Y-12 Blog
Y-12 employees participate in hands on training at the new salvage yard as part of Sustainability and Stewardship’s expanded program.
Training courses completed on the computer are often necessary, but nothing is better than getting employees into the field for actual hands on learning sessions. The Sustainability and Stewardship program had this in mind when they expanded their training and created an area in the new salvage yard to be used as a mock training space to supplement current classroom and online training courses.
“This training allows the program to be successful,” explained Donna Cozart, generator services supervisor for Sustainability and Stewardship. “The hands on approach is beneficial due to being interactive and engaging, and potential issues can be worked through at the time. It promotes confidence in the ability to perform the job successfully.”
The Sustainability and Stewardship organization establishes and maintains company wide programs and services to support environmental sustainability operations. The organization supports compliance in the plant by managing universal waste and improves the environment by reducing and diverting waste that is still generated to a recycle or reuse outlet where possible. The program also implements stewardship practices, which are the programs that take care of legacy issues and assist in preventing the formation of additional problematic areas.
In an effort to improve compliance, safety knowledge, and processes for sustainable material disposition, the salvage yard training space was born. The space is located in the original salvage yard, which is used to process materials and store low level waste. When the Sustainability and Stewardship organization realized they needed a space for trainees to get their hands dirty, they worked for months to plan, schedule, develop the training modules, and execute the new mock training within the current yard.
“Developing these modules will ultimately assist our personnel in improving their knowledge, which will in turn assist the plant in improving environmental compliance,” explained Jan Jackson, Sustainability and Stewardship manager.
The Sustainability and Stewardship program handles more than one million pounds of material, on average, each month in a variety of ways. So adding additional training preparation and execution was not taken lightly.
“The hands on training is a big time commitment,” said Jackson. “But the experience employees gain by handling material is well worth it. It also helps to strengthen our team, and supports our continuous improvement efforts and sustainability/resiliency goals.”
Y-12 employees participate in hands on training at the new salvage yard.
Pantexan Maria Holt was the first intern-to-employee in the SkillBridge intern program, a partnership of the Department of Defense and CNS. After 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, Holt now works at Pantex in Environmental Compliance.
More than two years ago, Pantex and Y-12 began a partnership with the Department of Defense SkillBridge internship program to help service members transition to civilian employment by spending their final six months of active duty as interns. SkillBridge interns complete a specialized training program that fits their background and career goals, as well as the partnering organization’s goals.
Since March 2020, Pantex and Y-12 have hosted 31 SkillBridge interns, and 25 of them have transitioned to full-time employment. Another 11 are currently completing internships, with nine more scheduled to begin interning soon.
Emily Graber, director of Engagement, Inclusion, and Performance, is the program manager for CNS's SkillBridge. She said partnering with DOD on the program builds the sites’ capabilities. CNS can tap into a talent pool of transitioning service members to recruit not just interns but employees who understand the foundation of CNS imperatives and values.
“The program is a wonderful opportunity for service members to easily transition into a new norm of life after their commitment to our nation during their time with DOD,” Graber said. “It is an honor to see the success of our partnership with DOD and each and every SkillBridge intern as they continue their service to our nation in a slightly different capacity.”
Maria Holt at Pantex was the first SkillBridge intern to transition to full-time employment through the CNS program. She retired from the U.S. Air Force in August 2020 after 20 years of service in bioenvironmental engineering. By then, she had already completed her internship and was hired by Pantex Environmental Compliance as an environmental science specialist.
The goal of SkillBridge is to ensure that service members have employment set up well in advance of their military departure. Holt said her transition process began two years before she left the military. She selected Pantex for its proximity to her hometown of Dumas, Texas, where her husband is a police officer, as well as for its patriotic mission.
“It’s been a good transition,” Holt said. “DOD and DOE are similar in how they manage, so I still apply the ideals of teamwork and completed staff work. I just don’t have to wear a uniform anymore.”
