In the small hamlet of Aiken, known by locals as "Thoroughbred Country" because of the wealthy New Yorkers, who came to the quaint southern town to train their racing horses in the winter months more than a century ago, nuclear waste is being removed swiftly and smoothly.
As first reported in an October 27 posting on aikenstandard.com, thanks to funding from the Recovery Act (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – ARRA - an economic stimulus package enacted in February, 2009 by the U.S. Congress worth $787 billion which includes spending in infrastructure - including the energy sector) the Savannah River Nuclear Site is much further along – and much faster - in their cleanup to reduce their facility’s footprint by 67%.
In early October, a shipment off-site of 7 barrels of tritium- and mercury-contaminated oil (known as "legacy oil") was sent to Diversified Scientific Solutions Inc., near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where it will be run through a combustion unit, enabling the resulting ash to meet land disposal regulations. The legacy oil, which was generated as far back as 1985, was used as lubricant in equipment at the old tritium facility.
Initially, this waste was to be left to decay (which would have taken from 10-15 years) for eventual disposition in 2053.
"Not only is it radioactive for its tritium content, it is hazardous for mercury, which can make treatment of this waste challenging," said Jacob Nims, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) project engineer. "We had plans to let all of it decay to be able to ship it off-site in the future."
"To date, we have shipped 9,600 curies of tritium out of South Carolina," Nims continued.
Along with the legacy oil, SRNS is also consolidating contaminated equipment. It too, will be shipped to Oak Ridge (TN) to the Materials and Energy Corporation for treatment and repackaging before final shipment to the Nevada Test Site for disposal.
Wastes are stored in various facilities across the sprawling Savannah River Nuclear Site, so providing one central storage facility will free other areas for closure activities to begin.
"This shipment brings us one step closer to our operational footprint reduction goals. The shipment and removal of mixed waste from SRS and the state of South Carolina would not have happened without the Recovery Act," Nims said.