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Development of an Automated Remedy Performance Evaluation Program - 13622

Performance monitoring is a vital element of groundwater remediation. Unfortunately, the enormous efforts and costs that are expended procuring, managing, processing and storing monitoring data are often not subject to correspondingly rigorous evaluation. This is despite the fact that many steps in the process are predictable and are repeated many times over the remedy life cycle. At the Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site, a program is underway to automate many of these steps - processing, formatting any analyzing large volumes of heterogeneous data associated with the operation of several groundwater pump-and-treat (P and T) and in-situ remedies. The Automated Remedy Performance Evaluation Program (ARPEP) was developed from a work-flow process designed to deliver (a) monthly data summaries and preliminary analysis, (b) quarterly performance assessments, and (c) annual roll-up analyses that detect changes in long-term monitoring datasets and support remedy optimization. The intent of the ARPEP is to provide detailed, systematic and traceable data summaries, depictions and analyses that can be used by project scientists to complete their evaluation of remedy performance. The ARPEP work-flow was formalized following extensive review of applicable guidance, regulation and industry standards. The ARPEP incorporates disparate data types collected over different frequencies, such as water levels and pumping rates recorded every minute, and groundwater sample results obtained on quarterly, annual or irregular intervals. The data are processed, reduced to frequencies suitable for assessment, and combined in various ways leading to performance indicators such as (a) pumped well capacities and system downtime that reflect operational performance; (b) hydraulic gradients and areas of hydraulic containment that reflect hydraulic performance; and (c) time-series (longitudinal) and geo-statistical (spatial) trend analyses that reflect progress toward attainment of Remedial Action Objectives (RAOs). The entire sequence of data processing and analysis is undertaken within the R programming environment, an open-source environment for statistical computing and graphics, and is summarized in a comprehensive PDF project report. (authors)

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Technetium Management Program Plan - 17376

Technetium management is a high-priority activity for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) complex. Waste management and remediation issues involving technetium represent environmental risks and challenges that are unique to DOE. This plan lays out the technology development activities that are underway as well as future technology needs to address technetium issues across DOE EM sites and across programmatic areas of tank waste, groundwater and soils, and facility decommissioning and deactivation in order to be comprehensive and to allow integration of similar activities. The program was developed in close coordination with site representatives and program offices. Activities and needs that were identified share common themes and were grouped into areas of characterization, treatment, and disposition. Characterization includes understanding the inventory at particular locations, the chemical species, and chemical and physical behavior, whether in a treatment process flowsheet or a geological setting that displays periodic contaminant releases. The tools for characterization in these different environments might use the same sensors or protocols. Treatment options include methods to capture technetium such as ion-exchange or manipulation of oxidation states, which also may be applied across program areas. Disposition includes end-points of the processes and environmental risk, including waste form behavior, mobility of technetium once it is treated or remediated, and long-term monitoring. Disposition represents integration of all cleanup actions at a site. (authors)

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A Retrospective Assessment of Correlation between Occupational and Public Radiation Protection Programs Performance Metrics at a FUSRAP Site - 17546

A retrospective assessment of the occupational and environmental radiation protection programs includes the consideration of performance metrics at the qualitative and quantitative level. When key radiation protection (RP) program metrics are tracked over the course of several years, correlations may present themselves. Strong correlations between variables may be considered when establishing or validating baseline RP Program elements (i.e., controls, monitoring regimes, and additional ALARA measures) for the safe excavation and handling of naturally occurring radioactive materials comingled in soil-like wastes at FUSRAP sites. (authors)

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

Integrated program for department of energy environmental management office of soil and groundwater remediation - 15426

