About half-a-million gallons of plutonium-contaminated spent solvent consisting of kerosene and tributyl phosphate was generated as a result of reprocessing operations at the Savannah River Site. Of this, 370,000 gallons were burned in open, smoky fires during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1975, five years after the requirement for retrievable storage of transuranic (TRU) waste, the site reported that 150,000 gallons of spent solvent were kept in a couple of dozen tanks. The transuranic content, according to site figures, appeared to be on the order of 150 nanocuries per gram. The site now reports that about 40,000 gallons are stored in new tanks, but there is no clear account of the balance of 110,000 gallons. Some may have been burned in an incinerator during the late 1970s or early 1980s.

The radiation doses from the open burning of waste highly contaminated with plutonium need to be evaluated as part of the assessment of the health impact of the operation of the Savannah River Site.

Some of the tanks that were once used to store this solvent have been emptied by spraying water in the tanks and pumping out the liquids. Several tanks have been "closed" - that is, filled up with cement and left in place in the New Burial Ground at the site. The final radionuclide content of these tanks was not estimated before closure. DOE is now in the process of characterizing the residual spent solvent in twenty-two tanks in the Old Burial Ground, and planning for "closure" of these tanks as well.

Pouring cement into the tanks while there are still wastes containing plutonium in them is highly inappropriate. It will leave a festering problem that will be extremely difficult to deal with should the integrity of the tanks be compromised, as it almost certainly will be before the residual plutonium in them decays. The cementation of the tanks as a method of decommissioning is an example of how DOE's "solutions" of today are laying the foundations of the clean-up problems of tomorrow - in the same manner that past mismanagement created serious problems today.