After working out various kinks since late December, the Department of Energy has resumed its demonstration run of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
Following a successful heat-up, waste simulant processing resumed on May 23, a DOE spokesperson said in an email.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in a recently posted staff report that the Contractor Readiness Assessment for Radiological Operations could be issued this month.
The DOE has, through various stops and starts, been trying to execute a planned 50-day demonstration run of the facility, designed to convert up to 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing waste into a more stable granular material, since late December. But the effort has been complicated by worker mistakes, component problems and a lack of reliable supplies of large amounts of nitrogen needed to operate the fluidized bed steam-reforming facility.
Connie Flohr, DOE’s manager of the Idaho Cleanup Project, told a citizens advisory board in April the agency and its contractor, Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition, would be restarting the demonstration run from scratch. She also said the confirmatory run, meant as the final dress rehearsal prior to radiological operations, would not necessarily end at the 50-day mark but take as long as necessary.
