DOE strikes $2.6B deal to exhume buried transuranic waste at Idaho site

摘要

The Energy Department struck a deal last week to dig up a huge stash of plutonium-tainted waste at the Idaho National Laboratory, a move that will cost DOE at least $2.6 billion while concluding a 14-year-long legal battle with Idaho state regulators. The deal calls for DOE to exhume the most threatening portion of the so-called "transuranic" waste buried at 1NL and ship it to a geologic repository in New Mexico. DOE will be allowed to leave some of the less-dangerous waste in place, provided that it is sealed off with concrete grout so it will not leach into the Snake River aquifer. "The important thing is that we focus on getting the high-risk waste out of there so that it's not a risk to the aquifer," said James Rispoli, DOE's assistant secretary for environmental management. "If it would have cost more to protect the aquifer, then we would have done that." The agreement, announced Tuesday, requires DOE unearth at least 7,485 cubic meters of INL's buried transuranic waste and ship it to the to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for permanent disposal. DOE estimates that the excavation portion of the operation will be completed in 2020, and that it will take until 2027 to grout and cap the lower-activity waste that will remain buried at the site.