New System Plan Prompts Concerns
Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
6/6/2014
South Carolina’s regulator is again threatening penalties after the Department of Energy’s newest Savannah River tank closure plan pushes out deadlines to 10 years beyond regulatory commitments with the state. The Department last week released the latest revision of the site’s liquid waste system plan, which delays completing closure of old-style high level waste tanks 10 years to 2032. “Driving a successful liquid waste program to failure does not make sense to DHEC,” Shelly Wilson of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said in a written response. “Ramping down treatment in the face of present risk does not make sense, either. We prefer to work cooperatively toward mutually agreed upon milestones, but we are fully prepared to assess penalties.” DOE has not responded to request for comment on the plan since it was finalized last week.
Funding, Storage Issues Contribute to Delays
The tank closure delays result from a combination of reduced funding and delays in completion of the Salt Waste Processing Facility, which is planned to greatly increase tank waste processing rates. The current tank closure date is 15 years after the October 2017 accelerated target Savannah River Remediation, LLC, announced when it took over the liquid waste contract. In 2012, budget cuts forced SRR to do away with its accelerated closure goals and push back old-style tank closure to 2022 in what the contractor called a “just in time” approach to meeting regulatory milestones. Then the SWPF, which is designed to greatly increase Savannah River’s salt waste processing capability, faced a two-year delay in delivery of key components, pushing back completion of the facility and its eventual operation. As a result, last year’s system plan delayed tank closure to 2028, six years beyond the South Carolina milestones. But the projected impacts of significant funding cuts led to the further delay of four years in the latest revision of the plan.
In total, 17 tanks are expected to miss regulatory commitments according to the latest plan. In addition to delays in SWPF startup, issues related to limited storage space for vitrified waste canisters and saltstone waste will limit processing rates at Savannah River’s interim salt waste processing capability and the Defense Waste Processing Facility, used to vitrify sludge waste. Enacted funding for the Savannah River liquid waste program stood at $838.5 million in Fiscal Year 2013, which dropped down to a current level of $690.5 million. DOE’s FY’15 budget requests $722.8 million for the liquid waste program.
SRS Watch: Plan Could ‘Degrade Further’
While the latest version of the plan still allows for eventual tank closure, engagement is needed to keep it on track, according to the advocacy group Savannah River Site Watch. “Given that the revised plan acknowledges funding uncertainties, notes delays in operation of the SWPF, presents significant delays in the tank closure schedule and highlights looming problems in meeting FFA obligations, the warning signs are many that the waste management situation could degrade further,” SRS Watch Director Tom Clements said in a written response. “All stakeholders must engage the process to make certain that the negatives trends noted in the document do not continue and that HLW processing can be much more aggressively pursued. It is imperative for the environment and public health that the program be kept moving in a positive direction and that problems do not mount in future revisions.”