The subsurface problems that remain at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) sites are technically complex and the costs to complete the cleanup mission are expected to range from $17 billion to $21 billion. There is growing recognition that conventional remedies will not meet regulatory goals at a number of sites and alternative approaches will be required. To address the challenge, the EM Office of Soil and Groundwater Remediation created an integrated program to develop innovative scientific and technical in conjunction with engagement of stakeholders, regulators, and the public. The integrated program provides a holistic approach to assess the risk associated with the remaining challenges facing EM and develop solutions that achieve remediation goals and protect human health and the environment. The integrated program uses a systems-based framework for achieving environmental remediation goals. The framework is based on developing and updating a site conceptual model and includes steps to 1) provide the technical basis for remedial actions, 2) assessments of potential remedies, and 3) implementation and management of remedies to achieve site restoration goals. The Office of Soil and Groundwater remediation defines research and development needed to successfully define and apply the framework. Research opportunities and targets are identified in characterization and conceptual model development, predictions of site conditions, remediation, monitoring, and remediation decision support. Characterization and quantification of key subsurface uncertainties is needed to support conceptual model development, identify contaminant source zones, quantify the flux of contaminants from source terms to points of compliance, and characterize controlling processes for remediation approaches including natural attenuation. Predictive analyses are needed to support development of remediation endpoints, select and design active and in situ or passive remedies, assess remedy performance, and predict long-term contaminant behavior for design of monitoring systems. Advancements are needed to support adaptive remediation approaches and to develop long-term contaminant management strategies for complex sites, such as effective in situ treatment methods for long-lived contaminants ({sup 99}Tc, {sup 129}I, U, Hg, etc.). Monitoring tools and approaches are needed to evaluate remedy performance and plume behavior and decision support methods are needed to quantitatively evaluate remediation alternatives. The Office of Soil and Groundwater Remediation leverages scientific understanding provided through partnerships with the DOE Office of Science, the Department of Defense, and Environmental Protection Agency. These partnerships are helping EM develop scientific understanding and technologies for implementing the assessment framework. (authors)

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Assessment of regulatory support program based on the 10 years joint cooperation between Norway and Russian Federation - 15635

The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA) has been implementing a regulatory support program in the Russian Federation for over 10 years, as part of the Norwegian government's Plan of Action for enhancing nuclear and radiation safety with special focus on nuclear legacy problems in Northwest Russia. During this time there has been cooperation in more than 24 different projects. Significant component of the Plan of Action is to provide support its sister authorities in the Russian Federation, over the years a considerable degree of confidence and mutual trust has been built up among all the relevant organizations, allowing for real progress to be made in meeting protection objectives. The main goal of the regulatory projects is to develop regulatory requirements to ensure protection of personnel, population and environment, during remediation uranium and nuclear legacy sites. Many of the legacy issues originated from the military program. It is therefore vital that the military authority has agreed to be a part of the cooperation program, i.e. Directorate of State Supervision over Nuclear and Radiation Safety of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. (authors)

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

Canada's Nuclear Legacy Liabilities Program - Ten Years of Progress and Achievements - 16456

Nuclear legacy liabilities have resulted from more than 60 years of nuclear research and development carried out on behalf of Canada. The liabilities are located at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's (AECL) Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario and Whiteshell Laboratories in Manitoba, as well as three shutdown prototype reactors in Ontario and Quebec that are being maintained in a safe storage state. Estimated at about $10.6 billion (B) (current day Canadian dollars), these liabilities consist of disused nuclear facilities and associated infrastructure, a wide variety of buried and stored waste, and contaminated lands. The Government of Canada established the Nuclear Legacy Liabilities Program (NLLP) in 2006 to implement a long-term strategy to safely and cost-effectively reduce risks and liabilities, and invested approximately $1.4 B over the 10-year duration of the Program to implement the strategy. Risks and liabilities were reduced through projects and activities that decommissioned and removed out-dated facilities, remediated lands affected by past practices, and improved the management of legacy radioactive waste. The NLLP formally ended in September 2015 when the restructuring of AECL's Nuclear Laboratories was completed, and a Government-owned Contractor-operated (GoCo) management model came into effect. The nuclear decommissioning and waste management work that was previously carried out under the NLLP was transitioned into the new GoCo contract. Over the 10-year duration of the NLLP, the Program achieved good progress in addressing health, safety and environmental priorities, reducing liabilities, and providing the studies, plans and facilities that will be needed to enable subsequent phases of the strategy. The NLLP provided a strong basis for the GoCo contractor to accelerate risk and liability reduction at AECL sites. (authors)

