Recycling Waste Benefits SRR Waste Tank Closure Process
August 18, 2010
By recycling water and chemicals used in cleaning radioactive waste tanks, the company is moving away from adding new waste water and chemicals into the system.
Aiken, SC -- Savannah River Remediation (SRR) is stepping up a unique recycling program at the Savannah River Site (SRS) that could save taxpayers $250 million.
By recycling water and chemicals used in cleaning radioactive waste tanks, the company is moving away from adding new waste water and chemicals into the system. In addition, recycling in this case means more flexibility in the tank farms because more tanks space is available.
Dave Olson, SRR Deputy Project and Operations Manager, said having flexibility to move waste among the two SRS tank farms is vital to the SRR mission to operationally close 22 radioactive waste tanks in the next seven years.
"The ability to move waste water in our tank farms enables us to be more efficient in our waste management process and tank closing sequence," Olson said. "Reusing waste water instead of adding to it is critical in SRR achieving its mission."
After just over a year of operations, SRR has reused over 2.8 million gallons of waste water in its tank cleaning and waste removal processes, eliminating the need to add water and other chemicals in the process, which means there is less volume in the waste tanks to remove prior to operationally closing the tanks.
Terrel Spears, Assistant Manager for Waste Disposition Project, DOE-Savannah River Operations Office, said SRR's technique of recycling used waste water results in a schedule and cost savings.
"If the 2.8 million gallons of additional waste water were evaporated to a smaller volume and stored, it would occupy space in some of the tanks we are working to close," said Spears. "By recycling used waste water, the resulting efficiency not only reduces the workload on our evaporator systems, and also allows us to focus on closure activities for the tanks, which would have stored the waste."
Olson explained SRR continues to explore ways to accelerate its tank closure mission and resultant cost savings, which ultimately benefits the public and conforms to South Carolina regulator's goal of reducing the amount of highest-risk waste material in the state.
SRS is owned by DOE. The SRS Liquid Waste contract is managed by SRR, a team of companies led by URS Corp. with partners Bechtel National, CH2M Hill and Babcock & Wilcox. Critical subcontractors for the contract are AREVA, Energy Solutions and URS Safety Management Solutions.
Point of Contact: Dean Campbell, Manager, Public Affairs dean.campbell@srs.gov