Recovery Act Stories
Digging Up the Past
Few surprises have surfaced during the excavation of a 67-year-old waste disposal site at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“For the most part, what we’ve uncovered has been run-of-the-mill trash,” said Gordon Dover, executive director of the Recovery Act projects at the Lab. “We’ve dug up cardboard boxes, wood, pipes – the kinds of things you’d expect to find.”
Other items discovered include glass Coca-Cola bottles of the kind seldom seen anymore and a calendar from 1943. Local lore has it that a truck used at the Trinity test, the first test of an atomic weapon, is buried in MDA-B, but to date there’s been no sign of it.
The waste disposal site known as Material Disposal Area B, or MDA-B, is the Lab’s oldest waste dump. It was used from 1944-48 to dispose of waste from laboratories and processing facilities involved in plutonium processing. It was closed in 1948 after trash inside it spontaneously combusted for the third time and spewed pink smoke across the mesa.
MDA-B consists of narrow pits up to 30 feet deep and 12 feet wide that dogleg about a half mile on a narrow strip of 10 acres. Initially chosen as the site for waste disposal because of its distance from downtown Los Alamos, MDA-B is now bordered by a number of businesses.
“The proximity of local businesses and the purpose MDA-B was used for make excavating it an exercise in caution,” Dover said. “Safety is our first priority.”
Safety precautions include excavating inside large metal structures equipped with fire suppression systems, high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtering systems and real-time air monitoring. After a pipe with a high radioactivity level was uncovered, the team added Fidler sensors installed on excavators to detect radioactivity as soon as it is unearthed.
With about 60 percent of the excavation completed, more than 300 grams of plutonium have been unearthed with the debris at MDA-B, most of it dust in the soil. This exceeds the initial estimates of potential plutonium contamination in MDA-B by about 100 grams.
“Clothing and other contaminated items were buried in MDA-B in boxes and other containers that were not necessarily waterproof,” Dover said, “so over the past six decades some of the contamination leached into the soil.”
The team performed more than 80 core samples on MDA-B before excavation began to determine what might be buried in the pits, but a lack of records from 60 years ago and the nature of the work done in the 1940s made cautious excavation a necessity.
“We’ve worked closely with our partners at the Department of Energy to do this work safely yet efficiently,” Dover said.
Protective Clothing Dissolves, Saves Funds and Space
The Lab will save nearly $1 million and reduce the amount of material sent to a disposal facility by providing workers with protective clothing made from a revolutionary recyclable fabric.
Called OREX, the fabric is an organic polymer that is sent to a treatment facility in Oak Ridge, Tennesse, where it can be dissolved and returned safely to nature, saving both disposal costs and space in landfills. The cost of the treatment that dissolves the material is included in the initial price of the clothing.
The fabric is being used for worker protection clothing at a $94 million Recovery Act project at LANL. The project involves excavating the Lab’s oldest waste disposal site, Material Disposal Area B (MDA-B), used from 1944-48.
Because clothing, tools and equipment from the Manhattan Project and a plutonium processing facility are buried in MDA-B, about 40 of the 100 workers on the project wear clothing designed to protect them from potentially radioactive materials. Protective clothing includes coveralls, shoe covers, gloves and hoods, and because radiation is harmful if inhaled, workers also use supplied air for respiratory protection. The excavation is done inside sturdy metal enclosures to protect the public and the environment.
By using protective clothing made from OREX, LANL estimates it will save at least $840,000 in disposal costs and prevent about 200 cubic yards, or as many as 100,000 items of protective clothing, from being sent to a waste disposal facility.
“In addition to cleaning up a 1940s-era waste disposal site, we aren’t generating additional waste,” said Recovery Act Projects Executive Director Gordon Dover. “It’s all about environmental stewardship.”
"...he could brush his teeth with that thing"
Operator's skill removes structural steel from building debris
Gilbert Pacheco, Jr. is a heavy equipment operator with a light touch. Put him behind the controls and his skill and expertise are apparent even to an untrained eye.
