Money for liquid waste processing and tank closures at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) would tick up if Congress approves funding levels proposed by President Donald Trump for fiscal 2018.
All told, the budget proposal would provide $1.28 billion for the DOE facility in South Carolina, according to the detailed version of the budget request released last week for the department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). That would include $787.8 million for liquid waste management at the site – about $4.2 million more than the enacted amount in fiscal 2016 and more than $19 million than SRS received on an annualized basis in the fiscal 2017 continuing resolution that kept the federal government running through last month.
The request says additional funding will be geared toward canister production at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). The facility is designed to process the nearly 35 million gallons of sludge and salt waste stored in more than 40 waste storage tanks, a byproduct of Cold War nuclear weapons operations at SRS. To date, the DWPF has solidified approximately 61 million curies of radioactivity and poured over 16 million pounds of glass.
The DOE EM budget justification does not list a specific funding amount for DWPF, but the proposal calls for the facility to produce 60 to 70 canisters of waste during the next fiscal year. The site was projected to produce 100 canisters this year before all liquid waste processing was suspended due to issues at the Defense Waste Processing Facility. Operations are expected to resumes later this year. The 10-foot tall canisters are used to temporarily store the waste on-site after it is processed through the facility.
Fiscal 2018 funding is also targeted to finish preparations for SRS’ Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), keeping it on track for a December 2018 startup. The facility cost $1.3 billion to build and will cost another $1 billion to operate through 2024. Once operational, the SWPF will separate highly radioactive cesium and actinides from the salt solution held in the tanks. Under the proposal, SWPF would receive $150 million for testing and commissioning efforts. That’s $44 million less than the enacted amount in fiscal 2016 when the facility was still under construction.
Testing and commissioning this year will include system trials to ensure all of the SWPF components meet DOE safety and design requirements for waste processing.
About 90 percent of the 35 million gallons of waste at SRS is salt waste. After separation is complete, the cesium and actinide waste will undergo final treatment at DWPF. The remaining decontaminated salt solution will be mixed with grout at the SRS Saltstone Disposal Facility for disposal on-site.
The Department of Energy budget plan, released on May 23, proposes $1.45 billion for EM missions at the Savannah River Site. That is $111 million more than the site received for environmental management in fiscal 2016, and about $113 million more than what Congress passed in the omnibus appropriations for the current budget year. The detailed budget justification for the Office of Environmental Management was posted three weeks after corresponding documents for other DOE branches.
In May, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) Director Catherine Heigel said radioactive waste remains the “single greatest environmental threat” to the state. She added that “although more can and should be done to mitigate that threat, any additional federal funding or enhanced commitment to waste treatment and tank closure is a step in the right direction.”
In addition to liquid waste operations, SRS is in line to receive funding boosts for nuclear materials disposition and solid waste operations.
The site would receive $323.5 million for nuclear materials management, which includes receiving foreign and domestic shipments of spent nuclear fuel, and processing that material through H Canyon.
The budget calls for $58 million for solid waste work, which primarily involves sending the site’s stockpiles of transuranic (TRU) waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New, Mexico. SRS did not receive funds for this work in the prior two budgets while it waited for WIPP to reopen following two accidents in the underground mine in February 2014. The storage site resumed operations in December and in April began taking waste shipments from SRS and other DOE sites.
