N-Waste Analysis Supports Hanford

An Energy Department analysis indicates that Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation is better suited economically than an Idaho facility for the federal government’s plan to convert excess weapons plutonium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel.

The report reinforces beliefs of Gov. Phil Batt’s administration that the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory will not be the location for the waste processing facility that the governor has consistently said he would fight.

“I expect the Department of Energy to follow the letter and the spirit of its contract with Idaho, which requires removal of nuclear waste,” Batt said last December when the prospect was broached by former Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary. “If they don’t, we’ll be back in court.”

Batt has maintained that the plant proposal runs counter to the unprecedented 1995 deal he cut that allows some additional radioactive dumping at the INEEL in exchange for a court-enforced 40-year timetable for cleanup and removal of most waste.

But the analytical findings by the government do not mean the INEEL is out of the running, officials said.

“Cost is just one piece of the puzzle,” department spokesman Brad Bugger said.

The cost analysis found that modifying an existing plant at Hanford would shave $200 million off the $500 million cost of building a new plant. Modifying INEEL’s Fuel Processing Facility would save $150 million.

The plant is one of the ways the government wants to dispose of excess plutonium from the nuclear weapons stockpile. It would blend plutonium into a mixed oxide fuel for consumption in nuclear power plants.

The decision on whether to pursue build a new facility or modify an existing plant is expected this year.

The cost analysis was completed by department experts and specialists at European mixed oxide fuel companies.

It is too soon to compare the other merits of each site, said Grant McClellan, a technical liaison from Argonne National Laboratory who is helping the Department of Energy assess INEEL’s appropriateness for the project.

The facility would rank favorably for its expertise and security among other factors, he said. Argonne already stores plutonium at its INEEL facility so the procedures for keeping it secure are in place.