Not long ago, the Energy Department anticipated operational startup this year of the long- awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory – but the new target is September 2021.
That is the anticipated date for “full-fledged operation,” as opposed to testing, of the plant intended to treat 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing radioactive waste, said Brian English, hazardous waste permits supervisor at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.
The final tests using a simulant will be conducted next summer, English said in a Tuesday email. A representative for DOE cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho did not respond by deadline to a request for comment.
As of late 2019, the DOE envisioned doing final IWTU tests in the first half of 2020 with operation to start shortly thereafter.
Idaho DEQ officials were briefed by Fluor Idaho managers on the new IWTU timeline during a July 21 conference call. The Idaho National Laboratory, including cleanup overseen by Fluor, moved to minimum operations on March 26 in an effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It exited that status in the first week of May.
The pandemic contributed to the latest delays of the project, state DEQ officials said.
Under a 1995 agreement on removal of radioactive waste from Idaho, the Energy Department agreed to start converting the sodium-bearing liquid waste into a more-stable solid form for disposal by the end of 2012. The facility was built by then, but never worked as designed. Over time the cost of the facility has risen from $570 million in 2012 to $1 billion in 2019, the Government Accountability Office said in a report last September.
Following plant modifications, Fluor Idaho said it was encouraged by tests with simulant in 2019. The last such testing was conducted in June 2019, and the next simulant run is expected in December or January, English said.
This November, Fluor Idaho is expected to file its request with the state in order to update the Hazardous Waste Management Act/Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permit to reflect the changes made at the facility over time, English said.
A two-part standard performance test is scheduled to begin by June. Part 1 of the test will use a simulant. It will be followed by an operational readiness review, and ultimately phase 2 of the test will treat some actual sodium-bearing waste.
