KNOXVILLE, Tenn.– Some large infrastructure projects in the U.S. Energy Department’s nationwide nuclear cleanup complex should be completed in the next couple years, an agency official said Wednesday.
That should include startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory, along with installation of a new ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
Jeff Griffin, associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, cited the milestones during his keynote address to the Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association (ETEBA) Business Opportunities and Technical Conference.
The new ventilation system, costing up to $500 million, including a new utility shaft and fans, will more than triple the underground airflow at WIPP. That would enable simultaneous salt mining, waste emplacement, and maintenance for the first time since an underground radiation leak in February 2014 forced the facility offline for nearly three years.
The $2.3 billion Salt Waste Processing Facility should begin operations in December. It will remove cesium from the salt waste sludge held in underground storage at Savannah River and transfer the remaining salt solution to Saltstone Disposal Units.
Originally supposed to be deployed in 2012, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit will treat 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid radioactive and hazardous waste at Idaho so it can ultimately be shipped out of state. The project, currently estimated to cost $1 billion, is expected to start up in 2020.
Other key short-term milestones include completion of demolition next year at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 uranium enrichment complex at the Oak Ridge Site, as well as starting vitrification of low-activity radioactive waste by 2023 at the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, Griffin said.
Oak Ridge environmental remediation prime UCOR expects to finish ETTP remediation by the time its current nine-year, $3.2 billion contract expires in July 2020.
At Hanford, Bechtel National is in advanced construction, and early testing, for facilities needed to start turning low-activity radioactive waste into a more stable glass-like substance, Griffin noted.
The nuclear cleanup office recognizes that it has many billions of dollars in environmental liability that must be addressed, he said. The Energy Department’s total environmental liability was $494 billion as of fiscal 2018, the latest available figure. Of that, $377 billion came from the 16 nuclear sites administered by the Office of Environmental Management.
Much of the expense involves the “hotel costs” of merely keeping radioactive and chemical waste stored in place pending final disposal – or keeping deteriorating buildings in a safe state until they can be demolished. Time really is money when it comes to nuclear remediation, Griffin said.
On an administrative note, the Environmental Management office is trying to become more consistent in how it evaluates contractors, awards fee, and interprets policy at the 16 different sites. While he did not offer specifics, Griffin said there have been many complaints about contractors being treated far differently from site to site.
