South Carolina is giving the Department of Energy extra time — more than a year in one case — to meet key milestones in treatment of liquid waste and closure of storage tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS).
The previously unreported suspension agreement, signed on Nov. 6 by DOE, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), revises waste tank deadlines that were originally designated in 2007.
The milestones are intended to ensure the Savannah River Site treats the more than 30 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste stored in over 40 underground waste tanks. The waste is a byproduct of nuclear weapons production operations during the Cold War, and is regarded by DHEC as the primary environmental threat in South Carolina.
Under the 2007 agreement with the state, the Energy Department was supposed to complete two tasks by Sept. 30, 2017: bulk waste removal, or the removal of most of the waste, in at least three storage tanks; and the operational closure of two tanks. The department was also supposed to complete bulk waste removal for three more tanks by Sept. 30, 2018.
The new deadline for these three tasks is May 30, 2019. “The milestones set in 2007 reflected best information at the time,” DHEC spokesman Tommy Crosby said Dec. 8 by email. “Since then, the High-Level Waste system has experienced significant delays and SRS has determined it is unable to meet the milestones.”
The High-Level Waste system includes all work and facilities dedicated to waste removal and treatment at the site. These include the storage tanks, the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), and the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF).
The DWPF converts sludge waste into a less radioactive, glassy form suitable for interim storage at Savannah River until the federal government opens a long-term repository. And SWPF is expected to decontaminate salt waste so it can be stored permanently at the Savannah River Site.
Construction of SWPF is one of the delays Crosby was referencing. About 90 percent of the site’s tank volume is salt waste; the rest is sludge waste. The Salt Waste Processing Facility was originally supposed to be operating by Oct. 31, 2015, and cost $1.3 billion to build. It ended up costing $2.3 billion by the time construction was completed in June 2016, and startup is now scheduled for December 2018.
If DOE fails to reach the new milestones by May 30, 2019, Crosby said the suspension agreement might be terminated and DHEC “can take action for failure to meet the original milestones.” Those actions include fines that DHEC could impose based on the 2007 agreement. Under the agreement, the state agency could in total impose fines upward of $185 million. But, according to Crosby, the fines are suspended until the 2019 date. “Any penalties would be determined at that time,” he wrote.
The DOE office at Savannah River provided a copy of the agreement but offered no other comment. Under a different agreement between the two parties, the Energy Department is expected to treat 36 million gallons of waste by 2022.
