Date Established: 1950

Present Mission:

Primary - Support current and future national security and nuclear materials requirements through tritium processing, waste management and vitrification, special nuclear material storage, reprocessing, research and development, and technology transfer.

Secondary - Managing the disposition of nuclear materials and facilities.

Size: Approximately 198,344 acres (310 square miles)

Employees: 15,922 Department of Energy (DOE) and contractor personnel (as of September 30, 1996).

Annual Budget: $1.3 billion for fiscal year 1997.

Cognizant Secretarial Officer: Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management (EM). Principal EM offices are the Office of Eastern Waste Management Operations (EM-32), Office of Eastern Area Programs (EM-42), and Savannah River Office (EM-63). The Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs (DP) also has programmatic interests at the site.

Responsible Operations/Area Office: DOE Savannah River Operations Office (SR).

Savannah River Integrated Team Management Contractor: Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC).

Team Members:

Bechtel Savannah River, Inc.

B & W Savannah River Company

BNFL Savannah River Corporation

Other Contractors/Interagency Agreements:

University of Georgia

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

U.S. Forest Service

Wackenhut Services, Incorporated

Fissile Material: As of February 6, 1996, there were 2.0 metric tons of plutonium, 575 kg of plutonium waste, and approximately 24.4 metric tons of U-235 in the form of metal, irradiated fuel, encapsulated fresh fuel, oxide, and other forms.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) consists of 198,344 acres (310 square miles) located approximately 25 miles southeast of Augusta, Georgia, in the state of South Carolina. The site is within the Atlantic coastal plain, bordered by the Savannah River. The topography is gently sloping to moderately steep.

SRS's primary mission since its inception until the early 1990s was production and separation of plutonium and tritium for use in national defense programs. The current SRS mission involves waste management and vitrification, special nuclear material (SNM) storage, research and development, and technology transfer. SRS also recycles tritium from the weapons stockpile. Recycling is accomplished at the tritium facilities (232-H, 233-H, and 234-H). High level waste is being stabilized through vitrification and disposal of the low activity fraction of waste as saltstone. Other secondary missions involve disposition of nuclear materials and facilities, including five production reactors (all of which are shut down), three chemical separation plants, three tritium facilities, 51 high level waste underground storage tanks, and a high level waste processing facility.

Contractor activities at SRS are managed by the Department of Energy (DOE) Savannah River Operations Office (SR). SR has approximately 563 personnel as of October 1996. Westinghouse Savannah River Company--who teamed with Bechtel Savannah River Company, Inc.; B&W Savannah River Company; and BNFL Savannah River Corporation--was recently awarded the contract for integrated team management of the site. There are also a significant number of subcontractors that support this team. Approximately 13,900 personnel are assigned to this contract as of September 30, 1996. (See Finance Issues, below.) Other contractors/interagency agreements at SRS include Wackenhut Services, Inc., which is responsible for site security; the U.S. Forest Service, which is responsible for forest management; the University of Georgia, which manages the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which assists with oversight of design and construction activities.

The Savannah River Integrated Team Management Contract was awarded to the Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC) effective October 1, 1996. The five year, $6 billion contract is a performance-based contract that provides payment of fees to contractors only if they achieve specific, defined results.

The Savannah River Integrated Team Management Contract provides a framework to accelerate the implementation of contract reform initiatives, to increase productivity and cost-effectiveness, and to improve contractor performance and accountability. The contract includes the following results-oriented performance objectives:

• Maximizing the conversion of high level liquid waste into solid (glass) form through the Defense Waste Processing Facility to reduce life cycle costs, and attain production rates of greater than 150 canisters in fiscal year 1997 before any incentive fee is paid.
• Reducing costs for maintenance and monitoring of old high level waste tanks by closing three tanks in fiscal year 1997.
• Completing Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Recommendation 94-1 nuclear material stabilization commitments by the end of fiscal year 2001 on an accelerated schedule. Stabilization of existing nuclear materials at the site will reduce proliferation risk, reduce potential for inadvertent nuclear criticality, and substantially reduce surveillance and maintenance costs.
• Reducing costs of funded environmental restoration (ER) activities and using these cost savings to accelerate ER activities, which expedite completion of these efforts, enable unfunded environmental restoration projects to be initiated, and produce faster and more cost-effective cleanup of the site.
• Consolidating tritium operations into fewer facilities while meeting all production requirements to permit earlier cleanup of unneeded facilities, thereby reducing costs.

Storage of High-Level Radioactive Wastes

SRS tank farms store approximately 35 million gallons of liquid waste, constituting over one half (533 million curies) of DOE's high level radioactivity. These wastes present large radiological, environmental, fire, and other hazards.

The concentrated liquid radioactive waste by-product of the SRS separations processes consists of a strongly caustic solution of nitrate salts. An insoluble and highly radioactive metal oxide sludge is present in some of the streams, which are designated as high heat waste. These waste streams are pumped from the separations facilities to the liquid radioactive waste handling facilities (waste tank farms). The low heat waste, which contains a lower concentration of radionuclides, is sent to a tank farm evaporator feed tank. Tank farm facilities consist of 51 underground waste tanks with a nominal capacity of one million gallons each and currently store 35 million gallons of liquid waste. The tank farms maintain four evaporators (two are operational) for waste concentration, transfer pipelines, 14 diversion boxes, 13 pump pits, and associated tanks and pumps required for waste transfers.

After the liquid radioactive waste is transferred from the separations facilities to receiver tanks in the tank farms, the insoluble metal oxide sludge settles out, leaving a supernatant radioactive salt solution layer above the sludge. When radioactivity in the waste has decayed sufficiently, the liquid salt solution is decanted from the insoluble sludge fraction. The decanted salt solution is then concentrated by evaporation to form a concentrated slurry that is returned to storage tanks, where it is solidified into a salt cake that contains aluminum, iron, manganese, mercury lead, silver, barium, cesium, strontium, uranium, and plutonium.

The long-term plan for the management of the liquid radioactive waste calls for dissolution of the aged salt cake, followed by decontamination of the resulting salt solution. The decontamination process will consist of a precipitation reaction followed by a filtration of the precipitated radioactive isotopes. This is the in-tank precipitation (ITP) process, which produces a liquid low level waste stream and a highly concentrated precipitate. The low level waste will be treated for benzene removal and transferred to a storage tank to await transfer to Saltstone. At the Saltstone facility, the low-level waste stream will be combined with fly ash, slag, and a limestone source to form a grout mixture. It will then be poured into disposal vaults and allowed to harden into a waste form called saltstone.

For the insoluble sludge fraction, the sludge is slurried and transferred from the tank farms to the extended sludge processing (ESP) facility within H-Tank Farm. This sludge slurry undergoes washing/settling cycles to wash out soluble salts. The resulting wash water eventually goes into the H-Tank Farm evaporator system and then through the ITP process. The highly concentrated radioactive component of the waste, including both the metal oxide sludge fraction and the precipitated radioactive isotopes from the salt decontamination process, is transferred to the DWPF for vitrification. This glass is then poured into large stainless steel canisters to produce a high integrity waste form designed for permanent disposal.

FACILITIES

Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF)

DWPF is a 42,000 square foot facility that receives, treats, and immobilizes alkaline slurries of aqueous high level waste from F and H Area tank farms in a durable, borosilicate glass form for eventual disposal in a geological repository. DWPF construction was completed in 1995; the facility is in radioactive operations with sludge only. Based on current operating plans and funding, high level waste processing would be completed in 25 years. Sixty-four canisters of vitrified high level waste were poured between April 1 and September 30, 1996.

Saltstone

Saltstone consists of facilities 210-Z, the operations building, and concrete disposal vaults of two sizes (60,000 and 120,000 square feet) that are used to immobilize and dispose of decontaminated salt solutions from F and H tank farms. These solutions contain low level radioactivity and heavy metal ions. Immobilization is accomplished by mixing the solution with flyash, cement, and slag and pouring it into large concrete vaults to harden. The Saltstone vaults provide permanent disposal of the neutralized waste material. Radioactive operation began in 1990. Over 300,000 gallons of waste were processed between April 1 and September 30, 1996.

Tritium Facilities (232-H, 233-H, and 234-H)

The tritium facilities provide the United States with tritium processing capabilities necessary for nuclear weapons production and non-weapon uses. Three tritium facilities are used for tritium handling and storage. Building 232-H is 55,000 square feet and performs extraction and purification. Building 233-H is 35,000 square feet and is used for loading and unloading. Building 234-H is 46,000 square feet and provides shipping and receiving functions. As part of the non-nuclear reconfiguration program, the tritium mission from the Mound Plant is being moved to SRS, with mission startup planned for 1995 through 1998.

Reactors (K, L, P, C & R)

The five production reactors are all heavy water moderated designs ranging in power levels from 2,400 MWth to 3,000 MWth that were used for production of plutonium, tritium, and miscellaneous isotopes.

The K Reactor facilities are currently shut down, with some of the support facilities in operation. The mission for the K Reactor changed from demonstrating and maintaining tritium production capability to placing it in cold standby with no planned provision for restart. Six major functions of the K Reactor will be maintained operable during cold standby, and the equipment and components of K Reactor necessary to support the six functions will be maintained operable. The six functions are to (1) provide property protection of government-owned equipment and facilities, (2) maintain facility habitability, (3) prevent the facility from becoming immediately unrecoverable, (4) store and process contaminated moderator, (5) handle and temporarily store irradiated fissile and hazardous material in the disassembly basin, and (6) store unirradiated reactor fuel and other highly enriched uranium (HEU) in the assembly area. Additionally, the equipment and systems of K Reactor required to ensure environmental compliance will be maintained operable, as well as the equipment and systems required by the K Reactor technical specifications.

Although the K Reactor has been placed in cold standby, the assembly area will continue to store unirradiated fuel assemblies, the disassembly basin will continue to store and handle irradiated components prior to shipment to the separations facilities or the burial grounds, the moderator storage areas will continue to store contaminated moderator, and the purification area will continue to treat contaminated moderator until the site inventory has been processed. Unirradiated fuel assemblies will continue to be handled, transported, and stored in the assembly area in the same manner and locations as before.

The site inventory of contaminated moderator (except for moderator stored in the C, L, and P Reactor storage tanks) will be consolidated in Phase I of the moderator consolidation program in the K Reactor moderator storage areas. Contaminated moderators will continue to be stored in the storage tanks and stainless steel drums; however, in some cases, the moderator will be stored in new locations. The contaminated moderator will continue to be processed in the same manner as before. The next phase of moderator consolidation will move the moderator presently stored in the C, L, and P Reactor storage tanks to the K Reactor moderator storage areas. Miscellaneous irradiated and unirradiated components (e.g., boron carbide safety rods, instrument rods, sparjets, and other stainless steel and aluminum reactor components) may continue to be stored in the process room (i.e., inside the reactor tank), though none of these components are susceptible to release of radioactive contamination.

L Reactor facilities are currently in limited operation. The mission for L Reactor changed from demonstrating and maintaining tritium production capability to placing the L Reactor in cold shutdown, with no capability for restart. Although L Reactor was placed in cold shutdown, the disassembly basin will continue to store and handle irradiated components prior to shipment to the separations facilities or the burial grounds, the moderator storage tanks will continue to store the contaminated moderator, the L-Area low level waste compactor facility will continue to compact waste into cardboard boxes for shipment to the burial grounds, and miscellaneous irradiated and unirradiated components (e.g., boron carbide safety rods, instrument rods, sparjets, other stainless steel and aluminum reactor components) will continue to be stored in the reactor tank.

P, C, and R Reactor facilities are currently in limited operation. The mission for P, C, and R Reactors changed from demonstrating and maintaining tritium production capability to placing them in cold shutdown with no capability for restart.

The P Reactor is in cold shutdown and irradiated fuel has been shipped to other site facilities. The moderator storage tanks will store contaminated moderator and miscellaneous irradiated components will be stored in the reactor tank.

Although the C Reactor is in cold shutdown, the disassembly basin will continue to store and handle irradiated components prior to shipment to the burial grounds, the moderator storage tanks will continue to store contaminated moderator, and miscellaneous irradiated components will continue to be stored in the reactor tank.

The contaminated moderator is stored in drums in the R Reactor drum storage building.

M Area Fabrication Facilities

The current mission for M Area facilities is to shut down reactor materials production in a safe, environmentally sound manner; to treat previously-generated mixed low level waste; and to prepare for the transition of facilities to EM for decontamination and decommissioning. M Area facilities are currently in limited operation. The status of M Area facilities is:

• The Fuel Fabrication Facility (Building 321-M) is in operation, although new fuel assemblies are not being fabricated. Activity in this building consists of casting uranium aluminum alloy scrap and excess fuel tubes into ingots which are more suitable for transport and storage. Designation of 321-M to below hazard category 3 was completed at the end of fiscal year 1996.
• A vendor-operated vitrification facility has been installed to treat the mixed low level waste sludge previously generated by production activities.
• Buildings 330-M and 331-M are warehouses used to store depleted uranium cores and slugs. Deinventory options and costs are being evaluated currently for these buildings.

