The Department of Energy expects a batch of specially engineered replacement parts should help curb maintenance downtime at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a press release.
The shipment of 16 replacement centrifugal contactors by Office of Environmental Management cleanup prime Savannah River Mission Completion should keep the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) running longer at higher flow rates, DOE said in the release.
The contactors help the SWPF remove radioactive cesium from the liquid salt waste stored in underground tanks at Savannah River, DOE said in the release. This type of gear uses centrifugal force rather than gravity for the extraction process, DOE said.
The contractor ordered a set of 16, allowing it to replace an entire bank of contactors, rather than replacing individual contactors as they begin to show signs of wear, DOE said. This change should keep SWPF running longer at higher flow rates, according to the press release.
“With the arrival of these spare contactors, we expect SWPF will make great strides in the effort to process liquid waste in a timely and safe manner,” Jim Folk, Environmental Management’s assistant manager for waste disposition. “Shorter outages will help keep the liquid waste mission on schedule to finish in 2037 to reduce risk to our community, environment and workers.”
It takes approximately three days to shut down, flush, and restart the Caustic Side Solvent Extraction process for the replacement of an individual contactor, said a Savannah River Site spokesperson in a Wednesday email. “Of that time, only about 4 hours is the actual contactor exchange, the spokesperson said. Also, The used contactors will be cleaned and refurbished onsite, making them available for re-use in the future.
DOE intends to finish its radioactive liquid waste cleanup at Savannah River by 2037.
Savannah River Mission Completion, the BWX Technologies-led liquid waste contractor at Savannah River, is taking longer than expected to spool SWPF up to six million gallons treated annually, partly due to maintenance downtime.
In April, the Parsons-built SWPF reached the five-million gallons per year mark, Savannah River Mission Completion told the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board in a presentation last month.
When it first came online in October 2024, the agency hoped SWPF might hit six-million gallons during its first full year operation. DOE ultimately hopes the SWPF will treat nine million gallons annually.
The cesium-heavy effluent produced by the SWPF goes to the Defense Waste Processing Facility where it is solidified into a glass form, DOE said. The decontaminated salt solution that comes out of the SWPF is grouted at the Saltstone Production Facility before being pumped into supersized Saltstone Disposal Units onsite at the federal complex.