Savannah River National Laboratory 2020–2025 Strategic and ...€¦ · Strategic Goal 7: Execute an Effective Human Capital Management Plan Our Human Capital Management strategy

Savannah River National Laboratory 2020–2025 Strategic and Institutional Plan September 2019

Savannah River National Laboratory 2020-2025 Strategic and Institutional Plan September 2019

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Contents

We Put Science to Work to Protect the Nation ............................................................................... 2 Evolving to Match a Transforming Landscape ............................................................................... 2 Solving Tough National Challenges ............................................................................................... 4 Protecting the Nation by Applying Science .................................................................................... 8

Strategic Goal 1: Legacy Waste Cleanup ........................................................................... 8 Strategic Goal 2: Nuclear Deterrent .................................................................................. 10 Strategic Goal 3: Nuclear Materials Threat Reduction ..................................................... 12 Strategic Goal 4: Secure Energy & Manufacturing .......................................................... 15 Strategic Goal 5: Pioneering Science ................................................................................ 16 Strategic Goal 6: Establish an Independent National Laboratory ..................................... 18 Strategic Goal 7: Execute an Effective Human Capital Management Plan ...................... 19

Delivering Mission Results ........................................................................................................... 20 The Priorities that Shape Us ............................................................................................. 20 Collaboratively Managing Competencies ......................................................................... 20 Adapting New Integrated Core Capabilities for the Future .............................................. 21 Transferring our Technology ............................................................................................ 22 Cultivating our Expertise .................................................................................................. 23 Revitalize Facilities to Support Current and Future Missions .......................................... 24 Planning for Successful Mission Delivery ........................................................................ 25 Alignment with DOE Strategies ....................................................................................... 26


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We Put Science to Work to Protect the Nation Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has created and deployed practical, high-value, cost-effective advanced chemical manufacturing technology solutions addressing our Nation’s most important challenges since 1951. Our beginnings were forged amid the urgent need to produce plutonium and tritium to meet the challenges posed by Cold War adversaries.

The Laboratory’s legacy is known for world-class scientific and technical expertise in nuclear, chemical and materials manufacturing; an ability to translate innovations into industrial-scale operations; a focus on achieving results; and a best-in-class safety culture protecting the health of our employees and the safety of our environment. Our pioneering work was celebrated in November 2018, when the American Chemical Society recognized the Savannah River Site as a Historical Landmark in research and production of plutonium-238 for space exploration.

After the Cold War we refocused our scientific, technical and chemical manufacturing capabilities to address the production of the Nation’s most critically needed nuclear materials and rare isotopes as well as the treatment of the enormous legacy of chemical and radiological waste, a byproduct of our Nation’s Cold War response. Our innovations have improved approaches and process efficiencies for producing nuclear materials and rare isotopes, manufacturing stable waste forms, remediating contaminated soil and groundwater, and decommissioning contaminated facilities. Other advanced manufacturing techniques have been used to shrink the tritium isotope separations footprint by half, dramatically reduce worker and environmental exposure, and significantly improve tritium reservoir reliability.

As a National Laboratory, we have transformed from our Cold War driven mission to meet the evolving needs of our Nation and the Department of Energy (DOE). Today, SRNL is deeply engaged in transformational work in environmental programs, nuclear deterrence, national security, advanced manufacturing techniques, grid energy security, and discovery science. We do this while we continue to use science and technology for nuclear and chemical manufacturing providing fiscal and schedule savings with an unwavering commitment to employee safety and environmental protection. We stay at the cutting edge of science, technology, and innovation, which propels us forward to anticipate new challenges and deliver cost-effective solutions to protect our Nation.

Evolving to Match a Transforming Landscape The current geopolitical landscape has elevated the national security impact of the manufacturing sector. While domestic manufacturing is crucial to the economic prosperity of the United States, the global industrial manufacturing sector is undergoing a transformation not seen since the onset of the industrial revolution. This transformation is being driven by a need to dramatically reduce capital and operating cost, improve worker safety, and better protect the environment. At the same time, global uncertainty in a secure supply chain necessitates domestic-based manufacturing for national critical needs. An entire host of revolutionary technologies—including automation, modular processes, computational modeling, machine learning, cyber-physical security, and virtual reality—are allowing the industrial sector to rethink almost every aspect of how work is done.


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SRNL has launched research programs, facility improvements, and capability enhancements to match this transformation while developing and adapting the best science and technology for the chemical and materials manufacturing needs of DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). We continue to be the Nation’s resource for chemical manufacturing and technological innovation for processing Cold War legacy waste, securing vulnerable weapons-usable nuclear materials, producing specialized isotopes, and assessing the actions of other nations.

Our 2020–2025 Strategic and Institutional Plan charts a course for SRNL to significantly increase our leadership in the ongoing revolution in nuclear, chemical, and materials manufacturing and management. Our primary objective is to build on our track record of advanced nuclear material processing and accelerate the development and deployment of innovations that benefit vital missions of DOE and NNSA through lower-cost operations, increased worker and public safety, enhanced security, and improved protection of the environment. SRNL’s approach for implementing and executing the institutional strategic plan is depicted in Figure 1. The Laboratory’s programmatic objectives are driven from institutional goals and stakeholders’ requirements. We use key performance metrics to determine how well we are accomplishing tasks and activities directly benefiting programmatic objectives. This approach will naturally highlight the areas that need additional strategic investments to better enable future missions.

Figure 1: SRNL’s Strategic Approach to Meet Institutional Goals


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Academic and industrial laboratories across the globe are conceiving of and advancing exciting new technologies applicable to DOE and NNSA missions. SRNL is working to develop those technologies to better serve our Nation. Examples of strategic Investments at SRNL include:

• Cyber-physical security protocols and hardware to mitigate risk and contingency by allowing for the protection of data and systems critical to the emerging advanced manufacturing sector as well as critical infrastructure such as the U.S. electric grid and our overall national security.

