The state of Idaho and the Department of Energy have resolved a $648,000 fine levied for the federal agency’s failure to start operating a liquid waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL).
The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was built to process 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste produced during Cold War-era spent fuel reprocessing at INL. Primarily completed in 2012, the facility has not worked as intended in testing, and DOE continues to evaluate the system’s technologies.
The state hopes the facility will be operational by next summer, Natalie Creed, hazardous waste compliance manager at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, told Weapons Complex Monitor on Monday. In the meantime, Idaho has been penalizing DOE daily.
The Energy Department and former INL cleanup contractor CH2M-WG Idaho jointly paid a $648,000 fine, with DOE meeting its commitment by funding four supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) in the state. Fluor took over the core cleanup work at Idaho earlier this year, under a five-year contract worth $1.4 billion.
Another $648,000 state fine accrued from Oct. 1, 2016, to March 30 of this year, after DOE missed a Sept. 30 deadline for waste treatment to begin set under an update to the notice of noncompliance with the 1995 state-federal consent order governing cleanup of the Idaho National Laboratory. In a July 31 letter to the Energy Department, the Department of Environmental Quality formally signed off on six additional environmental projects to address that penalty tranche. These include: protecting and restoring water quality in the Teton River Watershed, and a recycling and water conservation public education project in Idaho Falls.
The state has been fining DOE $6,000 per day since March 31. The sides are in talks on another set of SEPs that could wrap up in a matter of weeks, Creed said.
