Savannah River citizen panel updated on NNSA transition, saltstone disposal, security, changes in state regulator
Federal officials next month could rough out the plan for handing over the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons branch from the agency’s cleanup office, a local fed told an advisory board Monday.
A joint team from the Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should report to the respective DOE branch headquarters in Washington, in June, said Michael Budney, manager of the Savannah River Site operations office.
The planned transfer, as well as updates on the property’s security contract, liquid waste issues and state regulator, were covered during the Savannah River’s Citizens Advisory Board in Charleston, S.C. The meeting was webcast via YouTube.
The joint DOE Office of Environmental Management and NNSA team are working on turning over landlord duties to NNSA in fiscal 2025, Budney told the advisory board.
“The team is working well on that and our target remains to have a plan that we could submit to EM-1 and NA-1 in June of this year,” Budney said, referring to the top officials at Environmental Management, William (Ike) White and NNSA’s Jill Hruby.
Meanwhile, Budney said another supersized onsite disposal unit for saltstone should be ready for operation this summer. “Saltstone disposal unit, SDU 8 is in the process of receiving approval to operate,” Budney said.
The project has been targeted for issuance of the DOE critical decision to operate this August, but “we are going to get there a couple of months early,” Budney said. ”Just paperwork at this point, everything is done,” Budney said.
Saltstone disposal units are big concrete vaults built to hold grouted decontaminated salt solution. Saltstone disposal unit No. 8 is the third of the mega-volume units that can hold about 33 million gallons.
Elsewhere on the site, Budney said the Government Accountability Office last week upheld DOE’s award of a 10-year, $1 billion award to incumbent Centerra Group.
“We are beginning to work with the contractor about when we may give them a notice to proceed” with the new contract, Budney said.
Finally, updating the board briefly on new developments in state politics, state regulatory manager Susan Fulmer said the South Carolina House and Senate has approved splitting the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control into two standalone agencies.
Pending the signature of Gov. Henry McMaster (R), the change would take effect in July 2024, Fulmer said. At that time, the state’s newly separated environmental agency would regulate the Savannah River Site, Fulmer said.
