COVER STORY | CLEANING UP US LEGACY WASTE
Project highlights Some FY2023 key accomplishments cited by DOE ● Idaho National Laboratory: Completed transfer of spent nuclear fuel from wet-to-dry storage ● Oak Ridge: Completed demolition of Low Intensity Test Reactor and began early site prep for the Environmental Management Disposal Facility
● Hanford: Heated up the first melter and poured the first test glass at the Waste Treatment and Immobilisation Plant ● Paducah: removed an additional 1 million pounds of hazardous R-114 refrigerant ● Portsmouth: completed waste placement of 163,000 cubic yards from demolition of the X-326 Process Building ● Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: Received 473 waste shipments from generator sites and began commissioning the new Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System; exceeded transuranic waste shipments from Los Alamos
● West Valley Demonstration Project: Demolished and disposed of 9,000 tons of waste from the main plant process building ● Savannah River: completed construction of Saltstone Disposal Unit 8
Some Environmental Management priorities in the coming years: ● Hanford: treat radioactive tank waste and complete planned demolition activities along the Columbia River ● Savannah River: continue to empty and close underground waste tanks. ● Oak Ridge: complete construction of the Mercury Treatment Facility; complete disposal of remaining legacy transuranic waste and uranium-233.
● Idaho National Laboratory: complete treatment of the remaining liquid sodium-bearing waste; complete shipments of legacy transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
● Portsmouth and the West Valley Demonstration Project: demolition activity
The Carlsbad Field Office is responsible for managing
the National Transuranic Waste Program and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a repository for the permanent geologic disposal of defence-generated transuranic waste. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant FY 2025 request supports disposal facility operations, regulatory and environmental compliance actions, the Central Characterization Project to perform transuranic waste characterisation/certification activities to maintain progress toward legacy transuranic waste related milestones at generator sites, transuranic waste transportation capabilities, continued progress on repairing or replacing infrastructure, and modernising
underground equipment to zero-emission battery-electric vehicle-powered equipment. Two significant reductions from the FY2023 funding are in the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) and the completion of work on a 26ft (8 m) diameter Utility Shaft, which provides for the SSCVS air intake. In June 2024 EM announced the completion of
construction at the SSCVS, and a move into a testing and commissioning phase that is due to deliver the facility online and operational in 2026. “Finishing the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System construction phase marks a momentous investment in WIPP’s operational infrastructure,” said Mark Bollinger, EM’s Carlsbad Field Office manager. “When fully online, the SSCVS will greatly increase the quality of airflow to the underground repository and enhance WIPP’s ability to reliably deliver on DOE’s national security and environmental cleanup missions.” The Idaho National Laboratory received $472m in FY2023
and its request for 2025 is down just 0.1%. The reduction reflects the completion of wet to dry spent
fuel transfers, transition from waste treatment operations to closure activities, progress in decontamination and demolition of the Accelerated Retrieval Project facilities and an anticipated reduction in costs once transition to Integrated Waste Treatment Unit operations is complete. The decrease is offset by increased funding to support construction activities for the Subsurface Disposal Area Cap and support for continued design efforts for a Spent Nuclear Fuel Staging Facility. Many activities are ongoing on the site, but the
Above: Oak Ridge has requested an additional $21bn on the £637bn it received in 2023 to cover cleanup activities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the design of an On-Site Waste Disposal Facility
24 | February 2025 |
www.neimagazine.com
year should also see completion of Peach Bottom fuel transfers. At the start of 2025, the Office of Environmental Management announced that it had completed the majority of its 2024 priorities, including meeting significant construction milestones, executing key cleanup projects, reducing its operational footprint, and awarding contracts. ■
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61
