The Department of Energy and its cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory have now solidified a third of the high-level sodium-bearing radioactive waste at the site, DOE said Tuesday.
According to a press release from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and Amentum-led Idaho Environmental Coalition, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) has processed about 312,000 out of the 900,000 gallons. The sodium-bearing waste is held in underground tanks at the Idaho lab.
The rest of the work, meant to convert the liquid waste into a more stable granular form for long-term storage, transport and eventual disposal, is also designed to protect the Snake River Plain Aquifer.
After years of stops and starts in construction, design and revamped plans, the $1.5-billion facility began radioactive operations about three years ago. Solidifying the rest of the sodium waste could take up to seven years, DOE said.
The affected waste is a byproduct of decontamination work over more than 40 years of used nuclear fuel recycling runs at the laboratory’s Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, which ended in 1992, DOE said.