Operations at a key Savannah River Site waste facility are expected to increase later this year, in unison with the startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina.
Staffing increases are also expected 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.
Salt waste accounts for about 90 percent of the 35 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste stored in Cold War-era tanks at Savannah River, a byproduct of the site’s nuclear weapons operations.
Saltstone began operations in the early 1990s when salt waste was treated inside the tanks, via a process called in-tank precipitation that removed the cesium from the waste. Then, in 2008, a pilot facility was launched to decontaminate the salt waste outside of the tanks.
The pilot program will soon work alongside the SWPF to treat salt waste. Similar to the pilot and the in-tank method, the new facility will decontaminate the salt waste by removing cesium and other components. Once operational, the SWPF will increase SRS liquid waste processing from 1.5 million per year to 6 million.
The Energy Department expects the Salt Waste Processing Facility to go online in December. That would be about a year later than the target date, but much sooner than the January 2021 deadline DOE set for construction and startup contractor Parsons. “Increases in Saltstone operational hours are necessary to support the higher processing rates allowed by initiating Salt Waste Processing Facility operations,” the DOE spokesperson said via email.
The Saltstone facility presently operates 10 hours a day, four days week. Once SWPF goes operational, the Energy Department will add up to 40 more hours per week, though the schedule details for the uptick have not yet been finalized. From there, the facility will transition to 24/7 operations in 2021, the spokesperson said.
About 30 more workers will be brought onboard for the 2019 uptick, joining 40 employees already working at Saltstone. All Saltstone workers are employed by Savannah River Remediation (SRR), the site’s liquid waste contractor.
“Saltstone operation will include increased processing and maintenance, which are considered normal operations,” the spokesperson said. “The increased operations in Saltstone are in direct proportion to the quantity of decontaminated salt solution from SWPF, which means Saltstone must increase its operational time to handle the material.”
Saltstone operations are included in the site’s Waste Treatment budget, which includes sludge waste treatment at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). For fiscal 2019, Savannah River received $170,9 million for waste treatment, but it is unclear how much of that went specifically toward Saltstone.
Since operations began in 1990, Saltstone has processed 17.3 million gallons of decontaminated salt waste. This fiscal year, the facility is expected to process 243,256 gallons of waste. There is no target amount for fiscal 2019 since operations will cease this year to prepare for SWPF startup. The pause is necessary to incorporate SWPF into the liquid waste system.
All told, the Savannah River Site liquid waste mission includes treatment and storage of salt waste and sludge waste, along with eventual decommissioning of the waste facilities. The mission is expected to last until 2039 and carries a life-cycle cost of $33 billion to $57 billion.
Last week, the Energy Department canceled its search for a new liquid waste contractor, keeping Savannah River Remediation on the job for the foreseeable future. Since its original eight-year, $5 billion deal ended in June 2017, SRR’s contract has been extended three times, with expectations for a lengthier extension after the current deal ends on March 31.
