Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) team members have been recognized nationally for “superior” technical papers presented at Waste Management (WM) Symposia held earlier this year.

SRMC is the liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site.

Three papers, authored by eight SRMC employees achieved “Superior Paper” recognition at Waste Management. WM established the “Superior Paper” award to recognize authors and co-authors for distinguished contributions to the advancement of radioactive waste and radioactive material management.

Steve Hommel, in SRMC’s Environmental Compliance and Waste Disposal Authority group, achieved his third “Superior Paper” award since 2019 for his submission, “Development of Special Methods for Estimating Waste Concentrations Sent to Saltstone.” In this paper, Hommel described how he examined the history of radioactive waste concentrations that had been transferred to the Saltstone Disposal Facility (SDF) at SRS since disposal operations began in the 1990s. Using various analyses to quantify radionuclide concentrations, he was able to improve waste disposal estimates at SDF.

A team from SRS Tank Farm Engineering—Sarah Bauske, Fred Angel, Timothy Baughman, and Eric Barrowclough—ranked superior for their paper, “PAR for the Course: Evaluation of Passive Autocatalytic Recombiner Technology in Savannah River Site Liquid Waste Tanks.” The Passive Autocatalytic Recombiner (PAR) is being investigated as a potential control to deplete hydrogen in the SRS waste tanks. Successful implementation of PAR technology could be a game changer in reducing risk and accelerating waste removal and tank closure. 

A third SRMC team, from Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), also achieved the “Superior Paper” award. Maggie Clark, Nick DesRocher, and Ryan Lentsch were honored for their paper on the topic “Operational Enhancements at the Salt Waste Processing Facility.” Some of the SWPF enhancements discussed include improved key equipment cleaning, reduced solids concentration, and better filtration of solvents. 

The annual WM conference provides an international forum for discussing solutions to the management and disposition of radioactive waste and decommissioning of nuclear facilities.

“The liquid waste program is operating at a very high level with valuable contributions from an extremely talented group of skilled employees,” said Wyatt Clark, SRMC chief operations officer. “We are honored that Waste Management recognized these individuals for their significant impacts to the nuclear industry that may be applied to other DOE sites across the complex.”

SRMC comprises parent company BWX Technologies, Inc. with partners Amentum and Fluor. Its team brings the capabilities necessary to accelerate cleanup at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site through safe nuclear operations, optimized and integrated mission execution, and strong corporate governance.