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EM Update | Vol. 12, Issue 12 | June 9, 2020
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EM Remains Poised for Strong Year, Transformational Decade, White Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. – With cleanup sites beginning to ramp back up to full operations in a phased and deliberate approach, EM
remains poised to complete many of its top priorities this year, Senior
Advisor William “Ike” White told an industry group last week.
While
some impacts from the pandemic will be unavoidable, “I believe we
remain on track to realize a significant set of accomplishments across
EM that will position this program for success in the decade to come,”
White told members of the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) on
June 3 during its annual meeting conducted virtually due to the
coronavirus.
White noted that earlier this year, EM laid out an ambitious set of priorities
it planned to accomplish. Many remain on track to be completed this
year, including startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the
Savannah River Site, the last major piece of the site’s liquid waste
system, and the completion of deactivation and decommissioning
activities at the East Tennessee Technology Park at Oak Ridge.
Demolition
of the High Flux Beam Reactor stack at Brookhaven National Laboratory
is expected to be completed, the last of the legacy cleanup work to be
performed there. And the Moab Site, which largely was not impacted by
the pandemic response, is moving to the goal of disposing of another
million tons of uranium mill tailings by the end of the year.
White
also noted progress continues toward startup of the Integrated Waste
Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory Site, and the
Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) system at Hanford — both projects
to enable EM to better tackle tank waste treatment at those sites.
While
most EM sites reduced their operating posture this spring as a result
of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, White stressed EM
remained productive, moving forward with a number of regulatory and
policy actions that help drive cleanup. Likewise, EM’s acquisition team
has not slowed down in competing and awarding new contracts that will
accelerate progress.
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EM Senior Advisor William "Ike" White
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“When
I first came to EM almost exactly a year ago, I had heard about the
cleanup challenges, but it’s safe to say that I didn’t expect it would
be done in the middle of a pandemic environment,” White said. He thanked
EFCOG and the contracting community for the role they have played in
ensuring the workforce at EM sites adapts safely to the pandemic
environment while continuing to make progress.
For
instance, EM reached a path forward with the State of California to
resume long-stalled cleanup at the Energy Technology Engineering Center
site with demolition of 10 of the remaining DOE-owned buildings there.
EM has also prepared a draft waste incidental to reprocessing evaluation
for vitrified low activity waste at Hanford, and completed a real
estate transfer agreement to help move forward with new disposal
capability.
On
acquisitions, White noted EM has awarded the new Hanford Tank Closure
Contract. The program also continues to move forward with competing a
new standalone management and operations contract for the Savannah River
National Laboratory.
White
also noted EM has issued the final request for proposals for a new
Idaho Cleanup Project contract, while a draft request for proposals for
the Savannah River Integrated Mission Completion Contract is also before
potential job bidders.
“In terms of contracting, this was always going to be a busy year,” White said.
Most
major EM sites have moved into early-phase restart activities, with
remaining sites expected to follow suit soon, White said. As decisions
are made about how, when, and where to ramp back up site operations, the
top priority of senior DOE and EM leadership is the health and safety
of all employees at EM sites.
With
EM ramping back up, White noted the sense of collaboration and teamwork
across DOE, the sites, and industry partners are as good as he’s ever
seen, and he’s “never been prouder to be a part of the EM enterprise.”
EM Marks Accomplishments Across Complex During Essential Mission-Critical Period
EM
made steady progress in its cleanup mission after most field sites
moved into an essential mission-critical operating posture beginning in
mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Field
sites across the DOE complex marked noteworthy accomplishments during
this period of reduced operations, positioning the cleanup program for
further success as the sites now work to restart activities and continue
tackling an ambitious set of priorities, many of which remain on track to be completed this year.
"I
attribute our success during the period of essential mission-critical
activities to our dedicated federal and contractor employees who remain
committed to our cleanup mission," EM Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary Todd Shrader said. "I'm impressed by their accomplishments as
they safely responded to the pandemic, and their achievements will only
continue as we move to resume full operations across the complex."