Receiving Basin for Offsite Fuel

The RBOF, a spent fuel storage pool for research reactor fuels, is operational. The mission of the RBOF is to:

• Receive, handle, and store irradiated nuclear fuel elements from offsite power and research reactors, from foreign country reactors, and from onsite reactors.
• Repackage nuclear fuel elements into containers and bundles for extended storage and/or shipment to onsite or offsite reprocessing facilities.
• Handle, separate, and transfer wastes generated from nuclear fuel element storage.

The RBOF supports the SRS mission through the safe interim storage of irradiated nuclear fuel elements from offsite and foreign reactors in support of nonproliferation policy.

F Canyon

F Canyon is a 128,000 square foot plutonium and uranium separations facility used to process plutonium and other materials for national defense purposes. It has done so safely for over 30 years. With recent changes in the world power structure, the United States no longer requires a significant nuclear stockpile. Therefore, F Canyon is phasing out its operation. F Canyon is currently operating a second plutonium cycle to purify and concentrate Pu-239 for transfer to the FB Line; processing TRR spent fuel and Mark-31 targets; storing other plutonium, uranium, and americium/curium solutions awaiting restart authorization; and operating nondiscretionary waste evaporation cycles to process canyon, analytical laboratory, reactor, and related waste streams. The F-Canyon Outside Area Facilities, including the FA Line, are a 37,500 are a square foot complex providing support operations.

FB Line

The FB Line is a 55,000 square foot plutonium separations facility constructed between 1951 and 1953 and expanded in 1958. FB Line is located in Canyon Building 221-F. The FB Line currently stores plutonium and other SNM in a safe configuration awaiting disposition. FB Line completed implementation of a DNFSB 94-1 requirement by finishing stabilization of all plutonium solutions. In addition, the stabilization of plutonium residues commenced three months in advance of the DNFSB 94-1 implementation plan milestone.

Naval Fuels

Naval Fuels is a 110,000 square foot enriched uranium fuel manufacturing facility that was constructed in 1987. This facility is in a surveillance and maintenance mode. The new mission of the facility has not been identified. Process facilities are inactive and contain residual nuclear material resulting from previous operations. Alternatives to facility shutdown are being evaluated. Future modifications have not been proposed.

PUFF

PUFF is a 55,000 square foot facility containing Pu-238 hot cells that are currently in cold standby. The current PUFF mission is to provide safe storage of nuclear material resulting from nuclear weapons production and other non-weapon uses. These facilities were originally designed and operated to manufacture plutonium fuel pellets for the space program and neptunium billets. These processes are currently deactivated. Future modifications have been proposed for the facility (e.g. addition of a californium shuffler and new vaults).

Building 235-F was constructed as part of the original Savannah River Plant project in the mid-1950s. Subsequent expansions and modifications included construction of PUFF. PUFF was used from the late 1970s to the early 1980s to manufacture encapsulated Pu-238 oxide fuel forms.

In December 1983, DOE completed Pu-238 fuel clad production for NASA's Galileo and Ulysses space missions at PUFF. PUFF was then placed in standby, and failed equipment was left in place awaiting resumption of production. The decision to place PUFF in standby was based on the belief that new fuel clad requirements would soon be forthcoming, and production would begin in fiscal year 1986. It was expected that once new fuel clad requirements were identified, fuel clad production could be restarted quickly and at minimal cost. For this reason, and because the hot cell design made cleanup difficult without dismantling the facility, only a limited effort was undertaken to decontaminate the process cells, and an indeterminate amount of highly corrosive Pu-238 oxide powder was left in the cells.

Projected new fuel clad requirements did not materialize, and the facility was left in standby. As staffing and budgetary limitations became acute, cell equipment and the maintenance program deteriorated. After 1985, with facility conditions continuing to deteriorate, neither the program office, SR, nor the contractor revisited their original decision for limited cell decontamination.

H Canyon and H Canyon Outside Facility

H Canyon is a 403,000 square foot facility used for plutonium separations. Processing of depleted uranium fuel using the PUREX process began in 1955. H Canyon remaining missions include, but are not limited to, the processing of existing SRS reactor and RBOF fuels, the purification of Pu-238, and the processing of stored Np-237 and Pu-239 solutions. The H-Area Outside Facility provides support operations.

Old HB Line

The Old HB Line is a Pu-238 processing facility that was shut down in 1984. It produced Pu-238 oxide primarily for the space program as a heat source to be used in generating electricity for spacecraft going into deep space. It was upgraded throughout its existence, but in 1984 was replaced by the new HB Line.

