Environmental cleanup of the Idaho National Laboratory status report

Conference · Sun Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2007

OSTI ID:21294604

Schubert, A L ^[1]

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1. CH2M.WG Idaho, LLC, Idaho Falls, Idaho (United States)

On May 1, 2005 CH2M-WG Idaho LLC (CWI) began its 7-year, $2.4 billion cleanup of the Idaho National Laboratory Site (INL). When the work is completed in 2012, 3,406,871 liters (900,000 gallons) of sodium-bearing waste will have been treated; 15 high-level waste tanks will have been closed; more than 200 facilities will have been demolished or disposed of, including three reactors, several spent fuel basins, and hot cells; thousands of containers of buried transuranic waste will have been retrieved; more than 8,000 cubic meters (10,464 cubic yards) of contact-handled transuranic waste and more than 500 cubic meters (654 cubic yards) of remote-handled transuranic waste will have been characterized, packaged, and shipped offsite; almost 200 release sites and voluntary consent order tank systems will have been remediated; and 3,278 units of spent fuel will have been moved from wet to dry storage. Since assuming its responsibilities as the Idaho Cleanup Project contractor, CWI has completed its life-cycle project baseline, retrieved transuranic wastes from the pits within the Subsurface Disposal Area, disposed of special nuclear materials previously stored at the site, demolished several contaminated facilities, including the Loss-of-Fluid Test reactor complex at Test Area North, moved hundreds of spent fuel units from wet to safer, dry storage, completed grouting of a legacy spent fuel basin, disposed of tens of thousands of cubic meters of low-level wastes both onsite and offsite, closed several contaminated tank systems regulated by the State of Idaho, grouted several high-level waste tanks in preparation for RCRA closure, and made good progress in the design of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit that will process 3,406,871 liters (900,000 gallons) of sodium-bearing waste in preparation for offsite disposal. Plans for 2007 are even more ambitious: the initiation of construction of the facility to treat sodium-bearing waste, continued removal of buried waste from a number of pits at the Subsurface Disposal Area, closure of additional high-level waste tanks, shipment of remote-handled transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, continuation of the onsite and offsite disposal of low-level radioactive wastes, decontamination and decommissioning of the Engineering Test Reactor at the Reactor Technology Complex, and remediation of RCRA-regulated tank systems and release sites. CWI continues to manage potential project challenges and risks associated with the construction of the sodium-bearing waste treatment facility, which is on the critical path for the project; achieving and sustaining necessary production levels in the retrieval of wastes from the Subsurface Disposal Area; and managing other potential project cost risk items. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9 - 332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 21294604
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--09-WM-07007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ALPHA-BEARING WASTES
DECOMMISSIONING
DECONTAMINATION
DRY STORAGE
ETR REACTOR
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
HOT CELLS
IDAHO
INEEL
LOFT REACTOR
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
REMEDIAL ACTION
SODIUM
SPENT FUELS
TANKS
WASTE TRANSPORTATION
WIPP