A
small team of workers with EM Richland Operations Office contractor
CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company recently applied fixative to the
soil at the Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition site to ensure
contamination is contained within the posted radiological boundaries.
Crews must periodically reapply the product to maintain its
effectiveness.
Hanford Site
At the Hanford Site, small teams of essential personnel continued mission-critical activities, including:
- Spraying fixative over the Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition site to ensure that contaminated soil was not exposed.
- Cleaning and removing algae and sediment from drinking water treatment basins.
- Removing and controlled burning of tumbleweeds to reduce potential fuel sources on the site in the event of a weather-related or accidental wildfire.
Those mission-critical operations were required to ensure protection of the Hanford workforce, the public, and the environment.
Idaho
National Laboratory Site crews position a shipping cask over the spent
nuclear fuel storage vault at the Radioactive Scrap and Waste Facility
before lowering the fuel into place.
Idaho National Laboratory Site
EM and cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho made progress on several mission-critical projects at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site involving the transfer of spent nuclear fuel, leak testing of a spent fuel storage facility, and waste shipments.
Crews
completed the first of several spent nuclear fuel transfers from wet
storage at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC)
to dry storage at the Radioactive Scrap and Waste Facility at the
Materials and Fuels Complex.
Workers
also moved spent nuclear fuel from the Advanced Test Reactor canal to
dry storage at INTEC’s Chemical Processing Plant-603 facility. These
transfers allowed the restart of the reactor for its next experiments.
Crews
also assisted EM INL Site contractor SpectraTech in conducting a
five-year leak test of the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation,
which is a Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirement. Leak checks were
performed at all 29 storage vaults that contain fuel and debris from the
1979 Three Mile Island accident. The seals to each vault remain
effective and no leaks were detected.
Shipping
crews also completed 17 shipments of contact-handled transuranic waste
to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and four shipments of low-level
radioactive waste offsite in compliance with the 1995 Idaho Settlement
Agreement.
Frank
Martinet, a maintenance superintendent in the Newport News Nuclear
BWXT-Los Alamos contact-handled transuranic waste program, takes a break
from the Operational Excellence Initiative with his sons, Ethan, 11, at
left, and Blake, 4, who he calls his assistants.
Los Alamos
Newport
News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, EM’s cleanup contractor at Los Alamos
National Laboratory, established the Operational Excellence Initiative
(OEI) to create a training program for employees unable to telework
during the period of essential mission-critical activities.
OEI
allowed about 180 employees — including radiological control
technicians, craftsmen, waste operators, and nuclear facility operators —
with the contact handled transuranic waste program at Technical Area
54’s Area G to pursue training and qualifications, helping them maintain
the knowledge and skills necessary to support mission objectives.
Participants
have completed more than 160 online training courses, required reading
assignments, and live teleconference briefings delivered by
subject-matter experts.
Crews place soil in the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project’s Crescent Junction disposal cell.
Moab
In
response to COVID-19, project management implemented an array of safety
and precautionary procedures to protect staff while steady operations
continued at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project
toward the goal of removing a cumulative 11 million tons of
contaminated soil and debris this year. Many workers at the Moab and
Crescent Junction sites, such as heavy equipment operators and truck
drivers, have traditionally worked independently, which made social
distancing easier. Meetings and trainings are now structured
differently, occurring over the phone, virtually, or with six feet of
distance between employees. Wearing face coverings is encouraged while
onsite, and stringent cleaning methods have been imposed.
Navarro
Environmental Scientist Lyle Davis conducts an inspection following
rain that occurred in April 2020. Federal and contractor staff with the
EM Nevada Program worked together to safely conduct regulatory-required
activities during the program's mission-critical period.
