Interim storage of transuranic waste at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup project in upstate New York will not be affected by a cost dispute between the U.S. Energy Department and its contractor, AECOM subsidiary URS.
“Transuranic waste treatment, packaging, certification is the responsibility of DOE and is not part of the contract cost cap,” DOE noted in its recently released fiscal 2019 budget justification.
In early 2011 DOE implemented what was essentially a $125 million cap on its financial liability for the SPRU cleanup, which is now winding down with an eye toward completion this year. A hurricane and other unforeseen factors drove the contract’s cost to the department to $180 million as of January 2018, due partly to changes in the scope of work, according to a recent audit from the DOE Office of Inspector General.
URS blames the changed scope of work for most of the extra costs, which it says have pushed the entire project above $400 million. It is currently in in alternate dispute resolution with DOE over what should and should not be covered by the cost cap.
Within the past week, DOE applied to the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation for a permit to store TRU waste at the deactivated site in Schenectady County for research on chemical separation of plutonium and uranium, DEC spokesman Rick Georgeson said Monday by phone.
Because it doesn’t yet have a permitted storage area, SPRU has since 2015 received a series of 30-day extensions for generator storage of the mixed TRU waste, according to the DOE budget request. The waste is currently stored outside in Conex boxes, which are a type of shipping container. The material would eventually be moved to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, but likely not before 2021.
Cleanup at SPRU would get $15 million under the fiscal 2019 budget request, over $11 million more than the $3.6 million in the fiscal 2017 enacted level. In addition to “contractor demobilization and closeout activities,” the additional funds would go toward interim on-site storage of the TRU waste.
The transuranic waste resulted from teardown and decontamination of SPRU’s H2 and G2 buildings. There are 24 containers considered potential transuranic waste, 22 of which hold mixed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act hazardous waste regulated by New York, according to the budget document.
