Los Alamos Bids Farewell to Three Interns Who Made Significant Contributions

Sofia Enriquez, right, with mentor Mike Erickson, Newport News Nuclear BWXT Environmental Remediation Water Program director. Enriquez created a program for users to generate geophysical well log cross-sections to assist in further interpretation of the lithology of the aquifer beneath Los Alamos National Laboratory.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office legacy cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT (N3B) closed out another successful 10-week summer internship program in August with presentations by this year's three interns, Sofia Enriquez, Sam Gervais and Erin Stucky.

Over the past 10 weeks, Enriquez created a program for users to generate visual geophysical well log cross-sections, a valuable analytical tool that adds spatial context to the well logs with data about the physical properties of the materials within and surrounding the well bore. This program will significantly decrease time spent graphing and allow for more advanced interpretations of the lithology and characteristics of the aquifer beneath Los Alamos National Laboratory, aiding in the investigation of plumes containing chromium and other contamination.

This was Enriquez's second summer internship with N3B, and she also worked for the company during her 2023 winter break. Enriquez's hometown is Los Alamos, and she will be a junior at Colorado School of Mines this fall.

"I liked having a major project to work on this summer," Enriquez said. "It made me feel I was making a bigger contribution. And in the course of working and reporting to meetings, I got a very good feel for the kind of work I might be engaged in for my future career to positively impact groundwater protection."

Sam Gervais, left, with mentor Brian Caldwell, Newport News Nuclear BWXT engineering director. Gervais designed a generator uninterruptible power supply system for the Technical Area (TA)-54 Operations Center and helped replace the heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit at Building 2 in TA-54 during his 10-week internship.

It was Gervais' fourth year as a summer intern with N3B. This summer, he designed a generator uninterruptible power supply system to ensure the Technical Area (TA)-54 Operations Center would have power during an outage. Gervais also helped replace the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at TA-54 Building 2 and was engaged with design work for the TA-54 Dome 375, among other projects.

"This year was especially rewarding because I was able to branch out in my own projects and become more immersed within a professional setting," Gervais said.

Gervais hails from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and will be a senior at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo this fall, completing his degree in electrical engineering with a concentration in power systems.

Erin Stucky, right, with mentor Cami Charonko, Newport News Nuclear BWXT Environmental Remediation Water Program project manager. Stucky helped with stormwater and groundwater monitoring projects, analyzed per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances data, quality-checked well completion reports and reviewed documents related to the stormwater telemetry system.

Stucky spent much of her time this summer learning about and helping with stormwater and groundwater monitoring projects, analyzing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) data, quality-checking well completion reports and organizing documents related to the stormwater telemetry system. What really made an impact on her, however, was her work in the field.

"I learned how engineering processes and issues were carried forward and the interconnectivity of the various functions in groundwater testing," Stucky said. "I loved seeing how everything we discussed in meetings was later addressed in the field - making that connection to the physical environment."

A native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Stucky will be a junior at the University of Colorado Boulder, working toward her environmental engineering degree with a mathematics minor.

Brad Smith, N3B president and general manager, followed the internships closely.

"We do everything we can to expose our interns to real world environmental and workplace situations to make internships as valuable as possible," Smith said. "We also gain from the experience. We benefit from the interns' skills and perspectives, and, just as important, every person and team they work with is invigorated by their energy and passion. Plus, at the team level, when we teach, we learn, and that helps reinforce safe actions and processes. It's a win-win arrangement."

-Contributor: Brian Leugs