Nevada Program
During
its mission-critical period, the EM Nevada Program earned regulatory
approval to transition the Rainier Mesa groundwater management area to
long-term monitoring, an achievement completed three years early, saving
approximately $5 million in federal funding.
The
Nevada Program also advanced the transfer of long-term stewardship
responsibilities for certain sites on the Nevada Test and Training Range
to the DOE Office of Legacy Management, a process involving the
transmission of more than 7,200 records.
The
Nevada Program hosted several web-based events during the period,
including the 2020 Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) Waste Generator
WebShop, the NNSS Low Level Waste Stakeholders Forum, and a meeting of
the Nevada Site Specific Advisory Board.
Navarro
Research and Engineering, the environmental program services contractor
for the Nevada Program, also delivered more than 175 meals to eight
local emergency response agencies and two area charities.
Part
of Oak Ridge’s Liquid Low-Level Waste System pump replacement project
involved removing the barometric protection tower pictured here.
Oak Ridge
At the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management
(OREM), employees used virtual meetings, online sharing of photographs
and drawings, remote site visits, and other methods to help complete
work.
An
engineering team with OREM cleanup contractor UCOR used remote tools to
prepare to replace 30-year-old pumps critical to the Liquid Low-Level
Waste System at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
The
new pumps add capability to transfer both legacy and newly generated
waste, and they will also restore backup pumping capabilities since one
of the two existing pumps has failed.
The
pumps transport material a mile through underground pipes to
50,000-gallon storage tanks. Replacing these pumps is difficult and
requires extensive planning because they are housed in below-grade
shielded concrete vaults.
While
working remotely, engineers prepared mechanical and electrical
engineering instructions so a portion of a 25-year-old complex sludge
mixing system could be safely disconnected and removed from the top of a
three-foot-thick concrete vault. They also designed a new electrical
distribution system.
Shortly
before reduced operations began, demolition crews with Fluor-BWXT
Portsmouth removed approximately 520 feet of high-pressure fire water
lines from the perimeter of the X-326 Process Building at the Portsmouth
Site. The removal makes way for a new water detention system to support
building demolition.
Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office
Portsmouth Site
The Portsmouth Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) Project
in southern Ohio finished a key step toward demolition of the first of
three massive uranium enrichment process buildings at the site.
The
X-326 High Assay Gaseous Diffusion Process Building was declared
criticality incredible, which supports downgrade of the facility to a
below Hazardous Category 3 nuclear facility, according to Tyfani Lanier,
director of nuclear safety and engineering at Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth
(FBP), the site's deactivation and decommissioning contractor.
Achieving
the declaration involved the generation, review, and publication of
more than 2,500 pages of detailed safety evaluations and data packages
for the characterization of more than 400,000 pieces of process gas
equipment.
“Downgrade
approval was necessary to allow FBP to begin demolition of the X-326
process building and disposal of the associated debris in the On-Site
Waste Disposal Facility,” Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO)
Federal Project Director Jud Lilly said. “Demolition of the X-326
building, with its 29-acre footprint, will make the first significant
skyline change at the Portsmouth D&D project.”
Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office’s Tracey Duncan works remotely on the Paducah Site Management Plan.
Paducah Site
At the Paducah Site,
PPPO worked with state and federal regulators on processing 13
mission-critical environmental documents, including the fiscal 2020 Site
Management Plan (SMP), which was approved on May 21.
An
annual deliverable that outlines Paducah’s environmental cleanup
strategic approach, the SMP sets forth enforceable regulatory milestones
for the current year plus two additional years. It also outlines
upcoming work for the C-400 city block remediation. The C-400 Complex is
the primary source of groundwater contamination at the Paducah Site and
one of PPPO’s highest priorities.
PPPO
Environmental Protection Specialist Dave Dollins said his office was
able to meet all of its deadlines while working remotely.
“This
was the first time I have had to telework for an extended period of
time and I was very pleased how our information technology
infrastructure was able to support collaborative work,” Dollins said.
