The Energy Department and its cleanup contractor for the Idaho National Laboratory confirmed Friday the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) will close in 2019 once it has finished its work.
“The Department of Energy analyzed the feasibility of extending the AMWTP mission to treat waste from other DOE sites, and concluded it would not be cost-effective,” the agency said in an emailed statement. “Therefore, upon completion of the mission, DOE will initiate closure activities in accordance with regulatory permits and the existing Fluor Idaho contract.”
The AMWTP was built to treat and subsequently ship out of state about 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic (TRU) waste in keeping with a 1995 legal settlement between the state of Idaho, DOE, and the U.S. Navy. The facility’s mission is expected to be completed in mid-to-late 2019, according to the Energy Department.
The equipment and buildings at AMWTP used to treat and ship the material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico will stay in place until all work is finished, DOE said.
“While we are disappointed in this decision, we understand that DOE considered the business case for this action and found a future mission not feasible,” Erik Simpson, a spokesman for contractor Fluor Idaho said by email Friday.
“Over the past 16 years, the incredibly talented workforce at AMWTP has processed more than 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste – the largest stockpile of transuranic waste in the DOE complex — and facilitated an expected 7,300 shipments of transuranic waste from Idaho for disposal out of state,” Simpson said. “The work completed at this facility is a major accomplishment in DOE’s cleanup mission.”
The story was first reported Friday morning by the Post-Register newspaper in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper told an Energy Department conference in September that she expected layoff notices could go out by year end at the facility, which employs about 700 people.
As for expected layoffs, the employee impact is being “evaluated,” Fluor Idaho said, adding it is looking to find work for some of the affected workers. “No immediate worker impacts are anticipated,” DOE said in its statement.
Much of the waste being addressed by the AMWTP, since its 2003 opening, came to INL from the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado.
While there was local support by the mayor and others to keep AMWTP open to handle waste from other DOE facilities, some stakeholder groups and the state attorney general seemed cool to proposals to again ship significant amounts of radioactive material into Idaho.
