The state of Idaho has assessed the U.S. Energy Department $6.77 million in fines for failure to start operating the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory by the end of 2012.
The Energy Department has already paid, or worked off, more than half of the monetary fines, according to data provided by Natalie Creed, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality’s Hazardous Waste Bureau chief.
Most recently, DOE paid a cash penalty of over $1.1 million at the end of July, Creed said by email Thursday. In addition, the federal agency is working off an additional $1 million in penalties by conducting a group of supplemental environmental projects approved by the state in late June. The latest cash payment and environmental projects are applied to $2.19 million assessed between March 31, 2018, and March 30, 2019.
The penalties, currently assessed at $6,000 per day, grew out of a 1995 settlement on nuclear waste storage at INL between Idaho, the Energy Department, and the U.S. Navy. In 2015, Idaho began assessing penalties at $3,600 per day. In March 2017, the penalty was upped to the current $6,000 per day level. Thus far, the Energy Department has retired the fines through a combination of just over 52% in cash payments and less than 48% in environmental projects.
The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit is supposed to treat 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid radioactive and hazardous waste. Under an agreement with the state, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management must treat the material and ship it out of the state by 2035.
The IWTU was basically finished in 2012, but has yet to function as designed. After years of tweaks, the Energy Department is encouraged by a series of tests over the past year using a substance that simulates radioactive waste.
According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, the DOE Office of Environmental Management expects the IWTU’s final trial run, using actual radioactive waste rather than a simulant, will start in early 2020.\
The Energy Department has not published a firm timeline for actual operation of the IWTU.
