The state of Idaho will fine the Energy Department up to $3,600 daily after today, when as of the stroke of midnight DOE will officially have blown a deadline to start treating almost 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid waste at the Idaho National Laboratory.
This waste was to be processed by the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU): a so-called steam reformer designed to heat up liquid radioactive waste now stored in underground tanks at the Idaho Site and distill from it solids that can be safely packaged for disposal.
“On September 23, 2016, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) notified the U.S. Department of Energy that DEQ intends to assess stipulated penalties against DOE for missing the deadline to begin treating 851,200 gallons of liquid waste being held in tanks at the Idaho National Laboratory,” Natalie Clough, hazardous waste compliance manager for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, wrote in a Thursday email.
DOE officially notified Idaho in July the agency would not meet the Sept. 30 start date stipulated in a 1992 consent order with the state, according to a Sept. 23 letter to Jack Zimmerman, DOE-Idaho deputy manager, from John Tippets, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality.
In May, when DOE first acknowledged it was likely to blow the Sept. 30 startup date, the agency said it would not establish a new schedule for sodium-bearing waste treatment at the lab until after contractor Fluor Idaho — which took over Idaho Site legacy cleanup earlier this year in a five-year, $1.4 billion contract — came up with a new plan for operating the technically troubled IWTU.
The daily fines of $3,600 a day will continue until March 30, after which fines could increase to $6,000 a day, under the 1992 consent order.
DOE spokeswoman Danielle Miller did not reply to a request for comment Thursday; Fluor Idaho spokeswoman Ann Riedesel did not reply to a request for comment Thursday. Kristen Ellis, acting communications director for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, did not reply to emailed questions Thursday about the timetable for starting up IWTU.
Earlier this year, the DOE inspector general reported the 53,000 square-foot IWTU, built by former Idaho cleanup prime contractor CH2M-WG Idaho, would likely breach its $571 million development cost cap. In May, Zimmerman estimated the agency spends $4 million to $5 million a month on IWTU.
IWTU has been substantially complete since 2012, but during test runs with a nonradioactive simulant liquid, the facility produced an undesirable solid substance known as wall scale, or bark, that clogs the machine. Furthermore, a critical IWTU component known as a ring header might need to be replaced. DOE has a spare on site, which would take a month or three to install, Zimmerman has said.
