ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A draft environmental assessment on commercial disposal of up to 10,000 gallons of radioactive wastewater from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina could be issued for public comment by the end of 2019.
The feedback to the draft assessment, under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, will help determine if the Energy Department can issue a finding of no significant impact under its revised interpretation of radioactive high-level waste, or if it must prepare a full environmental impact statement for the disposal approach, according to SRS Site Manager Michael Budney.
Budney made the comment during a panel discussion Sept. 12 at the National Cleanup Workshop, sponsored by DOE, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA), and the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG).
The Department of Energy on June 10 formally published its reinterpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste (HLW). The agency says the definition in the Atomic Energy Act and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act means not all wastes from spent fuel reprocessing are highly radioactive, and in some cases can be sent to disposal sites for low-level radioactive waste. Material still considered high-level must still ultimately be disposed of at a deep geologic repository.
In connection with the reinterpretation, DOE is considering disposal of up to 10,000 gallons of recycled wastewater left over from the SRS Defense Waste Processing Facility’s vitrification operation. The wastewater, which would be grouted into a stable form, could end up at a commercial low-level radioactive waste (LLW) disposal facility.
Before it goes anywhere, the DOE Office of Environmental Management would determine if the radioactive characteristics of the recycled wastewater are appropriate for such a facility. “We have to prove it’s safe, not prove it’s unsafe,” Budney said.
If off-site disposal is approved, the SRS material could ultimately be sent to the Waste Control Specialists federal facility in Andrews County, Texas, or the EnergySolutions disposal site in Clive, Utah, according to the June Federal Register notice.
The Energy Department is looking at several options on whether the wastewater would be grouted into a solid form before or after it leaves the SRS grounds.
The Energy Department has no current plans to implement its reinterpretation of HLW at other sites and is focused on the SRS proposal, Mark Senderling, deputy assistant secretary for waste and materials management at the Office of Environmental Management. That means the cleanup office is not currently addressing larger-scale questions regarding how much material from across the complex could be up for review.
