Page 4 - SRNS Today November 2021

4 | SRNS T ODA Y | NOVEMBER 2021
4 | SRNS TODAY | NOVEMBER 2021

D-Ash Basin remediation

Innovations protect and restore SRS environment

SRNS made the safe cleanup and restoration of SRS as a primary goal In one creative example, SRNS workers found that silver chloride
since 2008. The Site has been environmentally impacted by nuclear could immobilize radioactive iodine-129 found in soil and
waste generated during the Cold War. groundwater near the center of SRS. The method also proved to be
Though decades of nuclear weapons production at SRS helped the cost-effective.
United States win the Cold War, this era of Cold War operations resulted “Since 2019, this conventional industrial product has been injected
in the accumulation of radioactive and chemical waste. into soil and groundwater using wells to capture and lock into place
“The variety and number of cleanup challenges found across the 310 a high percentage of the iodine nuclides, significantly reducing
square-mile Savannah River Site has made our end goal that much the amount of contamination in the groundwater,” SRNS Area
more complex,” said Chris Bergren, SRNS Director, Environmental Completion Projects Engineer Jeff Thibault said.
Compliance and Area Completion Projects. “We’ve taken down more As a result, post-treatment testing found levels much lower than
than 50 buildings; grouted several contaminated structures with a regulatory limits.
cement-like material, including two nuclear reactors; cleaned up earthen In another example, SRNS used recycled iron filings to
pits formerly holding contaminated items; remediated and closed pond- construct a large underground, water-permeable wall. The filings
like basins containing hazardous materials; and found highly effective naturally neutralized Cold War-era chemical solvents in the aquifer
ways to remediate contaminated groundwater. The list goes on, and so beneath SRS.
does our company’s success with each task.”
“This highly efficient environmental cleanup technology is another
Bergren credits much of this success to the conscientious asset within the arsenal of environmental restoration tools
innovation and remarkable dedication exhibited by those in his assembled for use across SRS,” said Thibault. “It’s an ‘environmental
organization and the numerous contributions made by war’ on hazardous waste, and we’re winning it.”
Savannah River National Laboratory engineers and scientists.

New equipment to allow does not contain any WIPP-prohibited items, without operators

resumption of waste having to physically open the TRU waste container.
“The TRU waste we have shipped off-site in the past few years had
characterization in SWMF already been characterized using equipment that was removed
from the SWMF several years ago,” said Kerri Crawford, Solid
Waste Programs Manager for SRNS. “Operation of this equipment,
The recent installation of equipment at the SRS Solid Waste in conjunction with other TRU waste characterization equipment
Management Facility (SWMF) allows newly generated transuranic (TRU) installed at the Solid Waste Management Facility last year, will allow
waste to be characterized and certified by the National TRU Program, new TRU waste generated from SRS operations to be certified and
paving the way for off-site shipment and disposal at the Waste ultimately shipped to WIPP.”
Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).
The term transuranic refers to elements with an atomic number
The equipment, a real time radiography (RTR) unit, utilizes an X-ray greater than that of uranium (92). TRU wastes typically consist
system to allow containers (e.g., 55-gallon drums or standard waste of protective clothing, tools, rags, equipment and miscellaneous
boxes) holding radioactive waste to go through a non-destructive items contaminated with small amounts of plutonium. This
examination (NDE). equipment is owned by the DOE Central Characterization
WIPP has specific standards for the waste containers allowed to Program for use throughout the DOE Complex. It was
be disposed in their underground repository. The NDE portion of previously used by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,
characterization verifies and validates that the waste within each then sent for refurbishment before being provided to SRS for
container matches the documentation provided by SRS and that it use in the SWMF.