D&D of the Old HB Line facility began in 1984. The D&D efforts were interrupted in 1986 because of a lack of funds. At that time, the scrap recovery process and the shielding for the neptunium oxide process had been removed. When the effort was resumed in 1988, the contamination in these two areas ranged from 40 to 100 million d/m/.1 square meter alpha. On July 26, 1990, D&D work in Room 306 of the Old HB Line was curtailed when concerns involving radiological control practices were raised. The concerns resulted when four radiation workers in plastic suits with breathing air became contaminated, during an emergency exiting of a highly contaminated area of Old HB Line, due to the failure of the 221H breathing air compressor. Further reviews of this incident resulted in stopping work in Room 306.

HB Line

HB Line is a 28,000 square foot plutonium processing facility constructed in three phases during the 1980s. The HB Line plutonium processing facilities are located on top of the H-Area Canyon Building 221-H and include the Scrap Recovery Facility (Phase I) and the Plutonium Oxide Facility (Phase III). The Frame Waste Recovery process is located within the 221-H building. The HB Line facility also houses a vault for the storage of Pu-238 oxide product and scrap material.

Phase I provides a scrap recovery facility, where materials are dissolved in nitric acid and transferred to H Canyon. There are two glove box lines (North and South), of which only the North is operating.

Phase II provides the neptunium oxide facility, where Pu-239 and Np-237 nitrate solutions are received from H-Canyon and converted to oxide. Phase II is not operating.

Phase III provides the plutonium oxide facility, where Pu-242 is received from H Canyon and converted to oxide. Phase III is operating. The Old HB Line is an abandoned plutonium processing facility currently undergoing D&D. Old HB Line is contained within H Canyon and was operated between 1963 and 1984.

The HB Line was built on top of the canyon in the early 1980s, replacing an existing facility (Old HB Line) located on the third and fourth levels of the H Canyon. The HB Line facility operated between 1985 and 1987. These operations were assessed in a 1991 environmental assessment, resulting in a finding of "No Significant Impact" issued in July 1991. The HB Line resumed operations, and, seven days after restart, operations in the HB Line were suspended due to radiological contamination of five workers resulting from conduct of operations inadequacies involving Pu-238 scrap stored in the HB Line vault. Operations resumed in October 1991. One month later, operations were again suspended due to an inadvertent transfer of zirconium within the HB Line. Operations then resumed in December 1991. In March 1992, operations in HB Line and H Canyon were suspended because of a safety question concerning the air exhaust stack liner. Operations resumed in January 1993 and have continued to the present.

Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC)

SRTC is a complex of buildings primarily located in the 700 Area, with a smaller limnology lab located on Par Pond. It is an applied research and development organization that provides technical support for the mission of SRS, working in partnership with site operations, and interfacing with other government and private research organizations. The focus of SRTC is to develop, test, and demonstrate equipment and techniques for nuclear material processing, environmental remediation, environmental protection, was processing, decontamination and decommissioning, and industrial uses of SRS technologies.

Multipurpose Pilot Plant Campuses (MPPC)

For 45 years, the facility has been known as the TNX demonstration facility. The facility, located in D-Area, consists of a wide range of buildings and support structures totaling 135,000 square feet. No radiological operations are conducted in this facility. The name of the facility has been changed to MPPC, and efforts are under way to open the campus to formal partners of WSRC for applied research and development efforts. The MPPC was selected as a pilot project for the Necessary and Sufficient process, and WSRC and SR are currently finalizing the Work Smart standards for the facility.

Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL)

SREL is a 50,000 square foot ecology laboratory constructed in 1977. Its mission is to perform ecological studies.

Analytical Laboratories

The analytical laboratories provide radiochemical analytical process control support for nuclear material stabilization (F and H Areas) and waste management. Analytical support is also provided to site waste characterization and environmental remediation programs. Radioactive materials analyzed include plutonium/uranium isotopes and fission products. Building 772-F is the main production support laboratory. Building 772-lF is a support building. Building 772-4F is fully operational and provides a high efficiency particle air filtered exhaust system for Building 772-F. Building 772-4F was constructed in the early 1990s when the 772-1F ventilation exhaust system became contaminated by a leak in the high level laboratory drains. 772-D is a 12,000 square foot analytical laboratory constructed in 1951. It is fully operational, providing radioanalytical process control support for D-Area moderator rework facilities. It houses the capability to analyze tritiated moderator for concentrations of heavy water, tritium, and impurities.