After spending 29 years in the U.S. Army, Jay Aspray is now the recruiter for all SkillBridge interns at Pantex and Y-12. Aspray said he was able to quickly align his vast military experience to the Y-12 mission.
“The benefits of the program are significant in that it allowed me to be fully operational by the time my internship was complete, so I could immediately begin providing Y-12 with meaningful and impactful work once I was hired full time,” he said.
John Toliver III spent 14 years in the U.S. Army before deciding to take another path, becoming one of the first three SkillBridge interns. He is now the program manager for U.S. Special Operations and Interagency Partnerships. He said learning the language and culture of Y-12 reminds him of learning to speak Arabic to better understand the culture of his partner forces.
“Learning the language and culture of the NSE, CNS, and Y-12 is priceless as I join this dynamic team,” Toliver said. “The internship helped me determine that CNS was a right fit for me and my family and that I was a right fit for CNS.”
The Y-12 Fire Department sent a tanker to help contain the recent wildfires in Sevier County. The tanker supplied water to other fire departments who participated in the firefighting effort.
The effort to extinguish blazes that charred thousands of acres in East Tennessee this spring received help from a regional squad of firefighters, including members of the Y-12 Fire Department.
“It was a challenging task,” said Y-12 Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Mari-Kaye Monday, “We supported the efforts with a team of two firefighters working 24/7 from Wednesday morning through Sunday evening.”
The Y-12 Fire Department was among hundreds of agencies that responded to Sevier County and helped contain the fires which consumed parts of Hatcher Mountain in Wears Valley and Dupont/Millstone Gap in Seymour.
The agencies came together thanks to Tennessee’s mutual-aid deployment plan, which provides resources when fires exceed the abilities of any single fire department. The plan is useful in large fires and when natural or manmade disasters overwhelm a local community’s capabilities.
The need was great when wind-driven flames quickly reached heights of 30 feet or more as they tore across the mountains.
“Our assignment was to provide water supply, using our tanker, to other fire departments who were fighting the fires with brush trucks and protecting structures,” Monday said. “We could supply multiple trucks with our 3,500-gallon capacity.”
This wasn’t the first time the Y-12 Fire Department has played a role in wildfire containment. The department also pitched in during the 2016 Gatlinburg wildfires, which burned 17,900 acres, destroyed 2,460 buildings, and took the lives of 14 people.
Mutual aid doesn’t just apply to major wildfires, however. For example, the Y-12 and Oak Ridge fire departments have a longstanding mutual-aid relationship.
“There are times when the city gets inundated with calls,” said Oak Ridge Fire Department Chief Travis Solomon. “When our guys are tied up on something major, Y-12 supplements our resources or assists us on the scene. Within the last year, we’ve called on them three or four times.”
Earlier this year, when the Oak Ridge Fire Department was on one call involving a structure fire, a crew from Y-12 responded to a kitchen fire at British Woods Apartments. The crew helped evacuate the occupant and extinguished the fire. There was no major property damage.
In another mutual-aid call, Y-12 Fire Department responded to the scene of a motor-vehicle accident on Edgemoor Road when the Oak Ridge Fire Department was handling a wildland fire on the east side of the city.
“I really appreciate Y-12 Fire being able to assist the city,” Solomon said. “And if they need our help, we are just a phone call away.”
The mutual-aid responses offer Y-12 firefighters a change of pace and opportunities to employ skills they ordinarily wouldn’t have to use on site.
“We have 97 people in the department,” Monday said. “There is a broad experience and knowledge base. To maintain our EMT and Paramedic licenses, we train on pediatric emergencies and domestic violence responses. Although we probably won’t see that on the Y-12 site, we never know what may be needed during an off-site response. Even though we are fully capable, we probably won’t be delivering many babies at Y-12.”
What is more likely are “responses that are more specific to Y-12 hazards,” Monday said. “They’re not typically the same hazards municipalities may face.”
