Idaho National Laboratory officials still hope to bring in a shipment of spent nuclear fuel for a research project with South Korea this spring. But it appears unlikely that will be allowed due to ongoing delays at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit.
Under Idaho’s 1995 settlement agreement with the Energy Department, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has refused to allow shipments of spent fuel into the state until the radioactive waste treatment facility is operational. Under the agreement, the facility was to finish treating 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing radioactive waste by the end of 2012. But it has not functioned as intended remains in the testing phase.
“We still have the need to bring in small quantities,” INL Director Mark Peters said last week. “And the official position of the attorney general is, until IWTU is running hot, he will not allow that to happen. So this is problematic. Very problematic.”
The 100-pound shipment from the Byron Nuclear Generating Station in Illinois was originally scheduled for last June. Due to the IWTU delays, Peters in July said the lab renegotiated the research agreement with South Korea to push back the shipment until this spring. The project involves researching fuel recycling techniques and developing improved safeguards for the fuel cycle.
“If IWTU goes beyond (spring), then we need to continue to rethink,” Peters said. It “potentially” means the lab loses another shipment, he said. A previous spent fuel shipment for a separate research project was sent to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in 2015 because of the IWTU delays.
Jack Zimmerman, DOE’s deputy manager of the Idaho Cleanup Project, said at a meeting of the state Leadership in Nuclear Energy Commission this week that significant testing and repair work remains to be done before the facility was ready. The steps he outlined will take months to complete, but Zimmerman refused to offer specific dates for when IWTU will be operational.
Wasden and DOE officials have repeatedly said they continue to communicate about the IWTU situation and the spent fuel shipment’s status. But Wasden has shown no sign of backing off his IWTU requirement.
“The attorney general’s position on IWTU is problematic, it continues to be very problematic. But I don’t see a lot of evidence of him changing his position,” Peters said.
