[DOE
LETTERHEAD]
April 4, 2006
The Honorable A. J. Eggenberger
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW, Suite
700
Washington, DC 20004-2901
Dear Mr. Chairman:
I am forwarding you the enclosed
Department of Energy’s (DOE) plan for returning the Savannah River Site’s (SRS)
Tank 48 to active waste service and a technical report on the proposed
allowable organic residuals in the tank. These documents complete commitments 3.8 and 3.9
of the DOE’s Implementation Plan for Recommendation 2001-1 for High-Level
Waste Management at the Savannah River Site to complete a technical
evaluation of acceptable Tank 48 residual levels and to develop a plan and schedule
for Tank 48, respectively.
The plan outlines that the
intended Tank 48 recovery methodology will be aggregation of the current Tank
48 waste and disposal of the material in the Saltstone Disposal Facility consistent
with the Secretarial approved 3116 Determination. In parallel, DOE plans to continue research
and development activities for alternative treatment technologies, such as
wet-air oxidation and steam reforming, for the treatment and destruction of the
organic material in the Tank 48 waste and the associated rinse solutions to a
level that the waste can be reintroduced into the general Tank Farm system. DOE is committed to having Tank 48 returned to
active service by January 2010.
The technical report on residual
organics outlines that the current limit for organics in a nominal waste tank
can be significantly increased for Tank 48 provided some limitations are
imposed on its utilization. These
limitations are consistent with the planned utilization in salt waste
processing for Tank 48.
If you have any further
questions, please call me at (202) 586-0738 or Mr. Dae Y. Chung, Acting Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Integrated Safety Management and Operations Oversight,
at (202) 586-5151.
Sincerely,
Dr. Inés R. Triay
Chief Operating Officer for
Environmental Management
cc: Mark R. Whitaker, Jr., DR-1
Jeffrey
Allison, SR