Review of the Hatfield and Dawson RF assessment for Bechtel
The construction project at the Russell City Energy Center (RCEC) in Hayward, CA encountered a complication due to RF induction into the construction cranes resulting from operation of the two AM broadcast systems located immediately south of the site. The consulting firm Hatfield and Dawson was contacted by Bechtel for the assessment and mitigation of the induced currents and voltages and their recommendations were implemented by Bechtel. The staff at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was subsequently asked to review the analysis of the Hatfield and Dawson work, provide an independent assessment and offer further mitigation comments. LLNL has examined the work by Hatfield and Dawson, the numerical analyses of both agrees and correlates well with local field measurements. The mitigation efforts follow the OSHA rules and have been adapted to further reduce the possibility of worker injury through specialized training, daily task planning and specific assignments to workers to minimize exposure of all to the induced RF currents. LLNL further recommends that Bechtel formalize the RF training to provide additional value to the individual workers as well as for Bechtel to maintain documentation so that future work could make use of experienced workers. There is a possibility that the RF energy will couple into the actuator and sensors as the facility is built out. The operation of the two transmitters could introduce interference formed from the interaction of the signals in nonlinear circuit responses producing intermodulation distortion. The result is interference at unexpected frequencies, some of which can be low and not filtered out of the sensors unless specifically identified. Future testing is planned for evaluating the likelihood for RF interference issues.