1. Washington River Protection Solutions Analytical Needs and Offsite Laboratory Work
Glen Clark
Principal Scientist, WRPS
2016 Annual ASP Workshop
Covington, KY
September 19-22, 2016
TOC-PRES VA

2. Hanford Site Map
The Hanford Site, which covers roughly 586 square miles in southeastern Washington state, was home for the facilities which produced the majority of the nuclear materials for the nation’s defense program. As a result, nearly 56 million gallons of highly radioactive and mixed waste generated during 40 years of production are stored in 177 underground storage tanks in the Central Plateau (purple) area of these are older single-shell tanks and 28 are the newer double-shell tanks. The Office of River Protection (DOE ORP) directs tank farms and Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) activities in the Central Plateau region whereas the Richland Office (DOE RL) administers clean up activity along the River Corridor (green).

3. Mount Mount Adams Rainier REDOX & 222-S Lab T-Plant U-Plant B-Plant
PUREX
A view toward the west of the majority of the Central Plateau with the Cascade Mountains in the distance. The Waste Treatment Plant is in the foreground and the 222-S laboratory complex is located next to the REDOX facility which is one of five canyons located on the Hanford Site.
The REDOX, U-Plant, T-Plant, B-Plant, and PUREX canyons are where the original objective was plutonium removal from the uranium fuel rods after the rods had been subjected to the nuclear chain reaction in the Hanford reactors.  Officially, each of these five facilities was called a “plutonium processing facility” or a “chemical separations plant” because chemicals were required to separate the plutonium from the rest of the irradiated fuel rod. A great deal of the waste in the underground storage tanks came from the separations performed in these facilities.
All of these chemical separations plants look similar to one another.  They are hundreds of feet in length, with most of them standing about 80 feet high and 70 feet wide.  If you were to go inside the main work area of one of these facilities, it’s kind of like going into a long warehouse.  There’s lots of open space with high walls.  It’s similar to being on the floor of a canyon, where you could look up and see the mountains on either side of you.  Because of the similarity to how a canyon looks, the workers who built these chemical separations plants started to call them processing “canyons”.  They remain highly contaminated after years of removing plutonium from irradiated fuel rods.  Ultimately, all five will be decontaminated and demolished.
Waste Treatment Plant

4. Hanford Radioactive Waste Tanks
Most radioactive waste tanks range between half a million to more than one million gallons of capacity.

5. Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP)
Command Facility
Analytical Laboratory
Pretreatment Plant
Low Activity Waste Vitrification Facility
High Level Waste Vitrification Facility
This is a February, 2013 photo of the five primary facilities which comprise the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. Waste enters the Pretreatment Plant , is divided into High Level and Low Activity waste streams that are sent to their respective vitrification facilities. The waste is then mixed with glass forming frit, heated in a glass melter and poured into stainless steel containers to form three ton glass logs. Overall the project is about 65% complete. (see comment)

6. DOE ORP Mission Statement
The Office of River Protection’s mission is to safeguard the nuclear waste stored in Hanford’s 177 underground tanks, and to manage the waste safely and responsibly until it can be treated in the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant for final disposition.

7. DOE ORP Prime Contractors
Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI)
Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS)
Wastren Advantage, Inc. (WAI)
Bechtel National, Inc. is responsible for the construction and commissioning of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. WAI Laboratory provides analytical services at the 222-S Laboratory for routine tank farms operations. Washington River Protection Solutions manages all tank farms operations.

8. Start process analyses at the Analytical Laboratory
ORP Goal for WTP by 2022
Begin operations of the Low Activity Waste (LAW) vitrification facility as soon as 2022
Start process analyses at the Analytical Laboratory
Begin operations of the support facilities
LAW vitrification operations expected to produce tens of thousands of low to no radioactive water samples annually to be analyzed by offsite subcontract laboratories
The low to no radioactive water samples will be collected as a result of the WTPs off-gassing system.

9. 222-S Analytical Laboratory Complex
11A Hot Cell Annex
Here is an aerial view of the 222-S Analytical Complex in the Hanford Site 200 West Area. At the left is the 11A Hot Cell Annex where tank samples are received for analysis. Tank, environmental, and industrial hygiene samples are analyzed in the 222-S Laboratory. The REDOX canyon building has been deactivated.
REDOX Canyon

10. 222-S Analytical Laboratory
The entrance to the laboratory is pictured here.

11. 222-S Laboratory Analyses
Waste tank retrieval
-Radiochemistry, organics, inorganics, wet chemistry
Tank waste phase characterization, process chemistry, and solubility studies
Tank and pipe corrosion studies
Separation, stabilization and/or treatment of selected waste streams
Forensics solids analysis
Vadose zone characterization
Miscellaneous environmental and waste characterization
Industrial Hygiene (IH) and environmental vapor analyses
Washington River Protection Solutions’ analytical needs as the tank operations contractor cover a wide spectrum of services not offered by any one laboratory.