A
subcontractor for Mid-America Conversion Services works in an
excavation for a water-main repair at EM’s Portsmouth Depleted Uranium
Hexafluoride Conversion facility. Despite challenges associated with
limited operations, the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office safely
completed the critical work in five days.
DUF6 Conversion Project
PPPO’s Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Conversion Project
advanced its engineering design activities that will allow large plant
modifications to move forward on a compressed schedule once construction
can resume.
At
its Portsmouth facility, the project completed its plan for depleted
uranium storage cylinders that require special handling. Operations and
maintenance contractor Mid-America Conversion Services (MCS) developed
work packages, engineering evaluations, and the design of special
tooling to allow for more efficient sampling and processing.
Operator
Charlie Stokes uses a specialized cart to move material through a
glovebox in a training mock-up at the Savannah River Site.
Savannah River Site
Savannah River Site
(SRS) personnel accomplished significant work while in an essential
mission-critical operating posture, including critical maintenance and
surveillance activities necessary to ensure facilities continued to meet
safety requirements and maintenance schedules.
While
employees performed many activities via telework, key personnel
continued to report to the site as needed, adhering to enhanced safety
and social distancing protocols. Their accomplishments include:
- Finishing dissolving Material Test Reactor and High Flux Isotope Reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in H Canyon for the fiscal year, helping make room for L Basin to receive more SNF shipments from foreign and domestic research reactors. Dissolving fuel bundles in nitric acid in H Canyon is the first step in dispositioning the material.
- Continuing SNF receipts from foreign and domestic customers in L Area on schedule. SRS safely stores SNF in L Basin until it is ready for processing in H Canyon.
- Double-stacking more than 60 canisters in the Defense Waste Processing Facility’s (DWPF) Glass Waste Storage Building 1. Modifying the existing storage positions in Glass Waste Storage Building 1 to store two canisters (each 10 feet tall and 2 feet in diameter) instead of one expands on-site interim storage from 4,602 storage positions to 6,864, postponing the cost of building another glass waste storage building to until at least 2029.
- Preparing approximately 86,000 gallons of salt waste for processing through the Tank Closure Cesium Removal demonstration project.
- Improving plutonium processing for more timely removal of plutonium from the state of South Carolina. Crews installed new material entry and removal devices for the glovebox used for processing; acquired new tools that allow for tight bag closure, minimizing waste generation; designed carts to move containers through the glovebox; and relocated equipment inside the glovebox to improve workflow.
- Constructing a storage, characterization, and shipping facility in K Area for expedited plutonium shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The new facility increases storage capacity of down-blended material and eliminates the need to transfer the material to the site’s Solid Waste Management Facility prior to shipment from SRS, supporting reduced handling and process efficiency.
Double
stacking canisters of glassified high-level waste at the Savannah River
Site — placing one canister on top of another in a single silo —
extends the storage capacity for interim canister storage space until at
least 2029. This work was among the site's achievements during its
reduced operations.
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A conceptual drawing of Savannah River National Laboratory’s principal electrostatic precipitator air purification element.
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Savannah River National Laboratory
Savannah River National Laboratory
(SRNL) joined efforts by the DOE complex this spring to develop virus
prevention, treatment, and modeling solutions to combat the COVID-19
pandemic.
SRNL
has developed a prototype for an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) that
can be coupled with breathing hoods and masks to remove viral and
microbial contaminants from air with extremely high efficiency. This
innovation is intended to reduce infection risk for healthcare
professionals who work in high-risk spaces.
The
ESP prototype is currently in testing, and efforts are being made to
produce a more compact, scalable system. Testing is also under way to
ensure the ESP system is consistent in deactivating the coronavirus
after multiple uses, a critical quality step before it is released for
potential manufacturing.
SRNL
scientists and engineers are also assessing chemical and
electromagnetic radiation solutions for N95 mask disinfection and
decontamination. Further work and testing are required, and if
successful, offer promising solutions to reduce the likelihood of
exposure and contagion for medical care providers.
