An Idaho environmental group said this week it has significant concerns about the potential for the Energy Department to move 7,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state to the Idaho National Laboratory for repackaging.
While no written application has been filed, the idea has been kicking around DOE for a couple years but seems to be “ripening” in recent months amid mounting concerns about the future of INL’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), Snake River Alliance Nuclear Program Director Beatrice Brailsford said by telephone.
The AMWTP’s chief mission, to repackage 65,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste and ship it out of Idaho as TRU waste to the DOE Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, is scheduled to conclude at the end of 2018. The state, however, has said all the TRU waste, which came into Idaho decades ago from sites such as Rocky Flats in Colorado, might not be moved out by year’s end.
The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and the Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board have discussed using AMWTP to process waste from sites, such as Hanford.
“This on-going evaluation considers potential benefits and costs to treat the waste at AMWTP versus at the generator site, including various shipping and packaging options (and the associated costs) to send the waste to AMWTP. No decisions have been made,” a DOE spokesperson said by email.
While the Idaho Site has previously been used to repackage “small quantities” of such material, 7,000 cubic meters would be a major project, Brailsford said. Also, the watchdog group is concerned the proposed Hanford shipment would be “uncharacterized” – or not yet inspected for banned items such as aerosol cans, which could pose a safety risk.
In 1995, Idaho entered into a settlement with DOE and the U.S. Navy to resolve a state lawsuit over storage of out-of-state waste at the national lab. The agreement says any radioactive waste imported into Idaho must be removed within a year. The alliance worries the large Hanford waste shipment might not meet that timeline, and “we would be left holding the barrels,” Brailsford said.
It also represents an erosion of the settlement agreement, Brailsford said.
“We are only beginning to discuss this issue with DOE. DOE has not yet submitted a formal request,” Natalie Creed, hazardous waste unit manager at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said in a Tuesday email. Any shipments would need to meet the requirements of the settlement agreement.
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has struck a similar tone when asked about AMWTP taking out-of-state waste shipments.
“I am open to the possibility of AMWTP treating waste from other sites, so long as terms laid out in the 1995 Settlement Agreement are met. Those terms require that the additional waste be treated within six months of arrival at INL, and that it be shipped out of Idaho in the following six months,” Wasden said in a statement emailed Thursday from a spokesman.
