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EM Update | Vol. 13, Issue 4 | Feb. 2, 2021

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SRS Contractor Saves $12.7 Million, Surpassing Annual EM Challenge

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Changes to a circuit breaker maintenance program by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions site services and engineering personnel resulted in a savings of $1.3 million. Maintenance technicians Erik Ruggiero, left, and Robert Cartwright prepare to test a molded case breaker.


AIKEN, S.C. – Employees with the management and operations contractor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) achieved $12.7 million in cost savings in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2020, exceeding the $12.5 million in cost savings EM tasked them to find and reinvest toward improving processes, programs, and infrastructure across the site.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) Continuous Improvement Manager P. K. Hightower credited SRNS organizations for obtaining the cost savings through continuous improvement and streamlining initiatives.

“The workgroups who submitted the cost saving recommendations strived to ensure they were implemented promptly and optimally,” said Hightower.

SRNS Business Planning & Integration Director Freddie Grimm said a significant percentage of the savings can be attributed to process efficiencies.

“The icing on the cake has been our employees’ ability to insightfully examine how we do business and then evaluate potential improvements, often from a completely different perspective,” Grimm said. “This has resulted time and again with new ways to efficiently and effectively streamline processes and procedures, leading to major cost savings.”

Grimm noted that more than $4 million in savings resulted from reusing equipment parts instead of purchasing them. For example, SRNS found cost savings from outfitting a cybersecurity laboratory with existing equipment.

“The wisdom and creativity displayed, combined with the practical reutilization of existing resources, has been inspiring,” said Grimm.

Workers improved the site’s circuit breaker maintenance, leading to $1.3 million in savings. They developed a new process to safely avoid performing arc flash calculations and other work for more than 1,630 molded case circuit breakers, decreasing potential exposure to electrical risk.

Employees also streamlined the SRS bidding process for procuring new roofs and repairing them, decreasing the time required to seek bids and award contracts. Those improvements also resulted in $1.3 million in savings.

In fiscal 2020, SRNS took a fresh approach to marketing the site’s employee suggestion program called IDEAS, or Individuals Developing Effective Alternative Solutions. The marketing included creative posters and comical, yet informative, video vignettes to motivate greater participation in the program and encourage employees to find workplace cost savings.

“Using imaginative and often humorous marketing initiatives created a surge in the growth of this program, which helped ensure our success towards meeting the cost savings challenge,” Grimm added.

Cost savings also resulted from the effectiveness of passive groundwater cleanup technology powered by solar energy.

“We are striving to perform more work scope with less funding,” said Hightower. “I’m really proud of our continuous improvement team and all those within SRNS who have stepped up to synergistically accomplish so much in one year.”

-Contributor: DT Townsend



Idaho Site Facility Gets New Lease on Life with Substantial Upgrades

IDAHO FALLS, IdahoEM has made a sizable investment over the last five years to improve infrastructure and support mission needs through 2050 at the 1950s-era Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site.
INTEC facilities are used for safely storing high-level waste such as calcine and spent nuclear fuel, repackaging remote-handled transuranic waste, and processing remaining liquid sodium-bearing waste.
“Spanning a square mile, INTEC is like a small city,” said Mark Manderbach, infrastructure director with Fluor Idaho, EM’s INL Site contractor. “Like a city, utilities need upgrading, pipes need to be replaced, and roads require repaving.”
Fluor Idaho first focused on further improving worker safety. Walking surfaces and roadways received new asphalt, building lights were upgraded to improve lighting conditions, and additional exterior lighting was installed to enhance visibility. Cold War-era stairs are being replaced to meet current standards. Employees also procured new equipment to make snow removal quicker and more efficient.

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Before-and-after views show a walkway outside the Chemical Processing Plant-1671 that received new asphalt as part of infrastructure improvements at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center.


Workers upgraded INTEC’s utilities and performed preventive maintenance to satisfy National Fire Protection Association electrical safety requirements, which included the installation of new electrical panels to comply with current electrical standards. Inside a utility tunnel, crews are replacing degraded piping and installing new hatch covers to maintain compressed air, water, and steam distribution networks.

The facility’s emergency communications system is being upgraded with first-of-a-kind wireless communication, including a new alarm and intercom system. Upgrades to utility control and electrical distribution systems, and installation of new air compressors will support the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit when it comes online.

During the last year, workers replaced a spent fuel storage facility’s potable water pump, repaired its chlorinator system, and replaced failing heating and air conditioning units. At the New Waste Calcining Facility, where crews are using hot cells to treat and repackage remote-handled transuranic waste, the roof was replaced to protect internal facility equipment and allow continued safe operations.

“In total, DOE-Idaho has invested millions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades over the past five years,” said Manderbach. “Since the INTEC facility was constructed in the early 1950s, it had to be upgraded to safely extend its useful mission well into the 21st century.”

Fluor Idaho prepared an infrastructure plan for EM that outlines a maintenance schedule for all buildings at INTEC and includes criteria for determining buildings that have served their useful life and can be demolished.

“It’s a comprehensive plan that takes the facility to 2050 or later if needed,” said Manderbach. “INTEC is a vital asset required for the success of the DOE complex and it makes sense to properly maintain that asset to extend its useful life.”

-Contributor: Erik Simpson



Los Alamos Protects Environment by Disposing of Purged Well Water, Industrial Materials

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EM crews at Los Alamos National Laboratory empty purged well water into a truck for offsite disposal.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – The EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) and cleanup contractor N3B have been shipping hundreds of containers of purged well water and other materials from sites across Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for offsite disposal in recent months.

