December 21, 2014

Closure to Begin at SRS H Tank Farm After Secretarial Determination

By ExchangeMonitor

Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz on Friday signed a determination to allow closure operations to begin at Savannah River’s H Tank Farm. The H tank farm includes Tank 16, which will be the next tank to be closed by DOE, as well as Tank 12. Those tanks have had more than 99 percent of the waste removed and are ready to be grouted in place. “Today’s announcement is an important step in the effort to close tanks at the Savannah River Site, and is a result of hard work and sustained collaboration between partners at the local, state, and federal level,” Moniz said in a statement Friday. “We are now able to move forward to safely, effectively and efficiently clean up and close these tanks in the H Tank Farm, as we work to achieve the key mission of cleaning up the environmental legacy of the Cold War.”

The positive step forward comes as the Department is in dispute resolution with South Carolina over numerous potential missed milestones for high level waste tank closure beginning with Tanks 12 and 16. Savannah River officials have said in recent months they are optimistic that they can close Tank 16 by its September 2015 milestone commitment date. However, Tank 12 has further to go and has been running behind schedule.

Comments are closed.