The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said Dec. 21 that it has transferred the Separations Process Research Unit in New York from the nuclear cleanup office to the DOE Office of Naval Reactors as of Dec. 16.
The DOE announced the transfer of the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) areas from the Office of Environmental Management to the Office of Naval Reactors, in a press release.
The milestone resulted from a joint effort between DOE, the naval reactors office, and the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna, N.Y., where the SPRU properties are located.
“Completing the SPRU project removes the longstanding liability of a Cold War-era nuclear facility and enables returning the former SPRU areas to the Naval Reactors landlord for future site operations. Significant credit is due to the government-contractor team that completed this project,” said Hugh Davis, program manager for SPRU, in the press release.
The SPRU facility housed an old pilot plant used in the 1950s for research and development of chemical processes to separate plutonium from other radioactive material at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory.
While the DOE has been saying for months that major demolition at SPRU was done, the Christmas week press release makes no mention of the immediate plans for the 24 containers of transuranic waste at the site.
