Weapons Complex Monitor Vol. 28 No. 21
Visit Archives | Return to Issue
PDF
Weapons Complex Monitor
Article 7 of 12
May 26, 2017

SRS in Line to Receive $1.45B for Waste Cleanup, Other EM Missions

By Staff Reports

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is in line to receive $1.45 billion in fiscal 2018 for its environmental management (EM) mission, much of which would fund liquid waste cleanup, according to President Donald Trump’s budget proposal this week.

The request is $111 million more than the South Carolina site received for EM work in fiscal 2016, and about $113 million over what Congress passed earlier this month in the omnibus appropriations for the current budget year.

The budget document does not provide a more specific breakdown of funding for SRS missions, and , the DOE office at SRS said it does not have access to a more detailed version.. But the proposal promises to spend most of the site’s EM budget on liquid waste operations.

“The largest portion of the FY 2018 Request supports the Liquid Tank Waste Management Program,” DOE said. “The liquid waste tanks pose the highest public, worker, and environmental risk at the site; therefore, stabilization and preparation for disposal are a high priority.”

All told, SRS, located near Aiken, S.C., stores 35 million gallons of sludge and salt waste in more than 40 aging tanks. The waste dates to Cold War nuclear weapons production at the Department of Energy facility.

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) Director Catherine Heigel said in a statement that the radioactive waste remains the “single greatest environmental threat” to South Carolina. She added that “although more can and should be done to mitigate that threat, any additional federal funding or enhanced commitment to waste treatment and tank closure is a step in the right direction.”

Liquid waste processing at the site is conducted at a number of facilities, including the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), which heats waste and a special glass product to create a molten glass. That final form is suitable for long-term storage elsehwere, but is being temporarily stored on-site until DOE identifies a permanent repository. The budget proposal states funding will go toward DPWF operation and the management of the tank farms.

The budget plan would also sustain efforts to keep the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) on track for a December 2018 startup, and fund associated activities, such as upkeep of the Saltstone Disposal Units. Once operational, SWPF will separate highly radioactive cesium and actinides from the salt solution held in the tanks. About 90 percent of the 35 million gallons is salt waste. After completing the separation process, the cesium and actinide waste will undergo final treatment at DWPF. The remaining decontaminated salt solution will be mixed with grout at the SRS Saltstone Disposal Facility for disposal on-site.

The SRS EM proposal also calls for funding to: maintain H Canyon, the site’s chemical separations facility that processes domestic and foreign nuclear materials; continue safe storage of spent nuclear fuel in L Area; and to continue storage of plutonium at the site’s K Area.

Congress ultimately will send funding levels for the Savannah River Site and across the DOE cleanup complex. Fiscal 2018 begins on Oct. 1.

 

Comments are closed.

Partner Content
Social Feed

NEW: Via public records request, I’ve been able to confirm reporting today that a warrant has been issued for DOE deputy asst. secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition Sam Brinton for another luggage theft, this time at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid airport. (cc: @EMPublications)

DOE spent fuel lead Brinton accused of second luggage theft.



by @BenjaminSWeiss, confirming today's reports with warrant from Las Vegas Metro PD.

Waste has been Emplaced! 🚮

We have finally begun emplacing defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in Panel 8 of #WIPP.

Read more about the waste emplacement here: https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20221123-2.asp

Load More