The Utility of Waste Tank Historical Reviews in Bulk Waste Removal Operations at the Savannah River Site – 25271

Technical Report · Tue Nov 19 04:00:00 EST 2024

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2549244· OSTI ID:2549244

Coleman, Amanda B. ^[1]; Henry, Peter J. ^[1]

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1. Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), Aiken, SC (United States)

SRMC is actively working to remove, treat, and dispose radioactive waste generated by the separation facilities at SRS since their initial operations in the 1950s. The separation facilities at SRS have produced nuclear materials for a variety of purposes, particularly national defense, and continue to support the disposition of spent fuel through the Accelerated Basin Deinventory program. In almost 70 years of operation, nearly 625,000 m3 (165 million gallons) of radioactive waste have been generated and transferred to the tank farm facilities at SRS [1]. As a result of volume reduction (e.g., evaporation) and waste solidification (e.g., vitrification), approximately 127,000 m3 (33.5 million gallons) of material remain as of June 30, 2024 [2]. This liquid waste has since been stored in 51 large underground waste tanks present on the site. These waste tanks may contain up to 4,921 m3 (1.3 million gallons) of radioactive waste each in the form of saltcake or sludge. SRMC’s contract is to treat and dispose of this waste, clean the tanks, and operationally close them. To date, 8 of the 51 waste tanks have been operationally closed. Waste retrieval and tank closure activities are ongoing in an additional 17 tanks through either operations in the field or in design [3].

• Research Organization: Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• DOE Contract Number: 89303322DEM000068
• OSTI ID: 2549244
• Report Number(s): SRMC--STI-2024-00581
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES