The Energy Department said this week it is reviewing a new baseline laying out an updated cost and schedule for completion of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The agency has not released details of the baseline submitted in June by SWPF contractor Parsons or said when it would be finalized.
Still, DOE said it expects Parsons to meet the current baseline expectations to start up the facility by Jan. 31, 2021. The total project cost should stay within the current guidelines of $2.3 billion, a department spokesperson said by email.
In addition, valve repairs have been completed at SWPF. “Valve replacement is 100 percent complete – 448 controllers have been replaced. Valve controller replacement was completed in October,” the spokesperson wrote.
The valve problem has factored into the delayed startup of SWPF, which will treat most of the 35 million gallons of liquid waste now stored in underground tanks at SRS. The waste is a lingering byproduct of Cold War nuclear weapons production.
In 2002, Parsons was hired to design, build, and start up the facility by the end of January 2021. Parsons would then run the plant for a year before turning it over to the new contractor team in charge of liquid waste at SRS.
Because construction was largely completed in June 2016, the department figured on startup by the end of December 2018, but it later backed off that date. Parsons and DOE also got into a public spat earlier this year on whether the vendor was mismanaging the project.
The two sides appeared to resolve their differences and agreed it was time for Parsons to submit a new project baseline.
The company has said the December 2018 date was a stretch goal, and Parsons Senior Vice President and SWPF project manager Frank Sheppard Jr. said in September the company will start operating the plant in 2019.
Parsons could not immediately be reached at press time.
