H Canyon Crane Operator Steven Thomas has just under 40 years of experience at SRS.

AIKEN, S.C. Savannah River Site (SRS) H Canyon operations have changed substantially since the facility’s construction in 1950, but the training, dedication, and skill of its crane operators have not. 

   With an interior resembling a canyon, the chemical separations facility has a “hot” side with higher radiation levels than its “warm” side. Highly skilled operators perform work remotely using overhead bridge cranes.

   Originally, warm side work was done by sight by crane operators in a shielded cab suspended over the canyon, while the hot side operations were conducted by crane operators looking through a periscope in a lead-lined cab. In the early 1990s, operations moved into a control room where the operators now use video cameras suspended from the crane bridge.

   “It takes a lot of skill and practice to become a crane operator,” said H Canyon Senior Operations Support Specialist Russell Jordan, who began as an SRS crane operator trainee in 1984. “Working in the hot canyon, before the crane control room came along, was really hard because you had to keep both eyes open to see through the periscope. Now, it’s all done through video cameras and computer. That sounds easier, but it’s really not; it’s just a different set of skills.”

   It can take up to four years for new operators to complete training that begins in the classroom and ends with hands-on practice. Jordan says operators become proficient in six years. 

   “You have to have a knack for it, too,” he said. “You have to have a lot of patience and to love it, and most of all, respect what you are doing. We are working with some truly hazardous materials, and it’s important not to lose sight of that.”

   Jordan had wanted to be a crane operator since he was a child.

   “When my parents took me to the fair, my favorite game was one operating a crane. I’m lucky to be doing what I love,” he said.

   Crane operator Bruce Cain joked that people ask if him if running a crane is like playing video games.

   “Everyone asks us that, but no. This is much, much different than video games,” he said.

   H Canyon has undertaken a variety of processing missions over the years, a versatility made easier by the fact that canyon equipment can be remotely removed. Mockups of the identical-looking canyon cells allow testing of new or replacement mission equipment to ensure proper fit before installing in the highly contaminated and radioactive canyon environment. Specialty crane tools have been developed over the years, such as stainless steel brushes attached to impact wrenches to clean sealing surfaces. The crane operators often design and initiate the fabrication of the specialty tools to assist in their work.  

   H Canyon is the only operating, production-scale, radiologically shielded chemical separations facility in the U.S. Originally constructed to produce nuclear materials to support the nation’s defense weapons programs, the facility’s mission changed after the Cold War into one of helping to disposition and stabilize nuclear materials and spent nuclear fuel from legacy cleanup, and foreign and domestic research reactors.