Hanford’s 242-A Evaporator Restarts Operations
WC Monitor
9/26/2014
Hanford’s 242-A Evaporator has restarted operations in recent weeks and in its latest campaign has reduced tank waste volume by an estimated 365,000 gallons. The evaporator is used to concentrate waste in Hanford’s double-shell tank farms to help increase available space, and will be used in multiple campaigns. “The evaporator is up and running and doing exactly what it’s supposed to do and the next task is scheduled to start over the next couple of days where it is anticipated it is going to have a similar result in terms of waste volume reduction,” according to a Department of Energy spokesperson.
The restart came after a DOE completed a readiness assessment last month following an assessment by Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions. The DOE review identified four prestart findings, four poststart findings and eight opportunities for improvement. “The team-identified problems included: development and compliance with technical procedures, the contractor did not develop and execute process-related emergency preparedness drills, the startup plan did not include adequate equipment testing, a lack of adequate analysis for a potential corrosion mechanism in the safety-significant reboiler, and insufficient numbers of qualified staff for emergency preparedness,” according to an Aug. 15 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site representative report.
WRPS implemented the required actions before the facility restart. “DOE also performed a thorough readiness review prior to the startup of the evaporator and it focused on identifying the issues that needed to be addressed to start up. WRPS then had to take a disciplined approach in evaluating and correcting the issues for the safe and efficient operations of the evaporator,” the DOE spokesperson said.
DNFSB Wants More Info on How DOE Will Prevent Ammonia Accidents at WTP
WC Monitor
9/26/2014
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board called on the Department of Energy this week to provide more information on how it will address safety issues posed by the potential release of ammonia at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant. The WTP will use ammonia in the off-gas systems for the melters at the plant’s High-Level Waste Facility and Low-Activity Waste Facility to control emissions of oxides of nitrogen, and in the fall of 2011, the Board warned of “deficiencies” in the existing controls for the plant’s ammonia system that could put WTP workers at risk. In response to the Board’s concerns, DOE said it would prepare by Jan. 1, 2013, new hazards and accident analyses to address Pretreatment Facility main control room habitability, Balance of Facilities interaction with other WTP facilities and potential ammonia tanker truck accidents. However, in a Sept. 24 letter, DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur wrote, “To date, DOE has not completed these analyses.”
In its one-page letter, the Board asked DOE to provide within 60 days “an updated plan and schedule” for addressing the ammonia-related concerns, “including specific plans to address Balance of Facilities interactions with each of the WTP facilities.” The DOE Office of River Protection, which oversees the Hanford vit plant project, did not respond to a request for comment late this week.
Guilty Plea in Time Card Fraud Case
WC Monitor
9/26/2014
A Hanford tank farm supervisor accused of aiding timecard fraud has accepted a plea agreement that could result in eight months imprisonment. Daniel Niebuhr changed his plea in Eastern Washington District Federal Court on Sept. 19 to guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud related to Hanford timecards. In exchange, the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to drop three other counts and to recommend a sentence of eight months imprisonment, which is the low end of the sentencing range of eight-to-14 months as calculated by attorneys. Niebuhr also would have to pay a $34,146 fine and spend three years on probation. He will be allowed to argue for a lower sentence at his sentencing hearing, which will not be held before March. He was no longer listed as a Washington River Protection Solutions employee within a work day of changing his plea. He had been scheduled to go to trial Sept. 29 with four other tank farm workers who had supervised employees under former contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group.
Niebuhr worked as a field work supervisor, also called a person in charge or PIC, at Hanford from October 1999 to October 2008 when CH2M Hill held the tank farm contract. During that time he collected $137,744 in overtime pay. About 10.5 percent of his overtime claims were for supervising former Hanford workers who have pleaded guilty to timecard fraud, according to court documents. Fraud by those workers while supervised by Niebuhr totaled at least $19,697, according to court documents. Niebuhr’s job included finding employees to work overtime shifts under his supervision. Workers would not agree to overtime unless they were offered in full shifts of eight or nine hours, even though they often required substantially less time, according to court documents. Niebuhr did not approve timecards, but told workers when they could leave work and knew there was a high likelihood that workers were claiming pay for unworked hours, according to court documents.
Niebuhr’s attorney, Bryan Hershman, asked the court earlier this month to delay the trial, saying he was in the position of proving a negative — “that my client did not partake in the alleged practices.” “The government theory consists purely of the allegations of interested parties, lacking any corroborative documentary or physical evidence, and misguided inference from the ordinary practice of Hanford,” Hershman said in a court document. The prosecution had planned to call former workers who have pleaded guilty to timecard fraud to testify against Niebuhr at trial, according to documents. The former workers told investigators Niebuhr would make statements to indicate they could leave shifts early but claim overtime pay for the full shift, according to court documents.
