The Department of Energy should reclassify treated liquid waste stored in glass logs at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. so the material will be eligible for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, N.M., the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) recommended Tuesday.
The recommendation, approved in a 19-2 vote, asks the Energy Department to recharacterize the material as transuranic (TRU) waste, any material contaminated with radioactive elements during activities such as processing of spent reactor fuel or nuclear weapons production. Under federal law, WIPP can only be used for disposal of this waste type.
The Savannah River Site material is currently classified as high-level waste due to its origin rather than its “physical characteristics or health and environmental impacts related to this waste,” according to the CAB. The material dates to the beginning in 1996 of liquid waste processing operations at the site, where in the absence of a new approach it will stay until a permanent federal repository is built.
With Tuesday’s vote, the CAB is requesting that DOE and WIPP determine regulatory and safety actions needed to recharacterize the waste. Also, a tentative schedule should be drawn up for this process, the board said.
The recommendation was crafted by CAB member Dawn Gillas, who spent 15 years at SRS before retiring in 2012 from her role as a senior technical adviser for the Used Nuclear Fuel Management Program. Gillas said shipping the waste would benefit both communities: Locals near the Savannah River Site want to get as rid of as much of its waste as possible, while a new waste stream for WIPP means more job opportunities in the Carlsbad area.
CAB member Susan Corbett was one of the two nay votes. She said only a small percentage of the New Mexico population wants this material sent to WIPP, and that the necessary regulatory red tape and safety measures would become too expensive and time consuming.
Passage of the recommendation now puts the decision in the hands of the Energy Department.
