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4.5 Environmental Restoration and Decontamination and Decommissioning

There are 407 waste storage facilities that would be constructed under the no-action alternative. These facilities consist of storage buildings, pads, and tanks. About 100 new waste handling and storage facilities would be required by the action alternatives - expected forecast. Decisions on decontaminating and decommissioning these facilities would not be made until the facilities' missions have been completed, which in most cases will be 30 or more years in the future.

DOE requires that new waste storage and handling facilities use pollution control systems that meet applicable regulatory requirements and ensure that the environmental restoration of these facilities will be minimized or unnecessary (DOE Order 6430.1A "General Design Criteria"). In addition, DOE requires that these facilities be designed to simplify periodic decontamination and ultimate facility decommissioning or reuse. Measures that simplify future decontamination include minimizing and limiting the use of items such as service piping, conduits, and ductwork to areas designed to facilitate decontamination. Walls, ceilings, and floors are to be finished with washable or strippable coverings. Cracks, crevices, and joints are to be caulked or sealed and finished smooth to prevent the accumulation of contaminated material in inaccessible areas. DOE also requires special design principles that preclude contamination of fixed portions of the structure, avoid buried pipelines, provide visual inspection points, use materials that are easily decontaminated, and other measures that anticipate the need for eventual decommissioning of the facilities.

More than 6,000 buildings on SRS will eventually be declared surplus and will need to be decommissioned, as described in Section 3.14. The decommissioning of new waste storage and handling facilities proposed in the alternatives will result in minimal additional decontamination and decommissioning at SRS; however, some of these facilities could contain radioactive or hazardous material. Regardless of the alternative selected, environmental restoration and decontamination and decommissioning of these facilities would be subject to environmental and public review as the facilities' missions are completed.