The Energy Department could store transuranic waste up to 10 years at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup site in Schenectady County, N.Y., under a hazardous waste permit it has requested from the state.
In early April, DOE submitted the application to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which expects to issue the draft permit for a 45-day public comment period in early 2019. A final decision could follow by the end of next year.
The Energy Department has two TRU waste containers and 22 containers of mixed TRU waste stored inside five Conex boxes, a type of shipping container, at the SPRU site. The waste was discovered in 2015 and 2016 and resulted from demolition and decontamination of SPRU’s H2 and G2 buildings.
The mixed waste contains both hazardous waste and radioactive material, said New York state DEC spokesman Rick Georgeson in a Friday email. The allowed waste storage volume sought in the application is 24,600 gallons, which converts to approximately 122 cubic yards, he added. The waste came from equipment, system components, residues, and other material at the buildings.
The waste has been stored at SPRU under a series of 30-day notices but, within the past year, the state instructed DOE to file for a hazardous waste permit.
The Energy Department has said it plans to store the radioactive and chemically hazardous waste at SPRU until off-site disposal is ready. Ultimately, the material should be shipped to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico by 2025.
Cleanup of the SPRU site, with exception of interim waste storage, is expected to wrap up this year. The contract for AECOM subsidiary URS Corp. is currently scheduled to expire at the end of August. URS and the Energy Department are engaged in a long-running arbitration dispute about a cost cap on the contract. URS is not involved with the waste storage project.