Gilbert Pacheco had ideas on how to separate structural steel from brick, mortar and concrete—and the expertise to get the job done. By the time the administration building at TA-21 was demolished, 106 tons of metal was earmarked for recycling, an amount that exceeded the initial estimate by 16 tons.
"I think he could brush his teeth with that thing," says his supervisor about Pacheco's skill operating an excavator.
Currently working on an American Reinvestment and Recovery Act project that will demolish 24 building at Technical Area 21 (TA-21), Pacheco's skill and expertise resulted in the recovery of structural steel from one building that far exceeded initial estimates.
A phased approach
When demolition bega in December 2009 on the 25,000-square-foot former administration building at TA-21, the project team hoped to remove and recycle about 91 tons of metal from the building—from copper wire to sheet metal ductwork to rebar.
A phased approach to decontamination and decommissioning (D&D), which removes hazardous materials from buildings prior to demolition, significantly reduces the amount of hazardous waste in a building and maximizes the amount of recyclable metals.
"Recycling metal from a demolition project reduces the cost of the project and the amount of waste that goes to a landfill," said Al Chaloupka, D&D program director. "We put a lot of effort into getting metal separated from the debris and making sure it is not contaminated so it can be recycled."
Enter Pacheco, who had ideas on how to separate structural steel from brick, mortar and concrete—and the expertise to get the job done. By the end of demolition, 106 tons of metal were earmarked for recycling, an amount that exceeded the initial estimate by nearly 16 tons.
"The skill of the operators and their ability to separate structural steel from debris are tied to how much metal we're able to recycle," Chaloupka said. "It is definitely a factor."
Salvaging usable equipment
Though many of the buildings at TA-21 have been empty for decades, the team salvages usable equipment when possible, including a 1,000-horsepower generator plucked from the Tritium Systems Test Assembly facility.
That generator ended up at a small hospital in North Dakota, which did not have an adequate backup generator.
"Recycling metal and salvaging usable equipment is a win-win situation," Chaloupka said. "Overall, it avoids costs and allows us to fund additional clean-up, but it's also the right thing to do."
Trash Talk: Minimizing Waste During Demolition
Demolishing 24 buildings and excavating a six-acre waste disposal site generates a lot of waste. Disposing of the waste can be expensive and poses a number of logistical challenges.
To minimize costs and the waste that goes to disposal facilities, crews strip all fixtures, equipment and pipes from buildings prior to demolition. Some equipment is salvaged, such as a generator from the Tritium Systems Test Assembly facility, which became the back-up generator at a small rural hospital.
"Waste transportation and disposal accounts for nearly half of our $212 million budget," said Gordon Dover, deputy director for the Technical Area 21 (TA-21) Recovery Act project at Los Alamos National Laboratory. "We've addressed this challenge through competitive contracting and by segregating waste as much as possible before it leaves the site.
"To minimize costs and the waste that goes to disposal facilities, crews strip all fixtures, equipment and pipes from buildings prior to demolition. Clean metal is recycled, usable equipment and fixtures are sent to salvage, and what's left is essentially the shell of the building.
"The fee that disposal facilities charge is about $1,000 per cubic yard for low-level waste, but it's only $100 per cubic yard for industrial waste," Dover said. "By aggressively segregating waste prior to demolition, we minimize costs and the amount of material that goes to disposal facilities."
More of the waste generated by building demolition has been industrial waste than originally planned, a significant factor considering that many of the buildings contained asbestos and some were research and production facilities that used materials such as plutonium, tritium and americium.
Contaminated material is carefully sampled and disposed of appropriately. Waste is packaged and sent to facilities in Utah, Colorado and Texas by truck. With 19 of the 24 buildings at TA-21 already demolished, more than 300 tons of metal have been recycled and more than 6,500 cubic yards of waste have been trucked offsite.
