Source Recovery in the Time of COVID-19

The Off-Site Source Recovery Program (OSRP) has been conducting the field recovery of radioactive sealed sources since the 1990s. This effort has continued over the years with the program consistently meeting or exceeding the source removal metric from the sponsor, the National Nuclear Security Administrations (NNSA’s) Office of Radiological Security (ORS). The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic created a unique challenge to meeting this metric due to the program’s requirement for travel, typically air travel, for field packaging operations. Air travel restrictions at the beginning of the pandemic effectively shut down all field operations. Despite this travel limitation, as well as all staff working from home, OSRP exceeded recovery metrics in both FY20 and FY21. While working from home at the onset of the pandemic, the OSRP team maintained a ready state by communicating with licensee sites and gathering information on excess sources in order to prepare for the resumption of field recovery work. Due to the mission essential nature of our work, OSRP was one of the first ORS programs to resume travel. Once travel resumed, the team tackled significant planning and logistical challenges in implementing its mission. Travel approvals, safety measures, and enhanced planning had to be integrated into all aspects of OSRP recovery operations. Health and safety plans were developed specifically to address COVID risk. Despite the challenges, the team executed this mission and successfully exceeded the recovery metric in both FY20 and FY21. OSRP, ORS, and LANL management demonstrated an ability to work together to adapt and ensure the continued viability of the program in extreme adverse conditions.