nuclear-news

The Department of Energy’s Idaho Cleanup Project Core, known as ICP Core, is a five-year contract that also includes monitoring of spent nuclear fuel at the Idaho National Laboratory.

The new contract is set to begin in 2016 and consolidate responsibilities of the two primary nuclear waste contractors now working at the nuclear facility in southeast Idaho………..

In a 1995 agreement struck between the federal government and then-Gov. Phil Batt, a Republican, the Department of Energy was required to remove all high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel from Idaho by 2035.

The fear was that buried nuclear waste would seep into the huge Eastern Snake Plain aquifer, which provides water to much of the state’s agriculture industry.

But several problems have surfaced. In November, federal officials said a waste treatment facility planned to be operational by now won’t be ready for months.

The Department of Energy said malfunctions with the $571 million Integrated Waste Treatment Unit continue to cause delays in turning 900,000 gallons of liquid waste into a solid form.

The high-level radioactive waste came from the processing of spent nuclear fuel from Navy ships. It’s now stored in tanks at the INL’s Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center.

And in December, the federal agency said low-level radioactive waste that’s supposed to be sent out of Idaho is backing up because an underground nuclear waste repository in southern New Mexico is not taking shipments because of recent mishaps.

Officials said it’s not clear when those shipments will resume. http://trib.com/business/energy/feds-alter-nuclear-cleanup-contract-in-idaho/article_3977693d-05be-55da-8f3f-1c74d6e01574.html