State Worried About Ineel Storage Tanks

Scientists at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory are working on the proper way to dispense with an underground cauldron of radioactive and corrosive chemicals.

Five of 11 steel tanks perched above the Snake River aquifer do not meet earthquake standards and none of them comply with federal hazardous waste laws.

The state is concerned the Department of Energy will not live up to its 1995 nuclear waste agreement, requiring all the liquid in the tanks to be solidified in a process called “calcining.”

“Everything in the tank farm has to be calcined as outlined in the settlement agreement,” said Kathleen Trever, director of the state oversight efforts at the INEEL. The goal is to have the waste dried up by 2012, Energy officials say.

The calcining process burns up about $13 million a year.

The liquid is contaminated with sodium and acids, as well as plutonium and uranium. The INEEL has been turning the liquid into the dry calcine which is safer to store.

But most of the remaining 1.7 million gallons of waste presents a problem. Because it is contaminated with sodium, a metal that in contact with moisture become lye, it cannot be processed readily.

By raising the temperature in the calciner, engineers think they may be able to treat the sodium waste.

About six million gallons have been processed. The calcine is kept in stainless steel tanks inside seven concrete bins. The first bin, however, does not meet seismic standards.