A system used for liquid waste cleanup at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site (SRS) has sprung a leak and, if it cannot be repaired, will take years to replace, according to weekly site reports from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
SRS prime cleanup contractor Savannah River Remediation discovered the leak in the 3H Evaporator on Feb. 17, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday. That means the site is down to one working evaporator, called 2H, at the H-Area Tank Farm, a roughly 400-acre complex that houses 29 tanks that are constantly filling up with waste generated by the nearby H-Canyon chemical separation facility.
Evaporators are crucial to removing much of that waste from the tanks, and losing 3H means DOE has only about three years to come up with a workaround before H-Canyon waste clogs up the tank farm and grinds reprocessing work at the Canyon to a halt, according to multiple reports posted on DNFSB’s website. Among other things, H-Canyon turns highly enriched uranium into low-enriched uranium that can eventually be used by commercial nuclear power plants.
“We have suspended the operations of 3H pending a review of how the vessel can be either repaired, or the parts replaced,” the SRR spokesperson said. “All those things are under review. At this time we don’t have a set time. It’s still early in the process.”
A DOE spokesperson did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
According to DNFSB reports from Feb. 19 to March 4, replacing the leaky 3H Evaporator pot with a new pot “is expected to take a few years.”
SRR estimated the 3H Evaporator has leaked 3,000 gallons of distilled salt waste from its evaporator pot, the chamber where briny liquid waste from H-Canyon is boiled down to so-called salt cakes that take up less space in the tank farm. Initial radiation measurements after Feb. 17 clocked in at 126 rem per hour about 10 feet off the evaporator cell floor, according to a DNFSB report
However, the SRR spokesperson said that does not amount to “increased radiological emissions or levels in the building that houses the evaporator,” and stressed “there is no risk to either people or the environment.”
H-Canyon generates both highly radioactive sludge and the less radioactive brine solution the evaporators boil into salt cakes. Compared with the sludge, the liquid waste treated by the evaporators can be removed from tanks relatively quickly to make room for more waste.
