click here for printable version
Russell Bisping

Highlights of Qualifications

Mr. Bisping has over 30 years in management, oversight, and technical contributions in analytical and environmental laboratories, waste certification and quality assurance in rigorously regulated environments for chemical and radiological constituents. He has successfully worked with agencies successfully to establish laboratory and data quality programs and standards. Agencies served include the U. S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Defense, the Environmental Protection Agency, Washington State Department of Ecology and the New Mexico Environment Department. Mr. Bisping has a broad base of analytical and quality accomplishments. Significant accomplishments include;

• Restructure of assurance requirements of the Analytical Services Program for Fluor Hanford.
• Sponsor and chair of a workshop for regulators and laboratories performed head space gas analysis of TRU waste.
• Chaired the Hanford Analytical Services Quality Assurance Requirements Document (HASQARD) establishing analytical chemistry requirements at Hanford.
• Managed a $60,000,000 laboratory and technical services program for radiological and chemical wastes.
• Establish and chair the integrated contactor board, the Hanford Site Analytical Policy Board, inclusive of Waste Management Inc., Pacific Northwest Laboratory, and Bechtel Hanford Inc. and Fluor Hanford Management, Inc.
• Demonstration of quality and reliability of the Waste Isolation Pilot Project transuranic (TRU) waste certification.
• Manage and publish Revision 5 of the Waste Acceptance Criteria for the Waste Isolation Pilot Project.
• Develop and implement the Quality Assurance program for the Carlsbad Area Office.
• Recipient of George Washington Signature Award for Excellence in Engineering for the establishment of the gas analysis laboratory at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project.
• Created the analytical program allowing the Norfolk Naval Shipyard to be the primary laboratory for PCBs.

Relevant Experience Summary

Quality Assurance

Mr. Bisping is an accomplished quality assurance professional with an accomplished history is analytical and laboratory applications dealing with radiological and chemical waste constituents. His areas of expertise include the areas of TRU waste certification, laboratories procedures, equipment and data control. Mr. Bisping has provided NQA-1 quality assurance audit and consulting services for transuranic waste certification for the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) as well as environmental remediation activities. He has been responsible for the overall oversight and planning for all TRU Waste characterization and certification activities at Hanford; including development, establishment, and interpretation and implementation of the QA policy for the Hanford TRU Program. Mr. Bisping was led the restructuring of the Fluor Hanford Project and the Waste Management Hanford (WMH) Analytical Services Program (ASP). He has performed the duties of the Laboratory Measurement Assurance Manager, responsible for laboratory requirements management and the reliability and defensibility of all scientific data. These facilities included a 230 person high radiation level laboratory, plus a 65 person low radiation level environmental laboratory. He sponsored and chaired the workshop for regulators and all DOE laboratories performing headspace gas analysis of TRU waste for shipment to WIPP. He has also chaired the Hanford Analytical Services Quality Assurance Requirements Document (HASQARD) Focus Group, a multi contractor work group that establishes quality requirements for analytical chemistry at Hanford. Mr. Bisping developed and institutionalized a system of "Method Assessments" that systematically assesses each analytical process within ASP for conformance to applicable regulatory, quality and method requirements.

Mr. Bisping was responsible for the establishment QA Program for the Carlsbad Area Office (CAO) for acceptance by the EPA as regulators of the WIPP. He prepared the QA Program Description and performed a management review of Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) QA Program for WIPP sponsored activities. Mr. Bisping duties also include development of a process for the "Qualification of Existing Data", in conformance with Nuclear Regulatory Commission Guidance, at Sandia National Laboratories that qualified experimental data, not collected under an appropriate QA program, in support of the WIPP project. While at Carlsbad he coordinated activities of sub contractors' audits, assessments and program documentation. Mr. Bispings responsibilities encompassed assessment of all WIPP Laboratory Quality Assurance programs, including all generator site laboratories.

Laboratory/Project Management

As Project Manager Waste Management Laboratories of a high lever analytical laboratory (222-S) and low activity laboratory (WSCF), Mr. Bisping was responsible for TRU Waste Certification, Transportation and Packaging and Pollution Prevention Programs at Hanford. His duties included project direction of $52,000,000 of laboratory and $13,000,000 of other technical activities. Mr. Bisping established and chaired the Hanford Site Analytical Policy Board, providing a forum for integrated decision making on site laboratory policy. Policies and site agreements were implemented with Flour Hanford Inc., Waste Management Inc., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Bechtel Hanford Inc.

Mr. Bisping was also responsible for the waste certification of TRU waste generator sites shipping TRU waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). He was the principle interface for the Carlsbad Area Office (CAO) National TRU Program with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New Mexico Environment Department on waste characterization and site certification matters. Mr. Bisping was responsible for demonstrating the quality and reliability of the WIPP Transuranic waste certification process to the regulators and stakeholders. His duties included the review and audit process nationally of CAO TRU waste certification program at TRU waste generator sites. Mr. Bisping managed the data gathering and publications of the TRU Waste Baseline Inventory Reports (BIR), Revisions 2 and 3 for all TRU waste in the DOE system. He also managed the development and publication of Revision 5 of the Waste Acceptance Criteria for initial waste receipt at WIPP and developed "Acceptable Knowledge" requirements for the characterization of TRU waste.

As Manager of the Environmental Chemistry Branch, at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Mr. Bisping restructured and greatly improved the Quality Control system. The laboratory was a full service environmental lab performing Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (GC/MS) for organic analyses as well as metals by Inductively Coupled Emission Spectroscopy and a full range of other organic and inorganic analyses, including RCRA site closure analyses. Mr. Bisping was responsible for incorporating the use of automated control charts, blind samples and quarterly performance evaluation samples in the laboratory. He also was responsible for the implementation and full utilization of the Shipyard Laboratory Information Management System to improve management access to production. Mr. Bisping improved the efficiency of the environmental laboratory by more than 500% in one and one half years. His innovations include the creation of a program that enabled the laboratory to become the Navy's principle lab for the analysis of PCB's, receiving samples from all fleet and inactive ship elements in the Navy.

In addition to laboratory operations, Mr. Bisping supervised the analysis of samples from the April 19, 1989 turret two explosion aboard the USS Iowa (BB61). Applications of Scanning Electron Microscopy and GC/MS provided significant causal evidence of the explosion.

Principal Scientist

Mr. Bisping was the principal scientist for the TRU Waste Bin, Scale Test at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico. His responsibilities at WIPP included the establishment of the organization, technical procedures, design of sampling protocols, and procurement of equipment. He also hired and trained personnel the personnel required. For his support of the Declaration of Readiness, Mr. Bisping received the George Westinghouse Signature Award for Excellence in Engineering for the establishment of the gas analysis laboratory at the WIPP.

Mr. Bisping was also responsible for the performance of non-routine analytical chemistry at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.  Responsibilities included primary reactor plant and secondary plant performance of ship and submarine reactors in overhaul. Mr. Bisping supervised twelve chemists to cover the multiples of vessels in overhaul.

Education

BS Chemistry, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA.