Question: Describe the need to increase operating funds as you transition the WIPP site from construction to operations. Answer: As facilities and equipment are completed, they are turned over to the operations program. The construction project is now about 90 percent complete. Activities such as preoperational testing, startup and checkout, training activities, and mining for the demonstration phase will be carried out in FY 1987 with operating funds in preparation for the planned receipt of waste in October 1988. In addition, certain support activities, such as security, environmental monitoring, and various other project support activities will now be continued and funded with operating funds with the completion of construction. Question: What is the total FY 1986 and FY 1987 operating cost of the WIPP project? Answer: The operating costs for the WIPP projects will be approximately $24,000,000 in FY 1986 and $39,100,000 in FY 1987. It will continue to increase as startup and full-scale operations occur. Defense Waste Processing Facility Question: What is the status for the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF)? What is the TEC and costs remaining to completion? Answer: The DWPF is on schedule with design 92.7 percent complete, procurement 64.6 percent complete, and construction 51.5 percent complete. Hot startup is scheduled for FY 1990. The total estimated cost is $870 million; the latest estimate of the remaining costs to be appropriated are shown below: Project Funding ($M) FY 1987 FY 1988 FY 1989 $ 135.0 $ 109.0 $ 39.5 Question: Please describe your preoperational activities in support of Defense Waste Processing Facility at Savannah River. the Answer: The Defense Waste Processing Facility, DWPF, will immobilize the salt and sludge, now in interim storage in tanks, in preparation for its disposal. The DWPF consists of two plants vitrification plant and the saltstone plant. The vitrification plant, which will begin operation in FY 1990, will solidify the sludge in borosilicate glass for disposal offsite at a Federal repository. The saltstone plant, which will begin operation in FY 1988, will incorporate decontaminated salt in concrete. The preoperational activities are necessary to prepare for the operation of these plants. Operating personnel must be trained and operating procedures must be written and tested. Equipment must be inspected and calibrated. Chemicals, materials, and parts must be ordered and stockpiled. Subsystems are checked as installed, and nonradioactive chemical process checkouts are carried out to thoroughly verify operability. Analytical methods are selected and tested. Emergency preparedness procedures are prepared and tested. The sequential turnover of subprojects from construction to operations will culminate in a smooth transition to radioactive DWPF operations. Question: What is the total cost in FY 1987 of this preoperational support of Defense Waste Processing Facility? Answer: There are three areas of preoperational support activity, 1.e., saltstone operations support, vitrification operations support, and laboratory operations support. breakdown for this support follows: FY 1987 DWPF Preoperational Costs The funding Question: Please describe the scheduled start up of the DWPF Saltstone facility. Answer: The disposal and processing environmental permits for Defense Waste Processing Facility saltstone are expected to be received from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control in September 1986. Construction on the processing facility is expected to begin in October, followed in November with the construction of disposal facilities. Full-scale saltstone production is expected to start in FY 1988. Waste Transfer Program Question: Please describe the status of the waste transfer program at Richland, Savannah River, and Idaho. Answer: In January 1981, Richland completed the transfer of all free-standing liquid from its 149 old single-shell tanks to new double-shell tanks. Hanford then began the Stabilization and Isolation Program. The objective of this program is to stabilize the single-shell tanks by transferring all remaining drainable liquid to double-shell tanks and to isolate the old tanks by separating all unnecessary piping connections to prevent inadvertent liquid intrusion. By the end of FY 1986, 93 of the old tanks will be stabilized and 85 will be isolated. Due to a critical shortage of double-shell tank space, the Stabilization and Isolation Program is being performed at a minimal level. The rate is limited to pumping a total of 1 million gallons of liquid from the single-shell tanks until double-shell tanks are available in FY 1992. The Stabilization and Isolation Program is scheduled to be completed in FY 1994. At Savannah River, the objective of the waste transfer program is to remove the waste from the 23 old high-level waste storage tanks and transfer it to new ones, and prepare feed for the Defense Waste Processing Facility vitrification and saltstone plants. First priority is the removal of waste from the seven singleshell tanks. This will be completed in FY 1986. All the other tanks have secondary containment. Removal of waste from all the old tanks will be completed in FY 1994. Feed preparation is on schedule for saltstone startup in FY 1988, and vitrification startup in FY 1990. At Idaho, there is no waste transfer program because liquid wastes are routinely calcined to a dry, granular solid and stored in underground bins. High-Level Waste Tanks Question: How many new tanks are funded at each site, what is the cost of each tank, and what is the requirement for new tanks beyond those funded to date? Answer: High-level waste (HLW) is managed at Hanford, Idaho, and