Since September, crews have shipped more than 211,000 gallons of purged well water and drilling fluids, along with nearly 100 cubic yards of petroleum-contaminated soil and run-of-the-mill industrial materials linked to past LANL operations. Those materials include residual drill cuttings and pipes leftover from installing wells.

The purged well water is stagnant water removed from monitoring wells before sampling — a process that ensures samples are representative of actual aquifer conditions, including potential contamination.

With about 260,000 gallons of the well water stored in tanks across LANL sites, crews found a lack of available holding tanks that could impact cleanup operations, especially where EM-LA operates a treatment system for chromium-contaminated groundwater beneath LANL.

Shipment of the well water began with about 32,000 gallons, or eight truckloads, leaving Mortandad Canyon each week.

Other materials being dispositioned include hazardous preservatives once used to safeguard stormwater samples during transport to analytical laboratories, in addition to low-level radiological waste, such as pit liners used during well installation to contain drill cuttings with trace levels of man-made radionuclides.

“Along with operations being impeded if we didn’t remove these materials, their disposition was critical to upholding our environmental stewardship mission,” said Erik Loechell, a program manager with N3B. “We don’t want that waste getting into the environment.”

The materials are slated for shipment for offsite disposal by August this year. About 170 cubic yards of solid waste and 30,000 gallons of well water are also scheduled for disposal by August.

Prior to shipment, the materials are being stored in safe configurations, with solid waste primarily kept in lined and sealed containers and well water stored in tanks routinely monitored for structural integrity.

-Contributor: Kate Keenan



Major Construction in Oak Ridge to Enable U-233 Processing This Fall

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Workers install a backup diesel generator at Building 2026. If there is a loss of power, it can produce enough power to maintain operation of equipment necessary to process uranium-233 at Oak Ridge.


OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Major construction upgrades are progressing that will allow DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and contractor Isotek to begin processing a high-dose inventory of uranium (U)-233 stored at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) later this year.

That work supports the U-233 Disposition Project, OREM’s highest priority project at ORNL. The project is removing a significant risk by eliminating the inventory of the legacy nuclear material stored in the world’s oldest operating nuclear facility located in the heart of one of the nation’s most important scientific research sites.

Numerous facility modifications and infrastructure additions are needed at Building 2026 to initiate large-scale processing and downblending of the high-dose U-233 inventory in the facility’s hot cells, scheduled to begin this fall. Hot cells are radiation containment chambers.


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Crews install an 11,000-pound, 35-foot-tall silo that can hold 10,000 pounds of dry cement. Cement from the silo will be transferred to tanks containing the downblended uranium-233 to solidify the material and make it safe for transportation and disposal.


Crews recently installed a 35-foot-tall silo essential to the project. The silo structure weighs 11,000 pounds and can hold 10,000 pounds of dry cement. Cement from the silo will be transferred to tanks containing the downblended U-233 to solidify the material and make it safe for transportation and disposal.

Workers also finished placing a backup diesel generator. If there is a loss of power, the generator will be able to continue powering the equipment necessary for processing. That equipment includes the system that pumps material into the hot cells to downblend U-233; the operation that transfers cement to the downblended material tanks; the hydraulic power unit that drives the mixing blades; and the equipment that moves the tanks of solidified waste.

Approximately 20,000 linear feet of conduit, used to connect the generator to the components it will power, will be installed around the facility. That work is approximately 20% complete.

Crews will also install new portals and manipulators for the hot cells and replace a 5-ton crane needed to transport canisters before processing can begin in the hot cells.

Workers are currently processing the low-dose inventory of U-233 in gloveboxes. Gloveboxes are enclosures that shield and segregate workers from hazards.

As part of the processing campaign, workers are extracting rare isotopes, which nuclear innovation company TerraPower is using to support next-generation cancer treatment research.

When hot cell processing begins, Isotek will be able to dramatically increase the transfers of rare isotopes to TerraPower because crews can process larger amounts of U-233.

-Contributor: John Gray



Middle Schooler’s Winning Design Highlights Science Bowl Kickoff

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Calloway County Middle School eighth-grader Kaylee Tharp, left, and Calloway County Academic Team Coach Scott Pile model the DOE West Kentucky Regional Science Bowl t-shirts featuring Tharp’s design. The middle school was awarded $500 for her winning design.


PADUCAH, Ky. – A winning design by eighth-grader Kaylee Tharp will decorate the official t-shirt of DOE’s 13th Annual West Kentucky Regional Science Bowl that kicks off virtually on Friday in Paducah.

Calloway County Middle School Academic Team Coach Scott Pile said Tharp has been a valuable member of the team for the past three years.

“Kaylee always gives her best for her teammates in all of our competitions,” Pile said. “We look forward to competing in another great Science Bowl in February.”

For the fourth year, local students were given the design challenge by EM’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO), which organizes the competition in which hundreds of students from dozens of area schools vie for the right to represent the area at the National Science Bowl beginning in April.

“The Science Bowl is a good opportunity for students in our local communities to compete against some of the region’s most advanced students as they utilize their quick recall skills and apply their knowledge of key scientific topics,” said Jennifer Woodard, PPPO’s Paducah Site lead.

While Tharp’s t-shirt design netted her school’s science program a $500 first prize, all attention on Feb. 5 and 19 will be on questions of science and math for the high school and middle school competitors, respectively.

“I’ve always had a passion for art and design, so this was the perfect opportunity to express my love for the team and all that we have done,” Tharp said.

-Contributors: Tawnya Hunter, Dylan Nichols

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