A
miner at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) installs a roof bolt
2,150 feet below the surface in the WIPP underground. WIPP is the
nation's only repository for the permanent disposal of defense-generated
transuranic waste.
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
As the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
(WIPP) operated in a reduced operating posture, the site continued to
receive five shipments of transuranic waste per week from EM’s Idaho and
Los Alamos sites, and workers completed one construction project while
they ramped up another.
WIPP’s
3.3-mile bypass road opened in early May, carrying non-WIPP traffic
away from the site, including a large construction zone where excavation
has begun on the site’s fifth shaft, known as the utility shaft.
The
shaft will reach 2,275 feet underground and provide increased air as
part of the upcoming Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System
(SSCVS). Crews recently poured concrete equipment pads and started
excavating the first 62 feet of the shaft.
WIPP
crews installed 1,189 bolts — a monthly record — in the roof and walls
of the mine to help control movement of salt in the permanent waste
repository.
From
left, waste operators Darren Rhodes, Dan Kessler, and Tom Cronmiller
practice installing protective covers for waste containers at the West
Valley Demonstration Project.
West Valley Demonstration Project
While deactivation and decommissioning operations were put on hold, workers at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) completed critical compliance inspections, environmental monitoring, and other activities.
Employees
installed a new hoist in the Equipment Decontamination Room inside the
Main Plant Process Building. This new hoist will be used for moving
waste boxes and drums when the site returns to full operations and
resumes deactivation work inside a former reprocessing cell in the
building.
Workers
installed protective covers on four 69,000-pound containers stored in a
secure location onsite to protect them from water infiltration. The
containers are filled with low-level waste.
Employees
performed annual inspections of a dam onsite as part of environmental
monitoring. They installed new trailers for use as breakrooms, locker
rooms, offices, and meeting areas that support social distancing. They
also put in plexiglass shielding.
”The
protection of our workers, the public, and the environment has always
been our core value,” EM WVDP Director Bryan Bower said. “During our
pandemic response, the WVDP team maintained focus on safety and
compliance, while continuing to advance our mission to eliminate legacy
risks at the site.”
EM Headquarters
EM
headquarters accomplished a number of regulatory and policy actions
while in reduced operating posture, and its acquisitions team helped
advance cleanup progress, including awarding the new Tank Closure
Contract at the Hanford Site.
EM
issued a record of decision for the disposal of depleted uranium oxide
from the Portsmouth and Paducah sites. A draft waste incidental to
reprocessing evaluation for vitrified low activity waste at Hanford was
prepared for eventual Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste operations.
The
cleanup program also reached a consent order with the state of
California to allow active cleanup to resume at the Energy Technology
Engineering Center with the demolition of 10 of the remaining buildings
there — an important step that allows active work to restart after more
than a decade.
-Contributors:
Kearney Ackermann, Jim Beasley, Susanne Dupes, Mike Hall, Christian
Harris, Kristin Henderson, Lindsey MonBarren, Roy Neese, Joseph
Pillittere, David Sheeley, Erik Simpson, Jesse Sleezer, Michelle
Teeters, Honora Thompson, Liz Wilson
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Workers Resume Demolition on Oak Ridge’s Centrifuge Complex |
Oak
Ridge's Centrifuge Complex contains the largest collection of
structures remaining at the East Tennessee Technology Park. Crews have
taken down two facilities in the complex, and now they are working to
take down the final two — K-1210, at left, and K-1220.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Demolition has resumed on the Centrifuge Complex at Oak Ridge's East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) after an almost two-month pause in field work due to protective measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Spanning
235,000 square feet and reaching 180 feet in height, the complex is the
largest and tallest collection of structures remaining at ETTP. It was
built in stages to develop, test, and demonstrate the capability of
centrifuge technology for uranium enrichment. The last of these
facilities ceased operation in the mid-1980s.
