A recent audit found that the Department of Energy has not developed a long-term strategy for operating the Savannah River Site’s H Canyon – a nuclear materials processing facility that is scheduled to stay open through 2024. The audit, conducted by the DOE Inspector General’s Office, was released on Sept. 26, and also says H Canyon has been “minimally funded” with only “marginal investment” in maintenance due to budget challenges.
Built in the 1950s, H Canyon is the nation’s only chemical separations plant still in existence, employed for processing uranium and plutonium. Its users include the DOE Offices of Environmental Management (EM) and Science, along with the agency’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
During the audit, the DOE IG found that the department had not developed a long-term strategy to use H Canyon to support these types of missions. “We were informed by Environmental Management officials at the Headquarters and site level that there was no overall Department strategy for H Canyon operations,” according to the report. “A Headquarters Environmental Management official stated that this was because the program offices that drive their respective missions continually evaluate where H Canyon can support their missions. However, we noted that the Department had not fully integrated potential candidate materials from all programs into planning future H Canyon operations.”
The IG further found that funding and infrastructure issues trouble the canyon. For example, SRS officials and stakeholders have noted that H Canyon and HB Line, the facility that feeds nuclear materials to the canyon, need infrastructure upgrades.
The Inspector General’s Office said it has no recommendations for DOE because it determined that the federal agency had initiated actions to evaluate future H-Canyon operations. SRS spokesman Jim Giusti said DOE has initiated actions to evaluate future H-Canyon operations. “The current level of funding supports limited operations and minimal infrastructure support,” he said.
