SGH Successfully Completes Work on Department of Energy's New Integrated Waste Treatment Unit Facility
WALTHAM MASS. – Nov. 11, 2008 – Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) was commended by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in May 2008 for its recent work with the Department of Energy’s Idaho Operations Office (DOE-ID).Working as a consultant to Thor Treatment Technologies Inc. (Denver, CO) and CH2M-WG LLC (Idaho), SGH performed seismic soil-structure interaction (SSI) analysis and structural design of the new Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) facility in Idaho. The facility consists of a central concrete high-hazard facility that houses process and packaging cells. This project will process the acidic sodium-bearing liquid waste into solid carbonate product suitable for off-site disposal. The DOE Environmental Management owns the IWTU project; the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board that directly reports to Congress reviews DOE high hazard facilities.
According to a letter from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, as a result of DOE-ID and SGH’s efforts, all design issues during the project were resolved in an expeditious manner and appropriate changes to the design were made. The Board attributed the following factors for the successful resolution of the project:
- Early in the design, SGH foresaw the need for a substantial increase in ground motion which gave its team reason to expect an increase in design requirements. As a result, the firm designed the structures to accommodate this motion without exceeding structural capacity; this forethought served to head off potential delays.
- The project team formed a geotechnical and SSI peer review panel that advised on incorporating appropriate soil properties into the SSI analysis. The panel provided an essential process that contributed significantly to the technical credibility of the IWTU design.
“It is always a great accomplishment to receive compliments from a client. With the special challenges that come with nuclear work, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s recognition of our contributions is a big honor,” said Glenn R. Bell, CEO of SGH. “The project team, led by Senior Principal Said Bolourchi, is to be commended for their talent and effort.”
Among its structural engineering services and capabilities, SGH provides nuclear facility design and specialized seismic and other natural phenomena hazards analysis and design. The firm has expertise working effectively with large AE firms active in the nuclear industry and getting quick approval from reviewers and licensing bodies.