Nuclear waste in South Carolina causing financial headache for federal government
From the 1950’s tritium and plutonium was used to produce component for the Department of Defense’s production of nuclear weapons, primarily producing tritium and plutonium. The nature of producing these substances meant that considerable waste by-produce was created, 37 million gallons of liquid waste to be exact.
The waste is stored underground in 49 tanks and has been since the 1950s, when the 300 plus square mile facility was first opened.
An agreement to empty, clean and seal the tanks was first made in the 1990s, but proactive steps were not taken to go ahead with the project until 2008 when a contract was signed with Savannah River Remediation, a private specialized company that would carry out the work.
The Liquid Waste Operations contract was initially signed with a value of $3.2 billion, but in 2009 South Carolina news media reported that Savannah River Remediation had written to the Department of Energy to inform them that their costs had increased by $1.5 billion.
This prompted an audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which has found that the initial estimates for the contract were flawed.
But, the US Energy Department has hit back saying the GAO did not look into the contract deep enough without taking into account the longevity of the project or the life-cycle cost, which, broadly speaking is an estimation of the cost to the environment and society of the tank closure project.
The cost tabled by Savannah River Remediation therefore appears to include the expected cost, not only of removing the waste, but of staring it elsewhere as well.
According to South Carolina news media reports, the waste will be pumped out of the underground tanks and into glass canisters, which will then be stored in an unspecified area outside of South Carolina.
The permanent storage site has not been revealed to South Carolina news media and will likely remain a sensitive issue both for security and political reasons.
The storage of radioactive liquid waste is unlikely to be a popular prospect for any communities near the storage site, given the enduring legacies of nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl, while the risk of sabotage or interference, most likely from terrorists, is bound to be of concern to the US Energy Department as well.
The removal of the underground radioactive liquid waste is part of a much larger general clean up of the site, which contains five reactors used in producing tritium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel.
The staggering cost of the cleanup is likely reignite debate over the financial feasibility of the US nuclear deterrent, which numbers in the thousands. It was not until 2010 that the US government made public how many nuclear warheads it possessed.
Since the Cold War ended, nuclear weapons have become increasingly redundant, certainly in the numbers which our country contains, and the massive cost in maintain them and mitigating their effects on society and the environment are unsustainable, according to non-proliferation lobbyists.
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South Carolina Feature
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Nuclear waste in South Carolina causing financial headache for federal government
South Carolina is home to the Savannah River Site, a facility which was used by the US government for the production of tritium and plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. In 2008 the U.S. Department of energy and the Site signed a contract for nuclear waste to be cleared, it was expected to cost $3.2 billion, but will, now cost over $4.6 billion.
From the 1950’s tritium and plutonium was used to produce component for the Department of Defense’s production of nuclear weapons, primarily producing tritium and plutonium. The nature of producing these substances meant that considerable waste by-produce was created, 37 million gallons of liquid waste to be exact. Read more
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