• Smart Manufacturing, linking and streamlining the manufacturing supply chain to maintain and increase production volumes and efficiency and reduce downtime.

• Process Intensification, driving chemical and materials processing toward smaller, modular configurations with lower cost, increased safety, and greater flexibility.

• Remote systems, separating workers from hazardous environments to improve efficiency and mitigate risk; and virtual reality tools that allow advanced training and work planning to reduce training costs and operational risks by deploying a more environment-ready workforce.

• Modeling/simulation and decision support tools, such as artificial intelligence, enabling more accurate and faster selection of technology options and processing decisions, to reduce engineering design and modification costs.

Our Strategic and Institutional Plan applies advanced manufacturing concepts to specific activities, targeting today’s challenges while building the broader technical capabilities and partnerships needed to create future solutions.

A key element of the execution of this plan is the concept of the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC). The AMC will drive the industry, government and academic partnerships needed to ensure that cutting-edge research and development is combined with practical industrial experience by providing a platform for stakeholder engagement. This community of practice will be a powerful resource to link new scientific concepts to practical solutions, improving government mission performance and U.S. industrial competitiveness. The President’s Budget for FY20 proposed that AMC be funded as a $50M Capital Lease. At this writing, the House Appropriations Committee has submitted to the full House a budget proposal which indicates support for the AMC initiative as a new Line Item and specifies funding at ~$2.8M for FY20. The FY20 SRNL actions regarding AMC will be determined by the appropriations enacted by Congress and signed into law.

Solving Tough National Challenges We are the designated National Laboratory of the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s (DOE-EM) chartered to apply our scientific and technical competencies to safely and efficiently achieve the Nation’s legacy nuclear waste and contamination cleanup objectives. DOE-EM’s mission spans the DOE complex and includes 16 active cleanup sites. Our technical leadership plays an important strategic role in achieving DOE-EM’s objectives at SRS and other cleanup sites.


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For example, earlier this year, SRNL led a multi-National Laboratory effort to provide technically based consensus letter to support the DOE’s interpretation of high-level waste. Also, in 2018, SRNL and DOE-EM entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the DOE Office of Legacy Management (DOE-LM) to leverage SRNL’s proven record of environmental remediation and long-term monitoring. This agreement formally established SRNL as the lead National Laboratory for DOE-LM’s administration of remediated clean-up sites around the United States.

As a multi-program National Laboratory, we play an equally important role in supporting the NNSA mission to maintain a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear deterrent and to reduce global nuclear threats. Tritium is a critical component of our defense systems and must be continually replenished to meet the needs of our Nation’s nuclear deterrent. We are the Nation’s Tritium Laboratory and the recognized center of excellence for tritium processing, storage, and gas transfer systems. We develop, validate, and implement nuclear chemical processing and purification approaches to meet current and future tritium stockpile needs, assess and work with the Design Agencies to ensure the functional capability of new gas transfer systems, and evaluate the condition and operational capability of gas transfer systems in the Nation’s nuclear stockpile. These gas transfer systems are essential for sustainment of the Unites States’ nuclear deterrent.

We continue to be a leader in NNSA initiatives to reduce dangers from the spread of nuclear weapons and from nuclear and radiological terrorism. SRNL develops science, technology and implementation processes for NNSA’s nuclear nonproliferation, counterterrorism/ counterproliferation, and emergency response missions. We lead activities to minimize and eliminate separated plutonium and irradiated high enriched uranium materials globally and develop detection and verification technologies for fuel cycle nuclear materials. Our expertise in this area is unparalleled and relied upon by federal and industrial entities and is key to the Nation’s threat reduction initiatives.

In May 2018, the DOE/NNSA Administrator selected a preferred alternative to support the Trump Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) requirement to produce no fewer than 80 plutonium pits per year (ppy) by 2030. The preferred alternative split the pit production mission between Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Savannah River Site (SRS). The strategy at SRS requires that the former Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) be repurposed for pit production. SRNL is providing the science and engineering subject matter expertise to support the planning and design of the proposed Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF). We are also partnering with LANL to transfer critical pit manufacturing knowledge to SRS to support the pit production mission. We have codified this relationship by signing an internal MOU with the current prime contract elements at SRS.

SRNL successfully serves DOE to meet critical mission needs by providing highly reliable, cost effective, and innovative solutions to the most difficult technical challenges. Once our solution is tested and verified, we work with production facilities ensuring our innovative solutions are successfully implemented to benefit the mission. Our experience and expertise support and improve the solutions in DOE’s operating facilities.


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The nuclear-based scientific and engineering competencies we maintain to support DOE and NNSA missions also provide unique value to a wider range of government and private sector programs. Those programs include enhancing environmental sustainability, increasing national and global security, and advancing our Nation’s secure energy and advanced manufacturing objectives. In fulfilling our charter as a Federally Funded Research and Development Center FFRDC, we work strategically with a broad set of government and private sector partners to fully understand and meet their needs and to transfer vital technologies to the commercial market advancing local, regional, and national economies. This deep understanding of mission needs allows us to devise innovative solutions, providing enhanced value to the Nation while leveraging DOE’s investment in the foundational competencies of SRNL.

SRNL has an ongoing, comprehensive engagement with the Department of Defense (DOD) organizations at Fort Gordon which include Intelligence Community (IC) entities, Army Military Intelligence Brigades (MIB), and Army cyber elements as part of our Cybersecurity Strategy. SRNL has had a successful relationship with Ft. Gordon’s IC for several years resulting in a strategically relevant relationship. We have also established an MOU with the Army Cyber School to collaborate in areas enabling SRNL to develop technologies that support military operations and the defense of the national infrastructure.

