[DOE LETTERHEAD]

 

April 24, 2007

 

The Honorable A. J. Eggenberger

Chairman

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board

625 Indiana Avenue, NW. Suite 700

Washington, DC 20004-2901

 

Dear Mr. Chairman:

 

This letter provides the status of, and plan to complete, Commitment 2.9 of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Implementation Plan (IP) for Recommendation 2001-1, High-Level Waste Management at the Savannah River Site.  The commitment deliverable is to “Demonstrate the viability of the Deliquification, Dissolution, and Adjustment (DDA) [process]” and is defined as the disposition of 100,000 gallons of DDA salt solutions in the Saltstone Disposal Facility.  The due date for this activity is 90 days after issuance of the modified low activity Saltstone Facility disposal permit.

 

The Modified Permit for the Z-Area Saltstone Disposal Facility was issued by South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control on January 23, 2007 and became effective on February 26, 2007.  Subsequently, the Saltstone facility processed DDA salt solutions (Batch 1A) from March 7-8, 2007 and March 16-19, 2007.  On March 19, 2007, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other organizations filed a Request for a Contested Case Hearing before the South Carolina Administrative Law Court which resulted in a mandatory stay of the Saltstone Permit Modification and the operations at the Saltstone Disposal Facility were put on hold pending resolution.  The DOE is working to resolve the hold on operations at the Saltstone Disposal Facility as quickly as possible and will keep the Board staff informed concerning the issues associated with this commitment.

 

If you have any further questions, please call me at (202) 586-0738 or Mr. Dae Y. Chung, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safety Management and Operations, at (202) 586-5151.

 

Sincerely,

 

Dr. Inés R. Triay

Chief Operating Officer for

  Environmental Management

 

cc:

J. Allison, SR

M. Whitaker. HS-1.1