Engineer Selected to Add New Salt Waste Processing Unit at Savannah River Site in South Carolina

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). The U.S. Department of Energy (Aiken, South Carolina) is planning to construct a new salt waste processing unit addition at the existing Savannah River site in Aiken, South Carolina. Currently there is 31.2 million gallons of salt-bearing waste that remains stored at the nuclear weapons site in underground tanks. The estimated $1 billion project is necessary to dispose of the high level of salt waste which is known as ITP (in-tank precipitation).

The new unit will include an extraction process called caustic side solvent extraction (CSSX). This process will separate the tank wastes into high and low level fractions. The high-level waste, which mostly consists of the radioactive isotope cesium 137, will be separated from the vast saline liquid found in the tanks. The waste will then be sent to the Savannah River's vitrification plant to be converted into a glassified waste form for offsite geologic disposal. The low-level wastes will be solidified in a cement type waste form and buried at Savannah River.

Foster Wheeler Environmental Systems Corporation (Morris Plains, New Jersey) and Parsons Savannah Services (Aiken, South Carolina) have recently been awarded the engineering contracts. They will perform the front-end design, which will proceed for eight months, before an engineering and construction firm is chosen in May 2003 to provide the detailed engineering and construction services. Construction is slated to begin during the fourth quarter of 2003 or the first quarter of 2004 and is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2006.