NDAA Section 3116 Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina – Saltstone Disposal Facility (SDF)

SRS SDF in Aiken, South Carolina

Operator: U.S. Department of Energy Docket Number: PROJ0734 Site Description: Two rectangular, six smaller round, and seven larger round concrete disposal structures Waste Volume: approximately 1.34x108 Litres (3.54x107 gallons)

Under Section 3116(b) of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 (NDAA), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), in coordination with the NDAA-Covered State monitors the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) disposal actions to assess compliance with the NRC regulations in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 61, "Licensing Requirements for Land Disposal of Radioactive Waste," Subpart C, "Performance Objectives." The NDAA-Covered States are currently Idaho (ID) and South Carolina (SC).

The Savanah River Site (SRS) is a 802 square kilometer (km²) (310 square mile (mi²)) facility located in south-central SC, which began operation in 1951 producing nuclear materials for national defense, research, medical, and space programs. Waste produced at the site from spent nuclear fuel reprocessing for defense purposes has been commingled with non-reprocessing waste resulting from the production of targets for nuclear weapons and production of material for space missions. Significant quantities of radioactive waste are currently stored onsite in large underground waste storage tanks, which were placed in operation between 1954 and 1986. The waste stored in the tanks is a mixture of insoluble metal hyrdroxide solids, referred to as sludge, and soluble salt supernate. The supernate volume has been reduced by evaporation, which also concentrates the soluble salts to their solubility limits. The resultant solution crystallizes as salts and the resulting solid is referred to as saltcake. The saltcake and supernate combined are referred to as salt waste.

The DOE removes the salt waste, treats it to remove highly radioactive radionuclides to the maximum extent practical, and disposes of the low activity fraction onsite in the SDF. The Saltstone Disposal Facility (SDF) is located in the SRS Z-Area, which is approximately 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the nearest SRS site boundary on a local topographic high. In the future, after all the disposal structures are operationally full, the DOE will put one or more covers over the SDF.

Currently, the DOE constructed and put into operation disposal structures:

• two rectangular: Saltstone Disposal Structure (SDS) 1 and SDS 4
• six smaller round: SDS 2A, SDS 2B, SDS 3A, SDS 3B, SDS 5A, and SDS 5B
• three larger round: SDS 6, SDS 7, and SDS 8

Currently, the DOE plans to construct and put into operation the future disposal structures:

• four larger round: SDS 9 – SDS 12

Major NDAA WIR Consultation & Monitoring Documents For The SRS SDF:

Current Status Of NDAA Section 3116(b) Monitoring For The SRS SDF:

Current NRC Project Manager: Harry Felsher, 301-415-6559, Harry.Felsher@nrc.gov