AIKEN, S.C. - Process advancements by the EM program at Savannah River Site ’s K Area have increased efficiency, reducing the time needed to complete an annual safety evaluation by half.
Each year, personnel complete the assessments, known as destructive evaluations, to validate the site’s commitment to maintaining the safety and security of the nuclear materials stored there. The evaluations ensure the integrity of containers holding plutonium-bearing materials.
Operators open the containers using a specialized steel glove box with glass panels and glove-port openings. It shields and segregates them from radiological hazards. They retrieve samples of the materials inside and examine the containers for any corrosion or other signs they’re losing their integrity.
The glove box is also used for plutonium down-blend, a process of mixing plutonium oxide with an inert material before shipment to an out-of-state repository for disposition.
“We were challenged by the senior management team to shorten the time it takes to perform the annual destructive evaluations, which would allow us more time in the glovebox to perform down-blend," K Area Facility Manager Janice Lawson said. “We took that challenge to our employees in the field and their innovation helped us lower the time it takes to complete a destructive evaluation from eight days to four days."
K Area Deputy Operations Manager Chris Crawford said the operations and engineering personnel definitely stepped up to the challenge.
“They identified a number of process and procedure improvements, while always making sure to keep safety and security at the forefront of the process," Crawford said.
Employees updated a procedure to allow for mass-based inventory of materials instead of allowing only one item to be handled in the processing area at a time. This allowed the material inventory to be performed more efficiently and reduced exposure to workers.
In other improvements, personnel developed activities to reduce downtime between sending samples of oxide to the Savannah River National Laboratory for testing and receiving the results.
“We are especially impressed with the ingenuity of our personnel considering that with the implementation of the down-blend program last year, their jobs have changed from surveillance and maintenance facility duties to operating facility duties," Lawson said. “It has been a mindset change and our personnel have shown that they are flexible and up for any challenge."
K Area personnel will continue to look for ways to improve operating time.
“We will continue to come up with innovations to make sure we are meeting the needs of the Department of Energy, our state, and our country," Lawson said. “We are the best trained people to do it."
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
