The Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) should complete its transuranic waste processing mission this summer, although some work remains beyond fiscal 2019.
Roughly 6,500 cubic meters of material, or about 10% of the original total, still requires certification and transport to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, according to Erik Simpson, spokesman for lab cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho.
The AMWTP began operations in 2003 to identify, treat, certify, and ship roughly 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste that had been transferred to INL from the Department of Energy’s Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado. The work is carried out under a 1995 legal settlement on waste disposal between Idaho, DOE, and the U.S. Navy. One of the plant’s chief features is its ability to compact the waste, reducing its volume.
The facility has a current workforce of 650. Fluor Idaho expects to keep 450 to 460 employees after Oct. 1 to prepare the TRU waste for shipment, Simpson said by email. The remaining workers will also oversee the plant’s facilities until site closure is completed under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, he added.
Simpson did not specify when the last TRU waste is expected to leave INL.
In April, Fluor Idaho said it was offering a voluntary separation program in hopes of trimming the AMWTP workforce by 190 people during the 2019 fiscal year. Last week, the Idaho Cleanup Contract vendor said 58 employees had left the facility. Almost half of them took advantage of the early separation offer, while the rest either transferred to other Fluor jobs or left the company altogether.
A second phase of the voluntary separation program is set for July through September, and Fluor Idaho hopes to reach its workforce reduction goal without mandatory layoffs. However, Idaho Cleanup Project Deputy Manager Jack Zimmerman this week said that appears unlikely, the Post Register newspaper reported.
Fiscal 2019 ends on Sept. 30.
In December, the Energy Department announced plans to close the facility by the end of 2019 because its original mission was ending and there was no strong business case to keep it open.
