Initial smoke-sample data from a fire last week at the Idaho National Laboratory shows that no radioactive contaminants were released from the eastern Idaho nuclear reservation.
"We have some preliminary samples back that really didn't show any elevated levels of radioactive contaminants," Idaho Department of Environmental Quality Health Physicist Dave Jones said Monday.
Jones said complete data will not be available until analysis is finished from 11 constant air monitors on and off the INL site.
Jones said high winds drove the smoke plume northeast of the INL and the smoke samples were collected at Roberts, Monteview and Mud Lake.
The INL reported Tuesday that the fire is now 100 percent contained. It started on Tuesday, June 13, several miles east of the INL Central Facilities area and ravaged approximately 110,000 acres of INL and U.S. Bureau of Land Management land before being mainly brought under control last Wednesday evening.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Tuesday, according to an INL press release.
An INL spokesman initially told the Idaho Mountain Express last Thursday morning that the fire did not burn over any areas contaminated with radioactive materials. However, later that afternoon the INL issued a follow-up statement to the Express acknowledging that the fire had burned over six sites previously identified as contaminated.
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Following is the follow-up statement in its entirety:
"Three actively controlled CERCLA sites were burned over during the wildfire. CERCLA sites are areas of land that have been cleaned of radioactive contamination to levels acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency, the State of Idaho and the Department of Energy.
"The data from general area sampling indicates that no radioactivity has been released. All the areas are located near the Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex facility near INL's Central Facilities Area.
"A map outlining all of the contaminated areas shows crews where they may not dig or disturb land without special permission.
"There were three closed CERCLA sites that also were burned. They pose no threat to the environment."
CERCLA is the acronym for Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. The federal law, often referred to as Superfund, was enacted in 1980 to assess, manage and fund cleanup of hazardous wastes sites across the United States.
Nicole Stricker, spokeswoman for INL contractor Battelle Energy Alliance, said Monday that the spokesman who said the fire did not burn over any contaminated areas made "an inaccurate assumption."
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
A U.S. Bureau of Land Management air tanker prepares to drop fire retardant on a blaze last week at the Idaho National Laboratory in eastern Idaho.
Courtesy photo
