Savannah River Site
F-Tank Farm and H-Tank Farm
NDAA 3116 Waste Determinations
Section 3116 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 authorizes the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC), to determine that certain waste from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel is not high-level waste and that it may instead be disposed of as low-level radioactive waste if it meets the
criteria set forth in Section 3116. A Waste Determination Basis (WD Basis) provides the analysis to document the Secretary's determination to manage the residuals as low-level radioactive
waste. The Department of Energy-Savannah River Site (DOE-SRS) has drafted a WD Basis for Determination for their F-Tank Farm (FTF) for consultation with NRC and public comment and will draft
a WD Basis for the H-Tank Farm (HTF) in the future. The FTF WD Basis will cover 20 tanks and the HTF WD Basis will cover 29 tanks. Following the issuance of these tank farm WDs, each tank
will be cleaned and tank-specific documents describing the cleaning processes used and specific residuals remaining will be made available for public review.
F-Tank Farm
Prior to development of a WD, DOE-SRS is preparing new Performance Assessments (PA) for the two tank farms. PAs analyze the long term performance of disposal of specific
radioactive materials in a specific location. In order to develop a state-of-the-art PA, DOE-SRS requested that Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), South Carolina Department
of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) technical staff meet with DOE technical staff to review all of the underlying assumptions,
input parameters, and modeling approaches to be taken in developing this assessment. These technical discussions were intended to facilitate preparation of a final performance assessment.
Summaries of the 10 meetings are below:
The preliminary FTF PA, drafted after these meetings, has undergone a review by the NRC, SCDHEC, and EPA and modified based on their comments and then released for final
review by the three agencies and the public. Follow the link below to access this final draft PA. Following receipt of the comments on the final draft, we will finalize the
FTF PA and post that document on this page. This document provides the technical justification for the WD Basis that is currently under development.
F-Tank Farm Performance Assessment, Rev 1 
F-Tank Farm Waste Determination
In order to improve transparency of the regulatory process, a July 2010 FTF WD scoping meeting was held between DOE and NRC and the public was invited to attend and provide comment. The assumptions and analyses for the development of the FTF
WD Basis were the focus of the meeting held in Aiken, South Carolina. Several representatives from SCDHEC, EPA, and other members of the public attended and commented. Based on feedback at the public meeting from NRC and members of the public,
DOE has draft the FTF WD Basis for Determination. This document is available (below) for public comment between October 1, 2010 and January 7, 2011. The Federal Register Notice is also included.
Seven primary issues were discussed at the public scoping meeting and technical papers were provided by DOE to encourage discussion. These papers are available on the web at http://sro.srs.gov/f_htankfarmsdocuments.htm The entire meeting can be viewed, as well as the public comments at https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/srsemeetings/view using “Recording ID” code “CPTT23”.
Summary of FTF WD Scoping Meeting
Federal Register Notice for Draft FTF Basis for Determination
Draft FTF Basis for Determination
H-Tank Farm (HTF)
Following a similar process, DOE-SRS has drafted an HTF PA. A public meeting to scope the HTF PA was held in April, 2010 in Aiken, South Carolina. A summary of the meeting can be viewed at the link below. Many of the input parameters for the HTF PA are similar to those developed for the FTF PA so only one scoping meeting was held. The HTF PA is available for public comment at the link below. A briefing to the SRS Citizen’s Advisory Board Waste Management Committee and the public explaining the analysis performed and results documented in the HTF PA will occur on April 26, 2011. The public comment period will close on June 30, 2011. Following the public comment period, DOE-SRS will revise the PA and send out for a second round of public comments. At the same time, SRS-DOE will send the revised PA and the draft Waste Determination to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to initiate consultation as required under NDAA Section 3116. Questions on the documents can be sent to Linda Suttora at Linda.Suttora@em.doe.gov
Meeting Summary for HTF PA Scoping
First Draft HTF PA for Public Comment
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