SRNL’s growing relationship with other Ft. Gordon intelligence and cyber elements will underpin our research and development of technologies that meet specific DoD mission requirements and enhance relevant SRNL competencies. Reciprocally, SRNL presents partnering opportunities for DoD entities through engineering and scientific staff, Laboratory infrastructure, and joint duty assignments. We will continue to formalize working and programmatic relationships to establish the strategic SRNL/DoD engagement framework.


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Figure 2 - Laboratory’s Strategic Approach for 2020-2025

Our Leadership Team works with DOE and other strategic partners to direct our priorities and efforts as we protect the Nation by putting science to work. Our strategic approach is illustrated in Figure 2. At the top level (green boxes), the map shows broad mission areas encompassing environmental management, nuclear deterrent, and national security, as critical programmatic needs met by activities performed at SRNL. The strategic goals (yellow boxes) are based on our unique capabilities and expertise to ensure delivery of programs and products required by customers categorized within the green boxes. The future mission enablers (light blue boxes) show the ways we will innovate for future growth, including our Laboratory Directed Research and Development program (LDRD). As we describe strategic goals, some specific objectives for those goals are highlighted in this document. A separate implementation plan for this strategy map will be used to further refine objectives and measure our success, guiding our execution in addressing the national challenges targeted by our goals.


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Protecting the Nation by Applying Science

For more than 20 years, Savannah River National Laboratory has been improving technology so that the manufacturing process for turning legacy high-level nuclear waste into a stable glass can be safer and take less time and money.

Strategic Goal 1: Legacy Waste Cleanup

Cold War legacy chemical and radiological waste threatens the health of U.S. citizens and the safety of our environment. While significant progress has been made to mitigate these risks, many difficult technical challenges remain.

It is estimated that full completion of this work will require more than $300 billion over the next century. We are working in partnership with DOE-EM leadership, site offices, and contractors to address this national priority. Additionally, as the lead DOE-EM and DOE-LM Laboratory and an FFRDC, we are providing counsel to key policy and decision owners on validation and evaluation of the newly rolled out End State Contracting model.

We have developed and demonstrated innovative technologies and processes for cleanup and remediation, delivering multi-billion-dollar savings in life-cycle costs to DOE-EM. Our expertise comes from decades of experience in support of design, startup and operations of processing and remediation facilities. This wealth of experience and expertise combined with


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our capabilities in advanced manufacturing will reduce costs, shorten schedules and increase the safety of DOE’s environmental cleanup mission, while simultaneously leveraging our scientific and engineering findings and technologies to DOE-LM’s important legacy land and asset management mission.

Strategic Objectives: 1.1. Utilize SRNL’s partnerships with DOE-EM cleanup and DOE-LM sites, and other

National Laboratories, to expand the deployment of proven technologies and practical innovation to advance DOE-EM/DOE-LM objectives. 1.1.1. Provide technical and engineering expertise to evaluate program approaches

across the DOE Complex through decision support tools and develop and test proposed alternatives to reduce lifecycle costs.

1.1.2. Develop and deploy innovative technologies and nuclear chemical process engineering through collaboration with the Office of Science, DOE-EM’s Office of Technology Development, and DOE-EM’s contractors accelerating field deployment for the environmental cleanup missions and site closures and providing a sound technical basis for sustainable management of sites post-closure.

1.1.3. Effectively lead the DOE-EM National Laboratory Network (DOE-EMNLN) to provide technically sound and cost-effective solutions to DOE-EM and DOE-LM’s challenges.

1.2. Incorporate discoveries from the SRNL Strategic Enablers of Smart Manufacturing, Process Intensification, Remote Systems, and Modeling/Simulation to advance cleanup mission objectives. 1.2.1. Develop strategic partnerships with academic, government, and industrial

science and innovation leaders that sustain, develop and enhance the capabilities and competencies needed to accelerate the technology development pipeline and apply risk-informed strategies to achieve optimal end states.

1.2.2. Work with DOE-EM field offices and contractors to tailor innovative techniques and processes to specific customer needs.

1.2.3. Evaluate existing DOE-EM and DOE-LM data from across the complex, using available data analytic tools to develop long-term treatment or monitoring strategies. Where appropriate, work with DOE and contractor personnel to deliver a compelling basis for change to stakeholders and regulators.

1.3. Improve the acquisition pathway for the next generation of scientists/engineers in environmental cleanup/remediation technologies, to address the DOE-EM/DOE-LM technical workforce skill-set gap. 1.3.1. Expand partnerships with DOE-EM Minority Serving Institutions Program

enabling expanded post-doctoral and intern programs. 1.3.2. Expand partnerships with other universities and institutions to better leverage

programs in key core competency areas through targeted recruitment of interns and cooperative assignments, and participation in advisory boards at universities with relevant technical programs.


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Invented in the 1980s by Savannah River National Lab, the Thermal Cycling Absorption Process (TCAP) is the world’s most efficient hydrogen isotope separations technology. The next generation of the TCAP system will operate at 1/10 the current scale and with 50 percent greater capacity to improve the cost to produce tritium.

Strategic Goal 2: Nuclear Deterrent

Ensure a Sustainable Tritium Supply to Meet Current and Future Stockpile Needs

As the primary tritium Laboratory serving NNSA, we are the only National Laboratory with the comprehensive technical competencies, personnel, and infrastructure to perform large-scale tritium processing research, stockpile surveillance, and key aspects of Gas Transfer System (GTS) development. Our competencies provide the full range of critical technologies essential for a sustainable tritium enterprise. These functions are essential to the stockpile stewardship mission of sustaining a safe and reliable U.S. nuclear deterrent.

