# Presentation: 228756

## Summary of Lessons Learned

**James H. Chrzanowski**
**D&D Lessons Learned Workshop**
**June 25-26, 2002**
**PPPL**

## Lessons Learned

**Engineering and Planning Activities**
- Engineering
- Work Control Center
- Cost and schedule
**Safety and Health Physics**
**Electrical Safety**
**Field Activities**
**Tritium  Retention/line breaks and decontamination**
**Waste Management**

## Engineering and Planning

- Early design and planning are essential for a successful project

-  Accountability using Engineering Work Packages (EWP’s) has minimized problems in the field

-  Communication between groups is essential

-  Effective use of meetings can be beneficial

-  The Work Control Center concept worked very efficiently and will be used for future PPPL projects

## SAFETY should be included in all planning activities and is the KEYSTONE to a successful project
Use Integrated Safety Management
Line management responsibility for safety

- Use Integrated Safety Management
- Line management responsibility for safety

- Engineering and Planning

- Full scale mockups were important in developing procedures, techniques, identifying safety concerns, and provided a training tool for the construction team

## Cost and Schedule

- Define critical paths upfront and keep in focus
- Establish cost contingency methodology and reserve
- Establish schedule contingency (Time)
- Resource loaded schedules

-  Work Authorization Process
-  Advanced procurement planning(hardware/materials)
-  Earned Value Concept
-  Monthly Status Meetings

## Safety

- Establish your safety program prior to beginning activities- adequate staffing required
**Construction Safety, Industrial Hygiene, Health Physics**

-  Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) program for planning work activities.
**This allows those that are familiar with the job, and the associated hazards, to evaluate the work to be performed and suggest controls.**

-  Develop and implement training and qualification programs (PPE’s, ladder safety, electrical safety, equipment usage, etc.)

## Safety

- Use** ****Safety Meetings****- **effective tool to maintaining safe working environment

-  Establish a** ****Confined Space**** **program
**Training**
**Documentation control**

** ****Be prepared for the unexpected.  **In our case it was lead oxide
**Strippable paint provided the most effective means of removing lead oxide surface dust**
**Reuse lead shielding by coating lead with Polyurethane paint-      ****$$$ savings**

## Safety

**Hazard Control**
- Use engineering and administrative controls FIRST
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE’s) only as a last resort (secondary control method ) when it is not feasible to make the work area free of all hazards.

-  Pre-plan the job to ensure that the necessary PPE’s to complete a job are readily available to workers

## Health Physics

- Careful job planning and proper contamination control by Health Physics reduces the number of contamination areas and spread of  contamination

-  Clean materials and equipment entering contamination areas should be controlled
**Auxiliary Tool Crib in TC for contaminated tools, etc.**

-  Seek alternatives to materials which can not be surveyed for tritium
**Foam filling materials**

## Electrical Safety

- Test immediately prior to cutting cables/conduits, however, treat all cable cuts as live
- Utilize Lockout/Tagout policy

-  Safety and productivity are enhanced by employing the same individuals to perform electrical removals for the duration of the job.
-  When possible, using a consistent procedure format helps enable electricians to better become the “last line of defense”

## Electrical Safety

- Non-contact voltage sniffers **do not** detect DC current
- Planning and procedure preparation require at least twice as much labor as the field electrician effort

-  Pre-identify and protect wiring/devices that must remain
** ****DO NOT** perform cuts on energized cables

## Oversight Supervision is required at all times

Develop a team work and a safe working environment

- Develop a team work and a safe working environment

- Field Activities

- Daily and weekly meetings with field team
- Use individual experience and talents wherever possible

## Field Activities

- 100% use of procedures worked well, new ideas can be incorporated into procedures through revisions
- Use of Job Hazard Analysis (JHA’s)

- Pre and post job briefings to pass on lessons learned promptly
- Passed on in real time to persons preparing new procedures

