March 17, 2014

SRR TO CLOSE LESS THAN HALF AS MANY SRS TANKS AS ORIGINALLY PLANNED

By ExchangeMonitor

Savannah River Remediation, LLC, the liquid waste cleanup contractor at the Savannah River Site, is set to close far fewer underground waste tanks by the end of its contract than initially planned. While URS-led SRR was initially expected to complete the closure of Savannah River’s 22 remaining ‘noncompliant’ tanks by 2017, the contractor is now set to close only 10, according to a presentation given yesterday by SRR Senior Technical Advisor John Dickenson at this year’s Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum. Both the Department of Energy and SRR have cited budgetary issues as one of the main factors behind the reduced tank closure goal. According to Dave Moody, manager of the DOE Savannah River Operations Office, projected levels of decreased funding this fiscal year and in FY 2013 are set to impact the deployment of supplemental salt waste processing technologies, such as small column ion exchange (SCIX) and rotary microfiltration, intended to help accelerate tank closure schedules. “What we’re really talking about is the difference between what was proposed in the contract and the events that occurred along the way, including some projected budget reductions in ’12 and ’13 that will slow some of the parallel processing down,” Moody told WC Monitor on the sidelines of the meeting.

Moody stressed that DOE still believes it could accelerate the overall completion of the Savannah River tank waste cleanup mission by four years and with a lifecycle cost savings of approximately $2 billion. That would be less, however, than DOE’s previous projections of a six-year acceleration and $3 billion in cost savings. “We’re still looking at accelerating somewhere between four-and-six years off of the base and saving at least $2 billion, and we’re not giving up on $3 [billion]. So it really has to do with the comparisons between what was proposed in the contract and some realities that have set in as we’ve been implementing,” he said. “When we presented and rebaselined for the acceleration to cut six years off and save $3 billion, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and so there was a projection of upfront extra funding of a couple hundred million dollars above and beyond our base program,” Moody said. “We’re close on the base program. It’s really that delta upfront that funded the SCIX and rotary microfiltration in-tank and other advanced approaches. We’re looking at alternatives. Can we fund them other ways? Can we attack this problem other ways?”

SRR said that it would still be able to meet its regulatory commitments with the reduced closure goal. “With incorporation of numerous cost savings initiatives, elimination of non-essential scope, and deferral of other scope to ‘just-in-time,’ DOE and SRR can (1) meet all Federal Facility Agreement and Site Treatment Plan regulatory commitments on or ahead of schedule and (2) preserve four years and $2 billion of the six years and $3.25 billion lifecycle acceleration projected in System Plan Revision 16,” contractor spokesman Rick Kelley said in a written response. He told WC Monitor, “We would certainly like to live up to the commitment we made in 2009 [when SRR won the liquid waste contract], but if we don’t get the funding, it will be hard to do that.”

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