The State of Idaho has provided the framework for the federal government to comply with a decades-old pact on nuclear fuel disposal and research.
An agreement reached between Governor Brad Little and Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, and the U.S. Department of Energy aims to resolve the agency’s breaches of the state’s 1995 Settlement Agreement and re-commence research on commercial spent nuclear fuel at the Idaho National Laboratory.
Despite the DOE reaching cleanup milestones since 1995, breaches started in 2012 when the department failed to meet a commitment for treating sodium bearing liquid high level waste at INL. The agency later fell behind on shipments of transuranic waste from INL to its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, and ultimately missed a 2018 deadline for all such waste to be out of Idaho. In response, Idaho blocked incoming shipments of spent nuclear fuel, including small amounts intended for research purposes.
Under the deal signed this week, INL is granted a one-time waiver to receive 25 commercial power spent nuclear fuel rods from an Illinois site, but only after DOE begins successfully treating sodium bearing liquid high level waste at INL by turning it into a safer dry, solid state. Currently, the liquid waste sits in tanks directly above the Snake River Aquifer, while the department works to resolve operational problems at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit.
The Department of Energy also agreed to remove at least 300 pounds of special nuclear material from Idaho by the end of 2021, and pledged to allocate at least 55 percent of all future transuranic waste shipments to the WIPP facility to shipments originating at INL.
Once DOE has produced 100 canisters of the dry, treated waste, INL may receive additional research quantities of spent nuclear fuel. (Governor Brad Little)
