Big Top Tent Keeps Trucks and Tanks Dry
Important projects for the Recovery Act are being performed under the Big Top at Solid Waste Management facility in E Area. The jumbo-size vinyl tent with a metal frame measuring 160 feet long, 24 feet wide, and 20 feet high is used to shelter trucks awaiting inspection before they carry transuranic (TRU) waste offsite to a geologic repository for final disposition.
The Big Top, which is a brand name for the structure, keeps the truck, containers of TRU waste and drivers and inspectors dry during inclement weather. The result is a quicker, more efficient inspection and a more timely delivery to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M.
With the installation of the Big Top, loaded trucks are parked under the tent the night before their scheduled departure, assuring a dry inspection in the morning. The pre-transport inspection process is in two parts. First, the truck driver and the South Carolina State Transport Police inspect the condition of the truck and its compliance with Department of Transportation (DOT) requirements. Next, SCDHEC examines the shipment for its radiological requirements, as well as those of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Until the installation of the Big Top, inspections were dependent upon good weather or the availability of the other covered storage areas. “Having this tent does not disrupt the other parts of the TRU waste program,” remarked Reinhard Friske, the TRU waste shipping manager. Trucks and their three stainless steel TRUPACT II containers used to be sheltered in a large building where containers are X-rayed. In order to accommodate the trucks, the existing containers needed to be relocated to both free physical space and to keep the collective level of plutonium in one location below the prescribed limit. Regardless of the extent of juggling, an entire truck and its shipment could not fit into the building.
The Big Top provides a backdrop of stability to the TRU shipping program. “We don’t act alone at Savannah River,” Friske said. The WIPP geologic repository handles all TRU disposals across the country, and any glitch in departure times affects the overall receiving schedule at WIPP. “If we miss a shipment, it has a national impact. If we can’t ship on a specific day, the state regulators just wasted a day waiting to inspect a shipment that did not leave,” he said.
The TRU waste disposition project is currently funded by the Recovery Act and is being performed by SRNS.
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