Safety Board Confirms Rumors about Problems with Start Up of Salt Waste Processing Facility at Savannah River Site; DOE-SRS has Refused to Provide an Update on Status of the Facility until after the SRS Watch News Release – Why?
Update from November 23, 2020: Safety Board affirms what SRS Watch has heard and what DOE won’t say about problems with SWPF start-up – facility was shut down & problem with pipe, weekly report dated October 23 but posted November 23: https://www.dnfsb.gov/sites/default/files/document/22151/Savannah%20River%20Week%20Ending%20October%2023%202020.pdf
Columbia, SC – Despite silence by the Department of Energy on the urgent matter, the Defense Waste Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has confirmed rumors that there were start-up problems with the large facility to process high-level nuclear waste at the DOE’s Savannah River Site.
The public interest group Savannah River Site Watch (SRS Watch) heard an unconfirmed rumor over a week ago that there were problems with pumps, valves, one storage tank and at least one process line during initial operations of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) and that the processing of waste thus faced operational problems. Despite several requests by SRS Watch for a comment about the status of SWPF, DOE-SRS has refused to provide any update on the status of the facility.
full SRS Watch new release, November 9, 2020: SRS Watch on SWPF start up problems DWPF Nov 9 2020
HA! Update: at 5:49 p.m. on Nov. 9 DOE put out a news release in response to us and mentions the pump problem (buried at the end of the release). Many questions about the falter in the SWPF start-up remain unanswered. See DOE release here (no URL available): News Release_SWPF Update_Nov 9 2020_FINAL-1
By DOE’s own admission there has been a massive cost overrun in construction of SWPF, from $900 million to $2.3 billion – see project management dashboard, July 2020: https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/07/f77/July%202020%20Project%20Dashboard.pdf