from this waste is invaluable,” he said.
EM and SRNS worked closely with SCDHEC officials to ensure all state environmental regulations were followed in the project.
“Although it’s the end of an era at SRS for developing photographic film, the successful completion of this project validates the continued value of teamwork and shared resources for a common cause,” said Travis Shaw, SRNS environmental compliance authority for asset management and distribution operations.
-Contributor: DT Townsend
Oak Ridge Constructing Test Facility for Sludge Processing
Last week, crews moved a massive 50,000-tank into position to support efforts at the Sludge Processing Mock Test Facility under construction at Oak Ridge.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Construction is underway on the $10 million Sludge Processing Mock Test Facility, which will play a vital role in maturing technologies needed to begin processing Oak Ridge’s 500,000-gallon inventory of transuranic sludge waste.
Transuranic waste contains elements heavier than uranium, hence the name “trans,” or “beyond” uranium. Oak Ridge’s inventory of that waste was generated and stored onsite from years of defense-related research, conducted primarily at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) has been working since 2003 to process, repackage, and ship Oak Ridge’s inventory of contact-handled and remote-handled transuranic debris waste for permanent disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. With that processing scheduled for completion in 2022, OREM is now working to address the site’s inventory of transuranic sludge waste.
Crews have already placed footers and poured the foundation for the mock test facility. They took another major step forward last week when they transported a 50,000-gallon tank to the worksite that will be used during testing.
Site preparation for the Sludge Processing Mock Test Facility began in January 2020. Crews recently poured the concrete slab for the structure, which is slated for completion in October 2021.
OREM will test six critical technology elements to gather the data necessary to complete the final design and construction of the Sludge Processing Facility later this decade. Two of those technologies will be tested at the mock test facility, which is now under construction.
Engineers at the mock test facility will focus on testing pump technologies and instrumentation measurement technologies. Advanced pump technologies are needed to pull the sludge wastes out of their storage tanks for processing. The instrumentation measurement technologies will inform operators what material is moving through the pumps, including its contents and density, to assist with processing needs.
“There is a lot of preparation and groundwork required before we can begin addressing our inventory of transuranic sludge waste, but we are moving closer to that goal with the construction of this crucial testing facility,” ORNL Portfolio Federal Project Manager Nathan Felosi said.
Site preparation began for the Sludge Processing Mock Test Facility in January 2020, and construction is slated for completion in October 2021. OREM anticipates approximately two years of testing to gather the data needed to determine the best designs and approaches for the Sludge Processing Facility’s final design.
-Contributor: Ben Williams
3D Printing Improves Radiological Safety at SRS at Low Cost
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EM Update | Vol. 12, Issue 25 | Sept. 8, 2020 |
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Hanford Treats More Than 2 Billion Gallons of Groundwater Six Years in A Row | |
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A view of an Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project boxline where sludge waste is being treated at the Idaho National Laboratory Site. |
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Using
a mobile crane, workers install a long-reach arm on a new fork truck
for use in waste operations for the future demolition of the Main Plant
Process Building at EM's West Valley Demonstration Project.
WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – The West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) has obtained a fork truck capable of lifting more than 90,000 pounds for waste removal in the future demolition of the Main Plant Process Building (MPPB) — an EM 2020 priority. “Safe and successful operations begin with safety, extensive planning, and the right equipment,” said Stephen Bousquet, EM WVDP deputy facility project director for the MPPB demolition. “This paves the way for the future demolition of the Main Plant Process Building.” The fork truck was delivered to the site on three separate tractor-trailers. Workers used a mobile crane to assemble it. “This fork truck is a versatile machine capable of lifting and stacking heavy box containers and loading railcars or tractor-trailers, and has a long reach for safe distancing” said Scott Chase, facility disposition operations manager for EM WVDP cleanup contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley. “This fork truck will provide flexibility for safe, efficient, and successful waste operations during demolition activities.” The five-story, 350,000-square-foot MPPB was constructed in the 1960s as a commercial reprocessing facility to recover reusable plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear reactor fuel. It operated from 1966 to 1972. -Contributor: Joseph Pillittere |
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SRS Removes Silver-Bearing Sludge From Tank to Recover Precious Metal | |
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) Senior Health Physicist Michael Ratliff, left, examines parts created by SRNS Principal Scientist Andy Warren using a 3D printer. AIKEN, S.C. – An employee at the Savannah River Site (SRS) recently discovered how 3D printers can create unique objects at a low cost to improve safety and operations. EM and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the site’s management and operations contractor, analyze about 80,000 industrial air monitoring filters each year for radiological contamination within SRS nuclear facilities. Known as a high-tech “radiological investigator,” Senior Health Physicist Michael Ratliff operates a laboratory at SRS where those analyses are completed. Air filter analysis determines the source of radioactive particulates and helps measure possible airborne particulates within an operating facility. The process provides valuable data that can be used to monitor the health and safety of SRS employees working within nuclear facilities. Ratliff said the circular filters sent to the laboratory for analysis are two inches in diameter on cards that are about three inches wide. Each card is packaged and delivered to the laboratory for analysis. Recently, Ratliff sought the expertise of Andy Warren, who works at a laboratory within the SRNS environmental bioassay organization. That laboratory is used to analyze samples submitted by workers to assess possible occupational exposure to radiological substances and to ensure implemented hazard controls prevent occupational exposure. Warren asked Ratliff how the cards are used in the high-volume equipment that processes the estimated 80,000 samples a year. “I brought him one of the little fixtures used in the automated units,” Ratliff said. “To my surprise, the next day he provided a 3D printed part that fit perfectly on my counting instrument and holds the sample card exactly centered in a reproducible geometry.” Ratliff noted that Warren’s solution improves the quality of data and reduces the time needed to prepare the analyses, all while enhancing radiological safety at SRS. “When Michael contacted me and said, ‘I could use your help,’ we were already set up to create unique, one-off products using a computer-aided design program. It took about two hours to draft the part and send the design to the printer. The next morning, I came in, took it off the printer, and gave to Michael,” Warren said. What use to take months at a design and fabrication shop can now be printed overnight at the site. According to Warren, costs associated with 3D printing are low — approximately $7,000 for a printer and $2,000 for computer-aided design software. “The fixtures made for Ratliff cost about $5 dollars each,” Warren said. -Contributor: DT Townsend |
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