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CHAPTER 1. PURPOSE AND NEED FOR ACTION

The end of the Cold War has led the United States to reduce the size of its nuclear arsenal. Many of the more than 120 facilities across the country, referred to as the nuclear weapons complex, that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) used to manufacture, assemble, and maintain the former arsenal are no longer needed for these activities and could be used for other purposes. One of those facilities is the Savannah River Site (SRS). Many facilities can be converted to new uses through decontamination processes; others must be decommissioned (see Glossary for definitions of terms). In addition, the wastes generated during the Cold War must be cleaned up in a safe and cost-effective manner. DOE must also manage wastes that may be generated in the future by ongoing operations, including new defense facilities that may be located at SRS. Finally, SRS must be brought into compliance with the environmental requirements enacted during the last 25 years.

DOE must develop a strategic approach to managing radioactive and hazardous wastes at SRS to achieve the objectives of cleanup and compliance. The purpose of this environmental impact statement (eis) is to evaluate the potential environmental effects of minimizing, treating, storing, and disposing of radioactive and hazardous wastes at SRS. DOE will use the analyses presented in the eis to decide on a strategic approach to managing these wastes.

This eis examines impacts of managing several types of wastes at SRS: liquid high-level radioactive, low- level radioactive, hazardous, mixed (radioactive and hazardous), and transuranic. It does not consider sanitary wastes or spent nuclear fuel. The impacts of managing liquid high-level radioactive wastes are described here based on the alternative to operate the Defense Waste Processing Facility as evaluated in the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement Defense Waste Processing Facility

(DOE/eis-0082S) and selected in the Record of Decision (60 FR 18589). This eis includes wastes that already exist as a result of past activities, and those that will be generated in the future as a result of ongoing operations, new projects, environmental restoration (i.e., cleaning up contaminants released into the environment in the past), and decontamination and decommissioning of facilities that are no longer needed. The inventory of existing wastes is known; predicting the amounts and types of wastes that will be generated in the future is difficult, particularly for those that will be generated during environmental restoration and facility decontamination and decommissioning.

At present, DOE cannot identify all of the facilities that will become surplus, or when a particular facility will no longer be needed to maintain the nuclear arsenal. Accordingly, DOE does not have a complete schedule of the facilities it will eventually decontaminate and decommission. In addition, DOE cannot identify at this time all of the contaminated areas at SRS that will require restoration. As a result of this uncertainty about the amounts of wastes that will be generated in the future, DOE uses a range of estimates. This range is bounded by estimates of the minimum and maximum amounts of wastes that may be generated in the future. It is the best forecast DOE can make at this time.

In addition to wastes that have been or will be generated at SRS itself, the Site may receive and manage wastes from other DOE facilities. Estimating the amounts of wastes to be received from other facilities in the future is even more difficult than predicting the amounts of wastes that will be generated at SRS. The amounts of offsite waste sent to SRS will depend on activities at other DOE facilities involving ongoing operations, waste management, environmental restoration, and decommissioning. These activities in turn depend on National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews DOE is conducting on: (1) the future needs of the nuclear weapons complex, including management of the nuclear stockpile and the means of production and location of facilities for tritium supply and recycling; (2) the possible consolidation of nuclear materials and wastes at certain facilities; and (3) the locations of treatment, storage, and disposal facilities in the complex. For purposes of this eis, DOE has assumed that the wastes SRS will receive from other sites will fall somewhere between the amounts it now receives and a maximum estimate (included in the maximum waste forecast) that includes all wastes that have been identified to date as possible candidates for treatment, storage, or disposal at SRS.

The amounts of wastes that are actually generated and managed at SRS will depend on a number of decisions that have not yet been made. For example, decisions on the ultimate use of land and facilities at SRS will determine the level of cleanup necessary to meet regulatory requirements for those uses. The level of cleanup determines the amounts of waste generated during the cleanup; more stringent cleanup requirements lead to the generation of more wastes. This eis considers the reasonable range of waste generation and management at SRS in the future. It evaluates the impacts of this range of wastes to allow for flexibility in managing wastes in response to changes in the amounts of wastes that may eventually be treated, stored, and disposed of at SRS.

