A venture aimed at expediting remediation of nuclear waste at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina could cost more than the original $50 million estimate unless the management team in charge can rein in expenses, a project stakeholder said this week.
The site’s management and operations contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), in December 2015 announced plans to accelerate the facility’s environmental cleanup mission and save money through the development of a public-private partnership. The contractor and the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) have teamed with the Aiken Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a group headed by a local economic development group. Together, the team plans to bring a 70,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing center (AMC) to the area located no more than 20 miles from SRNL.
Will Williams, a member of the manufacturing partnership, said he is optimistic construction will begin in the second quarter of 2018 and finish up later that year. The team is waiting on DOE approval to reprice the venture.
The facility was supposed to cost between $45 million and $50 million. But the guaranteed maximum price (GMP) period expired in December, meaning the expense has likely increased, Williams said via email. “We will then have to go back and reprice everything because GMPs’ have a short shelf life. The cost of construction has increased since last fall. We will take what we had designed and price it then we will have to go through a round of Value Engineering (VE) to get the cost back to $45 million. VE means you go in and decide what can be cut, removed, etc.,” he said, adding that cuts could include square footage, walls, and windows.
The facility will include chemistry laboratories, engineering fabrication labs, and industrial work space. Construction will be funded through the public partner and SRNS would then lease the facility. DOE has not publicly cited the amount of cleanup spending that could be saved via the facility, but says the use of technology and reducing waste cleanup timelines would help cut costs.
The SRS waste cleanup mission includes roughly 35 million gallons of radioactive waste stored in more than 40 tanks, a byproduct of nuclear weapons production during the Cold War. According to DOE, waste cleanup at the site could require $25 billion more than the original estimate of about $65 billion, and is expected would take 23 years longer to finish, pushing completion to 2065.
The Department of Energy did not respond to questions on steps it is taking to reprice the project. The agency previously said the new facility will expedite the remediation process at SRS in several ways, such as using robotics to navigate hard-to-reach locations in other SRS locations, which reduces risks for workers. Robotics will also be used to collect waste samples for assessment and decommissioning. Virtual reality would be used to practice procedures before implementing them in the handling of nuclear materials.
Williams said the project has received positive feedback from Energy Secretary Rick Perry and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster. He said the team briefed McMaster on the project in early spring and that the governor has been on board ever since. “Governor McMaster continues to be our best advocate for the project,” Williams said. “(He) has met personally and had several phone conversations with Secretary Perry during the spring about a number of issues and one of those was always the AMC.”