With about 50,000 cubic yards of waste generated by building demolition and excavation of the waste dump, more trucks will roll as the waste transportation effort reaches its peak.
"Our waste transportation effort is ramping up," Dover said. "We expect the number of trucks to double and remain steady over the next few months as we dispose of the bulk of the waste."
A Partnership to Smooth the Way
County and Lab Collaborate on Safety, Waste Hauls
Working closely with Los Alamos County to coordinate emergency procedures and truck traffic is an important piece of the public outreach effort at Los Alamos National Laboratory's Technical Area 21 (TA-21) Recovery Act project.
Vincent Chiravalle, Los Alamos County councilor, talks with ARRA Projects Director Bruce Schappell.
"We stay in close contact with Los Alamos County and work with them on developments that affect the county or its residents," said Gordon Dover, deputy director of the TA-21 Recovery Act projects at the Lab. "It's a partnership that's worked well."
The $212 million TA-21 Recovery Act project includes decontamination and demolition of 24 Manhattan Project and Cold War-era buildings, installation of 16 groundwater monitoring wells, and excavation of the Lab's oldest waste disposal site, Material Disposal Area B (MDA-B), used from 1944-48.
Protecting the public is paramount, so TA-21 project staff and county emergency management personnel worked together to develop a system that could be used to alert the public in the event of an incident at MDA-B. The 60-year-old waste dump not only contains equipment and clothing contaminated with plutonium and canisters that once held shock-sensitive chemicals, but is located across the street from numerous businesses. Due to the proximity of the businesses to the excavation, ensuring they could take appropriate action in the event of an emergency was a top priority, one that the Lab and the county addressed together.
"Safety for workers, the environment and the community is our highest priority," Dover said, "so we were happy to collaborate with county experts on the best way to notify the community quickly in the unlikely event of an incident."
Los Alamos County Councilor Sharon Stover views an exhibit at the MDA-B open house in May.
Demolishing 24 buildings and excavating a waste dump generates a lot of waste, which means a lot of truck traffic on county roads. With one of the main streets in Los Alamos under construction, coordinating truck traffic and road construction was crucial to minimize impacts to traffic while still making progress on both projects.
In addition to Lab and county personnel, contractors, and managers from other Lab projects hauling waste, the Los Alamos Police Department also attended meetings and offered their expertise and assistance.
"We've rerouted our trucks a couple of times so they don't interfere with road construction," Dover said. "Of course, we avoid running trucks during peak traffic hours, but road construction on one of the city's major streets adds another wrinkle to our waste transportation efforts, and coordination with the county has been an important element in ensuring that things run smoothly."
From the county's point of view, a little coordination goes a long way.
The County's Public Information Officer, Julie Habiger, said that weekly team meetings on TA-21 and MDA-B clean-up have been very beneficial in keeping the County informed and involved at every step. The County also meets with LANL and DOE representatives monthly to exchange information about on-going remediation projects throughout the County. The meetings were initiated several years ago after the two entities agreed that better coordination and earlier interaction would smooth the way for projects to be more successful.
"We've developed a good working relationship with LANL on several important clean-up projects through the years," she said. "We were involved on the TA-21 and MDA-B project in the beginning stage – including the development of the work plan, traffic plans and public outreach. We were encouraged to offer our perspective as local government and give them our suggestions about working with our citizens. Plus, because we're educated and involved in the projects, it makes it easier for us to respond to citizen questions or concerns as they arise. There are clear lines of communication now; we can supplement their public outreach efforts."
County Administrator Anthony Mortillaro agreed that advance coordination on public information, truck traffic and emergency preparedness had proven beneficial to the County on both projects. He noted that he also has monthly coordination meetings with LANL and DOE officials. Part of that agenda involves discussions on TA-21 and MDA-B, along with a preview of upcoming remediation projects. Those conversations have been informative and useful on many levels, Mortillaro said.
