Cleanup crews at Idaho National Laboratory aren't always on the receiving end of public praise—even less so from nuclear watchdog groups.
But during a recent tour of the facility in eastern Idaho, members of the Snake River Alliance expressed cautious optimism about one aspect of the 7-year, $2.9 billion project underway at INL.
Jeremy Maxand, the Alliance's executive director, said he was pleased "in terms of the project and efficiency and how much better we're able to clean up waste."
The Idaho Cleanup Project, funded through the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management, targets waste generated from munitions testing, government-owned research and defense reactors, laboratory research, and defense missions at other DOE sites.
The DOE in March 2005 selected contractor CWI, a collaboration between Boise-based CH2M Hill and Washington Group International, for the undertaking.
Cleanup efforts include closure of former high-level waste tanks, treatment and disposal of radioactive waste streams, cleanup of contaminated soil and water, and demolition of high-risk facilities.
Despite the encouraging remarks about the cleanup's progress, the Alliance has grave concerns about reburying some waste in unlined pits, as well as the continued procurement of nuclear energy due to its associated waste.
Myriad activities keep the 890-square-mile INL site abuzz, but the Alliance's tour on July 20 focused on the radioactive waste management area.
"The purpose is to see what's there and get the latest information from the DOE," said Alliance board member David Kipping. "Since we're an advocacy organization, we have certain things on our agenda, so the tour reflects that. The number one thing on our list is buried waste."
Richard Vonfeldt, operations director for cleanup at the unlined subsurface disposal area dubbed "Pit 4," said his team is excavating, classifying and removing up to 38 drums of radioactive waste per day.
The contractor has an excavation target of 28 cubic yards per day, said DOE spokesman Alan Jines. That could include drums, boxes, or the soil in between them.
"It's a little bit of everything," Vonfeldt said of the types of waste. "Based on our excavations so far, 90 to 95 percent of the drums are intact."
But the drums are old and rusting. Some materials are escaping as gas into the soil. Of greatest concern is carbon tetrachloride, some of which has percolated into the aquifer, Jines said.
The extracted waste is classified as two types: low-level waste, which is placed in a soil sack and left in the pit, and transuranic waste, which is stored in barrels and shipped to a facility near Carlsbad, N.M.
Low-level waste has a relatively short half-life but can be more radioactive than high-level waste. A half-life for this type of waste means that in 30 years, half is gone. In another 30 years, half that amount is gone, and so on.
"In 10 decay periods, approximately 300 years, it's essentially gone," Jines said.
Transuranic waste is one of the longest-lasting types of waste, staying radioactive for thousands of years. But it is not the most radioactive, Jines said. It does not penetrate skin but is extremely harmful if ingested.
A new method of venting drums at the retrieval site enhances worker safety, Vonfeldt said. Drums are vented and then opened in a big tray so the surrounding soil isn't further contaminated.
The work is dangerous, and crews prepare for any eventuality.
"On November 21 we had an ... event, which turned out to be a drum fire," he said. "Could it happen again? Yes. And we expect it, so we put in controls."
Tour participant Paul Bernstein, of Hailey, respects the science behind nuclear energy but has "huge" concerns about its radioactive byproducts.
"The scientists are brilliant," he said. But he'll withhold support of nuclear activities "until they can come up with a way to dispose of waste—and not just dispose of it but do it in a way that will be safe (in the long term)."
Project manager Steve Lopez explained during the tour how Pit 4 flooded twice in 40 years.
"They buried it on lower ground in the 1950s," Lopez said. "Now we know better."
Miscalculations by previous management fed Bernstein's concern.
"It's only 50 years later," Bernstein said. "Humans make mistakes, and this stuff lasts forever."
Maxand warned against what he called an "arrogance of assumption."
"We know a lot more than we did back then," he said. "But we continue to make assumptions and in 50 years we could still be having this same conversation."
Across the compound, activity continued in a new disposal pit, the Idaho CERCLA Disposal Facility. CERCLA stands for Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.
Contaminated materials, including soil and debris, building rubble and clothes, are wrapped up and packed into rows. The pit is lined and designed to last 1,000 years.
The DOE contract with CWI runs through 2012.
"At that time there will be additional work left here," Jines said, "but the majority will be accomplished by 2012."
Activity in other parts of the INL site are focused forward, where advocates of nuclear energy hope to secure its role in the nation's future.
"Our primary mission is the development of nuclear power and research and development to support (that)," Jines said.
Bomb detection, bunker security and other national and homeland security projects are also part of INL's mission.
Kipping, however, wishes for another scenario.
"My attitude is ... clean it up and shut it down," he said. "I think it's not a good source of energy. There are a lot of problems with it."
Among those, he cited waste and expense.
"In the total life cycle (of a plant) it's the most expensive form of commercial power," he said. "People don't count the huge subsidies government has given to the industry."
The cost of building plants, he said, decommissioning them, dealing with nuclear waste and insuring plants, which the federal government subsidizes through the Price-Anderson Act, make nuclear energy unworthy of the effort.
"Even if I disagree with some of their conclusions," Kipping said of INL and contract workers, "they're dedicated people."
Workers at the Idaho National Laboratory CERCLA Disposal Facility arrange containers of contaminated material. Debris, building rubble, gloves, and many other items contaminated from the production of nuclear energy are stored in the lined pit, designed to last 1,000 years. Express photo by Rebecca Meany.