Although Y-12’s mutual-aid ties with the Oak Ridge Fire Department are strong, they also extend to other neighboring fire departments, including at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Monday said ORNL occasionally requests medical support, where an ambulance with a Paramedic and EMT is provided. In most mutual-aid situations, Y-12 provides engine company support, which includes a fire engine with a captain and up to three crew members.
Whether it’s a call at Y-12 or a mutual-aid situation, “We love what we do,” Monday said. “We love the challenge of not knowing what the next response will be and the responsibility to be prepared for anything.”
Pantex Development Engineer Paul Aguirre of the Tracking and Sensor Networks Integrated Project Team with some of the project equipment.
Engineers at Pantex are testing a new wireless tracking system that will eventually manage the location of key components such as containers, tools, and equipment across the sites. It’s a big advancement since devices that communicate wirelessly are prohibited in many locations at Pantex and Y-12.
The key to this technology is that it doesn’t use typical Wi Fi or Bluetooth frequencies, but rather operates on a separate, lower-frequency bandwidth.
Pantex Senior Director for Infrastructure Joe Boudreaux said Pantex and Y-12 are developing the system to replicate, in a security conscious manner, technology available outside the sites.
“We are seeing trackers used more and more in our personal lives to locate pets, phones, and even cars. The wireless property tracking project is designed to develop a solution to track components meeting all of our requirements for use at both Pantex and Y 12,” Boudreaux said.
The system would work by installing special antennas to tracked items. The antennas would communicate with a property tracking system. The system would provide real time locations for tracked items as well as data-reporting functions.
“We are leveraging and adapting technology used at other Department of Defense and Department of Energy sites,” said Development Engineer Paul Aguirre.
The problem with the existing systems is that locations must be manually updated, Aguirre said. The new system would prevent time wasted to track missing items and money spent replacing lost items.
“I have people in my group who have more than 70 items they have to keep track of. It’s easy to lose track or misplace items throughout the year. Hopefully, we’re going to eliminate that problem,” he said.
If all goes according to plan, testing of the new system will begin later this year followed by implementation, first at Y-12, in FY 2023.
Ronald Bolden Jr. (left) and Luke Birt, pause for a photo with Building 9767-13’s installation
Technology is integrated throughout the modern business world and at the heart of Consolidated Nuclear Security’s digital transformation. It is often the common source credited to improving the quality of processes and systems in our lives. Whether it’s the ability to rapidly gather information from a search engine or track physical performance with a smart watch, many of us can identify how technology simply makes our lives easier and more informed.
With remote tracking and wireless data collection capabilities now also playing a critical role for our people, processes, and systems at Pantex and Y 12, our digital transformation is advancing the modernization of site operations.
“Our team dreamt of digital transformation to support the CNS Strategic Plan,” said Travis Childress, condition based maintenance (CBM) lead engineer. “Specifically, we sought to improve the reliability and availability of aging infrastructure through remote and real-time CBM monitoring.”
By definition, CBM is a monitoring strategy that observes the present condition of an asset or machine to determine what maintenance should be done based on signs of decreased performance or indication of failure.
While the CBM process isn’t new to CNS, the ability to continuously and remotely track a machine in the field using the CBM strategy is transformational.
“Previously, data collection activities required an analyst or craftsperson to physically collect the data in the field. The analyst reviews the data for early detection of failure modes and communicates concerns before equipment reliability is impacted,” said Childress.
Recently, the CBM team began real time machine health monitoring at Y-12, known as the Enterprise Operational Monitoring System. Now, more than 10,000 measurement points can be collected in three second measurement intervals, for analysis using the EOMS dashboard. The result is a robust graphical indication of machine health used to immediately identify the root causes of machine failure and prevent unplanned maintenance. Over time, data trending and patterns can be analyzed to better predict machine maintenance needs and further limit machine downtime.
“The EOMS project is a huge accomplishment for the Digital Transformation program,” said Jerry Stanley, lead for Digital Transformation. “By laying out real time monitoring solutions for CBM, we’re not only modernizing the state of our tracking and sensor operations, but supporting our mission long term with technology that’s industry standard.”