DOE reviewed a number of options for treating, storing, and disposing of wastes at SRS. These options included technologies and facilities that already exist, and those that are under construction or development. This eis evaluates the 30-year environmental impacts of the construction and operation of specific waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities that might be developed at SRS during the next 10 years. It also evaluates the treatment of certain wastes by private entities, as well as the treatment and disposal of wastes at government facilities outside SRS. This evaluation included a detailed evaluation of new and emerging technologies that could be used to treat the wastes. At present, it is not possible to evaluate facilities that might be built beyond the next decade due to the uncertainties surrounding the types of wastes that might be generated and the types of new treatment technologies that might be available. If DOE requires new treatment facilities more than 10 years in the future, it would conduct additional technology evaluations to ensure that the best available technology to treat the waste was selected. This eis provides an environmental baseline for analyzing facilities that DOE might build and other actions to manage wastes that DOE might take after 2005. DOE would evaluate the environmental impacts of such facilities and activities in additional NEPA reviews that would rely, as appropriate, on this eis for background information about SRS's environment.

The Federal Facility Compliance Act of 1992, an amendment to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (Public Law 102-386, October 6, 1992), requires DOE to prepare a site treatment plan for SRS that sets forth options for treating mixed wastes (i.e., mixtures of hazardous and radioactive wastes) currently in storage or that will be generated over the next 5 years. This eis analyzes the environmental impacts of the facilities that DOE might use for treating mixed wastes as proposed in SRS's plan; the DOE Waste Management Programmatic eis (DOE/eis-0200), which discusses waste management throughout the nationwide DOE complex, also examines the possible impacts of treating mixed wastes at SRS and elsewhere. The alternatives evaluated here are consistent with the options presented in the site treatment plan. However, the plan is limited to options for treating mixed wastes currently in storage or generated during the next 5 years. This eis evaluates alternatives for managing several types of wastes using existing, planned, and proposed facilities during the next 10 years. This eis also establishes a baseline for assessing options for waste management for 20 years beyond that time.

DOE prepared an environmental assessment (DOE 1992) and issued a Finding of No Significant Impact [57 Federal Register (FR) 61402, December 24, 1992] on the construction and operation of the Consolidated Incineration Facility, which is currently under construction. This eis responds to requests from citizens to re- examine the environmental impacts of operating the Consolidated Incineration Facility and provides a basis for future DOE decisions on operation of that facility.

On October 22, 1993, DOE stated that it would prepare this eis for waste management at SRS (Grumbly 1993), and made a number of specific commitments:

• The eis would consider both the facilities needed to treat mixed wastes, as required by the Federal Facility Compliance Act of 1992, and the operation of the Consolidated Incineration Facility.
• The proposed treatments of mixed waste would be factored into the formulation of alternatives for this eis.
• DOE would evaluate volume reduction of low-level waste in the Consolidated Incineration Facility and other volume reduction alternatives (e.g., compaction).
• The cost analysis of potential alternatives would be based on life-cycle costs (i.e., construction, operation, and decommissioning) of existing and planned facilities so that the costs of the Consolidated Incineration Facility would be realistically compared to the conceptual facilities.
• The incinerator's construction would continue on schedule, but trial burns would be deferred until this eis is completed and its Record of Decision issued.

In addition to looking at the environmental impacts of actions that DOE may take over the next decade to manage wastes at SRS, this eis also examines the cumulative impacts of the alternatives and past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions at SRS and adjacent areas.

Relationship to Other Environmental Analyses

DOE must clean up and bring into compliance other facilities across the country that were involved in the production of nuclear weapons. DOE must address the cleanup of the nuclear weapons complex as an integrated program in order to reduce risks and restore the environment in the most cost-effective manner. Cleanup requires many decisions at each site, and decisions at one site may influence options and decisions at other sites.

DOE must formulate alternatives for waste management at SRS that are consistent with the alternatives considered in other eiss that relate to SRS. Consistency among other eiss and this eis does not mean that the alternatives evaluated in each must match precisely; such precision is unnecessary and would be impossible to achieve given the broad scope of these eiss and the timing of decisions based on them. Consistency means that this eis should reasonably take into account alternatives considered in other eiss that may impact the management of wastes at SRS.

Several NEPA reviews that have been completed, are in process, or have been proposed examine SRS waste management or activities that could affect waste management decisions at SRS. These documents are briefly summarized in Table 1-1.

