With some of the Department of Energy’s spent fuel monitoring plans at the Savannah River Site’s L-Basin facility on hold due to funding issues, the DOE Inspector General yesterday called for a firm timeframe for completing monitoring plans. The aging wet storage facility is used to hold about 15,000 spent fuel assemblies and could be in use for the next 50 years, but it has been the focus of concern due to corrosion of the canisters of the fuel. “The Department plans to store SNF [spent nuclear fuel] at the Savannah River Site’s L-Basin indefinitely and has determined that completion of certain monitoring and assessment activities are necessary in order to validate the technical basis for extending the use of L-Basin,” yesterday’s IG report states. “In light of the need to eventually complete the activities deferred due to funding constraints, we suggest that the Department establish formal timeframes for completing these essential, augmented monitoring and assessment activities.”
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has raised numerous concerns about the basin, including cracked and corroded canisters holding the fuel and degradation of the fuel assemblies SRS managing contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions has developed an augmented surveillance and maintenance plan for the basin that involves a visual inspection of concrete and spent nuclear fuel. However, due to budget cuts at the site, SRNS has deferred many of the monitoring activities until at least 2014. “Although the monitoring and assessment activities are deemed necessary to justify extending the use of L-Basin to store SNF, the Department has not specified when this needs to be completed, and has deferred going forward with the rest of the planned activities until at least FY 2014 due to funding constraints,” this week’s IG report states.
