The Department of Energy plans this week to test Saltwaste Disposal Unit 7, a key part of the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste cleanup effort, for leaks, the agency said Monday.
Amentum-led contractor Savannah River Remediation is conducting what DOE described in a press release as a liquid tightness test, which involves pumping 33 million gallons of water, enough to fill 55 Olympic-sized swimming pools, into the structure over the next three-to-four weeks.
About 400 gallons of fluorescent yellow/green dye will be added to the water to help Savannah River Remediation confirm the Saltstone Disposal Unit No. 7 (SDU 7) is tight and not leaking.
The entire test should take about six-to-eight weeks, DOE said. Once the leak detection is done, the water and dye will be drained out of SDU 7 and there will be a “controlled” release into a tributary of the Savannah River located within the Aiken, S.C., site, DOE said in the press release.
The dye is safe for the environment, there are no health, safety, or environmental concerns with its release into the river, DOE said.
In January, Michael Budney, the top DOE Office of Environmental Management executive at the complex told the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board that construction of SDU 7 should be done this summer and operation should start in spring 2022.
This would be the second mega-volume disposal unit built at Savannah River. Its twin, SDU 6, is 43 feet high, 375 feet in diameter and began operation in August 2018. The massive units are designed to take the decontaminated salt solution resulting from liquid waste treatment at the Saltwaste Processing Facility that began commercial operation in January.
