Pantex Blog

Energy Contracts Help Sites Achieve Savings, Sustainability

Posted: Friday, July 10, 2015 - 00:00

Windmills

Typical mortgage loans allow borrowers to purchase a home without paying the full cost upfront. In a similar manner, energy savings performance contracts, or ESPCs, allow Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC, to complete projects at Pantex and Y12 that improve energy efficiency and support infrastructure renewal and reliability without upfront capital.

During the past few years, the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office has partnered with two energy service companies on ESPCs at Pantex and Y12 as part of an enterprise-wide initiative to improve energy efficiency and revitalize site infrastructure.

Senior Director of Infrastructure and Projects Management Dan Glenn said, “The energy service company puts up the capital to do the work, and we pay them back through the energy savings gained over the term of the contract.”

At Pantex, an ESPC with Siemens Government Technologies Inc. has enabled the plant to harness the power of wind energy with the installation of five 2.3megawatt wind turbines capable of producing approximately 47 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

During installation of the wind turbines, Infrastructure and Projects Management worked with Pantex Engineering to address a concern about possible voltage fluctuations affecting the plant’s sensitive equipment. The solution was to install a power quality meter to monitor the specific output of the wind farm. The 426foottall turbines can generate enough energy cost-savings to pay for the project and later provide additional cost savings directly to Pantex. In the month of May, the wind farm produced 4,022,647 kWh, which was 66% of the plant’s total energy consumption.

At Y12, the ESPC projects, managed by Johnson Controls, Inc., are having noticeable impact on the utility infrastructure, as well as the site’s energy efficiency.

“We wouldn’t have the budget to do this work at Y12 without an ESPC. More money becomes available because it is tied to energy savings. We try to leverage all funding opportunities to improve the infrastructure to make it more reliable and reduce the maintenance needs of the site,” Glenn said.

Currently, there are five main projects at different stages of progress, including the chiller plant upgrade, steam system decentralization, lighting upgrades, a new compressed air facility and steam system repairs. The upfront capital for these projects is funded by JCI; however, Y12 is responsible for support costs, including activities such as lock out/tag out, utility surveys and engineering drawing review.

Providing support funding and coordinating activities to lessen the impact to mission work and schedule are some of the challenges that come with ESPCs.

“These projects improve plant reliability, operational efficiency and infrastructure, and eliminate a significant amount of deferred maintenance. We invest our funds into the support costs for the ESPCs because we know of the bigger benefit to the site,” Glenn said.

“Improving energy efficiency and revitalizing the infrastructure is an enterprise-wide initiative, and we’ll continue to leverage ESPCs to help achieve our sustainability goal.”

Staying Active - for Life

Posted: Thursday, July 9, 2015 - 00:00

More than 800 CNS employees participated in the Active for Life Challenge April 1–June 3. This 10-week program encourages people to be more active and eat healthier foods on a regular basis.

“It was terrific to see people out walking around the plant, in the gyms in town or participating in group activities during lunch,” Sherry Philyaw, Pantex Active for Life captain, said. “My favorite part was seeing people getting active and taking charge of their own health.”

Karen Lacey, LiveWise dietitian and Y-12 Active for Life captain, agreed. “I loved seeing our teams participating at the Secret City 5K and Relay for Life. Our multiple onsite challenges (longest plank, most pushups) encouraged some great competiveness between us and Pantex.”

The overall top CNS team was TEAM V, located at Pantex. This Active for Life team truly embodied the CNS OneTeam vision. Pantexan Marc Brooks explained, “While six of us are here at Pantex, one of your own (Eric White, who works at Pantex about 25 percent), was also a member of TEAM V. So, the top CNS team was a joint effort of Pantex and Y12 after all!”

While Pantex and Y12 didn’t place in the top category for the multi-lab challenge, CNS employees can be proud.

Lacey said, “CNS participants averaged over 46 minutes per day, which meets and exceeds recommendations for overall health and minimizing risk of chronic disease, and far exceeds national averages for activity. It thrills me to see these numbers!”

Lacey and Philyaw are already planning for next year’s campaign.

Allison Roberts

Allison Roberts was one of the more than 800 CNS employees who participated in Active for Life

Wild Pantex – It Rained Frogs and Toads

Posted: Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - 00:00

Article by Jim Ray, Pantex Wildlife Biologist/Scientist

I love this time of year because it is "thunderstorm season" here in the Texas High Plains. I am a weather buff, but I also fully appreciate the fact that rainfall is the lifeblood of our area's agriculture, and its wildlife's production and habitat.

