The Savannah River Site's liquid waste contractor is making progress in salt waste disposition, which will ultimately help the Site's mission of removing hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid waste as an environmental threat.
Savannah River Remediation, or SRR, completed piping tie-ins at the salt solution receipt tanks, which will be placed into service later this year.
The tanks will improve salt waste disposal as the SRS liquid waste program readies for the Salt Waste Processing Facility, a radioactive waste treatment facility critical to salt waste disposal.
Once placed into service, officials wrote that the tanks will receive a salt solution from liquid waste tanks and turn the solution into a grout mixture, which will be permanently disposed of in the Saltstone Disposal Facility, a facility filled with concrete vaults designed to store the waste.
By completing the piping tie-ins, SRR is preparing the disposal facility for increased volume of the salt solution. Once the Salt Waste Processing Facility begins operation, the solution will go to the Saltstone Processing Facility and will increase production from 1.5 million gallons of salt solution per year, to more than six million gallons per year.
Keith Hart, a project director at the salt waste facility, commended workers for completing construction.
"The (receipt tanks) at the Saltstone Processing Facility will be a vital part of the success of SRS's liquid-waste mission and enhances the safety of the overall liquid-waste program," Hart wrote.
The receipt tanks can have up to 120,000 gallons of receipt space capability and will aid other units in increasing production rates. Officials wrote that the extra space will provide flexibility to the liquid-waste system.
Stuart MacVean, SRR president and project manager, said completion of construction tie-ins puts the contractor another step closer toward preparing for the start of the Salt Waste Processing Facility.
"Not only do the (receipt tanks) help prepare us for future SWPF operations, they also improve our current salt processing program within the liquid waste facilities," MacVean said.
Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the paper since June 2013. He is originally from Vidalia, Ga., and a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Follow him on Twitter @DerrekAsberry.