Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Decontamination and Dismantlement of Hot Cells/Facilities and Removal/Disposal of Legacy Materials

We were awarded prime contract for a nation-wide ID/IQ contract for facility D&D services across the DOE complex, at a value not to exceed $800M for all issued task orders (TO). Under the ID/IQ associated TOs, we provided D&D services under numerous regulatory drivers, including CERCLA, RCRA, TSCA, CWA, CAA, OSHA, and 10 CFR 830/10 CFR 835. Project facilities and systems had both radiological and chemical contamination (categorized as Hazardous Category 3 nuclear facilities). We performed D&D planning/design, nuclear facility surveillance and maintenance, environmental monitoring, facility characterization, laboratory/data management, procurement, QA, environmental compliance, health and safety/integrated safety management, waste management (treatment, transport, and disposal), engineering, nuclear/criticality safety, subcontract management, project planning, project controls including EVMS implementation, project management, document control/records management, radiation protection, and emergency management support.

Project Details

We characterized and disposed of all legacy materials and wastes in each of the 3026 and 3038 facilities at ORNL and performed demolition of the facilities and disposal of the structural debris. The 3026 Hot Cells and the 3038 Building were classified as Hazard Category 3 nuclear facilities. Both facilities were in an inactive status at contract award; however key safety related systems were operational as required by the documented safety analysis (DSA)/technical safety requirements (TSR) documents. Each facility had unique conditions and aspects, such as several confined spaces within the hot cells of Building 3026; demolition of 5-foot thick concrete walls; dealing with hundreds of unknown radioactive containers of waste in Building 3038; and maintaining key safety systems operational while decontamination, deactivation, and material removal was being conducted. All work was conducted primarily under CERCLA and the tri-party (DOE, EPA Region IV, and TDEC) Federal Facilities Agreement (FFA) and had to maintain compliance with ORNL site-wide permits such as NPDES and NESHAPs.

Despite the high hazard environment and numerous changes in planned and expected conditions, our project team worked hard to protect the workers, the public, and the environment and to deliver the most cost effective and efficient product to the government and US tax payers. This project involved careful coordination of multiple disciplines from a broad range of specialized contractors and vendors. This project was complex and required extraordinary efforts. Although the project did not complete its entire scope of work as planned, the unplanned and unexpected changes were identified and completed to a satisfactory level, where turn-over of the facility could be accomplished under an M&O contract. Significant hazards were either eliminated or controlled and the project successfully transitioned to be completed in the future.

Building 3026 C/D Hot Cells:
The hot cells were comprised of six substructures. Building 3026 C included the (1) Tritium Facility, (2) Counting Room, (3) Bank 1 Hot Cells, and (4) Bank 2 Hot Cells. Building 3026D included the (5) Storage Cells, and (6) Hot Cells A & B. Prior to demolition, all demo preparation activities were completed, including, but not limited to, the following:

• Mobilization, setup, hazard assessment, and successful implementation of hazard controls (radiological and other).
• Conducting contamination surveys, dose rate surveys, full suite characterization for personnel and waste disposal (radiological and hazardous waste).
• Decontamination, dismantlement, size reduction, and packaging of material for disposal.
• Decontamination and stabilization methodologies included the use of: DeCon Gel, foam, polyuria coatings, scabbling, scarifying, soil excavation, and water collection and management.
• All structures required utility isolation, ventilation, and engineering controls that included containment erecting, facility modifications, and use of remote tooling such as manipulators and cameras.
• Each structure included legacy materials that required characterization, remediation packaging, and disposal.
• Use of equipment including cranes, forklifts, water filtration skids and frac tanks, nuclear grade air filters, and vacuums.
• Environmental management and waste water collection, sampling, filtration, storage, and disposal (Managing 100% of all rain and runoff water that potentially could leave the site).
• Utility identification, isolation, and verification. In many cases, existing utilities could not be abandoned, but required reconfiguration and routing to other areas until abandonment could take place.

Building 3038:

Conducted in two distinct phases: Facility Upgrades and Legacy Material Removal (LMR). Primary features of work included conducting a facility hazard assessment, conducting full-suite characterization (radiological and hazardous material), equipment and material removal, size reduction, decontamination, waste packaging, and disposal. Prior to performing LMR, several significant facility upgrades were required to safely perform the work. Modifications included:

• Inspecting/replacing in-cell hoist/crane.
• Replacing in-cell HEPA filters and cell lighting.
• Refurbishing hot cell manipulators.
• Installing barricade carousel manipulator for in-cell characterization, removal, packaging, and decontamination of over 130 glass bottles.
• Opening, inspecting, and characterizing several B-25 boxes with previously packaged wastes.
• Utility isolation and verification.

Perma-Fix provided radiological and chemical characterization, environmental monitoring, waste management, waste profiling, radiological engineering support, modeling, health physics, Industrial Hygiene support, radiation program management and operations, database management, regulatory compliance and reporting, remedial action support, on-site alpha/gamma spectroscopy laboratory management, and Environmental Health Safety & Quality oversight. The project team developed a comprehensive Work Control and Planning Program, which fully integrated all the core functions and guiding principles of the Integrated Safety Management System into our Integrated Work Control Plan. Managers, supervisors, workers and subject matter experts (SME's) were all trained and qualified to properly identify the scope of work, hazards, controls, perform work and provided continuous improvement through feedback and lessons learned.

This project was completed on schedule and within budget and entailed over 500,000 person-hours with zero lost-time accidents, radiological uptakes, contamination events, environmental releases of contaminants, and notice-of-violations from regulatory agency audits and assessments. Our ANSI EIA-748-compliant Earned Value Management System was implemented successfully on this project and was subject to both internal and external reviews leading to a declaration of self-certification.

All projects operated under a project Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) and several other implementing documents. Personnel were trained in accordance with our ISO-9001 certification and DOE quality requirements. Specific elements of the Perma-Fix QAP included the following:

• Initial personnel, procedures, controls, instructions, tests, records, and forms to be used.
• Resumes and training of key site Quality Control personnel and procedures and forms used to implement the QAP and track and record QC information.
• Ensuring construction and remediation activities complied with the requirements of the specifications.