Strategic Objectives: 2.1. Provide research and development support to the Weapons Design Agencies to

accelerate and ensure new GTSs are available to meet current stockpile and Life Extension Program requirements. These efforts are essential for modernizing and sustaining the Nation’s nuclear deterrent.

2.1.1. Expand partnerships with Design Agencies on weapons systems and surveillance. 2.2. Develop, validate, and implement chemical processing and purification approaches

to meet current and future tritium stockpile needs to ensure uninterrupted supply, lower capital costs, and improve safety.


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2.2.1. Implement the Tritium Technology Development Plan. 2.3. Work with academia/NNSA/industry to bring process intensification and advanced

manufacturing and supply chain management approaches to strengthen and ensure the future tritium supply chain.

2.3.1. Strengthen tritium supply chain through further collaborations in process intensification, advanced manufacturing, and advanced supply chain management.

2.4. Work with NNSA and the National Laboratories to identify and evaluate alternative tritium target irradiation approaches, including the development of advanced reactors for tritium production to provide strategic security options while gaining incremental technology advancement.

2.4.1. Continue engagement with NNSA, National Laboratories, and industry so that SRNL is prepared when NNSA (re)initiates effort to define a new tritium production strategy for post-Tennessee Valley Authority (potentially in FY20).

Develop the Human and Intellectual Capital Required to Support Pit Production in the Proposed SRPPF The DOE/NNSA Office of Defense Programs is executing activities to support the FY2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) requirements to produce no fewer than 80 plutonium (Pu) pits per year (ppy) by 2030. The DOE/NNSA’s ability to maintain plutonium capabilities and increase production capacity is vital to sustaining the nuclear weapons stockpile. The DOE/NNSA Administrator selected a recommended alternative to repurpose building 226-2F (former Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility) to produce 50 ppy by 2030 and concurrently continue to invest in Plutonium Pit Facility (PF-4) at Los Alamos to produce an enduring 30 ppy by 2026. In the near-term, SRNL is supporting the SRPPF project by providing science and engineering subject-matter-expertise (SME) for pit production flow sheet unit operation process development and production equipment facility layout for a DOE O 413.3B Critical Decision 1 (CD-1) deliverable in FY20. If CD-1 is approved SRNL will assume a long-term role as the Technical Authority for pit product quality as well as the responsibility for all analytical chemistry and materials characterization operations in the SRPPF. To serve these roles SRNL will need to acquire critical pit production knowledge from Los Alamos. Strategic Objectives:

2.5. Continue SRPPF project support by providing pit production unit operations SME. 2.5.1. Expand technology development scope to include robotics, automation and in-process monitoring for enhanced safety and security.

2.6. Develop science and engineering underpinnings required to support pit production at SRPPF.

2.6.1. Establish a training rotation program with Los Alamos pit production line organizations. 2.6.2. Establish a plutonium metal materials characterization capability at SRNL.


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Savannah River National Laboratory’s Mobile Plutonium Facil ity is the world’s only mobile recovery capabi lity that can be deployed to safely characterize, stabil ize and package weapons usable plutonium for removal and transport to advance global nuclear security. SRNL has developed the MPF Lite system ( inset) using principles of process intensif ication to increase materials throughput by 200 percent in one-third the fac il i ty footprint.

Strategic Goal 3: Nuclear Materials Threat Reduction

Reduce Threats Associated with the Global Spread of Nuclear Materials

Various forms of vulnerable, weapons-usable nuclear materials reside in countries around the globe. If improperly secured, these materials can pose a significant risk to public safety and to our national security. A primary objective of the United States is to ensure that weapons-usable excess nuclear materials of U.S. origin are appropriately secured in a stable state suitable for long-term storage and stewardship. Alternatively, the materials may be removed and dispositioned. SRNL leverages its nuclear material processing and shipping expertise in support of NNSA to work globally, ensuring the United States can meet the above challenges.

As the United States continues to lead the global effort to minimize inventories of weapons-usable uranium and plutonium to mitigate the risk of the proliferation of fissile materials throughout the world, SRNL is committed to use all its resources and expertise to bring this mission to fruition.

Strategic Objectives: 3.1. Develop and apply innovative process technologies and infrastructure to convert excess

nuclear materials into useful products to meet the Nation’s critical needs or disposal waste forms.

3.1.1. Develop and implement programs for isotope production and recovery from legacy spent fuel targets.


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3.1.2. Develop and implement new capabilities within SRS to meet the needs of the Nation’s critical materials needs.

3.2. Apply nuclear handling, packaging, and transport competencies to safely and effectively remove and eliminate vulnerable weapons-usable nuclear materials.

3.2.1. Support NNSA as their lead Laboratory for plutonium and irradiated uranium removals. Maintain NNSA’s rapid response mobile plutonium facility capability.

3.2.2. Serve as the national pillar for NNSA’s U.S. High Performance Research Reactor Conversion Program Cross Cutting activities.

3.3. Develop disposition technologies for excess fissile materials, integrating principles of advanced manufacturing, mobile and agile capabilities, packaging and waste form advances, and reduce life cycle schedule and costs while increasing reliability and safety for domestic and international processing challenges.

3.3.1. Identify and pursue mobile systems for nuclear material retrieval and processing. 3.3.2. Advance concepts for next generation processing and accelerated disposition of

nuclear materials, including spent fuel and plutonium. 3.4. Advance Nuclear Material package development, design, and testing capabilities for

next-generation shipping and storage packages. 3.4.1. Advance nuclear materials packaging technology to meet DOE-complex needs.