Savannah River. At Hanford, funding for eight conventional double-shell HLW storage tanks under project 83-D-157 (AP tank farm) was completed in FY 1985. The total estimated cost (TEC) of this project was $49,155,000. Funding for four new aging waste (1.e., high heat HLW) storage tanks is requested in FY 1987 under project 87-D-174 (AQ tank farm). The TEC of this project if $57,300,000. Aging waste storage tanks cost more than conventional tanks because of the additional requirements for cooling, seismic and other criteria, and backup power supplies. The requirement for four additional conventional HLW storage tanks is considered for FY 1988. Methods to reduce the volume of waste generated are being evaluated. Assuming planned facilities are available to process and immobilize the waste stored in tanks, no new tanks should be required after the FY 1988 request. At Idaho, the present tank inventory is considered to be adequate to meet future requirements because the backlog of liquid waste is routinely calcined to a dry, granular solid for storage in bins. New Calcined Solids Storage Facilities are required about every 3 to 4 years. At Savannah River, no additional tanks will be required since the Defense Waste Processing Facility, to immobilize waste removed from tanks and prepare it for disposal in a repository, it is expected to be in operation in FY 1990. Question: What problems do you still encounter with leaking tanks at each site? Answer: None of the tanks or calcined solids storage bins at Idaho or the new high-integrity double-shell tanks at Hanford or Savannah River has leaked. Of the 149 old single-shell tanks at Hanford, 7 are classified as "assumed leakers." This is a conservative term which is defined as "a tank for which there is an indication of a breach of integrity. Such a tank exhibits surveillance parameter changes that exceed stated criteria limits and result in a less than 95 percent confidence that it is sound." Of the remaining 142 old single-shell tanks, 49 are sound, deactivated tanks and 93 are classified as "stabilized," meaning that the pumpable liquid has been removed. Pumpable liquid is being removed from the old tanks and transferred to new high-integrity double-shell tanks as part of the Stabilization and Isolation program, which will complete all 149 old tanks 1994. No significant amount of radioactive waste has been released to the environment from old waste tanks at Savannah River. There is, however, concern about leakage because of the age, condition, and design of the old waste tanks, which were built between 1952 and 1961. Of the 23 old waste tanks containing high-level waste, there are seven single-shell tanks, one of which has a crack in the wall above the liquid level. There has been a small amount of in-leakage of ground water through the crack. Sixteen of the old tanks are of "cup-and-saucer" design, which means that the tank sits in a 5-foot-high secondary containment. There has been leakage into the secondary containment in nine of these tanks. In one of the tanks, a leak of about 25 gallons did occur from the secondary containment to the surrounding soil in 1960. Thorough and continuing monitoring and tests have shown that the waste is confined to the immediate area of the tank. In all other cases, the waste has been collected from the secondary containment and returned to the tanks. Waste from the old tanks is being transferred to new high-integrity double-shell tanks as part of the tank replacement/waste transfer program, which will be completed in FY 1994. DOE Waste Inventory Question: Please provide a table listing the quantity and status of the various classes of nuclear waste at each site. Answer: The Department manages three classes of nuclear waste at its sites: high-level waste (HLW), transuranic waste, and lowlevel waste. High-level waste is stored in underground tanks at Hanford and Savannah River pending retrieval, immobilization in borosilicate glass, and ultimate disposal in a geologic repository. The Defense Waste Processing Facility, for the immobilization of HLW, is now under construction and is scheduled to operate in FY 1990. A facility to immobilize waste at Hanford is expected to operate in FY 1996. At Idaho, newly generated HLW is temporarily stored in underground tanks. The HLW is then routinely converted to a dry granular solid called "calcine," which is stored in underground bins. This material will be eventually prepared for disposal in a geologic repository in early 2000. Since 1970, transuranic waste (TRU) has been stored pending retrieval, processing if necessary, certification, transportation to, and emplacement in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). In 1985, the Department began to certify TRU, as it was generated, to meet the waste acceptance criteria of the WIPP. This waste is stored separately from previously generated TRU. Prior to 1970, TRU was disposed of as low-level waste (LLW). This waste is monitored, and remedial actions will be taken if needed. LLW is disposed of in near-surface trenches using shallow land burial, or in deeper trenches or holes using greater confinement disposal. In some cases, the disposal facilities are lined or otherwise engineered to assure isolation from the environment. method of disposal depends on the characteristics of the waste. The The following table shows the volume of each class of nuclear waste at the Department's sites as of December 31, 1984. Additional information can be obtained from the Department's annual report entitled, "Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Inventories, Projections, and Characteristics," DOE/RW-0006, December 1985. *Volume in thousands of cubic meters as of December 31, 1984. |