This project is part of a larger effort by the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management
(OREM) and its cleanup contractor UCOR to complete all demolitions and
major site cleanup at ETTP by the end of this year — a goal known as Vision 2020. It will mark the first time in the world an entire uranium enrichment complex is removed.
“As
one of the last major demolition projects at the site, nothing is more
symbolic of how close we are to achieving our goal at ETTP than the
removal of this complex,” OREM Manager Jay Mullis said. “I’m extremely
proud of the countless hours of work and planning by our federal and
contractor staff to enable workers to safely resume their work at this
facility.”
K-1220
stands 180 feet tall. It is too tall to be safely torn down with
conventional heavy equipment, so it will be pulled down using giant
winches.
UCOR
is returning employees to the site in phases, with the demolition crews
being among the first to resume cleanup based on the social distancing
inherent in this type of work.
Crews
are taking down the final two sections of the Centrifuge Complex. Those
include the K-1210 Complex, which served as a pilot plant for testing
feed, withdrawal, and depleted uranium hexafluoride transfer systems,
and the K-1220 Complex, which was used primarily to test production
centrifuges.
At
180 feet in height, K-1220 is too tall to be safely torn down with
conventional heavy equipment. Instead, workers will pull down the
facility using giant mechanical devices known as winches.
Before Oak Ridge entered limited operations, workers were trained to operate giant winches to pull down K-1220.
The
complex was comprised of four sections. Before work was paused due to
COVID-19, workers brought down the K-1004-J laboratory section, an
original Manhattan Project facility built for research and development.
They also finished tearing down the second section, the K-1200 facility,
known as the Advanced Machine Development Laboratory and Component
Preparation Laboratory.
OREM
and UCOR are working together to transform ETTP into a multi-use
industrial park, national park, and conservation area for the community.
That vision has already started to become a reality. OREM has
transferred almost 1,300 acres at ETTP for economic development, with
another 600 acres slated for transfer in the years ahead. OREM has also
set aside more than 100 acres for historic preservation and placed more
than 3,000 acres in conservation for community recreational use.
-Contributor: Wayne McKinney
New Application Significantly Reduces Prep Time for Waste Processing at SRS
A
new electronic application will significantly reduce the time needed to
qualify waste batches to be fed to the Salt Waste Processing Facility
when the facility, pictured here, comes online.
AIKEN, S.C. – EM
has developed a new electronic application capable of reducing by up to
75 percent the time needed to qualify large quantities of radioactive
liquid salt waste for decontamination processes.
The application is designed to ensure salt batches meet specific criteria for transfer to the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) when it comes online.
Savannah
River Remediation (SRR), EM’s liquid waste contractor at SRS, has been
qualifying salt waste batches for future processing. However, that work
has been a four-to-six-month process for each batch, which includes
creation of a report requiring numerous time-consuming calculations. The
new application will be able to reduce the total batch qualification
time to approximately one-and-a-half months.
Salt
waste processing will significantly increase when SWPF starts up. SRR
had been processing about 1 million gallons of salt waste per year with
pilot technologies for SWPF. That number is expected to climb to between
6 and 9 million gallons per year when SWPF becomes operational.
Reducing
the time needed for qualifying salt waste batches is critical to
feeding waste to SWPF. The newly developed application performs those
calculations electronically to determine if the waste being analyzed for
qualification meets SWPF’s waste acceptance criteria. The application
is named eWAC, referencing the acronym for waste acceptance criteria.
SRR Flowsheet and Integration Manager Ryan McNew said the application is another innovation to support SWPF.
“SRR
staff will enter the waste batch’s sampling results into eWAC, which
will evaluate those results and determine the acceptability of the
material to feed to SWPF based on established criteria,” McNew said.
“The software will produce a salt batch acceptance report for each set
of data entered.”
