Oak Ridge Contractor Earns 87 Percent of Available Fee in FY 2017; Demonstration Provides Insight to Prepare for IWTU Startup; EM Sets Next Business Opportunities Forum Date; and much more!

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. EM Update | Vol. 10, Issue 3 | Jan. 23, 2018 Oak Ridge Contractor Earns 87 Percent of Available Fee for Second Half of FY17 Pilot Plant Demonstration Provides Valuable Insight for Idaho Treatment Facility Business Opportunities Forum is March 20 at WM Conference in Phoenix Idaho Site Tests Robotic Crawler to Remove Calcine Waste Agencies From U.S., U.K, Canada, and Japan Discuss In Situ Decommissioning Idaho Site Hot Cell Renovations Allow for Expanded Transuranic Waste Processing Oak Ridge Contractor Earns 87 Percent of Available Fee for Second Half of FY17 URS | CH2M Oak Ridge workers demolished the K-802 Pumphouse at East Tennessee Technology Park during the April-September 2017 fee evaluation period. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) cleanup contractor URS | CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) earned almost $3.3 million for its performance from April through September 2017, nearly 87 percent of the total award fee available for the evaluation period.    OREM recently issued its latest six-month fee determination scorecard for UCOR. EM releases information relating to contractor fee payments — earned by completing the work called for in the contracts — to further transparency in its cleanup program.    According to the UCOR scorecard and OREM's correspondence to the contractor:     UCOR received the following ratings: "excellent" for project management and business systems; "good" for work planning and control, worker safety, health, and quality management; "excellent" for environmental protection; and "high confidence" for cost and schedule.    The contractor executed its scope under the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) contract very well and advanced multiple projects for Vision 2020, OREM's goal to complete ETTP cleanup in 2020 and transfer the site to the private sector for development.    UCOR achieved criticality incredible in a portion of ETTP, resulting in significant cost savings by eliminating quarterly surveillance and maintenance of the Radioactive Criticality Accident Alarm System.    The contractor has operated 30 months without a letter of non-compliance from regulatory agencies, and 69 months without a reportable spill or release. Regulators conducted 300 visits and inspections at UCOR projects and identified no violations during fiscal year 2017 — a significant achievement.    OREM detailed areas of improvement for UCOR after identifying issues with work planning and control, use of human capital resources, crane operations, hazard awareness, and transportation safety.    UCOR experienced two instances when heavy equipment contacted tie lines, which was attributed to a lack of qualified spotters. Corrective actions for those issues were not uniformly deployed. In other events, the cable of a 110-ton crane sustained unexplained damage and needed to be replaced, and a 50-ton crane computer continued to have functionality issues. OREM recommended UCOR improve its crane operations.    UCOR also failed to conduct required preventative maintenance on the White Oak Dam, resulting in the dam gates being inoperable for an extended period.        View the scorecard here.  - Contributor: David Sheeley Back to Top Pilot Plant Demonstration Provides Valuable Insight for Idaho Treatment Facility Hazen Research staff remove simulant product from the Denitration Mineralization Reformer. IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Engineers recently completed an extended demonstration of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit's (IWTU) steam reforming process at a Colorado research facility.    They will apply lessons learned from that testing to an upcoming integrated demonstration at the IWTU at EM's Idaho Site.    Hazen Research operated the steam reforming fluidized bed pilot plant for 44 days with a simulated waste material that replicates the 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid waste the IWTU will ultimately treat.    A primary goal of the Hazen test was to demonstrate extended, stable operations under various operating conditions.     "The secondary goal was to define the stable operational bands for parameters like temperature and gas flow rates," said Joe Giebel, chief engineer with EM cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho. "These successful operational parameters will then be utilized in the operational procedures for the next IWTU test run."  The Denitration Mineralization Reformer at Hazen Research.    Engineers evaluated operations at various particle sizes to assess the response of the treatment process. The pilot plant operated best when the average product particle size was controlled to between 250 and 350 microns. A micron is a unit of length equal to one millionth of a meter.       The extended run also confirmed effective control strategies for wall-scale that has been problematic in previous IWTU and pilot plant runs. Previous IWTU demonstrations using a waste simulant resulted in a wall-scale resembling tree bark forming on the interior walls of the Denitration Mineralization Reformer (DMR), the IWTU's main reaction vessel. The DMR contains billions of tiny beads kept in a fluidized state with the help of superheated gases. Liquid waste enters the fluidized bed, coating the beads like the formation of pearls. The waste product is transferred to stainless steel canisters and ultimately concrete vaults.    The scale formation does not significantly impact operations but could affect future vessel cleanout operations during any potential planned outages.        "We believe we'll see better results during the next demonstration run at IWTU in terms of wall-scale due to the control strategy developed in the pilot plant," Giebel said.  Treated simulant product from the last demonstration run at Hazen Research.    Engineers are preparing the IWTU for a 30-day test early this year with simulated waste, focusing on the fluidization conditions inside the DMR. A second demonstration of up to 50 days follows, to evaluate the system's long-term operational performance.      "In total, we'll have up to an 80-day demonstration run," said Giebel. "With the changes we have made to the process and the equipment, we're optimistic that the IWTU will produce the same results we saw with the Hazen pilot plant."  - Contributor: Danielle Miller, Erik Simpson Back to Top Business Opportunities Forum is March 20 at WM Conference in Phoenix EM Acquisition and Project Management Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary Norbert Doyle will lead the Business Opportunities Forum discussion. PHOENIX – EM's next quarterly public forum to discuss upcoming business opportunities in the legacy nuclear cleanup program is set for Tuesday, March 20 during the annual Waste Management Conference in Phoenix.    The Business Opportunities Forum will take place from 10:15 a.m. to noon Mountain Standard Time in Exhibit Hall 4 in the Phoenix Convention Center. Attendees must register for the Waste Management Conference and possess a conference badge to gain access to EM's forum.    EM Acquisition and Project Management Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary Norbert Doyle will lead the forum discussion. Organized by EM's Office of Acquisition and Project Management, this outreach event gives companies the chance to learn the latest news on doing business with EM and participate in dialogue about the program's business opportunities.    There is no charge to attend the forum. Pre-registration is required by providing your name, title and company name to EM's Mary Wilson via e-mail at mary.wilson@em.doe.gov by Friday, March 16.    Participants can also join the meeting online through a web conferencing tool. For more information, click here. - Contributor: David Sheeley Back to Top Idaho Site Tests Robotic Crawler to Remove Calcine Waste Calcine Retrieval Project Manager Howard Forsythe (right) tests the robotic crawler on a vertical surface. IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – The EM Idaho Site's Calcine Retrieval Project team recently tested a robotic crawler to adhere to the interior surface of a waste storage vessel and remove residual granulated calcine, a high-level waste.     Calcine is a granular byproduct of a process called calcining used at the site from 1963 to 2000 to convert high-level radioactive liquid waste from spent nuclear fuel reprocessing to a stable solid. It is stored in large stainless steel bins inside six concrete vaults known as bin sets at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center. The team is tasked with transferring approximately 220 cubic meters of material from an old bin set to a new one and closing the old bin set under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.    Program engineers expect some residual calcine to remain in the vessels after primary retrieval and transfer. The team envisions the crawler to maneuver throughout the interior of the bins, removing residual calcine by using air jets to blow it down to the inlets of the primary retrieval system, or by using a vacuum system to remove calcine directly. The crawler uses a vacuum system with 400 pounds of pulling force to adhere to vertical walls, while independently-controlled wheels allow it to drive in any direction regardless of orientation.        "We tested a robotic snake arm earlier this year, which performed well, but our goal is to develop and test several technologies and choose the best one for the task," said Howard Forsythe, project manager for EM cleanup contractor Fluor-Idaho.    In initial testing, the crawler prototype demonstrated its ability to maneuver freely on a vertical steel surface similar to the interior walls of the bins. Further testing and design development is planned over the next several months. This testing is expected to demonstrate the ability of the crawler to deploy, maneuver, and perform cleanout operations.    The team expects to begin calcine retrieval and transfer by fiscal year (FY) 2020 and close the old bin set by FY 2022. Ultimately, all 4,400 cubic meters of calcine must be retrieved and ready to ship out of Idaho for disposal in compliance with an agreement between DOE and the State of Idaho.  - Contributors: Danielle Miller, Erik Simpson  Back to Top Agencies From U.S., U.K, Canada, and Japan Discuss In Situ Decommissioning Senior managers from agencies in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Japan attended the Technical Information Exchange meeting and toured P and R reactors at the Savannah River Site. AUGUSTA, Ga. – EM joined government agencies, regulators, and others from around the world to discuss best practices and challenges of in situ decommissioning (ISD), sometimes defined as entombing a contaminated facility in concrete.    The Technical Information Exchange Meeting held in Augusta, Georgia late last year brought together more than 50 attendees from:  Agencies — DOE, including headquarters, Savannah River Site (SRS), Richland Operations Office at the Hanford Site, and Oak Ridge; Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. (AECL), U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Japan Atomic Energy Agency, and International Atomic Energy Agency; Regulators — DOE Office of Environmental Health Security and Safety, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, U.K. Environment Agency; and Other entities — Savannah River National Laboratory, URS | CH2M Oak Ridge, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Magnox Ltd, and Sellafield Ltd.     