August 6, 2015

Treatment of Salt Waste at the Savannah River Site

The Savannah River Site (Savannah River), a Department of Energy (Department) site located near Aiken, South Carolina, was constructed during the 1950s to produce materials used in fabricating nuclear weapons in support of our nation's defense programs.  The Department's Office of Environmental Management is responsible for the treatment and final disposal of the waste generated by these operations, including approximately 37 million gallons of high level radioactive waste stored in 45 aging underground tanks at the site.  To maintain tank storage space at a safe level, evaporation is used to reduce the waste volume into crystallized salts (salt waste) that must then be disposed of.  Considered to be the single largest environmental threat in the state, the Department manages its high level radioactive liquid waste inventory through legally enforceable agreements with the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of South Carolina.  Substantial fines and penalties can be levied for missed milestones. 

In 2002, to help meet its commitments, the Department contracted to build the high capacity Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), the cornerstone of Savannah River's strategy for treating salt waste.  The SWPF was to be built by 2008 at a total project cost of $900 million, with operations to begin in 2009.  However, due to its inability to meet established milestones, the Department ultimately negotiated a conditional extension for SWPF to October 2015 and deployed an interim low capacity salt waste processing system, the Actinide Removal Process/Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction Unit (ARP/MCU).  The Department also explored the potential to acquire supplemental treatment capacity through the deployment of a Small Column Ion Exchange (SCIX) system.

We found that the Department's key salt waste processing facility, SWPF, was not operational and that the project experienced significant cost increases (about $1.4 billion to date) and schedule delays, pushing the start date out to at least December 2018.  As a result, the Department had treated only minimal amounts of salt waste at Savannah River.  Further, the Department plans to decrease the amount of waste treated through its interim salt waste processing facility, ARP/MCU, to an average of 40 percent of its maximum capacity from fiscal years 2014 through 2018.  Finally, the Department has suspended plans to deploy its supplemental salt waste processing capabilities, SCIX, that had the potential to provide significant additional treatment capacity.  

Topic: Management & Administration