The cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory will need to treat about twice as much sodium-bearing waste annually as it did during 2023 in order to meet the agency’s target for the new Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, an advisory panel heard Thursday.
After treatment resumes, DOE wants the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (ITWU) to solidify about 15% of the site’s 900,000 gallons of liquid radioactive annually, the Citizens Advisory Board for the DOE Idaho Cleanup Project heard Thursday.
That works out to about 135,000 gallons. IWTU managed about 68,000-gallons in 2023 during its first year.
DOE and its Jacobs-led contractor are on track to resume treating sodium-bearing liquid waste at the facility in March and further fixes to the unit are still needed, according to a recent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) report. Among these was a missing valve on the ITWU that a contractor spokesperson said Wednesday was subsequently replaced.
In mid-January, Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition finished a maintenance outage at IWTU that started in September 2023. Some maintenance that will not affect plant operations was left for the next outage, the DNFSB said in a staff report dated Feb. 2.
Startup checks done by the contractor revealed “that one 3-way valve in the product receiver cooler system was found to be missing,” according to the DNFSB report. Idaho Environmental Coalition staff told the board that the valve was removed during an update to prevent clogs.
The valve at issue was replaced after the problem was discovered, a contractor spokesperson said Wednesday in an email, adding that nitrogen is being added to the system to start the IWTU heat-up process.
“A similar system connection incident occurred in March 2023, when gas lines to waste feed nozzles were installed backwards,” according to the DNFSB report. DNFSB staff plan to review corrective actions developed by the contractor.
The long-awaited IWTU started up in April 2023 after years of delay. It is designed to convert about 900,000 gallons of radioactive liquid sodium-bearing waste into a more stable granular form for storage and eventual disposal. So far, it has treated 68,000 gallons of the liquid waste.
DOE has a target of solidifying 15% of the waste annually, which would come out to about 135,000 gallons each year, agency officials told the advisory board for the Idaho Cleanup Project Thursday.
Initially built in 2012 by a CH2M-led contractor, the IWTU for long did not work as planned. Over the ensuing decade, contractors Fluor Idaho and subsequently Idaho Environmental Coalition re-engineered and updated the plant.
