Distinguished Merit Award: Secured radiopharmaceutical supplier

Ashley Gale, Brian Bimm, Chris Lee, Damir Azimov, Farihah Gulam, and Pratap Benegal

For the work with CNL Quality to obtain an agreement with a radiopharmaceutical supplier. 

In 2021, the CNL Quality Assurance team, under the leadership of Pharmaceutical Quality Manager, Damir Azimov, developed and implemented a new process for qualifying suppliers based on Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). This approach involves evaluating pharmaceutical suppliers using Health Canada Audits and the supplier’s Drug Establishment License.

Distinguished Merit Award: Focus on Four

Alison Gareau, Jody Luckasavitch and Katie Primeau

For the development and implementation of the Focus on Four within the Stewardship Renewal Group.

It had been identified (through recent events, observations and general staff feedback) that CNL’s work planning and execution-related management systems currently lack an emphasis on the importance of the use of worker-centric tools such as human performance tools. Although documentation exists in our management system, observation and feedback suggests that Event-Free Tools (EFT) or human performance tools in general are not discussed, reinforced or trained on consistently. Therefore, a Focus on Four Training Initiative was initiated by the Stewardship Renewal Group (SRG) – led by the Process Improvement team within Decommissioning & Environmental Remediation’s Focus on Four training CNL’s Learning management system.

Four key human performance tools were chosen for the focus of this initiative. These tools were identified as particularly important to SRG missions. These include: Stop / Pause When Unsure, Self-Check, Verification, and Procedure Use & Adherence.

The Focus on Four concept was created to ensure that human performance tools, a key component of our work planning and execution management system, are promoted and used by workers (in conjunction with good work packages, quality pre-job briefs, qualified workers, etc.) as a final defense in preventing an error.

Although training is an important element of this initiative, the goal is not solely to perform a training blitz and increase knowledge and awareness of key human performance tools. Rather, it is to cultivate a series of behaviors to produce repeatable outcomes and promote a culture that supports situational awareness and a questioning attitude.

Distinguished Merit Award: HEPro Chemistry Corrosion Monitoring

Craig Stuart, Guy Leblond, Jacqueline Parco, Kate Davison, Mark Bernans, Mike Horne, Rob Steele, Stanley Okonji, Stephen Cudmore, and Steven McGee

For the work on the development / deployment of the HEPro Chemistry Corrosion Monitoring Service. 

CNL, supported by partnering organization, the University of New Brunswick – Centre for Nuclear Energy Research (UNB-CNER) and subcontractor, Research & Productivity Council (RPC), has successfully developed and deployed a commercial-grade Hydrogen Effusion Probe (HEPro) to provide a corrosion monitoring service.

Part of CNL’s mission is to leverage all of our capabilities for commercial success in Canadian and international markets. Upon recognizing the immediate value of a near real time corrosion monitoring service to the CANDU® fleet and the potential to service industries beyond CANDU, CNL invested Laboratory Directed Science & Technology funds to engineer and fabricate two commercial grade HEPro cabinets in order to be ready for the anticipated demand. This investment enabled CNL to be prepared to deliver the service for the customer, on short notice, when the request came.

Distinguished Merit Award: Learning Management System implementation

Tiffany Orpana, Carly Ritcey, Jacquelyn Purdy, Kristin Morris, and Nicole Deighton

For the implementation of the Learning Management System. 

Through unwavering dedication and commitment to ensuring continuation of access to training records for all CNL employees, representatives from the Training department led the rapid procurement and configuration of a new Learning Management System (LMS) due to software compatibility issues that rendered CNL’s legacy LMS to become obsolete.

Through their dedication, hard work, long hours and willingness to go above and beyond their scope of work, the team has been instrumental in the success of acquiring, configuring and launching the initial phase of the new LMS. Without their efforts, CNL would have experienced a significant gap in accessing training records, putting employees, commercial projects and the company at risk.

Distinguished Merit Award: Eye lens dosimetry

Fawaz Ali, Jason Sun, Neil Leroux, and Victor Golovko

For the work on the eye lens dosimetry research and associated program.

The program was implemented by CNL’s Health, Safety, Security & Environment (HSSE) team as a solution based on S&T research results, making use of existing technology available at CNL, and modifying it for the development of the eye lens dosimetry program. This ingenious decision negated the need for procurement and implementation of new technology, thereby saving CNL an estimated $400,000. This work also helped to get additional research funding from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and CANDU Owners Group (COG).

The significance and value of this work go well beyond CNL; it is beneficial to all Canadians and the international scientific community.

Distinguished Merit Award: Use of Power BI in radiation protection

Luc Chartrand

For the use of Power BI to create an innovative and advanced approach to radiation protection management. 

Dose management for a project presented challenges resulting from a condensed work schedule, lower action levels, and a limited number of qualified staff to perform the work while also completing other unrelated tasks. Traditional methods of data management used by the Radiation Protection department proved insufficient for the project.

When a more comprehensive and advanced method for tracking worker dose was requested, the nominee proposed using Power BI. This data visualization software offers an advanced reporting format which he configured to track all workers against their assigned Dose Control Points (DCPs) and CRL’s Action Levels by incorporation of data from at least two different databases.

Altogether, the reports developed by the nominee offer a novel and extremely efficient use of data that has greatly improved management of work from a Radiation Protection perspective. The combination of reports into a Health Physics or Radiation Protection dashboard brings the department in line with the sophisticated data management techniques of departments such as the Project Management Office.

Distinguished Merit Award: Leased Building Closure Projects

Bob Stephenson, Bradley Bennett, Daniella Bouchard, Hilary Avery, Jennifer Breen, Joe Lacroix, Kayla Miller, Kyle Hickey, Megan Diamond, Monique Godin, Randy Cochrane, Scott Tubman, and Tom Reynard

For the leased building closure projects of Morison, Keys, Core Shed / Library, 107 trailer, and 464 trailer. 

A corporate decision was made to surrender the leases of three buildings in Deep River and two trailers on the CRL site and the Integrated Services Team was tasked with executing the activities required to vacate these buildings. All of the leases expired in 2022, representing a lot of effort by many groups in a relatively short period of time while also maintaining regular operational duties.

The result of these projects for CNL is a sustained cost savings in terms of lease and operating costs for these facilities.

Lastly, reducing the footprint in Deep River to consolidate staff on the Chalk River site aligns with the Vision 2030 plan of modernization and revitalization of the CRL campus.