The Department of Energy will skip recovering highly enriched uranium from the spent nuclear fuel material stored in the Savannah River Site’s L-Basin.
William White, a senior advisor with Department of Energy Environmental Management office, signed an amended record of decision on April 8 regarding the 29.2 tons of spent nuclear fuel stored safely underwater in L-Basin. The record of decision calls for the material to be processed through H-Canyon and ultimately disposed of via the Defense Waste Processing Facility without recovering the highly enriched uranium in the material.
Specifically, the plan calls for the material to be processed at H-Canyon by using nitric acid to produce a solution of highly enriched uranium, fission products, aluminum and small of amounts of transuranic elements like neptunium and plutonium. The solution would then be transferred into the high level waste system and immobilized into canisters at the Defense Waste Processing Facility with a small amount being sent to the Salt Waste Processing Facility and disposed of via the Saltstone Disposal Facility. Once the material has been put into the canisters, it will be stored in S-area until a national spent nuclear fuel repository is built.
The plans to speed up processing could save taxpayers $4 billion because the plan simplifies the processing needed at H-Canyon.
Up to 75% of the processes used in H-Canyon (Head End, First Uranium Cycle, High-Activity Waste Evaporation, Second Uranium Cycle, Low Activity Waste Evaporation Solvent Recovery and Acid Recovery) would not be used.
Also, L-Basin would be freed up for other uses and a news release notes the sped up processing also reduces the department’s liability for storing the material.
The record of decision implies the change in plans is necessary because the original plans to melt and dilute the spent nuclear fuel have not been implemented and the plans to sort the spent nuclear fuel by type have also not been implemented.
The accelerated de-inventory mission is expected to take 12 or 13 years.
The change in mission will not affect jobs, the budget of the site, or the status or mission of H-Canyon according to a news release.