The Salt Waste Processing Facility.

AIKEN, S.C.Savannah River Site’s (SRS) Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) startup testing is progressing well, with the plant’s operations scheduled to begin by the end of 2018. 

   Site contractor Parsons has so far completed six of 60 planned SWPF system tests and is on track to complete 14 more by the end of 2016. Over the next 16 months, Parsons will rigorously test the plant’s components and systems to ensure they meet DOE’s strict waste processing safety and design requirements.

   “We are working hard to put the plant through its paces and it is really looking good so far,” said Frank Sheppard, Parsons senior vice president and project manager. “This facility is a key part of the tank waste mission and it’s important that we bring it online safely and on schedule.”

   Parsons declared construction of the facility complete in April, eight months ahead of the target schedule and more than $60 million under the target cost for construction activities from Dec. 31, 2012 through the end of construction. 

   Once operational, SWPF will process the majority of the site’s salt waste inventory by treating highly radioactive salt solutions stored in SRS underground tanks. Removing salt waste, which accounts for over 90 percent of tank space in the SRS tank farms, is a major step toward emptying and closing the site’s remaining 43 high-level waste tanks.

   “SWPF will allow us to process waste at 10 times the rate we are processing today, accelerating the cleanup of the Savannah River Site,” DOE Savannah River Operations Office Manager Jack Craig said.

   The testing incorporates lessons learned from past DOE facility startups, including the Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride Conversion Facilities at EM’s Portsmouth and Paducah sites. Parsons conducts the tests from the plant’s control panel, using the facility’s software, rather than running the tests manually and incorporating the software later in startup.

   “We are testing SWPF using the actual brains of the facility that we will use once we are in operation,” Sheppard said. “It’s been a very effective strategy to ensure that control system software was matured to support the test phase this early in the process.”

   Operator training is going well, Sheppard said. Parsons will use a simulator that mimics the process control room operating stations and allows for procedure verification. It has the same software installed in the plant’s control systems.

   SWPF won the Department of Energy Secretary’s Project Management Improvement Award for 2015 and was recently named Project of the Year by the American Society of Civil Engineers, South Carolina Section.