Interim storage of transuranic waste at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup project in upstate New York will not be affected by a cost dispute between the U.S. Energy Department and its contractor, AECOM subsidiary URS.
“Transuranic waste treatment, packaging, certification is the responsibility of DOE and is not part of the contract cost cap,” DOE noted in its recently released fiscal 2019 budget justification.
In early 2011 DOE implemented what was essentially a $125 million cap on its financial liability for the SPRU environmental remediation, which is now winding down with an eye toward completion this year. A hurricane and other unforeseen factors drove the contract’s cost to the department to $180 million as of January 2018, due partly to changes in the scope of work, according to a recent audit from the DOE Office of Inspector General.
The department still has responsibility “for funding hillside stabilization as a result of tropical storms Irene and Lee,” according to DOE’s fiscal 2019 budget justification. But the document says DOE is not responsible for extra costs or delays not caused by the government.
URS blames the changed scope of work for most of the extra costs, which it says have pushed the entire project above $400 million. It is in alternate dispute resolution with DOE over what should and should not be covered by the cost cap.
AECOM indicated in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year it could not assure investors how the dispute will be resolved. The document also did not predict when a ruling might be made.
Within the past week, DOE applied to the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation for a permit to store TRU waste at the deactivated site in Schenectady County for research on chemical separation of plutonium and uranium, DEC spokesman Rick Georgeson said Monday.
Because it doesn’t yet have a permitted storage area, SPRU has since 2015 received a series of 30-day extensions for generator storage of the mixed TRU waste, the DOE budget request says. The waste is currently stored outside in Conex boxes, a type of shipping container.
The waste includes equipment, system components, residues from sumps, walls, piping insulation, and other materials, Georgeson said by email Thursday. It is currently shielded with lead and placed inside 55- or 85-gallon drums within the Conex boxes. Georgeson said the material is due to be moved to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico by 2025.
Cleanup at SPRU would get $15 million under the fiscal 2019 DOE budget request, over $11 million more than the $3.6 million in the fiscal 2017 enacted level. FY18 number? In addition to “contractor demobilization and closeout activities,” the additional funds would pay for interim on-site storage of the TRU waste.
The transuranic waste resulted from teardown and decontamination of SPRU’s H2 and G2 buildings. There are 24 containers considered potential transuranic waste, 22 of which hold mixed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act hazardous waste regulated by New York, according to the budget document.
