PIKETON, Ohio – A new training exercise aims to enhance worker safety at EM’s Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site as a decontamination and decommissioning project removes thousands of components from a 30-acre former uranium enrichment process building.

   At hand is a challenging task by EM contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth’s (FBP) Non-Destructive Assay (NDA) crew to measure the extensive piping and tubing systems in the X-326 building. The systems that meet conservative limits will remain until its demolition, but items that exceed the limits will be removed. To increase efficiency and expediency, the team brought on more than 77 new technicians and specialists working three shifts. 

   Combine an aggressive schedule, hazardous material, and new personnel, and the need for hazard controls becomes even more important. 

   To help achieve this, team members Connie Martin, Lorrie Graham, and Bill Potters created the “NDA Error Lab,” a training environment where employees identify mistakes in radiological work without being exposed to hazards.

   The Error Lab is a simulated radiological area typical of the X-326 building, complete with fake radiological materials. Employees observe the area and record discrepancies. An individual enters the area dressed in radiological protective gear and purposely makes procedural mistakes to see if the trainees identify them. The individual then removes the radiological protective gear. Students must identify at least 15 errors to pass the course, and the answers are shared to ensure employees understand the correct techniques.

   “The NDA Error Lab helps add to the current radiological worker training by presenting real-life implementation,” Martin explained. 

   “The Error Lab steps in where the radiological worker II training program leaves off,” Graham said. “The goal is to keep up with the changes in the work scope of the X-326 deactivation project.” 

   Effective, realistic training programs are part of the core hazard controls function of the Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS), said Dewintus Powell, a DOE Facility Representative at the Portsmouth Site. ISMS is a five-step method for performing work safely. It calls for defining the work, identifying and analyzing hazards, developing and implementing hazard controls, performing the work within those controls, and providing feedback for continued improvement.

   “The FBP team was wise to recognize that newly hired NDA employees could benefit from additional radiological training to ensure their safety in performing this work,” Powell said.

   "It’s great how Health Physics partnered with NDA to provide this training opportunity and work with them as they perform their work in the cells to help reinforce good radiological practices,” said FBP Facility Stabilization and Deactivation Director Ken Whittle. “We’ve seen a positive trend in performance as a result.”

   More than 100 employees have received Error Lab training. FBP workers at the Portsmouth Site on Jan. 25 reached 2 million hours without a work-related, lost-time injury or illness.