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Savannah River Site (USDOE)

Savannah River Site (USDOE)
EPA ID: SC1890008989
Location: Aiken, Aiken County, SC
Congressional District: 03
NPL Status: Proposed: 07/14/89; Final 11/21/89
Project Manager
Documents:About Adobe Portable Document Format

Site Background:
The Savannah River site (SRS) occupies approximately 310 square miles of land adjacent to the Savannah River, principally in Aiken and Barnwell counties of western South Carolina. SRS is a secured U.S. Government facility with no permanent residents, and is located approximately 25 miles southeast of Augusta, Georgia and 20 miles south of Aiken, South Carolina.

SRS was constructed during the early 1950s to produce the basic materials used in the fabrication of nuclear weapons, primarily tritium and plutonium-239, for our nation’s defense programs.  Five reactors were built on the site. The reactors produced nuclear materials by irradiating target materials with neutrons. Also built were support facilities including two chemical separations plants, a heavy water extraction plant, a nuclear fuel and target fabrication facility and waste management facilities.  Production of nuclear materials for the defense programs was discontinued in 1988.  SRS has provided nuclear materials for the space program, as well as for medical, industrial, and research efforts up to the present. Chemical and radioactive wastes are by-products of nuclear material production processes. These wastes have been treated, stored, and in some cases, disposed at SRS. Past disposal practices have resulted in soil and groundwater contamination. EPA, SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), and US DOE are now addressing these releases under a RCRA permit and CERCLA 120 Federal Facility Agreement.

In 1981, SRS began inventorying waste units. There are a total of 515 inactive waste and groundwater units. Waste sites range in size from a few square yards to tens of acres and include basins, pits, piles, burial grounds, landfills, tanks and associated groundwater contamination.  To date, more than 323 of the 515 waste sites have been closed.  Also, billions of gallons of groundwater have been treated, with about one million pounds of solvents removed.  The site has pioneered the use of numerous ground-breaking technologies to increase the effectiveness of its remediation efforts and to reduce risk.  In recent years, remediation methods have evolved to more efficient and cost-effective approaches, such as bioremediation, monitored natural attenuation, barometric pumping, solar-powered microblowers, and dynamic underground steam stripping.  In addition, immobilizing source term material with impermeable clay caps and/or grouting waste in place are a cost-effective way to fix contamination in place while minimizing the potential to affect worker health and safety.

Cleanup Progress: Actual Construction Underway
Initial cleanup activities were initiated by USDOE under a RCRA permit in 1985. Since that time DOE has initiated a number of RCRA and CERCLA response actions that address contamination and disposal issues.

The Fiscal Year 08 activities scheduled as joint RCRA/CERCLA cleanup actions under the terms of the SRS Federal Facility Agreement include:

- 3 Area Remedial Investigation Starts
- 1 Record of Decision
- 2 Remedial Action Starts
- 0 Remedial Action Completes
- Third 5 Year Review Start
- Three Removal Completions

The projections for Fiscal Year 09 are:

- 1 Area Remedial Investigation Start
- 2 Records of Decision
- 1 Remedial Action Start
- 2 Remedial Action Completes
- Third 5 Year Review Completion

The site has strong working relationships with EPA and SCDHEC.  In 2002, the site initiated an effort to accelerate the cleanup schedule at the site by 15 years to 2025 with an estimated cost savings of over $4 billion.  On May 22, 2003, the DOE, EPA, and SCDHEC agreed to support accelerated cleanup of the Savannah River Site.  As part of that agreement, the parties initiated a process of redefining their strategic approach to cleanup based on a concept of executing work on an “area basis.”  The parties subsequently adopted an Area Completion Strategy for the 14 major industrial areas at SRS, and are committed to identifying technical and administrative opportunities to streamline and accelerate the area completion process.  Due to the addition of new missions to SRS by DOE and funding reductions, the cleanup schedule now extends to 2030.  However, the new completion date is still well ahead of earlier dates that had been projected.

The Area Completion Approach integrates environmental remediation and deactivation & decommissioning (D&D) scope:

Historical process
Did not focus on any single area
Evaluated individual waste units
Did not address D&D facilities
Area Completion process
Addresses groupings of waste units and facilities in a geographic area
Integrates D&D / ER cleanup
Starts one Area per year
Area End States determined up front
Economies of scale in sampling, remediation & documentation
Typical schedule reduced by 35%
One set of documents for each of the 14 Area Completions
With DOE’s focus on accelerating cleanup and eliminating risks, SRS is concentrating on shrinking the footprint left from decades of operations.  Due to changes in missions, many SRS facilities are no longer needed to produce or process nuclear materials. This situation poses a challenge for SRS to place and maintain these facilities in a safe, low cost condition until they can be safely disposed.  The site D&D organization is faced with the need to disposition over 1000 facilities.  Disposition is the process that begins once the DOE decides a facility is no longer needed to support defense, research, or other program missions and declares it as surplus. Many of the facility’s systems and components may remain operational to support activities throughout the disposition process. The facility disposition process is divided into four activities:

1) Shutdown/Transition, which is the process of terminating operations in a controlled manner and the planning for remaining disposition activities.

2) Deactivation, which places a facility in a stable and known configuration by removing the chemical and radioactive materials, shutting down or mothballing the facility equipment and mitigating hazards.

3) Safe Storage, which is a dormant period involving only Surveillance and Maintenance (S&M) of the facility to ensure safety of the worker, the public and the environment.

4) Decommissioning, which results in the facility’s being in its final end state whether that involves dismantlement, decontamination, or some other activity such that the land is available for either unrestricted use or for limited applications.

The site Area Closure Project is a new, integrated group that incorporates the D&D organization with the former Soil and Groundwater Closure Projects organization.  The new ACP is focusing on closing entire areas, one at a time. Areas at the periphery of SRS are targeted first—T Area, D Area, A Area and M Area. F Area is also undergoing intense D&D because of the opportunity it presents for major risk elimination.  T Area was completely closed by the end of 2006.  M Area is not far behind with all surface actions in place by the end of 2009.  By 2030, all inactive waste sites that pose an unacceptable risk to surface water or groundwater are planned to be remediated, and any contaminated groundwater will be remediated or undergoing remediation. Units that leave waste in place will be under institutional controls that feature access restrictions and an inspection, maintenance, and monitoring program.

Accelerated Cleanup Process Progress:

T Area Operable Unit (TAOU) – Operable Unit 96
T Area is located near SRS boundary and includes five waste units and three contaminated slabs left from D&D activities.  It is the first SRS industrial area to go through the Area Completion process.  Two thousand cubic yards of highly contaminated soil were removed and disposed offsite and a 10-acre geosynthetic cover was installed.  Completion was documented in the Post Closure Report (PCR) in 2006, as planned.  Under the Area Completion Process, the schedule was compressed by approximately 48 months and a significant cost savings/avoidance was achieved (approximately $20M).  Contaminants of Concern at T Area included Uranium, Thorium, Mercury, PCBs, and Trichloroethene.
     
M Area Operable Unit (MAOU) - Operable Unit 92
M Area Operable Unit (MAOU) consists of six waste units and 47 D&D facilities located in M-Area. Waste unit remediation will involve the removal of solvent sources of PTSM in the area.  It is the second scheduled SRS industrial area to go through the Area Completion process.  All D&D work has been completed and the characterization field start for the remedial process began in early September 2006.  Early actions (removal actions) to address contamination from M Area D&D slabs were taken in FY07. The Proposed Plan for M Area was issued in 2008.  The final ROD is scheduled for FY2009.  Contaminants of Concern at M Area included Uranium and Trichloroethene.

 

P-Area Operable Unit (PAOU) – Operable Unit 94
P Area is the third area to go through the Area Completion process and the first Area Completion involving a hardened facility (reactor).  PAOU encompasses 17 acres, and includes the reactor building and support facilities, administration and maintenance facilities, a cooling water and treatment system, a coal-burning power plant, waste disposal facilities, five miles of sewer lines, and effluent discharges. Characterization of the likely constituents of concern (tritium, cesium, and solvents) is ongoing.  An Early Action Proposed Plan designating in situ disposal for the P-Reactor and for P-Reactor to potentially be used as a consolidation and/or disposal area for P Area wastes was issued in 2008.  The Early Action ROD is in development and will be issued in FY2009.  A final ROD is scheduled for FY2011.  Contaminants of Concern at P Area are associated with reactor operations including Cesium, Tritium, Cobalt and Trichloroethene.

 

R-Area Operable Unit (RAOU) – Operable Unit 95
R Area is the second Reactor area to go through the Area Completion process.  RAOU encompasses multiple acres, and includes the reactor building and support facilities, administration and maintenance facilities, a cooling water and treatment system, waste disposal facilities, five miles of sewer lines, and effluent discharges. Characterization of the likely constituents of concern (tritium, cesium, and solvents) is in the planning stages.  An Early Action ROD to address the Reactor in R Area is currently scheduled for 2010, while the final ROD at R Area is currently scheduled for 2012.  Contaminants of Concern at R Area are associated with reactor operations including Cesium, Tritium, Cobalt and Trichloroethene.

 

D-Area Operable Unit (DAOU) – Operable Unit 63
D Area contains the main powerhouse for SRS and tritium recovery facilities.  Much of D Area has been addressed through earlier RODs.  The remainder of the DAOU has begun the scoping process for characterization.  The final ROD for D Area is scheduled for 2012.

High Level Waste Tanks – Operable Units 23 (F Tank Farm Area) & 89 (H Tank Farm Area)
EPA, DOE, and SCDHEC recently resolved a dispute concerning the closure of Tanks 18 and 19 and new tank schedule was agreed to as a result.  SRS now has new milestones for Tank Modeling documents, Bulk Waste Removal Completions, and eventual Tank Closures while maintaining the original closure date of 2022 for the single walled non-compliant tanks.  The High Level Waste Tanks at SRS are considered by DOE and SCDHEC as the greatest risk in the state of South Carolina.  In order to treat the waste from the tanks, SRS is building the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF).  SWPF will separate low level waste which represents most of the volume from the high level waste which is most of the activity.  The low level waste will be grouted on site at SRS in the Salt Stone Facility.  The high level waste will be sent to the existing Defense Waste Processing Plant (SWPF) at SRS to be entombed in glass by vitrification and stored in stainless steel canisters at SRS until the opening of a federal depository for High Level Waste.  DOE has already met the first milestone negotiated as a result of the dispute by submitting a draft Performance Assessment for the F Area Tank Farm. 

For information about the contents of this page please contact Carolyn Haugabook

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