July 11, 2006
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20004-2901
Dear Mr. Chairman:
Enclosed is the Department of Energy’s (DOE) revised Implementation Plan (IP) relative to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s Recommendation 2001-1, High-Level Waste Management at the Savannah River Site (SRS). This revision reflects delays encountered in implementing Commitment 2.9, Demonstrate the Viability of the Deliquification, Dissolution, and Adjustment (DDA) process. These delays are associated with permits or permit modifications and ongoing discussions with the State of South Carolina. In conjunction with the DDA delay, the program evaluation per Commitment 3.11 has also been revised to allow for evaluation of the initial DDA facility performance.
This IP revision also reflects a change in the approach to Tank 48 material disposition provided to the Board on April 4, 2006, as part of Commitment 3.8. Based on discussions with the State of South Carolina and the principle of minimizing the curies to be dispositioned in the Saltstone vaults, the text of the IP has been modified to reflect organic destruction as the primary option for Tank 48 material disposition and aggregation will become the backup alternative. The proposed commitment date for completing this activity remains January 2010 as specified in the April 4, 2006, deliverable.
If you have any further questions, please call me or Mr. James A. Rispoli, Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, at (202) 586-7709.
Sincerely,
Samuel W. Bodman