The Department of Energy is testing Saltwaste Disposal Unit 7, a key part of the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste cleanup effort, for leaks, the agency said this week.
Amentum-led contractor Savannah River Remediation is conducting what DOE described in a press release as a liquid tightness test, which involves pumping 33 million gallons of water, enough to fill 55 Olympic-sized swimming pools, into the structure over the next three-to-four weeks.
About 400 gallons of fluorescent yellow/green dye will be added to the water to help Savannah River Remediation confirm the Saltstone Disposal Unit No. 7 (SDU 7) is tight and not leaking.
The entire test should take about six-to-eight weeks, DOE said. Once the leak detection is done, the water and dye will be drained out of SDU 7 and there will be a “controlled” release into a tributary of the Savannah River located within the Aiken, S.C., site, DOE said in the press release.
The dye is safe for the environment, there are no health, safety, or environmental concerns with its release into the river, DOE said.
In January, Michael Budney, the top DOE Office of Environmental Management executive at the complex told the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board that construction of SDU 7 should be done this summer and operation should start in spring 2022.
This would be the second mega-volume disposal unit built at Savannah River. Its twin, SDU 6, is 43 feet high, 375 feet in diameter and began operation in August 2018. The massive units are designed to take the decontaminated salt solution resulting from liquid waste treatment at the Saltwaste Processing Facility that began commercial operation in January.
The New Mexico Environment Department’s deputy cabinet secretary, Jennifer Pruett, is retiring in May after a 37-year career that included 20 years with the state agency.
The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) said in a press release this week it is actively working to fill the post by April. The deputy secretary is appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) and reports directly to NMED Cabinet Secretary James Kenney.
More information on the job can be found here.
Pruett has been in her current post for more than two years, NMED said. After graduating law school in 1984, she joined NMED as an assistant general counsel. Pruett worked in private legal practice between 1990 and 2006 before rejoining NMED and serving in posts concerning groundwater quality and petroleum storage tanks.
“I am so grateful to Deputy Pruett for her many years of service to the Department as well as the environment and the people of New Mexico,” Kenney said in the press release.
The New Mexico Environment Department recently filed a legal complaint in state court, accusing the Department of Energy of not living up to a 2016 consent order over cleanup of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and asking the court to supervise negotiations toward a replacement agreement.
The top executive for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will brief the first meeting of the nuclear cleanup’s branch’s advisory board during the Joe Biden administration Wednesday March 24 starting at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.
In addition to remarks from DOE’s acting assistant secretary for environmental management, William (Ike) White, the Environmental Management Advisory Board will also be briefed on potential regulatory reform options, radioactive waste disposal and budget issues. There will also be public comments.
This virtual meeting of the advisory board will be done via Zoom and pre-registration is required by March 17 by emailing Alyssa Harris by 5 p.m. Eastern at [email protected].
While Jennifer Granholm was sworn in as secretary of energy last week after being confirmed by the Senate Thursday, the administration has not yet nominated anyone for assistant secretary of environmental management, or to head the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
The Environmental Management Advisory Board is a DOE-chartered panel of people outside the agency who are charged with providing the cleanup office with independent advice and recommendations.