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A perfect amalgam - the combination of company in-house training with an academic online certificate program

A well-trained and qualified workforce is an essential element in the modern day work place of the nuclear industry. For generations, from the guilds of the Middle Age through to the early Industrial Age, people learned their crafts through hands-on training provided at the hands of masters. Today, though there is an ever-pressing need for mentoring in the workplace, the fast-paced environment and lack of time to develop specific in-house training programs can create hindrances to both formal and informal learning in the work place. One way to overcome this gap is through private company and academic collaboration. In 2012, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) developed a Nuclear Regulatory Commission sponsored Nuclear Criticality Safety Certificate Program. In collaboration with URENCO USA, an online version of the program was also developed to assist the URENCO criticality workforce in the nuclear criticality safety (NCS) qualification process to further their education. This paper looks into the differences between formal and informal learning and how factors, which shape informal learning, are used to compliment formal learning in the work environment. It further discusses how a collaborative relationship between private and academic partners can assist a company in maintaining a high level of expertise, while assisting with a company's goals of fostering, sustaining and strengthening the nuclear safety culture. (authors)

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program (MSIPP) - 18108

The DOE-EM recognizes that successfully completing its legacy environmental cleanup mission will require maintaining a well-trained, technically skilled, and diverse workforce. Minority representation in critical science and engineering fields is an important part of EM's vision for the future workforce. The Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program (MSIPP) has been created and designed to increase the numbers of minorities with science and engineering experience in areas important to the success of the DOE-EM mission. MSIPP will provide financial assistance for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities at Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) engaged in research and related STEM efforts supporting EM's needs. The program offers research internship opportunities at DOE National Laboratories across the DOE complex. MSIPP also encourages research collaborations between MSI Universities and DOE National Laboratories by funding research in areas relevant to DOE-EM needs. Based on current DOE-EM missions, there are two research focus areas: Tank Waste and Site Restoration. Tank Waste includes priority areas of current DOE tank waste and waste processing approaches, alternative DOE tank waste processing options, and tank management and closure. Site Restoration research concentrates in the areas of Soil and Groundwater with priority areas of attenuation-based remedies for the subsurface, deep vadose zone, remediation of mercury and industrial contaminants, and advanced simulation capability for environmental management; and, in the areas of Deactivation and Decommissioning, with priority areas of unique sensor networks for remote monitoring of entombed facilities and tanks, interactions between radiological and chemical contaminants of concern to DOE and facility materials, incombustible fixatives and decontamination agents, acceptability of DeconGel and various contaminant mixtures and robotics, remote systems with plug-and-play interchangeable components, and models for facility decommissioning. This paper gives an overview of the opportunities available to MSI students and universities and outlines the progress this program has made since its inception, and the path forward to further enhance efforts to create a pipeline into the DOE-EM workforce. (authors)

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Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management Progress on Defense-Related Uranium Mines Program - 18119

