The Department of Energy is taking public comment until Dec. 12 on its draft finding that certain radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory can be disposed of there as low- rather than high-level waste.
The draft document “demonstrates that the Calcined Solids Storage Facility (CSSF) at closure after waste retrieval is not high-level radioactive waste (HLW) and may be disposed of in place as low-level radioactive waste (LLW),” DOE said in an Oct. 27 Federal Register notice.
Essentially, that means encasing the bins and much of the facility where they are stored in concrete like grout.
Calcine solids are the solidified remnants of high-level liquid radioactive waste leftover from reprocessing: the extraction of uranium and plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel, according to DOE’s Jacobs-led cleanup contractor, Idaho Environmental Coalition.
The calcine waste was created at a facility that closed in 2000 at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center and is now stored in stainless-steel bins within six reinforced concrete vaults mostly buried in shallow ground, according to last week’s notice. Under a settlement with the state of Idaho, DOE has until 2035 to remove 4,400 cubic meters of calcine and send it out-of-state.
A small amount of calcine, 1% by both volume and radioactivity, is expected to remain in the Calcined Solids Storage Facility at closure, according to DOE’s Oct. 27 notice. The storage facility, including the bins and some of the facility’s waste plumbing, will be stabilized with grout and left where they are, according to the 200-page basis for DOE’s determination.
The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2005 allows certain waste from reprocessed nuclear fuel need not be deemed high-level if it meets certain requirements, according to the recent notice.
Among the requirements is that the secretary of energy must find that the waste need not be buried deep underground, has most high-level radionuclides “removed to the maximum extent practical” and does not exceed limits for Class C low-level waste.
DOE is consulting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is seeking public comment from states, tribes and other stakeholders including members of the public before making a final determination.
