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Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Feds, Idaho Agree To Ship More Transuranic Waste to WIPP
By John Miller
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — The U.S. Department of Energy will unearth a significant amount of transuranic radioactive waste from the Idaho National Laboratory site, adding billions to cleanup costs but settling a dispute over just how much waste a 1995 agreement forces the federal government to remove.
The amount to be removed would fill three Olympic-size swimming pools.
Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and James Rispoli, Energy Department assistant secretary for environmental management, accompanied by former Idaho Govs. Phil Batt and Cecil Andrus, announced the new pact Tuesday at separate events in Boise and Idaho Falls.
Andrus and Batt were instrumental in forging the original agreement more than a decade ago, fearing that radioactive and toxic Cold War garbage shipped to the 890-square-mile nuclear reservation from sites including the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Golden, Colo., would spread to the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer and eventually the Snake River.
Tuesday's announcement came after U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge ruled in May 2006 that DOE must remove all "transuranic" waste — rags, gloves and dirt contaminated with radioactive material like plutonium — from INL by 2018, unless it's unsafe to do so. A federal appeals court upheld Lodge's decision in March.
"At my advanced age, I was afraid I'd get buried before the buried waste left here," Batt said, adding the new agreement was in the spirit of his original intentions to ship the waste out of Idaho. "It's time to carry out the judge's orders to the best of our abilities. I don't think it would be in the interest of the state of Idaho to continue on with these lawsuits."
The Energy Department had argued unsuccessfully that transuranic waste in rotting barrels dumped into pits and trenches between 1954 and 1970 wasn't covered under the cleanup pact and should stay put.
Kathleen Trevor, who has been involved in the cleanup for 15 years and heads up Idaho's INL oversight office, said the agreement preserves the state's right to return to Lodge if future disagreements with the DOE surface.
But given the degraded state of much of the waste, the risk of radiation and hazards from waste that burns on contact with air, targeted removal of waste makes more sense than a wholesale cleanup, she said.
"After thorough technical, legal and policy review, this is the right thing to do," Trevor said.
According to the settlement, the Department of Energy would remove no less than 7,485 cubic meters of waste from between 5.7 acres and 7.4 acres at the INL. The waste will be sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Crews will target only waste that's most likely contaminated with plutonium-tainted transuranic elements, uranium and chemical solvents that could move easily should they enter the region's ground water.
Remaining waste, located in a landfill in the southeastern corner of the INL site, would be capped to keep out rain and snow. Removal won't be completed until 2020 and capping is slated to be finished in 2027. Removal could cost $300 million per acre or more, not including shipping the waste to New Mexico or capping and monitoring remaining waste, the DOE's Rispoli said.
"First of all, the actions we are taking and will continue to take at the subsurface disposal area are major steps to protect the Snake river plain aquifer," he said.
Engineering companies CH2M Hill and URS Corp.'s Washington Group International hold the existing seven-year, $2.9 billion contract to remove Cold War materials dumped at the INL. About 12,000 cubic meters have been removed so far.
Some anti-nuclear activists called the new agreement a sham.
"This is a continuation of the false advertising and false promises from these same politicians in 1995," said Peter Rickards, a Twin Falls activist. "Our politicians are giving up the fake fight, while they continue to declare victory."
As part of the new agreement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Environmental Quality pledged to continue monitoring the progress of the cleanup and efforts to keep pollution from spreading, to make sure that work conforms with federal laws including Superfund.
Elin Miller, the EPA administrator who oversees the agency's work in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, said officials from her agency sat in on the "very difficult, very technical" talks that settled just what waste must be removed.
If the Department of Energy isn't "proceeding with cleanup in a way we think they need to, or they aren't protecting the environment or keeping waste from moving into the river, we can take action," Miller told The Associated Press.
Copyright ©2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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