Closing Radioactive Waste Tanks in South Carolina

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is owned by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and is operated by the Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC). Since the early 1950s, the primary mission of the site has been to produce nuclear materials for national defense. The chemical separations processes used to recover uranium and plutonium from production reactor fuel and target assemblies in the chemical separations area at SRS generated liquid high-level radioactive waste. This waste, which now amounts to approximately 34 million gallons, is stored in underground tanks in the F- and H-Areas near the center of the site. DOE is closing the High Level Waste (HLW) tank systems, which are permitted by SCDHEC under authority of the South Carolina Pollution Control Act (SCPCA) as wastewater treatment facilities, in accordance with South Carolina Regulation R.61-82, ''Proper Closeout of Wastewater Treatment Facilities''. To date, two HLW tank systems have been closed in place. Closure of these tanks is the first of its kind in the US. This paper describes the waste tank closure methodologies, standards and regulatory background