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SRS Employees Shift to New Project, Saving $900,000

More than $900,000 in savings are expected to result from enlisting employees at a Savannah River Site facility to help ship analytical samples.

Office of Environmental Management

December 10, 2019
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HB Line operators Tony Jacobs, left, and Tom Carraway load a sample drum for shipment to Savannah River National Laboratory.
HB Line operators Tony Jacobs, left, and Tom Carraway load a sample drum for shipment to Savannah River National Laboratory.

AIKEN, S.C. – More than $900,000 in savings are expected to result from enlisting employees at a Savannah River Site (SRS) facility to help ship analytical samples between Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) locations.

“SRS is constantly looking for ways to improve processes and to ensure we are being good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” DOE-Savannah River Nuclear Materials Manager Maxcine Maxted said. “This reallocation of resources from HB Line to SRNL is an example of how we accomplish that.”

Shipping and receiving personnel with EM contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) had supported plutonium oxide production at HB Line, a chemical processing facility. The material was produced to make fuel for commercial power reactors, or shipped for disposal.

HB Line personnel required unique certifications and equipment to support shipping and receiving of special nuclear materials. That mission ended last year and the facility is being placed in safe shutdown status. When the need to support SRNL shipments became apparent, HB Line operations personnel were made available for that work, and have completed 13 safe shipments for the laboratory since November 2018.

“Our folks were interested in helping out, and it made sense based on the infrequency of our HB-Line specific shipments in support of safe shutdown,” SRNS HB Line First Line Manager Brooks Hubbard said. “It afforded us additional opportunities to remain proficient in shipping and receiving operations. Working with SRNL, we developed a plan to have our employees support the nuclear material shipments.”

The need for personnel for the SRNL shipments resulted from a multi-year project to relocate analytical, environmental monitoring, and other services from SRNL laboratory facilities to SRNL’s central location a few miles away. The move is expected to reduce costs due to those laboratory facilities being placed in surveillance and maintenance mode.

“Part of the modification project requires F/H Laboratories to ship nuclear materials from their location to SRNL’s main location,” Hubbard said. “Since that capability did not already exist, SRNL would have had to hire and train personnel and purchase a transport vehicle, which would have cost significant amounts of money and delayed SRNL operations. However, when HB Line personnel learned of the transportation needs, they stepped up to offer their help.”

Woodie Melton, director of SRNL Analytical Laboratories, commended the HB Line staff for helping SRNL.

“I want to thank the HB Line staff for their responsiveness in meeting SRNL’s critical need to get these materials transported," Melton said. "Your lining up of resources and changing facility priorities is really appreciated."

Tags:
  • Environmental and Legacy Management
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Energy Savings Performance Contracts
  • Federal Facility Optimization and Management
  • Decarbonization