The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is considering a 10-year permit renewal for Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory.
The current permit expired June 4. However, lab management contractor Fluor Idaho filed its renewal application prior to that date so it is allowed to continue to operate, Natalie Creed, hazardous waste unit manager for DEQ, said by email Tuesday.
The proposed permit renewal for hazardous waste storage and treatment at the facility will be the subject of a Nov. 7 public hearing at the Shilo Inn, 780 Lindsay Blvd. in Idaho Falls. The state agency is also taking public comments on the renewal application between now and Nov. 13, according to a public notice. A copy of the 80-page draft permit is also available online.
The Department of Environmental Quality believes the facility sufficiently protects the environment and public safety to justify renewing the permit for container storage and treatment, including waste characterization and packaging.
The AMWTP has 12 different storage units and four waste treatment units. The facility also includes a “super compactor” to process 55-gallon drums of mixed waste prior to shipment to an off-site disposal facility, such as DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.
The AMWTP was built to meet court-ordered waste disposal deadlines in a 1995 legal settlement between the state of Idaho, DOE, and the Navy. The agreement requires about 65,000 cubic meters of low-level waste and transuranic waste at INL, which came from the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production site in Colorado, to be packaged and then shipped to WIPP by Dec. 31, 2018.
While that deadline might not be met, as about 9,000 cubic meters of waste remained this spring, the AMWTP’s current mission is winding down. Layoffs could start by year’s end, Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper said last month. The Energy Department has said it should in that time frame also issue a report on keeping AMWTP open for processing out-of-state waste. This could require modification to the 1995 settlement, which basically says any out-of-state waste cannot remain in Idaho longer than a year.
“This a routine permit renewal and does not deal directly with possible future missions of the AMWTP, Creed said.
