INL studied as radioactive waste storage site

IDAHO FALLS – The Energy Department is looking for somewhere to park 5,600 cubic meters of radioactive waste, and Idaho is on the list.

In August, the department will start holding hearings that will lead to a draft environmental impact statement and action by Congress. The hearing in Idaho Falls is scheduled for Aug. 30.

Because of an agreement Idaho made in 1995 with the Energy Department and the U.S. Navy, there are restrictions on what sort of nuclear waste or spent fuel can be brought to Idaho National Laboratory.

But INL still will be evaluated as a possible disposal option, Energy Department spokeswoman Megan Barnett said.

“All of the different state and federal laws will be factored into the (environmental impact statement),” she said.

The DOE is seeking to dispose of 2,600 cubic meters of waste from decommissioned plants, radioactive sealed sources no longer being used in such activities as food irradiation and medical procedures, and waste from industry research and development. An additional 3,000 cubic meters is low-level waste that doesn’t have an identified disposal path.

Regulations require that it be disposed of in a geologic repository unless the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves an alternate proposal for its disposal at a licensed facility.

Since 1999, the DOE has disposed of 49,000 cubic meters of waste at its Waste Isolation Pilot Project, near Carlsbad, N.M. That includes 18,021 cubic meters from Idaho as of July 1.

But there’s a lot more waste disposed of than what ends up at WIPP. In 2006, Barnett said, DOE disposed of more than 1 million cubic meters.

Idaho is the only state that has a court order mandating that almost all federal nuclear waste leave state boundaries by a specific date. The Idaho agreement also prohibits commercial spent fuel from coming into Idaho.

To call the waste low-level is a misnomer, said Beatrice Braillsford, program director for the anti-nuclear Snake River Alliance.

“Most of this stuff is commercial reactor waste,” Braillsford said. “It’s not spent fuel, but it is hot as a pistol.”