| GLOBAL NUCLEAR
Cleanup enriches Oak Ridge
A contaminated nuclear site has been transformed into an economic asset
ALMOST 25 YEARS AGO, WHEN the former Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant sat shuttered with dilapidated, contaminated buildings, its future as an economic and recreational hub was hard to imagine. Now, with cleanup complete, the transformation of the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) has become a reality.
Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette joined U.S. Sen.
Lamar Alexander, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, Governor Bill Lee, and other state and community leaders in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on October 13, 2020 to celebrate the historic first-ever removal of a former uranium enrichment complex. Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its contractor UCOR (URS and CH2M Oak Ridge) have cleaned up ETTP and made 2,200 acres available for economic development and recreation.
Cold War legacy laid to rest An innovative form of radiological waste-treatment continues to provide results at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The Tank Closure Cesium Removal (TCCR) demonstration project recently completed its third batch run. The most recently completed batch removed cesium from more than 89,000 gallons of tank waste. Since TCCR operations began in early 2019, the project has safety removed cesium from nearly 300,000 gallons of Cold War-era liquid waste, helping to accelerate waste treatment and the ultimate cleaning and operational closure of waste tanks at SRS. Savannah River Remediation (SRR) is the liquid waste contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) at SRS and the operator of TCCR. SRR is an Amentum-led partnership that includes partners Jacobs, Bechtel National, and BWX Technologies Inc. TCCR is an at-tank treatment process, complementing other site
treatment facilities. By keeping the process outside the waste tank, TCCR is both modular and mobile. Because TCCR is independent of other liquid waste facilities, it can operate when other areas of the process are experiencing outages. TCCR performs an ion exchange process utilizing crystalline silicotitanate (CST) inside multiple resin columns. As liquid waste flows through the columns, the CST targets and adsorbs Cesium-137 and other radionuclides, removing them from the waste solution. SRR engineers
determined that the columns could be self-shielded inside the TCCR unit itself, resulting in a lower cost process while maintaining its efficiency and safety. TCCR has proven its ability to perform the task as expected. Each
completed batch has demonstrated the effectiveness of the TCCR design, including its filtration system and control program. SRR developed a strategy to continue to supply the next phase of TCCR with batches from Tank 9. The implementation included the installation of safety systems to monitor the interior status of the tank, ventilation system improvements, water addition points, mixing jets, and a transfer pump to move the salt solution to the TCCR feed tank. Tank 9 and the infrastructure upgrades will be ready to support the new TCCR mission in early 2021. Both the TCCR project and the Tank 9 Salt Dissolution project have
involved teams from across SRR, including SRR Construction. Installation and setup of the TCCR module and the Tank 9 upgrades required the efforts of numerous construction employees, as they safely contributed to the 32.7 million hours the group has worked since their last days-away case. TCCR’s achievements are built on the research and development done
by the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and the Savannah River National Laboratory, as well as experience drawn from commercial nuclear plant decontamination and the Fukushima Daiichi cleanup. ■
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