The U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) anticipates sending at least two shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico by the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30.
“We’re getting pretty close to when we’ll be able to send out that waste,” said Thomas Johnson, deputy site manager at the 310-square-mile DOE facility near Aiken, S.C.
Johnson on Monday updated the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) on several missions at the site, including TRU waste disposal. He said the facility is working with WIPP on the readiness assessment, which DOE must approve before the material can be transported. The assessment is used to ensure federal guidelines for sending the material are being followed, and that WIPP is prepared to receive the shipments.
TRU waste is defined as any material contaminated with radioactive elements during activities such as processing of spent reactor fuel or nuclear weapons production. At Savannah River, it includes protective clothing, tools, rags, equipment, and miscellaneous items contaminated with small amounts of plutonium during operations. Under federal law, WIPP is the sole disposal facility for this waste type from DOE operations.
Shipments from Savannah River were routine before WIPP closed for nearly three years due to two incidents in February 2014: a vehicle fire and subsequent, unrelated radiation release in the underground disposal space. Prior to those incidents, SRS had sent 1,650 shipments totaling more than 10,600 cubic meters of transuranic waste since WIPP’s opening in 1999.
The site has about 110 shipments left, which equals roughly 500 cubic meters of material that is stored in E Area.
Since WIPP in April 2017 again began accepting transuranic waste from DOE generator sites, Savannah River has sent 10 shipments of the material, which equates to 86 cubic meters. That covers nine shipments in 2017 and one in August of last year.
