NISKAYUNA, N.Y. - Peter Keenan is part of a team that helps ensure the safety of workers demolishing contaminated facilities at EM’s Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) nuclear facility.
Keenan, a senior health physicist/radiological engineer with Boston Government Services, LLC (BGS), performs calculations to ensure the safety of workers and confirm they can carry out deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) without generating airborne contamination levels of concern for worker health.
Earlier this year, EM finished removing all process equipment and tanks from SPRU’s Building H2 for shipment to an out-of-state disposal facility. The work represented the end of the first phase of demolition of that Cold War research facility.
Workers then began the second phase of demolition in the building’s pipe tunnel area, which isolated the transfer piping that moved radioactive materials among the various processing cells and tanks within Building H2 and accompanying Building G2. EM completed demolition of above-ground portions of Building G2 in November.
BGS provides technical and programmatic support to EM and its contractors across the DOE complex. At the SPRU D&D project, BGS provides highly qualified radiation protection professionals who support EM oversight of the radiological protection program implementation for D&D operations. This support includes Keenan’s calculations of potential airborne radiation levels resulting from the demolition of contaminated facilities.
EM uses BGS calculations to establish that contamination levels in surplus facilities in conjunction with the methods used for demolition by SPRU D&D contractor AECOM do not exceed acceptable levels of airborne contamination. Providing oversight for the safe and compliant demolition of contaminated facilities supports EM’s mission to safely and efficiently complete the cleanup of the environmental legacy of decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research.
DOE recognized BGS with its 8(a)/Small Disadvantaged Business of the Year award for fiscal year 2015. The award honors the company for exceptional performance contributing to core DOE mission accomplishments.
SPRU was instrumental in developing the chemical processes used to separate plutonium for use in nuclear weapons and materials research. It closed in the mid-1950s.
EM began decontaminating and demolishing buildings at the site in 2009.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
