After a warm up period, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory last week resumed a 50-day final trial run of the plant expected to treat about 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste, federal and state agencies confirmed Tuesday.
On Feb. 17 operators of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) resumed the test run, Kim Custer, a senior hazardous waste permit writer with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said via email. Likewise, the DOE Office of Environmental Management announced resumption of the demonstration that runs non-radioactive waste simulant through the facility to mimic operation with radioactive waste.
A simulant run got off to a rocky start in December and was suspended Jan. 6 because of problems with delivery of adequate amounts of nitrogen to the plant that will use team-reforming technology to convert liquid sodium-bearing waste into a granular form for eventual disposal. For the rest of the run, Jacobs-led contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition will evaluate performance of new ceramic filters and other facets of the long-delayed facility.
Provided things go without a hitch, the test run would conclude around March 29, based upon 40 days remaining.
The original contractor for the plant, CH2M-WG Idaho, finished initial construction of IWTU in 2012. But the facility never worked as designed to treat the sodium waste left over from nuclear fuel reprocessing at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL).
The next cleanup contractor at INL, Fluor Idaho, spent years re-engineering and making changes to key parts of the plant. Fluor Idaho did several earlier system tests of the plant in recent years before turning the facility over to the new contractor in January.
Over the years, the construction and engineering cost of the plant has mushroomed from $570 million to more than $1 billion, according to a September 2019 Government Accountability Office report. The DOE Office of Environmental Management says processing 100 waste canisters at IWTU is a priority for 2022.
Editor’s note: Article amended Feb. 24 to change date in fourth graph.