DOE Submits Revised Draft Study for New Landfill
WC Monitor
4/17/2015
The Department of Energy’s Environmental Management team in Oak Ridge has submitted a revised draft of the Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) for a proposed new CERCLA landfill. The new landfill will be called the Environmental Management Disposal Facility and replace the current facility – known as the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility – over the next decade. The RIFS has been sent to the environmental regulators who have 90 days to provide comments. Representatives of the DOE office also appeared before Oak Ridge City Council recently to discuss plans for the new disposal site.
According to the latest projections, the existing Oak Ridge landfill for radioactive and hazardous materials will run out of space in the 2023-2024 timeframe. Mike Koentop, executive officer of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management at Oak Ridge, said the actual date will depend on funding for the cleanup program and progress made in various demolition and decommissioning projects in Oak Ridge. Koentop said DOE hopes to have the new landfill open about 18 months before the old one is closed and capped to allow for an effective and transition.
As proposed, the new landfill would be located directly east of the old one in Bear Creek Valley just down the road from the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. The total lifetime cost of the proposed Oak Ridge facility would be about $817 million. Koentop said that estimate also includes about a 25 percent contingency. Under DOE’s proposal, the initial investment would be about $90 million to construct the landfill’s infrastructure and the first two disposal cells. Koentop said the planned capacity would be six cells, with each pair of cells to cost about $30 million after the initial construction. The annual cost of operating the Oak Ridge landfill would be about $20 million, he said. The eventual cost of the Oak Ridge landfill would also include funding for long-term maintenance of the facility after it is closed.
