Phil Breidenbach, former president and project manager for the contractor that manages the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, has been named chief engineer for the current liquid waste manager at DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Breidenbach is a vice president at AECOM, lead partner at Savannah River Remediation, along with Bechtel National, CH2M, and BWX Technologies. He most recently was on special assignment for AECOM in Idaho Falls, Idaho, according to his LinkedIn profile.He has also served in management roles at the Idaho Cleanup Project.
Savannah River Remediation announced Breidenbach’s appointment as chief engineer in a Tuesday news release. He replaces Kent Fortenberry, who has taken over as director of nuclear services and engineering at URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the Energy Department’s prime cleanup contractor for the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.
AECOM acquired URS in 2014. Along with its roles at Oak Ridge and Savannah River, it partners with BWXT on WIPP prime Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP).
Breidenbach headed NWP from April 2015 to June 2017. During that period WIPP was recovering from a February 2014 radiation release, which kept the transuranic waste disposal site out of service for nearly three years.
Breidenbach has logged more than 30 years in project management and operations at locations within DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, SRR said. He last worked at the Savannah River Site in 2007.
Savannah River Remediation is currently scheduled to be on the job through May 31, under a five-month contract extension, while DOE resolves a protest against the new 10-year, $4.7 billion liquid waste management award in October to a BWXT-Bechtel-Honeywell team. However, the department last month said it intended to give SRR a second contract extension through March 2019.
Registration will open at 9 a.m. April 10 for the 20 tours planned this year by the Department of Energy to let the public see cleanup at the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington state.
The limited public bus tours are popular and all seats sometimes fill within a day, if not hours. Registration is available on a first-come, first-served basis at www.hanford.gov.
Tour participants must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years old. The tours, which last four to five hours, will start at 8 a.m. on selected weekdays from May 8 to Aug. 22. Tour buses leave from the Mission Support Alliance office building at 2490 Garlick Blvd. in Richland.
This year’s tours will offer in-depth information on at least seven projects:
- The Cold Test Facility, an above-ground mock-up of a Hanford radioactive waste storage tank used for demonstrating and testing tank waste retrieval technology.
- The Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, a lined landfill that already holds close to 18 million tons of low-level radioactive, hazardous, and mixed waste.
- The 324 Building, where work is underway to remove a highly radioactive spill beneath the structure.
- The 618-10 Burial Ground, where radioactive waste from fuel fabrication and research laboratories was buried.
- The 200 West Pump and Treat facility, a groundwater treatment system that removes chemical, radioactive, and organic contaminants from water.
- The Waste Treatment Plant, which will be the world’s largest facility for vitrifying radioactive waste.
- The Sludge Removal Project, where workers in May are expected to begin removing highly radioactive waste from underwater storage at the K West Basin this spring for transfer to dry storage.
The Department of Energy on Monday opened a new resource center near the Hanford Site in Washington state to help guide facility workers, former personnel, and their families to the best care and compensation programs for their needs.
The center was championed by Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell (both D-Wash.), who have been concerned about how workers’ compensation claims by ill workers were being addressed.
The new Hanford Workforce Engagement Center is being operated as a partnership between DOE, Hanford Site contractors, and two union groups – the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council and the Central Washington Building and Construction Trades Council. It is staffed with union and nonunion workers trained on the multiple occupational health programs available.
Staff will be able to walk workers or their survivors through the differing benefits of the Washington state and federal compensation programs for ill workers. They also can provide help on understanding the third-party administration DOE uses for its state workers’ compensation claims. Workers can get information on specific programs offered by past and current contractors. The center will also provide information on the Hanford beryllium health program and medical screening programs for former workers.
“I’m pleased that DOE has coordinated with Hanford contractors and the unions to open the Hanford Workforce Engagement Center, a first-of-its-kind facility, which will help Hanford workers and their beneficiaries understand options for compensation and care,” said Doug Shoop, manager of the DOE Richland Operations Office.
The new center is open 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays at 309 Bradley Blvd., Suite 120, Richland. Call 509-376-4932 for an appointment.