The Defense-Related Uranium Mines (DRUM) Program provides the structure and basis for the US Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management (LM) to manage the verification and validation (V and V) of defense-related uranium mines (mines) that provided ore to the Atomic Energy Commission from 1947 to 1970. V and V activities are conducted to fully understand the scope of potential problems posed by these mines by determining their location, reclamation or remediation status, and potential impacts to public safety, human health, and the environment. Land management agencies have limited resources and have generally not conducted comprehensive inventories of abandoned uranium mines, thus adding to the need to undertake this program. LM has entered into memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and US Forest Service (USFS) to facilitate a better understanding of the scope of the problem posed by these mines. Currently, LM has executed MOUs with the BLM state offices in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming and the USFS Rocky Mountain Region, which includes the national forests in Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota. This collaborative effort with partner agencies has led LM to develop a V and V Work Plan that describes the numerous activities and types of data to be collected at the mines. V and V activities verify actual mine location, collect coordinates of mining-related features, collect radiological data and soil samples, identify potential physical safety hazards, prioritize mines using a risk-based screening approach, and report the information to partner agencies. The partner agencies may use the reports to assess priorities and determine if any further action is warranted. The DRUM Program goals are to: - Improve data quality and content in the LM national inventory of abandoned uranium mines; - Conduct site-specific reconnaissance at mines for data verification and validation; - Exchange mine information with other federal agencies and state governments to help address mines presenting the greatest risks; - Develop reports for each mine that will contain a risk scoring assessment to help each agency develop priorities. The preliminary risk screening methodology was based on a joint effort between LM and BLM to develop factors that would be based on field observations, field data, and laboratory data using a multiple-lines-of-evidence approach. The multiple-lines-of-evidence assessment allows land managers the opportunity and flexibility to query specific criteria and make rankings based on specific priorities. The risk screening for each mine is based on evaluating the primary hazards of physical safety and risks to human health and several modifying factors that include accessibility and ecological/environmental risks. Gamma radiation scans are performed across the disturbed area of the mine, and soil samples are taken from waste rock piles and drainages, when applicable. This paper presents the results of performing inventory, environmental sampling, and risk ranking along with other accomplishments and lessons learned during the initial year of V and V activities and reporting. (authors)

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Hanford Direct Feed Low Activity Waste Real Time Monitoring Program - 18336

Effective operation of the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility at Hanford will rely on information provided from monitoring and control of chemical process streams to maintain safety and environmental compliance, product quality, and operational efficiency. The LAW Facility has been designed as a contact-maintained facility and it was recognized that establishing a real time, in-line monitoring program could have substantial benefits to the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of River Protection in the long-term, which include significant time savings, increased processing efficiency and effectiveness, reducing worker exposure to radiation and chemical hazards, reducing secondary wastes, and a better understanding of the flowsheet to support direct-feed LAW (DFLAW). The Assistant Manager/Federal Project Director for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) Project chartered a multidisciplinary integrated technical team comprised of federal, contractor, and national laboratory staff to develop a phased program to support this initiative. A three-phase approach was adopted: - Phase 1: Requirements and Opportunities Analysis for Sampling Reduction; - Phase 2: Applications and Benefits Determination; - Phase 3: Qualification and Demonstration. The focus of Phase 1 is to identify the drivers behind any requirements for sampling and any opportunities to benefit from a real-time monitoring program. The effort identified 18 sample points and approximately 2,600 potential samples to be collected annually with analytical methods to be performed approximately 18,000 times annually. Based on Savannah River National Laboratory experience and discussions with WTP Analytical Laboratory personnel, these sample analyses will generate approximately 5,000 L of liquid secondary waste and approximately 1,300 m{sup 3} of solid secondary waste each year. Additional solid and liquid secondary wastes will be generated from sample collection. A preliminary evaluation indicates that employing real-time, in-line monitoring, mass balances, and periodic sampling could significantly reduce the number of samples collected, analytical methods performed, and secondary waste generated. (authors)

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DOE Grand Junction Office Marks 75 Years of Contribution to the Nation's Defense Program - 18380

