The Energy Department is likely next year to miss another major nuclear waste removal milestone set in its 1995 settlement agreement with the state of Idaho.
Under the agreement, DOE committed to remove from the Idaho National Laboratory site some 65,000 cubic meters of stored transuranic waste by the end of 2018. But limited operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) almost certainly will prevent all the waste from being shipped prior to the Dec. 31, 2018, deadline. Roughly 55,000 cubic meters was shipped before WIPP’s closure in early 2014.
Officials discussed the issue this week at a meeting of Idaho’s Leadership in Nuclear Energy Commission in Boise. Jack Zimmerman, DOE’s deputy manager of the Idaho Cleanup Project, told the commission that more than 900 certified waste shipments are stored at the site’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project. A “number of drums” still need to receive final certification for transfer to WIPP, he said, and another 45 legacy boxes — or about 140 cubic meters — of transuranic waste at the facility still must be retrieved, treated, and repackaged.
Most of the waste came from the Rocky Flats Plant outside Denver, where nuclear weapons components were made. It includes a variety of contaminated items such as tools, rags, clothing, sludge, and dirt.
The problem for Idaho’s waste milestone lies with WIPP. The facility reopened earlier this month but has not begun accepting shipments from DOE waste generator sites, and will only accept as many as five per week starting this spring. A shipping schedule and priority list of sites has not been finalized, DOE officials say.
But even if Idaho were given top priority — sending all five shipments per week — it could not send even half its 900 currently certified shipments prior to the deadline. “Certainly the milestone is at risk; it’s at great risk right now,” Zimmerman said.
“I fully expect (Idaho) will be a priority,” he added. “But when you’re talking five shipments, there’s not much to prioritize. I don’t think Idaho is going to get 100 percent of those shipments. I don’t think it would be feasible.”
Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper, a member of the commission, told Zimmerman that Idaho should get top priority because it has “milestones at risk.”
Due to WIPP’s nearly three-year shutdown, DOE already is out of compliance with a settlement agreement requirement to ship a running average of 2,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste per year. Most prominently, however, it missed a 2012 milestone to treat 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing radioactive waste, a deadline that is still being breached due to continued challenges in starting the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit.
The 1995 settlement agreement between DOE, Idaho, and the U.S. Navy settled a state lawsuit against transfers of spent nuclear fuel for storage at the Idaho National Laboratory.
Another missed milestone would create more complications for the Idaho National Laboratory and its ability to obtain spent nuclear fuel for research. Under the settlement agreement, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has barred spent fuel shipments until the IWTU is treating waste.
In an email this week, he said he was keeping an eye on the 2018 deadline.
“DOE has informed us that shipment of INL transuranic waste to WIPP is one of the highest priorities after emplacement of material currently housed above ground at WIPP,” Wasden said. “I encourage DOE to continue to aggressively address other impediments to WIPP’s full scale operation so the Department can fulfill its legal obligation to complete shipment of INL’s transuranic waste by December 31, 2018.”
