Recent Projects

Revision of Five Hanford Site Wide Notice of Construction Applications and Licenses Environmental Engineering and Compliance

Polestar was hired to revise and coordinate the complete revision and approval of five site-wide radiological notice of construction (NOC) documents used by several of the prime contractors throughout the Hanford Site.  The applications and licenses were outdated (10-15 years old) and revisions/updates were long overdue.  Polestar was awarded the contract given their long history of solving challenging problems and supporting all the Hanford contractors.

The five Hanford site-wide Notice of Construction (NOC) applications and license revision requests consisted of the:

  1. Radioactive Air Emissions NOC for 300 Area Excavation Activities
  2. Radioactive Air Emissions NOC Portable/Temporary Radioactive Air Emission Units
  3. Radioactive Air Emissions NOC for High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filtered Vacuum Radioactive Air Emission Units
  4. Filtered Vacuum Truck NOC Application
  5. Radioactive Air Emissions and the NOC for Site-wide Vented Container Storage.

This work scope required coordination with the Hanford Site Prime Contractors, DOE, and regulators.  Engineering calculations were performed to support each of the NOC applications.

HEPA-Filtered-Vacuum-Truck
HEPA-Filtered Vacuum Truck

Project challenges included:

  • Coordinating contractor requirements, needs, and operational/project requests among the Hanford Site prime contractors.
  • Developing radiological inventories for various projects that could utilize the site-wide NOCs
  • Evaluating all the hypothetical maximally exposed individuals that would have the potential to be exposed. This was especially challenging given that emissions could occur at various locations throughout the site and/or mobile units.
  • Assist with the development of tools and forms to track use of units that could emit radionuclides through each calendar year from each Hanford prime contractor
  • Creating handling limits and controls to ensure emission limits would not be exceeded
  • Resolution of comments from Hanford site contractors, United States Department of Energy (USDOE), and Washington Station Department of Health (WDOH) on the NOC applications.
HEPA-Filtered-Vacuum-Truck
HEPA-Filtered Vacuum Truck
Portable-Temporary-Radionuclide-Airborne-Emission-Unit
Portable/Temporary Radionuclide Airborne Emission Unit
HEPA-Filtered-Vacuum
HEPA-Filtered Vacuum
HEPA-Vents-for-Filtered-Waste-Containers
HEPA-Vents for Filtered Waste Containers

Summary

In summary, Polestar was able to provide an individual who was experienced and knowledgeable in a larger variety of projects across the Hanford Site.  Extensive coordination was needed to facilitate contractor needs, project challenges, and regulatory requirements.