Honeywell Supply Chain Management Center – National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, Sandia National Laboratory

Sigma Science provided nuclear safety basis, criticality safety engineering, nuclear facility readiness support, systems engineering, and nuclear facility operations support to National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia (NTESS) at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) under a 4-year $3.6 million contract (October 10, 2017, to October 9, 2021). Key scopes of work included:

• Providing nuclear safety basis Subject Matter Experts toward the development of Documented Safety Analyses (DSAs), Technical Safety Requirements (TSRs), and associated updates for the Technical Area V (TA-V) Auxiliary Hot Cell Facility and the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) facility.
• Maintaining safety basis documentation using site-specific unreviewed safety question (USQ) processes, annual updates, change notices, Justifications for Continued Operations, and TSR revisions.
• Performing radiation shielding calculations using MSNCP for the SNL ACRR Facility.
• Providing nuclear risk and hazard analyses for nuclear facilities.
• Supporting operation of the SNL HERMES III, SATURN, and SPHINX facilities in several areas key to the operation of the machines, including radiological dose calculations based on proposed machine configuration changes, shielding requirements, and personnel locations.
• Developing robust source models that were used to predict the absorbed dose to test objects and to evaluate the impact of changes/improvements to the facilities with respect to operations, radiological environment, and operational safety perspectives.
• Developing radionuclide screening criteria for the SNL PHS software by evaluating the HC-3 threshold for a suite of radionuclides in accordance with DOE-STD-1027 requirements. These criteria incorporated the updated dose conversion information provided in the NA-1 SD G 1027 supplemental guidance using International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 68 and ICRP Publication 72.
• Providing a Senior Conduct of Operations Advisor for training and mentoring to the ACRR staff to support reactor restart activities following installation of the new reactor control rod drive system in 2018 and continue to provide Senior Conduct of Operations Advisors to ensure continued operational sustainment.
• Providing training in the areas of nuclear criticality safety, operations and criticality safety interactions, fissile materials, and criticality safety accident lessons learned.
• Assisting in the development of nuclear a Criticality Safety Program Description Document in accordance with applicable ANSI/ANS-8 standards, developed DOE Nuclear Criticality Safety Program training for conducting Criticality Safety Experiments, and provided Criticality Safety education and training to nuclear facility personnel at SNL.
• Providing systems engineering, program management, and use control and weapons surety support.

Key accomplishments under this contract included:

• Providing scoping radiation shielding calculations to support preliminary design of the Combined Radiation Environments for Survivability Testing (CREST) Facility. These calculations were used to support development of the Critical Decision (CD)-1 Submittal.
• Developing the Sandia Nuclear Criticality Safety (NCS) Quality Assurance (QA) Plan. This plan describes how the Sandia NSC Program implements DOE Order 414.1D, Quality Assurance; and applicable sections of ASME NQA-1-2008 with the NQA-1a-2009 addenda (or a later edition), Quality Assurance Requirements for Nuclear Facility Applications.
• Developing test and system qualification plans, operator training plans, and new operational procedures for transition to operations (TTO) for the ACRR new digital control rod system.
• Providing senior supervisor watch personnel to oversee and document operator and equipment performance during start-up and TTO for ACRR.
• Providing senior nuclear engineer support for Independent Verification Reviews for ACRR and restart of Sandia Pulsed Reactor Facility Critical Experiment operations.
• Assisting the Sandia NCS Program in developing a useful set of metrics to reflect the health of the NCS Program and a Desktop Instruction on how data will be collected and reported to management and DOE.