TRU mixed waste at site demands urgent attention
A review panel, evaluating storage of mixed high-level transuranic waste at the Savannah River Site, agreed with the SRS Citizens Advisory Board that something should be done. The panel, convened in December 1995 and January 1996 by the U.S. Department of Energy in response to citizen concern, believes the practice of storing high-level transuranic waste with organic materials has created a potentially explosive situation. The SRS's 199-acre Waste Management Facility stores drums containing non-consolidated organics contaminated with plutonium-238 and plutonium-239 isotopes. Organic material in the presence of plutonium-238 forms radiolytic hydrogen and creates the potential for the build-up of combustible hydrogen. An explosion would release gamma and neutron emissions from plutonium-238 contaminated materials.
Due to the danger, which grows as the drums age, the review panel recommended separating organics from high-level plutonium-238 mixed waste and stabilizing the residual plutonium-contaminated materials. But as the panel examined options for separation and stabilization, it realized that only thermal treatment is currently proven at a practical scale for mixed waste treatment. Other proposed technologies, including non-thermal treatments, are not yet available as large-scale systems capable of handling large volumes of mixed waste. Because thermal treatment often meets public and regulatory resistance, the panel recommended the following stopgap measures while technology research continues developing non-thermal and hybrid vitrification systems.
