The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is considering a permit modification sought by a U.S. Energy Department contractor to relocate repackaging radioactive waste at a new location within the Idaho National Laboratory.
Fluor Idaho wants to resume repacking sludge waste generated at a different facility than the location of the April 11, 2018, accident. The waste was generated decades ago at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado, and the company would take steps meant to identify potential overheating prior to the waste being placed into new drums.
Fluor Idaho requested the permit modification in September to move its sludge repackaging from Waste Management Facility (WMF) 1617, where four drums of radioactive waste overheated and blew off their lids in April 2018, to WMF 1619. The contractor finished repackaging the sludge waste left over from the 2018 accident in August.
The contractor wants to resume repackaging sludge waste from the now cleaned up site within Accelerated Retrieval Project No. 5 to the new site within the Accelerated Retrieval Project No. 7 facility, Natalie Creed, hazardous waste bureau chief at the Idaho DEQ, said in a Friday email.
The changes would be incorporated into the state permit issued under the Hazardous Waste Management Act (HWMA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The changes include additional raking with equipment to smooth out the material after it is removed from the original drums, along with holding the material inside waste trays in the retrieval area for 24 hours prior to repackaging.
The changes are intended to identify potential overheating or sparking after the waste contacts air and before it goes into a new drum.
The April 2018 accident resulted from “slow oxidation” of uranium metal that combined with flammable methane gas inside the drums hours after being placed into new drums, causing the containers to blow off their lids and spewing radioactive waste around the room. No one was injured.
