Shipments of transuranic waste continue to leave Idaho, though not nearly fast enough to meet a looming cleanup milestone.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, N.M., has accepted 17 waste shipments from Idaho since April, U.S. Department of Energy-Idaho Assistant Manager Jim Malmo said Thursday during an Idaho National Laboratory Citizens Advisory Board meeting in Idaho Falls.
The WIPP repository temporarily closed in 2014 after a pair of accidents resulted in a low-level release of radioactive material. The closure put into jeopardy a 1995 Settlement Agreement stipulation that DOE ship 65,000 cubic meters of stored transuranic waste from Idaho before the end of 2018.
Since reopening, WIPP has accepted shipments at a much slower pace because of ongoing facility repairs……..
Most of Idaho’s transuranic waste was generated at the Rocky Flats Plant outside Denver. The waste, buried in Idaho in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, includes plutonium-laced sludges, graphite materials and filters.
If DOE fails to meet the 1995 Settlement Agreement milestone, the state can block INL from receiving shipments of spent fuel for research.
Fuel shipments already have been blocked because of delays in getting the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit operating.http://www.postregister.com/articles/news-daily-email-todays-headlines/2017/06/26/wipp-continues-receive-shipments
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