The liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is seeking expressions of interest from firms that could build three new saltsone disposal units at the federal complex near the Georgia line.
Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation (SRR) posted the notice Thursday on the government procurement website, SAM.gov for Saltstone Disposal Units (SDUs) 10-12. The environmental contractor at Savannah River is seeking replies before noon, Eastern Time on Feb. 28, according to the notice.
The notice “does not commit SRR to issue a future solicitation for these services or to award a subcontract,” according to the posting. That said, SRR goes on to say it could award a contract around November, with “site mobilization” starting the following month. The liquid waste contractor expects construction will be wrapped up within 16 months from issuance of a Notice to Proceed.
The Saltstone Facility at Savannah River is designed to process and dispose of low-level radioactive salt solution from the liquid waste processing facilities, according to the notice. The Saltstone Facility immobilizes low level radioactive salt solution waste by mixing it with a dry material mixture of fly ash, slag, and cement to produce a movable grout mixture. This grout is poured into large concrete disposal units where it cures to become saltstone, a non-hazardous material, for permanent disposal.
In the fall, the contractor received DOE’s final approval for SDU-7, which could start operation this spring. Like SDU- 6, which started operation in August 2017, SDU 7 has a 32-million-gallon capacity. Another two mega-volume units, SDU-8 and SDU-9 are already under construction.