On July 26, 2016, the former US Department of Energy (DOE) Grand Junction Office was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its important, historic roles in the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. The work done from Grand Junction, Colorado, was an important component of the nation's defense program; however, because of the classified nature of the work, little of this history was originally available to the public. In 1943, the privately-owned site that later became the Grand Junction Office was purchased by the US government for the Colorado Area Office for the US Army Corps of Engineers Manhattan Engineer District (MED). The Colorado Area Office's mission was to procure and process uranium as part of a nationwide effort to build an atomic bomb. This race to build a bomb ahead of Nazi Germany became known as the Manhattan Project. Approximately 14% of the uranium obtained for the Manhattan Project was from Colorado Plateau ore-the largest source of domestic uranium ore known at the time. Uranium extracted from vanadium mill tailings was concentrated into uranium oxide, or 'yellowcake,' and shipped by rail to a facility in Tonawanda, New York, for further refinement. At the conclusion of World War II, the military MED mission ended, and the Grand Junction site became the principal US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) office for acquiring and exploring for domestic uranium. The Colorado Raw Materials Office's primary objective was to increase the stockpile of fissionable material as rapidly as possible. To do that, AEC incentivized private industry and invited individual prospectors to locate uranium ores on public lands of the Colorado Plateau. Seemingly overnight, the small city of Grand Junction was transformed into a booming, modern metropolis and the national center of uranium exploration. Program operations in Grand Junction later included those of the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) program, the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA), vicinity properties cleanup, decontamination and decommissioning, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of legacy sites. In 2001, DOE transferred most of the original Grand Junction 55.7-acre site to the Riverview Technology Corporation, a business-development nonprofit sponsored by Mesa County and the City of Grand Junction. The US Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management continues to operate from leased facilities onsite. The Office of Legacy Management will host the 2018 Long-Term Stewardship Conference in Grand Junction on August 20-23. Conference attendees are invited to participate in a special 75. anniversary celebration at the Grand Junction Office where they will have the opportunity to learn more about the office's historic past, its ongoing and expanding work, and its goals of informing future generations. (authors)

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Challenging Engineering Demographics and the READY Program - 18528

The mission of the Liquid Waste Organization at the Savannah River Site involves the safe storage of nuclear waste, closure of waste tanks, and immobilization of the waste into grout (low-level waste) or glass (high-level waste). With much of the mission left to complete and a significant percentage of the engineering organization eligible for retirement within the next 5 years, focus has been on recruiting and retaining new hires and early career engineers. Over the past two years, enhancements have been made to current programs and new programs have been created with the goal of improving the retention rate for engineering. These programs include the Reaching Engineers at the Development Years, the Early Career Professional Technology Exchange, the Shift Technical Engineer Pipeline, and Technical Staff Training. (authors)

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Westinghouse Accident Tolerant Fuel Program

The Westinghouse accident tolerant fuel (ATF) program is aimed at providing a significant increase in fuel robustness able to increase its tolerance to beyond design basis accidents at an economically attractive price to nuclear power providers. The Westinghouse ATF program, which began in 2004, advanced significantly during the current first phase (1A and 1B) begun in 2012 of this Department of Energy (DOE) program. Phase 1B will culminate in the manufacture of fuel rods that will undergo a 6 year exposure at steady state conditions in the Advanced Test Reactor and the Halden test reactor (Phase 2) and in transient tests in TREAT and Halden. The goal is to load lead test rods in a commercial reactor in 2022. In this paper, the current status of the ATF development and future irradiation plan is discussed in detail. Westinghouse has picked the most viable concepts that will provide maximum accident tolerance as well as economics, and those that will make the most sense for utility adoption. All three options appear to be feasible from a technical and economic point of view. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Support of UJV Rez, a. s. for Shipments of Spent Nuclear Fuel Within the M3 Program - 19035

In 2005, UJV Rez, a. s. (UJV, the former Nuclear Research Institute Rez), Czech Republic joined the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return (RRRFR) program under the US-Russian Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) (now Material Management and Minimization program, M{sup 3}). The primary goal of the program is to advance nuclear nonproliferation objectives encouraging eligible countries to convert their research reactors from highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel and eliminating stockpiles of HEU. UJV's daughter company, Research Centre Rez, operates the LVR-15 research reactor with output of 10 MWth, which has been in operation since 1957. After more than 50 years of operation of the reactor, a large amount of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) of Russian origin had been accumulated. The SKODA VPVR/M high capacity casks were used for SNF shipment from the LVR-15 research reactor back to the Russian Federation (RF). The cask has a capacity of 36 fuel assemblies, and 16 casks are available. This means that 576 FA can be transported in one shipment. Two SNF shipments of HEU and LEU SNF from UJV were realized in 2007 and 2013. After the shipments were completed, only LEU nuclear fuel remained on the territory of the Czech Republic. Proven to be an excellent and very sophisticated system for SNF transportation, the SKODA VPVR/M casks were further employed for SNF shipments from Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Georgia to Russia. Some shipments were carried out as air shipments with use of the TUK-145/C cask system developed in Russia that included the SKODA cask. In 2016, the new SKODA MNSR casks were developed on the base of the SKODA VPVR/M casks in the Czech Republic and currently are being employed in the shipments of HEU cores of Chinese Miniature Neutron Source Reactors (MNSR) to China. The TUK-145/C-MNSR cask system developed in Russia is used for air transportation. The shipment from Ghana was carried out in 2016; the shipment from Nigeria is under realization. Shipments from Syria, Iraq and Pakistan are planned. Sixteen shipments from eleven countries using a total of 109 SKODA casks have already been completed without any incident or accident and more than 3500 fuel assemblies or cores have been shipped to Russia and China. (authors)