Liquid Waste Handling Facilities (H-Area and F-Area Tank Farms)

These facilities are part of the High Level Waste Management Division, whose mission is to safely receive and store liquid radioactive waste, prepare the waste for processing, and to feed the prepared waste to DWPF and Saltstone for processing into stable, inert solids, so that radioactive materials will be effectively isolated from the environment. In addition, these facilities treat the waste water effluent which is released. The facilities are operational, with the exception of the replacement high-level waste evaporator, which is under construction.

The H Area tank farm consists of an evaporator (241-16H), 23 waste tanks, and transfer systems that are used for storage of high level nuclear waste. The ITP and ESP facilities (6 waste tanks, filter/stripper building, cold chemical feeds area, and transfer systems) are within the H Area tank farm, and are used for nuclear waste processing.

The F Area tank farm consists of an evaporator (241-2F), 22 waste tanks, and transfer systems that are used for storage of high level nuclear waste.

Solid Waste Management Facility (SWMF)

The SWMF provides storage of transuranic wastes, mixed wastes, and nonradioactive hazardous waste materials and disposes of low level solid radioactive wastes generated from production of nuclear materials for the Office of Defense Programs. These facilities consist of a series of burial grounds, vaults, and storage pads.

Burial Grounds

The 643-E Old Burial Grounds, operated between 1952 and 1972, are currently undergoing Comprehensive Environmental Response and Compensation Liability Act (CERCLA) review prior to final closure. The 643-7E Burial Grounds operated from 1972 to March 1995. Various maintenance activities (e.g., mixed waste storage and solvent tank closure) continue. The burial grounds occupy 200 acres.

E-Area Vaults

These vaults are used for disposal of solid low level waste. They became operational in 1994 and occupy 100 acres, including a 110,000 square foot disposal area.

Transuranic Waste Storage Pads

Transuranic waste has been stored in containers on concrete pads since 1974. There are 19 storage pads occupying 114,000 square feet. The containers on some pads are covered with soil, while others have weather proof enclosures. The transuranic waste will eventually be retrieved and characterized to determine if it can be disposed directly or if treatment is necessary prior to disposal.

In-Tank Processing Facility (ITP)

The ITP is a 5,000 square foot nuclear waste processing facility that was completed in 1995. In-tank processing operations have been delayed pending the resolution of issues concerning the generation of benzene in the processing tank. When the ITP is operational, wastes accumulated in the F- and H-Area waste tanks are processed to produce a decontaminated salt solution (primarily a chemical waste with trace radioactivity) for feed to the Z-Area Saltstone facility and two different slurries that contain concentrated radioactive materials (i.e., washed sludge and precipitate) for feed to the S-Area vitrification plant. As the neutralized high-level waste ages, gravity causes it to settle into a salt solution (supernate) over a layer containing solids (sludge). In some waste tanks, some of the salt has crystallized from the solution. Salt crystallization and, thus, volume reduction is enhanced by concentrating the supernate in the waste evaporators. The salt solution is decontaminated by the ITP using a batch process.

Consolidated Incinerator Facility (CIF) 261-H

This facility is a 40,000 square foot incinerator constructed in 1995. The CIF will provide a facility for the safe treatment by incineration of combustible wastes (solids and liquids) that are defined as low-level radioactive, hazardous, and mixed (containing both hazardous and radioactive components) under the South Carolina hazardous waste management regulations. The facility is currently undergoing preoperational testing.

Tritium-Producing Accelerator

Tritium is an essential component of nuclear weapons. This man-made gas naturally decays to a form of helium and, therefore, must be replenished. Currently, this is accomplished with tritium recycled from dismantled weapons. However, fresh supplies will be needed by about the year 2007. To meet this need for tritium, the Department of Energy (DOE) is studying two separate technologies: the use of an existing commercial reactor and the construction and use of a new linear accelerator. The Secretary of Energy recently announced DOE's formal "Record of Decision" for the Tritium Supply and Recycling Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. In this announcement, SRS was named the preferred site if an accelerator technology is selected. The technology decision is to be made in 1998. DOE has selected a linear proton accelerator for the production of tritium. This type of accelerator is called a linac, short for linear accelerator. The tritium production linac would be about a mile long, mostly underground. Construction of the multi-billion dollar APT facility would create about 4200 construction jobs, on and off site. Operation of the facility would require about 650 jobs. In addition, if existing utilities could not provide the substantial electrical energy needed to operate the accelerator, a new power plant would be built.