The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch thinks it could complete major infrastructure projects in New Mexico and South Carolina during calendar year 2024, the agency said Tuesday.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management’s top priorities for 2024 include final testing of a new underground ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico; completing cold commissioning of the Waste Treatment Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington and completing Saltstone Disposal Unit-9 at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System is meant to triple WIPP’s underground airflow and commissioning could be complete by mid-2024, a DOE spokesperson has said.
The Bechtel-constructed Waste Treatment Plant also made the list, though it is not supposed to start the Hanford site’s low-level radioactive tank waste into glass form until 2025. In 2024, however, DOE believes it will complete the so-called cold commissioning of the facility: that is, turning on everything except processes involving radioactive waste.
Saltstone Disposal Unit-9 is the fourth supersized unit at Savannah River capable of holding 33 million gallons of saltstone. The unit could be completed this spring, a DOE advisory board heard Tuesday.
Another 2024 goal published Tuesday by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management is installing the roof and exterior walls at the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative facility being built near Savannah River at the University of South Carolina-Aiken.
DOE designated the issues above as “priority one,” according to the list published Tuesday. They involve construction. Priority two targets, on the other hand, include more than a dozen cleanup goals across the weapons complex.
For example, DOE wants to reach a “cumulative” 100,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste treated at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory.
While currently offline, the Idaho facility treated 68,000 gallons in 2023 after only entering service in April.
The agency also wants to receive at least 450 shipments of transuranic waste at WIPP. The underground salt mine took in 489 shipments during the calendar year 2023.
In Texas, DOE will complete moving 74 solid waste boxes of potentially combustible transuranic waste at Waste Control Specialists to above-ground storage at the site from shallow burial. The boxes will ultimately be sent to WIPP for disposal.
Lower down the priorities list, Environmental Management wants to support minority serving institutions, install 20 electric vehicle charging ports across the complex and select a carbon-free electricity project for the Hanford Site.
