The Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Savannah River Site has agreed to a plan with federal and South Carolina regulators for final cleanup of a 25-mile stretch of radiologically contaminated stream.
The affected area includes the Lower Three Runs stream, which begins near the center of the federal complex near the Georgia line, as well as the Par Pond and nine miles of adjacent canals, the DOE Office of Environmental Management and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) said in a press release this week.
Fluor-led SRNS has already done much cleanup, decommissioning and closure of both P and R reactors. The two 1950s vintage reactors used in the site’s Cold War weapons work tapped Par Pond for cooling water. In 2011 both old reactors were filled with grout.
Remaining work involves adding more signs and fencing to warn workers and any members of the public who get near the stream of potential hazards, SRNS engineer and project technical lead Jim Kupar said in the press release. “This will be especially true when we work to remove the few areas of elevated contamination in the canal system, beginning in 2023.”
BWX Technologies-led Savannah River Mission Completion will hire small businesses to carry out 20% of its work on the potential $21-billion contract over 10 years, the joint venture’s president and project manager Dave Olson told the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board Tuesday.
Olson said the 90-day transition is going well for the liquid waste contractor succeeding Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation. Savannah River Mission Completion takes over the Integrated Mission Completion Contract for the South Carolina site by the end of February.
The contractor team, which includes partners Amentum and Fluor as well as teaming subcontractors DBD and WesWorks, plan a Feb. 1 “meet and greet” with local leaders in Aiken, S.C.
The Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Advisory Board will stick around for at least two more years, according to a Federal Register notice published last week.
The advisory board is being renewed for a two-year period that began Jan. 14, according to the Jan. 21 notice, which said the action is taken under the Federal Advisory Committee Act and with consultation of the General Services Administration.The board advises the assistant secretary of DOE’s $7.5-billion Office of Environmental Management (EM), which oversees nuclear cleanup of the agency’s Cold War and Manhattan Project sites.
While the Joe Biden administration has not nominated any permanent assistant secretary, the post has effectively been filled on an acting basis by special adviser William (Ike) White a career fed, since June 2019. White started acting as the top manager at EM after the resignation of the last Senate-approved assistant secretary, Anne Marie White. The two are not related.
The Biden administration has gotten some static by several of the site-specific advisory panels over the slow pace of approving new members and hindering the committees’ ability to keep quorums and conduct business. During meetings, the delays have been attributed in part to the administration’s emphasis on increasing committee diversity.
