With funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho Site is shipping radioactive waste years ahead of schedule.
The site committed to shipping 1,300 cubic meters of low level waste (LLW) and mixed low level waste (MLLW) out of Idaho and retrieving 1,200 cubic meters of stored transuranic (TRU) waste.
In addition to the shipping and retrieval goals, the AMWTP will support the treatment of problematic sludge waste and the shipment of 21 legacy concrete vaults to the Idaho CERCLA Disposal Facility for permanent disposal.
Using the ARRA funding the AMWTP was able to:
Ship a total of 1,303 cubic meters of LLW and MLLW off site.
Ship over 90 cubic meters of organic MLLW sludge off site.
Ship a total of 21 legacy concrete vaults to the Idaho CERCLA Disposal Facility (ICDF), the project was completed approximately three weeks ahead of schedule.
Retrieve over 1,200 cubic meters of waste from the projects Transuranic Storage Area.
All these accomplishments were completed on time and under budget, and the additional work allowed the project to hire 52 Idaho residents with Recovery Act funds.
“This is the first completion of ARRA goals at the Idaho Site and is
testament to the skills of the newly hired ARRA employees and the
expertise of the existing AMWTP workforce,” said DOE Idaho
Operations Deputy Manager Rick Provencher. “Completing cleanup
work safely, compliantly, and ahead of schedule while hiring new
employees to bolster the economy is the essence of the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”
The ARRA work was completed in addition to the ongoing work performed to safely and compliantly ship radioactive waste out of Idaho.
Background on the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment retrieves, characterizes, treats and packages transuranic waste for shipment out of Idaho to permanent disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
More information on AMWTP is available at http://amwtp.inl.gov/
CRESP Newstories and Links related to risk-based cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons production facility waste sites and cost-effective, risk-based management of potential future nuclear sites and wastes. CRESP seeks to improve the scientific and technical basis for environmental management decisions by the Department of Energy (DOE) and by fostering public participation in that search.
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