Funding for Environmental Management (EM) missions at the Savannah River Site would increase by about $111 million over current funding levels under President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget plan. The nearly $1.5 billion request includes $822.6 million for the site’s liquid waste program – an uptick from the $783.5 million appropriated in December’s omnibus. The request for radioactive tank waste stabilization and disposition, $645.3 million, would allow SRS to produce 100 to 110 canisters of high-level waste at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). Over its lifetime, the facility is expected to create 7,800 canisters of waste that it has converted to a less radioactive glass form suitable for long-term storage at a repository. The site celebrated the pouring of its 4,000th canister last month.
Embedded in the liquid waste funding is another $160 million for the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF). Assuming Parsons, the SRS salt waste contractor, meets the schedule and completes construction of the plant this spring, the funding would be used to ramp up startup testing and commissioning of the facility, which is expected to increase the site’s liquid waste processing from 1.6 million gallons a year to 6 million gallons. Currently, the facility is tied up in ongoing conversations between the Energy Department and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) because the federal agency failed to begin operating the SWPF by Oct. 31, 2015. Current fines and back payments for the missed milestone total about $170 million, according to a permit signed in 2006. Though SCDHEC still reserves the right to impose the fines, spokesman Jim Beasley said the agency is pleased that the Energy Department is seeking more money for the facility. “This funding is essential for waste treatment to enable old-style tank closure,” Beasley said.
The request also calls for $311 million for nuclear materials stabilization and disposition, which would primarily occur at the H Canyon facility. The funding would allow for the downblending of EM-owned plutonium at H Canyon for future disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. The funding would also allow for continued processing of spent nuclear fuel and highly enriched uranium at H Canyon. In the outyears, the Energy Department is looking to continue gathering plutonium from other countries through security agreements such as the Global Threat Reduction Initiative. By the end of fiscal 2023, the federal agency aims to complete operations for 3.7 metric tons of plutonium converted to oxide that would ultimately be disposed of using H Canyon. The large uptick in funding is supported by the site, said SRS spokesman Jim Giusti. “If this makes it through Congress with no changes, we’ll be in a position to make some significant progress,” Giusti said.
Other funding requests for SRS missions include $50.8 million for solid waste work, $74 million for soil and water remediation, $27.5 million for surveillance and maintenance, and $134 million for safeguards and security.
