As part of the DOE-FIU Science and Technology Workforce Development Program, Nine (9) DOE Fellows from Florida International University (FIU) are participating in 10-week summer internships where they are paired with scientists and engineers at DOE Headquarters (EM-12, EM-13), Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) Hanford Site and Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). The DOE Fellows will spend their summer of 2014 working at DOE program offices or on environmental research projects under the guidance of their site mentors.

DOE Fellows summer 2014 interns with program director Dr. Leonel Lagos

DOE Fellows summer 2014 interns with program director Dr. Leonel Lagos

DOE FELLOW: Deanna Moya
LOCATION: DOE-HQ Cloverleaf, Germantown, Maryland
MENTOR: Dr. Justin Marble and Dr. Patricia Lee

Deanna Moya (DOE Fellow – Class of 2013) is working for EM-12’s Office of Soil and Groundwater Remediation at the DOE-HQ Cloverleaf facility in Germantown, Maryland during the summer of 2014. Under the mentorship of Dr. Justin Marble and Dr. Patricia Lee, Deanna’s main role is to learn and test the Advanced Simulation Capability for Environmental Management (ASCEM) toolset. The ASCEM Project’s goal is to provide sustainable and cost effective solutions towards the DOE-EM cleanup mission. It is a tool comprised of advanced simulation capabilities that is used to understand and predict the subsurface flow and contaminant transport behavior in natural and engineered systems. With its modular and open source toolsets, ASCEM can provide standardized assessments of performance and risk analysis for EM activities, which ultimately aids in protecting human health and the environment for current and future generations.

DOE FELLOW: Natalia Duque
LOCATION: DOE-HQ, Washington, D.C.
MENTOR: Mr. Albes Gaona

Natalia Duque (DOE Fellow – Class of 2013) has been given the opportunity to intern with the Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) Headquarters located in Washington, D.C. Natalia is assisting Mr. Albes Gaona and EM-13 in the development of its Green and Sustainable Remediation (GSR) and Sustainability Powerpedia pages, as well as in the development of the final GSR Catalog. During her internship, Natalia will also be working on the acquisition and analysis of data from the A/M Area located in Savannah River Site in order to identify opportunities for the incorporation of sustainability metrics in the environmental management decisions.

DOE FELLOW: Carmela Vallalta
LOCATION: Washington River Protection Solutions, Hanford
MENTOR: Mr. Dennis Washenfelder

Carmela Vallalta (DOE Fellow – Class of 2013) is participating in an internship at Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), Hanford. Ms. Vallalta is working under the supervision of Mr. Dennis Washenfelder, and will prepare waste mitigation and annulus ventilation operating chronologies for the double shell tanks, beginning with the earliest tanks, AY-101 and AY-102.

DOE FELLOW: Anthony Fernandez
LOCATION: Washington River Protection Solutions, Hanford
MENTOR: Mr. Ruben Mendoza

Anthony Fernandez (DOE Fellow – Class of 2014) is at Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), Hanford. He is working with two engineering groups, Waste Transfer and Waste Storage, under the supervision of Mr. Ruben Mendoza. Currently Mr. Fernandez is updating the Single Shell Tank’s (Enraf’s) tank level, monitoring reference level documentation and supporting the baseline change requests to Enraf’s levels. Anthony will be verifying and updating the waste transfer Safety Equipment Compliance Database, which requires review and comparison to various different design drawings and specifications. AutoCAD software will be used to create layout drawings of the waste transfer routes used in all the tank farms. Lastly, he will be tracking the changes necessary to overlay the ground penetrating radar scans onto the updated tank farm route maps.

DOE FELLOW: Sasha Philius
LOCATION: DOE Office of River Protection (ORP), Hanford, WA
MENTOR: Mr. Brad Eccleston

Sasha Philius (DOE Fellow – Class of 2013) has been given the opportunity to intern with the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) located at the Hanford Site, WA. Sasha is assisting Mr. Brad Eccleston and ORP in their partnership with Bechtel National Inc. to establish a new standard vessel design that would be capable of managing the most challenging waste slurries, with high solids and non-Newtonian fluid characteristics. In addition, he will accompany DOE staff in discussions related to vessel design features, test planning, and facility test readiness.

DOE FELLOW: Robert Lapierre
LOCATION: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA
MENTOR: Dr. Jim Szecsody

Robert Lapierre (DOE Fellow – Class of 2012) is on his second trip to the Tri-Cities. This summer Robert is working at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with Dr. Jim Szecsody, studying the influence of NH3 gas treatment on uranium remediation in Hanford vadose zone sediments. During summer 2012, Robert spent his summer as an intern at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, WA) under the guidance of Dr. Dawn Wellman of the Environmental Systems Group.

DOE FELLOW: Christian Pino
LOCATION: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA
MENTOR: Amoret Burnn

Christian Pino (DOE Fellow – Class of 2013) is working under the mentorship of Amoret Bunn at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He is aiding Amoret in completing a pilot study focused on the environmental concentrations of lead in soil. Hanford site, before the land was owned by the government, used to be orchard fields where lead arsenate pesticides were applied. There is still residual lead from this use, and the fields are being surveyed in order to determine whether the lead still poses harm as its concentration may be above EPA’s standard. If this is the case as expected, the end goal of the project will be to focus on remediation methods to bring these levels to a safe threshold.

DOE FELLOW: Hansell Gonzalez
LOCATION: Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, SC
MENTOR: Dr. Miles Denham

Hansell Gonzalez (DOE Fellow – Class of 2013) is working at Savannah River National Laboratory under the mentorship of Dr. Miles Denham. During his internship, Hansell will study the effect of pH on the adsorption of humic substances on different sediments present at Savannah River Site. He will also analyze the ratio of absorbance of humate used during these adsorption experiments, at 465nm and at 665nm (E4/E6 ratio), to better understand the interaction of these heterogeneous humic substances with the sediments.

DOE FELLOW: Steve Noel
LOCATION: Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, SC
MENTOR: Mary Harris

Steve Noel (DOE Fellow – Class of 2013) is participating in a summer internship at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) under the mentorship of Mary Harris. His focus during the internship is to develop web applications for Savannah River National Laboratory, converting on-site desktop applications into web applications using the “Aptana” program. These web applications will enable employees across the DOE complex and national laboratories to use applications/software that were previously only available through on-site computers.

At the conclusion of their internships, the DOE Fellows will document their summer activities and results in a summer internship technical report, and will have the opportunity to present their accomplishments during the annual DOE Fellow’s Poster Exhibition & Competition (held in October at FIU) and/or at the upcoming Waste Management Symposia to be held in 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona. The following table details the DOE Fellows summer 2014 internships, location and mentors.

DOE Fellow

Location

Summer Site Mentor

Deanna Moya

DOE-HQ EM-12, Cloverleaf (Maryland)

Justin Marble / Patricia Lee

Natalia Duque

DOE-HQ EM-13, Forrestal (Washington, DC)

Albes Gaona

Carmela Vallalta

WRPS, Hanford Washington

Dennis Washenfelder

Anthony Fernandez

WRPS, Hanford Washington

Ruben Mendoza

Sasha Philius

WTP (Bechtel), Hanford Washington

Brad Eccleston / Joel Peltier

Robert Lapierre

PNNL, Richland Washington

Dawn Wellman / Jim Szecsody

Christian Pino

PNNL, Richland Washington

Amoret Bunn

Hansell Gonzalez

SRNL, Savannah River, South Carolina

Brian Looney / Miles Denham

Steve Noel

SRNL, Savannah River, South Carolina

Mary Harris

 

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