Idaho lab to treat nuclear waste from other states

BOISE – The U.S. Department of Energy will begin shipping nuclear waste to the Idaho National Laboratory for treatment before sending it on to a waste storage site in New Mexico, department officials said Thursday.

The department’s record of decision amends department policy so that transuranic waste can be shipped to Idaho from sites around the country so workers can prepare it for storage at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, N.M. Transuranic waste includes gloves, rags and other debris contaminated with radioactive material that takes thousands of years to decay to safe levels.

The change is allowed under a provision in a 1995 lawsuit settlement agreement between the state and the federal government that permits transuranic waste from other states to be treated at INL as long as it leaves Idaho within a year of its arrival.

Energy Department officials decided they didn’t need to collect public comment on the change because an analysis showed the switch wasn’t substantially different from those examined in a 1998 environmental impact statement. After doing the 1998 analysis, the Energy Department decided that each of its nuclear sites would prepare and store its own waste before shipping it on to WIPP. But the department also noted that in the future it might decide to ship transuranic waste to a centralized location for preparation to go to WIPP.

Idaho was chosen as the central transuranic waste preparation site because bringing the waste here represented a cost savings compared to having each nuclear site handle its own waste, Energy Department spokesman Steven Sorrell said. Most of the other sites are smaller and don’t have the equipment needed to process the waste, he said.

INL currently ships more transuranic waste than other sites, Sorrell said, and is the most advanced site in the nation for dealing with the waste.

The additional waste does mean that cleanup work at INL will slow, Sorrell said, but the Energy Department still expects to meet all the cleanup deadlines required by the settlement agreement.

Historically, Idaho leaders have fought to keep additional nuclear waste out of the state.

“There are fairly rigorous provisions that govern this, and we don’t have a lot of choice on this part of it,” Gov. Butch Otter’s spokesman Jon Hanian said.

Idaho leaders recognized when INL’s transuranic waste treatment facility was built that eventually the equipment would be used to clean up waste from other states, said Kathleen Trever, who advised former Govs. Phil Batt, Dirk Kempthorne and Jim Risch on INL issues.

“Recognizing that not every little site should have to build a treatment facility and that Idaho benefits from treatment facilities in other states, this is consistent with the historical agreement as long as there are protections in place to make sure the waste doesn’t get stuck in Idaho,” Trever said.

The new shipments of transuranic waste could take several months to begin, Sorrell said. Before they can start, officials at INL and WIPP will work with the waste generators to determine exactly what treatment is needed at INL. State leaders must give their approval before the waste can come into the state, Sorrell said, and set a schedule for arrival and departure of the waste.