The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management last month suspended heat up of a long-anticipated waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory after a small leak of “non-radioactive, non-hazardous solids,” was discovered, DOE said Tuesday.
The suspension came Dec. 29, 10 days after beginning warmup to prepare for radiological operations at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), DOE said in a Tuesday news release. No radioactive waste has been introduced into the facility, DOE said.
Evaluation of the cause of the leak is underway and will be followed by repairs, a DOE spokesperson said Tuesday by email. Once repairs are completed, the IWTU will prepare for the start of radiological operations.
The solids are generated from an additive during the heat up of the IWTU, according to a spokesperson for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.
The DOE did not say how long the startup process might be put on hold, due to the leak discovered in the cell.
The DOE said last month that radiological startup was imminent for the IWTU, built to turn 900,000 gallons of high-level sodium bearing radioactive waste into a granular form. In late July DOE and Jacobs-led contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition completed a successful 65-day trial run using a simulant.
A CH2M-led contractor finished major construction of the IWTU in 2012 but the plant never ran as intended. The successor environmental cleanup contractor, Fluor Idaho, spent years re-engineering and revamping major parts of the facility before passing the baton onto the current contractor team in January 2022.