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The CNSC's Inspector Training and Qualification Program and its Importance to the Nuclear Industry - 19370

Trained, qualified, and designated staff at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) conduct inspections of licensed nuclear sites as a method of compliance verification. This paper will describe the unique and comprehensive qualification process for CNSC inspectors, known as the Inspector Training and Qualification Program (ITQP). The ITQP includes service-line-specific training that is unique to each inspection group within the CNSC, dependent on the facility/industry type. The training requirements specific to staff in the Wastes and Decommissioning Division and its impact on safety at waste management sites across Canada will be discussed. This paper will specifically identify the importance of CNSC inspector training and detail how the unique training program requirements enable the CNSC to better identify and encourage compliance among nuclear waste and decommissioning sites in Canada. CNSC inspectors are designated under section 29 of the Nuclear Safety and Control Act (NSCA), and the powers of inspectors are outlined in section 32 of the NSCA. Having trained, qualified, and designated inspectors is paramount for both the CNSC and the nuclear industry. For the CNSC, this ensures that staff in the field are aware of potential hazards and how to mitigate such hazards (if applicable), that staff understand the regulatory framework and how to measure compliance against it, and that staff consistently apply CNSC values across the nuclear industry. For the industry, this ensures that staff present at nuclear facilities are knowledgeable and professional, that inspections are conducted in a consistent manner, and that any compliance actions issued are measurable and defendable against the regulatory framework. The CNSC's ITQP incorporates both theoretical (in-class and online) and practical training, and is broken down into six categories: mandatory training for all new employees; core training; service-line-specific training; on-the-job training; CNSC regulations training; and, recommended additional training. This paper will discuss in detail the specific aspects of each of these categories, the importance of each category including the difference between knowledge and skills acquired in theoretical versus hands-on training, and how CNSC staff in designated inspector positions (inspectors-in-training) progress through the program. The complete list of core training and service-line-specific training for inspectors in the Wastes and Decommissioning Division, including re-qualification requirements, will be explored throughout the paper. It is further important that CNSC designated inspectors undergo continuous learning to ensure that their skills remain up to date, as well as to ensure that inspectors requalify at defined intervals to enable the maintenance of the core knowledge and skills with which the determination of the person's qualification was based. The steps involved in this requalification process, as well as the importance of continuous learning and the maintenance of skills and knowledge will be further discussed. (authors)

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Panel Session 68: Small Business Procurement and Contracting Opportunities Within the DOE Complex and USACE FUSRAP Program

