Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
3/21/2014
Work to build a new remote-handled low-level waste disposal facility at the Idaho National Laboratory appears to be moving forward, with the lab expected to award a subcontract for design and construction sometime this fiscal year. The facility is needed to help meet the waste disposal needs of INL and the Naval Reactors Facility, and in its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request, the Department of Energy is seeking approximately $20 million for the project—$2.3 million for design from the Office of Nuclear Energy and Office of Naval Reactors as well as $17.5 million for construction, according to detailed budget documents released late last week. “Idaho National Laboratory (INL) contractor Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) plans to award a subcontract, based on full and open competition, to design and build the Remote-Handled Low-Level Waste (RH-LLW) Disposal Project at DOE’s Idaho Site,” said Tim Jackson, a spokesman for the DOE Idaho Operations Office. “BEA is finalizing contract documents to enable it to award the subcontract.”
DOE’s FY 2015 request represents a cut from the $36.5 million in construction funding enacted for the project in FY 2014. “The Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 budget request is consistent with the project’s funding profile provided to the Office of Management and Budget and reflects funding necessary to support construction of a new replacement disposal capability no later than 4th quarter FY 2020 to meet the Office of Nuclear Energy and Naval Reactors long-term program needs,” Jackson said. “The higher funding profile in FY 2014 represents the level of funding needed to utilize a design-build approach, which required higher funding profiles in FY 2014 to award the subcontract and initiate design/construction activities. The FY 2015 Request reflects the resources necessary to continue construction activities.”
According to the budget documents released late last week, the facility will provide “on-site disposal capability for ten to twenty years of remote-handled LLW generated at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL); however, facilities are being designed to allow operation for 50 years to support future expansion, if needed.” Included in the project is supporting infrastructure construction to improve transportation and handling equipment systems for the waste. DOE said it looked at other disposal options outside of constructing a new facility, and it determined “the life cycle cost to construct and operate a new onsite facility and the risk to the public have been determined to be significantly lower,” the budget documents said. The facility is expected to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2020 at a price tag of $95 million.