"Continued federal funding for environmental remediation and restoration projects like TA-21 and MDA-B is critical to our economy, our future development plans for the DOE land transfer parcels, and overall quality of life. When we're engaged and involved early on, we can better understand the challenges the laboratory is facing. As a result, we're able to evaluate and support their projects and requests with our congressional delegation," he said.
Sending Them Home Safely
Behavior-Based Safety Program and Management Commitment Result in Near Perfect Safety Record at TA-21
Decontaminating and demolishing 24 old buildings. Excavating a 60-year-old waste dump used in the 1940s. Drilling 16 groundwater monitoring wells, some as deep as 1,400 feet. The Technical Area 21 (TA-21) Recovery Act projects at Los Alamos National Laboratory have the usual—and some unusual—hazards for workers, but behavior-based safety has helped make the job safer for everyone and resulted in a near-perfect safety record.
Behavior-based safety has helped make the TA-21 Recovery Act work safer for everyone.
"In line with Recovery Act objectives to create jobs, we hired a number of people who had not done this type of work before," said ARRA Executive Director Bruce Schappell. "We wanted to maximize our chances for a safe project, so we integrated behavior-based safety into the project from the beginning."
Workers attend a behavior-based safety training session that encourages them to look out for each other by performing safety observations. Observations give workers an opportunity to see whether others are performing work safely, make suggestions for improvements, or bring potentially hazardous situations to the attention of management. Observations document safe behavior as well as behavior that can be improved and give workers a voice in how to improve safety for everyone.
"I think some people were skeptical at first that having workers observe each other and document ways they could improve safety would have much of an impact," said Jerry Fordham, chair of the TA-21 Worker Safety and Security Team (WSST). "It wasn't long, however, before the number of people volunteering to serve on the WSST increased and the number of observations we received grew."
To encourage ownership and participation, the WSST offered incentives for completing safety observations, such as project-specific lanyards, pens and a prime parking space. At one point, Schappell hosted a barbecue specifically for workers who had completed observations.
"It's important to keep safety in the forefront of people's minds," Schappell said. "We want everyone to go home in the same shape they came to work in."
The strategy—and the behavior-based safety program—must be working, for in more than a year of Recovery Act work, the TA-21 projects have logged only one recordable incident—a broken leg sustained, ironically enough, by a safety professional.
"Our guys in the field look out for each other," Fordham said. "Everyone is empowered to call a pause in the work if they think it's not being done safely, and they know management will back them up. They've also made suggestions about how to improve safety and seen those changes implemented. It sends a message that we take safety seriously and that we're all in it together. It's really been a positive thing."
Wells Savings Finance Additional Well, Sampling Study
Part of the Recovery Act projects at Los Alamos National Laboratory was the installation of 16 groundwater monitoring wells. With the project nearing completion slightly more than a year later, almost 10 percent of the overall budget was saved through efficient purchasing and construction and will be used for additional projects.
Savings on the drilling and installation of 16 groundwater monitoring wells will be used to construct an additional well and conduct a sampling survey on three other wells.
Drilling groundwater monitoring wells to sample water in the regional aquifer in New Mexico is expensive—about $2 million per well. Most of the cost is due to the depth of each well, an average of 1,100 feet.
“The purpose of the wells is to monitor possible Lab-related contaminants in the groundwater supply,” said Ted Ball, program director. “We sample water from the wells and analyze it for a number of contaminants.”
Though each well is costly to drill and construct, Ball saved almost 10 percent of his Recovery Act project budget by buying steel in bulk and by scheduling construction to save mobilization and demobilization costs for drilling equipment. The resulting savings of about $3 million will be used to construct an additional well and to conduct a sampling survey on three wells that were installed several years ago.
“Installing groundwater monitoring wells is part of the Lab's Consent Order with the New Mexico Environment Department,” Ball said. “We're completing our obligations for the Consent Order.”