Strengthen the U.S. Government’s Nuclear Assessments and Forensics Capabilities

The United States must maintain the ability to assess the nuclear capabilities of other nations and anticipate or attribute illicit acts involving nuclear materials. We work closely with the DOE Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (DOE-IN), NNSA, the Intelligence Community (IC), other DOE National Laboratories, and various federal agencies developing and applying technical capabilities to address these requirements.

Strategic Objectives: 3.5. Enhance the Nation’s capabilities to detect, characterize, assess, and track nuclear

materials and processes anywhere across the globe to anticipate national security threats and inform governmental decisions on national policy and response.

3.5.1. Develop “test beds” to better address IC customer requirements. 3.5.2. Diversify and expand support to the IC to address high priority requirements. 3.5.3. Ensure infrastructure meets operational requirements and sustains program

development. 3.5.4. Develop and deploy advanced nuclear signature collection technologies and

systems to meet specific mission needs, including refined approaches to collect gaseous and particulate nuclear fuel cycle signatures.

3.5.5. Advance analysis and characterization capabilities, from high-rad scenarios to ultra-trace measurements that meet U.S. Government forensics and attribution requirements.

3.5.6. Expand USG capabilities to quantify the behavior of signature materials in the environment.


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3.5.7. Establish SRNL as a quality control (QC) reference material production Laboratory.

3.6. Advance nuclear materials environmental fate and transport modeling to meet safety, emergency response, and national security requirements.

3.6.1. Enhance atmospheric and hydrologic fate and transport modeling capabilities to support detection, analysis, and characterization objectives.

3.6.2. Expand and demonstrate the capability for comprehensive modeling of tritium fate in the environment.

3.7. Enhance the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Program to meet DOE and broader national security and intelligence requirements.

3.7.1. Establish a secure test bed within SRS to advance UAS competencies and pursue UAS research and development regarding performance enhancements and payload integration.


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Strategic Goal 4: Secure Energy & Manufacturing

Advance Regional, National, and International Initiatives to Achieve National Secure Energy and Advanced Manufacturing Goals

A broad set of secure and cost-effective sources of energy are needed to support national security and manufacturing competitiveness on a global scale. SRNL is leading the formation of regional energy and manufacturing innovation clusters focused on furthering and increasing the security for a broad set of energy sources. We are also pioneering advanced chemical and materials manufacturing methods, resulting in lowered energy use and increased global competitiveness. SRNL is fostering the free flow of new concepts to ensure secure energy and manufacturing innovations are put to work, bolstering our Nation’s economic security through the development of partnerships with academic and industrial leaders in the Southeast and across the Nation.

Strategic Objectives: 4.1. Explore energy materials with a variety of platforms and systems, supporting energy

science and national security applications to advance our nation’s competitiveness and understanding of science in a global marketplace.

4.1.1. Actively engage universities, industries and National Laboratories through Nanomaterial science initiatives, working groups, and program activities.

4.1.2. Leverage the SRNL LDRD to extend Secure Energy Manufacturing technology and innovation in energy materials leadership.

4.2. Develop innovative solutions to increase electrical network security, reliability and resiliency by further developing our regional partnership with Clemson’s e-Grid, providing cyber-physical solutions securing the Nation’s electric grid.

4.2.1. Engage strategic consultants to guide industry interaction and create action plans. 4.2.2. Actively engage outside universities, industries and National Laboratories in all

relevant proposals. 4.2.3. Promote leadership in grid security, resiliency, and recovery through

sponsoring/hosting/coordinating regional and national level workshops/meetings, and symposia.

4.2.4. Seek memberships in regional and national grid security related working groups, committees, and organizations.

4.3. Establish the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative to develop and deploy innovative advanced manufacturing solutions, reducing costs, shortening schedules and increasing the safety of DOE-EM and NNSA missions.

4.3.1. In collaboration with Laboratory senior management identify current AMC facility requirements to support current Laboratory strategic direction.

4.4. Advance nuclear energy technologies focused on innovative commercial spent fuel transport, storage, treatment, and disposition technologies, systems, and facilities to secure the Nation’s Nuclear Energy Fuel Cycle.

4.4.1. Actively engage outside universities, industries and National Laboratories through DOE-NE initiatives, working groups, and program activities.


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4.5. Develop advanced materials and engineering techniques, including characterization methods such as neutron scattering, to advance tritium separations, manufacturing, and supply chain performance.

4.5.1. Actively engage outside universities, industries and National Laboratories through Tritium Science and NNSA initiatives, working groups, and program activities.

4.5.2. Leverage the SRNL LDRD to extend Secure Energy Manufacturing technology and innovation leadership.

4.6. Advance fusion energy technologies with a focus on development of tritium compatible material systems, mitigation of corrosion in aggressive fusion energy environments, and deployment of tritium purification methods.

4.6.1. Actively engage outside universities, industries and National Laboratories through ARPA-E and Office of Science - Fusion Energy Program initiatives, working groups, and program activities.

4.7. Advance application of artificial intelligence including machine learning, computer vision, deep learning, and other techniques to material science and engineering problems including corrosion and novel materials development.

4.7.1. Actively engage outside universities, industries and National Laboratories through EERE, ARPA-E, DOE-EM, and other DOE office initiatives, working groups, and program activities.

SRNL Campus is currently prepared to take on the mult idisciplinary missions of tomorrow.

