The state of Idaho has fined the Energy Department more than $5.3 million for failure to begin operating the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory.
The $5.3 million figure represents the total penalties as of Jan. 19, Natalie Creed, hazardous waste unit manager at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), said by email. Enacted at a rate of $3,600 per day in 2015, the penalties were boosted to $6,000 daily as of March 31, 2017.
The Energy Department has been hit with the fees under modifications to a noncompliance consent order, which grew out of a 1995 settlement on nuclear waste storage at INL between Idaho, the Energy Department, and the U.S. Navy. The agreement said sodium bearing-waste at INL should be treated by 2012.
The IWTU is designed to treat 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid radioactive and hazardous waste stored in stainless steel tanks. While construction was finished in 2012, the facility has never worked as intended. But recent tests by contractor Fluor Idaho have been encouraging.
“Fluor is planning to begin heat-up of the IWTU this week for the next simulant run. The results of the simulant run and other tests are needed before a plan for actual waste treatment can be finalized,” Creed said in a Monday email. Last summer, IWTU operators started feeding a nonradioactive waste simulant into the facility’s denitration mineralization reformer.
The company and DOE did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Energy Department retired a portion of of the penalties assessed by Idaho through performance of supplemental environmental projects, some already been completed. In June 2018, the DEQ agreed to the latest set of supplemental projects, allowing the federal agency to retire $2.19 million worth of daily fines assessed between April 1, 2017, and March 30, 2018.
The Department of Environmental Quality has been in preliminary discussions with DOE about more such projects, Creed noted.
