Repairs of a key waste processing facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site remain on schedule for completion in 2017, but the work is taking a toll on short-term efforts to rid the facility of radioactive waste, officials reaffirmed Monday.
All liquid waste processing is on hold at SRS following the failure of Melter 2, a 65-ton, refractory-lined melting vessel that functioned as part of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). The facility converts radioactive sludge waste stored at SRS into a solid glass form for storage in stainless steel canisters. The site reported last month that liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) is preparing to replace the melter.
Savannah River has produced more than 40 canisters of solidified waste so far this fiscal year, and it is unclear if it will be able to produce more before it ends on Sept. 30. By comparison, last year’s goal was to produce 150 DWPF canisters. Did SRS meet that goal?
All told, there is roughly 35 million gallons of highly radioactive waste stored in more than 40 SRS tanks, a byproduct of nuclear weapons production during the Cold War.
During an SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) meeting on Monday, SRR Waste Treatment Outage Manager Wesley Bryan explained that Melter 2, outlived its projected lifetime by lasting for nearly 14 years. SRS reported on Feb. 3 that it had begun replacing the melter, which had processed 10 million pounds of material – enough to fill 2,819 canisters. Bryan said the melter was designed to last just two years, but that high performance and routine monitoring extended the lifetime.
“We eliminated risks to personnel by not having to do outages every two years or so,” he said. “There’s a significant amount of savings that goes along with that.”
