While the Savannah River Site’s multibillion-dollar Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) was at one time projected to be operational this month, the U.S. Department of Energy and contractor Parsons have yet to agree on a new project baseline for the facility.
The Energy Department is reviewing the document laying out new cost and schedule milestones for the facility, but is not saying when it might give it the thumbs-up or down. Meanwhile, the agency believes the facility should be online near the end of 2019, due to a major infrastructure replacement that took five months to complete. However, a new, approved baseline will provide a firmer date.
Eventually, the 140,000 square-foot plant will treat 90 percent of the remaining liquid waste stored in underground tanks at the Savannah River Site. The waste, which totals about 35 million gallons, was generated by Cold War nuclear weapons production at SRS and is being treated on-site using multiple facilities.
Parsons was hired in 2002 to carry out construction, design, testing, and startup of the facility by January 2021 at a total cost of $2.3 billion. It would then operate the SWPF for a year before turning it over to the site’s liquid waste management contractor. That one year of operations has a target cost of $86.3 million.
Both Parsons and the Energy Department had pushed for startup in December 2018, dating to the contractor’s June 2016 completion of construction. But multiple setbacks have delayed the schedule. Pamela Marks, the federal project director for SWPF, reported in September that processing operations could begin toward the end of next year.
That is largely due to a discovery in April that 460 valves at the salt waste facility would need to be replaced after the apparatus that controls the valves malfunctioned. Replacements were completed in October, and plant-wide testing is underway to prepare for final operational readiness.
A month before the discovery, DOE accused Parsons of “deteriorating” performance at the facility. In short, the federal agency wrote in a notice that the contractor had not followed safety protocols and had replaced key personnel without proper DOE approval. In a response the following month, Parsons said the department had mischaracterized its performance.
The two parties then agreed a new project baseline was necessary, outlining costs, schedules, and the steps to bring the facility online as soon as possible. Parsons submitted the proposal in June. Both sides remain tight-lipped on details of the document, including its schedule for approval.
“There is one proposal submitted by Parsons,” a DOE spokesperson said via email, when asked how many versions of the proposal the contractor has submitted.
The federal agency holds firm that SWPF will be operating by January 31, 2021. Remaining costs for SWPF completion are expected to be part of the new baseline.
