The Department of Energy greelit operation of Saltstone Disposal Unit No. 8 at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., the agency said Tuesday.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in a Tuesday news release that authorization has been granted for Saltstone Disposal Unit 8 (SDU 8). It is the latest of the supersized concrete vaults completed at the Savannah River complex, big enough to hold 33 million gallons of grouted, de-contaminated salt solution.
Salt waste comes from the site’s underground tanks, which hold high-level radioactive waste left over from plutonium production during the cold war. The site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility separates the salt from the liquid waste to ease the burden on Savannah River’s main liquid-waste disposal apparatus, the Defense Waste Processing Facility.
Michael Budney, manager of the Savannah River Site operations office, telegraphed the final approval in a May appearance before DOE’s Citizens Advisory Board for the complex near the Georgia line.
While BWX Technologies-led Savannah River Mission Completion oversaw the SDU 8 development, subcontractors involved in the project included Quality Plus Services, US Fusion & Specialty Construction and DN Tanks, DOE said in the release.
In the fall of 2024, DOE expects the construction of SDU 9 to be complete, the agency said in the release.
