The Jacobs-led contractor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory was poised to start simulated operations of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, according to an Idaho Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson.
“They are estimating radiological waste will start being added mid-February,” the state Environmental Quality Department spokesperson said Wednesday in an email to Exchange Monitor. The DOE acknowledged receipt Thursday of Exchange Monitor’s request for additional information but had not responded as of Monday morning.
Introduction of the simulant by environmental cleanup contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition was expected as early as Thursday, the state spokesperson said by email late Wednesday. Personnel at Idaho finished heating up the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) to operating temperatures last week following a repair outage.
The DOE and its contractor have said previously they will gradually start introducing radioactive waste to the simulant stream during the early stages of radioactive operations.
Heat-up of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) resumed in mid-January after repairs were made following leak of non-radioactive solids in December, according to DOE. Last summer, the DOE contractor completed a 65-day test run using the simulant designed to mimic the sodium-bearing waste.
It was the latest twist in the history of the $1-billion-plus plant built to convert up to 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing radioactive waste into a solid, granular form for long-term storage and eventual disposal.
Major construction of the IWTU was initially completed by a CH2M-led contractor more than a decade ago in 2012, but the plant never worked as intended. The successor contractor Fluor Idaho spent years revamping and re-engineering major components of the facility before passing it on to the latest contractor, Idaho Environmental Coalition in January 2022.