WASTE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES FOR GROUNDWATER PROCTION (DOE/eis-0120)

In 1987 DOE issued a programmatic and project-specific eis to support the selection of a programmatic waste management strategy for SRS and to consider the environmental impacts of several specific projects, including closure and cleanup of active and inactive waste management sites; establishment of new waste storage and disposal facilities; and alternative means of discharging disassembly basin purge water from SRS reactors. A Record of Decision was issued in March 1988. This first waste management eis provided the NEPA review for several of the waste management facilities and activities currently operating or being initiated at SRS. (For more information, see Table 2-21 in Chapter 2.) Changes since 1988 in SRS missions, the regulatory environment, and other factors have led to the need to reexamine SRS waste management strategies in the current eis.

CONSOLIDATED INCINERATION FACILITY (DOE/ea-0400)

As explained above, construction of the Consolidated Incineration Facility is continuing on the basis of an environmental assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact issued for this facility in 1992. DOE expects that its decision on conducting trial burns, operating the facility, and the wastes that would be treated will be based on the analyses in this eis.

TReaTMENT OF M-ARea MIXED WASTE AT THE SAVANNAH RIVER SITE (DOE/ea-0918)

In 1994 DOE issued an environmental assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact on treating six mixed waste streams by vitrification in a facility to be built and operated in M-Area by a commercial vendor. This project is proceeding on the basis of the previous NEPA review. Treatment of additional wastes in the M-Area vitrification facility is among the actions considered in this eis.

UPGRADE OF INDEPENDENT WASTE HANDLING FACILITY, 211-F, AT THE SAVANNAH RIVER SITE (DOE/ea-1062)

The facility to be upgraded (211-F) is the only facility on SRS that receives liquid low-activity radioactive waste from remote SRS locations, neutralizes it, and concentrates it to minimize volume before transferring it to the tank farm for further processing/storage. The facility currently gets support services, such as electric power, waste transfer capabilities, and instrument air from the F-Canyon building. After F-Canyon is deactivated, the 211-F facility will need to operate independently in order to support SRS facilities, such as the Savannah River Technology Center, which produce limited amounts of low-level radioactive waste as a result of ongoing missions.

Proposed upgrades to the facility will ensure that the 211-F waste handling operations are independent of the F-Canyon processes and services.

URGENT-RELIEF ACCEPTANCE OF FOREIGN RESeaRCH ReaCTOR SPENT NUCLeaR FUEL (DOE/ea-0912)

DOE prepared an environmental assessment for the urgent acceptance of spent nuclear fuel elements from eight foreign research reactors and issued a Finding of No Significant Impact. The spent fuel will be shipped to the United States and transported to SRS for storage. The Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Programs eis (discussed below) evaluates management alternatives for the spent fuel elements. The expected waste forecast in this eis is consistent with waste volumes that would be generated from receiving, storing, and handling the spent research reactor fuel, but not from processing it.

PROPOSED NUCLeaR WeaPONS NONPROLIFERATION POLICY CONCERNING FOREIGN RESeaRCH ReaCTOR SPENT NUCLeaR FUEL (DOE/eis-0218)

DOE is preparing an eis to evaluate the potential impacts of the adoption and implementation of a policy to accept foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel that contains uranium enriched in the United States. Under the proposed policy, the United States would accept approximately 24,300 fuel elements of highly enriched uranium or low-enriched uranium from foreign research reactors in approximately 30 nations during a 10- to 15-year period. The implementation of this policy would result in the receipt of spent nuclear fuel at one or more United States marine ports of entry and overland transport to one or more DOE sites (including SRS). The expected waste forecast in this eis is consistent with waste volumes that would be generated from receiving, storing, and handling the spent research reactor fuel, but not from processing it.

INTERIM MANAGEMENT OF NUCLeaR MATERIALS AT SRS (DOE/eis-0220)

DOE is preparing an eis on interim management of nuclear materials that will evaluate in-process and stored nuclear materials at SRS to determine whether any materials require near-term stabilization to ensure continued safe management. Wastes incidental to the management activities included in alternative 4 of the draft Interim Management of Nuclear Materials eis (March 1995) are considered in this eis under the expected waste forecast. Alternative 4 includes processing to oxide, repackaging, continued storage, and vitrification of various nuclear materials at SRS. The minimum waste forecast includes waste volumes associated with alternative 1 (the no-action alternative) of the Interim Management of Nuclear Materials eis, which proposed continued storage of all SRS nuclear materials. The maximum waste forecast was based on alternative 2, which included more processing and vitrification of nuclear materials at SRS than that proposed under alternative 4.

