After already being delayed several times, publication of a draft record of decision (ROD) for a proposed new landfill at the U.S. Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee could slip into 2020.
The document is supposed to be issued Dec. 19, but DOE managers have informed the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation of plans to push publication back until Jan. 31, state agency spokeswoman Kim Schofinski said in a Tuesday email.
While there have been “phone conversations” about such a delay, no official decision has been made, an Energy Department spokesperson said by telephone.
In September 2018, the Energy Department concluded that building another on-site landfill at Oak Ridge was its preferred alternative. The final ROD would lay out the plan for the landfill.
Release of the draft ROD has been delayed a number of times since May for the new landfill for low-level radioactive and mixed waste generated at Oak Ridge.
Officially dubbed the Environmental Management Disposal Facility, the landfill would replace the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, which is expected to reach disposal capacity in the 2020s. Like the current landfill, it would have a capacity of 2.2-million-cubic yards and be located in the Bear Creek Valley on the Oak Ridge Site.
The current landfill holds material from demolition of buildings Oak Ridge’s East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), where uranium was enriched for decades for the U.S. nuclear weapons program. The ETTP work is winding down, and the new landfill would primarily take waste from tearing down facilities at the Y-12 Nuclear Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Release of the document is complicated by disagreement between DOE, the state, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Oak Ridge is a Superfund site and is regulated by the EPA under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
A key issue is trying to reach a deal on regulating landfill wastewater effluents containing radionuclides. The parties want to reach agreement prior to issuance of the draft ROD. Schofinski said no new documents have been filed on the issue recently.
The manager of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management at Oak Ridge contends the EPA’s Region 4 in Atlanta wants to impose tougher standards for management of runoff from nuclear sites than is the norm nuclear facilities elsewhere in the United States.
