Since it resumed operations in late August, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has treated more sodium-bearing waste than it did during its first year of operations, an advisory board heard Wednesday.
Since exiting a long-running outage this summer the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) has solidified about 81,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid waste in a solid, granular form, Nick Balsmeier, a DOE assistant manager at Idaho, said Wednesday in a presentation to the Citizens Advisory Board for the Idaho Cleanup Project.
That represents the throughput between late August and this week, Balsmeier said.
By contrast, the IWTU, which has experienced numerous challenges since coming online in April 2023, had only solidified 68,000 gallons coming into the summer.
In total, IWTU is meant to solidify about 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory.
If the facility could continue to operate at its current clip, it would meet a DOE target of solidifying 15% of Idaho’s sodium-bearing waste annually, Balsmeier said.
Among the fixes that Jacobs-led contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition has made over the past year include replacing mercury-laden beds of granular activated carbon, the DOE official said.