Strategic Goal 5: Pioneering Science

Develop People, Capabilities, and Facilities to Conduct World Class Research

From its inception, the Laboratory has been performing pioneering research in material science, metallurgy, environmental science, and engineering. In fact, many of the large-scale


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remediation, engineering, and processing projects currently active at the Savannah River Site were originally conceived and implemented by the Laboratory’s personnel. Over the last two decades, as these large projects became fully operational, the site was slated for closure and the investments in facilities, and pioneering science at the Laboratory diminished. We are now at the point that advanced technologies produced by the Laboratory are dated. To be relevant as an enduring capability, we need to invest in our people, facilities, and establish new capabilities to explore new scientific realms.

Our strategy to develop people, capabilities, and facilities relies on leveraging LDRD funds along with utilization of a 10-year facility plan with targeted Institutional General Plant Projects (IGPP) funds while keeping the tax rates at a steady state. This is possible because we have begun to increase our programmatic funding base which proportionally increased the LDRD pool and allows for a larger portion of the overhead to be used to support and maintain our facilities.

The LDRD program is our primary source of discretionary funding for research concepts and programs that provide early investment to enable our current strategic goals and future missions. The program cultivates new science and technology ideas we expect to mature into next-generation capabilities to meet future national needs. LDRD positions us for future mission impact through early exploration and application of creative ideas aligned with our four program areas.

To deliver pioneering science-driven research for SRNL’s future, we are establishing an independent office that integrates the LDRD program with SRNL’s Postdoctoral program, our university outreach program, and the joint faculty program with regional universities. The LDRD program also plays a key role in our human resource pipeline, recruitment, and retention strategies. We strongly promote the involvement of our post-doctoral associates and early career staff in LDRD projects, so they can benefit from mentoring by our experienced staff and have an avenue to apply their new concepts and thinking in our competencies. A named post-doctoral fellowship (i.e., Dwight D. Eisenhower Fellowship) began in FY19. SRNL expects to bring its first Eisenhower Fellow on-board in FY20 with an additional Fellow each subsequent year. The program’s principal objective is to attract the best scientific minds at an early phase, who are capable of driving nation-shaping innovations over the course of their career.

A new Discovery Science program, funded by LDRD funds, will begin in 2020. The program seeks to broaden SRNL’s basic science to foster revolutionary discoveries, expanding on our historically significant applied contributions and building an enduring foundation for future solutions to enhance the long-term security of the Nation. The program aims to cultivate fundamental scientific advances in our knowledge of chemical and physical phenomena to improve our understanding of nature and provide new predictive insights into processes and systems of transformational impact. By doing so, it will ultimately position the Laboratory for greater scientific leadership and programmatic growth into the next 10–20 years


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Strategic Objectives: 5.1. Recruit promising talent; identify and hire 20 postdoctoral fellows each year. 5.2. Retain the best; develop a staffing plan that allows for transition of the top one-third of

postdoctoral fellows to our permanent workforce. 5.3. Ensure that more than 50 percent of LDRD funds are dedicated to fundamental sciences,

furthering pioneering research. 5.4. Provide world class research by publishing LDRD project in reputable peer reviewed

journals. 5.5. Champion IGPP projects to invest in unique capabilities.

Strategic Goal 6: Establish an Independent National Laboratory

Developing Programmatic and Business Practices to Successfully Conclude Transition of SRNL to an Independent National Laboratory as Required and Defined by DOE

From the time that Savannah River Site was established, a collection of capabilities was created to help the site with process development, as well as complex material characterization to support the nuclear materials production and environmental remediation efforts on site. Over the following decades, these capabilities were enhanced and applied under the Savannah River Laboratory and then the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) banners. In 2004, the Secretary of Energy designated SRTC as a National Laboratory based on its contributions and the important role it plays in the energy, environmental remediation, and defense programs of the United States. The Laboratory was also renamed the Savannah River National Laboratory.

In FY17, at the direction of EM, SRNL was established as a separate and independent business unit within the M&O contract. As an independent organization, we are actively leveraging and optimizing our core competencies to manage the critical business functions needed to meet DOE and NNSA missions in alignment with FFRDC requirements. To support this effort, we perform regular assessments for each part of the business to identify areas for improvement. For example, these assessments identified the establishment of the DOE-SR Laboratory Office, with a dedicated Contracting Officer, as a critical need to effectively implement this strategic plan and deliver on DOE and NNSA missions. We have also identified enhancing the Laboratory’s competencies in business development, estimating, project controls, project management, business management, and contract management as critical to long-term success as an independent National Laboratory.

SRNL will continue to evolve as a multi-disciplined National Laboratory that plays a strategic role in the DOE complex, the region, and the world. To accomplish the full transition to a stand-alone entity, the Laboratory must fully mature its business and administrative practices, expand its programmatic base to create enough of a tax base to pay for essential services, and utilize modern accounting and business tools to create lower-cost and more efficient business services. The Laboratory must continue to bring the following objectives to fruition:


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Strategic Objectives: 6.1. Realign the organizational structure to reflect accountability and cost efficiency. 6.2. Enhance business systems to improve cost transparency and enhance capabilities to

accurately estimate, propose, and manage research projects. 6.3. Develop external partnerships providing a more professional and lower cost training

program. 6.4. Develop business plans to increase programmatic expansion in work for national

security programs and industrial partnerships and enhance business development capabilities to implement those plans.

6.5. Support programmatic expansion by lowering cost basis to improve competitiveness and invest in facilities and capabilities.

6.6. Work with the DOE field office and HQ to increase the IGPP budget (without increasing the current tax burden), improving the critical facilities and infrastructure.

Strategic Goal 7: Execute an Effective Human Capital Management Plan

Our Human Capital Management strategy includes a comprehensive approach to incorporate recruitment, new employee onboarding, employee engagement, career path management, education and training, performance management, feedback, and alignment with the SRNL Strategic and Institutional Plan. We have made progress in the utilization of employee surveys to assess engagement, a focused SRNL orientation for new employees, mentoring circles and leadership forums led by senior management, leadership training for upcoming and established leaders developed by USC-Aiken, and increased engagement with universities. Continued focus will remain in this area.

