The Savannah River Site would receive nearly $798 million for liquid tank waste treatment under the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2020 budget request – an uptick of more than $100 million from the current federal budget year.
Most other missions under the South Carolina facility’s Environmental Management (EM) program would also get a boost if Congress approves the spending plan. That would result in $1.64 billion for defense environmental cleanup operations, a $91.5 million increase from fiscal 2019, according to the detailed DOE budget justification released Monday.
The SRS liquid waste mission encompasses treatment of roughly 35 million gallons of Cold War-era liquid waste that is stored in more than 40 underground tanks. Salt waste accounts for 90 percent of the volume; the other 10 percent is sludge waste.
The Savannah River nuclear cleanup proposal for the budget year beginning Oct. 1 largely centers on salt waste treatment. That is because the site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is expected to begin operations in December, eventually increasing liquid waste processing from 1.5 million gallons per year to 6 million.
The Salt Waste Processing Facility received $150 million and $130 million for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, respectively, but the new budget request calls for reducing spending to about $21 million in 2020. Fewer dollars are needed for testing and commissioning as the facility continues its transition to operations, the Energy Department said in the justification: “Operation of this facility will significantly increase salt treatment capacity thus enabling increased risk reduction by removing and treating the liquid waste currently in underground storage tanks.”
While the SWPF funding would drop, the beginning of operations would ramp up waste treatment work throughout the site. The need for more funding is tied to increases in waste treatment, work hours, and safety and security measures at SWPF and other Savannah River waste facilities.
The increased liquid waste funding will also be used to implement 24/7 operations at the SRS Saltstone Production Facility, which mixes treated salt waste with a cement product to create a grout material suitable for permanent storage on-site. The facility currently operates at 10 hours a day, four days a week.
The SWPF will join an existing Savannah River salt waste pilot program and treat salt waste by removing the cesium from the waste stream. The treated salt waste will then be sent to permanent storage on-site. The cesium will be included in sludge waste treatment at the nearby Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), which has been operating since 1996.
The Defense Waste Processing Facility converts sludge waste into a less harmful form and transfers the waste into storage canisters. The plant is expected to produce between 80 and 100 canisters in fiscal 2020, according to the justification.
Liquid waste work is the largest part of the EM mission at Savannah River. The program also includes spent nuclear fuel processing, facility deactivation and decommissioning, and soil and groundwater treatment.
In addition to liquid waste treatment, the federal agency is seeking significant funding upticks in for other Environmental Management missions at Savannah River. That includes $343 million for nuclear materials processing at Savannah River, a $10 million increase from fiscal 2019. The H Canyon facility converts highly enriched uranium (HEU), a form of spent nuclear fuel, into low-enriched material that can be repurposed as an energy source.
The nuclear materials budget line will also support the continued downblending of 6 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium, and safely storing the finished solution on-site until can be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. This tranche of plutonium is separate from the 34 metric tons of material that was to be processed at the now-terminated MOX program at Savannah River and will now be downblended and shipped to WIPP.
Another significant increase is the Savannah River Site’s risk management budget. Overall, $547.4 million has been requested for this Environmental Management? line item, a $46.7 million increase from fiscal 2019. Risk management at H Canyon will receive a $10 million uptick, which will help in deactivating facilities, though the justification does not specify which ones.
The Department of Energy also requested an additional $7 million for solid waste risk management, which would bring the fiscal 2020 total to $48.6 million. The solid waste uptick will include an increase in transuranic waste shipments to WIPP. Also, safety and security risk management would receive a $16 million increase, to $179.3 million. Those dollars would go toward more cybersecurity efforts and infrastructure maintenance.
In total, the Energy Department is requesting $2.67 billion proposal for Savannah River Site operations in fiscal 2020. That would be about $42 million more than what the site is currently receiving for fiscal 2019 and $48 million more than the congressional appropriation for fiscal 2018.