In addition to drilling an additional well, savings realized on the project will be used to survey the sampling systems of three wells installed several years ago in Technical Area 16. The purpose of the survey is to ensure that water samples taken from the wells are accurate representations of perched aquifers, layers of water above the water table, that are being sampled.
An additional 10 wells have been mandated by the New Mexico Environment Department and must be installed by 2015, Ball said. With the initial 16 wells funded by the Recovery Act completed and plans underway to drill an additional well and conduct a sampling survey, Recovery Act funding has been a big boon in meeting the state's Consent Order requirements.
“Recovery Act funding has sped up our compliance timeline and provided jobs,” Ball said. “It's provided both environmental and economic benefits.”
Ensuring Public Safety
Sixty years ago, the pioneers of the Atomic Age were focused on a mission. Time was short. There were no environmental controls. When they needed to dispose of contaminated clothing and equipment, they dumped it into a nearby landfill called Material Disposal Area B (MDA-B).
Now, 60-plus years later, funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is paying to clean up the six-acre site. But when few records exist and plutonium is involved, you’re darn careful about how you dig things up.
“We spent about a year researching MDA-B,” said Gordon Dover, deputy director of the Recovery Act projects at the Lab. “There aren’t a whole lot of records about it from the 1940s, but we reviewed everything there was. We also talked with people who worked at the facilities that used MDA-B during that time period.”
Prior to beginning excavation, the team performed 87 cores on the site to determine what it contained. The site was closed in 1948 when it spontaneously combusted—for the third time—and billows of pink smoke rose into the air.
“We determined that MDA-B contains about 200 grams of plutonium spread out as dust on old clothing and equipment over six acres,” Dover said. “That much plutonium grouped together is only about the size of a golf ball. Any plutonium at all, however, is reason enough to take every possible precaution.”
When MDA-B was used as a disposal site in the 1940s, its location on what is now DP Road was actually somewhat removed from downtown Los Alamos. Now, however, a number of businesses are located across the street. The proximity of those businesses makes cleaning up this old dump even more challenging.
“Safety is our first priority,” Dover said. “The alpha rays emitted by plutonium can be stopped by a piece of paper but are dangerous if inhaled, so preventing any type of contamination from reaching the air was our first consideration.”
To address that concern, the excavation of MDA-B is occurring within a number of large metal structures that resemble quonset huts. These metal enclosures are equipped with High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) air monitoring, which filters more than 99 percent of contaminants from the air. There also are two different air monitoring systems outside of the structures: one that provides real-time air monitoring and another, more sensitive system that is read every two weeks and measures any sort of variation in air quality.
In addition, the equipment that does the actual excavation is equipped with a sensitive filter that alerts workers if contamination is detected. All workers, of course, wear protective clothing and supplied air while working inside the structures.
The need for these safeguards became apparent in late August, when a piece of pipe was unearthed that contained a high level of radioactivity. To ensure worker and public safety, excavation was paused while officials reviewed safety procedures and disposed of the pipe appropriately.
“We dug up a piece of the past,” Dover said. “Items like this one is why we are doing this project in the first place.”
ARRA Act of 2009
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was signed into law by President Obama on February 17th, 2009.
It is an unprecedented effort to jumpstart the US economy, create or save millions of jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so our country can thrive in the 21st century.
The Recovery Act is an extraordinary response to a crisis unlike any since the Great Depression, and includes measures to modernize our nation's infrastructure, enhance energy independence, expand educational opportunities, preserve and improve affordable health care, provide tax relief, and protect those in greatest need.
Contacts
For More Information
For more information on the Recovery Act work at LANL, please email envoutreach@lanl.gov. In addition, the project office holds open office hours from 1-3 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday . The project office is located at 200 DP Road in Los Alamos. Please feel free to visit during open office hours.
- Environmental Communication & Public Involvement
P.O. Box 1663
MS M996
Los Alamos, NM 87545
Phone: 505-667-0216
FAX: 505-665-4747 - envoutreach@lanl.gov
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