F-CANYON PLUTONIUM SOLUTIONS AT SRS (DOE/eis-0219)

DOE issued a final eis on plutonium solutions currently stored in F-Canyon that evaluates alternatives for stabilization of these materials. The alternatives examined are no-action, processing to a plutonium metal, processing to a plutonium oxide, and transferring the solutions to the high-level waste tanks for vitrification in the Defense Waste Processing Facility. In February 1995, DOE issued the Record of Decision to implement the alternative of processing to metal. Wastes incidental to these activities are considered in this eis under the expected and maximum waste forecasts.

DEFENSE WASTE PROCESSING FACILITY (DOE/eis-0082S)

The Defense Waste Processing Facility is almost complete, and the high-level waste pretreatment processes and the vitrification process are nearly ready to begin operating. The evaluation of whether to continue construction and how to operate the Defense Waste Processing Facility was the subject of a separate NEPA review (DOE 1994). In April 1995, DOE published a Record of Decision (60 FR 18589) to complete construction and startup testing, and begin operation of the Defense Waste Processing Facility. Management of the wastes generated by Defense Waste Processing Facility operations is considered in this eis under all waste forecasts. The potential environmental impacts from the operation of the Defense Waste Processing Facility are included in the analysis of the alternatives in this eis.

OPERATION OF THE HB-LINE FACILITY AND FRAME WASTE RECOVERY UNIT FOR PRODUCTION OF PLUTONIUM-238 OXIDE (DOE/ea-0948)

DOE has prepared an environmental assessment addressing future operations of the HB-Line Facility and the Frame Waste Recovery Unit at SRS to process the remaining civilian inventory of plutonium-238 materials for use as a heat source fuel in space missions. In April 1995, DOE issued a Finding of No Significant Impact concluding that the proposed action was not a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment and would, therefore, not require the preparation of an eis. The waste generated by the processing of plutonium-238 materials is considered in this eis under all waste forecasts.

PROGRAMMATIC SPENT NUCLeaR FUEL MANAGEMENT AND IDAHO NATIONAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY ENVIRONMENTAL RESTORATION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS (DOE/eis-0203)

In April 1995, DOE issued the final programmatic eis which addresses alternatives for complex-wide management of existing and projected quantities of spent nuclear fuel until 2035. The alternatives considered in the programmatic eis include variations on several components: number of storage locations; amounts of spent nuclear fuel shipped; fuel stabilization methods; numbers and types of new storage facilities; and scope of research and development efforts related to spent fuel management technology. The programmatic eis could have lead to a decision to maintain, increase, or decrease the amount of spent nuclear fuel managed at SRS. Among the options considered was renewed processing of spent nuclear fuel at SRS, which would generate additional high-level waste. The preferred alternative identified in the final programmatic eis and selected in the Record of Decision (60 FR 28680), regionalization of spent fuel management by fuel type, will consolidate the management of aluminum-clad fuel at SRS. This will involve a moderate increase over current levels of the fuel currently managed at SRS; implementation of this alternative might involve fuel processing at SRS, pending future decisions. The maximum waste forecast here is consistent with the waste volumes associated with the selected alternative for this spent fuel eis including wastes generated during processing of aluminum-clad fuel from within the DOE complex. The impacts of the programmatic alternative with the greatest potential impacts to SRS (i.e., the centralization of all DOE spent fuel management, including processing, at SRS, not the selected alternative) are included in the cumulative impacts analysis of this eis. Aspects of the management of liquid high-level radioactive waste are the same under each alternative, thus volume changes due to decisions made as a result of the programmatic spent fuel eis will not affect the selection of alternatives here.

