Uranium oxide begins to leave facility at SRS

AIKEN - A material whose storage at Savannah River Site last year was a target of critics is now on its way out.

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About 35,000 drums of low-level radioactive waste, each containing 55 gallons of depleted uranium oxide, are to be removed from the site's F-Area.

The first 240 drums were shipped out late last week for disposal in remote and desolate Clive, Utah.

Phil Breidenbach, who is in charge of closure projects for F-Area, a former chemical separations site, said Wednesday that the shipments appear to be the beginning of the end of a headache. A federal review board faulted SRS on the material's storage in March 2001.

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board noted that some of the uranium oxide was kept in corroded drums and deteriorating buildings.

Mr. Breidenbach said the drums and the buildings were determined structurally sound enough to hold the uranium temporarily until it could be removed.

"I think this is an excellent example of the transition (SRS) is going through from monitoring hazards to the disposition of hazards," Mr. Breidenbach said.

His company, lead SRS contractor Westinghouse Savannah River Co., did make some adjustments in response to the criticism. In one case, the safety board said that rotted wooden pallets were supporting some stacked drums and that some drums had been allowed to tilt.

The board said the conditions increased the risk of fire or inhalation of the chemical toxin.

Mr. Breidenbach said the bad pallets were replaced and the leaning drums were corrected.

He added that the worst 10 percent of the drums, housed in the two buildings with poor structures, were the first targeted for removal.

About 3,270 drums are expected to be sent to the EnviroCare of Utah Inc. low-level radioactive waste facility, a process that could take until the end of summer. If the arrangement has gone well by then, the rest of the material will be shipped there, Mr. Breidenbach said.

The uranium oxide is a waste byproduct that the government says no longer has use in defense programs.

Reach Eric Williamson at (803) 279-6895 or eric.williamson@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Thursday, May 8, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle