With a flammable gas analysis complete, the Department of Energy said Tuesday the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, S.C., could soon be ready to resume shipments of the more radioactive type of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.
SRS can soon resume shipping drums of remote-handled transuranic waste to WIPP, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, said in a Tuesday news release. The flammable gas analysis, which evaluates methane, drums and volatile organic compounds, helps determine if aging drums are low-risk for ignition during travel and disposal.
Some of the old transuranic waste drums at SRS are remote-handled waste, which are more radioactive than the contact-handled drums, which account for more than 95% of the waste disposed of at WIPP, according to DOE.
“The characterization of these containers is essential to meet our mission of shipping these transuranic waste containers out of South Carolina and getting them to permanent disposition at the WIPP facility,” Anthony Carraway, solid waste and deactivation facility manager with Fluor-led prime Savannah River Nuclear Solutions.
“Our team does great here ensuring that we follow all the right procedures and controls to keep everyone safe and to keep the mission moving forward,” Carraway said in the release.
Based on an Internet-search it appears SRS has not sent remote handled waste to WIPP, near Carlsbad, N.M., since April 2009. The levels of transuranic waste remaining at SRS is winding down, DOE has said.
Since SRNS started its contract in 2008, it has sent 929 shipments of transuranic waste to WIPP, according to the release.
Waste shipments to WIPP have been temporarily held up pending completion of repairs to a couple of underground hoists.