Strategic Objectives: 7.1. Recruit and hire the best talent for SRNL-wide competency needs. 7.2. Develop and execute a University Relations program that continue to expand university

engagement including personnel interaction, access to facilities, and training and development opportunities. Utilize this program to backfill expertise at all levels. Recruit and hire postdoctoral candidates.

7.3. Develop and execute programs to efficiently onboard new staff so they can quickly gain the understanding of their role and SRNL’s broader missions.

7.4. Develop and execute mentoring and education programs that support personnel as they grow into advanced technical, leadership, or management positions.


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Delivering Mission Results The Priorities that Shape Us This set of national challenges establishes the areas of management and programmatic emphasis that drive our strategic resource allocations and priorities. Our approach to these national challenges also defines how we continue to shape our core competencies.

Our most important responsibility is to ensure the organization’s scientific and technical competencies are cutting edge, while working in partnership with our sponsors and strategic partners to align our competencies to meet the highest-priority national challenges.

The SRNL Leadership Team works to integrate Laboratory resources with SRS resources, while investing in core competencies for the future. We do this to address emerging national challenges through capabilities that deliver innovative solutions with excellence.

Collaboratively Managing Competencies We collaboratively manage our competencies in association with DOE, NNSA, and our strategic partners through the annual Laboratory Planning Process. This process ensures that necessary skills and capabilities essential to support each of SRNL’s program areas—Environmental Stewardship, National Security, Nuclear Materials Management, and Secure Energy Manufacturing—are sufficiently maintained and aligned with the needs of those missions.

The four Core Competencies provided in the table below are tailored to meet the missions of our sponsors. Each competency draws on groups of scientific and engineering experts from a wide range of technical disciplines. Interdisciplinary teams form the building blocks (or integrated capabilities) we use to integrate, sustain and advance our mission-focused Core Competencies.


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Figure 3 - SRNL Core Competencies

We manage the health and evolution of these competencies using a Laboratory-wide process led by our Chief Research Officer in cooperation with each of the Laboratory Directorates. This process is critical for us to anticipate the challenges our customers will face and develop the skill sets essential to the delivery of high-value products to meet those challenges. Through this process we have identified several additional capabilities key to effectively meeting our sponsors’ mission goals. Development activities for these additional capabilities will serve as the focal point of activities at the AMC and are critical to achieving the goals outlined in our planned evolution.

These critical competency elements will allow for the establishment of an innovation paradigm for legacy nuclear waste cleanup, nuclear materials management, national security, and secure energy missions technologies as adapted to the Laboratory missions. They will offer the opportunity to routinely enhance risk management and improve program performance, while reducing life-cycle costs and accelerating schedule.

Adapting New Integrated Core Capabilities for the Future Process Modeling combines the ability to accurately see deep inside processing procedures with the use of realistic numerical models underlying the chemistry. This capability will enable us to develop transformational enhancements in the characterization, control, and optimization of


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nuclear chemical and manufacturing processes. The principal tools under development are the detection systems capable of multi-dimensional data collection, sensor fusion, data visualization, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Cybersecurity focuses on the development of highly secure communication and data platforms for critical infrastructures, manufacturing operations systems, and national security applications. We will use the current SRS infrastructure and security-focused environment with our unique instrumentation development capabilities to establish physical and virtual test beds, investigate industrial control system vulnerabilities, and develop solutions ensuring the security and resiliency of the national electric grid. Cybersecurity is also critical to success of future DOE-EM programs using fully automated and autonomous adaptive control systems. Process Intensification tightly couples heat transfer, mass transfer, and reaction kinetics to achieve significant reductions in equipment size and processing times. The focus is on developing nuclear chemical manufacturing systems that have smaller footprints and take advantage of past and future developments in industrial chemical process intensification. This will result in higher process efficiencies, lower capital equipment costs, and allow for more flexibility in process utilization. Additive Manufacturing is a process of joining material in a 3-D form, typically in a layered fashion. The focus is on driving discovery and creative synthesis and processing of materials and systems, and fabrication of enhanced process intensification devices with complex geometries. A key approach is to inherently integrate quality assurance to every part printed. This significantly reduces total manufactured cost and creates improved production repeatability and quality control. Remote Systems is focused on enhancing process and worker safety through the adaptation and incorporation of state-of-the-art robotics into DOE nuclear chemical manufacturing processes. This supports the development of high-tech, skilled operator jobs and increases the level of safety. Virtual/Augmented Reality is focused on applying cost-effective, cutting-edge virtual reality/industrial simulation technology to improve manufacturing process deployment times, improve worker training and education to enhance safety, and promote better understanding of DOE nuclear chemical processing systems. This results in a more “workplace-ready” workforce, and dramatically reduces integration time for work in a complex operating environment. Reducing the time for availability of a workforce with critical nuclear operating environment skills is paramount given the current workforce demographic. Transferring our Technology For much of SRNL’s history, the development of intellectual property depended on closed innovation. It occurred within the boundaries of a closed laboratory, focused on research and development for the start-up and operation of processes and facilities to establish the U.S. nuclear deterrent. The classified nature of the work required it to be performed by Laboratory employees.


