N-Waste Removal Cost Cut In Half Dispute Brewing Over Reburying Plutonium As Part Of Cleanup

The accelerated schedule for radioactive waste removal that Gov. Phil Batt negotiated in his nuclear waste deal will almost halve the overall cost of cleaning up the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, federal officials say.

The Energy Department said compressing the cleanup to 40 years as required under Batt’s unprecedented agreement will cost $16.6 billion compared to the $29 billion estimated for the original 73-year schedule.

Because of the agreement, the government must remove:

Plutonium-contaminated waste by 2015 rather than the original 2021 deadline.

Spent nuclear fuel by 2035 rather than 2060.

High-level nuclear waste by 2035 rather than 2075.

Hundreds of people turned out on Tuesday in Idaho Falls to assess the new cleanup proposal.

Bill Leake, the department’s cleanup manager, took issue with one of his most vocal critics, Twin Falls podiatrist Peter Rickards, who has launched an initiative campaign to prohibit the reburial of any plutonium during the cleanup. The attorney general said earlier this week the proposition, if passed, is unenforceable.

Rickards maintains that the reburial plan threatens to contaminate the Snake River Plain Aquifer.

Leake countered that the decision to allow plutonium reburial as part of the cleanup strategy for Pit 9 was made under terms of the federal Superfund law that required a formal evaluation of risks based on the best science.

That strategy calls for use of a process that immobilizes the waste that is reburied so it cannot migrate into the underground water source, he said, pointing out that any decision on allowing reburial in the cleanup of the other 87 pits will be based on the Pit 9 pilot. The project is now mired in a contract dispute.

“We’re following legal procedures about what to do with that waste, and we welcome public comment on it,” Leake said.