I especially like the explosiveness of our playa wetlands in terms of how quickly they come to life following the collection of runoff from spring and summer rains. In fact, these ephemeral wetlands are considered some of the most productive of wetlands in the world. Within days of catching water, eggs that have lain dormant in the dry sediments hatch and the water teems with invertebrates such as freshwater shrimp, and even a species of freshwater sponge. Water-born insects such as dragonflies and midges also proliferate while surface water is available.

I often get questions this time of year about frogs and toads. Why did they appear all of a sudden and where did they come from?

All of a sudden toads are hopping around in our backyards and, depending on species present, playas may resonate, even to the point of a roar (Great Plains toads), with the choruses of frogs and toads. These choruses represent multitudes that have emerged from burrows in the surrounding uplands and raced to the nearby playa for an opportunity to breed. Due to the ephemeral nature of playas, the frogs and toads of the surrounding area may get multiple chances to breed through the years or they may only get a single opportunity in their lifetime.

We encounter the Great Plains toad and Woodhouse's toad in our yards quite frequently. Other species, although locally numerous, may only rarely emerge from their underground burrows. With thunder or wetness acting as a stimulus to bring them to the surface, they emerge and then off they race into the darkness to a nearby playa to perpetuate their species.

Along with West Texas A&M University subcontractors, We have documented 10 species of frogs and toads at Pantex including the aforementioned Great Plains and Woodhouse's toads, Plain's leopard frogs, bullfrogs, two species of chorus frogs, and four species of spadefoot toads. Visit http://herpsoftexas.org/view/frogs for information on the frogs and toads of Texas, including their distributions.

Dr. Richard Kazmaier

Dr. Richard Kazmaier (West Texas A&M University) samples tadpoles in an ephemeral pool of water at Pantex.

Education on Aisle Nine

Posted: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - 00:00

Food education

Grocery shopping. Some people carefully plan a weekly menu and painstakingly make a list in an attempt to stick to their budget. Others dread the task so much they just show up at the store hungry, throw items in the cart and go home hoping to make a meal of their basket full of random purchases.

Regardless of which category they fit in, several Pantexans recently turned this mundane weekly task into a fun educational event.

The employees and some family members visited two local grocery stores for healthy shopping tours. The tours, hosted by Market Street United and Natural Grocers, were part of the Active for Life Challenge, a 10-week American Cancer Society program to encourage employees to be more active and eat healthier foods.

At Natural Grocers, the store manager and employees provided an aisle-by-aisle overview of many healthy food products and supplements. They talked about food philosophy and standards. The produce manager even cut a blood orange for participants to taste. Attendees also took home a new product sample and some literature from the store’s nutrition library.

Kelly Delgado-Goudschaal, manager of Pantex Supply Chain Management Transformation and Strategic Initiatives, was impressed by the store’s advice to gradually convert to a healthier lifestyle.

“The store manager encouraged us to make small changes instead of jumping off a cliff into health eating,” Delgado-Goudschaal said. “The prices were also not as expensive as I expected.”

She made the tour a family affair by bringing her wife and three daughters along. The kids said the samples offered during the tour were “not as gross as they expected”.

At Market Street United, a certified dietician offered a two-hour Easy Diabetes Shopping store tour designed to help diabetics make healthier shopping decisions.

Pantex Engineer Sharon Smith said, “The tour was fantastic! We learned how to use the special number on the price stickers to help us choose the healthier items”.

Those who couldn’t attend a store tour were encouraged to complete a grocery store scavenger hunt to learn about product placement and labeling.

Food education

Pantex Fire Department wins BBQ Competition

Posted: Monday, June 15, 2015 - 00:00

Pantex Pit Masters

Pantex Fire Department members (left to right) David Stewart, Kyle Butler, Scott Johnson and Jeremy Baker won the 100 Club of the Texas Panhandle’s “Battle of the Badges” barbeque cook-off. The team donated their $1,000 cash prize back to the 100 Club.

The Pantex Fire Department recently participated in the 100 Club of the Texas Panhandle’s annual “Battles of the Badges” barbecue cook-off, a competition between Amarillo area law enforcement and firefighters.

Pantex firefighters won the grand championship for their brisket and placed seventh in
the ribs category. The team received award plaques and a cash prize of $1000, which
they donated back to the 100 Club. The winning team members were Scott Johnson,
battalion chief; David Stewart, captain; Kyle Butler, driver/operator; and Jeremy Baker,
firefighter/paramedic.

The 100 Club provides financial aid for families of public safety personnel who are
seriously injured or killed in the line of duty. In addition, as funds are available, the club
provides law enforcement and firefighting agencies with life-protecting equipment and
educational opportunities that cannot be secured through budgeted funds or agencies. It
serves the 26 Texas Panhandle counties.

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