CONTINUED OPERATION OF THE PANTEX PLANT AND ASSOCIATED STORAGE OF NUCLeaR WeaPON COMPONENTS (DOE/eis-0225)

DOE is preparing an eis that addresses the proposed continued operation of the Pantex Plant and continued current nuclear component storage activities at various DOE sites. SRS may be considered as a possible location for the recycling of tritium and plutonium from the Pantex Plant. The maximum waste forecast in this eis is consistent with the waste volumes incidental to the activities included in DOE's preliminary proposed action for the Pantex Plant.

WASTE MANAGEMENT (DOE/eis-0200)

DOE is preparing a programmatic eis to evaluate complex-wide and site-specific alternative strategies and policies to maximize efficiency in DOE's waste management programs. DOE has attempted to coordinate this eis with the programmatic eis so that the alternatives considered in this eis are as consistent as possible with the DOE complex-wide strategies to be analyzed in the programmatic eis. If necessary, DOE will supplement this eis to maintain consistency with future DOE-wide programmatic waste management decisions. The strategies and policies to be considered in the programmatic eis include the possible transfer of some waste types from other DOE sites to SRS for treatment and disposal, and the possible transfer of some SRS wastes to other DOE sites. Those possible waste transfers are also considered in this eis, under the maximum and minimum waste forecasts, respectively.

TRITIUM SUPPLY AND RECYCLING (DOE/eis-0161)

DOE is preparing a programmatic eis to address reconfiguration of the nuclear weapons complex. DOE intends to separate the reconfiguration proposal into two parts and will prepare a programmatic eis on each part (59 FR 54175, October 28, 1994). The first programmatic eis is the Tritium Supply and Recycling Programmatic eis, which addresses alternatives associated with new tritium production and the recycling of tritium recovered from weapons retired from service. The eis analyzes alternative technologies for producing tritium at five candidate sites, including SRS. It also assesses the same five sites as alternative locations for tritium recycling, which is currently done at SRS. Wastes from continued recycling of tritium at SRS are considered in this Waste Management eis under all waste forecasts. The maximum waste forecast in this Waste Management eis is consistent with the collocated tritium supply and recycling at SRS alternative (based on the advanced light water reactor technology which generally would produce the largest waste volumes). The maximum forecast includes all waste associated with that alternative except for spent nuclear fuel (approximately 23 cubic meters per year) and liquid low-level wastes (5 million gallons per year) associated with the operation of a potential tritium supply.

STOCKPILE SWARDSHIP AND MANAGEMENT (DOE/eis-0236)

The second programmatic eis related to the reconfiguration of the nuclear weapons complex is the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Programmatic eis. Stockpile stewardship includes activities required to maintain a high level of confidence in the safety, reliability, and performance of nuclear weapons in the absence of underground testing, and to be prepared to test weapons if so directed by the President of the United States. Stockpile management activities include dismantlement, maintenance, evaluation, and repair or replacement of weapons in the existing stockpile. The Stockpile Stewardship and Management Programmatic eis will analyze the environmental impacts of alternatives for the missions necessary to carry out DOE's stockpile stewardship and management responsibilities. Decisions made based on the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Programmatic eis could result in generation of high-level waste that might be immobilized at the Defense Waste Processing Facility.

LONG-TERM STORAGE AND DISPOSITION OF WeaPONS-USABLE FISSILE MATERIALS (DOE/eis-0229)

DOE is preparing a programmatic eis to assist in the development of a comprehensive national policy for the storage and disposition of weapons-usable fissile materials. The term weapons-usable fissile materials refers to a specific set of nuclear materials that could be used in making a nuclear weapon, but DOEs not include the fissile materials in spent fuel or irradiated targets from reactors.

Table 1-1. Major NEPA reviews related to SRS waste management as of June 1, 1995.

a.ea = environmental assessment; eis = environmental impact statement; Peis = programmatic eis.
b.ROD = Record of Decision.
c.FONSI = Finding of No Significant Impact.

REFERENCES

DOE (U.S. Department of Energy), 1992, Environmental Assessment, Consolidated Incineration Facility, Savannah River Site, DOE/ea-0400, Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management, Savannah River Plant, Aiken, South Carolina.

DOE (U.S. Department of Energy), 1994, Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, Defense Waste Processing Facility, DOE/eis-0082-S, Savannah River Operations Office, Aiken, South Carolina.

Grumbly, T. P., 1993, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, D.C., letter to Brian Costner, Energy Research Foundation, Columbia, South Carolina, October 22.