In the past decade, DOE used ISD for the U Canyon at the Hanford Site; Loss of Fluid Test facility and the old calcine facility, the first entombment effort at a DOE site, both at the Idaho Site; and the P and R reactors and Heavy Water Components Test Reactor at SRS. Participants in the exchange visited SRS, where they viewed facilities planned to be closed using ISD.     "While ISD is not the optimum approach for all contaminated facilities across the DOE complex, it has been used to great effect at some DOE sites," said Andy Szilagyi, Director of EM's Office of Infrastructure and Deactivation & Decommissioning. "ISD has the potential to accelerate site closure safely and cost-effectively if it is applied in an appropriate manner."     The definition of ISD and its implementation in the U.S. and other countries varies and is the subject of debate. Proponents of the approach consider it cost-effective and beneficial because it minimizes worker safety concerns, eliminates the need to remove contaminated equipment from a facility, and consolidates contaminated material in one place. Opponents say that following ISD, the decommissioned facility is a de facto long-term waste disposal site didn't undergo the formal process typically used for such a site.    Exchange participants identified common critical issues to revisit in working groups. Those groups will identify actions to implement in the next one to two years to help each country establish ISD as a safe and cost-effective decommissioning alternative.    Dr. Anna Clark, Head of NDA's Decommissioning and Remediation, described the exchange as "excellent" and found it useful to consider the spectrum of decommissioning projects captured under the international ISD umbrella, from leaving a lightly-contaminated pipeline in the subsurface to the permanent entombment of a contaminated facility in concrete.    "Debates about the pros and cons of these different ISD projects have prompted some extremely valuable discussions between me and my colleagues from the U.K., Clark said. "We look forward to sharing our learning as we continue to decommission the U.K. nuclear sites."     Dr. Frank Gibbs, Vice President of AECL Decommissioning and Waste Management Oversight, said the meeting exceeded his expectations.    "As we saw during the excellent tour of Savannah River Site, effective implementation of ISD offers considerable safety and schedule, and cost benefits," Gibbs said. - Contributors: Anna Clark, Frank Gibbs, Laurie Judd, Andy Szilagyi Back to Top Idaho Site Hot Cell Renovations Allow for Expanded Transuranic Waste Processing Workers fabricated a port cover actuator mechanism to allow operators to open and close the hot cell's hatch cover with a cordless drill. IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Workers at EM's Idaho Site recently renovated a hot cell to expand waste processing capabilities to a second facility and further protect personnel from high radiological fields.    EM cleanup contractor Fluor-Idaho, LLC and three eastern Idaho small businesses completed the changes to the cell in the New Waste Calcining Facility at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center.    The renovations allow operators to dispose of waste from onsite reactor programs from the 1960s through the 2000s, supporting EM's commitment with the state of Idaho.    "This was a challenging renovation," said Fluor-Idaho System Engineer Royce Tyler. "But it was worthwhile because it greatly expands the capabilities of this hot cell and extends its life by decades."    The types of remote-handled transuranic (RH-TRU) waste to be treated and repackaged in the cell include activated metals, graphite, uranium and plutonium fuel pieces, and sodium. The waste must be remotely handled and placed in the cell because of its high radiation levels. Previously, only a hot cell at a former Idaho Site spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility was used for remote handling of waste, but modifications to this cell allow for expanded RH-TRU processing.    Portage, Inc. designed the cell's new hatch covers and porthole covers. Diversified Metal Products fabricated the hatch covers for easier entry of waste transportation cans and easier exit of drums. Premier Technology built the power-operated port cover, which workers installed over the hatch cover. Premier also manufactured the port cover actuator mechanism, which allows operators to open and close the cell's hatch cover with a cordless drill, an innovative solution in the event the building loses power while the hatch cover is open.     Workers installed a 2-ton waste container hoist and other equipment to contain contamination when waste enters or exits the cell. They also added energy-efficient lighting, utilities, digital camera system, drum tipper and rollers, cutting station to open the containers, "dose cave" to obtain dose counts on drums prior to removal from the cell, repackaging station for opening containers of sodium-contaminated waste in an oxygen-free environment, and other improvements.     Fluor-Idaho will test the new hatch covers this month, with actual waste processing to follow. -Contributor: Erik Simpson Back to Top Like EM on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DOEEnvironmentalManagement                    STAY CONNECTED WITH EM:   QUESTIONS? Contact Us This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy - 1000 Independence Ave., SW Washington, DC 20585