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The end of the Cold War brought new missions requiring new knowledge and partners from outside the DOE complex. This opened the R&D innovation process allowing SRNL to take advantage of the wealth of external knowledge and, conversely, better leverage and share Laboratory knowledge for the benefit of DOE and the Nation. Today, SRNL’s innovation process heavily depends on shared knowledge and expertise from the Laboratory, end users, governments, universities, and the public domain. Laboratory leadership uses this open process to develop and drive strategic intent to maintain Laboratory vitality and deliver more competitive and innovative solutions to global challenges. The complex process of transferring technology out of the Laboratory is as much an “art” as the innovative process of research and development is a “science.” The processes, techniques and mechanisms for successfully moving innovation into the private sector are important to fulfilling our DOE mission. These efforts showcase our technical capabilities and core competencies, while increasing U.S. competitiveness and strengthening our economic prosperity through innovation-based entrepreneurs and high-growth companies. Cultivating our Expertise We depend on our dedicated workforce of roughly 1,000 highly-trained scientists, engineers, technical specialists, and business and Laboratory operations staff. They are essential to supporting and advancing the scientific, engineering, and business innovations needed to address our missions.

Because of our location on an operating, industrial-scale government site, our people are not only world class in their scientific and technical skills, but also benefit from close affiliation with and actual work experience in operating nuclear materials processing facilities. This laboratory environment is unique in the DOE complex and provides our staff with valuable perspectives that help them develop practical, responsive solutions. We continue to leverage our partnerships with SRS operations to create opportunities for personnel exchanges and other developmental assignments so our new staff will benefit from operational and hands-on applied skills experience.

We continue to make progress in recruiting the next generation of staff while many of our highly trained experts are approaching the end of their successful careers. The average employee age in the laboratory is just 47 compared to 49 last year. Further, this represents a drop in average age from 2016’s 51. As shown in Figure 1, the age demographics of the SRNL population are leveling out across the age groups. We expect the annual attrition rate for SRNL will remain at 8-10 percent over the next few years. Recruiting, hiring and onboarding the right talent for the future will remain a top priority for SRNL. The chart below captures the age breakdown of the SRNL work force as of June 2019.


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Table 1 - SRNL Age Distribution of Full-service Employees

Revitalize Facilities to Support Current and Future Missions Our operating environment ensures a safe and secure workplace. We have consistently been one of the top-rated facilities within the National Laboratory System, ranking number 1 in safety in 2018. Supporting current and future missions at this same level of excellence will require an ongoing facility revitalization plan. Our approach envisions extending the life of the current radiological laboratories to cost-effectively meet the requirements of the current missions, while investing in new radiological facilities to support long-term research programs including Pu, U, and 3H processing and waste form development, as well as advanced manufacturing, national security, and intelligence community missions.

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104112

72 74

58

110

190

165

73

8 5

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

19-24 24-29 29-34 34-39 39-44 44-49 49-54 54-59 59-64 64-69 69-74 74-79

Total

Total


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Recapitalizing SRNL’s facilities to incorporate state-of-the-art R&D technology will enable the Laboratory to endure and thrive. SRNL’s approach to achieving this recapitalization is to align our 10-year infrastructure plan with overall DOE-EM and NNSA investment programs, ensuring our facilities and scientific capabilities are aligned with strategic goals. The below table is a summary of the highest priority infrastructure needs for the Laboratory to support our strategic direction.

Figure 4 - SRNL High-priority Infrastructure Needs

Planning for Successful Mission Delivery We manage our portfolio of sponsored projects through program leads who are responsible for our major program areas in Environmental Stewardship, National Security, Nuclear Materials Management, and Secure Energy Manufacturing. The program leads have the responsibility to interface with our DOE and NNSA sponsors, and our Strategic Partnerships Program clients and manage the overall portfolio of project work in their program area.

Each program area lead works with their program sponsors and clients to develop and execute a Program Plan identifying current and future program objectives. The SRNL Leadership Team uses the collective outlines of program scope and objectives as critical input to inform Laboratory planning for LDRD, infrastructure, and assessing human resource/staffing needs. The SRNL Strategic and Institutional Plan serves as a compass with which each mission area is aligned,


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allowing us to both meet the needs of our program sponsors and to carry out the higher-level vision and goals.

The purpose of our Program Plan is threefold:

• Document the strategic direction, the current and proposed portfolio of activities, and critical new initiatives across all mission areas.

• Share detailed program planning with all members of the SRNL Leadership Team and staff.

• Provide critical input to the Laboratory’s resource and infrastructure allocation and planning efforts.

Alignment with DOE Strategies The SRNL Strategic and Institutional Plan presents our vision for the DOE-EM National Laboratory, with its unique and critical mission role for NNSA. This plan describes the strategies that we have developed to continuously transform the technical competencies, human capital, infrastructure, and business systems to enable SRNL to both meet the Department’s expectations for National Laboratories and to provide innovative, high-value, cost-effective advanced chemical manufacturing technology solutions for specific DOE/NNSA mission needs.

Our vision for SRNL as the complex-wide leader in advanced chemical and materials manufacturing builds upon our history of innovation and our working-level partnerships with federally-owned, industrial-scale manufacturing facilities.

The SRNL vision is focused on providing system solutions based on a sound scientific foundation. SRNL Program Plans for Environmental Stewardship, National Security, Nuclear Materials Management, and Secure Energy Manufacturing mission areas help us articulate and manage the portfolio of projects that we execute toward the benefit of our mission sponsors.

SRNL’s strategic focus represents the confluence of the Department’s expectations; our strategic vision to meet those expectations; DOE, NNSA, and Strategic Partnership Program mission needs; and SRNL execution of work. We use the strategic initiatives to measure our performance toward achieving our overall vision and our ability to continually increase our effectiveness for DOE, NNSA, and our Country.

Documents

Savannah River National Laboratory 2020–2025 Strategic and ...€¦ · Strategic Goal 7: Execute an Effective Human Capital Management Plan Our Human Capital Management strategy