U.S. to give nuclear waste plant in Idaho another try

nuclear

Problems plaguing a nuclear waste treatment plant in eastern Idaho appear to be solved, U.S. officials said Thursday, and converting high-level liquid waste into safer, more easily managed solid material could start early next year.

Joel Case of the U.S. Department of Energy said a test startup without waste will begin next week at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Energy Department’s 890-square-mile site that includes the Idaho National Laboratory. The 900,000 gallons (3.5 million liters) of sodium-bearing, radioactive waste comes from processing spent nuclear fuel to recover highly enriched uranium. The waste is in tanks above a giant aquifer that supplies water to cities and farms in the region.

The waste has been a sore spot between Idaho and the Energy Department for years, Case said, and the federal agency is paying $6,000 in fines a day for missing a deadline to transform the liquid waste into solid material as stipulated in a 1995 agreement that was the culmination of a series of federal lawsuits. (AP)

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