12. 222-S Laboratory Contractors
WRPS - Analytical method development - Process tests - Special project analyses/investigations - Organic vapor analyses - Facility operations and maintenance

13. 222-S Laboratory Contractors (Cont’d)
WAI - Provides routine inorganic, organic, and radioanalytical analyses

14. 222-S Analytical Accreditations
WRPS
American Industrial Hygiene Association Laboratory Accreditation Program
WAI
Washington State Department of Ecology
Washington River Protection Solutions is AIHA accredited. IH analyses are for Volatiles, Furans, Semi-volatiles, and Aldehydes.
Wastren Hanford Laboratory is Washington State Department of Ecology (WSDOE) and AIHA accredited and participates in the MAPEP program. IH analyses are for Beryllium, Ammonia, and Mercury.

15. Tank Farms Organic Vapor Chemicals of Potential Concern (COPC)
Comprise a different target compound list than that of EPA TO-15/17
Some of the compounds are formed due to nitration and radiolytic degradation of organics
Standards are not available for many COPCs so their concentrations can only be estimated as tentatively identified compounds (TICs) by GC/MS methods of analysis

16. Types of Vapor Samples
Routine IH personal and area
Environmental tank stack emissions
IH tank headspace characterization
Pilot studies for area and personal canister sampling in the tank farms
PPE regulator cartridge testing

17. Thermal Desorption Unit (TDU) Tubes
Used to capture VOCs and semi VOCs
Lightweight for personal monitoring
May sample large volumes of air
Must not exceed breakthrough volume
Analyzed by GC/MS per modified EPA TO-17

18. Evacuated Canisters
Used to sample whole air
May allow for repeat analysis
Can capture some analytes that TDU tubes cannot (e.g. perm gases, C2 hydrocarbons)
Can take an instantaneous grab sample
Analyzed by GC/MS per modified EPA TO-15

19. GC/MS Canister Autosampler
Room 4S

20. Tank Headspace Samples
Analytes collected on TDU tubes, sorbent tubes, and in canisters
Sample head is lowered down into tank headspace at varying depths
TDU tubes, canisters, Hg and NH3 sorbent tubes are analyzed at 222-S Laboratory
Some sorbent tubes are analyzed at offsite laboratories for various analytes depending on the radioactivity level
TDU tubes used to collect VOCs, SVOCs, and furans.
Canisters used to collect VOCs.
Offsite analyses include nitrosamines, amines, acetonitrile, 1,3-butadiene, aldehydes, and pyridine.

21. Sample Head

22. Assembling Sample Head

23. Off-Site Commercial Laboratories
Nine laboratories total: 6 IH and 3 environmental laboratories for analyses not performed at 222-S Laboratory
Eight of these laboratories are audited by the DOE’s Consolidated Audit Program (DOECAP)
Washington River Protection Solutions utilizes eight DOECAP audited laboratories for industrial hygiene or environmental sample analyses, and one non-DOECAP audited laboratory for specialty industrial hygiene vapor analysis.

24. Types of Samples Analyzed by Offsite Laboratories
Miscellaneous IH vapor and bulk samples that are not cost effective to analyze at 222S Laboratory
Asbestos fiber counting and characterization
Low and non-radioactive regulatory environmental liquid and vapors
Miscellaneous RCRA liquid and solid waste
Overflow samples from 222-S Laboratory
These are the types of samples currently being submitted to our offsite subcontract laboratories.

26. Reasons for FY15 and FY16 Sample Load Increases
Increasing concerns over vapor exposures in the tank farms
Start-up operations at the evaporator in the tank farms to reduce the volume of highly radioactive tank waste
Transfer of Effluent Treatment Facility to WRPS for operation. Analysis of waste water samples are required to determine acceptability for discharge to a state approved land disposal site.

27. Qualified DOECAP Laboratory Auditors
WRPS maintains three DOECAP laboratory auditors, two of whom are lead auditors
ORP maintains one DOECAP laboratory auditor
Washington River Protection Solutions provides three DOECAP laboratory auditors and the DOE Office of River Protection provides one laboratory auditor.

28. DOECAP Laboratory Points of Contact
Jeff Cheadle, DOE ORP
Glen Clark, WRPS
Here are the DOE Office of River Protection DOECAP Laboratory Points of Contact.

29. Non-Radiological TSDF Audits
WRPS utilizes one off-site, non-radiological TSDF vendor for tank farms, 222-S laboratory and contracted WTP hazardous wastes
WRPS has conducted its own audit of this vendor
The vendor sends waste to several different facilities
Some of these facilities are audited by DOECAP
Washington River Protection Solutions utilizes one off-site, non-radiological TSDF vendor for tank farm, 222-S laboratory and contracted Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant hazardous wastes. WRPS has conducted its own audit of this vendor. The vendor sends waste to several different facilities, some of which are audited by DOECAP.

30. All four facilities are audited by DOECAP
Radiological TSDF
WRPS utilizes one off-site radiological TSDF vendor with four different facilities
All four facilities are audited by DOECAP
WRPS participates annually in the DOECAP audit of the local facility in Washington state
Washington River Protection Solutions utilizes one off-site radiological TSDF vendor with four different facilities. All of these facilities are audited by DOECAP. WRPS participates in the DOECAP audit of the local facility in Washington state.

31. Qualified DOECAP TSDF Auditors
WRPS maintains three DOECAP TSDF auditors
Washington River Protection Solutions provides three DOECAP TSDF auditors.

32. DOECAP TSDF Point of Contact
Jeff Cheadle, DOE ORP
Here is the DOE Office of River Protection DOECAP TSDF Point of Contact.