ITG TO BEGIN USING SUPERCOMPACTOR TO TREAT WIPP-PROHIBITED ITEMS

In a move set to significantly increase waste processing rates at the Idaho Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Plant, Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, has received regulatory approval to use the AMWTP facility’s supercompactor as a treatment method for some items prohibited for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Regulators in both Idaho and New Mexico have approved the use of the AMWTP supercompactor as a treatment for some liquids and aerosol cans, which previously have had to be removed from waste drums being sent to WIPP. Obtaining such approval was among the items in a recovery plan ITG developed in response to DOE concerns over the contractor’s waste processing rate. “That’s a major accomplishment for us from a regulatory standpoint,” ITG President and Project Manager Danny Nichols said at a House Cleanup Caucus briefing on the Idaho site held yesterday in Washington. “We’re working … to adjust our paperwork and our processes in order to start doing that for the transuranic waste.”