ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Officials from EM headquarters and the Savannah River National Laboratory discussed progress being made to develop new technology to enhance worker safety, improve performance and reduce cost during a panel at the recent National Cleanup Workshop. 

   “The Science of Safety Initiative certainly has taken a rather big role now in EM,” said EM Office of Technology Development Director Rod Rimando, referring to the effort to develop new cleanup technology to “make our work safer and easier to perform.”

   Rimando addressed a central piece of the initiative resonating with EM’s workforce: advanced robotics and remote systems. 

   “We’re striving to put these robotic and remote systems into our workforce’s hands so they can do their work smarter and safer,” Rimando said. 

   There’s a lot of momentum, energy, enthusiasm and creative thinking in robotics, and the growing interest in the infusion of technology in cleanup is especially evident in EM’s workforce, which views robotics and remote systems as useful and viable, Rimando said.

   “We really hope that they will become common tools in the workforce’s toolbox,” he said.

   Although robots can’t reason, judge and troubleshoot, a variety of circumstances exist in which cleanup workers could benefit from them, Rimando said. Robotic platforms provide remote access and entry to high-risk areas. Robotic tools help with routine tasks in which workers are susceptible to complacency or loss of mental focus. Multi-use, multi-user robots can be deployed to respond to emergencies. Wearable robotic devices improve performance and productivity while preventing injuries due to conditions such as fatigue and hyperextension.

   “With use of robotic technologies, we hope to improve our efforts to keep occupational exposure to all workplace hazards as low as reasonably achievable,” Rimando said. “We want to minimize, if not completely eliminate, direct handling of high-hazard, high-consequence materials and waste.”

   Rimando played a video produced by SRNL on the recent “EM Science of Safety: Robotics Challenge” at EM’s Portsmouth Site. He noted that the robotic devices in the video were put in the hands of EM’s workers to demonstrate at their workplaces.

   During the panel discussion, Mark Gilbertson, director of EM’s Office of Laboratory Policy, described how DOE is strengthening its partnerships with SRNL and other national laboratories to support EM in achieving cleanup goals at EM field sites and execute the Department’s other missions. 

   “What we are talking about is all 17 national laboratories operating as a system to support the DOE program and the country as it moves forward,” he said, noting that the partnerships rebuild fundamental tenets created when the Department was established.

   EM will work closely with SRNL, EM’s laboratory, to meet complex-wide objectives while encouraging the laboratory to grow and pull in outside innovative approaches, such as advanced manufacturing practices from the chemical industry, to increase the cleanup’s efficiency, Gilbertson said. He noted that SRNL is a conduit to support all EM sites, not just Savannah River Site (SRS).

   SRNL Director Terry Michalske described the laboratory’s work in advanced technologies, from robotics to computer modeling, to aid in EM’s mission.   

   EM is no different than private-sector industries such as engineering, manufacturing and construction when it comes to the need for a technical edge critical to success, Michalske said.

   “There is an opportunity to up our game in that regard and bring that edge more to the forefront of the success of this program,” he said. “Our job really is to do this more effectively, reduce the costs, shorten the lifecycle and get this job done, but really do it in a way where it improves the safety of the people who have to do the work.”

   Michalske highlighted projects in which the laboratory and other entities at SRS used advanced technologies to enhance safety, improve cleanup performance and reduce cost. 

   SRNL partnered with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the SRS management and operations contractor, to apply virtual reality to help workers carry out decontamination work at the site’s Building 235-F. Michalske said this technology allows workers to experience the environment without its risks.

   “They can accelerate their work planning, go through design reviews, and do virtual walk-downs of the work environment without having to dress out for the contaminated environment until they’re ready,” he said.

   In another SRNL-SRNS partnership, robotic off-loading helps workers safely process highly radioactive liquids in H-Canyon at SRS.  

   “In the end, it’s all about our workers and about the people who pay for this — the taxpayers. They deserve to have the very best and they deserve to have this job go as fast and smart and safely as possible,” Michalske said.