Technical issues have forced the Department of Energy to significantly revise its transuranic waste processing goals at Oak Ridge, according to a DOE Inspector General’s Office report released yesterday. While the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center, managed by Wastren Advantage, was initially expected to process 1,000 cubic meters of contact-handled transuranic waste by September 2011, DOE has lowered the goal to processing a total of 426 cubic meters by March 2016, according to the report. In addition, while the TWPC was initially expected to process 500 cubic meters of remote-handled transuranic waste by May 2011, DOE has lowered that goal to processing 463 cubic meters by September 2016. “Although ORO had achieved some success in TRU waste processing, ORO officials acknowledged that more needs to be done to address the obstacles encountered and meet established goals for processing and disposing of CH and RH TRU waste,” the report says, adding, “Obstacles encountered after award of the contract to Wastren included significant ground water infiltration of waste storage casks, high neutron levels, waste manipulator failures and certification requirements for CH waste that have caused processing and shipping disposal delays.”
The IG report also notes that the TWPC has been directed to focus future processing activities on “screening the legacy TRU inventory to segregate low-level waste (LLW) and mixed low-level waste (MLLW) from the overall TRU waste inventory; and, completing the required re-packaging of the entire inventory in preparation for disposition.” The report adds, “According to a senior ORO official, this new focus and strategy is expected to provide more efficient characterization and shipping of LLW/MLLW, as well as accelerate the final characterization and certification of TRU waste upon return of the Central Characterization Project.”