That report will go to site officials for review and approval before the waste can be transferred.
DOE-Savannah
River Assistant Manager for Waste Disposition Jim Folk said that
qualification time will be critical to the overall decontamination
process.
“When
the SWPF begins radioactive operations, it is expected to process much
greater quantities of salt waste, which means more batches will be
prepared,” Folk said. “Shortening the total qualification time for each
batch will help provide a more constant flow through the highly
integrated processing system.”
The
eWAC application has been tested for readiness and is fully
operational. It is expected to be used to qualify the next salt batch
that must be evaluated for feed to SWPF by March 2021.
-Contributor: Jim Beasley
Moab Site Partners With National Park to Recover Plants
Transplanting
vegetation from Canyonlands National Park to the Moab Site allowed EM
to avoid costs on purchasing new plants. Pictured are Moab Uranium Mill
Tailings Remedial Action Project employees Jose Fernandez, left, and
Jason Atwater. This photo was taken in early March prior to the
implementation of social distancing guidelines.
MOAB, Utah – An EM partnership with Canyonlands National Park has blossomed.
This spring, the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project teamed with the National Park Service (NPS) to relocate native plants from the park to the Moab Site.
Canyonlands
needed to make way for an upcoming construction project and didn’t want
the plants to go to waste. The Moab UMTRA Project happens to cultivate
native plants, such as perennial grasses, to revegetate areas of the
site that aren’t covered by the uranium mill tailings pile.
A
crew dug up about 100 mature grasses and shrubs from the park and
planted them where there is a high potential for survival. The salvaged,
drought-tolerant plants won’t require much water and they help create a
more natural state.
Grasses from Canyonlands National Park are shown planted at the Moab Site.
“Restoring
native vegetation in a disturbed desert ecosystem is a long and
difficult task,” Moab UMTRA Project Environmental Technician Luke
Mattson said. “By partnering with local ecological restoration
professionals in the community, we are working together to share
knowledge and resources to create a sustainable and resilient
landscape.”
A resilient landscape includes making the Moab Site fauna-friendly.
“Bunchgrasses
such as Indian ricegrass that we salvaged have large, nutritious seeds
that are a critical food source for many wildlife species,” said Liz
Ballenger, ecologist and vegetation program manager with the NPS.
-Contributors: Luke Mattson, Honora Thompson
EM Updates Cleanup ‘By the Numbers’
The Oak Ridge Site's "By the Numbers" features facts and figures about cleanup and more, available here.
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 to an anticipated
achievement over the next decade, as described in more detail in “EM Vision 2020-2030: A Time of Transition and Transformation,” a report released earlier this year.
Some tidbits from the new “By the Numbers:”
- 18 underground waste tanks have been emptied at the Hanford Site using multiple retrieval technologies, with more than 3 million gallons of waste retrieved.
- More than 263,000 barrels of transuranic waste were super-compacted at the Idaho Site, eliminating the need for thousands of additional shipments to a permanent, offsite repository.
- More than one-half of legacy cleanup has been completed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory Site.
- At the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project, 42 extraction and freshwater injection wells protect surface water quality and recover ammonia, uranium, and other contaminations before they can be discharged into the Colorado River.
- By 2028, the EM Nevada Program will transition the final Nevada National Security Site groundwater characterization area, Pahute Mesa, into long-term monitoring.
- 500,000 cancer treatment doses will be generated annually from isotopes extracted from the uranium-233 inventory at the Oak Ridge Site.
- 4.4 billion gallons of groundwater have been treated to remove contaminants using pump-and-treat technology at the Paducah Site, significantly reducing off-site groundwater contamination.
- Ten buildings that comprise the former Radioactive Materials Handling Facility complex at the Energy Technology Engineering Center Site are scheduled for demolition following an agreement with the state of California.
- More than 26 million pounds of excess materials diverted from landfills are a result of recycling at the Portsmouth Site. The materials w