This panel session was held in the Panel Zone in the Exhibit Hall and focused on small business procurement and contracting opportunities within the DOE Complex as well as the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) National Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) projects. Each panelist provided a general overview of their respective organization, small business goals and the success in meeting those goals. They further discussed recently awarded procurement, upcoming opportunities and provided additional contact information for individual small business program managers within their organization. This panel was open to all WM participants, including Exhibitors. This panel session focused on small business procurement and contracting opportunities within the DOE Complex and the USACE FUSRAP Program. The DOE and USACE contract directly with small businesses and encourage prime contractors to obtain goods and services from small and disadvantaged businesses (Tier 2) and often tie these goals to contract award fee. Goods and services being considered for these procurements include decontamination and decommissioning, remediation, transportation and disposal of radioactive waste, health physics, emergency response planning and training, lab services, R and D products, waste treatment, maintenance, A/E and professional consulting. This panel complemented Session 21 and Session 48, US DOE Spring Quarterly Forum, and Session 88 on Doing Business with the DOE. Presentations proposed include: 1 - Small Business Procurement and Contracting Opportunities Within the DOE Complex (Aaron Deckard, US DOE (USA)); 2 - Small Business Procurement and Contracting Opportunities Within the DOE Complex (William Badger, AECOM (USA)); 3 - Engineering the Extraordinary (Lisa Tribuce-Leoung Tat, Bechtel National, Inc. (USA)); 4 - Fluor Small Business Procurement and Contracting Opportunities (Debra Sampson, Fluor Government Group (USA)); 5 - HII Technical Solutions Division Small Business Opportunities (Kela Lofton, HII Nuclear Inc. (USA)); 6 - U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Radiological Remediation Work (Nicki Fatherly, USACE (USA))

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Offsite Source Recovery Program; High Activity Beta Gamma Removal, Transport and Disposition - 19663

The Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Office of Radiological Security's (ORS) Off-Site Source Recovery Program (OSRP) has been tasked with the removal and disposition of radioactive sealed sources in the interest of national security and public health and safety. It is the mission of the program to recover radioactive sources to prevent them from falling into the hands of individuals who would use this material for malicious intent. OSRP is a collaborative effort involving Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). At the inception of the program, Pu-239 was the only isotope acceptable for recovery. As a wider security scope developed, OSRP expanded its mission to include the recovery of other sources that posed a potential risk to national security, health, and safety. Starting in 2004, OSRP began recovering cesium and cobalt devices, largely from medical, research, and industrial facilities. These disused higher-activity devices present a burden to licensees in terms of security, and demand for OSRP's assistance in removing them has been high. Today, OSRP removes around 40 high-activity devices per year in support of domestic demand as well as ORS's Cesium Irradiator Replacement Project (CIRP). This represents an average of over 50,000 Ci of Cs-137 and Co-60 removed from the private sector each year for permanent disposition. A major component of this effort is the use of the proper shipping container to transport the devices. As a way to increase transportation capabilities ORS has developed two new Type B containers. The most recently completed of these containers, the 435-B, is currently certified to transport Gammators and Gammacell-1000, -3000, and -40 irradiators in an overpack configuration. This provides greater capacity and flexibility to safely and effectively transport these devices, for which acceptable shipping configurations had been previously limited. (authors)

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Nuclear power plant risk-informed surveillance frequency control program implementation at the Duke Catawba nuclear plant with a focus on instrumentation and control systems - 333

This paper summarizes an updated process for risk-informed surveillance frequency control program (SFCP) implementation at the Catawba Nuclear Power Plant in the past year. This program includes selection and prioritization of specific target surveillance test interval extensions; and development, review, and implementation of surveillance test risk informed documented evaluation (STRIDE) packages designed to support extension of conventional surveillance requirement test intervals, in accordance with 'Risk-Informed Technical Specifications Initiative 5b, Risk-Informed Method for Control of Surveillance Frequencies, Industry Guideline,' NEI 04-10, Revision 1 . The scope of work associated with STRIDE development includes probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) case studies, deterministic assessment (DA) evaluations, and, where required, instrument drift evaluation (IDE). The STRIDE implementation efforts have also included support of independent decision-making panel (IDP) meetings at the implementing power stations and IDP member training. The purpose of this paper is to provide a presentation of a refined process for STRIDE development with a focus on instrumentation and control systems based on author experience, which includes support for the development of multiple STRIDE packages for the Catawba Nuclear Plant. This paper outlines a framework for practical implementation of an SFCP within the context of an integrated risk-informed performance-based regulation application program with emphasis on instrumentation and control systems. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