SRS crews continue double-stacking bins at second building

Crews at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina are continuing a program started in 2016 to save storage space by double-stacking canisters of vitrified high-level waste.

Employees started the latest double-stacking phase, inside Glass Waste Storage Building 2 in December 2024. Crews have already modified 150 positions there so far, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management at SRS said in a Tuesday news release.

The cans of vitrified high-level waste come from the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at the 310-square-mile federal complex. DOE and its SRS cleanup contractor say by placing canisters atop one another since 2016, the department has saved about $200 million by eliminating the need to build a third waste storage building.

The continuing effort is meant to ensure there is enough onsite storage space for the projected 8,100 canisters expected to be produced at DWPF. More than 2,400 cans have already been double-stacked at Glass Waste Storage Building 1, since the program started, DOE said.

A special vehicle, dubbed the shielded canister transporter, is used to move canisters from the DWPF vitrification building to the glass waste storage buildings, DOE said in the release. The transporter is also used to move the canisters for the double-stacking process, DOE said in the Tuesday release.