## Field Activities

- Pro-active approach to contamination control and decontamination
**Covers over the Neutral beam boxes**
**Negative pressure on the vacuum vessel**

-  Use the right tools for the job.  Take the time and wait as needed to obtain/develop the proper tools

-  Actively involve your Health Physics technicians  - they have years of experience working in nuclear facilities

## Field Activities

- Establish teams to handle specific tasks
**Example- lead removal team, diamond wire cutting team**
**More efficient**
**Less expensive**
**Less training**

** ****SAFETY** must be involved in all aspects of field activities

-  Try to anticipate and plan for problem activities (they have cost and schedule impact)
**Shield wall removal ****(blocks stuck together with RTV)**
**Lead contamination issues**
**Shear compression panel removals ****(nuts harder to back-off than expected)**

## Vacuum Vessel Fill

- The use of low density concrete provided:
- Low fill weight
- Stabilization of tritium.
- Void fill as required for Rad Waste burial
- Shielding from gamma.
- The concrete was a very effective means of stabilizing the internal contamination.  The filling/curing process did not liberate tritium from the graphite tiles.

## Vacuum Vessel Fill

- The gas handling system was effective in controlling overpressure during the curing process.  The result was **NO** slumping of the concrete.

-  The ability to route exhaust gasses, to systems with various levels of detritiation, allowed us to minimize the release of tritium, without unnecessarily burdening the tritium oxidation system.

## Diamond Wiring Cutting

- Has been demonstrated to be an effective tool in the D&D arsenal
- the ability to cut large metal structures containing softer metals, such as stainless steel, and one of the hardest metals, Inconel, in conjunction with a concrete-matrix.

-  Can be used in access limited configurations

-  Mitigation of contamination generation
- Advantageous when compared to the significant health and safety concerns associated with the baseline technology of plasma torch cutting

## Diamond Wiring Cutting

- CO2 has been shown to be effective for cleaning and cooling the diamond wire

-  New cutting speeds and cable tension values have been established (significantly different from industry standards)

-  Potential for multiple uses in industry

## Tritium Handling

- The secret to tritium handling is:
- Engineering hardware
- Elephant trunk stations
- Drum Bubbler
- Oil change carts
- Gore-tex rope-gasket material for making seals

-  Trained, skilled personnel
- Training program

-  Strict adherence to established procedures and protocol

## Waste Management

**Packaging**
- Consider selecting two vendors
- On-site QA is a plus
- Specify and approve testing methods
- Nuclear filters – not for Tritium

-  Ensure testing is integrated with assembly and welding plan
-  Visit your vendor – explain your needs
-  Identify package needs with engineering
-  Account for disassembly techniques

## Packaging-continued
Plan for voids and material to fill voids
Incorporate weight of void fillers into design.
Give yourself contingency 
weight capacity
interior dimension

- Plan for voids and material to fill voids
- Incorporate weight of void fillers into design.
- Give yourself contingency
**weight capacity**
**interior dimension**

- Waste Management

- Void Filler
**Low Density Concrete – Geofoam**
**Expanding Foam**
**Secondary waste – plastics, rags, metals, crushed glass **
**Radioactive Waste – the most desirable - $**

## Transportation
Plan and contract for multiple services
Overweight/Oversize/height concerns
Dump trailers – non-contaminated metals
Special services 

Packaging- Reduce costs
Effective use of wrapping components instead of boxing (TF and PF coils)

- Plan and contract for multiple services
**Overweight/Oversize/height concerns**
**Dump trailers – non-contaminated metals**
**Special services**** **
- Packaging- Reduce costs
**Effective use of wrapping components instead of boxing (TF and PF coils)**

- Waste Management

## Summary

*The D&D Project has been able to successfully complete the removal of the TFTR machine using a sound engineering plan, ****SAFETY****, trained personnel, good communication and oversight*

* **It is hoped that some of the lessons that we have learned and presented this week can be used in your future projects*