Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
5/30/2014
Closure of old-style high-level waste tanks at the Savannah River Site is now set to be pushed out 10 years beyond regulatory commitments due to reduced funding and delays in getting the site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility in operation, according to the latest Department of Energy liquid waste cleanup plan, a copy of which WC Monitor obtained this week. Operational closure of old-style tanks would not occur until 2032—15 years after the October 2017 accelerated target Savannah River Remediation, LLC, announced when it took over the liquid waste contract. In addition to delays in SWPF startup, issues related to limited storage space for vitrified waste canisters and saltstone waste will limit processing rates at Savannah River’s interim salt waste processing capability and the Defense Waste Processing Facility, used to vitrify sludge waste. Such storage concerns, according to the plant, are also set to impact SWPF processing rates, further impacting schedules. DOE did not respond to request for comment late this week on the new plan and SRR declined to comment.
In 2012, budget cuts forced SRR to do away with its accelerated closure goals and push back old-style tank closure to 2022 in what the contractor called a “just in time” approach to meeting regulatory milestones. Then the SWPF, which is designed to greatly increase Savannah River’s salt waste processing capability, faced a two-year delay in delivery of key components, pushing back completion of the facility and its eventual operation. As a result, last year’s system plan delayed tank closure to 2028, six years beyond the South Carolina milestones. But the projected impacts of significant funding cuts led to the further delay of four years in the revision released this week. In total, 17 of 24 tanks are currently expected to miss regulatory commitments.
Enacted funding for the Savannah River liquid waste program stood at $838.5 million in Fiscal Year 2013, which dropped down to a current level of $690.5 million. DOE’s FY’15 budget requests $722.8 million for the liquid waste program.
Disposal Issues Limit Processing Rates
Disposal issues are a compounding factor for the delays, according to the new plan. Savannah River tank waste currently has two disposal pathways: Lower level waste is mixed with grout and disposed of on site in the Saltstone Facilities, while higher level waste is vitrified at the Defense Waste Processing Facility and is stored for the time being on-site. In Saltstone, storage will be limited until construction is completed on a new 30 million gallon disposal unit that is several times the size of the vaults currently being used. As a result of limited disposal space, expected salt waste processing rates will be reduced from 4.7 million gallons per year to 2 million gallons per year at the current interim processing capability, known as the Actinide Removal Process and Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction Unit.
Storage space for the glass canisters is also expected to run out and no high-level waste repository exists to take them. At current rates, the on-site glass waste storage buildings will be full by late 2016. “Funding limitations have delayed the start of design and construction of this needed supplemental glass waste storage such that, at present, it is unlikely that supplemental storage will be available by the FY17 need date,” according to the plan. To avoid filling up the available space early, DWPF production will be limited to between 120 to 160 canisters per year, down from previous rates nearly 300 per year made possible by recently installed upgrades to the plant. With reduced production, additional storage won’t be needed until 2019.
SWPF Won’t Reach Full Capacity Until 2025
Though the SWPF could potentially process at least 9 million gallons per year and is planned to start up in October 2018, it will not reach its full capacity until around 2025 due to several limiting factors and is expected to initially process only 3 million to 4 million gallons per year. “The cumulative difference between SWPF capacity and predicted throughput from FY19 to FY24 is more than 18 [million gallons], which adds two years to the overall [Liquid Waste] program,” the new plan states. Contributing issues include “lack of sufficient salt batch blend tanks at SWPF startup,” as well as “insufficient utilization of ARP/MCU capacity,” the plan states. There is also not enough funding to complete upgrades to DWPF and limited canister storage locations is another factor. A lack of funding has also suspended indefinitely the implementation of Small Column Ion Exchange, an in-tank salt waste treatment capacity that in previous plans was expected to start up in April 2019.
