Valve replacement at the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is expected to wrap up this month, according to the Department of Energy.
Meanwhile, a new project baseline for the facility submitted earlier this year is still under DOE review.
Parsons, the DOE contractor building and initially operating the facility, in April discovered it would need to replace 460 valves after the apparatus that controls the valves malfunctioned. The valves are used to control a wide array of functions at SWPF.
To date, Parsons has replaced about 420 valves, and expects to complete the project by the end of the month. The Energy Department is evaluating the specific cost for the replacement project.
The valve replacement has contributed to the delayed startup of SWPF, which will treat 90 percent of the remaining liquid waste stored underground tanks at the Savannah River Site. The waste, which totals about 35 million gallons, was generated by Cold War nuclear weapons production.
The Energy Department currently treats the salt waste using a pilot process that separates those components from other materials and sends the treated salt waste to a permanent on-site disposal unit. The Salt Waste Processing Facility will function in the same manner, but is supposed to increase waste treatment from 1.5 million gallons per year to 6 million.
Parsons was hired in 2002 to carry out construction, design, testing, and startup of the facility by January 2021 at a total cost of $2.3 billion. It would then operate the SWPF for a year before turning it over to the site’s liquid waste management contractor. That one year of operations has a target cost of $86.3 million.
The Energy Department had anticipated startup in December 2018 since construction was completed in June 2016, believing that would allot enough time for testing and commissioning. But the agency backed off that goal earlier this year, once the valve replacement issue emerged. The agency has said startup will come further into fiscal 2019 but has not given a firm date.
In a brief spat starting in March, DOE accused Parsons of a “deteriorating” performance at the facility, saying among other things that workers had not been adequately following safety protocols, and had replaced key personnel without proper DOE approval. In a response the following month, Parsons said DOE had mischaracterized the contractor’s performance.
The two sides resolved the matter, while also agreeing it was time to create a new project baseline that details costs, schedule, and necessary steps to bring the facility online as soon and safely as possible. Parsons submitted its proposal on June 7, though details have not been made available. The DOE spokesperson says it is still under review, but that there’s no time frame of when it will be accepted or denied.
Regardless of the new baseline, Parsons has said the facility will definitely begin operations by 2021.
